I've been waiting for this day for a couple years: we now support high-resolution photos on Windows Live Spaces... along with photo printing powered by HP Snapfish.  The quality of the photos is great for full-screen slide shows (a feature we introduced earlier this year) and for ordering prints.

Curious about the quality?  Check out the photo album I just uploaded from a trip to Hawaii earlier this summer.  I've been using Flickr for the past few years (and people on the team have called me on it!) because I just wasn't happy with the support we had for photos.  But all that changes today - I'm back to using Spaces for photos and the integration into the new Windows Live Photo Gallery is really going to make sharing photos easy.

To my RSS subscribers, I apologize in advance for the 6-10 new albums I'm going to upload over the next few days and weeks.

To read more about the high-res & printing support read The Space Craft: New photo features available today on Spaces.

Dramatic Scoble-esque title, I know.  But sometimes it's deserved.  With all the talk about the iPhone, including on this blog (#1, #2), I was starting to get some real phone envy.  Well, until the AT&T Tilt (aka HTC Kaiser) arrives next week that is.  See, as beautiful and "cool" as the iPhone is, it ultimately comes down to what I can do with a device - not how flashy the UI is.  And there are just far too many things I can't do on the iPhone that a phone like the AT&T Tilt enables.  Plus, this one's quite a looker too...

So when people tell me it's "all about the experience, duuuude" and they still can't read their corporate email, call Mom while driving using voice command, synchronize their calendar, contacts, and tasks over the 3G-powered air, read a rights-protected Word document, type quickly using a real keyboard, or get turn-by-turn directions to Cannon Beach, I'll just smile and nod.  As much as I appreciate a beautiful and emotionally charged experience like the iPhone, I need to be a productive engineer and businessman in my old age.

Check out what the AT&T Tilt/HTC Kaiser is all about:

• It has built-in GPS.  How cool is that?  No more getting lost... ever. 
• Of course, it supports Wi Fi - but it also supports HSDPA for data, which is blazingly fast compared to EDGE.
• It has a real, full QWERTY keyboard with a large screen that tilts at an angle like a laptop.  Pretty nifty.
• It has the best Exchange support ever on a phone - it supports HTML email, IRM protected email, MS Office attachments, Out of Office updating, and Global Address List searching (what is Carmen's office number again?)  It even supports instant search of your entire Exchange mailbox from the built-in mail app.
• Since it's a Pocket PC, there are thousands of games to play - even NES and Sega Genesis emulators.
• It has Windows Live built-in (Hotmail with push support and Messenger with voice clips) along with Live Search for Mobile (which supports the built-in GPS)
• The 3MP camera with auto-focus takes fantastic photos (for a phone) with one-click upload directly to Spaces. 
• It supports microSD, which means 4-8GB of music, video, whatever.
• It will still cost less than the iPhone. 

What's it missing?  To be honest, not a heck of a lot.  I'm going to seriously miss having a VGA screen - the crisp colors and fonts are really nice to have - and the Windows Mobile Professional (aka Pocket PC) interface is quite dated at this point, even though it has been tweaked a bit in the latest release to have more of a Vista look and feel.  It's certainly no iPhone when it comes to pure "pop" and wow-factor, although it can come kind of close with apps like Wisbar Advance, Opera Mobile, and Spb Mobile Shell.  I'm willing to sacrifice that for now just to get some real work done on the go.

I can only hope the rumors are true about it coming out next week, otherwise my new phone will have to compete for my attention with my new baby in October.  YES, the baby will win that one... relax... I kiiiiiid!

Back in the early days of this blog (almost three years ago already) I posted about my backup strategies.  Since I'm in the process of upgrading my system, I figured I would update this post with some Vista flair.  I'll focus on Windows Vista specifically since that's what I use and love - I'll copy and paste the old post and change up some stuff.  If you're still using Windows XP or Windows 98/NT/2000 (yikes!) the old post will still help you out. 

It goes without saying that if you aren't backing up your data, you will lose it at some point.  It's just a matter of time.  So please do invest in a fool-proof backup system.  Here are 6 steps to keeping your data safe.

1. Store all of your personal files on a separate physical drive (let's call this the Z: drive) 

If you don't want to invest in a second hard drive, you could use PartitionMagic or DiskPart to create a logical partition on your existing hard drive, splitting the C: drive into C: and Z:.  Of course, you need to make sure you don't actually rely on anything on your C: drive before partitioning it as you wouldn't want to do this to your primary drive.

While partitioning one drive works, I would strongly recommend investing in a separate physical drive primarily because (depending on the size of your personal files) you can use your existing drive for backup and be sure that if one drive fails (which is likely!) you still have a safe copy of your personal files.

What exactly constitutes a personal file?  Simple: Anything you don't want to lose.  In other words, anything you create or save for future use: emails, documents, presentations, photos, music, and so on.  Applications (like Microsoft Word) or shortcuts aren't considered personal files because they can always be reinstalled if your hard drive fails.

2. Use folder redirection to map your User folders to the equivalent folders on the Z drive - and put ALL of your personal files in these folders.

This is an important step; you should always know exactly where your most important files are being stored.  The easiest way to do this is to mirror the C:\Users\[username] folder in terms of structure, so whenever you're working with "Documents" launched from Explorer or from the Start menu, you know exactly what you're working on.

This is how I map the folders inside "Mike":

Desktop - Z:\Desktop
Favorites - Z:\Favorites
Documents - Z:\Documents
Music - Z:\Music
Pictures - Z:\Files\Pictures
Videos - Z:\Files\Videos

For whatever reason, there isn't a way to just map the [username] folder - instead you have to map each folder underneath it individually.

Update, 8/10:  I forgot to mention how to do this.  It's actually pretty easy, you just need to right-click on the folder (i.e. Desktop) and go to Properties.  Then go to the Location tab and specify the new location (i.e. Z:\Desktop) and click OK.  You can see a screenshot of how to do this here.

Always store everything in these folders!

3. Ensure your application critical files are in Personal Files as well. 

If you use Microsoft Outlook a lot, you're going to want to store your PST file on your Z: drive (I put it in Documents when I used Outlook; now that I'm using Windows Live Mail with Hotmail, it's all backed up in the sky).  I also put my Microsoft Money 2007 file on my Z: drive under Documents\Finances.  For both Outlook and Money, I actually set the automatic backup options to backup the data files to my C: drive just in case I need an older version of the file. (You can download the Outlook Backup tool here.)

Going forward, you shouldn't store anything on C: except Program Files.  You should be 100% confident that if (when?) your C:\ drive fails, or if you have to reinstall Windows for some reason, you won't lose those irreplaceable pictures of your newborn baby [wow, did I know that 3 years later I would be even more worried about this?  Probably.]  Part of the hidden joy in this approach is that if you want to upgrade Windows, it doesn't have to be an all-day process.  All of your personal files are on a separate drive, so formatting the C:\ drive and installing Windows again doesn't touch your personal files.

Side note: Another fun trick is creating a disk image of the C:\ drive once you get Windows installed with all of your favorite applications and settings.  This makes it really easy to return to this state in the future without going through the hassle of reinstalling all those applications again.  This is what OEMs have tried to make easy with that "recovery CD" they give you when you buy a new computer, but those CDs install all of those AOL and Earthlink icons back on your desktop, along with about 100 megabytes (or more) of software you just don't need.  No one needs their start menu to be 400 folders deep.  Keep it simple.

4. Enable automatic or one-click backup of the entire Z: drive (and any application settings on C: you may want to keep) to an external hard drive or network location.  I use an external 750GB Western Digital drive (X:\) for everything I have, and every few months I also backup my non-music files (as my WMA Lossless files take up the majority of space) to an external 100GB drive that I keep in a fireproof safe. 

There are a number of applications for automatic backup, but I've personally found shortcomings in all but one.  You could give SyncToy a shot (but folder exclusion doesn't work for some reason, and I don't want 10GB of daily recorded TV to be backed up).  Windows Vista has a backup tool built-in, but it requires you to backup the C: drive which I don't want to do - same with OneCare.  Retrospect is the standard backup software that comes with almost every hard drive on the market, but I had more problems trying to get it to run in Vista that I gave up; I never liked it anyway.  It's cumbersome.

So now I'm using SyncBack SE which is one of the best shareware tools I've ever used.  It has ever single feature I need, yet it's still simple enough to setup and use that I can recommend it to non-geeks (although it could be simpler still).  This is how I set it up:

• Files will be copied from Origin (Z:\) to Destination (X:\).
• If the same file has been changed on both Origin and Destination then the file on Origin will replace the file on Destination.
• Files only on Origin are copied to Destination.
• If a file is only on Destination then it is ignored.
• If an empty directory is only on Origin then the decision is automated.
• If an empty directory is only on Destination then the decision is automated
• DVR-MS files are ignored (this is my Recorded TV)

I set SyncBack up on a weekly schedule, and I opted to store my password with SyncBack and have it run even when I'm not logged in.  That way if I logoff, or if my wife is logged in, the backup still occurs.

