Month: March 2013

Why Most Windows Store Apps Suck Donkey Ba…

I really want Windows 8 to succeed.  But marketing fluff aside, it’s struggling.  The media are relishing in hammering Windows 8 on a daily basis.  Retailers are more interested in what Android devices they can stock than in what Windows 8 devices are on tap.  Lack of device availability (seems OK in the USA now, but still not great here) by the OEMs hasn’t helped.  The built-in apps in Windows 8 don’t help the cause.  And the apps in the store sure don’t give us much to hope for.

I don’t want to be Mr. Negative.  Let me offer examples of good apps:

Shark Dash

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This is the one app that I have pad for in the Windows Store.  I love it.  You stretch a rubber shark to fire him around the bath tub, with a primary mission of eating the rubber duckies and a secondary mission of collecting the coins.  My colleague uninstalled it from her machine because it was too addictive.

Note that the game fills the screen.  It makes use of touch for interacting with the shark and scrolling the multi-sized bath tubs.  And it looks amazing on a 27” touch screen Smile

Armed happens to be another great example of how to get this right.  There are some, like Nightmares From The Deep that are very pretty, and Hydro Thunder Hurricane that has console quality graphics (but at a steep price).

Sky News

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It’s not easy praising something that is owned by Rupert Murdoch, but the Sky News (UK) app is a very good news app.  Once again, you use touch in a screen filled interface.  News is presented in text/image, recorded video clips, and a live feed from the Sky News channel.

Star Chart uses the entire screen to allow you to explore the cosmos.  Netflix is a superb implementation, with smooth animation that puts the website to shame.

OK.  How do apps get it wrong?

Not Using the Screen Space

Exhibit A, your honour, is Twitter’s brand new app.  Imagine this on a normal 22” monitor.  I have a column of information that is around 25% of the total real estate.

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Seriously?  That’s the best that Twitter can do?  Please don’t bother informing me about the various other Twitter apps.  I’ve tried them.  They are all $hit. 

What should a Twitter app look like?  Your honour, please turn your eyes towards the Tweetdeck app running in the Chrome browser.  Notice how the various columns are right there, for the user.  The user doesn’t switch between single columns that waste 75% of the screen.

Yes, I am aware that Twitter now owns Tweetdeck.  Their Windows Store App “effort” shows just how little they care.

Useless Boxes

This is almost every information app in the Windows Store.  I’m only presenting The Register because it’s the only one of these that I have installed.

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These apps are a lazy implementation.  I don’t know how they operate under the hood, but they appear as if each box is an RSS entry from the original website.

Want to see how to get this right?  Have a look at Appy Geek, an IT news aggregator.

It Just Doesn’t Refresh Like It’s Supposed To

I give you a heinous villain.  Standing in the dock now … is the built-in People app.

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What I like about this app is the potential: aggregate all of your various social networks and contacts into a design-for-touch UI.  It should be the app I use the most on my Windows 8 tablet.  But it is not.  Instead I have Facebook open in IE (Metro) and Tweetdeck open in Chrome.  How … inefficient.

Why don’t I use People?  When I browse into What’s New, there’s a wait for it to load.  Up comes all the posts.  OK so far … apart from the lengthy wait.  Maybe I’ll open IE via a link to read something.  I come back to People a while later and there’s no new posts.  Huh!  Refresh reveals nothing.  But what if I double check?  If I open the Facebook website I’ll find newer posts.  If I browse back to the main page in People and back into What’s New then the new posts appear.  Ugh!  Why bother!?

MetroTwit (a hardened villain, your honour) falls into this bucket.

It Crashes More Than A Bandicoot

I call for the death sentence for MetroTwit, your honour.  This vile creature sins in so many ways.

MetroTwit was the app of choice on the PC.  It became my TweetDeck replacement after Twitter decided to geld their new acquisition.  The desktop app sucks on a touch UI, being sluggish, and it’s a resource hog on my Atom tablet.  I was delighted to hear that MetroTwit would have a multi-column Windows Store App.  And then I tried it.

It wastes space.  It is nothing like the desktop version.  It doesn’t refresh dependably.  And it crashes.  I can make it crash at will.  In the morning, I’ll scroll back though my Twitter feed to see what I’ve missed.  In any other Twitter app, I can go back 8-12 hours with no problems to see where I’d left off the previous day.  But if I go back more than a few pages in MetroTwit (an each page is only a handful of tweets thanks to the wasteful UI) then *bang* it’s gone with no explanation.

Where Is The Synchronisation?

At the original Build we were told that developers would be able to synchronize their apps between our (up to) 5 devices.  I’d love that.  I have a work laptop, a work PC, my personal tablet, and my personal ultrabook.  I’d like to sync via SkyDrive.

