January 2, 2012 21:25 by ckincincy
Inspired by @sadukie I am going to list out my applications on my Window’s phone.
I’ve had a Windows phone for over a year now, I’ve actually had 3 different models. I first had the HTC Surround, while it was a good phone I just didn’t see the need for the speaker setup. Then I went to the LG Quantum because it has a physical keyboard. Now, after my move to Verizon I am on the HTC Trophy.
I’ve owned an iPhone for 2 years, and when the commercial says “there is an app for that”… they aren’t kidding. The application list for the iPhone is impressive. Unfortunately the same could not be said for the Windows Phone 7. It had an OK list of applications, but not one that would blow you away.
However, the applications available have seemed to hit a level to where it does everything I need a phone to do.
I love the way the phone works. It just seems to flow so much better than the iPhone. I grew to hate my iPhone by time I got rid of it. I’ve had the Windows Phone for over a year and have no real complaints about the operating system.
Enough of the chatter. Below is my list of applications.
Similar Post
Sarah Dutkiewicz: There’s an App for That!
Jeff Blankenburg: What’s On Your Phone?
Brian Jackett: Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” App Recommendations
Utilities
Adobe Reader – Pretty much a must own if you want to view PDF’s.
WinMilk – A nice little to-do list for the phone. Though the upgrades to OneNote in Mango somewhat make this a little less needed. I do prefer the UI on WinMilk though.
BandWidth – Allows you to see how fast your internet connection is.
QR Code Reader – Ever see those crazy blocks with all the lines in them? Yep, this decodes them!
Flashlight-X – Ad supported flashlight application. Uses the camera’s flash for a true flashlight experience.
CardStar – One of my favorite apps. Allows you to get rid of all those pesky reward and membership cards.
ConnectivityShortcuts – One of the new things available with Mango. Allows you to create a shortcut directly to a few settings. Great if you find yourself turning them off or on
Remote Desktop – So I’ve yet to try this, just downloaded tonight… but if it does what it says, it is pretty much the only one available.
SkyDrive – Gives you some access to your SkyDrive. Not a bad application to have, even if much of the functionality of this application is already built into the phone.
VNC Connect – Standard VNC application.
Games
Shuffle Party – A fun game to waste some time. You can bowl, play the classic game, or an obstacle course.
Xbox Companion – This integrates with your XBox and allows you to control the main screen a bit. While a cool thing to try out once, not something I found incredibly useful. Especially since I have the Kinect.
Backgammon Pro – An ad supported version of Backgammon. Fun game to learn!
Flush – I was a little hesitant to put this on the list as I found it an OK game, but some of the levels just don’t seem possible!
Physi Bricks – A fun game that takes gravity and certain dynamics of the different types of balls you have to throw at the bricks.
Blocked In Free – The “classic” boxed in game. Just a fun way to waste some time.
Minesweeper – The classic Minesweeper game with a few twist. Loved earning achievements.
Media/News
Amazon Kindle – Just your basic Kindle application.
ESPN ScoreCenter – An application to allow you to monitor scores and sports news. The navigation can be a little bit hard to grasp, but it does the job.
iHeartRadio – Access to all of the Clear Channel radio stations.
INRIX Traffic – This is a really well thought out application. It combines user reported crashes with crashes reported through official means. Has helped me avoid problems several times.
Last.fm – Your typical Last.fm application. If you use Last.fm, this is what you want.
Spotify – Spotify is the new kid on the block in the USA. It is a nice application to interface with their service.
The Weather Channel – Out of all the weather applications, this is the one I liked the best.
Retail
Amazon Mobile – A nice way to interact with Amazon. Allows on the fly price comparison along with a lot more.
eBay – This application was one of the most surprising for me. Just an all around good application to work with eBay on your mobile phone.
Pizza Hut – This one is relatively new. I used the iPhone version several times and the Windows version appears to be a good port.
Personal
Bible – LifeChurch.tv kind of owns this market and its no difference on the Windows Phone. Top of the line application.
Google Integration
Flux – I’ve tried a lot of Google Reader applications. This one has been the best by a lot.
GoVoice – The best Google Voice application around. It went through a moment where I thought it was going to be abandoned by the developer, but he has started to work on it again recently. It just works!
Social Media
MoTweets Pro – I’ve been giving this a shot. It is a paid application, but overall I like it. It is really for heavy Twitter users as it allows for support of multiple accounts. It also seems to have Facebook integration.
