A Linux user tries out Windows 10

I did the unthinkable – left Linux behind and lived in the Windows 10 technical preview as my primary computing environment. Here's what I learned.

Every now and then, it's nice to break out of your bubble, to really get outside your comfort zone and see how things are "on the other side of the fence."

I love Chinese food. Could eat Chinese food every day of the week. But, once in a while, it's a good idea to mix things up. You know. And order a pizza.

This is that time for me. Only instead of Chinese food, it's Linux. Instead of pizza, Windows 10 (Technical Preview). That's right. I'm a full time Linux user, and I just spent a few days trying to live in the preview edition of Windows 10.

One thing should be emphasized right off the bat: this is not a review of Windows 10, and it is not a list of every feature of the system (there are other articles for that). This is a Linux advocate taking some time out to see how things work in the upcoming major release of Windows and seeing what he can learn from that experience. Are there things Windows 10 does better than Linux, which we in the Linux world should take some cues from? (Every system has advantages, right?)

It should also be noted that I am focusing entirely on desktop functionality. I tested the Windows 10 Technical Preview on a Dell M3800 (which was previously running Linux) and a VirtualBox virtual machine (with 8GB of RAM dedicated to it).
See also: 9 Linux distros to watch in 2015

In other words: no tablets were harmed in the making of this article.

Really, I'm asking (myself) two questions here:
Is there anything awesome in Windows 10 that Linux can learn from?
Are there enough awesome things in Windows 10 that I, as a Linux user, am missing out on by not running it as my primary operating system?

Let's dive in to the areas I think are most noteworthy for helping to answer those questions. If I leave a feature out, it's likely because it was just not relevant to those two questions.

Windows playing catch up
There are two noteworthy new features in Windows 10 that many Linux desktop environments have possessed for years (nay… decades): Virtual Desktops, and effective, tiled window management.

I mention this because it shows that Microsoft is paying attention and implementing some excellent features found in competing systems. Sure, in the case of Virtual Desktops, Microsoft is a good four decades behind its competition… but better late than never, right?

The implementation of this feature in Windows 10 is completely, absolutely, 100% adequate. You start out with a single "desktop" and can add new desktops one at a time. Application windows can be moved between desktops, desktops can be removed… everything that you would expect. It doesn't feel quite as polished and smooth as the implementation in, say, GNOME Shell. But it's an acceptable first attempt at catching up with the Linux world.

Likewise, the improvements to window layout and management are nice. Called "Quadrant Snap," it's basically the ability to "snap" open windows to a "quadrant" of the screen. It's been updated in Windows 10 to be a bit more flexible – for example, one window can take up the whole left half of the screen, with the right half containing three windows stacked vertically, each taking an equal amount of vertical space. It's similar in many ways to the functionality of many of the tiling window managers out there, such as xmonad or awesome.

Nothing mind-blowing here, but good features that we've been enjoying on Linux since before the first episode of Friends was a gleam in Jennifer Aniston's eye.

Windows taking the lead

Perhaps that should read "Taking the lead… with caveats."

There are two areas where I feel Windows 10 is doing things that are better (or at least in a more ambitious way) than what we're doing on Linux. Unfortunately for Microsoft… they're not really nailing these features as well as they need to.

The first is "Cortana." This is to Microsoft what Siri and Google Now are to Apple and, well, Google – a sort of personal information search service with some support for natural language input and voice recognition.

In Windows 10, this functionality is interfaced with a little search box that sits right next to the Start menu (more on that below). Voice dictation is an excellent feature of any system. As is voice synthesis. And, heck, having a central spot to see things like your to-do list for the day, weather, traffic, etc… that's all quite handy.

Unfortunately, in my testing, Cortana was just not fun to use. And I'm not bashing it for lack of functionality (this is still a "Technical Preview" of Windows 10, after all) or bugginess (though it was plenty buggy). My issue with this feature is that using it to do just about anything was significantly slower than using a mouse, keyboard, or touchscreen to accomplish the same tasks.

For a great demonstration of how maddeningly inefficient Cortana can be, see this video from the WinBeta folks. Take note of how long it takes him to set a simple reminder alarm. This experience seems to be the norm.

You see? It has amazing potential… but if it's no fun to use, it doesn't much matter.
The second feature that is almost fantastic (emphasis on "almost") is the Windows Store.

It is exactly what the name implies. It's a software store, in much the same vein as the Google Play store or the Ubuntu Software Center. The design is fine – easy enough to search and navigate (many similarities to Google Play here).

