RHFtech™ Write on Tech » software

App stores

Richard Frisch — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 16:34:43 +0000

App stores are becoming the preferred distribution channel for software sales, particularly for large hardware and software companies like Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft . Some of the more important app stores are:

Apple iTunes App Store for iOS (iPhone, iPad, iPod touch)
Cydia store for jailbroken iOS devices
Apple Mac App Store for Snow Leopard OS X 10.6 and soon Lion OS X 10.7
Amazon Mac Software and Game Downloads
Android Market
Amazon Appstore for Android
Microsoft Windows Phone Marketplace for Windows Phone 7

Microsoft is rumored to be adding a Windows app store to Windows 8 (expected to be released to the public around September 2012).

Small developers like app stores because they don’t have to handle the retail side of business. These developers may get more attention from end users via an app store than they can selling their software otherwise. Apple, Google, Amazon and Microsoft charge the software developers as much as 30% of the sales price.

App stores make it convenient for us to get our software on to our computers and mobile devices. Gratification is almost instant. Vendors, like Apple, already have our credit card information stored, so ordering an app only requires typing in our password and clicking the Buy button. The program is then downloaded and automatically installed.

Apple adds the convenience of buying an app once and being able to download it to multiple machines without having to buy it again. A nice feature of this purchase method is that we don’t have to store 25 digit alphanumeric product keys.

However, app stores have the unhappy affect of consolidating software distribution into the hands of a few powerful tech companies. Apple locks access to its iOS devices, iPhones, iPads and iPod touches, so that they have to approve software before it can be sold through the app store. If they don’t like something about the app, whether or not it is a software concern the app can’t be sold. They have blocked thousands of apps for undisclosed reasons. Apple has pulled apps from the store for political or “moral” reasons.

Make no mistake, the iTunes App Store is a dictatorship. As an example, Apple does not have to let you install Microsoft Office for the iPad, assuming Microsoft created it. It is entirely up to them which apps appear in the iOS store and which ones don’t.

Fortunately, the Mac App Store is not the only way to get software onto an Apple Mac computer, yet. I would not be surprised to see Apple lock down the Mac on some future version of OS X, perhaps the one after Lion.

“Caveat emptor” or “Let the buyer beware” never meant more than in today’s tech world.

Fix your Mac’s desktop with HazeOver

Richard Frisch — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 20:07:24 +0000

Microsoft Windows makes it quite simple to know which window has the focus. That Window’s title bar is brighter than all the others. The Mac OS X desktop doesn’t have this feature so it is easy to think you are working in one window when you are not.

HazeOver is a simple, inexpensive utility that fixes the Mac desktop by dimming all objects except for the one with the system’s focus. You will never mistake which window has the focus once you run HazeOver on your Mac.

Below are two screenshots of my Mac’s desktop, first in its normal state and the second with HazeOver running. It is much easier to identify the Finder window with the system focus in the second image, isn’t it?

HazeOver is available for Snow Leopard users in the Mac App Store. It currently costs $1.99. I think it is worth the price.

Google Chrome 104 error

Richard Frisch — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 16:54:42 +0000

I ran into an unresolvable problem with Google Chrome on a client’s XP machine this week. They use Chrome as their browser, on my recommendation. The computer was an underpowered eMachines T3120 model. Chrome is faster and less of a memory hog than other options so it made sense to me to use it on this slow box.

The error presented as a Google Chrome 104 error, "Chrome is unable to load the requested webpage." We couldn’t access any webpage. Oddly, other browsers—IE6, IE8, Firefox 3.6.6 and AOL 9.1—could access the Internet while Chrome would not.

Although new to me, this is not a new issue for Chrome. See http://bit.ly/bkU4xc . None of the various solutions that worked for others beset with this issue worked here. After wasting several hours trying to fix it, I gave up.

I reinstalled Windows XP and the applications. Fortunately, there weren’t many. I discovered on the reinstall that the Windows XP product key, which had been in use on the machine, failed the Windows Genuine Advantage tests and differed from the product key on the sticker affixed to the computer.

I wasted almost an hour of my time dealing with the product key problem. This reminded me that I NEVER have to waste time with this issue when reinstalling the operating system on a Mac. There are many reasons that consumers are moving away from Microsoft. This is one of them.

That solved the problem. I added Firefox to the reinstalled Windows XP applications list, in case the Chrome problem recurs. I also added 1GB of RAM, which made for a huge improvement in the computer’s usability.

Tech support overload

Richard Frisch — Sat, 08 May 2010 12:19:36 +0000

I support many operating systems, applications and computer utilities, perhaps too many. The list grows with time. It rarely shrinks.