Twitter – The official Twitter application. More than sufficient!
Developer Unlocked
I recently “developer unlocked” my phone using ChevronWP7. Unfortunately the “jailbreak” story in Windows Phone is still very new and not well developed. Once this is a bit more mainstream the ‘black market’ applications available will rock. Since I am unlocked I am able to “side load” some applications onto my phone.
Screen Capturer – One of the things I really missed from the iPhone was the ability to take a screen grab. This fills that gap.
Built In
The podcast setup is really nice. I have subscribed to many technical and personal podcast and they just show up on the phone when new episodes show up.
Missing
Chipotle – Enough said!
Facebook – There is actually a Facebook application, but it is buggy when you scroll down. When I moved to Verizon and my new phone I didn’t bother to install the app. I just went to the mobile version as my primary method. There is, however, extensive integration with Facebook on the main operating system.
June 18, 2011 19:51 by ckincincy
My family moved into our house just over three years ago. It came with a swimming pool.
I happened to know the owner of the house prior to buying it and during a team party for our son’s baseball team he said something in passing that stuck out to me. He mentioned all the struggles he had with keeping the pool clean and that a friend of his had some saltwater system that seemed to work well.
I remembered that conversation but did not act on it.
Summer one with the pool was not to bad. The weather was fair and the pool survived.
Summer two was a bit more of a struggle as it rained a lot.
Summer three was the same.
The problem with tough summers is that chlorine cost add up quickly. So this year we decided we’d install a saltwater pool system.
Due to last year being so bad we had to completely drain our pool and start over. After draining the pool and getting it cleaned out we started the process of filling it back up with water. Being a fairly big pool it takes a few days. We hooked up all the filter equipment and put 4 gallons of chlorine in the pool and let it run.
During this time I went looking for a saltwater system on Amazon and found one at a good price and figured it was worth a shot. The Intex Krystal Clear Saltwater System was the winner.
Here we are 3 weeks later and my initial take is that this system is awesome and anybody who has a pool should convert. During my last three seasons I could only get a positive chlorine test about 2 hours after I put the chlorine in. Now I can get a constant reading… and I’m not adding an ounce.
The install of the system was easy. You literally put it in between the house that goes from your existing filter to the pool. After the water passes through the filter it hits this special system that generates the chlorine.
The setup of the pool was a little more complex. For the size of our pool the amount of salt to be added was not completely clear to me. So I started off with a light amount of 240lbs (FYI, it cost me $50 for 400lbs.. we used 99.8% pure salt meant for water softeners). After the salt had enough time to dissolve I took my water into Eastgate Pools and had it tested. It showed to be light on salt and needing stabilizer. We added 12 pounds of stabilizer and 80 more pounds of salt. Gave it a few days and took the water in to be tested again. This time it all tested OK. Not great but OK.
Our Chlorine tested at 1.1, it is supposed to be between 1.0 and 3.0. Our salt tested at 2600 parts per million. This is on the low end for our system and the documentation was pretty clear that a number this low would generate less than idea results. So we added 40 more pounds of salt. Now the pool is rocking.
After looking at the reviews on Amazon the one negative for this product is that its life expectancy can be short. I look at this two ways.
1. If it breaks within 2 years, it is under warranty.
2. If it breaks after 2 years, I’m still saving a bundle of money.
Take a look at the Intex website to learn more about how it works. I see NOTHING false about what they advertise.
March 12, 2011 22:46 by ckincincy
I have a habit of bookmarking pages as I feel that I need to go back and review the content.
So, I’m a bit too OCD to have that many random links in my book marks and I’ve had it happen more than once where stuff I bookmarked later disappeared from the web. Let me share them with you… and at the same time give ma point of reference!
PC Usability Hacks
Programming Tips
Fun Tips
Hacks
Tech Links
Political/Opinion
January 9, 2011 15:32 by ckincincy
So yesterday a tragedy in our country happened. A congress women was shot and killed. I think it is justifiable to veer off path of the usual technical nature of this blog and say a few things.
I’m a conservative. I don’t call myself a Republican, though that is basically the only people I’ll vote for. There are, however, Republicans I won’t vote for so that’s why I don’t call myself one.
Immediately after yesterdays shooting it was quickly blamed on Sarah Palin and other Tea Party members. I found that sad and troubling. But that is not the focus on this blog.
A contact tweeted a link to an article on the subject of mental health that I think is worth reading. It was fairly, fair and balanced.
