Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…
A rather ironic little story in the Dutch news today… TomTom, the Dutch SatNav company collects information from its devices installed in cars. This information gives an insight into the driving habits of the motorists using the TomTom devices.
TomTom sells this information on to other companies. One such company has taken a very enterprising approach and sells the data to the Dutch Police, who use it to determine where best to set their speed traps. Quite right, too.
Christopher Hitchens was due to address the American Atheist Convention, but had to cancel because of illness. So he wrote them a letter instead. Hitchens writes like an angel wielding a flaming sword, and the letter is an excellent example of his way with words. Example:
Our weapons are the ironic mind against the literal: the open mind against the credulous; the courageous pursuit of truth against the fearful and abject forces who would set limits to investigation (and who stupidly claim that we already have all the truth we need). Perhaps above all, we affirm life over the cults of death and human sacrifice and are afraid, not of inevitable death, but rather of a human life that is cramped and distorted by the pathetic need to offer mindless adulation, or the dismal belief that the laws of nature respond to wailings and incantations.
Do go and read the rest. By coincidence, his friend, Martin Amis has a biographical sketch of him in today’s Observer. Also worth reading to catch a flavour of the man.
Another note for the diary. Tony Palmer has made a documentary about Gustav Holst that will be broadcast on BBC4 on the 24th April.
There is more to Holst than The Planets – but while I think Holst’s Beni Mora suite rather beguiling, Palmer tells us that:
…at a meeting with the bosses of the Royal College of Music (where Holst had studied and taught), I suggested we should consider a Holst piece called Beni Mora. I was told it was rather dreary and not worthy of inclusion.
I rather think that Holst, through the medium of Palmer’s documentary, will prove it otherwise…
I can still remember sitting in what was then the National Film Theatre on the Southbank during an afternoon showing of Days of Heaven back in 1978 and realising that I was watching something that would change the way I looked at things.
I see the Sandd/Selektmail postman riding by almost daily, clad in yellow, astride his moped. If he stops by our letterbox, it is to deliver mail that hovers dangerously close to what most people would describe as junkmail. If I’m nearby, I give him a friendly wave.
However, if this article by James Meek is to be believed, then perhaps a friendly wave is not enough to compensate for the postman’s lot.
The next series of Doctor Who launches this weekend with what, by all accounts is a seriously good episode. Still, with Steven Moffat at the helm, I expect nothing less.
I’ll be parked on the sofa, instead of almost behind it when I was very young, on Saturday evening to watch it. This time around, being almost fifty years older, I’ll also have the benefit of my PVR to record the episode for my continued viewing pleasure.
One thing which I can’t quite grok: for some reason, Martin does not like Doctor Who. It leaves him cold for reasons that I cannot fathom. He goes off into his study when it’s on. I find that somewhat bizarre, but that’s life. I’m from Mars, he’s from Venus.
My wife does not sail. My uncle’s trimaran, which it had been understood I would buy when he became too old to sail any more, was sold outside the family (pottering around the coast was an important part of my retirement plan). She also does not like opera (though she is a professional musician). Since my Glyndebourne membership came through just before we married, I have scarcely used it.
Either or both ought to have been dealbreakers. But here we are, nearly 21 years on.
As you say, that’s life.
“She Does Not Like Opera”?! (emphasis added). Well, there you go – neither does Martin, but a good Madame Butterfly reduces me to a blubbering heap every time. Yep, life is strange – we’re coming up to nearly 30 years together, and we still look at each other and ask how is this possible?
Mars and Venus? One might say it’s a Plutonic relationship….
(Okay, sorry. It’s late, and I’ve got a headache; that made me laugh perhaps much more than it should.)
I’m working my way up through the current incarnation of Doctor Who; we didn’t get much of the previous Doctors while I was growing up, but I’ve recently been playing catchup with the modern series. Still a few seasons behind.