5. Backup to an online service (Mozy.com) for extra protection. 

I've added this step in the last couple of months as I'm not taking any chances with my data.  Mozy.com is an online service that backs up 2GB for free, and an unlimited amount of data for just $4.95/month (with discounts if you purchase a year or two in advance).  The price can't be beat.  And the simplicity of the client tool makes it all worth it.  Highly recommended.

6. Setup FolderShare or SyncBack SE (if on a LAN) to sync files from other PCs to your Z: drive. 

I've also added this step recently.  FolderShare is a complete joy to use and it's phenomenal for keeping multiple copies of a file in sync across the Internet.  I keep my current "in progress" documents, my OneNote notebook, and my IE Favorites in sync across all my machines.  Any changes to my notebook, docs, or favorites won't be lost - as soon as the change is made, the file is replicated back to my home PC which backs up the file to both the external drive and to Mozy offsite.

Happy backups...

How cool is this?  Silverlight is out in the wild already on MLB.com, one of the premiere video sites on the web and a service I use about 3-4x/week for hours.  From Ryan Stewart (just a quote - more on his blog below)

MLB.com looks like they’ve rolled out a whole video portal powered by Silverlight. They have a bunch of highlight footage as well as all the typical features such as being able to link to the video and send to a friend.

 

Read more on The Universal Desktop -> Silverlight on MLB.com

Acrobat Reader is like anti-virus software, an IM client, or Microsoft Word; it's software that's hard to live without.  Not impossible, just hard.  The problem with Acrobat Reader, for all it's great qualities, is that it doesn't honor any boundaries; it treats your PC as if it owns the thing, and its only purpose in life is to show me appx. one document a week!  Not exactly a fair trade if you ask me.

What bugs me about it?  Let me count the ways...

1. It auto-opens when I click on a PDF online... fine.  But immediately it goes into "update" mode without even asking me if that's OK.  A little star icon shows up in my system tray indicating that the download is already 46% complete!  Wha?!  Who said you could do that?  What ever happened to user consent?  Maybe this is just because I'm using a PC that had Acrobat Reader installed on it from the factory, I don't know.  I seem to remember this happening on other machines too.  To make things worse, I can't find a way to turn this off in Edit: Preferences.  It's hidden somewhere.  At least give me the option.

2. Acrobat Reader pollutes my Documents folder with the ever-annoying Updater5 folder.  Seriously, is this the best they could come up with?  Windows Vista does a fantastic job of centralizing a user's special folders like Music, Pictures, and so on under C:\Users\Username - applications have no right to put junk into those folders... ever.  [side note: Microsoft violates this same unwritten rule with Office 2004 for the Mac and the SyncToy app, which bug me just as much]  How is "Updater5" a personal document folder?  Of course, the second you delete this folder, the thing comes back with the next update!

3. It puts some silly Speed Launcher into the Startup folder.  I'm pretty sure the latest version still does this, but I'm always so quick to delete this trash that this may actually be fixed.  But I doubt it.  The thinking is that if they load a certain portion of Reader into resident memory, the startup time will be decreased when you launch it.  Of course - the problem with this logic is that some portion of Acrobat Reader is chomping away at your system resources 100% of the time, even though you're only spending about 0.005% of that time skimming some PDF.  According to the Support page, the only use of the Speed Launcher is to pre-scan your "most frequent" PDFs for viruses - not to sit in RAM waiting for you to open a PDF file.  But it doesn't take a master searcher to find hundreds of people complaining online of Acrobat Reader utilizing resources for no good reason, even when closed.

Aren't we past the point of allowing software vendors to do this kind of stuff to us?  This is one area the Mac OS X excels - PDF rendering is built-in to the rendering engine, so you never need to go near Adobe Reader, which keeps things nice and simple.

A quick search turned up this post by Omar.  It looks like the solution to problems #1 and #2 is simply to delete C:\Program Files\Common Files\Adobe\Updater5 and Acrobat will no longer a) self-update or b) add random folders into your personal files.  The solution to #3 is simple too, just remove anything that starts with "Adobe" from your Startup folder in your Start menu and you won't have Acrobat Reader thinking it knows what's best for you.

