Some Great Free Stuff From Microsoft

Wow I bet that title shocked folks. Yep Microsoft do some great stuff, and it is free as well!

Windows Live Writer (WLW) – I had to start with this it for me is the best bit of blogging software out there at the moment. So good in fact that on my Macbook I have VMWare Fusion running an XP virtual machine so I can use WLW on my Macbook. It really is worth the effort. There are also some nice free plugins that can be installed that expand it’s functionality.

Windows Live Photos (WLP) – You can install this at the same time as you install WLW, which I do recommend. There is one feature here that I find very useful indeed, and that is the ability to stitch photos together to make a panorama (details here). You can see the results I got from a panorama I did with it here.

Live Mesh – 5GB of online storage for your files. Runs on Windows (naturally), Macs (although there is a Snow Leopard incompatibility at the moment), the web and other mobile devices (no iPhone client yet). So 5GB of synced stored files, and the ability to access the desk top of the computer as well. So when you are away from your desk or office your able to get easy access to them and the apps that access them.

Office Live – Want another 5GB of storage just for your office documents? Want to collaborate on them as well? Then this great M$ freebie is just for you.

Sky Drive – 25GB of online storage! Yep a massive 25GB of free online storage. ‘nuff said really.

Of course with the above there may be file size restrictions. But if you are using these to back up photos, documents and the odd mp3, then this shouldn’t be a problem.

So using three free Microsoft services I make that 35GB of free online storage. Not bad if you ask me. Plus don’t forget when Office 10 comes out there will be a free online version of that to include in this list. It won’t be the full version naturally, but hopefully be more functional than Google Docs. I think that Google Docs will have some pretty stiff competition.

Yet Another “Social Media” Phone

Yet again another new phone that is aimed as a “social media” phone. This time it’s a Google Android phone from Motorola. I hate it when the phone company or network provider try to sell a new phone trying to ride on the back of “social media”. I’ve ranted about this previously about Nokia.

What they are trying to pass off as a “unique selling point” isn’t really. Any “smart phone” that can have apps installed on it can be a “social media” phone. The Google Android G1 phone is a “social media” phone, as is the Blackberry and the iPhone along with the Palm Pre. They all have Twitter and Facebook apps, plus other apps to hook up to other social networks. Also the majority of these apps are free and pretty good as well. In fact I prefer accessing Facebook from my iPhone to using the website (yes the apps can be that good).

I suppose to a general population that is none the wiser then this “unique selling point” may get them the odd extra sale. For those in the know we just aren’t fooled by this sales/marketing snow job.

My Top iPhone Apps

I've not posted anything on here for awhile. Well I've not had much to say on tech, so why bore you with senseless rambles? So I thought I would do this post about the apps on my iPhone that I am currently using the most at the moment.

TweetDeck (itunes link) (FREE)

TweetDeck is a very very popular multi-platform Twitter client for the desk top, which has been replicated on the iPhone. The initial version was a bit unstable, but that was soon fixed. The nice thing about this app is that it syncs the columns from the desktop version with this mobile version. There are a couple of features I would like to see in this that would make it my primary Twitter app and allow me to remove Tweetie. The first of those is the ability to see the current trending topics, and the second is the nearby feature. A tweet and walk mode would be handy as well.

Wordpress (itunes link) (FREE)

If you have a Wordpress blog then this is the app on the iPhone that you need. It supports multiple Wordpress blogs, allows you to not just do posts, but pages and comments as well. Only thing I would like to see added to this app is a bit more control over the images in the posts, ie not just having them put at the end of the post but allowed to have them within the text and have the text flow round them. But other wise this is a very very good blogging app.

Tomtom (itunes link) (GBP 59.99 for UK & Ireland)

Shown at the Apple event where they showed off version 3 of the iPhone OS. I along with many others have been waiting for this to come out. For me in the last couple of weeks even more so (well since my Tomtom was stolen from my car). There are a couple of features that are missing from the dedicated Tomtom device, which I hope they will add soon, such as allowing speed camera updates, along with map updates as well. There are other features I want added back in. Plus there is a difference in the routes the iPhone version comes up with compared to the Tomtom 920t I had. For instance the 920 when driving to my Nans would take me from the A1 to Wisbech via the A17. Where as the iPhone version takes me via the A47 and Peterborough. Even with these differences and missing features I still like this app a LOT.

