Rampidbyter Rampid byter: A byte of my .Net developing life.

Lion released somewhat recently and I was, of course, waiting on the App store to download it immediately. Well, what a cluster that was. I had Parallels setup to dock my windows in a certain workspace, and when the new multi-desktop setup took effect I no longer was able to access my open and running Windows VM. It happened to be docked to a non-existent work space. Ended up fixing that problem, but many more performance related problems started plaguing me. Mainly in the amount of RAM that Lion requires.

At the same time Parallels 7 released and was hailed as incredibly fast and tuned specifically for Lion. What a lie that was. I am told the boot times of the Windows VM decreased significantly, and for a while I thought it was an incredible update. I again upgraded as soon as possible. My Windows Performance Index actually went up by .2 in 3D graphics. I was incredibly happy until Windows Aero started continually crashing. The result was sporadic black screens as the device driver failed and Windows recovered it only to stop Aero. Then the random streaks of odd colors started to appear on the screen that would last a minute or two.

Through out all these new troubles one thing positive happened as a result of the upgrades. I haven’t had a kernel panic in going on a month whereas on Snow Leopard with Parallels 6 I was crashing twice daily on average. So I’ve switched from system crashes to having a buggy graphics driver on a generally underpowered machine bogged down by the host OS.

I wish I could say that things settled down and smoothed out after Lion’s first update became available, or even after the Parallels 7 multi-monitor bug fix came out. Sadly things have hit the wall in terms of performance since the Parallels 7 update that released two+ weeks ago. If anything the system is performing so poorly that it takes upwards of 10 minutes to compile the .Net solution that used to take three. In addition to the poor performance my Windows Performance Index has actually dropped to 2.3 because of the flaky Parallels 7 video driver.

I’m left with no other options than conceding that Lion and Parallels 7 on a MacBook Air no longer leave the device as a satisfactory development machine. At present time I am considering other device options. I will miss the Air… but I won’t miss the horrendous performance.

It’s been nearly two weeks since my MacBook Air arrived and I have used it almost exclusively. I bought and setup Parallels 6. I created several Windows 7 Ultimate templates with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate, Office 2010 Business, and used all my remaining licenses in the process. The VM template was given 60GB of hard disk, 2GB ram, and two cores.

I took it to work and setup a cloned VM as my client development machine. Everything worked better than expected. The MacBook Air built the massive client solution in two minutes and 38 seconds. The previous HP i3 machine with 4GB ram built the solution in just over four minutes. A true testament to the power of the solid state disk if I ever do say so.

Then problems started. First the machine started to freeze. From freezing it went to displaying the power sign of death. Within the first week it crashed five times. It varied from power screens of death, freezing, and even one blue screen within my Windows VM with a “Memory Management” problem. Started to suspect bad RAM at this point, but being new to both the OSX and Parallels I couldn’t tell whether it was hardware or fake hardware causing the problem.

This past Sunday an upgrade was released to Parallels 6, and I’d hoped if it was Parallels maybe it’d be resolved by the update. Unfortunately the upgrade didn’t help resolve the crashing. The crashes were random without being reproducible unless you count when I was in the programming groove it seemed to pick those moments to die. Luckily the MacBook Air boots in no time flat, and I can get my VM to boot relatively fast for a Windows machine.

I ended up contacting Apple support’s fast lane to schedule a service call. Last night I spoke to Cody, the Apple support rep, and booted the Mac to the hardware test utility running off the reinstall thumb drive. The quick hardware test proved to have no known problems. The extended hardware test was run three times in a row. Unfortunately it showed no signs of problems either.

At this point it seems there is no hardware problem, which leads me to believe Parallels 6 is the protagonist in this hardware play. Several other developers at the client site are using MacBook Pro’s with Parallels 6 without any incident. As far as I can tell it seems Parallels 6 does not play well with the MacBook Air. I’ve been researching any known problems (Apple rumors I should say,) and came across several kernel panic threads. The threads were related to first generation Nvidia 320M drivers on the Air. Considering that the Air doesn’t have discrete graphics memory it’s possible the combination of no discrete graphics memory, first gen drivers, and the strain of running Parallels causes a triangle of disaster.

For now I just have to live with the looming crashes, interrupted workflows, and the lost trust in my $1,800 development machine.