But, and this is a big "but"... there's simply not a lot of software available, as it's limited to "Metro" style applications (read: not classic Windows software). This takes what could be an amazing feature and makes it rather…meh.

Right about now you may be wondering why I included this feature as an area where Windows 10 is "taking the lead" over Linux. And that is because the majority of Linux distributions lack a solid software "store" experience. Even the Ubuntu Software Center leaves a lot to be desired. It's rather slow, has a very limited selection of software for purchase, and what's there isn't overly easy to discover.

If Microsoft were to open up the "Windows Store" to applications built for classic "Windows"...this would be a very handy feature. And I see no reason why they couldn't do exactly that. Though, as it stands, I'll stick to my declaration of "meh."

Windows not doing as much as I thought
Which brings me to two features that were simply underwhelming, the ones that had been outed rather heavily and which I expected to be the shining examples of the quality and innovation of Windows 10: the new Start Menu and support for ultra-high resolution displays.

First, let's talk about the new Start Menu.
In Windows 8, Microsoft killed the Start Menu – that simple, nested menu that let you find and launch applications (a paradigm used in operating systems since the days of the Pharaohs). Microsoft opted instead for a full-screen display of animated tiles, which, as every four-year-old can tell you, was both annoying and stupid.

In Windows 10, the Start Menu is back… kind of. There's no more full screen of animated tiles (Windows users dodged a bullet, there). But what Windows 10 has now isn't all that much better. Other than the fact that it's not, technically, full screen.

The new Start Menu bears little resemblance to what you might remember. On the left side of the Start Menu is a list of all of the software on your PC. In alphabetical order. With no categories. Have a lot of applications installed? Too bad for you, because that list is going to get crazy long.

On the right side of the Start Menu you'll find the grid of animated squares that you had hoped were burned alive. No. That's not fair. This is an improvement. In Windows 8 you had a full screen of squares that accomplished nothing… in Windows 10 the Start Menu is simply filled with those squares – and is, hence, annoyingly larger and stupider-looking than it should be.

Luckily, the good folks at Microsoft provide a "full screen" button that makes this new Start Menu take up the entire screen. For those moments, I suppose, when you feel you could be more annoyed by the Start Menu… if only it took up your entire field of view.

The second feature to let me down, HiDPI support, really let me down in a big way.

I used the Dell M3800's 4k screen (3840x2160) and, based on the noise Microsoft has been making about support for upwards of 8k screens (!!!), I expected the experience to be awesome right out of the gate.

It wasn't. (It's not the fault of the M3800's screen…which is gorgeous.)
In order to make most applications usable – on that high of a resolution on a smaller screen, text and buttons can quickly become unusably small – I had to set the DPI scaling in the control panel fairly high. And even then, things weren't all roses and candy bars. (Is that an actual saying? "Roses and candy bars"? Probably, right? Hell with it, I'm sticking to it.)

Toolbars in some applications became distorted and unusable. Text in other applications became jagged and funky-looking. Other times, things simply became pixelated and ugly. (To be completely fair, sometimes the DPI scaling worked excellently well. But only sometimes.)

Windows 10 isn't alone in having issues with HiDPI screens.

MacOS X, last time I used it, had similar problems with many applications. Admittedly, this was several years ago, so that may have changed. I tend to not use Apple products. I respect myself too much for that.

And many Linux desktop environments encounter similar difficulties. GNOME Shell and Ubuntu's Unity, for example, both handle scaling to those ultra-high resolutions fairly gracefully… until you start using software that isn't bundled with the environment itself. Then all hell can break loose – buttons too small to click, mismatched text sizing within a single application, all sorts of shenanigans.

The fact that Microsoft is touting this HiDPI functionality so highly, yet not really providing anything more interesting than what Linux has had for a few years, is rather – what's the word I'm looking for – meh-worthy.

"Meh" seems to be a running theme in Windows 10. Which is quite the opposite of "awesome."

Did I answer my own questions?

Having a good-looking software store is pretty critical. And that's something still lacking in non-Android Linux-based systems right now. Even Ubuntu could use some serious improvements in its software store experience.

Am I missing out on anything by not running Windows 10 as my primary operating system?

Short answer: No.
Long answer: Are you kidding me? I couldn't repartition that drive fast enough and re-install Linux.

