Why Microsoft Got The Windows 7 Phone Wrong - Part 1

I love Microsoft. I really do. However, there are some things that Microsoft does that are so ridiculous that I really have to wonder. I have a brand new phone. It is the HTC Titan. I love new things. The phone has a big screen area - which I like - and a great camera - which I LOVE! Those are the good things about the phone. After having had an iPhone and an Android based Samsung Infuse, I was prepared to see something awesome from Microsoft. Microsoft, as we all know, was late to the mobile phone market. In my mind, that means that the product should be far above and beyond everything else on the market. The problem is that it isn't. I'm going to document my experiences with this phone because some of the issues I have with it are so ridiculous that I can't even believe I am having them. I'm going to add to this list and update things as the issues I have with the phone are resolved. I am also going to outline some things that I am going to personally do to help my experience with this phone - namely develop some apps for it. So here goes.

1. Don't make people create a Windows Live account to use the phone!

Microsoft was late to the market with the Windows Phone. When I say late, I mean REALLY LATE! That means that people already have Google accounts and iTunes accounts that they want to use with their phones. I'm not saying that you shouldn't brand your phone, but forcing people to sign up for a worthless account is counter-productive. I have a Windows account because I develop in Microsoft technologies, however, I don't want that linked to my phone and I don't want to HAVE to create a dummy account for no other reason than using the phone. Apple does this too, but Apple was first to create an application store. It's like arriving to a potluck dinner late and insisting that everyone eat your food. If you are late to the party, you should, in my opinion, make it SUPER easy for people to use your device. If you don't use your Windows Live account, the phone is basically a brick - you can make calls with it and do a few other things, but that is about it. Wrong move Microsoft.

2. After you force me to sign up for a Windows Live account, DO NOT automatically add contacts I save to the phone to that Windows Live account. I was SO angry to see that the phone was doing this. I searched all over the phone to figure out how to stop it from adding contacts to my Windows Live account, but I couldn't figure out how to stop it. If there is a way to do it and I couldn't figure it out, then it isn't simple enough to find. I can't stand this feature. Microsoft should give users the choice to save a contact to Windows Live OR to the phone only!

3. The Windows Phone doesn't allow you to easily add, see and switch in between multiple email accounts. This is a BIG issue for people like me. I'm a business person. I have several personal email accounts as well as many business email accounts. I loved how I could see them all on my iPhone and on the Samsung Infuse. Why can't I do the same thing out of the box

on the Windows Phone? Microsoft likely thinks that giving people a choice will stop them from using Microsoft products. However, the bigger issue should be to give people what they want. Not having this feature is just plain dumb. Again, if the phone does have it and I just missed it, then it isn't simple to enough to find. On the iPhone, this process is clear, concise and to the point.

UPDATE -

OK. I was wrong on this one. The phone DOES allow you to add multiple accounts and easily access them, BUT it shows ALL of the accounts as different squares on the home page instead of giving you ONE email screen that lists all of the accounts and allows you to select which one you want. I have about 20 email accounts and having 20 different little squares on my home page is a PAIN IN THE REAR ENDDDDDDDDDDD!!!!!!!!

4. The phone should give users the opportunity to make those huge icons on the main screen much smaller. The Windows Phone setup seems to be geared toward people who need glasses. I'm not joking. Although those big squares are colorful, they take up a lot of screen real estate. If users had the OPTION to make them smaller, life would be so much better. Bad, bad Microsoft!

5. When you link contacts, the phone does some weird crap if you try to send a text message to one of the linked contacts. It groups all of the phone numbers under the name you select instead of just showing one phone number. So lets say that you have Sara, Selena and Stacy in a group. Each one of those people has a different number. If you select Sara to send a text message to, the phone shows the numbers for all 3 people under Sara's name! I tried it twice to be sure that my eyes weren't deceiving me. That is the craziest, most ridiculous process! I had to unlink to be able to send a text message to the correct person. Bad, bad, bad Microsoft.

