OneDrive and Excel Online data loss

I think that around the time that I noticed that OneDrive's Excel Online finally got the ability to sum cells by mouse-selecting a range of cells, rather than manually specifying the range, that is when there were some hiccups at Microsoft and a day's worth of changes were lost.  Looking in the revision history of the file (File > Info > Previous Versions), there was not even a trace of any changes made on Nov 19, 2014.  So far this data loss appears to have only affected Excel Online and not OneNote, which I also frequently use.

I use Excel Online mainly for ease of use with my Windows Phone; many of my other are in Google Drive.  I hope the worthwhile changes Microsoft is making don't further adversely affect Excel Online.  So much for cloud backup.  Note, a quick search on Google and Twitter did NOT seem to indicate any problems with Excel Online.

Microsoft Windows annoyances

Although I am most comfortable using Windows, for the past several years, I have considered switching to Mac OS due to the prevalence of its usage in the software development community.  I have used Ubuntu Linux for more than a year as my primary OS at work and I tried a Mac Mini briefly.  With exposure to these other operating systems, as well as to mobile operating systems, iOS, Android, and even Windows Phone, the annoyances of Microsoft Windows has become more apparent.  These experiences are with Windows 7 Ultimate and Windows 7 Enterprise

1. If using Windows in a secure manner, by typically logging in as a non-administrator user, Windows will prompts for administrator password even though you've given it moments ago in the same program.  On the other hand, in a Ubuntu terminal window, e.g., you only need to give the root password to sudo once  
2. Windows seems to be a worse experience for handling files that have spaces in their paths , often not locating these files.  This may not be as apparent to a typical user, but is troublesome for developers working on Windows
3. Updates that require restarting the computer are too frequent.  While I recommend keeping up with software updates, I suggest "Download updates but let me choose whether to install them" for desktop computers (i.e. computers not on a metered connection) and "Check for updates but let me choose whether to download and install them" for mobile computers (i.e. on a metered connection).  Defaulting to the recommended option means your computer might restart overnight, losing any of your unsaved work.

4. Windows sometimes locks files and then doesn't indicate what process has a lock on a file/directory (Process Explorer might help).  This can prevent deleting a file/directory until all programs are closed, and sometimes even logging out or restarting the computer.  You're lucky if you get an informative window like this:
   

Fortunately Blue Screens of Death (BSOD) are extremely rare now, unless there is defective hardware involved, so Windows has come a long way. 

Windows 8.1 Pro, Disk running constantly at 100%, resolved

I was experiencing problems where my computer's disk was running at 100% constantly, as soon as I restarted the computer and switched to the Desktop.  This started happening in the last few days and was causing my computer to be almost unresponsive.  Not one single process seemed to be the culprit, similar to the screenshots found here.

After running a virus scan, a post in the above forum twigged something to try:  I went to the Action Center and saw this seemingly innocuous notification.

I discovered I could "archive" the notification and once I did, Disk usage dropped to reasonable levels.  While I was glad to solve this, I wonder how Windows can possibly operate so poorly.

Intermittent problems with VirtualBox, resolved

Trying to upgrade an older Ubuntu VM, I was experiencing intermittent problems during start-up of the VM.  These problems included:

• blank screen
• keyboard/mouse unresponsive

I tried installing Kubuntu to a VM, and also upgrade VirtualBox but continued having the same problems.  Was VirtualBox not compatible with Windows 8.1?  I considered Microsoft's Virtual PC, then tried installing VMWare Player.  Installation of VMWare Player error'd out on the fact that I had Microsoft Hyper-V enabled for Windows Phone development.  

Eventually I realized that Hyper-V might be interfering with VirtualBox.  After disabling Hyper-V, I tried multiple boots of my Linux VMs without encountering the symptoms I had before.  

Searching in Outlook

The ability to search and quickly find what you're looking for is obviously important.  We have become used to this with Google (although Google doesn't suffice for certain types of searches), but for some people, searching for files, email, etc. at work seems to be a hopeless task, and this situation is accepted.  

For Outlook 2003, the Advanced Find dialog box is extremely useful to narrow down your search.  It is available from the search bar, under Options on the far right.  Alternatively, just press Ctrl+Shift+F.  It is easier to use than using the search bar itself.

One caveat to Outlook searches is that if you are searching for text that is within a section of XML tags in the body of an email message, as may happen with technical discussions, Outlook is unable to search within those XML tags so the email you want will be missing from your results.  This is despite the fact that Outlook will search inside attachments, including ZIP files, and find text within XML tags for those attachments.  This behavior is consistent between Outlook 2003 and Outlook Web App (Client Access server version: 14.3.123.0).
 

Nokia Lumia 920/Windows Phone 8 impressions over a month and a half

For the potential WP8 adopter, like I was, there were these questions, which I didn't get answered until I was using my Lumia 920.