A few weeks ago I started the search for a new replacement laptop for the Sony I sold a few months ago. I started by going to the nearby Microcenter and testing the usability of each laptop in the store. I had several make or break criteria I would not budge on. The criteria is below for reference:

• Trackpad centered horizontally
• Trackpad doesn’t move cursor while I type when brushed
• Laptop shell not blindingly glossy (looking at you Toshiba)
• Vent ports on the bottom of the laptop don’t get blocked by resting on legs
• Touching the bottom of the laptop doesn’t burn my hand
• Power cable plug doesn’t wiggle inside the socket
• Power cable must be longer than four feet (Sony power cables SUCK)
• Must have a low profile case easily used on the couch

Shockingly enough only three machines passed this criteria. Asus, Acer, and Apple. Of the three A’s the Asus was by far my favorite. The G series Asus machine with the flat black case, and back vent ports with luke warm bottom set it apart from the rest. The Acer unfortunately had too small of a trackpad where the mouse buttons seemed half the size of the touch area. The only problem with the Asus was the backlit keyboard from an angle shined light from the sides of the keys, and it weighed roughly 12lbs. It was 17” and wasn’t available in the store in a size I felt I could use comfortably on the couch.

The MacBook Pro laptops were nice, but the edges around the laptop were sharp. It felt like it would be painful to use while resting on my lap. The MacBook Air ended up being the all-star of all the laptops I tested out. The trackpad was perfectly centered on the case, it didn’t move my cursor while typing even though it was nearly twice the size of any other trackpads, and the laptop was incredibly cool to the touch. The slim profile of the device made it seem perfect for couch based use, and it weighed 2lbs compared to the 11lb Asus.

I wasn’t totally sold on the specs of the MacBook Air. The low powered Core 2 Duo and lack of discrete graphics memory wasn’t exactly a strong point in my opinion. Still it was the ONLY laptop that matched the majority of my requirements. I ended up checking around StackOverflow for anyone else using the MacBook Air for development, just to make sure I wasn’t crazy, and found a few posts about people doing just that. It seemed for the most part to be a decent machine given it’s limited resources.

I ended up ordering a MacBook Air last week. I ordered the 13” with the 2.1ghz core 2 duo, 4GB Ram, and with it came the larger 256GB flash drive. I installed Parallels and setup a development template with Windows 7 running both cores and 2gb Ram. It rated a 4.4 in the Windows Experience Index. Not too shabby considering the HP I use at work is an i3 2.4ghz with 4GB Ram and 512MB discrete graphics memory only rated 4.9.

After running Visual Studio 2010, Office 2010, and an assortment of other development tools within the Windows VPC while listening to podcasts via iTunes running on the Mac I can safely say the system holds up. Compile times on the VM were even faster than the HP running the same large solution natively. I believe the SSD had a lot to do with that fact as the hard drive rated 7.6 out of 7.9 on the experience index on the MacBook Air.

There is one thing to note though. I had a Mac screen of death earlier today after leaving the Mac for 30 minutes to attend a meeting. On returning I went to send the alt-ctrl-del command to unlock the Windows VPC, and received a giant power dialog instructing me to shut down the system. It was a bit odd, and a little disconcerting.

As I type this post from the couch on a Windows VM I have to admit this laptop is quickly growing on me. I literally have the best of both worlds, and don’t seem to be sacrificing anything more than the arm and leg it took to purchase it. I’m definitely glad I had the sense to upgrade the laptop with the faster processor, maximum Ram, and larger hard drive space. I have already used more than 100gb of space after setting up XCode, iPhone/Mac SDKs, and three basic .Net development systems.

A long while ago before the iPad came out I made a post about the iPad being the perfect business device. In the last few months of actually owning the iPad, and actually taking it to work I can safely say it’s “almost” the perfect business PC. It’s kind of funny that at the clients I sit in a cube next to another guy with an iPad. In addition the main network admin at the facility also has an iPad at work. Each of us bring it to work for different purposes. The network admin uses it to troubleshoot network outages, mobile email device, and other associated duties. The developer I mentioned uses it for a variety of things such as at-home leisure gaming, project management, to-do task manager, notes, and development testing for the new apps being developed at the clients.

I wish I could say I use my iPad for more business related activities. I do take notes on it, reference development blogs/material, personal and business emails, and social media applications. I primarily use it as a mobile email device where I can have access to emails without needing them on a work PC. I mostly enjoy the ability to email a PDF to my iPad email address, import it into iBooks, and then have the ability to read that PDF at any time with the device.

The iPad has certainly changed the way I interact with computers. I take it with me almost everywhere. It’s my GPS, book shelf, TV, arcade gaming device, online comic reader, news source, and my social media device. I have all of my comics linked on the home screen, tech blogs, and new sites all available with a single tap. The best thing again is the pinch so I can change the screen to hide all the ads or distracting site floaters to get straight to the content meat. I can watch tech demonstrations via YouTube, and I can regularly update my Facebook and Twitter statuses for no one to read.

