ROBERT LAIR

Tresorit – DropBox alternative 50GB Encrypted space

From LifeHacker:

Windows (Mac, Android, iOS coming soon): There are a ton of online syncing and storage services, but not all of them locally encrypt your data for higher security. Just out of limited beta, Tresorit is a new Dropbox alternative with client-side encryption. The company offers 5GB of free space, but for a limited time Lifehacker readers can grab 50GB free for life.

If you are not a LifeHacker reader, you may want to check the site out.  It is a gem. 

Click this link to the LifeHacker post for the Tresorit 50GB special offer.

Purging Google from my Life

A while ago, I stopped using Google as a search engine and moved to Bing, and I have been extremely happy with that move. 

I mean, why wouldn’t you use Bing? 

• You are PAID to use Bing
   
  Even if you feel that your Google search results are better (I will admit that Google often wins the Bing Challenge for me), one thing sealed the deal for me.  MICROSOFT PAYS YOU TO USE BING!  On average I am getting $5-10 in gift certificates to Amazon per month just for using Bing instead of Google.  You must hate Microsoft a TON if you are unwilling to make the move for $5-$10 of Amazon gift certificates per month.  Try out Bing Rewards, and use this link to help me out! 
   
• Possibility that your search information is used for less evil
   
  Also, we don’t know how much of your search information Microsoft uses, but we KNOW that Google uses it a TON.  So, worst case Microsoft will be just as bad as Google there, but without a doubt we know Google is using your private information. 
   
• Nice Daily Image
   
  Personally, I like the image every day too.  (I know some don’t share my feelings there)
   

Enough about Bing, I think you get the idea. 

Now that Google announced their “Spring Cleaning” steps, you have to wonder how much you can rely on the Google services you have grown to depend on.  First, we lose calendar and contact sync with Windows 8.  Then we lose Google Reader.  What will be next?  Will we have to start paying for Google Mail?  Unlikely, but who knows. 

Anyway, I have decided to move over to using Outlook.com for mail/calendar/contacts.  There are some things that frustrate me such as not being able to set a photo for a given contact.  (Nice one Microsoft), but overall, I feel more comfortable with Microsoft than I do Google. 

As for a replacement for Google Reader, does anyone have any suggestions

My Personal Review of Surface Pro

I have been using the surface pro now for about a week.  I see there are many reviews out there bashing the device, and it made me really want to get a REAL review out there, since clearly the other reviewers haven’t actually used the device.

The Surface Pro has easily been my best technology decision in a very very long time.  For the last three+ years I have been using a MacBook Pro running Windows 7.  I needed to replace it about a year ago but held off because I wanted the Surface Pro to replace my laptop and my iPad tablet.  It serves that purpose wonderfully. 

It is extremely fast, and being a developer I hold my computers to a high standard.  If i ever have to wait for my computers I get very frustrated.  So they have to keep up with me.  The Surface Pro does. 

I love the pen.  I now take notes on OneNote with the pen instead of using my journal.  This was a big step for me since I am a journal junkie.  I am still using both, but when I am out and about, I use the Surface Pro instead of the journal.

The battery life is great.  All of the reviews have been smashing it, but I am getting consistently 5 hours or more.  And I am probably tasking it harder than most people would be.  I am running full Office, Visual Studio and many other apps.  I also installed Manga Studio on it, and it works great with the pen. 

The hard drive space is fine too.  Yes, it uses a bunch of the 128GB SSD, but again, I have a ton installed, and have plenty of space.  I also purchased a 64GB microSD that I use, so if I did want to store data, I can. 

There are really only two gripes I have about the Surface Pro.  First is the pen’s storage.  I will agree with the rest of the reviews in saying that this was a bad design choice.  I do not feel confident in carrying it in the power slot.  So I carry it in my shirt pocket.  I have nearly lost it twice already, and when I went on my business trip, I forgot the pen at home.  THAT was a bummer.  I am certainly expecting to have to purchase one or more new pens in my future. 

The other gripe is that it sometimes sticks in portrait mode when it is on the table with the keyboard.  I have to pick it up and shake it a bit for it to realize it.  That happens very rarely, and it really isn’t that big of a deal. 

If you in the market for a new laptop, I would DEFINITELY go to the Surface Pro.  You can be fully productive as a developer on the Surface Pro where ever you go.  And if it is good enough for a developer, it is good enough for anyone. 

Hope this review helped!!

Running Hyper-V on Windows 8

Today I attempted to get Hyper-V running on my Windows 8 box and was rejected with the error:

Hyper-V cannot be installed: The processor does not have second level address translation (SLAT) capabilities.

Turns out that running Hyper-V on Windows 8 requires SLAT, but running Hyper-V on Windows Server does not.  Go figure.  So how do you tell if your computer has SLAT capabilities you ask?  Good question.  Here is what you do!

