Short Names

Short names were originally implemented to maintain compatibility with programs that could only handle filenames in 8.3 format, meaning 8 characters, a dot, and a 3 character extension. This short name compatibility really bogs down the NTFS file system.

To disable the generation of short names, go to regedit and set

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/FileSystem/NtfsDisable8dot3NameCreation

to 1.

This and similar registry keys are found in Windows XP, Vista, 2003, and perhaps other versions of Windows that use NTFS.

Setting the key doesn't eliminate existing short names, but it does stop new ones from being created.

You'll have to reboot for the changes to take effect.

Windows NT

What does the NT stand for?
Officially(?): New Technology
Unofficially: No Tabs

Since the devs were all using different text editors, tabs in the source code were not interpreted identically. What would look like cleanly aligned code to one programmer might look like an exploded spaghetti bomb to another.

Therefore, tabs were forbidden in source code, hence the name, "No Tabs."

Jott

There's a new startup called Jott.

Basically, you call a number, they transcribe what you say and then send it to you in an email. Unfortunately, the messages you leave are transcribed by humans! (privacy, scale issues)

Here's what Jott's CEO has to say about it:

jotts are completely anonymized to transcribers. They do not know your account name or other information.

Thanks,
John
CEO, Jott.com

Perhaps they should just reroute calls through Vista's voice recognition. It's probably the first widely available voice recognition implementation that's up to the task.

Easier way to assign audio sources to different outputs

Update: Please use this tutorial instead. It's a bit lengthier, but it works with the current version of Vista. (10/3/07)


I've found an easier way to do the Volume Mixer trick in Windows Vista. Just open up the volume mixer and select the output you want to use from the device menu. Then launch the applications you want to assign to the currently viewed audio device. Repeat for each audio device you want to use.

Windows Vista Volume Mixer Trick

In this tutorial, we present a method for individually assigning audio sources to different audio outputs.

1. Right click the sound icon in the taskbar and select Playback Devices.



2. Make the destination audio output the default device.



3. Launch the audio sources you wish to assign to the output you just made default.



Repeat steps 2 and 3 for each audio output you want to use.

Open up the volume controls once you're finished tinkering, and you should end up with something like this:

Headphone-bound applications


3-dimensional sound perception is critical to the user experience in some applications.

Speaker-bound applications


Control which applications are heard through the speakers.

The trick: Each time you open an application, its sound will be routed to whatever output you have currently selected as the default. This pairing between source and output is "sticky." Changing the default output does not migrate any of the sources to the new default output.

Microsoft should make this easier. A 2D grid of audio inputs/outputs would be optimal, but perhaps the easiest thing to implement at this stage is a "move to" contextual menu item, which moves the selected audio source to a specified audio output.

$100 Xbox 360

Vote for it on

Amazon.com

Photosynth Video Update!

The Photosynth team has updated their video to include the Photo Tourism team!

Here's a labeled screen grab at 3 minutes 16 seconds (click for full version):

Photosynth

Microsoft has just put up the live demo of Photosynth, based on Photo Tourism.



Their version looks really cool, but it only works in IE.

local.live.com in 3D

Live labs has just released "3d mode" for local.live.com. I've tested it on IE7 and it's like Google Earth mapped with local.live.com data.

Here's what it looks like if you haven't installed it yet:


Once you click the install button in the left sidebar, you get a helper program to install locally, which augments the local.live interface whenever you visit the site.

Here it is installed on Vista in IE7:

Error displaying an error

Someone managed to invoke this self-referential error message on one of our "Experience Sampling" smart phones the other day.

The error message is telling us that the crashed "MyExperience" program was unable to display an error message due to an error with the error messaging system.

I guess this is how Microsoft gets around a Catch-22.

Windows vista speech recognition

I'm writing this using Microsoft speech recognition. I will not make any corrections.

Windows vista was a pain to install. I started out by reformatting my heart goes. Then I inserted this to DVD, booted into the vista install environment, and reached the point where you select a partition to install to.

If you really have Windows XP installed, the nice investors. Clean install with vista alliance of the 60. I think this dictation software needs more technical vocabulary.

A Microsoft product that's better on Mac and Linux

I was trying out remote desktop on Linux (command: rdesktop) and it does something that the Windows XP version can't: Widescreen. It take full advantage of my 24" Dell FP2405. It also has options for bitmap caching, sound forewarding, and local printing, among others.
(I'm pretty sure macs use this version of remote desktop too... could be wrong)

Linux is also catching up to the next generation of windowing systems: http://www.freedesktop.org/~davidr/xgl-demo1.xvid.avi
I wonder if Apple's interested in using some of this cool X server technology.