But I'm glad I spent the time in Windows 10 Technical Preview. Maybe when the final version of Windows 10 ships, I'll take it for another spin to see what they've improved. The reality is that, for being a "Technical Preview," this was fairly stable and quite peppy. Not Linux-levels of peppy, mind you. But not bad, either. Not "awesome," but not bad.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go hide in my bunker and hope that the steel-reinforced doors can keep the Windows fans at bay.

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10 young security companies to watch in 2015

One common thread is helping to make detection and remediation easier

A wealth of young security companies is trying to capitalize on businesses moving toward security platforms that help them respond more quickly when they suffer successful cyberattacks in hopes of limiting the damage they do.

These firms take varying approaches to cybersecurity, including analyzing suspected attacks, automating responses, encrypting to make data theft more difficult, and sorting through alerts triggered by other security platforms to help prioritize responses.

These startups are plowing fertile ground, with corporate customers eager to avoid destructive attacks that can hurt their brand names. At the same time customers are fighting ever more inventive adversaries whose exploits require new defensive approaches.

So they are willing to open their wallets, with 46% of respondents to a Computerworld survey of IT leaders saying their spending on security this year will show double-digit increases while at the same time overall IT spending increases only 4.3% - so security is definitely a priority. In fact it has been for the past 10 years, Computerworld says, getting double-digit boosts in each year.

Here are 10 startups worth watching this year because they bring fresh eyes, talent and investment to problems that continue to plague security executives

Fun fact: John Thompson, Microsoft’s chairman, sits on Illumio’s board.
Why we’re following it: Illumio’s Adaptive Security Platform enforces policies about what specific ports on what machines are allowed to talk to what other ports on what other machines in order to limit that damage a compromised machine can do by limiting what it is capable of doing. This is a valuable asset at a time when breaches are accepted as inevitable. The platform also sends alerts when machines try to violate policies so staff can remediate the problem.

Fun fact: Founders Engel and Mumcuoglu served in the Israeli Defense Force
Why we’re following it: LightCyber’s Magna Breach Detection Platform provides agentless monitoring and analysis of endpoint machines as it looks for signs of possible intrusions. It winnows out incidents that are most likely intrusions and sends alerts, prioritizing and greatly reducing the number of incidents that have to be checked out by human analysts. The company is methodically going about adding integration with other security platforms so Magna Breach has a mechanism for automatically blocking detected threats. Integration partners so far include Palo Alto, Check Point, RSA Arcsight, FortKnox and Microsoft (Active Directory).

Fun fact: The company name comes from its algorithms that look for events that are statistical outliers.
Why we’re following it: Outlier’s detection and forensic tools are designed to help analysts respond to compromises more quickly, making the analysts more efficient. The system passively analyzes endpoints through data gathered by Windows Network Services and Windows Management Instrumentation and triggers alerts when it detects suspicious behavior. The alerts are accompanied by a compilation of the data that led the platform to conclude there was an intrusion, giving analysts a jump on where to check for compromised machines and figure out what action to take.

White House making it easier to get an L-1 visa
Uber's Amsterdam office raided by Dutch authorities
Cisco patches autonomic networking flaws in IOS routers and switches

Leaders: Executive Chairman Steven Chen, President Jeffrey H. Reed, CTO Carlos R. Aguayo
Fun fact: The technology comes from research at Virginia Tech funded by the Department of Defense, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and the Department of Homeland Security that sought a way to identify whether software-defined radios have unauthorized software running on them

Why we’re following it: PFP’s system monitors CPUs to establish baseline radio-frequency activity when devices are known to be performing legitimate tasks. Its analysis engine can detect anomalies from that baseline that indicate the device is running unauthorized processes that could indicate a breach. Its reliance on hardware cues and its physical separation from the devices it monitors make it difficult for attackers to circumvent. It can be used to detect infections on devices delivered from the factory as well as those in the field.

Fun fact: Chief Security Office Justin Harvey has worked for successful security vendors - FireEye/Mandiant and Hewlett-Packard/ArcSight
Why we’re following it: Resolution1’s endpoint agent can identify and verify malicious behavior then automate the resolution workflow. It integrates with third-party security systems to validate alerts they send in order to reduce the number of false-positives security teams have to chase down.

