In the process of tracking down the root of my Outlook 2007 "missing manifest" bug I discovered that Windows Live Installer was failing with a "catastrophic error". (Love that! It's not as good as "Abort, Retry, Fail" but, for the anemic Microsoft of modern times it's not bad.).
I went down this root because the nature of the missing manifests suggested the bad behavior was related to either Office Communicator or Live Messenger. Installing Communicator didn't fix things, so Live Messenger was up next. Trying to install Live Messenger led to my "catastrophic error".
Others have run into this problem with Live Suite installs. That page pointed to the beta version of Windows Live apps as the problem. So it was with me. I used the Add/Remove control panel Windows Live Beta installer to remove all my Windows Live products. (Some had been updated to non-beta status by Windows Update, but it appears that wasn't enough.)
After that I was able to run the Windows Live Installer normally and to add them all back in.
So now on the Manifest bug ...
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Friday, November 21, 2008
Nice summary of browser anonymity and isolation measures
The VM sandboxing is especially interesting: The Real Blogger Status: Your Browser, In Anonymity And Safety - Browser Isolation.
You have to be sure your VM is really isolated though. Many OS X VMs provide VM clients access to the OS X file system. That's normally a feature, but it's a big issue if the VM goes rogue.
The furthest I go today is using FF with NoScript, or using Chrome. Mostly I just use plain FF and don't wander far from bright lights and the jostling crowd.
You have to be sure your VM is really isolated though. Many OS X VMs provide VM clients access to the OS X file system. That's normally a feature, but it's a big issue if the VM goes rogue.
The furthest I go today is using FF with NoScript, or using Chrome. Mostly I just use plain FF and don't wander far from bright lights and the jostling crowd.
iPhone 2.2 - reboot during a call.
My phone just rebooted in the middle of a call. The phone was charging via USB at the time.
Actually, I'm not sure it really rebooted. It may have hard crashed into the Apple logo. I had to force a full reboot.
It's never done that before.
I suggest waiting a while before updating to 2.2. If you do update, do a reboot immediately after the install.
Update 11/22/08: The phone hasn't spontaneously rebooted since the first event. The MPR App died with the OS update -- crashed on selecting a "channel". I deleted the app on the phone, checked for updates (none, I'd already updated it once recently), and reinstalled from iTunes. that fixed the problem.
Update 11/30/08: No further problems, updates working, no more intra-call reboots.
Actually, I'm not sure it really rebooted. It may have hard crashed into the Apple logo. I had to force a full reboot.
It's never done that before.
I suggest waiting a while before updating to 2.2. If you do update, do a reboot immediately after the install.
Update 11/22/08: The phone hasn't spontaneously rebooted since the first event. The MPR App died with the OS update -- crashed on selecting a "channel". I deleted the app on the phone, checked for updates (none, I'd already updated it once recently), and reinstalled from iTunes. that fixed the problem.
Update 11/30/08: No further problems, updates working, no more intra-call reboots.
iPhone 2.2: Why does only Google use the Safari databases?
After installing iPhone OS 2.2 [1] I was poking around settings and came across Safari's database settings.
They're probably old, but little remarked on. I found no hits for the string: iphone safari databases "talk asset cache".
Turns out iPhone/Safari has an interesting collection of database stores, but only Google seems to use them. I found one for Google Talk (suggests they might do something with it if Apple ever enables the #$@$! instant messaging function [2]), translate phrases and mail.google.com.
It's odd nobody else seems to use them.
--
[1] No problems, even though my network chose the update time to grind to a halt.
It may be coincidence, but power resetting my Airport Extreme seemed to clear up the problem. It was last reset when the power went out several months ago.
It is a bit weird how many glitches I get like that; that was my first network issue in months. Next time though I'd probably reboot the phone first to clear out gremlins and place it in airplane mode to prevent any incoming calls.
[2] If Apple had implemented their promised notification framework, AT&T and Apple would have lost a lot of SMS revenue. I don't think we'll see this notification framework until Apple and AT&T feel more competitive heat. Maybe the next generation of Android phones. The current BlackBerrys won't do the trick; their beautiful hardware masks an impressively lousy OS.
They're probably old, but little remarked on. I found no hits for the string: iphone safari databases "talk asset cache".
Turns out iPhone/Safari has an interesting collection of database stores, but only Google seems to use them. I found one for Google Talk (suggests they might do something with it if Apple ever enables the #$@$! instant messaging function [2]), translate phrases and mail.google.com.
It's odd nobody else seems to use them.
--
[1] No problems, even though my network chose the update time to grind to a halt.
It may be coincidence, but power resetting my Airport Extreme seemed to clear up the problem. It was last reset when the power went out several months ago.
It is a bit weird how many glitches I get like that; that was my first network issue in months. Next time though I'd probably reboot the phone first to clear out gremlins and place it in airplane mode to prevent any incoming calls.
[2] If Apple had implemented their promised notification framework, AT&T and Apple would have lost a lot of SMS revenue. I don't think we'll see this notification framework until Apple and AT&T feel more competitive heat. Maybe the next generation of Android phones. The current BlackBerrys won't do the trick; their beautiful hardware masks an impressively lousy OS.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Top Apps for iPhone - better than the App Store
I prefer this layout to the App Store: Apple - iPhone - Top Apps.
Second oddest iPhone omission: screen lock
The oddest iPhone omission is cut, copy paste.
The omission I am most disgusted by is an API that would allow Google to sync the iPhone calendar to Google Calendar over the air.
The second oddest iPhone omission is that you can't lock the touch screen during a call. I frequently tap the wrong button. I'd like a way to set the screen to 'swipe mode' so it was safe from errant touches.
Update: I just tested with iPhone 2.2. If I click the 'off' button during a call, it locks the screen just the way I want. I'd tried this with 2.1; it seemed to work but it on one test it disconnected me. So I gave up on it.
On the other hand 2.2 also rebooted during a call when I wasn't touching that switch, so I'm not sure I'd recommend upgrading just yet.
The omission I am most disgusted by is an API that would allow Google to sync the iPhone calendar to Google Calendar over the air.
The second oddest iPhone omission is that you can't lock the touch screen during a call. I frequently tap the wrong button. I'd like a way to set the screen to 'swipe mode' so it was safe from errant touches.
Update: I just tested with iPhone 2.2. If I click the 'off' button during a call, it locks the screen just the way I want. I'd tried this with 2.1; it seemed to work but it on one test it disconnected me. So I gave up on it.
On the other hand 2.2 also rebooted during a call when I wasn't touching that switch, so I'm not sure I'd recommend upgrading just yet.
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