Posted by Matthew Guay on Jan 18, 2010 | 0 comments
Although Windows Phones have been around for many years, the apps built around the platform often feel dated. Additionally, they are often much more expensive than their counterparts on other platforms such as the iPhone. There are notable exceptions to this, however, and the new Windows Marketplace for Mobile offers some exciting new apps.
This past week I came across a new exciting app on the Windows Marketplace thanks to their Twitter feed – a native Google Reader app! Google Reader is great for keeping up with news from your favorite sites and blogs, and many popular feed readers, such as the excellent FeedDemon, automatically sync your read feeds with it. This makes it very easy to keep up with what you’ve read whether you’re at your own computer or an internet-connected computer anywhere in the world.
Speeed Reader (yes, with 3 e’s … that’s not a typo!) now brings this power to Windows Phones in style. Although you can access Google Reader through your mobile browser, Speed Reader gives you a much nicer interface in which to read your feeds. Once you install this app, simply sign in with your Google Reader account and your feeds will automatically synchronize. All of your feeds will be easily viewable, and can additionally be cached for offline viewing. This is my favorite feature, as I can sync my feeds when I’m in a WiFi hotspot and then read them anytime later. When you sync again, Speeed Reader will refresh your read feeds on Google Reader so your feeds will be in sync everywhere.
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Posted by Matthew Guay on Jan 15, 2010 | 0 comments
This semester I am taking a Statistics class from Florida Tech, and our textbook from Pearson includes a statistics addon for Excel called PHStat2. It is apparently included in many Pearson textbooks, so even students not in a statistics class may need to use it. I have been running Office 2010 since the Tech Preview release, and am now running Office 2010 Beta x64 on my computer. It works great and has even run some other addons (especially ones for Outlook) without any problems. However, when I installed PHStat2 and tried to start it, I was greeted with this friendly error:
Ouch. I knew it had installed properly, but just to be sure, I reinstalled it and sure enough, I received the same error message. I didn’t want to reinstall Office 2007 just for this class, so I tested it on Office 2010 x86 (the standard 32 bit version) in Virtual PC. Guess what? It worked! Turns out, the only problem before was that the addin wouldn’t work correctly in the 64-bit version of Excel.
Will PHStat2 run on your version of Office 2010?
If you’re also running Office 2010 beta on your computer this semester, you likely can still use PHStat2. Here’s what I’ve found from testing in various configurations:
- PHStat2 runs perfectly in Office 2010 Beta Professional and Home and Business. This includes the standalone x86 (32-bit) standard installer and the Click2Run (C2R) installer that “streams” the apps from the internet. I encountered no problems whatsoever with it.
- PHStat2 does not run in Office 2010 Professional 64-bit (x64). It comes up with an error message stating that it cannot find the required PHStat2 file. This is not entirely surprising, as it is known that many plugins/addons do not work in the 64 bit edition.
- PHStat2 does not run in Office 2010 Starter edition. This edition does not support/run macros, and when you try to open the PHStat2 file it says it does not recognize the filetype.
Otherwise, every version of Office (and Excel) from 97 – 2007 should work fine. And, like I said, the standard install of Office 2010 beta works fine as well.
If for some reason you do not have a copy of Microsoft Office or Excel on your computer, you can actually download a free beta copy of Office 2010 from. This will run until October 2010, so while not a full fix, it will at least more than get you through this semester.
Also, if you have a Mac and are running Office 2003 or 2008, I do not believe PHStat2 will run on your computer. However, if you have a copy of Windows running in Bootcamp or Parallels/Fusion, then you could run Office 2010 beta in it (free download from http://us1.office2010beta.microsoft.com/default.aspx?culture=en-US – will run until October 2010) or an older version of Microsoft Office and just do the exercises in the Windows version of Excel.
Also, there may be an update for the version of PHStat2 that came with your textbook, so check their website at http://www.prenhall.com/phstat/ to see if one’s available. There was an update for mine, and my book was recently published, so be sure to check.
Macro Security
Please note that you may have to accept an “Enable Macros” dialog whenever you run PHStat2. You can change your security settings to always accept the PHStat2 addin by going to File, Options, Trust Center (click on the “Trust Center Settings” button in this dialog), and then select the Trusted Locations tab. Click on the “Add New Location…” button, and browse to PHStat2’s folder (usually C:\Program Files\PHStat2). Once you’ve pressed Ok in the dialogs, PHStat2 should be fully approved and you should not have to click through the “Enable Macros” dialog for it again.
If you encounter any issues with this, let me know and I’ll see if there’s a solution. Have fun with statistics!