Some rights reserved by punk17er 

Does WP8 sync Video to SkyDrive, rather than just photos?  Yes, see Settings > backup > photos

Can User Agent of included Internet Explorer be adjusted?  No, it does not appear possible (can only choose between "mobile version" of website versus "desktop version")

Which smartphones (iPhone, Android, etc.), other than Nokia Lumia 920 and siblings, offer optical image stabilization?  The latest iPhone 5S does not yet offer this.

As I used the Lumia 920, there were some surprises, good and bad.  I generally focus on the unexpected bad surprises in this post although overall, I like my 920 and I feel the experience gets even better as I discover more features of the device and more apps and operating system updates are released.  For example, as winter approaches, discovering I can use the 920 with gloves on is a welcome surprise.

# September 16
- yellow theme color isn't as bright as expected ... Adjusting brightness helps
- doesn't focus well/photos aren't sharp ... Operating system update helps
- feel of screen is different than Samsung Focus (glass rather than plastic, and possibly a coating)
- flash doesn't activate ... Still an issue, occasionally activates
- list of apps is not separated by letters ... Requires installation of more apps to activate
- is scratch on glass (used phone) noticeable when phone screen is on?  No
- need to remember:  set up app-specific passwords for Google accounts that have 2-factor authentication enabled
- month view does not show actual calendar entry names but rather what appears to be Latin words?!?
- numeric keyboard for certain fields in web browser like for Google verification code
- does NOT show up as additional drive when connected to computer?

# September 28
- WP "app store" on WP8 shows whether app has Live Tile support and also when app was last updated rather than "originally released" as on WP7, much more useful to determine whether app is being maintained
- phone gets noticeably warm after continuous use
- apps work faster on 920, just enough so that there is no waiting on the user's part  
- some apps seem to have different versions for WP7 versus WP8 (for example, Accuweather) even though look and feel may be similar
- Screen not activating after pressing power button - this has happened to me only once and although very scary, to reset the phone (since I couldn't remove the battery as I could with Samsung Focus), I followed these soft reset instructions.


# September 29
- still a lag refreshing information on Start screen, e.g. Weather details
- more clear how to resolve upload conflicts when editing Excel files stored on SkyDrive 

# September 30
- no problem with SkyDrive surveys.  On WP7 and older Internet Explorer, SkyDrive survey would never completely load

# October 3
- weird behavior in MetroNote, a SimpleNote client, where attempt to select an entire word selects every character except the first.  And words like "ddone" are not underlined as being misspelled.  Not an issue in built-in OneNote

# October 7
- battery (or something) is moving around inside phone body when it is shaken
- Agenda view of Calendar remains confusing when glanced at:  which Day is the calendar entry on?

# October 8
- problems with syncing multiple Google calendars despite following instructions in forums - never resolved, purchased True Calender 8 app, a super if imperfect Calendar replacement

# October 13
- DataSense useless to find Wifi hotspots when offline (isn't that the point), despite downloading maps prior to going offline
- Does not prompt to save unsaved calendar entry when hit Back button

# October 16
- can't add a OneNote Section on WP8?  Can only add Pages to existing Section
- searching Gmail folder doesn't return correct results (no results) when using default mail client
- cannot "favorite" businesses, etc. found through Search?  This was possible with WP7.  Now can only Pin to Start screen

# October 22
- editing of Excel spreadsheet is difficult, cannot copy and paste multiple cells.  Also if editing same spreadsheet on SkyDrive, cannot edit spreadsheet on phone

Migration from old WP7 phone to new WP8 phone

Migration roughly consists of the following steps:

• need to synchronize WP7 to Zune for backup of photos
• migrate data that I want to keep; cloud-based storage is best
• sign into online accounts within phone
• re-install apps individually
• sign into various apps

Lack of official apps and third-party apps

While there are many apps and for many services, sometimes the WP ecosystem is still lacking official apps for certain services.  One can use third-party apps, e.g. Auctionapp, but unless the app is very popular and has been released for some time, I would avoid them because there is the potential that the app is malicious and the developer could be stealing security credentials.  This also applies to web browser apps where you type in your credentials into web pages.

Do your research before downloading and installing.  If you have nothing valuable to keep secure for that service, go ahead.   

Skyping between iPad and Windows Phone 8

One of the reasons I moved up to a smartphone with front-facing camera was so I could Skype with my dad, allowing him to see our preschooler more often.  But after many attempts trying to use my Windows Phone 8 device to "phone" his iPad, I was almost ready to give up.  On the iPad, no incoming call was being detected. 

I was going to resort to Google Hangouts and using my wife's Android phone.  Google Hangouts required a iOS upgrade, so I updated my dad's 3rd generation iPad to iOS 7.0.2 and in the process, I updated Skype as well on the Apple device. Before heading home, I decided to try Skype once more and eureka, video-conferencing finally worked! 

Now the challenge is to get my dad to learn a couple of steps and try Skyping with me when we are at two different locations and I can't directly assist him.