6. The marketplace for Windows Phone 7 SUCKS! I wish it didn't. I am SO disappointed in Microsoft for this. If I were Microsoft, I would have hired a team of developers well BEFORE the launch of the phone and made it their BUSINESS to crank out app after app after app. There should have been apps for many things that there aren't apps for right now simply because they were late. I feel that if you come late, you come better!

7. Making me keep an XBOX Live icon on the list of apps makes me unhappy. Apple and Google both do this, but making it so that users can't remove certain unnecessary apps is upsetting to me. I don't own an XBOX, play on an XBOX or intend to play on an XBOX ever in my life. Maybe THAT is my problem - lol.

Right now, December 29, 2011, this list ends at 7. As I go through the HTC Titan, which is an absolutely solid, beautiful phone.

If you are considering a Windows 7 Phone, I would say that you should go for it. The phone is responsive. However, if you do a lot of business and need certain applications to do that work, I would give the platform a chance to grow up a bit. Right now the platform is a little wet-behind-the-ears. I love you Microsoft.

Smooches,

Kila Morton

How To Remove Duplicates And Sort Lists Of Things In C#

This is a quick and dirty simple list of how to remove duplicates from lists of items in C#. It is simple to do, yet a lot of people create monstrous for loops to accomplish deduping and sorting. It isn't and doesn't have to be complex. Here is a quick and easy list of some ways for you to dedupe and sort your lists.

string[] sItems = { "one", "two", "three", "four", "five", "one", "two", "one", "two", "one", "two", "one" };

//counts the number of times a value occurs

var counts = from sItem in sItems

group sItem by sItem into g

select new { Item = g.Key, Count = g.Count() };

//removes duplicates and preserves the original order

var dedupe1 = new HashSet<string>(sItems);

//removes duplicates and preserves the original order

var dedupe2 = sItems.Distinct();

//removes duplicates and reverse the order of elements

var dedupeAndReverse1 = sItems.Distinct().Reverse();

//remove duplicates and sort

var dedupeAndSort = sItems.Distinct().OrderBy(x => x);

There are additional ways to accomplish the same thing, but these are simple, quick and easy to use.

OMG! How To Burn AVI Files In iDVD On A Mac For Free!

I know! The title has the word MAC in it! What is wrong with me? Well sometimes you have to use all of the tools at your disposal. I have PCs and Macs and sometimes the Mac is the tool for what I'm trying to do. Right now, I'm doing some Android development. I could do this on a PC, but I have to be honest - the emulator just works more quickly on a Mac. There....I said it!

Anyway, I recently decided to burn some videos using iDVD. However, the videos were .AVI files. That shouldn't be a problem right? WRONG! iDVD doesn't allow you to burn .avi files to DVD right out of the box - at least not the version I have. So what is a girl with .avi files to do when she wants to burn them to DVD using iDVD? DOWNLOAD THE CODEC THAT WILL ALLOW ME TO DO IT! :-)

I found a lot of misinformation out there about how to burn .avi files on a Mac. Some people suggested that I would need to download Toast, which is not free. They also suggested other programs which were not free. Since I have PCs, I'm used to not paying extra for ordinary things like burning .avi files and I'm not going to change that trend. Anyway, follow these instructions to burn your. .avi files using iDVD.


Before you begin, close iDVD if it is open.

1. Download the Divx codec using this link. http://www.divx.com/en/software/download This link will send you to the Divx download page that offers everything you need. Just download it. It is going to contain some things that you likely aren't going to use, but it is all in one package.

2. Once the package has been downloaded, double-click it and walk through the install process.

3. Download Perian's software. This will allow you to hear your videos - which is a nice thing. Go to http://www.perian.org/.

4. Once the software downloads, double-click it and walk through the Perian installation process.

5. After the install process has completed, restart your machine.

6. After you restart your machine, go to iDVD and start a new project.

7. Now select File/Import/Video and select your .avi file.

8. Create the rest of your menu.

9. Check your movie to see if it works the way you think it should. This isn't a tutorial on how to use iDVD, so if you don't know what to do, follow the tutorial inside of the iDVD help area to learn how to make your movie menu, etc.

10. Burn your dvd.

There you have it! Now, here are a few things to remember. You CAN import .avi files into iDVD without doing a thing, however, if you don't have the correct codec installed, you won't see anything more than a green chromakey screen when you try to view your videos. DON'T make the mistake of importing the video and then just burning a DVD. If you can't watch the video in iDVD, then it WILL NOT show up correctly on the DVD you create. You will see the menu and be able to select the movie, however, it will just show up as a green screen on your DVD player. If you do not install Perian, you will not be able to hear your videos. You will be able to see them with Divx, but the audio codec that will allow you to hear the audio encoded into most .avi files will not be present - so make sure you install Perian.

If you are having trouble burning the DVD directly, you might need to create an image first using iDVD and then burn the image to dvd using Disk Utility. If you need to burn an image, select that option on the File menu in iDVD.

IMPORTANT NOTES:
MAKE SURE THAT YOU WATCH THE MOVIE BEFORE YOU BURN IT TO DVD! IF THERE ARE ANY ISSUES, SEEING BEFORE YOU WASTE A DVD IS ALWAYS PREFERABLE.

MAKE SURE THAT YOU DELETE ANY ENCODED ASSETS IF YOU ARE NOT CREATING A NEW PROJECT. (IN IDVD CLICK ON ADVANCED/DELETE ENCODED ASSETS)

MAKE SURE THAT THE SYSTEM OUTPUT VOLUME IS NOT DOWN LOW OR ON MUTE. CLICK ON THE APPLE SYMBOL IN THE UPPER RIGHT HAND CORNER OF THE SCREEN AND SELECT SYSTEM PREFERENCES. UNDER HARDWARE, SELECT SOUND. AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SCREEN, YOU WILL SEE OUTPUT VOLUME. MAKE SURE THAT IS ALL THE WAY UP AND NOT ON MUTE.

Have fun burning your .avi files using iDVD on a Mac for free!

Smooches,

Kila

I HATE Microsoft Excel And That Darn Ribbon!

Whew! There! I said it! I just had to get that off of my chest. I'm so sick of the ribbon that I could cry. I have long since abandoned Microsoft Office in favor of Open Office because of the ribbon and the decrease in productivity I had from having to search for things that were no longer where they should be. However, I'm currently working on a project with a company that uses Excel and I absolutely can't stand it! From a user perspective, why on EARTH would Microsoft think that it was a good idea to FORCE people to relearn how to use Excel, Word and all of the other Office items that now use the Ribbon WITHOUT PROVIDING A WAY TO SEE THINGS USING THE CLASSIC VIEW? The Office products are now such crap that I absolutely refuse to use them unless I'm forced to. I don't have the time to hunt and peck to find what I need. I don't have the time to click through mind numbing icons that don't mean crap to me when I need to go to File/Save. Why would ANYONE think that an icon based menu would be better than words? Why would ANYONE WHO ISN'T HIGH OR DRUNK think that removing ALL of the words in favor of pics would be OK with everyone. I can't stand it! I wish that I could get that ONE GUY or GIRL who came up with the ribbon idea and give that person a good thrashing!

Or.......maybe I'll quit my ranting and raving and just go develop a classic menu for Excel myself. Darn, if only I had the time! Microsoft, I'm really upset with you for this. Using MS Office used to be quick and efficient. Now, using it means hunting for the things I want to do and resting my mouse pointer over things to figure out if something is what I want. I spent 3 minutes trying to find the word count feature before I finally just went online to a word count website and used that tool instead! How is that better than what we had with the classic menu? You can't tell me that I'm alone here.