Some apps get this right.  OneNote MX is a perfect example.  Edit a note and it syncs immediately.  Some, but not many, games do this too.  But not My Country.  My Country, a Sim City style of game, broke my heart.  I had spent weeks building up my city.  Then one day it crashed and reset itself.  Had the game synced via the cloud then I might have had some way to get back my progress.  Maybe I could have continued on another device.  Alas, it did not and I immediately uninstalled the game.

Cra-Apps

Every app store is filled with crap apps (cra-apps).  Unfortunately there are so few of the established brands in the Windows Store that these cra-apps seems to dominate.  How many stick men or dancing sprites do we really need?  How many Justin Beiber info sites do we need?  How many quizzes are required? 

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The focus has been on quantity rather than on quality.  There are competitions to encourage newbies to get apps published.  Where is the encouragement to get Tweetdeck, Facebook, NFL Gamepass, and all the other big names in there?  I couldn’t care less if there were 1,000,000 apps in the store.  I’ll only ever use a certain number, but they have to be the right apps.  I got over sprites when I graduated from the Commodore 64.

Desktop Trash

Wild Tangent, I’m looking at you.  Let me get this very clear: Microsoft should not allow desktop apps to be published/sold via the Windows Store.  Microsoft should also limit the number of apps that can be published in a day/month by any one person/company.  Wild Tangent is polluting the Windows Store with $hite.  It serves the marketing people well because it boosts the numbers of apps in the store. 

Note: Windows RT users won’t notice this because desktop apps don’t appear in the Windows RT store app.

They Just Didn’t Try

Why is it that some apps are much better on every other platform?  Take Kindle for example.  I’d rather read a book on my iPhone than use Amazon’s app on Windows 8.  It’s a poor implementation compared to what is available on every other OS.  It feels like they took the poor desktop app and thought “that’ll do”.  Page turning, the one thing you do the most in Kindle, is nasty in the Windows Store App.

If a consumer goes into a store and tries a Windows 8 app then the natural reaction will be to compare and contrast it what they’ve used on iOS or Android.  Let’s take Zinio (magazine subscription/reading) for example.  There is no attempt to hide Zinio from you in the Apple Store.  Zinio is region crippled in the Windows Store; I got around that by temporarily setting my computer’s location to the USA.  Then I logged in to access my existing subscriptions.  No matter that I did, I couldn’t access more than the last 6 issues of a subscription.  I have no such problems on other platforms.  To the uneducated consumer the reason is simple: “Windows 8 sucks”.  It never crosses their mind to blame the app.

And let’s not forget the reliability of the app.  Back to Kindle: I have a situation where if I read a bit of a book on another device (such as my Kindle reader or iPhone) and sync, I cannot sync to the new position on my Windows 8 tablet.  The app just sits there forever, trying to sync, and never succeeds, fails, nor times out.  Uninstalling and reinstalling the app, followed by downloading the book again allows me to sync … until I dare to read a few pages on another device again.  Ugh!

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Like I said, I really want Windows 8 to succeed.  But the desired apps and app quality is just not there.  Until there’s a shift from quantity to quality, I just don’t see Windows 8 having a chance in the consumer space, and IDC might end up being right about the future of this new tablet platform.  Consumers don’t care about the OS.  They don’t use the OS.  Users want apps, and the apps and app quality they want just aren’t there – which they can quickly see when they try devices out in the store (assuming the store bothers to power up or Internet-connect the display Windows devices in the same way that Apple demands for their devices on the next table).

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Living With Windows Phone 8 – Day 1

Today a nice new Nokia Lumia 820 arrived to my desk.  I decided that I would try to use it to supplant my iPhone 4 that has run my life since November 2010.  That should be … interesting.

As usual, getting Windows Phone 8 setup for personal usage was a breeze.  I put in my Live ID and my social networks and contacts were synchronised from the cloud.  I added my Office 365 account and my mail/calendar were sorted, quickly followed by disabling Hotmail sync.  Facebook and Twitter apps were installed, and I updated the Nokia Drive and photo apps.  All very easy.  This is where Windows Phone excels.  It is designed to be a social phone OS.

The two challenges I’m facing are:

  • Finding a working podcast solution – Podcasts are hidden from us (Ireland) in the Marketplace … “licensing” is the excuse from Microsoft which is flat out BS.  Such region crippling is inexcusable.  One of the paid-for podcasts apps is allegedly written and sold by Windows Phone developers that are employed by Microsoft.  Things that make you go Hmmm.
  • Finding an audio book solution that allows you to play and keep place for 3rd party content.

As for other apps that I use, I’ve found them before on my work phone (the excellent HTC 8x handset) and I expect no issues there.  They’re usually navigation and photography related: Irish Tides, a sunrise/sunset app, etc. 

