Windows 10 - Codename "Disappointment"

Just last Tuesday, Microsoft had a press-only meeting where they showed off the desktop version of the coming Windows. Strangely, they called it Windows 10. What about Windows 9? The speaker said that the changes they were introducing were so revolutionary, they felt the need to reset the counter (kind of like Apple with OS X). When they said that I started to panic. Last time someone from Microsoft said that on stage, we got hit with Windows 8. And that didn't have a happy ending no matter how you put it. From what I saw at the confrence, the concept of "the same Windows everywhere" seemed promising. If Microsoft executes this correctly desktops, laptops, tablets, Xbox Ones, and Windows Phones will all be running the same Windows platform to create a universal app API (so now can we play Xbox games on PC?)

Now just yesterday they released a Technical Preview of Windows 10. If Microsoft had codenamed one of their operating systems "Disappointment", it would be this. I encountered my first disappointment during install. It absolutely refused to upgrade on my main desktop from Windows 8.1 Industry Pro. I did, however, manage to get it working on my laptop as an upgrade from Windows 8.1 Industry Pro. After setting it all up like a new PC, I was presented with the desktop. I clicked Start. I messed around with the Task View (more on that later). And that was it. Really Microsoft? When you say your next operating system is going to be revolutionary, I better be absolutely blown away. The Start menu was condensed to look like the Windows 7 start menu but with live tiles. Task view allows you to have multiple desktops so that you can quickly switch between screens of programs. The only other differences were modern (formerly metro) apps are now windowed and you can do a universal search from the Start menu or the task bar. On a more positive note, I did notice a HUGE performance increase. In Windows 8.1 and 10, the OS automatically runs maintenance tasks while your computer is inactive. In Windows 8.1, it would have a tendancy to take about 5 or so minutes to stop doing maintenance when I started using my computer. During this time, apps would crash, my mouse would freeze, and even the Start screen was sluggish to load. Now in Windows 10, maintenance stops immediately when I move the mouse. And even without that issue, I saw apps opening and running faster. Unfortunately, a lot of apps seemed to freeze or crash once I started using Task View. I don't blame Microsoft for this as this is a new feature and developers will need some time to help modify their app accordingly.

I am going to say I am completely disappointed. I may have been expecting too much, but that's Microsoft's fault. If you really wanted to blow me away, here's what I want:

• Cortana (Personal Assistant, similar to Siri on iOS)
• Let me control my computer with the Kinect (make use of those big metro tiles)
• Pull down notification center (like on WP 8.1)
• Better multi-monitor support (Windows 8.1 doesn't play very nicely with multiple monitors)
• Trackpad gestures
• Add hotkey for Task View (unless I'm missing something)
• Swipe keyboard for touch enabled devices
• Syncronizing of WiFi passwords across platforms
• Call and Text notification forwarding (similar to the feature in OS X Yosmite where you can answer a call on your iMac)
• Performance increase (use less memory)
• Make OneDrive sync EVERYTHING in my home directory (not just the OneDrive folder)
• Swap out Miracast support for a more common standard (UPnP? DNLA?)
• Allow streaming from Xbox to PC
• Make use of Windows Azure to make more settings available to be synced across all my devices
• App sharing for families (similar to Family Sharing in the Steam game client)
• Battery saver app (disable cores, lower screen brightness, spin down hard drive, I don't care. Just give me my 8 hours of battery life back. 4 hours is unacceptable)
• Bring back the WEI (Windows experience index)
• When I download an app, if I own multiple devices logged in under the same account, let me choose to also have the app automatically download on any devices I select.
• Let me scale live tile app tiles 4x the large size so I can actually read what the live data says
• If I double click on a live tile (or something else), open the app straight to whatever it was showing in the live tile data. For example, if the twitter app shows an update from someone, I should be able to open the twitter app and immediately see that post. I understand that this is more of an app developer thing, but Microsoft should really add it to their modern app API

 Windows 10 was a disappointment. I will say that I am looking forward to the universal app idea. However, last time Microsoft tried this, they left it up to the app developers to integrate their code into one package. With Windows 10, apps should automatically scale accordingly to the screen size. Overall I have high expectations for when the entire Windows 10 package is released sometime in April of 2015. But until then, I will be sticking with a more stable Windows 8.1.

