This is part 1… I’m going to the fish market tonight (I hope), so I’ll upload more photos when I get back…

And here’s the synth from lunch: http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=3de2706b-a97a-4b9d-b8da-08b0e1e9723a

First Synth from Shiodome, Japan

Posted: September 27, 2010 in Uncategorized

Ok, the first synth is ready to view… Enjoy! This is a beautiful hotel and building!

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=fca6e9db-0e41-4870-8f51-b46f15d30b5e

Ok, the first batch of photos is up. Only a few from Day 1, but many more are coming! Enjoy!

Best,

-Auri

This is like an Android + Palm Pre + LG eXpo + KDDI’s Ply Phone

http://www.androidpolice.com/2010/09/23/mozillas-stunning-seabird-mobile-phone-concept-this-is-what-dreams-are-made-of-video/

Everything shown could be done today, but the battery life would be a joke (today).

Please don’t laugh at the Windows 7 Firefox projection Smile

If you have a small business, you know corporate antivirus can be very expensive. Illegitimately, you could just use the free, or “personal” versions of great products like Avast or AVG, as well as Microsoft’s own Security Essentials (MSE). But we should do the right thing, which can be hard in a recession. Well folks, Microsoft has come to our rescue once again. Starting in October, Microsoft Security Essentials will be free for installation on up to 10 PCs in your biz. That’s right, no licensing hassles, no trialware issues – just pure antimalware goodness. Details from Microsoft’s post are below:

As we continue to evolve security and privacy at Microsoft, we are doing more than securing our own products and refining our own processes – we are continually responding to the growing and changing threat landscape.  Despite the proliferation and increasing impact of threats in the environment, many consumers and small businesses, both in mature and emerging markets remain unprotected. There are several reasons for this: 

  • Performance Concerns:  Customers worry that antimalware software can impact the performance of their machines and degrade their computing experience.
  • Customer Confusion: Many customers are confused by trials and annual subscription renewals, in many cases believing their PCs are covered when in fact their subscriptions have expired and they are at risk.
  • Payment Method Barriers: Traditional online subscription and payment models do not work in emerging markets where customer and small business credit is not always readily available.
  • Cost: Many consumers and an increasing number of small businesses are either unwilling or unable to pay the ongoing subscription costs for the security suite solutions that come on their PCs.

It is for these reasons that we are announcing that in early October Microsoft will make Microsoft Security Essentials available to small businesses for download and installation on up to 10 PCs. This new availability will allow small businesses to take advantage of Microsoft’s no-cost antimalware service that will help them save time, save money and remain productive while protecting them from viruses, spyware and other malicious threats. With Microsoft Security Essentials, small businesses with less than 10 PCs can feel safe knowing they are using an industry certified antimalware that utilizes the same core malware protection engine that drives Microsoft’s enterprise solutions solution and is backed by Microsoft’s leading Security Response resources.

For more information on the news, check out the Microsoft SMB Community blog and the feature story on Microsoft.com

We run a lot of mojoPortal-based Web sites. Unfortunately, upgrading mojoPortal between the hundred releases per month is difficult and often unnecessary. Unfortunately, .NET 4.0 appears to break mojoPortal. It’s not a big deal to fix the issues, but they can take a while to find. Below are the changes we had to make, hopefully saving you hours or days of lost time Smile

If you’re having issues getting mojoPortal to run under the .NET 4.0 Runtime, please try the following:

  • Bring your project into VS2010, convert it, and recompile.
    • This will likely require you to check your references – System.Web.Services will likely have a broken reference. Just remove it and add it again.
    • Compile the projects separately.
  • In the web.config, uncomment the httpRuntime config item and make sure it looks like this:
<httpRuntime maxRequestLength="2097151" executionTimeout="3600" useFullyQualifiedRedirectUrl="true" 
requestValidationMode="2.0" />
  • The requestValidationMode is the big deal. Otherwise you’ll get errors whenever you post on your site.
  • For the most part, the above changes worked. Once you have mojoPortal compiling (in case I left something out <grin>), the change above may be the only other change you need to make.

Please ask additional questions in comments.

Good luck!

-Auri

Disney English Fail

Posted: July 6, 2010 in Uncategorized
image

Awww… Disney Engrish.

Attention Live Sync Team: You touted all the great reasons I should move from Live Mesh. So I did. But what gives with all the great Mesh features seemingly being dumped?

Case in point, I can’t sync the same folders as before because now they’re “too big!” Why would you replace a service that let users store more information to the Cloud with one that stores less to the Cloud, and then leave that fact out in the upgrade process?

Lesson in Software Development: If you’re going to promote an upgrade, don’t make it a downgrade.

A few other issues to consider (and I don’t gripe all the time – but this is feedback you need):

  1. I’m sure as I use Live Sync more I will get used to it. The problem is, I want to be excited about using it. I want to promote it to my friends. At this stage I can’t do that. Immensely useful features and a fantastic UX are now gone.
  2. We can no longer tell which folders are synced unless we bring up the Live Sync interface. The blue highlight Mesh added made a lot of sense – you knew that was the synced folder. In User Experience design, this is called a “hot color.” Now I don’t know which folders are synced. I’m sure the software works fine, but what feedback did you get when running this by your users. My guess is little to none.
  3. Live Mesh let you see a feed of what was added/updated simply by visiting the system tray icon. Why is this feature gone? I can no longer see what people have updated in my shared folders. I guess I could call, message, email them, but … why get rid of that feature?
  4. If this is beta, why isn’t there a clear way to leave feedback on the product?
  5. Why can’t I sync Firefox bookmarks? I know, IE is your product, and you can’t support Mozilla and other third party apps. But is there an API for plug-ins? I didn’t see an obvious way, but if you send me a link to an API, I’ll write a sync plug-in for a few other services.
  6. I had seemingly no file count limit with Live Mesh between machines. However, there is one with Live Sync. Why? Can’t you talk to the Mesh team and kill that hurdle? I understand a limit on the Cloud storage, but why would you limit my own machines??? Why would you even care?
  7. Kudos on finally adding smart LAN synchronization – but with the file size limit, how do I know all my files will be updated? Won’t that leave me vulnerable to synchronization issues? Have you noticed how many computers have 500GB+ storage these days? That’s not all music and video… even with non-power-users.

What gives?

I’m happy to help test and provide more feedback – just ping me on Messenger Smile

Thanks!

-Auri

It’s been a busy week! If you haven’t had a chance to try my company’s latest app, please check it out!

I Left My Phone At Home is now available for Windows Phone Standard and there’s even an Android BETA!

Now you can track and respond to all your missed calls and text messages when you leave your phone somewhere, even if you have a cracked screen 🙂

Of course, the Windows Phone Professional version has thousands of downloads, and feedback has been great. We hope to keep releasing new features as the feedback continues to roll in.

Please take a look at http://phonehome.me.

Thanks and have a great Fourth!

-Auri

Worked on this one for a few days. The fix was to:

  • Move the <uses-sdk> tag to the top.
  • Move all the <uses-permission> tags under the <uses-sdk> tag.
  • Remove the empty <uses-configuration> tag (probably the main culprit anyway).

Google – you really need to fix your system. “The server could not process your apk. Try again” is not anywhere near a helpful error message.

I hope this helps anyone running into this problem!

Best,

-Auri