The main guy that has been talking about this from an official stand point is Chief Clarence Dupnik. He holds what can safely be categorized as a liberals point of view on guns, so he has been getting a lot of press from folks of that leaning. Today he was giving his update and near the very end of a press conference he said something that I alluded to on Facebook to another friend of mine. I am paraphrasing:
“Back when I was a beat cop in the early 60’s when we had issues with people like this we were able to put them into an institution that kept them off the streets. However, now we just let them run the streets.”
When I was finishing my bachelors degree I had to take a 9 credit course on US history. A very big part of this was the 1960’s and this very point. The point made in the class was that in the 60’s psychiatrist and other medical professionals shifted from these institutions to medical help outside of being institutionalized. So we went from these people being fairly segregated and “cared for” (I put this in quotations, because there was a lot of abuse in this setup) to them running the streets.
Then in a conversation Maggie Longshore said “we need to make mental health available, affordable & accessible – more important than physical health for society.”
The problem with this is that there are a LOT, A WHOLE LOT of services available. I am a foster parent, so I am exposed to a lot of these services over and over again. The problem is that these people aren’t healthy enough to go get the help. In my situation the mentally unstable people happen to have children and that got them identified. That is where the “institutionalization” of people by the cops came into play in the 60’s. We have the resources and availability.. we just need to do better as a society to identify these people and get them into places that will get help for them. We have to stop pretending that everybody is OK and all opinions are equal and such. If a person is claiming that the government is using mind control to control them… they aren’t healthy and they need help. To pretend otherwise is ignoring a real issue.
Yesterday was a tragedy. We can turn it into a positive and tone down the rhetoric a bit (just think of the attacks on Palin and Obama) and learn from this situation to identify people like this. Or we can make it a political “win” for “our party” and contribute to the rhetoric that many are blaming for this issue.
November 13, 2010 21:54 by ckincincy
So it didn’t take me long, but I found my first bug in the Windows Phone 7 operating system.
It is a simple bug to reproduce. It comes down to programming pauses and such into a contacts phone number. Lets say you work at XYZ LLC. Who’s number is 555-555-1212. You program your coworker, Charlie’s number in as follows: 555-555-1212,2,222. What this number will do is dial the main number pauses, hits “2” for entering an extension, pauses, and then enters the extension.
So now you have those two contacts. Now somebody calls you from the office, which comes through as 555-555-1212. You’d expect for it to display a call coming from XYZ, LLC. However what happens is you are told the call comes from “Charlie” because he comes up first in the list.
I’d hope the caller ID could be fixed to do an exact match search before it does the partial match search.
November 13, 2010 21:43 by ckincincy
So here I am almost a week later with my HTC Surround. Overall my impression of this phone is improving as time goes on. It just works.
In my prior post I mentioned that one of the features I liked was the ability to sync wirelessly. Well, that didn’t pan out to well. The software seemed to hang a bit. So the Zune software needs some work.
I found my first bug in the software, and saw some areas for improvement.
I’ll cover those in specific post because I don’t want it lost in the noise of one long blog post.
However my overall thoughts are positive. I love the speech recognition, it just works well. The responsiveness of the phone is awesome. The applications for the phone is still a bit weak, but its early. It takes time to build out a great eco system.
The one thing I did notice is that WP7 apps cost money. Not many free, high quality, applications out there. A lot of, what appear to be OK quality for pay apps. I think this will also change over time as the eco system builds up. Right now you have a lot of early developers trying to make a few bucks off the early adapters.
I’ll follow up with three post in the near future, one more tonight.
1. The bug I found.
2. Improvements I’d like to see.
3. Applications I miss from my iPhone.
Check back soon.
November 9, 2010 00:01 by ckincincy
So I finally fully representing my license plate, I AM A PC. I am the proud owner of the HTC Surround, a Windows Phone 7 device.
Having spent the last two years on the iPhone 3G I got to know that device very well. It wasn’t all bad, but there were things about Apple and its phone that drove me nuts.
I was eagerly waiting for the WP7 launch, and today was the day.
I looked at the two current devices available at the AT&T store. The Surround and the Samsung Focus. The Focus felt cheap in my hand. Just seemed like it would break rather easily. So I went with the much sturdier phone, the Surround.