So let us know in the comments, what do you want to see in Windows 10? Did you download the Technical Preview? What did you think? Leave your response in the comments below.

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New Windows Phone 8.1 Update - texting and folders

The update screen for Windows Phone 8.1

Today, Microsoft released a preview version of it's mobile operating system Windows Phone 8.1. There wasn't any massive GUI overhaul or major bug patches, but it's an update almost every Windows Phone user has been waiting for.

If you have never heard of Windows Phone before, let me be the first to say you are missing out. For an in-depth review and comparison against Android and iOS, read this first -> http://allstuffnerdy.blogspot.com/2014/06/tech-wars-mobile-os-edition.html.

Here's what's inside the update:


App folders:
This is something almost every Windows Phone user has been asking for. Microsoft did a similar thing in Windows 8.1 with "App groups", but no one cared because they were all complaining about the metro interface as a whole. As you can see from the screenshots below, It's a nice addition that will help reduce clutter on your home screen. It works the same way as on iOS, just drag an app tile on top of another and it becomes a folder. And you can resize the folder just like with app tiles. the supported sizes are small, medium, and wide.

Multi-message forwarding:
I'm not quite sure if this is something I would ask for in a phone operating system, but I have come across a few experiences where this would be handy. For example, I was once asked to forward about 36 pictures in a text to someone else. Unfortunately, because of the high quality of my camera and the size limit of MMS messages, I could only send about 4 images in one message. So I ended up sending 10 messages (9 with the pictures, one to confirm they had received it. The whole process took about 5 minutes. Later that day, someone else asked me to do the same thing, so there goes another 5 minutes. With this update, all you have to do is select all the messages within a thread you would like to send, and hit forward. Dead simple.

App corner:
Basically, it's the same thing as kid's corner. There are few differences though. The first being you have to either launch it through settings, or pin it to your start. The other thing is it's not as restrictive as kid's corner. Internet and search options are available. You can turn any combination of them on and off. Microsoft says it's for "when other people use your phone". Right...like I would ever trust someone else to do whatever they want on my phone.

Other stuff:
I'm sure Microsoft fixed some bugs here, some memory leaks there, and lowered it's resource use. But on my Windows Phone, I noticed no difference. Props to the developers though, it's still a great mobile phone operating system.

Tech Wars-Mobile OS Edition

Copyright 2014 Joshua Zenn. All logos within are property of their respective owner(s)

iOS vs Android. Their makers seem locked in an infinite battle. And now Microsoft has (re)entered the mobile arena with Windows Phone 8.1. It's time to put these mobile operating systems to the test. Now before we begin we have to explain that we are only using CONSUMER editions of the operating systems. That means that WP 8.1 Developer and iOS 8 are excluded.

	iOS 7.1	Android 4.4	Windows Phone 8.1	Winner
First released	June 29, 2007	October 2003	2004	Android 4.4
Fanbase	410 million (2012	900 million (2013)	Unknown (less than 5% of market share)	Android 4.4
Apps in app store	more than 1 million	950,000	120,000	iOS 7.1
Kernel/code roots	Darwin/Unix	Linux	Windows Kernel	NA
Device support	Apple branded hardware	Most ARM based phones with at least 512 MB RAM	Microsoft branded hardware (mostly Nokia and Samsung at the moment)	Android 4.4
Screen sharing support	Airplay	Chromecast	USB or Miracast	WP 8.1
Voice Assistant	Siri	Google Now	Cortana	WP 8.1
Developer program	$200 USD a year plus you must own a Mac	one-time $25 USD fee plus any computer that will run Java	$90 yearly fee plus any PC running Visual Studio 2013	Android 4.4
Enterprise device management	Yes, certificates	Unknown	Yes, Microsoft Exchange	Tie, iOS and WP
Emulators	Yes, only on Macs with the Developer Program	Yes, with devkit. And boot a fully functional version with the x86 project	Yes, included with devkit	Android 4.4
Developer previews	Yes, requires full DevCenter subscription	Yes, but only on supported devices	Yes, using app with free AppStudio account	WP 8.1
Built-in browser	Safari	Chrome	Internet Explorer	Three way tie, category eliminated
Unlock methods	Jailbreak	Root	None	iOS 7.1
"silent" mode	Do Not Disturb	Unknown	Quiet Hours	WP 8.1

Winners	Average user	Developer	Buisness user	Overall Winner
	Windows Phone 8.1	Android 4.4	Windows Phone 8.1	Tie, Windows 8.1 and Android 4.4

So for this episode of Tech Wars, we divided up the results a little bit differently. Now can break down each section to show how we selected a winner.