Fun fact: The company says a supercomputer making 19 quadrillion calculations per second would have to work for about 30 times the age of the universe to crack its encryption.
Why we’re following it: Secure Channels offers a platform that enables flexibly encryption parameters that give customers great leeway in determining the strength and complexity of the encryption. Secure Channels’ encryption for data at rest or data in motion quickly breaks it in to varying sized chunks and encrypts each chunk with its own key. The technology gives users the option to first encrypt an entire document, then further encrypt that in chunks so that even when a chunk is decrypted, it doesn’t appear as plain text. Its encryption schemes work with whatever encryption algorithms a business has on hand. The software runs entirely in RAM and randomizes its use of processor clock cycles to disguise patterns in the underlying data.

Fun fact: The company started life under the name Foresight.
Why we’re following it: Sentrix mirrors customers’ Web sites in Amazon Web Services and Azure clouds where it dynamically expands site resources during distributed denial-of-service attacks to keep the sites running until attackers exhaust their resources, give up or move on to easier targets. Data requests that get delivered to customers’ actual Web server back-ends are limited to those seeking the business-logic of the sites, not static content. This is a unique service that supplements other defenses and can keep sites up and running during a range of attack types including distributed denial-of-service, cross-site scripting, cross-site request forgery, SQL injection and website defacement.

Fun fact: The name Swimlane comes from a term used in security operations centers meaning a person’s area of responsibility.
Why we’re following it: Swimlane makes it simpler to gather data from its customers’ various security platforms, evaluate alerts and automate responses and puts all this in the context of faster response time and saving money. It gives each customer flexibility in what security platforms it deploys and reduces the time analysts have to spend figuring out what the current threat is. While other startups may have more money and bigger names, Swimlane is trying to address a real problem expressed by specific customers, which could be a recipe for success.

Fun fact: Tempered’s technology stems from a project at Boeing to secure its manufacturing systems.
Why we’re following it: Tempered’s appliances can create multiple overlay networks within existing network infrastructure, securing traffic in each from all the others, giving businesses the capability to isolate sensitive devices from the Internet, for example, without having to re-architect the entire network. Its founders, Hussey and Mattes, have impressive credentials and have attracted investments of credible venture capital firms.

Fun fact: Evers and Flowers have worked together three times before at nCircle, kozoru and Inquisit.
Why we’re following it: The company uses patented technology to create lightweight malware markers called behavior expressions that can detect all known attacks using a relatively small library of these markers as opposed to traditional signature libraries. For example, it says it can identify all known viruses using just 14 sets of behavior expressions. The company claims that in two years of testing attackers have never been able to compromise its platform protects. It can protect systems against attacks trying to exploit newly found vulnerabilities, so the company has issued its first version for Windows XP machines, which Microsoft no longer patches. It plans to support other Windows operating systems, Linux and Macs by the end of 2015.

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iOS vs. Android reaches stalemate and 7 other mobile development trends

Programmers seem to impact just about everything these days and mobile developers, in particular, are playing an ever-growing role in the world. The ubiquity of smartphones and tablets and the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT) make the people who are creating the apps and tools for all the smart devices in our lives all the more important. A new global survey helps to shed light on the trends among mobile developers and the mobile economy, in general.

The 8th edition of VisionMobile’s Developer Economics: State of the Developer Nation Q1 2015, was released earlier this month. The report is based on a survey of over 8,000 mobile developers in 143 countries. Among other things, it reveals trends in the platforms they target, the tools they use, and what motivates their work. Use the arrows above to learn 8 things about mobile developers that you might not have known.

The battle between iOS and Android for developers is at a stalemate
Android is the primary platform for 40% of full time mobile developers worldwide, while 37% of developers build for iOS primarily, a split that hasn’t changed much in a year. iOS dominates for developers in North America and Europe (42% vs 33% for Android), while Android is the dominant primary platform for developers in the rest of the world (48% to 30% for iOS). Windows Phone is in a distant third place among mobile developers, being the primary platform for just 8% of them worldwide followed by those who primarily target mobile browsers, at 7%.

Report quote: “The positions of the platforms are becoming entrenched. Apple cannot move down-market without cannibalising their high-end sales. Android handset makers are increasingly unable to compete effectively for the premium customers. …the battle may already be effectively over.”

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Mobile developers are adopting Swift at unprecedented rates
Just months after Apple first released Swift, 20% of mobile developers across the globe are already using it, although, just 2% are using it as their primary language, reflecting a decision to proceed cautiously with the new language. Swift is the 7th most popular language among mobile developers, with Java being number one, used by 57% worldwide, with 29% of developers using it as their primary language. The vast majority of developers who’ve adopted Swift, 77%, are already using Objective-C; 29% of Swift programmers still use Objective-C as their primary language.