After a night of use my first impression is… “Why’d they mimic the iOS 3.0?” This phone has everything my iPhone had… last year. No ability to copy and paste, and no global inbox. Now the good thing is that both of those will be taken care of in updates, copy and paste has been confirmed… and I can only assume the other. My next impression is that the phone is a lot like any Windows PC you buy, a lot of crap loaded on it. Thankfully, it is very easy to remove all of the adware provided by AT&T. Just hold down on it and click ‘uninstall.’ My third impression is that the contact management needs work. The iPhone struggled here as well, but they gave me the ability to just use my Windows contacts and I was able to easily organize that.
Finally, my last reaction is that I will grow to like this phone a lot. It is a newer processor so it is certainly faster than my old iPhone. One feature that I really like is the wireless sync. No longer do I have to connect my phone to my PC to sync. I just have to plug it into a power source and let it sit on my home network and it will sync all of my new songs, pictures, and podcast. As the application choices grow this phone will be much better, it may even take care of the global inbox issue before an official fix is in place. The UI is certainly different than the iPhone. More sliding, less tapping.
I’ll check back in in due time with a follow up, but that is how I feel after a night of use.
September 9, 2010 23:53 by ckincincy
For those that know me, you know that I am no fan of Google. I don't trust them in many ways. I don't trust them with my personal information and I don't trust them to keep features I like or come to rely on. They have a history of launching the next greatest thing, to only kill it within the first two years.
I've been able to stop using Google for most things. With one exception, email. The reason being that Yahoo and Hotmail are each missing one feature. The ability to use my own smtp server.
Both services will allow me to 'send mail as' other accounts, but it is really an email hack. The actual from email would be the Yahoo or Hotmail address of the account. The Reply to would then be changed to my personal email. The problem with this is two fold.
1. Other web servers will sometime see this as spam.
2. Sometimes the "from" that the reciepient see's is, "From user@hotmail.com sent on behalf of user@example.com". I don't want people to see my main service email.
So, Hotmail and Yahoo... do me a favor and give me this one feature. I'm ready to jump ship, I just need your help.
September 7, 2010 23:39 by ckincincy
Alan Stevens posted that very question on Twitter today.
I may find myself out gunned on this one and start a bit of a flame war, but I’m going to tackle that very question.
Let me first lay it out there. Alan Stevens and I are two very different kinds of people. I’m a guy who just went to Quaker Steak and Lube and took out 22 defenseless chicken wings. Alan is a vegetarian. I’m about as right wing as a person can get. Alan, not so much. So we do look at life in a completely different kind of way.
I will start with my story, because my story is relevant to the discussion. I graduated high school January 17th, 1997. My son was born January 11th, 1997. Going to college really wasn’t an option for me. However I lucked out and found a factory job paying $10 an hour. When working the over time I was working and after a few dollars in raises I was able to pull in a decent amount of money for a high school graduate. Then the shift of manufacturing jobs out of the United States started taking full effect thanks to NAFTA, which by the way was signed by Bill Clinton though the Republican party was the driving force of this agreement initially. In 2000 I saw the writing on the wall and I left my first factory job, for my second (and last) factory job. This job focused on projection screen tv’s. With the advent of flat screen tv’s and outsourced labor to China, again the writing was on the wall and I took a very strategic move to a very small development shop owned by a friend. At that point I also enrolled into the University of Cincinnati. Here I was, a father to three children, a full time job, and going to school half to three quarter time. The BEST decision I’ve ever made. I’ve seen my salary almost triple since that moment. So the boat load of student loan debt I did rack up is earned back each and every year in extra income.
Could I have done it if I didn’t go to college? I really don’t think so. I think I’d be making good money right now, but not very good money. I even have a very distinct memory of a job interview that I had about 2 years into my college education. I interviewed with the project manager who loved me. Thought I was the perfect fit for the job. Then his boss, the vice president of the company saw my resume. Saw that I had no degree, 2 years of experience, but no degree. He immediately dismissed me as a candidate. That was the end of it.
Alan stated on his Twitter feed the following to a similar argument: “Don’t let HR drones define what’s possible for you. Look around. There are plenty of examples of success without a degree.”
I don’t disagree in principal on this issue. I just whole heartedly disagree with the realities of this issue. The fact is that there are many places that will not hire you if you don’t have that check box checked.
Now I don’t think Alan is against higher education, and to be fair he said that a few times in the Twitter talk. I just think the argument being made is flawed.