Average user:
Windows Phone just barely won this catagory with it's amazing "Quiet Hours" mode that supports geofencing, calender events, and manual triggers. It also has the most flexible screen-sharing function and it has one of the best voice assistants. We chose Cortana as the best voice assistant because Cortana can intelligently display more information than Siri and Cortana is also very expandable through the Windows Phone API.

Developer:
Android took this catagory by storm by having an extremely cheap developer program and a universal devkit that works on just about any computer that is capable of running and compiling Java. It also has a decent emulator and there is an unofficial port to the x86 (32-bit) PC platform.

Business user:
As discussed above, Quiet Hours is an amazing feature of Windows Phone 8.1. And a "silent mode" is a must for any business professional. Windows Phone also has Cortana and offers the best support with enterprise profiles by integrating with your business's already-existing Microsoft Exchange services. And it also offers a nice screen-sharing feature so you can give presentations using the included Microsoft Office app.

Overall Winner:
Windows Phone 8.1 is great and all, but Android has an iron grip in the market share holding 900 million device registrations. Plus Android has lots of apps already in it's app store. But Windows Phone 8.1 is feature rich in almost every other category. So this Tech Wars ends in a tie.

So let us know in the comments, do you agree with our pick? Would you have picked something else? Do you think we left out a worthy competitor? Let us know in the comments. And stay tuned every Tuesday and Thursday for more Tech Wars.

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Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_iOS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IOS
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Phone

Nokia Lumia 630 released in UK, soon to hit US

Windows phones have gone unnoticed for a long time. But recently they have been capturing the media's attention with the Windows Phone 8.1 release and Microsoft acquiring Nokia. So now the world is watching Nokia to see what they are going to do next. They decided to widen their target audience by introducing a budget price smartphone. They released the Nokia Lumia 630 at the low price of around $120 USD ($89 euros). This seems to be in direct response to the Moto E and the new Samsung Galaxy 5. Not to mention the looming prospect of the iPhone 6. The Nokia Lumia 630 will have a Snapdragon 400 processor clocked in at 1.2 GHz (very similar to the processor in the iPhone 5C). It will contain 512 MB of RAM and will be the first phone ever to come pre-installed with Windows Phone 8.1. It will have 8 GB of built-in flash memory but will sport a MicroSD card to add more storage. It is also rumoured that the Brazil version will support dual-SIM cards (to decrease offline time for people who's jobs depend on them picking up the phone when it rings). The 630 went live in the UK on May 29th and is supposedly coming soon to the US. So let us know in the comments, what major phone release are you looking forward to? Or are you happy with your current phone? Let us know in the comments below.

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Free games from EA - Origin on the house deals

By now most of us know what Valve's Steam service is. It's a gaming platform that provides a game store, mods and customization sharing platform, along with a social network complete with screenshot and screen capture sharing. Valve has refused to release actual data, but it is rumored that Valve owns the majority of the gaming market on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux combined. Although small and unheard of, Origin is the largest competitor to Steam. Steam owns the market with an all-in-one package of a social network and game store. Plus they have insane deals going on all the time. They even have their own in-home streaming service (read more here). EA saw this as a major challenge. They needed to get attention back to Origin. But how do you beat insane deals that sometimes can shave 90% of the original price? Give away games for free. Yes, EA is giving games away for free. And it's not sweepstakes or links to piratebay. They are giving away free EA branded games to anyone who wants them. EA announced On The House Deals back in may and has been giving away 1 free game ever since. They only do one title at time. Recently some major ones include Dead Space and Plants vs. Zombies Game of the Year Edition. You have to act fast though, EA says on their website: "...On the House specials can appear and disappear at any time". EA says on the website "... [EA's on the house deals are] a fantastic way to see what Origin is all about." So obviously this is a big promotion to move people away from Steam. In my experience, I just download Origin to claim and download the game, then I add it to steam as a non-Steam game. That way people can see what I'm playing, but I can still take advantage of EA's on the house deals. You can bookmark https://www.origin.com/en-us/store/free-games/on-the-house or just check our Twitter feed (see below) to get updated when a new game comes out.