Report quote: ”... it’s fair to say that adoption levels are totally unprecedented. For a language that’s still evolving and for which the tools are not yet mature … this is highly remarkable.”

The middle class of app developers is disappearing
There’s a growing polarization in the revenues developers earn from apps, with most earning either a whole lot or a whole little. Worldwide, just 24% of mobile developers earn between $1,000 and $10,000 per month in app revenue; more than half (52%) make less than $1,000 per month in app revenue, and 24% earned more than $10k per month. The middle class of app developers is smaller in more developed regions, around 20% in Oceania, North American and Western Europe, than in less developed areas such as South American, Eastern Europe and Russia, where it’s closer to 30%

Developers who do iOS development primarily tend to make the most money and have the largest middle class; 15% earn more than $50,000 per month in revenue, while 37% of iOS-first developers make less than $500 per month. Things are bleaker and more polarized for Android-focussed programmers: 55% earn less than $500 per month in app revenue, while 7% earn more than $50k per month.

Report quote: “In the more mature markets with higher smartphone penetration, the middle class of small independent app developers is disappearing. This is understandable as they compete with larger and more sophisticated developers for direct revenues from the stores but also for contract work with those in other countries with lower living costs. This is causing revenues to polarise.”

Most mobile developers are creating software for the Internet of Things
While the market for software for the Internet of Things (IoT) is still relatively immature, more than half of mobile developers (53%) are already working on IoT projects. However, it appears that most are just experimenting with creating IoT software at this point; 30% of mobile developers working on IoT projects are doing so as purely as a hobby (30%) or as a side project (just under 20%). The top IoT market being targeted by mobile developers is that for home and building management (targeted by 37% of developers) followed by wearables (35%).

Report quote: “The major smartphone players are making their bids for several IoT markets by extending their existing software ecosystems. The most popular [IoT] markets for those developers to target are the ones where the smartphone platforms have their biggest bets.

More mobile developers are using cross-platform tools
83% of mobile developers reported using at least one 3rd party tool. User analytics tools are the most popular, used by 47% of all developers, followed by ad networks (31%), cross-platform tools (30%), push notifications (24%) and games development tools (24%). Developers who primarily targeted iOS were the most likely to use 3rd party tools, with 57% of them using user analytics tools (vs. 47% of Android coders), 36% using app store analytics ( Android: 14%) and 17% using cross-promotion networks (Android: 6%). Cross-platform tools are increasingly popular, now used by 30% of all mobile developers, 40% of mobile browser developers, 34% of iOS programmers, and 25% of Android coders.

Report quote: “Both web hybrid approaches and Xamarin are increasingly popular with enterprise-focused developers. This has resulted in cross-platform tools moving from being uncorrelated with revenues to having a positive correlation. ... there’s a lot of demand from enterprises for cross-platform development.

More mobile developers are using cross-platform tools
83% of mobile developers reported using at least one 3rd party tool. User analytics tools are the most popular, used by 47% of all developers, followed by ad networks (31%), cross-platform tools (30%), push notifications (24%) and games development tools (24%). Developers who primarily targeted iOS were the most likely to use 3rd party tools, with 57% of them using user analytics tools (vs. 47% of Android coders), 36% using app store analytics ( Android: 14%) and 17% using cross-promotion networks (Android: 6%). Cross-platform tools are increasingly popular, now used by 30% of all mobile developers, 40% of mobile browser developers, 34% of iOS programmers, and 25% of Android coders.

Report quote: “Both web hybrid approaches and Xamarin are increasingly popular with enterprise-focused developers. This has resulted in cross-platform tools moving from being uncorrelated with revenues to having a positive correlation. ... there’s a lot of demand from enterprises for cross-platform development.

Mobile developers are increasingly targeting the enterprise
While most mobile developers (64%) still target consumers first, 20% of all mobile developers now primarily target the enterprise, up from 16% six months ago. The greater willingness of businesses to pay for useful software also translates into more revenue for enterprise developers: 45% make more than $10,000 per month vs. just 19% of consumer-focussed developers. Programmers targeting the enterprise are also more likely to develop for cross-platform, since businesses often require it; for example, 11% of enterprise developers target mobile browsers primarily vs. just 5% of consumer-oriented mobile programmers.