After having it for so long it’s still hard to justify the purchase of the device. It’s easy to sway people though. Since starting at the client people constantly stop to ask questions about the iPad. We actually managed to make a fellow developer so envious of our iPads that he went on a lunch break to buy one. It was neat seeing the device unboxed and his excitement, but as soon as he turned it on the iTunes prompt displayed. It’s kind of a buzz kill we all have to go through on first unboxing.

Still with any device there are problems. The big problem with the iPad is its design leads it to be primarily a data consumption device. Tapping out words with the virtual keyboard is slow, and is very cumbersome depending on how the device is held. That is a very big impact to producing any content via the device. Sure, they make an iPad keyboard dock called the Mac Air (ha.) Seriously though considering the price you might as well buy a Mac Air instead of an iPad if you actually want to create content in any timely manner on a very portable device. Still for being a consumption laden device it does its primary job well. The only limitation in fact is AT&T on 3G or availability of free wifi when you’re roaming.

Again, it’s “almost” there to being the perfect business device. The intuitive interfaces, the easy-to-use app store integration, and natural gesture motions make the device a gem of simplistic computing. The consistency and enforcement of development standards helps alleviate any bottlenecks to downloading an app and using it immediately. Don’t get me wrong I still don’t condone the Marxist control that Apple has over the device, but since the devices are easily rooted it’s still an even playing field. Either way it goes the iPad is still the only tablet device you could ever need.

I’m still a little stunned. I started Monday of this week off sans music, which really stinks when you’re writing software. Nothing like some decent music to help keep my mind in the programming rhythm. On Tuesday morning I decided it was time to sign-up for the AT&T iPad 3G cellular plan so I could use Pandora on the iPad like I do at home.

I had the choice between the two plans of course. The first plan being the $15 a month for a maximum of 250MB of data usage, or the double-the-cost unlimited plan sitting at $30 a month. Considering I can change my plan at anytime with no contracts other than the slightly abridged agreement to cancel prior to the auto-renewal by AT&T. I opted for the $30 a month unlimited plan simply because I don’t really trust what would happen if i exceeded that allotted 250MB regardless of what the agreement says. I’ve been burned by changing terms from carriers one too many times T-mob, er, I mean by a certain carrier.

Most of Tuesday I listened to music. I turned it off while I was out to lunch or in meetings, but mostly just had about six hours of music. When I got home I turned off the cellular connection and re-enabled the wifi connection. I kept wifi off at work and cellular off when I'm at home. No sense in double dipping when one or the other is not needed. The same routine happens again on Wednesday with another good six hours of music to get through the day.

Today I needed to change the settings on the iPad to keep it from auto-locking, and I happened to hit the ‘usage’ tab from the general settings area out of curiosity. That happened to show the cellular usage for the lifetime of the iPad. In no more than two and a quarter days I'd used over 270MB of data. Without playing any games, downloading any content from any site, or ANYTHING of the sort other than just using Pandora with occasional iPhone Facebook app I exceeded the 250MB limit. In no more than THREE days of occasional use I used 270MB. Wow. Either AT&T really set the bar low on what it considers nominal usage, or I consume vastly more data than your average user not particularly doing anything useful. I don’t even have email setup on the iPad and I blew through 250MB without trying. 

If anyone else out there is considering the choice between the two plans just save yourself the hassle and just get the unlimited plan. You’ll kick yourself otherwise because 250MB is just a drop of water in the bucket of data to be consumed by the iPad.

It’s been a week or so now that I’ve had my iPad 3G. Aside from a few applications installed from the App Store most of the icons I have on my home screen are current event news sites, on-line comics, and technical sites ranging from Endgadget to Slashdot with blog sites sprinkled in. That is where the unexpected benefit comes ins. When viewing a site through Safari on the iPad I can pinch the screen to zoom in. Yah, yah you probably realized this already. The unexpected benefit is that most, if not all, of the sites I view are setup in a two column site layout. Usually with the content on the left taking up two thirds of the screen, and a second column taking up the remaining third on the right that usually contains ads or what not.

That is the benefit when viewing with the iPad. I can pinch the screen, move the viewable area to the left, and then zoom the content to fit the entirety of my screen thereby completely removing the ads from my viewable area. Talk about not realizing how distracting having those dang ads have been over the years. The font ends up a little bit larger because of the zoom, but really nothing absurdly large. It has made reading content absolutely fantastic I just see the content i want to see in my viewable area on the iPad. The content is zoomed for easier reading without worrying about running into too small of a print, and i don’t have to be concerned with annoying advertisements. Just pinch the screen and read. Added with ability to convert my PDF book collection to ePug the iPad has become my central hub of on-line content consumption.