Oh, and deal breakers? We could talk about the vast differences between Christine’s and my palate. Suffice to say, I’ve decided to cook two different suppers on more than one occasion. And yet, here we are. (Coming up on 7 years.)
Groan 🙂 Mike, good to hear from you, despite that.
I suspect that those of us who lived through the early years of the Doctor often view those episodes through rose-tinted glasses.
They were often pretty terrible – cardboard sets, wooden acting and atrocious writing. But I admit that I still recall some of them with a smile. Still, I’m not driven to go out and purchase the complete back catalogue of Who on DVD as some people clearly do.
However much some Who fans complain about Russell T. Davies, one has to give him credit for successfully rebooting the whole Who universe, and there have been some really exceptional episodes in the recent series. Funnily enough, most of them seem to have been written by Steven Moffat (“Blink”, “The Empty Child” / “The Doctor Dances” , “The Girl in the Fireplace”, “Silence in the Library” / “Forest of the Dead”… the list goes on) – which is why I’m looking forward to Saturday night on the sofa.
[…] I wrote about how much I was looking forward to the opening episode of the next series of Doctor Who. So I suppose I should write a few words on what I thought about it. Well, look, I’m not very good at this sort of thing, so I’ll just hand you over to the review by Teresa Jusino over at Tor.com. She seems to have read my mind pretty well. […]
Watson and I have been doing the first set of Dog Agility lessons. Yesterday evening came the moment I was rather dreading – the exam. However, I needn’t have worried Watson came through and did us proud – he passed easily with 115 points out of a possible 120 (the pass mark is 70 points).
Actually, I think he could have scored even higher – it was my fault that he lost marks. One of the hurdles is to have the dog jump through a hoop. I was standing by him and gave him the command to jump through. I hadn’t realised that I should have been on the far side of the hoop before giving the command. And on another hurdle, I should have given him more clearance for his run-up, Oh well, I won’t make those mistakes again…
Next week, we begin the next stage of training…
Sad news today that Elisabeth Sladen, better known as Sarah Jane Smith, has died at the age of 63. Damn.
Quite a shock. Only 10 years older than me – far too soon.
I still see Leela (Louise Jameson) regularly, though – my son’s attend her Sunday Drama College. I had an amazing ageing fanboy moment being bought afternoon tea by one of my adolescent fantasies!
I can never quite get my head around the fact that Leela is married to Richard Dawkins…
No, that’s Romana (II), Lalla Ward 🙂
See, my brain is softening… Not long now.
That’s the title of a short story by Harlan Ellison, but it is also a reference given by Roger Ebert in his stunning presentation at TED last month.
Ebert is a brilliant critic of film, but cancer has removed his jaw and his ability to speak. His presentation at TED is an example that being born into this particular “box of time and space” where PLATO, HAL 9000 and the DEC Rainbow all occurred, together with advances in medical science, have ensured that Ebert’s voice, in all its manifestations, can continue to be heard. Wonderful.
As I’ve blogged before, even though you can buy a Windows Phone 7 handset from mobile operators here in the Netherlands, there are at least a couple of things to be aware of:
Since at least January, the WP7 web page at Microsoft Nederland has been saying:
(Dutch language Windows Phone 7 handsets will be available mid-2011)
I had also assumed that at that point the Dutch Zune Marketplace would be opened up to WP7 Apps. We had a false alarm last week when the Marketplace suddenly had an Apps placeholder appear for a day or two before it disappeared again.
However, it appears as though “mid-2011” is going to slip until at least the Autumn. Why? Because yesterday at the day 2 Keynote session of MIX11, Joe Belfiore (Microsoft’s Corporate VP, Windows Phone Program Management) stated that both the availability of additional languages (including Dutch) and the addition of WP7 Apps to additional Marketplaces would not occur until the Fall (Autumn), when the “Mango” update would be available. Here’s the language slide he used:
(“Hallo mensen” is Dutch for “Hello, people”)
And here’s the slide for the Marketplace expansion, which here includes the Netherlands:
Both of these items were tied specifically to the availability of the Mango update by Belfiore, and he stated “Fall” as the timeframe.