Report quote: “... demand for good mobility solutions for enterprises outstrips supply at the moment and really well executed products and services are getting a lot of word-of- mouth marketing. Also, the competition for consumer attention is so fierce that getting a large user base for any app is often prohibitively expensive.

iOS developers, more than others, are motivated by money
VisionMobile segmented mobile developers based on their motivation. Almost half of all developers were classified as either Explorers, those using side projects to gain experience, (23%) or Hunters, those looking build an app business in order to make money (23%). A slightly larger percent of developers who target Android primarily are Explorers (26%) and slightly fewer are Hunters (21%). The largest segment of programmers developing primarily for mobile browsers are Guns For Hire (those developing apps on commission, 19%) followed closely by Explorers (18%). iOS developers, on the other hand, are mostly motivated by money, with 31% being Hunters, 20% classified as Guns For Hire and only 17% being Explorers.

Report quote: “The greater numbers of Hunters [among iOS developers] reflect the higher revenues available and more Guns for Hire reflect a contract market where almost every major business wants their app on iOS.

Mobile developers are chasing the wrong revenue models
The vast majority of mobile developers (73%) are building apps with revenue models based on either app sales (37%) or advertising (36%). However, the revenues generated by both of these models ($40.5 billion in 2015 for app sales and $34 billion by advertising) are dwarfed by the revenue generated by e-commerce ($300 billion). Only 9% of mobile developers are building e-commerce apps, suggesting that they’re missing out on significant revenue opportunities.

Report quote: “Despite the enormous revenue opportunity offered by mobile e-Commerce only 9% of developers are using this revenue model. Unless there’s a lot of e-Commerce related development being done through other models … then there’s a big gap in the market here.

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600-210 Implementing Cisco Service Provider Mobility UMTS Networks (SPUMTS)

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QUESTION 1
Which organization developed and maintains the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System?

A. 3GPP2
B. 3GPP
C. ITU
D. ANSI

Answer: B

Explanation:

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QUESTION 2
Which two services does GPRS support? (Choose two.)

A. MMS
B. SMS
C. Video Calling
D. EMM
E. ESM

Answer: A,B

Explanation:

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QUESTION 3
Which part of the OSI model contains the Signalling Connection Control Part protocol?

A. Data link layer
B. Network layer
C. Transport layer
D. Application layer
E. Presentation layer

Answer: B

Explanation:

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QUESTION 4
What two routing keys can be used to filter SS7 messages? (Choose two.)

A. DPC
B. DPC [+SSN]
C. IMEI
D. MSISDN
E. IMEISV

Answer: A,B

Explanation:

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QUESTION 5
In MGT-based routing, which option is the GT address format of the called party?

A. E.212
B. E.164
C. E.412
D. E.214
E. E.216

Answer: D

Explanation:

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An LTE over Wi-Fi spectrum grab is coming

Pundits say spectrum demand will overrun supply by 2018 or 2019. Grabbing someone else’s frequencies would be one solution.

Unlicensed spectrum would be the logical place to expand traffic if, as mobile networks are finding, their licensed spectrum is running out.

Why not shift over to unlicensed spectrum? It's unlicensed, after all, so anyone can use it. Who would object?

Well, the answer to that question may be a bunch of Wi-Fi users, like you and me, if it doesn't work as promised and stomps on existing use, such as Wi-Fi.

Wi-Fi at 5 GHz
The new piggy-backing technology uses the same Wi-Fi band that mobile device users are beginning to take advantage of in the home and workplace. That is 5 GHz—the free-to-use band you'll find in newer routers and mobile devices, like tablets and recent phones.

Five GHz Wi-Fi is underused, fast, and well-suited to media delivery in small spaces, like the home. That's why new mobile devices use it.

And it appears Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) have taken a fancy to it too. But in that case it's likely for paid-for use in phones.

License Assisted Access
The new technology works by combining existing mobile network spectrum with low-power Wi-Fi spectrum to create a bigger pipe. The technology uses micro-cell-like mini antennas.

It's interchangeably called LTE-U, which stands for LTE-Unlicensed, or its new name LAA, or License Assisted Access.

Remarkably, that new name sounds more like an altruistic, social government program. The new moniker even manages to change elements of the name from "unlicensed" to "licensed." There's a reason marketing experts get paid what they do.

Interference
And there's a reason LAA needs to tread lightly. Wi-Fi Alliance, the Wi-Fi trade body, says LAA poses a risk that could negatively impact "billions of Wi-Fi users who rely on 5 GHz," and that "more work needs to be done."