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Nvidia shield - Overview

Ever wish you could play your graphic-intensive games on the go? Mobile technology is achieving higher clock speeds at a rapid pace, but it is nowhere near as fast as desktop computing hardware. Not to mention that they lack the room to allow for proper cooling. Nvidia has found a potential solution. They created the Nvidia Shield.

For those not familiar with the company, Nvidia is a large graphics card manufacturer that owns about 62% (tekrevue) of the GPU market. Not to mention that Nvidia has created some of the fastest GPUs ever made. So they already have a large base of gamers to test with. They took note of how lots of people use their mobile devices for games (usually not hardcore 3D gaming, but gaming in general). So they created a device that could play top-of-the-line games with bottom-line hardware. The whole system relies on the user owning a computer that has a supported Nvidia GPU (most Nvidia GPUs made in the last two years should be fine). Then using the Shield, they can pick any game from their library. The game will launch on their computer and the computer will stream the screen to the Shield. The Shield will also send back key presses to the computer to interact with the game. Essentially, it's just a fancy way to remote-control your computer playing a video game. The Shield supports sending 60 FPS @ 1080p over either Wi-Fi or Ethernet (Ethernet is faster). Recently Nvidia has announced that it will be supporting streaming over the internet, so you are no longer tethered to your home network. The Nvidia Shield itself runs Android on a 1.9 GHz quad core ARM processor called the Tegra (which is also manufactured by Nvidia). It has 2 GB of RAM and a 1280x720 IPS Retina display. The Retina part of it means that it has more pixels per inch than the human eye can tell apart, so the images look more realistic. It was released at $299 USD but has since dropped down to $199 USD. Overall it seems like a reasonable device, but the price tag of the Shield and a compatible Nvidia GPU is overkill. But if you like to play your games almost every waking moment of your life, it may be worth considering. Recently a lot of competitors have released their own version of Nvidia's streaming service (read my article on the Steam streaming service here).

3 reasons you should get it:
1)You can stream your games to play on the go.
2) You will soon be able to stream your games from anywhere in the world.
3)It runs android, so it can function like a normal Android tablet (without calling or SMS)

3 reasons you should not get it:
1)It carries a heavy price tag
2)It requires a fast computer and internet connection to function properly
3)Most people don't have a use for this. They like their giant screen that they play games on.

So ahead and leave a comment below, what would you use the Nvidia Shield for?

Sources:
http://www.tekrevue.com/nvidia-takes-62-of-discrete-gpu-market-share-in-q2-2013/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Shield

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Game Corner - Surgeon Simulator 2013 - Review/Gameplay tips

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What's a game that combines hours of fun with gruesome depictions of medical operations? Surgeon Simulator 2013. Originally created as part of a programming contest, the game was then expanded into a full-featured game to be released on Valve's Steam game distribution store. In the game you play as Nigel, a supposed surgeon tasked with undertaking many difficult and strange operations. To begin you start with a basic heart transplant. The game is controlled with the keyboard and mouse. The mouse moves Nigel's hand, while the AWER and Space keys control his individual fingers. If you want to use two hands in the game, you are going to need to pick up a Razer Hydra. So back to the game, you use the difficult and awkward controls to move his hand around to pick up various tools. In the upper right-hand corner you can watch the blood level of the patient. You lose when the patient loses all of their blood. The patient loses blood when certain tools come in contact with the flesh of the patient. The game never mentions it until later (I had to look online to find it), but there are a set of syringes in the game that are used to control the blood flow of the patient. One of the syringes stops blood flow. However, if you accidentally stab yourself with that syringe, your vision becomes warped and it becomes difficult to perform the other operation. Hitting yourself with the other syringe will undo the effect. But beware not to mix up the syringes as the second one can make the bleeding worse. When run when the Steam service is in online mode, various achievements can be obtained by doing several difficult or gruesome tasks. As you move up in levels, the operations become more difficult and you change locations. Different types of surgeries include heart transplant, kidney transplant, and brain transplant. Locations include surgery room, ambulance, and space (which tends to be the most difficult location).