Do I think that most students going to college today are wasting their money? Yep. By far, most are. We send people to college to just say they went to college and they come out with a business degree. What in the world is a business degree? This reminds me of a good friend of mine who happens to have been the vice president of a very large company in the area. He shared with me the one thing that put him on the right course in life to make the significant salary he was making. His mom never spoke as if college was an option. It was going to happen. Then she made sure to tell her children that once they are done with college they better be something. Something well defined. A pharmacist, a lawyer, a doctor. Something that is clearly defined as a skill. This is now the same thing I am telling my children as they get closer and closer to college. Go to school to be something. Even if you go another route you can always fall back to that skill. You look over to our IT cousins in India. The children that are fortunate to go to school are raised to go to school for two things.
1. Be a doctor.
2. Be an engineer.
Also alluded to in the Twitter talk was the driving force behind the problem. Money. Colleges do not care about the well being of the student by and large. They care about keeping their numbers up and getting as much government and tuition funding as possible. This is where the break down of the family comes into play. I have four children. I’m not sure one is wired to go to college. He may turn out to be my smartest child, but I’m prepared to push him toward a career path that doesn’t require as much intellectual understanding, but more of a working with his hands and back. It is my responsibility as a parent to help my children make the right decision on where to go to pursue the right skill set.
Now the main reason I think college is worth it is clearly pointed out in the stats around college educated folks (taken from the BLS):
Look at those numbers, if that doesn’t tell a story then nothing does. Even with the flaws that I readily admit are in the college system, the employment rate and the income level of college educated folks is nowhere in comparison to those that aren’t.
October 4, 2009 21:31 by ckincincy
At my current employer, I am the round One interview. I don’t negotiate or care about salary. I just talk about .NET. I have 20 standard questions I ask each and every person, then I throw in a few question specific to their resume.
Now keep in mind these aren’t hard questions to answer.
What is the difference between session state and viewstate?
What is the life cycle of an ASP.NET page?
I don’t go into these interviews looking for a person to know every one of the answers, but there are a few that I consider critical. I just want to measure their depth and breadth of knowledge of the .NET framework. What I’ve come to realize is finding talent is hard. So when I browsed to FoxNews.com and saw this article, I know exactly what they are talking about. You’d think with unemployment hovering around 10% that talented people would be available.
Then when you do find somebody worth hiring, its not a done deal. Due to the extremely tight market when you find a developer you want, you are battling with other companies. Even meeting salary expectations isn’t enough, because of the market the employee can pick and choose which company they want to work for, with little risk of letting a good opportunity pass them by.
Now just so this post isn’t one big rant I want to throw my thoughts out on a few aspects of this topic.
What does this mean for companies?
1. It means you need to be willing to pay top dollar. This isn’t a market where you can negotiate down a persons salary. If they say it is going to take 80K to get them on board, then you need to be prepared to pay 80K.
2. It means you better pay the employees you have. I’m new to my job, and while money was far from the primary or only factor, it was a factor. Companies need to pay the employees they don’t want to lose top dollar. This, surprisingly, isn’t a market where a 5% raise guarantees an employee sticking around.
3. The cost of development has gone up. The out-sourcing movement has had its affect on the market and there is no India to turn to to drive cost down. Talented workers are expensive workers.
What can be done about it?
1. Training must be encouraged. As the previous article stated in another way, you aren’t going to take the factory worker and plug them into these jobs. People like me have been constantly learning for years to get to where we are. They need to understand that just because they were a lead worker on their factory line, they will have to be the follower in their new line of work.
2. Government incentives. I think this is a place where a focused tax benefit could come in handy. Give companies a significant tax break for hiring entry level workers for these positions. It cost money to train them and their newbie mistakes cost money. Give companies a reason to hire relatively new people.
3. College for all. Yep, the small government Republican just said that. We need to find a way to get more people into college. We can’t compete if we don’t have the skills to compete.
What does this mean for the worker?
1. Don’t be afraid to look around. One of the big causes of the tight job market is that people are afraid to switch jobs. I’ve never been one to play into this fear much. I know that with some risk comes reward.
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for more money. Lets be real here when I say, they don’t have much of a choice in the matter.
3. Stay up to date on your skills. This is why there is an allusion of age discrimination in the IT field. People get comfortable in what they are doing and when technology moves on, they can’t find a job when they need one.
With all of that being said, my employer is still looking to hire several .NET developers. If you are interested contact me and let me know. Going through me, does offer some incentive as I do get a referral bonus. Not that I’d take it any easier on you in the phone interview, but it sure does make me like you more :-).
[Referenced article in PDF form]