UPDATE

Fixed a bug which was preventing it from detecting corrupted JPEGS, please download the latest version.

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With the introduction and rapid development of the IPhone and Android operating system the Windows Mobile operating system has stagnated. Microsoft are at last working on an overhaul, but this is expected to be another year in the development and will be released as Windows 7 mobile.

The windows devices have always had slick top end hardware, but without an operating system to match its game over for now. Compare the latest IPhone with the latest Windows Mobile in terms of hardware and the IPhone is hugely lacking on paper.

Anyway, I decided enough was enough and it was time to step into the unknown world of hype and join the Apple fan boys.

So far I have been enjoying it, mainly for the App Store, but here is a list of my gripes as previously being a Windows Mobile user:

• No integration of Calender or Email alerts on the phones lock screen. For example upcoming appointments for today.
• When I email a photo from my album it is resized to an appalling resolution. No configuration option is offered to me. There is no point in even emailing the photo.
• Scheduling of push email. I liked not having emails pushed to me while I was sleeping or at given times over the weekend. Save my battery and save my constant checking of emails.
• Applications focus on online connectivity, which is all well and good,  but there needs to be more focus on updates and offline reading/viewing. Windows phones came with RSS schedulers to update RSS feeds ready for the next time you wanted them. Same went for a lot of similar applications.
• My Ipod dock and Ipod car connector will not charge my IPhone 3GS. Why would Apple change the power connector….
• More than one application running? No chance.
• Hardware. a 3 MegaPixel camera?
• My Office Mobile Suite
• The time taken to create an MP3 ringtone
• I need an Apple Mac to develop applications for my phone. I also need to pay to put applications onto my phone.

When I re-read the above list I realise that if they are my only gripes then its a pretty good piece of kit. I am sure there will be more gripes, these are just a list off the top of my head for now.

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Easy Display Manager

The drivers are actually for the Samsung NC10 netbook, but there is no difference for the system software.The new software provides Windows 7 function key controls without requiring privilege elevation. This was my only gripe with Windows 7 on the NC20.

The hardware drivers for the NC20 are all pretty much available from Windows update. The few that are not can just be installed using the Windows XP drivers available from the Samsung NC20 support pages

I have no idea why they have not released Windows 7 drivers for the NC20 considering everything is working correctly now.

The link is below, click on ‘Software’:

Link to Easy Display Manager, Easy Battery Manager and Easy Speedup Manager for NC20 Windows 7

An intereting article describing the engineering process for Windows 7 in comparison to Windows Vista has been written by the talented Larry Osterman at Microsoft. I am a new follower to Larry Ostermans Weblog, so have been reading his past entries. I have been aware of his technological presence at Microsoft for a long time, but have never had the joy to see quite what an author he was. A truely fasinating man.

Some interesting paragraphs to note:

“A feature is not permitted to be checked into the winmain branch until it is complete…In addition, when a feature team takes a dependency on another Windows 7 feature, the feature teams for the two features MUST sign a service level agreement to ensure that each team knows about the inter-dependencies.”

I really respect that, too many times have people or teams just not spoken to each other! Stops this problem dead.

“Similar to Windows Vista, the leads of all three disciplines get together and decide a set of features that go in each release. They then created “feature crews” to implement each of the features. Typically a feature crew consists of one or two developers, a program manager and one or two testers.”

The four words I have underlined at the end of the quote couldn’t say it better. Far too frequently software projects overrun because the people managing them do not realise the need for full project testing support. Managers assume a ‘testing phase’ at the end of development lasting a minor percentage of time in comparison to the development time. I am a firm believer in testing thoroughly and testing throughout the development cycle using multiple techniques. At the end of the day time saved in testing is money saved in the long run.

Larry further talks about the advantage of placing test members into the team for the whole development cycle:

“This is a massive change from Vista – in Vista, since the code was complete we’d have simply checked in the code and let the test team deal with the fallout. By integrating the test teams into the planning process at the beginning we were able to ensure that we never put the test organization into that bind. This in turn helped to ensure that the development process never spiraled out of control.”

How it should be done!!

A very interesting read taken from a post on the Windows 7 Engineering blog:

Engineering 7: A view from the bottom

His blog can be found on my blog roll or here, many many interesting articles:

Larry Ostermans Weblog

FalconView is a mapping application mainly used by the US DoD and Allied countries. For some unknown reason the US Air Force has begun releasing free and open source versions to the public.

I have had a fair experience of FalconView with my job and I find this quite a strange one really. Useful for me that their source code is now viewable, meaning I can work out why their API is not doing what I requested.

I guess as a general GIS tool it is a significant release, one that will save third party developers a lot of time and effort.

The open source version does lack many of the features available in the commercial versions, a matrix can be seen here.

Get downloading and developing: FalconView Trac Browser

Having been an early adopter of Windows 7 on my netbook I thought it was probably about time I learnt a little about programming windows 7 and the key API improvements that were offered to developers.

A quick search during my lunch hour provided me with a solution for Windows C++ Win32 developers, the Windows 7 Training kit.

This kit provides an overview of each new feature with sample code, power point presentation and a white paper very neatly presented and simple to read.

After only reading through the kit during my lunch hour I am much better prepared for the features offered by Windows 7. Of particular note worthy status is the Windows 7 Multi Touch interface. Something I shall revisit when I have an opportunity to access the required hardware.

A highly recommended read.

Upgrading a copy of Windows 7 RC to a retail copy is much simpler than you could have ever expected. I am sure there are a million and one guides on the internet on how to do this by now. But I thought I would blog my experiences. The process is a painless one but one that will require you to walk away and make a few cups of tea.

Steps:

1. Don’t try and ‘upgrade’ straight off the DVD it will not work! you will see this:
   
2. Instead, copy the DVD to a folder on the local hard drive and then edit the file \sources\cversion.ini
3. Change the cversion.ini ‘MinClient’ option to a version before or equal to the version on the notice on your desktop stamp. 
   Example if the desktop says 
    

   then change the file to

        

   And save the file.

4. Launce Setup.exe in the folder the DVD was coped to and select the ‘Upgrade’ option when prompted.
5. Follow the on screen instructions and wait.
6. Tada!

Hope it works, worked perfectly for me!

Below is a list of people which share my family name, have no relation to myself, but bring shame on the Barker name.

Steven Barker

Steven Barker was an unemployed handyman who could neither read nor write.

Responsible for the death of a 17-month-old Baby, Peter.

Attacked his grandmother in hope of changing her will.

BBC News

Adam Barker

Although this man has the same name as my brother, that he is not.

Adam Barker, from Ealing, was arrested on 3 June 2003 for allegedly having 1,200 indecent images of children on his home computer.

Daily Mail

BBC News