Here is a list of the more common software programs I need to know because my clients run them. This list generally excludes service pack variations.

Client Operating Systems

Windows XP Home
Windows XP Media Center Edition
Windows XP Professional
Windows Vista Home Basic
Windows Vista Home Premium
Windows Vista Business
Windows Vista Ultimate
Windows 7 Starter Edition
Windows 7 Home Premium
Windows 7 Professional
Windows 7 Ultimate
OS X Tiger
OS X Leopard
OS X Snow Leopard

Server Operating Systems *

Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition
Windows Server 2008, Standard Edition Service Pack 1
Windows Home Server with Power Pack 1
Mac OS X Server v10.6 Snow Leopard

Applications (most common only, list is not exhaustive)

Adobe Acrobat
Adobe Flash
Adobe Photoshop – Elements, CS3, CS4
Adobe Reader
Aol All-in-One Software
BlackBerry Desktop
DropBox
Finder
Front Row
Google Chrome
Java
Karenware PT Replicator
iLife
Industry specific applications such as medical practice management suites.
iTunes
iWork
McAfee security suites
Microsoft Office XP (AKA 2002) - all editions
Microsoft Office 2003 - all editions
Microsoft Office 2004 (Mac)
Microsoft Office 2007 - all editions
Microsoft Office 2008 (Mac)
Microsoft Office 2010 – all editions
Microsoft Security Essentials
Mozilla Firefox
Norton security suites
Parallels Desktop
Printer, fax and scanner software
Quicken
QuickBooks
Safari
Skype
Symantec security applications
TurboTax
Utilities (too numerous to list individually)
VMware Fusion
Windows Explorer – XP, Vista and Windows 7
Windows Internet Explorer – IE 6, 7 and 8
Windows Media Center
Windows Media Player
Windows Virtual PC
Windows XP Mode
WordPress

Router Administrative Consoles

Apple
Belkin
Cisco
D-Link
Linksys
NETGEAR
TRENDnet
ZyXel

It gives me a headache to contemplate this list. No wonder I get more and more confused.

* I omitted server products like Exchange Server 2003-2010, SharePoint Sever 2001-2010, Office Web Apps, Forefront… because my brain melts when I contemplate these as well as all the above.

Hallelujah, we are back!

Richard Frisch — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:05:40 +0000

On New Year’s eve I mistakenly uninstalled WordPress from this blog thinking I was working on WHIT.tv, the What’s Happening In… Telecasts, another site I own and manage. I wanted to change the WHIT.tv WordPress installation from the single user version to WordPress MU (multi-user) since WHIT.tv will host a series of Internet video shows, with multiple contributors. The first three shows will be What’s Happening in Fashion, What’s Happening in Gardening, and What’s Happening in Rolling Sculpture. I am working on launching the website and the shows.

How did this happen?
I pay GoDaddy to host both sites. They have great service, good prices and reliable hosting. They also have one of the most confused and confusing websites in existence. I went to their website, logged in and clicked on hosting under the My Products section of the home page.

This is what I saw:
I clicked on the second Manage Account link, the one for WHIT.tv. I was then taken to the Hosting Control Center v2.10.0 Home page, where I clicked on the Your Applications button. I navigated to My Applications – WordPress (installed), and clicked on the link to uninstall the application, thinking I was on WHIT.tv and only WHIT.tv, since the initial link I clicked on was to manage the WHIT.tv account. I was mistaken. I was on both sites and I had clicked on the wrong link, unknowingly uninstalling WordPress from RHFtech.com and not WHIT.tv.

I called GoDaddy and told them I had just deleted several years worth of work and that I needed them to restore the site. They said they could do that for $150. I gave them my credit card number and authorized them to restore my site, figuring I would save several hours worth of headaches in trying to restore my site myself from my backups.

GoDaddy tried and failed. After a week’s worth of attempts I asked for a refund, which is under review at GoDaddy. [Update: GoDaddy refunded my money.]

This morning I searched for how to restore from a backup. Yes, I have many backups as I am pretty good about that. First, I had to install the phpMyAdmin plugin into the WordPress installation. That took a minute. I then followed the instructions at WordPress.org Restoring Your Database from Backup. It took me a couple of minutes to follow those instructions.

And now this blog is back to the way it was before the New Year’s eve massacre. I am thankful that I backup regularly. I am thankful that my Google search found Restoring Your Database from Backup. I wonder, why couldn’t GoDaddy do this?

Windows 7 Explorer features

Richard Frisch — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:01:45 +0000

This is about Windows Explorer not Internet Explorer.

The new Windows Explorer in Windows 7 is one of my favorite things about Windows 7. Microsoft added some nice enhancements over the Vista version. And Vista’s Windows Explorer was quite different, and better, than Windows Explorer in XP.