Out of the box the iPad was ready to go, short of requiring the device to first be connected to an iTunes ready system, but still it was fully charged. I synced the iPad, registered it, and off I went to add the device to my Mac address allow list on my network. All in all the same exact experience I had with the iPod Touch I bought some months ago.

Speaking of iPod Touch. The new iPad totally dwarfs the iPod. I could probably stack a few of the buggers on the screen of the iPad and not really match the viewable area. Though I admit the iPad looks a bit small to me still. I wish it were a few inches larger, but the bezel is perfectly sized so that my thumb can be solidly placed on the edges at all times without interfering with the touch screen area.

Another first thing to note is as soon as the device connects to the App Store up pops a request to install iBook. I think they’re really trying to push the book store influence on the device, and i went ahead and installed iBook since that was indeed a selling feature to me. As an added bonus classic books are available freely to add to the bookshelf. Win win.

The App Store itself is kind of a disappointment. It has a few bells and whistles like a little carousel of featured apps at the top of the screen, and then a section or two of the available apps below. I’ve not yet found a way to filter the list by free apps versus paid apps as I can with the iPod Touch. I really am on the cheap with the device and would prefer to only look at free items, but they really don’t seem to want you to do that. At least they don’t want you to do that at first glance. I admit i could be totally blind to any option staring me in the face, but I've not found it.

Now for the second selling feature. Netflix on the iPad. I was really excited about the thought of streaming videos on the handheld device. In reality the Netflix application really sucks. It’s functional, but just barely. The main screen really looks like a knock-off of the actual website. The functionality within just gets worse. Trying to page movies sometimes results in a gray floating ‘loading’ message in the middle of the screen forever. When viewing a TV show for example with multiple episodes once you hit the end of the episode it loads back to browsing the main category list, or at least that’s what it did for me. It was honestly so bad I opened the actual webpage in Safari and tried to use it there. That didn’t work out, but like i said the native app is at least somewhat functional. ABC does have a nice application. I don’t like any of the shows they have to offer. Come on Fox! I want to watch Fringe on the iPad already! Site note. I’ve heard AT&T is poo-pooing the use of the ABC app on the 3G network. Totally uber-fail on the second reason I wanted the 3G for.

The real winner in my book, totally unexpected I might add, was the eBay application. Very cool implementation of searching for products along with some daily deals displayed on the main page. AIM on the iPad was also incredibly neat, except for when people send you a link via IM, and you open it only to close out of AIM. That non-multitasking part is really rather annoying I admit.

All in all I think the iPad is pretty sweet. Worth the money? Eh, maybe. I will see how the 3G works out with the Google maps on trips, offering entertainment while fishing, and for checking comics and news at work. I have my home screen loaded with my favorite applications from GoDaddy, Facebook, eBay, and all the short-cuts to the comic websites from Penny Arcade to Ctrl-Alt-Del. The best part of web browsing is the flick to scroll interface. Absolutely love it. I love it on the iPod Touch, and I especially love the iPad’s larger viewable area. Nearly all the webpage's I frequent fit nicely into the screen size offered at a font size still readable.

Yah, I said it. I think the iPad is a perfect business device. Why? Lack of true multi-tasking ability, it’s incredibly portable, has wifi by default as well as 3G ability, supports external peripherals (keyboard in particular in case of need), and compared to many touch screen manufactures is very low-cost. The screen size is large enough to display most web pages without much effort, the speed of the device is enough to render most web pages with ease, and can run a variety of business tailored iPad applications.

I should most likely clarify that the iPad is perfect for ‘most’ businesses. In particular I believe the iPad is perfect for call centers, retail stores, or any inventory management tasks for retail industries. I’ll hit more on the call center environment in particular as I think this is one of the biggest industries that could benefit from the device.

Call centers? Why would a call center ever benefit from the LACK of multi-tasking? Firstly the lack of multi-tasking means that when working on an application that is the sole focus of the call center representative. No playing on-line music, no playing on-line games, no instant messenger, less vulnerable to viruses, and contains NO USB inlets for call center reps to take out sensitive data or bring in virus/malware into the work environment.

Can you imagine the bandwidth that would be saved by the simple restrictions imposed natively on the device that limit the amount of slack-off activities most reps do between calls? At our company you become very accustomed to walking down isles seeing Pandora streaming, Yahoo games open, IM windows, and umpteen number of random websites call reps are browsing. Also notable is the headache caused by the IT staff constantly having to police proxy settings, or reimage a PC after a virus outbreak. Seriously, this gets old after a while when remoting into a PC seeing porn application icons flooding the desktop, pop-ups appearing all over, and something closing the task manager whenever you try to kill a process. Very old.