Linux (Kubuntu) vs Windows XP vs OS X

Format

• Linux
• Windows
• OS X

Installing the OS

• It works, most of the time, with most hardware.
• It works, almost all the time, with all supported hardware.
• It works, all the time, on Macs.

Look and Feel

• Plasticky, with occasional glitches, but super fast
  
• Programs that use GTK will have buttons and other controls that look like they came straight out of Windows 3.11
• Many themes available: kde-looks.org
  
• Nothing to write home about.
• Third party themes are a pain to install.
  
• It's the gold standard.
• If anything, it may be a bit too much eye candy for some people.
  
• Awesome attention to detail - Notice how dialog boxes have a glowing button and an outlined one? Pressing space bar activates the outlined one and pressing Enter activates the glowing one.
  

Application Availability

• Not that good, since most companies don't develop open source software, but nearly everything is free.
• Super Good. It's ubiquitous, so it makes sense that it has the most application support.
  
• OK. Everything you need is there, except games.
  

Application Installation

• Easy
• Use apt-get, or copy and paste some command line entries from the package maintainer's site.
  
• Easier
• Double click the install.exe
  
• Easiest
• Drag to Applications folder
  

Perceived Application Quality

• Good
• considering it's all free stuff
• Things can be crashy... Perhaps it's because the dynamic libraries they depend on are constantly changing.
  
• Mostly Crap
• Most of the programs that cost money aren't even as good as their open source counterparts (check out the multitude of CD-burning programs).
• However, there are a small number of very high quality Windows-only apps... It's sort of a "long-tail" distribution.
  
• Awesome
• Super !!! 111 One One One 0xFFF !!!
• Even dysfunctional apps appear to ooze with quality.
  

Consumer Hardware Utilization

• Passable.
• Most vendors don't provide open source drivers for their products, so people have to make new drivers, which, from my experience, either work flawlessly, or only provide the basics (3 out of 9 mouse buttons isn't too bad).
  
• Awesome.
• If it doesn't work on Windows, it probably won't sell that well...
• Slick, as long as it's supported hardware. Otherwise, you're screwed.
• Normally, when you install new hardware, you expect to configure it and step through some sort of install process On the Mac, you just plug it in and it automagically knows how you wanted it set up, (most of the time). So you can just use it.
  

Viruses and Spyware

• I've been running without Antivirus for a few days and I haven't noticed any strange events. However, a good virus would hide its presence until called upon to perform its duty. I wonder how I would detect a virus before it's too late...
• Not having both antivirus and antispyware scanning is blasphemy.
• No antivirus, no antispyware, no problem. Again, I wouldn't know how to detect a virus if it somehow infected the system. Oh well.

Community Support

• There are a lot of distros. Fortunately, I chose Kubuntu, which is (allegedly) a very user-friendly distro with a large following. Therefore, getting help was easy.
• Highlight error. Paste it into Google. Instant support.
• Large swaths of Mac users use the same hardware, and the software choices do not vary that much; so, even though the Mac-using population is small, the homogeneity of hardware and software configurations guarantees a sizeable support group.
• Plus, there are sites like MacRumors and ThinkSecret that host forums that serve as secondary support groups.
  

Inspiration

• Inspires one to hack.
• since everything comes with source
  
• Inspires one to try other OS's.
• since it's old and crufty
  
• Inspires one to create good-looking things.
  
• since it's elegant

I test well.

theSpoke:

US I.T. leaderboard:
1 William Long United States 74 Texas A&M University
2 Joshua Blake United States 73 James Madison University
3 Brian Desmond United States 70 Walter Payton College Prep High School
4 Tim McCleary United States 70
5 Victor Garcia United States 68 Boston University
6 Iwan Kinal United States 67 Columbia University
7 Jeff Tjiputra United States 66 College of Southern Maryland
8 Joe Brandow United States 66 Johns Hopkins University - SPSBE
9 Bao Nguyen United States 62 University of Washington-Seattle
10 Chris Amaris United States 62
11 Kevin Chiu United States 62 University of Washington-Seattle

Not bad for someone who's never done IT stuff! I had no idea what my answers meant, it was multiple choice. I hope the next round is multiple choice too!