1. Download CoreInfo.
    
2. Extract CoreInfo, open a command prompt (run as administrator), navigate to the directory you extracted CoreInfo to, and then run the command:

   CoreInfo –v
    

3. For Intel processors, if you have SLAT support you will see an * next to the row labeled EPT
    
4. For AMD processors, if you have SLAT support you will see an * next to the row labeled NP

Windows 8 RP on MacBook (Native) – Day One

With Windows 8 Release Preview out, I have been working with testing Win8 in a VM.  This experience hasn’t been that great, so I thought I would give a shot with installing it natively somewhere.  Conveniently, my laptop was in need of a re-do.  So I purchased a new hard drive, and the plans were to install Windows 8 Release Preview as the native OS (no Mac OSX at all). 

Try One – Direct Approach (Failure)

The first try was to burn a bootable DVD with Windows 8 Release Preview.  So I insert the DVD into the MacBook Pro, and boot it up, pressing “C”.  No matter what I did I would get that annoying blinking question mark folder.  Thanks for the helpful messages Apple!

Try Two – Windows 7 First, Upgrade After (Looking Good So Far)

For the second try, I tried the direct approach, but with a Windows 7 bootable DVD.  I then installed Windows 7 as normal.  Once the Windows 7 install was completed, I put in my Windows 8 DVD, and the DVD was not recognized.  Not sure what was up there, so instead I used the Windows 7 USB Download tool and copied the Windows 8 Install ISO to a USB Flash Drive.  I then used that to start the Windows 8 install.  The upgrade went flawlessly and next thing I knew, I was using Windows 8.  Next thing to worry about is upgrading drivers.  That is what I am working on currently.  I will report back when I know more.

MSWord Tip: Disabling Spell/Grammar Check in Styles

Today I was working on a Word template and I was creating a style for a code snippet.  The sad part was that Word would always underline the source due to spelling and grammar errors.  Clearly, I didn’t want Word to perform spell or grammar check on my code snippets, and to my delight there is a feature in Word to disable the spell/grammar check for a given style.  Here is how:

1. In the Styles section, click to the right of the style you wish to disable spell and grammar check for and chose Modify…. 
    
   
    
2. In the Modify Style dialog, click the Format button at the bottom right and select Language. 
    
   
    
3. On the Language dialog, check the checkbox labeled “Do not check spelling or grammar”.
    
   
    
4. That’s all there is to it!  You may have to reload the document, or you can just wait for Word to catch up and remove the spell/grammar check underlines. 

Hope this helps!

Bing for iPad

Since I am flying back home from the Mix conference in Las Vegas, I have had some time to play around and check the apple store to see if there was a new version of the Bing application that supported the iPad. Not only was there an update, but the app is very impressive. I love that Microsoft invested the time and money to create an application for the iPad. I have only used it a little, but it is solid and adds a nicer search for the iPad. Check it out!

http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011/04/07/bing-for-ipad.aspx

Location:30,000ft in the air, somewhere over Texas

Apple’s Trojan Horse

I was reading the peersay section of my Network World magazine and saw a write in regarding the article “How Apple played hard to get and seduced the enterprise”.  The writer was explaining that nobody wants two smartphones (one for work and one for play).  As a result, when people started adopting iPhone as their smartphone, they were setting themselves up to allowing Apple to get into the doors of the enterprise.  Then, the iPad was released, which got them further in the door.  Now, Mac OSX Lion, which is going to be the desktop/laptop successor to the iPad could very well be checkmate. 

I have to admit, I am using more Apple products than I ever would have thought possible 5 years ago.  In fact, I have taken a lot of grief for the fact that the “Apple Hater” now has so many Apple devices.  And while Apple is gaining so much traction, I feel that Microsoft is doing the exact opposite. 

Makes me wonder if I need to go out and start becoming an expert on iOS…

Silverlight 5 Beta to Ship at Mix 2011

Today in a post on the Silverlight team blog, the team further clarified Microsoft’s position on HTML5 and Silverlight.  In addition, the team announced that they will be shipping a beta of Silverlight at Mix11. 

As part of the continued support for scenarios that require plug-in based capabilities, we will ship a beta of Silverlight 5 at MIX, with some great demos for compelling scenarios. And as we stated in the summary above, we believe Silverlight delivers the richest set of plug-in based capabilities available to developers today, making the choice of Microsoft technologies even more compelling in aggregate. At MIX, we’ll also talk about Windows Phone and the developer experience with Silverlight, XNA, and Visual Studio.

Finally, so our emphasis is clear—over the coming months we’ll be particularly demonstrative of our emphasis on HTML5, in Internet Explorer and in tools. HTML5 is a solution for many scenarios, but developers should make the appropriate choice based on application needs, knowing that we have a heritage and a future vision of supporting a wide variety of technologies to meet those needs.

Beginning Silverlight 5 in C#

I noticed that my next book has been posted on Amazon.  I am very excited about a number of the new features in Silverlight 5.  I am planning on posting a number of examples on my blog in the months to lead up to the book’s release later this year.  In the meantime, it is the perfect time to pre-order a copy of my book!