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Posted by Matthew Guay on Jan 14, 2010 | 0 comments
Microsoft Press often offers eBooks for free, and the Windows 7 launch has prompted several new releases … for free! I recently saw an article on Rob Margel’s Windows Help blog about a new free guide to Windows 7 from Microsoft (actually, it’s from TechNet, though, not Microsoft Press. Keep reading for the Microsoft Press stuff!). It is a very nice PDF that gives a quick overview of some of Windows 7’s newest and greatest features, including the taskbar preview with Aero Peek, Libraries, Windows Snap (my favorite new feature), and more. It’s only 8 pages long, so it is not an in-depth Windows handbook, but if you haven’t been following the development of Windows 7 it can be a great introduction to Windows 7 features. Download it now in PDF form at this link:
But wait, there’s more…
And, if you’d like more in-depth coverage of Windows 7, Microsoft Press is offering 10 chapters from recently published books on Windows 7 for free. These cover a wide range of topics including installation, backup, maintenance, the new taskbar, remote access, security, and more. All chapters are available as PDF or XPS files at this link:
If you really enjoy the books and want more, you can always purchase the full eBooks from Microsoft Press’ new O’Reilly store.
Server 2008 R2 eBook for free too!
Windows Server 2008 R2, the server version of Windows 7, has a free eBook offer too. It includes a number of new features too, such as the newest version of Hyper-V with Live Migration, BranchCache, DirectAccess, and support for up to 256 processors! And students, don’t forget, you can download Windows Server 2008 R2 for free from Dreamspark! So here’s a complete, 182 page guide to every feature in Server 2008 R2 from Microsoft Press, for free. What more could you ask for?
That’s a ton of reading for now. Do you know of any other great tech eBooks for free? Sound off in the comments!
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Posted by Matthew Guay on Jan 13, 2010 | 0 comments
Have you ever wanted to create your own games for your PC? Most people assume game development would be costly and dificult, but today Microsoft has lowered the bar and made it easy for even children to create their own PC games with Kodu. I recently reviewed it at Digital Inspiration, so head to http://www.labnol.org/software/create-video-games-for-windows/12435/ to find out more about this exciting and simple way to create your own games and learn programming skills. Perhaps you can create the next Tinker!
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Posted by Matthew Guay on Jan 13, 2010 | 0 comments
Here’s a second installment with links to my writing that’s been published at Digital Inspiration. Hope you find something interesting and useful here; if you, check out my first list of articles at Digital Inspiration. I will continue to list my new articles going forward, so check back here for updates.
- The Complete Guide to Microsoft Outlook Add-ins and Utilities – extras for the world’s most popular email client
- Make Phone Calls over the Internet (VoIP) and Lower your Phone Bills – The first VoIP system I ever used was Dialpad.com over an ISDN connection. Needless to say, it didn’t work very well as a phone! Now, my Vonage phone has me spoiled, and I forget there even was such a thing as long distance!
- How to Purchase Books Online for Less – #1) Buy used, #2) Always comparison price, #3) Always use this article as your reference!
- A Visual Guide to Computer Cables and Connectors
- A Better Disk Defragmenter Utility from Microsoft
- Free Virtualization Software for your Windows PC – FYI, VMware Player and Virtual PC are my favorites, and are essential for testing software. Plus, they can be a lot of fun. One day I did a screenshot on my computer running Vista with a copy of XP, Ubuntu, and freeDOS, all running in their own windows. You could see them all via flip3D, which was cool. Not too practical though, especially as I only had 1Gb of ram in my computer at that time!
- Run Classic DOS Games on your Computer – especially MsPacMan!
- How to Connect Two Computers Without a Router – we used to do this before we had a router at home, and it really works great!
- How to Use Windows 7 Themes on XP and Vista Computers – this is fun, and will be increasingly useful as more sites have Windows 7 themes for download. And, hey, the XP tip would work on Mac or Linux computers, too!
- Comparison of Online Project Management Apps – My personal favorite is 37signals’ Backpack, which I have found great for managing projects even if that’s not its primary purpose. The article does cover 37sitnals’ main project management app, Basecamp, which is great too. Depends on your personal organizational style for which you will like better. Both offer free and paid accounts, so there’s something for everyone! And, the article lists a ton of other options which are very good too, so be sure to check it out. Project Management apps is a crowded field!
- The Best Twitter Apps for Windows – My personal favorites are Seesmic for Windows and Blu (which is absolutely beautiful!). Once again, there’s a ton of these, so check the article for an in-depth overview.
- Bring the Web to your Living Room
- Find the Song Name Without Knowing the Lyrics – I’ve said for years that we need an audio search engine, and here are a ton of promising apps that do just that. They don’t recognize everything (or even most songs I like – Christian and Classical), but they’re getting there. Very exciting!
- Setup a Virtual Private Network in Minutes … using Gtalk!
- Looking for a Good Puzzle Game for Windows? Microsoft Tinker is here – fun, adorable, mildly challenging, and free. What more could you ask for? Plus, isn’t it neat to get something that used to be an exclusive Vista Ultimate Extra for free?
Wow, that was a long list! Once again, remember to check back here at www.techinch.com frequently, as I’ll keep adding my writing from Digital Inspiration and unique articles just for Techinch. And if you’d like to see something covered here, let me know, and I’ll try to cover it either here or at Digital Inspiration. Enjoy!
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