Update: Never mind, this didn't work.  What makes it worse is that the Updater5 returns ANY TIME you open up a PDF.  So this is the "real fix" from Glenn90:

By default, it's configured to periodically check for updates, and download any updates to a folder called "Updater5" in the default "My Documents" folder. You can change this folder, or disable the updating behavior altogether, by going to Help-->Check For Updates. The program will, obnoxiously enough, check for updates first, but then eventually will display a "Preferences" button for you to click. From here you can change the updates folder or disable updates.  Yes, I think this is one of the more obnoxious examples of common programs doing annoying things without asking permission.

Here's the screen:

Enjoy...

Omar has the right idea here:

I unsubscribed from every blog that has "staff". This includes longtime favorites like LifeHacker. Seriously, most of the stuff there has nothing to do with Life Hacking any more. It's just tech news. Long ago I unsubscribed from Engadget. Don't miss it one bit.

Bottom line is this. If I don't read my RSS feeds for a week, and there are > 100 posts from you to sift through then you've just lost a reader.

shahine.com/omar/ - More Posts = More Money

He and I had been talking about this over IM a couple weeks ago, and I decided to follow his lead on this.  I unsubscribed from any blog that generates more than about 30 posts/week (Omar chose 100) whether they have staff or not, and I plan on using TechMeme, CNET News.com, and hopefully someday a better meme aggregator to keep up on things instead.  Some great blogs, itching to make a living off of the medium, have fallen victim to quantity over quality.  I don't need to know about every new memory card coming to market or hear more about why Facebook is the shiny new thing this week.

As I mentioned a couple weeks ago - a post that was linked from TechCrunch (pretty cool) and ended up causing some stir (likely thanks to Dare's "oh so true" link and commentary) - I had already unsubscribed from a bunch of A-listers.  My 350+ feeds are now down to well under 180, which means I'm able to get through them in about 15 minutes just a few times/day.  I'm going to continue to use Google Reader's trends feature to see which feeds produce the most content and unsubscribe to more every day.  I mean really, what's the point in reading the same thing fifteen times, all sourced from one of five "press blogs" who got an exclusive?

If you told me a year ago that an information diet was in the cards for me, I would tell you you're nuts.  I love information.  But there has to be a better way.  Which leads me to the question of the year: what happened to the "innovation" in RSS?  Where's the "information agent" that doesn't treat RSS items like emails that have to be cleared out, but instead groups "like" items, bubbles up the most important, and doesn't make "reading the paper" feel like a complete chore?  As much as I love my reader, there are better ways to do this.

If you happened to read my Twitter trail on Sunday/Monday on the right-hand side of this page, you'd know that I had to go into the ER for an unexpected appendectomy.  Given that I'm on pain & nausea drugs, I didn't really want to take the time to write up how it went down for friends & family.  Thankfully my wife (and nurse!) did it for me yesterday!  Thanks babe.

So we had an eventful weekend. Ever since we got back from Mexico, Mike's had off and on stomach aches. As we went about our day on Saturday it was really bugging him, but it wasn't until it was making him bend over in pain on Sunday that we really took it seriously. We finally called a doctor on Sunday afternoon and they said we should go to the ER. It was strange going to the ER in such a calm manner - we packed up books and snacks, assuming we'd be there for a while and then get to go home. It felt a little bit like foreshadowing for our trip to the hospital in October. :)

It took the ER until about 2 or 3 in the morning to diagnose the problem - Appendicitis. Mike had to endure 2 hours of drinking a liquid dye which made his stomach expand like crazy. And telling his symptoms over and over to 16 doctors. I slept off and on in another room where there was an extra bed. Mike didn't sleep. He went in for surgery at 7:15am and I went home to sleep for a bit. Surgery went very well - they did have to do a full appendectomy which means a 4" scar. We finally got home last night at 8:30 or so and put him to bed. Drugs plus no sleep = very deep sleep for 12 hours. He's now resting on the couch surrounded by crackers, empty soup bowl, remote for TV, 2 bored cats, and some pills.

I am glad that it was what it was and that it was something they can just take out - voila! And thankfully it happened now and not in 2 months. The only issue is that he can't lift anything for 2 weeks and I can't lift anything heavy either, so that big box that I just spotted in our mailroom might get a little dusty! Yikes! 

I am just glad the father of my baby girl is ok. I have to admit, I had to think about it on Sunday - what would I do if something was really wrong? Not fun to think about, but always a reality. Thankfully, I still get to keep him. Who else would sing to the cats??