So, once again, Microsoft seems to be shooting itself in the foot by raising expectations (mid-2011 – Microsoft Nederland) and then not delivering on them (Fall – Belfiore). As I said before, I think I’ll be sticking with my trusty Nokia dumbphone, and at this rate, I think I’ll still be using it a year from now.
Another thought-provoking post from Jan Chipchase – this time from Cairo. It’s about managing expectations in foreign situations, and being aware.
Reminds me of the time I went on a business trip for Shell to Cartegena in Columbia and being met by the Computing Manager at the small airport. His driver had a slight bulge under his left armpit, and I thought, hmm.
The Hilton hotel had been bombed a month before and two days after my arrival, the airport runway was blown up by guerillas. The pilot of the Shell plane announced that there was 1500 feet of usable runway left, and he could take off with 1350 feet. I remember thinking that 150 feet didn’t sound like an enormous margin for error. Still, as you can surmise, I lived to tell the tale.
Here’s a tip if you’ve been struggling with poor performance of your VST instruments and ASIO in Cubase.
But first, a bit of history…
Steinberg’s Cubase is one of the leading software applications for music production. It’s been around in various forms since 1984. In fact, I bought a copy of Pro-24 (the forerunner of Cubase) for my old Atari-ST computer back in 1987. The Atari was the first ever home computer that had built-in MIDI ports, and the Pro-24 was one of the first software MIDI sequencer applications for creating music.
Over the course of the years, I have gradually acquired more MIDI equipment, and sold a few bits as well. Now I’ve ended up with three E-mu Proteus sound modules, and an ancient Yamaha TX81Z. I still use a Yamaha PF80 electronic piano as my MIDI keyboard, with a Yamaha MCS52 as a MIDI controller, both dating from around 1985. By the early 1990s I had also switched from my trusty old Atari ST over to what has become, over the years, a series of Windows PCs running various generations of Cubase software.
In 1996, Steinberg introduced VST (Virtual Studio Technology), a software recreation of a variety of external synthesisers and effects modules. It also introduced ASIO (Audio Stream Input/Output) to handle the recording and playback of audio, in addition to MIDI.
Up until now, I’ve not made much use of either VST or ASIO, using Cubase primarily as a MIDI sequencer and editor to drive my external MIDI equipment. However, I recently treated myself to an upgrade of my Cubase software from version 4 to version 6, and for the first time thought that perhaps I should look into using VST to supplement my external MIDI sound modules. For example, Cubase 6 came with a trial of HALion Symphonic Orchestra, a set of samples of the instruments of a symphony orchestra made for VST.
But when I came to try out the HSO VST in Cubase, I found that the performance was pretty poor. After adding only a few instruments into the mix, I could see that the ASIO performance meter was overloading, and could hear clicks and pops on the audio channels.
This struck me as odd, since the PC that I’m using has an AMD Phenom II X4 955 processor, i.e. it has four CPU cores, which Cubase should be making full use of. I looked through the Cubase manual and scoured the Cubase user forums to see if I could get a clue as to why the performance on my system was so poor. Nothing obvious came up.
After scratching my head for a while, I remembered that I had enabled AMD’s “Cool’n’Quiet” feature in my PC’s BIOS. This technology feature reduces the processor’s clock rate and voltage when the processor is idle, to reduce overall power consumption and lower heat generation. Here, for example, using CPUID’s HW Monitor, you can see that the power consumption of the processor is only 20.5 watts, in place of the usual 117.6 watts:
As an experiment, I disabled Cool’n’Quiet in the BIOS, and ran Cubase again. This time, I did not experience performance problems. So it would seem that AMD’s power monitoring technology was interfering with the demands of Steinberg’s ASIO, causing performance glitches in the latter.
I didn’t really want to run my computer with Cool’n’Quiet disabled for most of the time, and having to switch it on and off in the BIOS is somewhat of a nuisance. I wondered whether the power plans in Windows 7 were capable of doing the switching for me. Here’s what the Windows 7 Help and Support says about the Power Plans:
Windows provides the following plans to help you manage your computer’s power:
- Balanced. Offers full performance when you need it and saves power during periods of inactivity. This is the best power plan for most people.
- Power saver. Saves power by reducing system performance and screen brightness. This plan can help laptop users get the most from a single battery charge.
- High performance. Maximizes screen brightness and might increase the computer’s performance in some circumstances. This plan uses a lot more energy and will reduce the amount of time that a laptop battery lasts between charges.
I always run my PC with the Balanced power plan active. I decided to try enabling Cool’n’Quiet in the BIOS, but also to create a new power plan for when I am using Cubase. The new plan, based on the High performance plan, I named Cubase DAW (for Digital Audio Workstation).
When I selected this plan, I discovered that Windows 7 itself disables Cool’n’Quiet, so I was able to run the processor at full power, and maximise ASIO performance.
So now I have the best of both worlds; I can run my PC economically for most of the time using the Balanced power plan, but when I want to work with Cubase and HSO VST, I can readily switch over to the Cubase DAW power plan directly within Windows.
Another problem solved – on to the next…
Why not just use the Steinberg power scheme located in “VST Audio System” in the “Device Setup.” ?? Wouldn’t Steinberg’s power scheme be the best?
Jeff, that’s a very good point, and one that I didn’t think of. In my defense I can only claim that Cubase has so many damn switches and options, that I still don’t understand what all of them are for…
I tryed everything still,pops sucks….help anyone…
Eddie,
I think you should be asking this question over in the Cubase support forum, not here. I’m not an expert. Take a look at:
http://www.steinberg.net/forum/viewforum.php?f=19
Thanks ill take a look…….godbless..
@John re: Cubase audio scheme – this was not a success for me. When I enabled this through Cubase, I saw the updated power scheme in the Win 7 Power console. I was still experiencing issues and switched to High Performance, and the performance was better with this default setting than with the Cubase audio profile that was created.
Thank you so much for posting this! I would have never thought of this. My laptop was in battery saving mode, and Cubase was crashing with about 80% headroom available on my CPU and RAM. You just saved me a great deal of grief!
The Cubase audio scheme and the windows power scheme were no success for me too, but…. throwing out Gigaytes EasyTune 6 -tool (ET6) solved all my problems, no spikes to 100% and cracklings! Took me almost 3 weeks to find out!
Having managed to pass the dog training exam with Watson, I decided to carry on training with him, and we enrolled in the Dog Agility course run by the Agility Club Achterhoek.
At first, I wasn’t sure whether this would be a good idea – training Watson to jump fences might put the idea into his head about jumping over the electric fence around the garden. However, I decided to go ahead with it, because it is a good way of getting rid of some of his energy, and because he’s able to socialise with other dogs. He certainly seems to enjoy it, although neither he nor I are very good at it at the moment.
Yesterday the Club played host to a national Dog Agility competition – there were four competition rings running simultaneously and hundreds of people and dogs, both of all shapes and sizes. It was quite a spectacle.
More photos are up at my spot on Flickr…
And here’s a video of a dog doing the “paaltjes”…
Watson and I will have to keep practising…
Damn, I see that the chef, Santi Santamaria has died of a heart attack – he was only 53. We have made three visits to his three-Michelin-star restaurant El Racó de Can Fabes in the sleepy town of San Celoni near Barcelona, and each time we really enjoyed it.
I first heard about Can Fabes from my friend and food critic, Andy Hayler. Although Andy reported that the standard of cooking in Can Fabes was not what it once was, we were fortunate enough to be able to visit it when Santamaria and his staff were cooking at, or very near, the peak of their powers.