Bottom line:
Besides being quite frusturating and having limited replay value, it is definately full of easter eggs and random physics that can create hours of fun.

My rating: ***** 5 stars out of 5

If you want to get it yourself, you can grab it from the Steam client (steampowered.com) for $9.99. But if you keep an eye on it you may catch it on sale!



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Valve releases in-home streaming service from beta

For those who have not used Steam before, Steam is a game distribution network created by Valve. It includes a game and DLC store along with a social network and content sharing platform (mods, screenshots and videos). Recently a few weeks ago Valve brought its streaming service out from beta and released it to the public. This seems to be a direct response to the streaming of the Nvidia Shield with select Nvidia graphics cards. In terms of what it can do, it's basically a way to remote control your computer playing a video game. Normal remote control clients like Teamviewer are not built for video games. Most of them do not support full-screen programs like DirectX and OpenGL. And they are not built to transmit the screen images fast enough in order to reduce lag in a game. That's where the Steam streaming service comes in. It allows streaming of almost any video game (even ones not bought on Steam) in 720p or 1080p (select devices) to any client running Steam. Right now you can only stream from Windows computers, but the client can be Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux (including SteamBoxes running SteamOS). And the service is optimized to run on slower computers. I performed a test using the following computers:

Host (the computer running the game)

• 2.6 GHz single-core AMD Athlon CPU
• 2 GB RAM
• AMD 7750 GPU
• Windows 7 64-bit

Client (the one playing the game)

• 1.7 GHz dual-core Intel Atom CPU
• 1 GB RAM
• Integrated Intel Media Accelerator GPU
• Windows 8.1 64-bit

Both computers were running nothing but the Steam service. I started with something simple. I fired up Just Cause 2 and began to play on my laptop (the client). Normally I can't run Just Cause 2 on my laptop (the game refuses to run on integrated graphics), but it worked out pretty well. Just running around in an empty desert I had about 29 FPS on a 720p quality stream over my home Wi-Fi network. During a couple of frantic fire-fights, the framerate dropped down to 20 FPS, but then it shot back up to 45 FPS when it downgraded the quality to 480p. The controls remained very responsive, it seemed like they had programmed it so that controls were always a higher priority. I then wanted to test it in a more intensive environment, so I launched Super Hexagon. For those of you who have never played Super Hexagon before, it's a game that requires total concentration. It's a game built on reaction time and how quick you can process information on a screen. While playing, it stayed locked in at 30 FPS at 720p. But there was a slight noticeable lag in the controls. The game moves at such a fast pace, you will notice every millisecond of lag in the controls.

In all, this seems like a very promising feature. While it only works under your own network, Valve may follow in their competitor's footsteps and add streaming over the internet. And in my tests, I pushed two, 6 year old computers to their limits by encoding and decoding 720p video in real time, and I was surprised by the results. For the record, my laptop has never been able to play any game (including Super Hexagon) at above 10 FPS. This service really breathed new life into my laptop. If you want to check it out, head over to steampowered.com to download Steam.

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Windows 8.1 Myths - Fact or Fiction?

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We all know how bad Windows 8 was. It was like Microsoft combined their Windows Phone Team and the Windows Team and somehow they got too much of the Windows Phone. Many desktop users were left in the dark with an operating system that really didn’t like mice and keyboards. Windows 8.1 inherited this bad reputation, namely because it still has an 8 in it. But with Windows 8.1, and even the spring update for it, is Windows 8.1 really that bad?

Myth: Windows 8.1 is horrible for gaming.