Getting back to the original case the advantage of being portal would come in incredibly handy for call centers. The desktop space required for the phone, headphones, keyboard, LCD monitor (depending on the company… could be a CRT), the desktop on the floor or behind the screen in smaller cubicle areas just takes up a LOT of space. That’s not including paperwork, note pads, pictures, candy, or action figures that may be floating around in that area as well. The small slim stature of the device makes it incredibly easy to reposition anywhere in the cubicle area or desk space. It can be held, it can be mounted to the wall, it can be set on the keyboard mount, and amounts to little more than the area required by a standard LCD minus the actual desktop.

The iPad has no wires. No plugs means no wires. With wifi built in by default the device can connect to the network without wires. The restrictions are instantly lifted on where a person can work with the iPad. No wires means call center reps don’t have to tangle their feet on cat5/6 cable strewn across the floors, no wires draping from the ceiling down through pillars with electrical wires, and with 10 hours of battery life (well past the 8 hour work day) the device doesn’t really need a power outlet either. Worried about the security of the devices? Just lock them up after work, and hand them out during the beginning of the work day.

All of what I've mentioned is nice, but of course it all depends on software supporting the hardware. With the proper software backing the iPad is the perfect computing device for many businesses. Personally, when I get my iPad in a few weeks (pre-ordered 3G version) the first thing I’m going to do is test the hardware, explore the SDK more in-depth, and pitch the device to the current company I’m working for as the ideal touch-screen kiosk device. Systems we’ve purchased over the last year without 3G have been easily twice the cost of the cheapest 3G iPad, require customers to provide their own high-speed broadband ($60+ per month), and are bulky table-stop monsters with umpteen number of physical buttons/input ports on the side or under the devices just begging to be exploited. Providing a kiosk with a fixed no-contract $30 a month unlimited data access plan, true multi-touch input, and company tailored site/application then you’ve got yourself a winner in my book.

I have a Magic Mouse. I gosh darn love this thing. My conventional windows mice have been for the longest time causing a callous to develop on my pointing finger from prolonged mouse wheel usage. I hop onto the Mac using the Magic Mouse and it’s like running my finger down a baby’s butt. Well, I don’t exactly know what that feels like, but I’d imagine from the age old expression that it must be very similar indeed.

I have a confession to make. I have cheated. I have been in a long term relationship for many years, and in a moment of weakness I did the unthinkable. I was weak, the opportunity made itself available, and worst of all it was unimaginably good. I also want to say I don’t plan to end it anytime soon either. What I’m trying to say is I went Mac.

Yes, Mac, I bought a Mac Mini so I didn’t go all the way but I went enough Mac that I feel really dirty about it. Worst of all I bought the Mac the very day before I was to go Windows 7 official release date. I was curious about the Mac Mini, and the day before Windows 7 a new product version was released. With a student discount and the new machines coming out that day. Well i just couldn’t resist.

I whole hardily blame the iPod. That was my first Apple product and it is one heck of a gateway product. I just expect it to work, be easy to use, and also be small and stylish. I have been using the Windows Mobile 6.1 for some time now. It sucks. Let me be clear it sucks pretty badly. So bad that Windows Mobile 6.5 is night and day better. Oh, I am aware that Windows Mobile 6.5 is lacking and has lackluster features. It’s big claim to fame is not being Windows Mobile 6.1. I so wanted to work on the Windows Mobile phone but really what’s the point when I can get an iPhone?

So the very fact that Windows Mobile was such a pile has lead me into the arms of Apple. I am one of the small percentage of people who own a PC and STILL decide to buy a Mac. I want to do iPhone applications, and eventually ditch my worthless Windows Mobile 6.1 phone for an iPhone. Something with multi-touch interface, a browser that doesnt require a toothpick and a prayer to scroll, and be able to take advantage of the sweet app store.

Yes, I’ve gone Mac, not all the way, but we’ll see what happens. I can tell you right now that it’s gross how the Mac mini boots to the useable desktop in about a minute while my quad core beefy dell XPS 720 takes about four to five minutes to do the same. I’ve used CCleaner on the desktop to trim startup apps just so you know it’s not bloated with startup programs.

Anyway, that is my confession. I am glad to have that off my cheat. I will still claim to love Microsoft, Windows, and especially the .Net framework. I am just going to a more open relationship with Microsoft until they decide to commit to me in providing top quality environments to work with.