Ericsson has just said its LAA roll out will begin in Q4 2015.

Algorithms
Wi-Fi band rules say users can't cause interference. It's not allowed. The MNOs and equipment makers insist that LAA won't cause interference.

And maybe that indeed will be the case. Radio signals are better aimed these days, and interference minimization does in fact tie in with an industry trend where frequency waste is increasingly minimized through algorithms and other beaming techniques. Ericsson and Qualcomm are innovative leaders in RF technology.

Interference has historically been created by frequencies stepping on each other—a kind of overlapping caused by a lack of targeting. Clean it all up and there's more capacity through less interference.

Deployment
Ericsson says it can obtain speeds of 450 Mbits using both the LTE spectrum that the carrier has paid for at great expense, usually at a government auction, and this unlicensed band it's plucked for free.

Initial users will be Verizon and T-Mobile, among others, says Sarah Thomas in LightReading, a telecom publication.

"Rude" technology
The big question, of course, is the interference issue. If Qualcomm and Ericsson, the two main players, can get LAA to work flawlessly on the increasingly popular public frequencies they're purloining, as they say they can (and have shown in the lab), then kudos to them. They've improved society.

If, on the other hand, LAA "takes over the band it operates in" and causes Wi-Fi devices to "experience degraded service, service interruptions, and/or complete loss of their connections," as an article by Tinaya in the blog WorldTVPC described as a worst-case scenario, then there'll be trouble. Not least from me. I live on a hilltop, and microwave 5 GHz can travel a long way via line-of-sight with no obstructions.

To add insult to injury, we may all be paying for that stomping in our wireless bill too.

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Why Microsoft’s HoloLens is the next big enterprise thing

HoloLens could be the next big thing in business computing and can be used in some way to provide a better customer experience, improve business collaboration and so much more.

If you had followed along on Twitter or gone straight to the source and listened to the live streaming version of the big Microsoft Windows 10 event on Jan. 21, you probably felt the excitement. That energy was not just about Windows 10: Yeah, that operating system seems nice, and the fit and finish will probably make it the next Windows 7 — you know, the version of the product that corporations land on and run for a decade or more because it is just solid, reliable, and compatible. Everyone who skipped Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 will certainly gravitate toward a major migration toward Windows 10, and Microsoft understands this. It looks like a solid release.

But what folks were really pumped up about was the introduction of a technology and a prototype that was completely out of left field to basically anyone who watches Microsoft on a regular basis: the HoloLens.

What Is Hololens?
Think of HoloLens as a better version of the Oculus Rift, which is now owned by Facebook, and a much better and more applicable to reality product than Google Glass, which was just abandoned — or, rather, put on hiatus until the fall. (Three guesses as to how long that hiatus actually is.)

HoloLens is a wearable device that takes the real world and inserts into it virtual objects; it is augmented reality at its cutting edge now. It is a pair of glasses through which you can see the real world, but it also has a unique display element that lets the computer paint images on top of that reality, in color and with an apparently astonishing closeness to reality.

No additional devices, like a smartphone or another computer, are necessary, although you have to wonder how long the battery that powers the unit will last. In any event, since this device is not yet in production, there is time to figure out the details. Let us focus on the bigger picture.

The demos that the company allowed some press to walk through were scenarios where putting virtual elements within the physical world really improves the end user experience. For example, a “father” was connected with his “daughter” via a Skype call, and the daughter was using the HoloLens while her father walked her through how to repair a plumbing issue with her sink — he was able to draw arrows basically right on top of her field of vision directing her where to put the replacement part, how to install it, what tool to use to perform each task and so on.

Rather than having to rely on only words to describe the procedure, he was able to guide the daughter through the repair easily. Another demonstration involved actually using one’s hands to interact with the virtual objects projected into the physical field of vision.

People are excited about the gaming aspect of HoloLens. Building Minecraft structures on Mars, or immersing yourself into first person shooter games in a way even the Oculus Rift did not allow you to experience. The technology is amazing; Microsoft Research has long been on the forefront of cutting-edge technology, almost to the point that their projects can sometimes seem indistinguishable from magic. Microsoft Research is a group of highly talented, intellectually gifted, top quality researchers and academicians that really develop some of the most interesting and bleeding edge technologies around.

HoloLens Is Huge for the Corporate Crowd
HoloLens has a future that not everyone quite grasping at the moment. That is, its future in business. Gaming is fun, sure, but these devices can be used in almost any business in some way to provide such a better experience for customers that I suspect they will be throwing money at you.