BTW, the Nokia alternative reality app is really cool.  Some of the guys in the office loved it.  I can see it being useful when in a strange location and seeking somewhere to eat, like a group of us were a month ago in rural Florida.

My FM transmitter will be fine … it’s a Belkin gadget that connects to the phone via a 3.5 mm audio jack.  That’s playback in the car sorted.  I’ve seen lots of comments about car Bluetooth.  Let’s see how my near-new Focus (Ford Sync is still an expensive option here) with a Parrot interface does.

I’ll post more on my progress as time goes by.

EDIT#1:

Somewhere someone is sending a panicked email right now Smile *evil laugh*

The Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Book FAQ

I’m getting lots of questions about the release of Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V Installation And Configuration Guide.  I’ll deal with them all here.

9781118486498 cover.indd

The Kindle version of the book is available now and the paper version is out in the USA, with release in Europe coming soon (please see Amazon with 1 mouse click instead of emailing me).

Is System Center Covered In The Book?

No, it is not.  The book is 600 pages long, not 6,000.  There is already enough in WS2012 to fill an above-average-size tech book (which it did) than to include the massive System Center products.  This book gives you the fundamentals that are essential to understand for designing and managing a Hyper-V cloud, even if you’re hiding it under System Center.

I Found A Typo

We do our best to eliminate these but the editing process sometimes introduces errors, e.g. we submit our graphics, it gets re-drawn, we ask for changes, and sometimes those things get missed.  A chapter might be written with a correct scalability limit before RTM, and then a new limit is announced at RTM time.  These things happen.  Please contact Wiley directly.

Are The Scripts Available To Download?

No.  Some of the scripts in the book are quite long and detailed.  People have asked if there is a download somewhere.  There is not – and this was my decision.  Wiley asked if we would like to share the scripts online.  I decided that I didn’t want a person who didn’t buy the book to get value from our research and work.  Once they get shared online … they’ll appear all over the place, no matter what copyright you put on them.  So take the time to type them out – maybe you’ll understand the code a little better, and maybe you’ll improve them!

Does the book include a PDF?

The book does not include a PDF.

Can You Give Me A PDF Because <Insert Story Here>?

No.

Will there be a Kindle, Epub, etc, electronic version available?

E-book versions will be released.  Usually that is at the same time or soon after the paper version of the book.  See the Wiley site for more details.

What About O’Reilly?

I have no idea.  Contact O’Reilly.  Same for their pricing; it is nothing to do with me.

Why Can’t I Get The Book In My Country?

I don’t know.  Distribution is handled by the publisher.

Why is Amazon charging more for the Kindle version?

There is a small chance that Amazon will continue to sell the paper book at the pre-release discount price for a short time after the release.  That happens sometimes.  And for a brief period, the Kindle version is more expensive.

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I’m looking forward to the release.  The project started a long time ago and a lot of man-hours went into it.

Bank of Ireland’s Stupid Phishing Phone Calls

This afternoon I got a phone call from a -blocked- phone number.  I answered.  The person who called said he was calling me from Bank of Ireland.  I got the usual “the call is being recording for training purposes” speech.  And then the shocker:

“I need to ask you some security questions”.

Huh?

  1. This person called me.  I assume he got my number from a database.  OK, my phone could have been stolen.  But let’s remember that he called me.
  2. He was going to ask me the security questions?

Who the hell was he?  This could be any geezer with caller ID disabled on his phone and reading off an official sounding script.  Let’s imagine he asks me to confirm my date-of-birth, my credit card number, and my mother’s maiden name, etc.  What’s to stop that dude from calling the bank and claiming to be me?

I refused to proceed.  To be honest, I knew it was BoI and I knew why he was calling.  But I wanted to highlight how stupid this “phishing” practice was.  The guy in question understood and told me how I could contact the bank to proceed.  He was quite professional about it, and not to blame for the process he was force to follow by his employer/manager.

But the call from block number practice followed by asking security questions process is ridiculous.  I took to Twitter to let BoI know what I thought:

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This is the response that I got:

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So let’s imagine the scenario out:

  1. The Prince of Abuja picks up his phone, blocks caller ID, and calls me.  He reads out the “call is being recorded” script and starts out with the security question process.
  2. I stop him because I don’t want my security question answers to be phished.
  3. The Prince of Abuja now says “Sure, my name is Prince of Abuja and you can call me on 01 4567890 and I’ll be happy to help you”
  4. I call 01 4567890
  5. The Prince of Abuja now asks me the questions and I give him the answers
  6. Now the Prince of Abuja has the necessary information to call Bank of Ireland and pretend to be me.