AroundMe (itunes link) (FREE)

I love apps like this that are location based (and they will only get better with the augmented reality stuff that is becoming available on the 3GS). This one will tell you the location of places like Banks/ATM, bars, coffee shops,gas stations etc based on your current location. It will even give you directions as well.

SitOrSquat (itunes link) (FREE)

Another location based iPhone app this time one that tells you were the nearest public toilet is. Which when in a strange town/city is a very very handy thing to know.

Facebook (itunes link) (FREE)

The version 2 had a great interface that I preferred to actually using the web site itself. However the app has just got even better with version 3. If you are on Facebook and don't have this on the iPhone then what are you doing?

Google Mobile App (itunes link) (FREE)

Voice search and links to the Google Apps. A very very cool and handy app to have. It's great showing off the iPhone using the voice search.

Skype (itunes link) (FREE)

If you are a Skype user then you need this. Can only be used over wifi (as if O2 would allow us to make free calls over 3G), but still very useful to have.

Shazam (itunes link) (FREE)

Oh I love this app. It identifies music from a short snippet, great when you are watching a tv program or film and think wow what is that tune. How did we manage before this app came out?

Tube Delux (itunes link) (GBP 0.59)

I got this for my infrequent visits to London. Very handy to have, status updates, trip planner, departure info, even push notifications.

Sky News (itunes link) (FREE)

An app that links to Sky News. Even allows you to watch video of the news. Nice interface, does as it says on the can really. I like this one a lot as well.

Sky+ (itunes link) (FREE)

Once setup you won't have to miss another program on tv again. Select the program you want to record and your Sky+ box is programmed instantly to record it. It would be nice if the tv schedules pre-loaded at the start of each week so it was a bit faster, and that when setting something to record you could also set it up as a series link. But these are minor quibbles for what is still a great app. Also while I think about it, it would be nice if you could set it up so that it will search the schedules for you to tell you when there is stuff that maybe of interest on. A good app that could with a couple of features added be amazing.

Sky Sports Live Football Score Centre (itunes link) (FREE)

Now the season has started this is a must for football fans.

AirVideo (itunes link) (GBP 1.79)

With a free pc/Mac server software you are able to stream video from your pc/Mac over your network to your iPhone. Don't worry about the file format of the video not being iPhone compatible the server software converts on the fly!

TUAW (itunes link) (FREE)

I've just installed this as it has just become available. It's a very handy app for reading The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

I also play some games from time to time. The following are the ones I am finding myself going back to time and time again.

FlightControl (itunes link) (GBP 0.59)

I've just got into this one,and boy is it addictive. Cheap crack should never be this good!

FieldRunners (itunes link) (GBP 1.79)

A great tower defense clone, addictive. I start this and somehow an hour just disappears before I know it.

Bejeweled 2 (itunes link) (GBP 1.79)

King of the casual games, but still a classic that I enjoy.

Stating The Bloody Obvious Part 2

In another one of the “stating the bloody obvious” The Guardian and other newspapers and websites have been reporting  “Twitter is not for teens, Morgan Stanley told by 15-year-old expert” (read the full report here).

The so called “technorati” that live in that closed bubble called London are loving the story.

No one seems to be saying “der!” What strikes me from this story is that it “generated a flurry of interest from media executives and investors.” Morgan Stanley also said “We've had dozens and dozens of fund managers, and several CEOs, e-mailing and calling all day.” How has this surprised these powerful men? I would imagine a lot of them have trophy wives and children. Some of these children may even be teenagers. So I ask again why is this such surprising news for them? I can only assume that even though they have these families that their home work life balance is so heavily skewed towards work that they don’t talk or know their own children.

Those working in the City are well known for having a long working day, in early and out late. They then also work weekends as well. Even on family holidays they tend to take work with them, and are constantly checking emails etc. So where in this life style have they had time to spend with their families? If they spoke to their teenage children then they would know all this already, or a lot of it. They have this expert in their own homes that they ignore. They use the excuse that they are keeping a roof over the heads of the family, putting food on the plate etc. But I ask at what cost?

As I write this post the lyrics for the song Cats In The Cradle keep coming to mind. Maybe these City types with families should all have this on their MP3 players and have to listen to it daily to remind them

The real news story isn’t that a 15 year old has said his peers don’t use Twitter, or own expensive smart phones, and use pay as you go. The real news story is as I pointed out that City executives do not have relationships with their families.

I’ll write about the London based “technorati” and how they are so up each others arse some other time.

Microsoft Security Advisory For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 Users

If you are running Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 then you will need to take heed of a new Security Advisory being issued by Microsoft. The vulnerability is “in Microsoft Video ActiveX Control. An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could gain the same user rights as the local user. When using Internet Explorer, code execution is remote and may not require any user intervention.”

Microsoft are saying that:

“For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 customers, Microsoft is recommending removing support for this ActiveX Control within Internet Explorer using all the Class Identifiers listed in the Workaround section. Though unaffected by this vulnerability, Microsoft is recommending that Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 customers remove support for this ActiveX Control within Internet Explorer using the same Class Identifiers as a defense-in-depth measure.”

As you can see from the above quote Microsoft are also recommending that Vista and Windows Server 2008 users also do this.

There is an automated fix for this available from Microsoft, which makes things easier for you.

You can get the Microsoft fix at the following link:

“Microsoft Security Advisory: Vulnerability in Microsoft Video ActiveX control could allow remote code execution”

For those that want to read more go to the following link:

“Microsoft Security Advisory (972890) Vulnerability in Microsoft Video ActiveX Control Could Allow Remote Code Execution”

Setting Up A New Site

Well it’s been a busy busy day. I have been registering a new domain, and setting up a website for it.

For the website I am using Wordpress as a CMS. I’m not going with the usual blog set up of when you land on the site of seeing the blog and the latest blog entries. Instead visitors will land on a static webpage.

Once the installation of Wordpress was done, it was then a matter of installing the plugins that I needed. Followed by configuring the plugins, which for one or two meant setting up appropriate accounts elsewhere. So the new site has been added to my Google Analytics account, and also the RSS feeds have been added to Feedburner.

I also spent some time looking through for a suitable theme for the new site. Which has been installed, and just in need of configuring to suit my needs. By that I mean changing default graphics, and adding the widgets to the right hand side bar that I want to be there. The really great thing about Wordpress 2.8 is that installing new themes and plugins is really simple. They have really made it easy for a non-techie to install change things.

I also have a google mail account setup now as well for this new site/enterprise. Which I have added to my iPhone so I can check the email on the move, as I do with my personal email account already.

My next task is to get content up on the site, which I have already started. I need to write copy for the welcome page, and the other pages, get my graphics and logo up. The contact page has already been done, for which I have a contact form for visitors/potential clients to email me. There is an initial blog entry up as well, which is the Facebook and MI6 post I wrote on here with an extra paragraph tagged on the end. I will also expand the last case study to a bit more detail. Plus there will be more case studies going up over there, along with some of the more suitable previous posts from here.

I still have a Facebook Fan Page to do, along with adding a FriendFeed stream, and my delicious account to the new site. These last two will hopefully add useful resources for visitors. Might also add a Twitter stream as well. Plus I almost forgot to do a LinkedIn page as well.

So much to think of and set up,so little time.

Facebook Privacy And MI6

I woke up today with Radio 5 covering the following story “MI6 boss in Facebook entry row”. My first thoughts were how did this happen? Had the next MI6 Bosses wife friended reporters from The Mail on Sunday? Had she not set her privacy settings correctly?

Well the answer was the later,  “She had not imposed privacy protection on her account, allowing any of Facebook's 200 million users in the open-access "London" network to see the entries, it added.”

Now there are calls from politicians and security experts for an inquiry to what happened, and the security implications. Well let me save them some money and more importantly the tax payer some money from a lengthy inquiry. They can look at the security implications for the new boss and his family. I’ll tell them what happened. It basically falls down to a lack of education. That’s it, nothing else.

You can’t stop the families of these “V.I.P’s” from using the social networks that everyone else is using. What you can do is educate them. Tell them how to set their privacy settings, not to friend people left right and centre, to also think about what they are posting.

But I should point out that it’s not just the families of the “V.I.P.’s” that need educating I think everyone needs to be educated. Especially our young. How many times have we seen stories of teenagers falling foul of something they have posted on a social media site of some sort? Surely at our schools and collages there should be a compulsory lesson or two about using social media sites. Within one of those lessons they should cover privacy settings, and protecting your identity. It’s the least we have to do to prepare our youth for a life online.

It’s not hard to get the information about setting the privacy settings on Facebook. A quick search on Google finds some good advice out there. So it seems pointless of me to re-write all this advice again. Here are a couple of links I think folks should read.

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

Facebook best practice