Reality: Fiction

I have one computer where I have been switching in between Windows XP Media Center 32-bit, Windows 7 Home Premium 32-bit, and Windows 8.1 32-bit (I use 32 bit Windows 8.1 because my processor doesn’t support PreFetchW). In all, I see better performance in games in Windows XP hands down. But between Windows 7 and Windows 8.1, I see AT LEAST a 10 FPS increase in all of my games. And I’m talking games Like Dead Space, Just Cause 2, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, and several other intense games. Just to test it, I opened up Minecraft 1.7.9 and set all settings to max. Here are my results:

Windows 7: 45.2 Avg FPS

Windows 8.1: 59.8 Avg FPS

All of these tests were done on a near fresh installation of Windows with only Steam running in the background (which is required to launch most of my games). As for the upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1, I had a friend who had recently bought a laptop that came pre-installed with Windows 8 64-bit Standard. He had bought it with the hopes that it would be able to play his games on the go. He was highly disappointed when he installed Call of Duty: Black Ops and found out that it operated at <20 FPS. Sometimes, it would even dip down to the below 10 range when he was in a large gunfight. He brought it to me and the first thing I noticed was that he hadn’t installed a single update from Windows Update (He was missing around 10 updates). We installed them all to no avail. In fact, I think I made it worse. I then proceeded to install the Windows 8.1 Upgrade from the store. After that, MASSIVE improvement. His FPS can peak at around 45 FPS and it rarely dips down lower than 20 in a really messy fight. I haven’t heard back from him whether or not the Spring Update boosted his FPS or not. It did on me, but only by about 5 FPS.

Myth: Windows 8.1’s metro apps are dumb

Reality: Fiction

Initially, we all hated the metro interface. It was like someone accidentally put a tablet app store in a PC operating system. Really though, they can have some potential. Sure touch screen desktops are a long way from claiming the market, but they still have their uses. In the spring update for Windows 8.1, they added the a ability to pin metro apps to the taskbar and to be able to minimize metro apps. And they even added the ability to see the taskbar while within the app. Sure you might hate the fact that the app demands all of your screen space, but now with the update, you can now just think of it as a really big desktop app.

Myth: Windows 8.1 doesn't support many devices.

Reality: Depends

For USB devices, Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.x all use the same Windows update database for drivers. There is no reason it shouldn't support your previously working devices. As for computer internals, I have heard some rumors that Windows 8.x is a little bit picky with what it will run on, but I have no experience with this, everything worked perfectly on my three computers.

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Life of Sudo – Day 001 – 16 colors is better than none

Hello blog readers! This is a blog of all my crazy tech adventures. I am constantly making unnecessary upgrades to ancient hardware and usually spending lots of time trying to fix them. If you have something crazy you want me to try on one of my old computers (as long as it doesn't break it!), feel free to drop a comment below.

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They said it couldn't be done, and they were right. You cannot run Windows 8.1 on a Pentium III. So, I went with the next best thing, Windows 7! I finally got it to install on a 833 MHz PIII with 512 MB of RAM. I was surprised when it booted up in under 2 minutes. Not bad. Then I saw the login screen and just about had a heart attack. For some reason, Windows 7 didn't like the integrated Intel 810e graphics card, so it just decided to default to 16 color (read color, not bit) at 800 x 600 resolution. After going through the setup (and obviously skipping the activation, ‘cause nobody got time for that), I fired up IE8. Then I found out that I wasn't connected to the internet. Turns out that Windows couldn't get the driver for my Ethernet card. Problem was that it had to go online to get the driver for the card so it could connect to the internet. Stupid Windows. I stuck a Wi-Fi stick into the PC and got it online. Then the computer locked up. Should have known, Windows was trying to install about 183 updates. After letting it run all day, it finally restarted. Then I tried to go back to the problem with the graphics. I fired up IE8 again. Trying to expose myself to IE as little as possible, I immediately installed Firefox since Chrome is a little bit of a resource hog. After searching the Intel driver database, I found out that they just deleted the entire 810 driver database after Windows Vista was released because of the new WDDM driver framework. So much for that. I'll try Linux on one of my other computers tomorrow.

Hello blog readers! Be sure to drop a comment below to see if I should continue this series on my blog. And if you want me to do something crazy with one of my old computers, be sure to drop a comment below. Don’t forget to like, +1, and share this article! If you have a tech company or product that you want me to review or mention here on this blog, visit http://www.fiverr.com/armmaster17. Have Fun!

Git + CVS + Windows = Team Foundation Server - FOR FREE!