Bank of Ireland, this is the most ridiculous “security” practice.  It’s clear that you don’t have the first clue about data or identity security.  I am not a real security expert but I know enough not to be sharing information in this manner.

Jeez!

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Reminder: Free WS2012 RDS & VDI Training in Dublin With MVP Alex Juschin

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Alex Juschin (Microsoft RDS MVP) will be delivering a day of free training on Windows Server 2012 RDS & VDI in Microsoft’s Leopardstown offices (Dublin, Ireland) on Tuesday 26th March.

Seriously: you will want to know about RemoteFX (RDP 8.0), the new connection broker, the new personal settings storage mechanism, and much more.

Places are limited, so register early.

Details of the event (and the registration page) are here:http://microsoftrdsandvdi.eventbrite.com/#

KB2814923 – “0x0000009E” Stop Error & Volumes Can’t Be Brought Online On W2008 R2 Cluster

This KB article affects W2008 R2 only.

Assume that you try to bring a disk online on a Windows Server 2008 R2-based failover cluster. Additionally, the Update Sequence Number (USN) journal is increased to a large size (such as 4 gigabytes) on the disk volumes. In this situation, it takes a long time to mount the volumes. Additionally, you receive a Stop error message that resembles the following:

Stop 0x0000009E (Parameter1, Parameter2, Parameter3, Parameter4)


Notes

  • This Stop error describes a USER_MODE_HEALTH_MONITOR issue.
  • The parameters in this Stop error message vary, depending on the configuration of the computer.
  • Not all "Stop 0x0000009E" errors are caused by this issue.

This issue occurs because of the large size of the disk volumes. The USN journal file is read in 4-kilobyte chunks when you mount the volumes. When the file is very large, it takes a very long time to mount the volumes.

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft.

KB2776366 – “0x0000000A” Stop Error On W2008 R2 Or WS2012 Hyper-V Host That Has Many Passthrough Disks

This KB article originally only mentioned Windows Server 2008 R2 Hyper-V.  It was updated in June 2013 to include Windows Server 2012 Hyper-V.

Two points:

  1. Consider kicking the person responsible for the use of passthrough disks that are smaller than 2040 GB (I’ll allow that 1 qualifier for W2008 R2) in the family jewels.  Once for every found passthrough disk.  With this apparent genetic disposition, they shouldn’t be allowed to breed anyway … in my opinion.
  2. There is a KB article on this scenario.

Consider the following scenario:

  • You have the Hyper-V role installed on a computer that is running Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012.
  • You have a virtual machine stored on the computer.
  • There are many pass-through disks assigned to the virtual machine.
  • Heavy I/O operations occur over the pass-through disks.

In this scenario, the system may crash. Additionally, you receive a stop error message that resembles the following:

Stop 0x0000000A (Parameter1, Parameter2, Parameter3, Parameter4)

Notes

  • This Stop error describes an IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL issue.
  • The parameters in this Stop error message vary, depending on the configuration of the computer.
  • Not all “0x0000000A” Stop errors are caused by this issue.

This issue occurs because a stale thread object is dereferenced in memory.

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft.

KB2793908–Leaving WS2012 Server Manager Open Can Cause A Memory Leak

I found this KB article which is a part of a much larger cumulative update (KB2811660) for Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. 

When you leave Server Manager running in Windows Server 2012, a memory leak occurs in the Wmmimgmt.exe process.

This one is annoying because Server Manager opens by default.  There’s a tip here to stop that from happening.  I haven’t tried the 2008/R2 registry hack yet: Go to HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftServerManager and set the value "DoNotOpenServerManagerAtLogon" to 1.  There is also a GPO option.

You can get KB2811660 via Windows Update.

KB2795531 – You Cannot Log In To A VM Running Windows 8 Or Windows Server 2012 In A VDI Environment

This isn’t exactly a Hyper-V issue (it’s RDS) but Hyper-V is running on the affected WS2012 hosts. 

Consider the following scenario:

  • You deploy a Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) environment in a network.
  • You enable the Remote Desktop Virtualization Host (RD Virtualization Host) role service on the Windows Server 2012-based computers.
  • You try to log on to a virtual machine that is running Windows 8 or Windows Server 2012 in the VDI environment.

In this scenario, you cannot log on to the virtual machine. The logon screen appears but the logon process cannot be completed.
Notes

  • The previous corresponding remote session to the RD Virtualization Host does not log off.
  • You may receive the following error message when you try to manually logoff the session in the Server Manager console:

    RD Connection Broker failed to process the connection request for user <domain><userid>.
    Failed while checking for disconnected session.
    Error: User is trying to connect to the same Pool more than once simultaneously.

This issue occurs because the host computer does not receive a notification that the previous session has ended during the logoff operation. Therefore, the previous session does not log off successfully.

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft.