mike palermo has decided to start a special interest user group around silverlight!  the first meeting in the arizona area will be at interface technical training on 07-NOV at 6:00 PM.  attendance and participation are both free!

please feel free to invite your friends, colleagues, etc and spread the word.  for the first meeting it will be a bit ad-hoc, but i know i'll be there and have volunteered to talk about creating controls, etc.  what do you want to hear about?

you can view the other user group schedules as well as get the address for this meeting by visiting the calendar at www.azgroups.com.  we hope to see you in november!

i try to avoid support whenever i can for various reasons.  first one being that i like to think i'm competent enough to fix it myself and the second one being that i dread having to re-explain things to potentially 3 different people, all not understanding the simple issue.

well, i'm trying to receive some faxes this morning (i know, how 1990 of me).  here at work we use fax servers but have inbound fax numbers that route to our email inboxes, etc.  this morning the inbound fax telephone number is not answering.  it simply is not ringing even.  i tried myself, yep, not working.  since this is something out of my control, i contact support.  what follows is my virtual chat with our support engineer:

Support (Fri Oct 12 07:34:54 MST 2007)>Hi Tim
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:34:58 MST 2007)>How are you doing?
timheuer(Fri Oct 12 07:35:44 MST 2007)>Good, my customers are trying to fax me something and i gave them the local fax number (602-263-0007) as well as the Redmond inbound fax number and both are not answering
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:35:57 MST 2007)>ok
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:36:05 MST 2007)>Do they get any NDR message?
timheuer(Fri Oct 12 07:36:13 MST 2007)>no, the phone never picks up
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:36:57 MST 2007)>ok
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:37:38 MST 2007)>When was the last time you received the fax fro them??
timheuer(Fri Oct 12 07:39:45 MST 2007)>from this customer never, but i've received faxes all the time
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:40:07 MST 2007)>ok
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:40:57 MST 2007)>Let me know which office you are located in?
timheuer(Fri Oct 12 07:41:08 MST 2007)>phoenix, arizona, usa

(note: i already completed a form describing my exact location)

Support (Fri Oct 12 07:41:20 MST 2007)>ok
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:41:38 MST 2007)>Do you use a MS provided fax machine?
timheuer(Fri Oct 12 07:42:40 MST 2007)>i'm not using any fax machine -- i'm trying to RECEIVE a fax. our local office uses an inbound fax number that routes to my email and it always worked, i also gave the customer the inbound number advertised on itsupport (425 area code), both do not answer (i tried myself)
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:43:09 MST 2007)>ok
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:44:11 MST 2007)>Please refer the link (link describing what needs to be on the cover sheet)
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:44:27 MST 2007)>It describes the procedure to send a fax.
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:44:46 MST 2007)>The customer should include all necesasry details when sending fax to you. Support (Fri Oct 12 07:45:17 MST 2007)>If you still can't receive the fax, you should contact support
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:45:54 MST 2007)>I suspect that the sender is missing something while sending fax to you.
timheuer(Fri Oct 12 07:45:56 MST 2007)>you aren't understanding the problem. please pick up a phone and dial the fax number -- IT IS NOT ANSWERING -- the customer is providing the correct information, the fax number IS NOT RINGING!!!!
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:46:45 MST 2007)>Let me check..
Support (Fri Oct 12 07:58:39 MST 2007)>Please give me some more time.
Support (Fri Oct 12 08:06:12 MST 2007)>Thank you for your patience
Support (Fri Oct 12 08:06:30 MST 2007)>We tried calling hte redmond fax number and it doesn't ring.

um yeah, isn't that exactly what i reported?

Support (Fri Oct 12 08:07:20 MST 2007)>It seems to be an issue with the fax number in redmond.
Support (Fri Oct 12 08:07:47 MST 2007)>Please send a mail to Redmond Fax Secretary and report the issue to them..
timheuer(Fri Oct 12 08:08:16 MST 2007)>isn't that what the helpdesk is for? none of the fax numbers are working.
Support (Fri Oct 12 08:09:02 MST 2007)>We do not enough  resources to troubleshoot fax issues.

sigh.  almost an hour (still unresolved) to basically describe the problem of "a phone number is not ringing" and it is painful, just painful.

while i'm off galavanting in the aspen trees, some of my counterparts are up in san francisco attending zendcon, a php conference.

some updates on some news that microsoft is announcing at zendcon...

• FastCGI for PHP -- this was a collaborative project between zend and microsoft to build a better fastcgi implementation for windows.  announced today will be that zend will be redistributing FastCGI in Zend Core.  additionally, zend will make sure that FastCGI is supported in the server core installation option for windows server 2008!
• zend and microsoft partnered again to provide a component for the zend framework for php developers/apps to make use of supporting information cards for identity integration.
• finally, microsoft is making available a first preview build of a sql server 2005 driver for php.  this is designed to enable php developers to have a reliable and scalable driver for sql server.

so php developers, what do you think?

i'm fortunate (for me, unfortunate for my family who is without me) to be traveling on business in aspen, colorado.  if you haven't heard of it, it is a mountain community north of denver...a ski destination for sure.  while there is sprinkles of snow patches already, it is still fall here, and fall for aspen trees is remarkable.

i've never been to aspen so since i was here early i went for a walk.  i asked my driver from the airport to my hotel to suggest a place for lunch.  i got the usualy similar-sounding touristy areas.  why isn't anyone comfortable recommending what they like?  i grilled him more and told him to be honest and that i wanted to go where the locals go.  he suggested johnny mcguires.  after checking in, i looked it up and headed that direction (after getting my north bearings).

along the way i found some cool visuals along the way.  i only brought my snapshot camera (which i'm still learning to fine tune -- the normal settings still seem to have a grainy results, any help is appreciated :-)) instead of my SLR.

(old time sign on a wall of what is now a clothing store)

(this dog sat here at this water fountain for hours trying to capture the water as it came up)

i found the restaurant and settled in.  at immediate site it reminded me of two places with the same attitude.  crystal creek sandwich co (at NAU where i went to school) and cheba hut (where the only thing fried is the occasional customer).  both of these places are non-traditional, aren't the best customer friendly type joints, but have great food that comes with the "figure out what you want and we'll make it but move over for everyone else" type of attidtude.  johnny mcguires was no different and i figured that out fast.  the menu is full:

i asked for the most ordered, exactly how it is ordered...the "el buey" is what was provided.  roast beef, hot sub, cheese, onions, jalapenos (really fresh and hot)...yum. 

half a sandwich was enough -- it was a lot of food for me (sounds odd coming from a guy who could put down a box of swiss cake rolls in one sitting). 

i kept walking around aspen enjoying the social nature of aspen on a sunday afternoon and admiring the falling leaves of all colors...simply a sight to see if you haven't.  i have a few more days here and we're heading to maroon bells one day so hopefully i can get some good shots then.

sorry for the break in tech posts, but it was a refreshing break from tech for the day (except for the blog of course) :-).  off to my first meeting!

i recently wrote about my birthday binge purchases, one of which included an airport extreme.  in addition to the airport, i acquired a matching (in size so it fit right under it) lacie mini hard drive.  the reason for this (and the initial airport purchase) was i'm trying to consolidate some storage without having to have a running "machine" (OS) anywhere.  the airport touted the ability to plugin an external hard drive and share it with everyone.

well, i'm happy to report that my other birthday purchases are doing me proud.  the airport and lacie, on the other hand, are quite possibly two of the worst pieces of technology that i personally have ever purchased.  i know "your mileage may vary" and i'm not trying to blanket everyone, but for me, it is a complete failure.  which is disappointing because i read the reviews on both products and selected based on particular comments etc.  allow me to vent.

airport extreme:

while beautiful in industrial design, it lacks features i'm used to (and desire).  i should have known not to mess with my ol' trusty linksys solution, but i was lured with the shared drive and 802.11n spec inclusion.  alas, piece of poo.  the sharing of the drive?  yes, but only if it is a mac-formatted one.  i plugged in my existing western digital 320GB drive (which has my files on it) first, and the error log simply stated that it was unable to mount the drive and i must plug it into a computer and "repair" it -- and repair==re-format.  no thanks.  (this is why i bought the lacie which is a bigger capacity as well.)  also, the sharing itself for "mac or pc" is really for mac.  it doesn't use any standard other than its own...bonjour.  so on a windows machine i couldn't map to \\box\share but had to install bonjour for windows and use it that way.  argh.  why wouldn't they just use samba or something?

wireless options...this is probably the thing that bothered me.  first, where is the web-based admin?  nowhere.  i had to install a client on both my mac and win machines to configure it.  while the software is nice looking, it is fischer price features.  seriously, give me the advanced option and allow me to configure from anywhere within the network.  i don't use wep/wpa in my home wireless, but use mac hardware address filtering.  setting up this feature on the airport was not intuitive.  the logging/diagnostics (showing me the connected wireless clients) also only showed me the connected mac addresses?! wtf?!  you made me input the mac address and give it a name, couldn't you show me the name in the connected client list?  argh.

probably the single reason i'm returning it is performance.  yesterday i worked from home.  aside from being a bad idea with a 5 year old, 1 year old, and wife (whom i love so dearly :-)), the interweb was horrible.  my wife even commented something was wrong.  for her to notice something is wrong, means something is wrong.  i "rebooted" the airport a few times (a process that also is not intuitive, you must make a config change to "update" which results in a reboot.  anyhow, my wireless throughput was HORRIBLE (see andrew, i do have caps).  i honestly couldn't believe how slow it was.  as a test i tweaked a few configs but nothing would improve it.  i plugged my linksys back in and all was back to normal/fast.  i still don't know what the problem was, but i could isolate it to the airport.  for that reason alone, i'm ditching it (the other reasons just re-affirm my decision).

lacie hard drive:

again, great industrial design (for mac accessories) and fit perfectly under the airport and tucked away.  the problem?  turn it on.  unless you like the sound of a hair dryer up against your ear all day, this isn't for you.  seriously, with no data on it, nobody accessing it, just plugging it in and turning it on in a well ventilated, cool room, it hummed like a banshee.  i couldn't take it for more than 5 minutes.  my wife, who shares the same home office, looked at me and simply said "absolutely not."  i knew at that moment it had to go back.  i honestly could not believe how loud the thing was...horrible, horrible, horrible.

so i'm back to the apple store today to return.  i suspect they'll charge me a restocking fee which i'll gladly pay to be rid of these piles of garbage.

as always, your mileage may vary.  i consider myself pretty savvy and feel my assessment is accurate for the advanced user, but everyone is entitled to their opinion otherwise.  two big thumbs down on both products...big time.