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Hello blog readers! Today I thought I would talk about the Windows version of Git, Team Foundation Server. Git is a code repository. That means that it's just a fancy way to store 50 versions of a source code file and help you keep track of who edited what, when, and why. Unfortunately, unless you are proficient with the Linux command line, Git is 100% useless to you. And what about using Visual Studio with Git? Yeah, OK, that's easy (NOT EVEN CLOSE! (Building source codes from .sln files is not supported, or keeping track of them for that matter)). So what are Windows developers using languages like C#, VB, or ASP.NET? What about direct integration with Windows Azure? How about compiling builds in the cloud? Welcome to the world of Team Foundation Server. TFS is a cloud based service provided by Microsoft for developers using Visual Studio to get all the features of Git and more. The instructions to get an account will vary. If you use DreamSpark or BizSpark you can register from your software catalog. Everyone else can register at tfs.visualstudio.com. I am not sure about signing up at the Visual Studio website, but DreamSpark users get free access and five free users. Once you link your account you can create a company or team name. Once you do that, you can access your company or team page at [team name].visualstudio.com. Once there you can create a new project or import one from Git (smart, huh?). Once your project is up and running you can link it easily with Visual Studio 2013 from the server toolbar using your Visual Studio profile on your Hotmail account. Visual Studio 2010 and 2008 users need a KB update from Microsoft before they can connect. If you are using Visual Studio 2005 or below, Microsoft has free tools available that will check out and check in files, but that's about it. On the website, you get all the bug tracking and file management tools that git has. Some features not found on Git include cloud compiles (it was surprisingly easy to set up through Visual Studio 2013), and testing cases. Testing cases allow you to have beta testers that can log into your repository and run a test on your program using a checklist with step-by-step instructions on what to do. The checklist also includes a Bug Found button that allows the tester to report bugs in the software during testing. Afterwards, you can log in and see the results of the test. One final amazing feature of Team Foundation Server is its integration with Windows Azure. That means that when you are done coding, just push your updated website to Windows Azure through TFS, and see the results instantly. Git is an amazing piece of software that is invaluable to Linux programmers, but when you need to develop a Windows application with a large team with advanced tracking features, Team Foundation Server is the way to go.

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A virtual museum

Hello blog readers! Sorry I missed geek pride day yesterday, my router isn't the best for 100% uptime. I just thought I would share with you a really neat website: www.winworldpc.com. This website is an online museum with all sorts of stuff like windows 0.1-windows ME ISOs. They have beta ISOs for vista and xp. They also have some Mac OSs but I haven't had a chance to try them out yet. They also have old software and a link to a really good game website (coreduo.me.uk, thanks Cooltile for the reminder!). The game website has the best classics you could find like flight sim 98, or sim copter. Have Fun!

Be sure to like, comment, +1, tweet, or whatever you want to use to share this post. And be sure to click on "suggest an article" above. It takes 5 minutes and really helps me out. And remember that ANYONE can comment below. No sign-in required. Have Fun!

One more thing. I'm currently working on something I'm going to call project Chicago (you old-school windows fans might recognize this name). I'm planning to release it by the end of the summer. Stay tuned as I am going to be needing help and will post here when the need arises. Have Fun!

How to run windows apps in linux

Hello fans!

If you want to see todays post on my other blog, click here. But as for this post, I want to talk about something more advanced than turbo charging your installers. I want to show you how you can downgrade your computer from linux so that you can run windows applications. (I say downgrade for a reason). First, open up a command interface. Then type in synaptic if you just cant stand a command line. If you want to do it in the command line, type in sudo apt-get install wine. If you do it from synaptic, just type in wine and select whatever has the most dependancies (I think it is wine-core, but just check everything but the -dev files). Once you authenticate the action, go do something productive, it's going to take a while. On my pentium III machine, it took about 20 minutes (but it may vary for you, my room has bad WiFi coverage). When it finishes, go find something that ends in .exe and go to its location in file manager (or natilus or whatever you use). Right-click on it and select properties. Then navigate to the permissions tab. Then select "allow the user to run this file as a program" (or something like that). Then close that out and right-click it again. But this time, select Wine windows program loader from the menu (or something that says wine in it). Then the magic happens. I just played need for speed III through wine before I uploaded this post. Well, Have Fun!

Be sure to like, +1, blah, blah, blah, you know the drill. If you need to contact me for anything (keep it technology related please, I hate spam just as much as you do), just send me an email at wordman05@hotmail.com. Have Fun!