I KNOW I'm not alone. Productivity With MS Office - WAY DOWN! Frustration Level - WAY WAY UP!!!

http://www.exceluser.com/explore/surveys/ribbon/ribbon-survey-results.htm

How To Drop All Stored Procedures In Your Database When Using Sql Server

Ever have the need to drop all of the stored procedures in your database? Well if you do, you are in luck! Here is a script that will drop all of the stored procedures in your Sql Server database for you. Just open a new query window, enter the script, type your database name in the Use statement and press F5!

USE YourDatabaseNameHere
GO

declare @storedProcedureName sysname

declare procCursor cursor for
select name from sysobjects where type = 'P' and objectproperty(id, 'IsMSShipped') = 0

open procCursor
fetch next from procCursor into @storedProcedureName
while @@FETCH_STATUS = 0
begin
exec('drop proc ' + @storedProcedureName)
fetch next from procCursor into @storedProcedureName
end

close procCursor
deallocate procCursor
go

That is it! Now you can delete all of the stored procedures in your database quickly and easily!

Smooches,

Kila

How To Use Html.Action With Areas

Microsoft created Areas to make our lives easier. The sad thing is that some little details can make your life worse. We are going to take a look at one of those things - Html.Action. When you are using Areas in your application, Html.Action can generate errors. The typical error you will see is "The controller for path '/whateverpath/' was not found or does not implement IController".

That is real helpful isn't it? You can tell a lot from that error right? NOT!!!! That error might lead you to believe that some controller is having an issue. That is not the case! Instead, that error means that you have not set up your Html.Action item correctly. To get your areas to cooperate with Html.Action, you have to set your link up like this.:

Html.Action("YourMethod", "YourController", new { area = "YourArea" })

You might be wondering what you should do if you are using Html.Action and you are using a controller that is NOT in an area. Well let me tell you so you can stop wondering. You set up the action method like this:

Html.Action("YourMethod", "YourController", new { area = "" })

And that is it!!

Smooches,

Kila Morton

Problem:

"The controller for path was not found or does not implement IController"

Solution:

Use
Html.Action("YourMethod", "YourController", new { area = "YourArea" })
if you are referencing something inside of an area.

Use
Html.Action("YourMethod", "YourController", new { area = "" })
if you are not referencing something outside of the areas

How To Reset The Canon MP 190 So You Can Scan If You Have No Ink! Eliminate The Canon MP 190 Scan Blues!

I hate companies that try to force you into using their products or.....companies that force you to refill their empty ink cartridges just to use a scan feature. OK - hate is a strong word. I will say that I strongly dislike that. Anyway, I have so many printers and scanners that it should be easy for me to print and scan whenever I like. However, that is not always the case. Today I needed to scan something using my Canon MP190. The MP 190 isn't a great all in one, but it does work appropriately in most cases. The one thing that I don't like about it is that the printer will not scan if you do not have ink in there. The reason is that Canon has an initialization process for this printer that checks if there is adequate ink. If there isn't, that process fails and you can't do much else - until now. I figured out a way to bypass this "system fault" so that you can scan again. The solution and is a VERY simple one.

Ready? Hold down the Stop/Reset button for about 30 seconds! There you go! I wish I could make it more intense. There just isn't anything else to it. Holding down that button will allow you to go back and scan documents even if you are completely out of ink. (SEE BELOW)

Don't you just love it?

UPDATE 3/22/2011

I feel compelled to update this post with a few more details.

First, you must have the MP Navigator software installed to use my little trick.

Second, the printer needs to be ON. I didn't specify this when I first posted this and I see that a few people had problems.

Third, you need to hold the Stop/Reset button down UNTIL THE LIGHTS START BLINKING. So hold the button down, let the lights come on and start to blink and then after the lights stop blinking, then let go. That may be MORE than 30 seconds. That is why I said "about" 30 seconds above.

That should get you going.

If it doesn't, please don't post that it didn't work. Instead, post what you did and what happened! That is something that I can investigate. It doesn't work means nothing because it does and did work for me. So help me to help you!

Smooches,

Kila