The two most obvious changes in Vista from XP were the changes to the left-side panel and the addition of the breadcrumb address bar. The breadcrumb address bar is a webpage-like navigation tool. It is a big improvement over the older XP address bar. The left side panel was changed in Vista into a combination of Favorites and directory trees for your computer and network. The Favorites area is shortcuts that you can easily add to using drag-and-drop.

Windows 7 adds Libraries and Homegroup to the Vista-style left side panel. It also adds the Arrange by: feature to the Libraries view. The View option—icons, lists, details, etc.— is now an icon called More options and is located on the right side of the Windows Explorer toolbar next to the Preview Pane icon, which is a toggle switch for Preview pane on or off.

The Library Arrange by: choices vary with the type of library.

Documents	Music	Pictures	Videos

If you spend a few minutes playing with and learning about Windows 7 Windows Explorer you are likely to see what a nice utility it has become.

10 Quick Tips and 1 video – recent tweets from richardfrisch

Richard Frisch — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:12:45 +0000

1. Windows 7 Pointers & Mouse Settings for left-handed people http://sl.rhftech.com/zorzh

2. xplorer² (The best Windows Explorer alternative) — Advanced customization http://sl.rhftech.com/hlbkj

3. VMLite – VMLite XP Mode for Windows 7 is ready – http://sl.rhftech.com/vmlite

4. Google Labs – Google Apps shortlinks explained http://sl.rhftech.com/koybo

5. The Freelancer’s Toolset: 100 Web Apps for Everything You Will Possibly Need : Codswallop http://sl.rhftech.com/wvxfl

6. Desktop Virtualization Software – A Comparison of Free Virtualization Tools for Windows http://sl.rhftech.com/xlfjk

7. Microsoft Office Outlook Team Blog : Best Practices for Outlook 2007 http://sl.rhftech.com/bpwvg

8. iPhone or Droid http://sl.rhftech.com/lsmjl

9. Too little, too late – Blu-ray discs get Managed Copy; hardware support nonexistent – Ars Technica http://sl.rhftech.com/zyeln

10. Kindle for PC Now Available http://sl.rhftech.com/fwuzm

11. Stephen Fry 1 million Twitter followers – the video – http://sl.rhftech.com/xemal

Hewlett Packard admits they don’t know what they are doing

Richard Frisch — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:29:04 +0000

This is the HP followup to one of the All-in-One scanning issues I blogged about in Hewlett Packard All-in-Ones hate operating system upgrades. The customer called HP, spent 90 minutes trying to fix it and then received this email. Their answer is wipe the computer, reinstall the operating system, the applications, the personal configurations and the myriad patches on the hope that will fix the issue with their scanning software not working.

I told my client, “I do not recommend this solution.”

Dear Customer, Case Number xxxxxx1120

Based on the interaction you had with our Engineer this day 11/11/09, the resolution provided by L2 is to format the computer again, because you may still have waste from the installation of computer software in the previous operating system. We would like to know if you have any feedback. In case the same issue persists or you need additional assistance, please reply to the email address: aiocr@hp.com with the convenient date and timeframe for us to call you back; we would do our best to call you on the requested time, within support hours (7:00 am – 7:00 pm MT, M-F).

In case you need immediate assistance feel free to contact us at 800-334-5144, we would be glad to assist you.

AIO Tech Support

Hewlett Packard All-in-Ones hate operating systems upgrades

Richard Frisch — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 15:29:45 +0000

This post could be titled, “Why is Hewlett Packard installation software so awful? Redux.” My original post Why is Hewlett Packard installation software so awful? of May 31st allowed me to vent my then frustration with HP printer/scanner/fax software.

This past week my frustration with HP’s lousy software reached new levels as three different devices—a high-end HP CM2320 MFP AIO color LaserJet, an Officejet 6480 and and an Officejet 6500—created issues when I upgraded their respective computers to Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit, Snow Leopard, and Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit.

In each instance the scanning software that had been working correctly stopped functioning. I have wasted hours trying to resolve these issues without any success. I want to send my bill to HP for my time and effort. Anyone know the address?

Windows 7 is here, there, everywhere

Richard Frisch — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 10:18:56 +0000

It took Microsoft 24 years but today they release a version of Windows that is the best client operating system they have ever sold. The UI/UX (User Interface/User Experience) is a big improvement over Windows Vista and XP. I believe that Microsoft Windows 7 surpasses Mac Snow Leopard in many ways particularly in the UI/UX and that Apple is now playing catch-up.

Kudos to Stephen Sinofsky and his team for a job incredibly well-done.