The YENRAB.COM Blog

My love affair with the Blackberry Torch was short lived.  As promised, this is my one week followup.

The BAD …

1.  It’s never a good sign when the price drops after just a few days on the market (was $199, now $99).  When did selling 150K devices in the first three days become grounds to call the launch a failure?  If the iPhone is the new benchmark – let it be the benchmark for consumer devices.  Corporate customers don’t stand in line for 24 hours every time a new device comes out.  Refreshes happen gradually over time.

2.  The touchscreen “lags” several times each day.  It isn’t any single application or function.  The only consistent lag seems to come after the device has seen long periods of inactivity (greater than 30 minutes).  It almost seems sleepy when you go to pick it back up and start using it again.  Perhaps some sort of power saving function is going on under the covers?  Maybe it just needs a faster CPU.

3.  Social Feed notifications lack awareness of user interaction with the device.  Let me explain.  A new message arrives (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, RSS, etc) and the device notifies me.  I click through to read the new message in the social feed aggregator.  While I am there, one or more additional social messages arrive.  So I go ahead and read them since I am already there.  When I exit back to the main screen – it tells me I have additional new social feed entries to read.  Wrong.

4.  My RSA SecurID application still doesn’t work, but I participated in a forum discussion over at Crackberry where a crude workaround was identified.

5.  While so many websites work really well in the new browser, CNN continues to suck from an accessibility perspective.  No Zoom at all, and no respect for minimum font size preferences.

The GOOD …

1.  Although you can “pinch” to zoom in the browser – you may end up scrolling around to view text that extends off screen.  If you double tap instead, you get zoom and wrapped text.  Ran across this by accident and then spent a few minutes trying to figure out what I did to make it happen.

2.  Universal Search is very handy.  I usually know what email I am looking for, and now all I have to do is type in the name of the person.  All contacts and emails are automatically narrowed to display just the relevant data.

I got the Torch today.  I have been a Blackberry user for many years now, but the anticipation of opening up the box this morning was almost magical.  And after one full day – I can say I am pleased with device.  Favorite things so far:

1. The larger screen size is fantastic (especially with my visual impairment)
2. The touchscreen seemed foreign at first, but now I can’t imagine using a BB without it.
3. The AT&T U-Verse app is outstanding!  It is a HUGE step up from the simplistic web interface I was using previously on the Bold.
4. Social networking isn’t just added on anymore – everything comes installed.  The “social feeds” from FB, Twitter, MSN Messenger, and BB Messenger are all integrated together and easily accessible.
5. The new BB desktop manager makes it easy to synch music, videos, and photos.

There are still a few things I am trying to figure out.  I don’t know how to move applications to other … not sure what BB is calling them (folder, tabs, etc).  I also wish I could change the behavior of the top left “screen lock” button to be a full device lock function (prompting for password).

This device probably will not satisfy the true die hard Apple iPhone lovers, but it is a great leap forward for any Blackberry user (assuming you are okay with AT&T’s network).  Now If I could just get them to throw in a free femtocell for the house.  More detailed observations to come once I have used the device for a solid week.

A few months back, I mentioned that I was going to try my hand at audio recording or podcasting. I’m still working on my setup – trying to get all the right tools in place. It has been an adventure because I’m going into this with zero broadcast experience. In fact – I knew almost nothing about audio when I started. But learning is fun … (insert NBC’s “the more you know” shooting star jingle here). There’s no audio in blogging. I digress.

The most common question I get is, “what or who are you going to record?” I’ve got several ideas floating around, but I may start with some one-on-one interviews with family and friends about their lives. Think something along the lines of the StoryCorps project. I like this idea for two reasons. First,  it will give me experience working with the new tools in a relaxed setting. Second, the finished product will not only tell the story of the person I’m talking with, but it might also build a picture of how these lives intersect with mine. Only time will tell. So give some serious consideration to being interviewed – we can talk about anything you want. And I should point out that not everything recorded has to go into the public domain.

Since I like writing about tech, here is the down and dirty on the setup thus far. Much of the equipment I have selected was influenced by Leo Laporte over at TWiT.TV (although I’m using newer models of several of the products he recommends).

Mackie Onyx 1220i mixer
Marantz PMD661 digital recorder
Heil Sound PR40 microphone
Heil Sound SM 2 microphone shock mount
Heil Sound PL2T microphone boom
Sony MDR-V700DJ monitor headphones
Plantronics .Audio 470 USB Headset for Skype

In my next post, I will explain more about how all this equipment works together. The last item on this list, the Plantronics headset, is for use with Skype. The quality is absolutely outstanding for IP voice applications, and you can’t beat the price – just $30 on Amazon. I use one with my CIPC soft phone all the time.  But more on Skype later.  I’ll cover that in the next post as well.

We have all been there.  You are standing at the checkout counter making a large electronics purchase and they ask, “Would you like to purchase an extended warranty?”  That’s right where I was on October 21, 2004.  I was buying a 60″ Sony rear-projection TV (model KF60WE610) that cost over $3500.  Adding a 5-year warranty was just $350 more.  So I did it.

Now jump forward to the present day.  My extended warranty ran out 14 days ago (although the company I purchased it from filed for bankruptcy in 2007).  So just two weeks post warranty, I now have two problems:  blue blob and pink fingerprint.  I didn’t make those terms up.  It seems that is the common language used by owners experiencing problems (and there are lots of people with problems).  The blue blob problem was so common that Sony offered extended warranty coverage to replace the defective part through December, 2008.  That ship has clearly sailed.

The problem is with a part called the “optical block” (part # A1606010A).  A new one costs $670, and if you want it installed by a field technician – that will cost $190 and hour.  Based on the steps I have seen online, I can count on a two hour minimum.  So we are talking about a cool $1000 to fix a 5 year old TV.  Of course I could save a little money if I wanted to tackle the install on my own.

The next logical question is how much is $1000 towards the purchase of a new TV?  I think that is worth pursuing.  Let’s establish the criteria and see what my friends on the Interwebs can recommend:

Size – 55″ to 60″
Type – LCD (although a friend says I should consider LED as well)
Res – 1080p is strongly desired
Price – Max $2500 (maybe $3000 if you have a compelling argument)

For some time now, I have been having problems with the integrated speaker in my Blackberry Bold.  The speaker not only serves as the speakerphone, but also as the ringer when you receive a call.  So you can image how frustrating it is when that doesn’t work!  I’ve determined that the problem is a design flaw with the unit.  Here is a picture of what the speaker looks like inside the Bold.  The two metal contacts are supposed to align (and press up against) the gold colored circle and ring on the system board inside the device.

Through normal wear and tear on the device, the connections gradually drift apart.  The result is lower and lower volume levels – and eventually no sound at all.  You can validate this problem by removing the back cover of the device.  With the cover off and your favorite ringtone queued up to play, gently squeeze along the top edge of the device (pushing the front and back of the unit together).  Do NOT press on the screen directly – you could damage it.  You should be able to make the volume louder – in fact the harder you squeeze, the louder it gets.

My problem now is that even adjusting these metal contacts no longer makes any difference.  Without applying direct pressure – I get no audio at all.  I’ve ordered a replacement speaker in the hopes that a newer component will have stronger metal that has not yet suffered compression due to regular use.  If that doesn’t work, I may be looking to wedge or shim the connections so that they are forced to make better contact.  It just amazes me that AT&T and RIM won’t acknowledge this problem and correct it.  Do a quick Google search for issues with the Blackberry Bold speakerphone volume and you will find lots of people with the same problem.  Leave your comments on this post to tell your own story.  What do you think?

It took about an hour to run the install on my 2-year-old Mac mini.  Can’t wait to take a look after I get back from lunch.

I must have been dozing off and missed this.  Microsoft released an update for its Key Management Server, version 1.2, to support Windows 7 and Server 2008 R2.  This allows volume license customers to perform activation related functions of the operating systems on their corporate networks.  I was hunting this down in early August when the Windows 7 RTM bits were released.  It wasn’t out then, but I am glad it is now.  Time to lab up a VM to test out the install.

Our business has been using Cisco’s Unified Communication Manager for several years now.  For the most part, our employees use their IP phone just like they previously used their old digital PBX handsets – it’s a phone.  If you are looking for cool (and free) way to start doing some CTI, check out Cisco’s free widget called “Click to Call“.

Built on .Net framework 3.0, Click to Call utilizes the same Webdialer functions available on your CCM user page.  Except now you can place calls from Outlook, Sharepoint, web browsers, or any other Microsoft Office application.  In fact, anything that you can copy to the clipboard can be dialed.  I’ve included a screen shot below of dialing from Outlook.  Presto … phone goes off hook and the call starts.  This is a great way to expand available functionality before jumping off the cliff into Presence and the Cisco Unified Personal Communicator.

While working on my recent Cisco WCS upgrade project, I was looking for information on unneeded services that could be disabled.  After a few Google searches, I ran across a really good publication from the NSA.  It is a two-page pamphlet titled “Hardening Tips For Default Installation of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5“.

They also have a more detailed publication, but I found this document to be a great pocket guide to get you started.

Today I started labbing up a future upgrade to our Cisco Wireless Control System software.  We are currently running version 5.0.56.2 on Windows Server 2003.  The latest version is 6.0.132.0, but there is no direct upgrade path for the database.  So we have to move up to 5.2.130.0 first, and then upgrade again to the latest build.

At the same time, we are looking to move this off the Windows server and go over to Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.  So I built a virtual machine with RHEL and installed the same version of WCS on Linux that we are running on Windows.  After installing our WCS license, I backed up our current WCS and restored it to the VM box.  A couple of observations about WCS 5.0.56.2 on Linux:

• The root password must be eight characters and meet the password complexity.  I selected a password that met this criteria, but it would not accept it.  I ultimately had to pick a longer more complex password to get past that hurdle (which gets overwritten when I restore the DB).
• If you change the system host name after installing WCS, the WCS service will not start the next time you either manually restart the service or reboot the box.  So set your hostname before you install WCS.

Outside of that, the restore worked just fine.  So I moved on to the first upgrade.  WCS version 5.2.130.0 installed without issue, and the WCS web interface came up normally after logging in.  So I moved on to the second upgrade.  After installing WCS 6.0.132.0, I started seeing a strange error message after logging into the WCS web interface.  The error said “System Error: Wrong Alarm Type rogueUclassifiedMinor” and a quick Google / Cisco search yielded no help.  So I have opened a TAC case.  More details to come on the final solution.

Once we get the bugs worked out, I am very seriously considering leaving this as a VM.  We will rebuild the original server as a standalone vSphere 4 ESXi machine and just run one VM on it for WCS.  Can’t wait to find the answer and post back to the blog with the update.  Until then …

Update – Friday, August 14, 2009 …

The error message I was seeing went away.  The TAC engineer was able to help me determine that the error was related to Cisco bug ID CSCsr02317.  After upgrading the WCS this happens.  Clear the browser cache and cookies.  Restart browser and the error message should go away.

Update – Tuesday, August 18, 2009 …

Finished migrating the WCS virtual machine back to the original server (which is now an ESXi box). It runs great, and that is one less server license to pay Microsoft for.