While I’m deciding whether I should bother upgrading from my current Windows Home Server system to Microsoft’s brand spanking new Windows Home Server 2011, I thought that I should take a look at the online help system for WHS 2011. After all, when people get into difficulties, a well-designed online help system with relevant and accurate information should help them on their way, right?
So, how does the online help for WHS 2011 measure up?
Weeelll…
Let’s start with the entry page of the help system:
(Note: since writing this blog entry, Microsoft has dropped the original web pages, and moved all the help text into the TechNet Library. None of the typos/grammar/errors/text have been changed in the move, so my criticisms are still valid…)
OK, let’s get started…
Oh, here’s a link about connecting computers to the Server…
Under the “Prepare to connect computers to the server” heading it says:
The section provides information about the Connector software, the operated [sic] systems that are supported by Windows Home Server 2011, etc.
The correct text would be operating systems.
Further down the page, it has a section on how to “Connect computers to the server using the Connector software”. The first four subheadings are all to do with the concept of “How do I… (do a particular task)” . Three of the headings start with the phrase “How do I…”, yet for some reason the second item does not. It states baldly: “Install the Connector software?” when in fact what is implied is “How do I install the Connector software?”.
There’s a minor omission on the last subheading “Troubleshoot connecting computer to the server” – a missing indefinite article.
So, back on the first subheading and link on the section “Connect computers to the server using the Connector software”, we arrive at the “How do I connect computers to the server page”…
Here, there’s a minor typo in the third bullet point of the “Before you begin” section – a missing space between the words 2011 and when…
More importantly, in the text box labelled “Important”, there is reference to dynamic disks on client computers, without any further reference as to what, precisely, dynamic disks might be.
Let’s just think about the target audience for WHS2011 for a moment. It is, I assume, the same as for the original version of WHS, that is, ordinary home consumers who have possibly a number of PCs, some or all of which will be holding digital media or documents, which need to be protected against loss.
Using IT jargon (dynamic disks) without any further reference does not help – and this is supposed to be the online Help… This isn’t the last time this mistake will be made in the online Help…
OK, let’s carry on… Under the “To connect your computer to the server” section, item 6, we read:
a. From the Launchpad link, you can access the shared folders shortcut, configure computer backups, address alerts, and open the Remote Web Access site. For more information about the Launchpad, see Overview of the Dashboard
Erm, I think that link should be “Overview of the Launchpad.”…
After item 6 follows an extensive Important text box. There’s a typo at the end of the first bullet point: “For more information about user accounts see, see Manage User Accounts”.
Back on the Connect Computers to the Server page, there’s a link promising help on Prerequisites for connecting a computer to the home server.
Skating quickly over the reference to the fact that computer must be on the same IP subnet as the server that is running Windows Home Server 2011 – er, what’s an IP subnet? I’m just a home consumer… we come to the statement that:
The boot partition—that is, the disk partition where the Windows operating system is installed—is formatted with the NTFS file system.
Er, hang on – I thought that I could connect Macintosh computers to Windows Home Server 2011? What’s all this about Windows? Oh, don’t worry, the online Help system hasn’t got around to you yet…
Just in case you thought that the online Help system was missing out crucial information, we come to a section where Microsoft has apparently thought it worthwhile to include irrelevant padding to further confuse the reader.
Here’s the Install the Connector software? section (which as already noted, to be syntactically conformant and grammatically correct, should be titled How do I install the Connector software?). It reads:
The Windows Home Server 2011 Connector software is installed when you connect your computer to the server using the Connect a Computer to the Server wizard. You can launch this wizard by typing http://<ServerName>/connect in the address bar of your web browser (where <ServerName> is the name of your server).
- Connects your home computer to Windows Home Server 2011.
- Automatically backs up your home computer nightly (if you configure the home server to backup your home computers).
- Monitors the health of your home computer.
- Enables you to configure and remotely administer Windows Home Server 2011 from your home computer.
For step-by-step instructions about connecting your computer to the Windows Home Server 2011 server, see How do I connect computers to the server?. For additional information about connecting your home computer to the home server, see Connect Computers to the Server.
Now, tell me – what do those four bullet points add in any way at all to the answer to the question “How do I install the Connector software?”? Answer: nothing whatsoever. They are pure fluff – and irrelevant fluff at that.
OK, let’s skip now to one of the key areas of WHS2011 – Backup and Restore. We saw on the Home page of the online Help under the Backup and Restore heading the text:
Back up your server, and use your server to back up your computers.
So, clicking on the Backup and Restore link takes us to a page where there is information about backing up and restoring client computers, but not a single word about server backup and restore. A dead end. Oh well, never mind, after a bit of hunting, we find a page devoted to learning more about setting up server backup.
After the throwaway line that “Server backup is not enabled during server setup” (why not? was this important? should I worry about it? – who knows…) we come to the first meat of the section under the heading Server backup schedule:
You should protect your server and its data automatically by scheduling daily backups. It is recommended that you maintain a daily backup plan because most organizations cannot afford to lose the data that has been created over several days.
Er, hello? I’m not an organization – I’m a home consumer. Who, exactly, are Microsoft talking to? I don’t think it’s me…
Oh well, let’s continue… Under the section on considerations for the backup target drive, we read:
Choose a drive that contains sufficient space to store your data. Your storage drives should contain at least 2.5 times the storage capacity of the data that you want to back up. The drives should also be large enough to accommodate the future growth of your server data. Because server backups are incremental, a backup drive of 300 GB in size or more can hold months of backup data.
This advice is all very well, but nowhere does the help text spell out that (a ) your backup storage drives can not be bigger than 2TB in size and (b ) you can’t actually backup more than 2TB of server data in any case. And that “Because server backups are incremental, a backup drive of 300 GB in size or more can hold months of backup data” is possibly misleading if you’re a professional photographer doing daily shoots, or a TV addict recording lots of shows.
Still, let’s skip to another help page: Move a server folder. Frankly, this whole page reads as though it has been written by someone to whom English is not their first language. Don’t Microsoft employ proofreaders any more?
That same person appears to have been responsible for the Where should I add the Server folder? and the Where should I move the server folder? pages with:
There’s another pile of help pages to wade through, but I’ve had enough for today. I’ll just leave you with another gem on the How do I remotely access my computer? page. Under the Home computer status: connection is disabled section, it says:
The home computer connection is either blocked by a firewall, or the remote desktop is disabled at the computer or by Group Policy. It may take up to 6 hours for this status to be updated in the server if there is a change.
Once again, I’m a home consumer – what in heaven’s name is “Group Policy”?
Frankly, the majority of these help pages are written by IT people for IT people, not for ordinary people. This does not augur well for success in the supposed target market for WHS 2011.
Hi Geoff… interesting article… HS is a stripped down SBS and someone did not edit out the SBS jargon… then again, most home users will not read any instructions, just want it to run… :~]
I’ll need to download the lastest build and see what MS has done with Drive Extender technology… that seems to be the biggest downfall to the new release…
I look forward to reading more of your posts…
Ed, the previous WHS was designed from the start for the Home User. WHS 2011 was designed by a team that, through a reorganisation in Microsoft, found itself in a Business group. Hence the dropping of the ball and the loss of focus on the Home User.
And in answer to your point about what has MS done with the Drive Extender technology… it is no more… it has shuffled off this mortal coil. It’s rung down the curtain and joined the Choir Invisible.
I was randomly clicking support links from Dashboard tonight after setting up WHS 2011. First two pages I hit had glaring (to me, at least) grammar/spelling errors. Did not inspire confidence.
Agreed. I gave up doing document inspection on the pile of pages that I had printed out, as it was becoming just too depressing…
Geoff,
I know you wrote rather disparagingly about the 3rd party DE replacements under development, but Drive Bender looks as though it might be a little more substantial than I first thought. This quote from their web site is rather interesting:
“The story
Early in 2010 we prototyped a Drive Extender style application with the view of releasing a product that would work with all versions of Microsoft Windows. However soon thereafter, Microsoft announced Vail (a new version of Windows Home Server) and a small business server product, codename Aurora, both of which contain their Drive Extender technology. Give this, and the possibility that Drive Extend may well make its way to other Microsoft platforms, we shelved the project.
In late 2010 Microsoft announced that they would be dropping Drive Extender from all their products (including WHS 2011), leaving the door open for Division-M to resurrect the Drive Bender project!”
I’m rather interested in setting up Drive Bender on my desktop to create a (removable) pool to back up my WHS server, with the pool of disks ultimately being transferred to a fireproof cabinet once I get authorisation from Financial Control. If that proves reliable, I’ll then consider doing the upgrade to WHS 2011, and implementing Drive Bender to manage my storage pool.
I’d be very interested to hear your thoughts.
Website is: http://www.drivebender.com/drive-bender/
Robert,
You wrote: “I know you wrote rather disparagingly about the 3rd party DE replacements under development”… Erm, did I? I didn’t think I had said anything other than there were some 3rd party replacements under development – and that was in a comment. The focus of any disparagement, I thought, has been directed at the WHS management, who have not managed this project at all well, in my opinion.
I certainly didn’t mean to come across as disparaging about such products, but I am certainly cautious about them. The thing is, I personally would be reluctant to pick one in the near future – I think I’d prefer to wait until they’ve all been out in the wild for a while and we are getting reports on how reliable they are.
As far as I know, there’s three such products being readied for the market: Drive Bender, Stablebit Drivepool and DataCore. Of these three, my money (at this point) is on DataCore. Why? Because they’ve been in this market for a while, so their technology has a track record. On the downside, they make stuff for the Enterprise market, so their products have been priced accordingly. I hope they realise that a product for WHS needs to be priced at least at an order of magnitude less… It’s also interesting that Tranquil PC has picked DataCore to ship in their new line of WHS 2011 servers.
If you do go ahead with Drive Bender, do let me know how it’s panning out…
You’re right, I owe you an apology – my recollection is just that you said you wouldn’t trust your data to a less-well-known 3rd party. Well, I must admit, I’m concerned too. And I observe that even a WHS devotee (and Microsoft employee and evangelist) like Scott Hanselman is trying alternatives (podcast on the subject here: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/HanselminutesPodcast265SynologyNetworkAttachedStorageAndWindowsHomeServerWithTravisIllig.aspx ).
I’m in the queue for the next beta cycle of Drive Bender . . .
Thanks for the pointer to Hanselman’s blog – I’ll add it to my RSS list. As you say, it’s worth a raised eyebrow or two when Microsofties themselves seem to be turning their backs on WHS 2011…
Robert,
I see that Tranquil have changed their minds – they are dropping Datacore’s solution and going with Drive Bender:
http://usingwindowshomeserver.com/2011/05/19/tranquil-pc-windows-home-server-2011-hardware-to-use-drivebender/
Interesting…
[…] commented on the poor quality of the General Help pages before (both here on the blog, and in feedback direct to Microsoft); unfortunately, as far as I can see, they are still […]
[…] about the poor quality of the support documentation for Windows Home Server before (here, here, and here), but I just keep finding more […]
Dear Geoff, I am trying to set up windows home server 2011 on my H.P. proliant server model G7 N54L and so far I have not been able to find the correct drivers for my segate Sata 250Gb drive. Information on this subject seems very sparce and so far I have spent 2 weeks getting nowhere. I wondered if you could help a novice out?
Allan, I’m sorry, but you’re asking a question that I can’t answer from personal experience. It’s probably best if you ask the question on one of the WeGotServed forums; e.g. http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/forum/186-installation/
Or http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/forum/185-hardware/
Or http://forum.wegotserved.com/index.php/forum/2-hp/
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction, Cheers.
Back in January, I wrote about the fact that even though the Zune Marketplace was operational here in the Netherlands, it wasn’t offering any Apps for Windows Phone 7. The only thing that the Marketplace was offering here was videos to rent. Globally, Microsoft’s Marketplace is heavily fragmented or non-existent in most countries, in glaring contrast to the Android Market.
However, it does look as though the log-jam is being tackled. I’m reading reports that the Windows Phone 7 Marketplace is now operational in India, and over the weekend, I noticed that the Zune client on my PC had an “Apps” entry in the Marketplace menu, which it didn’t before. However, there are as yet zero applications available…
While Microsoft management keep trumpeting about the thousands of applications available for WP7, it is somewhat irritating when they aren’t actually available to Windows Phones if you happen to live outside one of the few countries blessed with an operational marketplace…
Addendum: sigh, it looks as though I spoke too soon. The “Apps” menu item has vanished again. Clearly, someone flipped a switch that they didn’t oughta and now it’s been turned off again. No Windows Phone Apps for the Netherlands, then…
[…] the Dutch Zune Marketplace would be opened up to WP7 Apps. We had a false alarm last week when the Marketplace suddenly had an Apps placeholder appear for a day or two before it disappeared […]
A Blackbird has built a nest in our woodshed. The nest is perched on top of a wooden frame that is leaning against the wall, and is at eye-level. It’s just below the equipment that supplies the current to the electric fence (to keep the dogs in the garden and the cows out), so when I switch the fence on or off, the blackbird and I stare eyeball to eyeball. It doesn’t seem to bother her at all.
[…] few weeks back, I noted that a blackbird was sitting on a nest that she’d built in our pony stall. She hatched four eggs, and the chicks have all grown and […]
I blogged a couple of weeks ago about the theatrical magic of Frankenstein. I regret that I haven’t made the effort to see earlier broadcasts of NT Live. And one production that I hope will be broadcast for NT Live would be War Horse.
I, and you, can at least get a glimpse of the magic that the Handspring Puppet Company wove for that production from this TED talk…
Pure magic – and 17th Century technology.
I see that Windows Home Server 2011 has been released to manufacturing. So it should be available on the market in April/May.
I’m sorry, but I can only raise a faint cheer about this product. It doesn’t strike me as a major step forward from the original Windows Home Server, and in some respects – notably the removal of the Drive Extender technology – it is a step backwards.
The comparison datasheet is long on marketing and short on actual comparison with WHSv1, and that’s not really surprising.
What really gets to me is that Microsoft had the chance to build upon the base of WHSv1 as a server and media appliance that could be used by the average consumer, and they’ve thrown that chance away.
I also think it will be a damp squib and Microsoft could have made this such a great product.
John.
P.S. I love the picture on your blog. Nice house and garden. I used to work in Zootermeer and like you love the country. I almost move there.
Thanks, John. I think all we can do now is sit back and let the market deliver its verdict.
Re the Netherlands. I’m fortunate that I’m able to live in one of the few parts of the country that isn’t totally built up. There are still traces of the countryside around here. Being able to walk to a wood along a track running between fields in under ten minutes is very good for the soul.
[…] I think it’s safe to say that the development of Microsoft’s Windows Home Server 2011 (version two of the original Windows Home Server product) has not exactly been plain sailing. Fairly late on in the development cycle, Microsoft took the decision to pull the Drive Extender technology (the unique selling point of WHS v1) from the v2 product. The decision was greeted with howls of protest from WHS customers (including me), but Microsoft soldiered on and released WHS 2011 in April. […]
[…] the betas over the months leading up to April 2011, that things were not going well with WHS 2011. As I wrote at the time: Microsoft had the chance to build upon the base of WHSv1 as a server and media appliance that […]
The inestimable Adam Curtis has another blog entry that stops the heart, if not the tears. Such a steadfast view of humanity’s foibles is often more than I can bear. But bear witness, we must.
Geoff Coupe's Blog 
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