This device can be used in business collaboration settings, too. Imagine an interactive business review, where you literally move numbers around on a page. Imagine an earnings presentation where you can actually transform bar and pie charts to answer questions and derive insight. Even consider an analytics angle: What if you can take a virtual walking tour of all of your New York customers’ buying habits in a certain Brooklyn location?

Also, consider the potential of HoloLens alongside the absolutely gorgeous and eminently usable Surface Hub product, which was also announced at the event. Surface Hub (no, not the utility installed on all Surface Pro 3 tablets — kudos go to Redmond for yet another product naming clash) is the premium office conference room display with a reasonably powerful computer included at no additional charge — 4K resolution with a couple of display sizes, with the largest reaching a giant 84 inches diagonal, a Windows 10 computer, Office, Cortana and more, and it is touch sensitive and you can use pens on it, too. It is, literally, meant to be the hub of the conference room.

Consider what types of applications you could have while teaming up with colleagues or having a product design review on an 84-inch screen with everyone in the room using HoloLens, able to make design changes in 3D (and perhaps 4D by the time this all makes it to the market) or change the colors on parts.

Imagine how a large airplane manufacturer might use HoloLens together with the Surface Hub—or even just HoloLens by itself—to walk airframe customers through choosing interiors, which they can see virtually installed instantaneously. Imagine how large homebuilders can revolutionize their design centers by walking customers through the empty shell of a house with a couple of HoloLens units and show all sorts of upgrades, custom features, structure changes and more.

Think of hospitals revolutionizing medical and surgical training and minimizing error rates and patient deaths even further by always having a second experienced surgeon on hand virtually during difficult procedures.

If you take a couple of minutes, you can imagine many scenarios within your day where you can enhance your productivity and your business by immersing yourself into an experience.

The Last Word
Resist the strong temptation to relegate HoloLens into the category of devices that computer gaming enthusiasts and Dungeons and Dragons players use in their spare time, with not much practical application. This is anything but a toy.

The possibilities that HoloLens enables to transform the way businesses show their employees and customers their products, and the new items, services, and businesses this sort of augmented reality device can create based on those new experiences, are pretty much endless.

When HoloLens actually hits the market, expect developers to start writing apps that make these wearables sing. This kind of technology, marketed and productized appropriately, is what makes the technology field so exciting.

We may be on the cusp of the next big thing in business computing. Who would have thought it would be a pair of computerized glasses?

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Windows 10 Start menu secrets every desktop pro should know

We dig deep into the Windows Technical Preview Start menu to fine-tune it so that you don’t have to

Windows 10 Start menu secrets every desktop pro should know
Windows 10 promises to bring back the Windows 7 Start menu for those of us who still slavishly utilize a keyboard and mouse -- you know, the people who try to get "real work" done with Windows.

Windows Technical Preview build 9860 shows a Start menu that's familiar on the left and Metro-esque on the right. While Microsoft is likely to change the Start menu substantially before the final version of Windows 10 ships in the second half of 2015, the plumbing's in and working, and it holds a lot of new possibilities.

Here's a guided tour the Win10 Start menu and how to make the most of it. It’s light on the easy stuff -- pinning, resizing, and so on -- and heavy on the deeper fare you probably haven't seen yet.

I also point out some of the obvious Start menu shortcomings and bugs as we step through the details. If you encounter other bugs, report them to Microsoft via the Windows Feedback app -- which you’ll find in the Windows Start menu, of all places!

Basic actions on the left side
If you've played with the Win10 Start menu at all, you probably know you can drag and drop items in the pinned part, at the top of the left side. You can't drag and drop items in the lower part, though. As with Windows 7, that lower list is supposed to be your most frequently used programs, although also like in Win7, Windows manipulates the list, favoring some programs over others.

You can remove items from either the top or the bottom of the left side: Right-click and choose “Remove from this list.”

If you right-click on an item on the left side and choose Pin to Start, Windows creates a new tile and sticks it on the Metro-tiled right side of the Start menu. Usually you can drag the item from the left side to the right and accomplish the same thing.

The only way I've found to add items to the top of the left side is to drag and drop them. It's easy to drag from Explorer, the desktop, the right Metro side of the Start menu, or nearly anywhere else. In Win7, you could Pin to Start, and the chosen entry would end up in the top list. Not so in Win10: Pin to Start means "Make a tile and Pin it to the Metro tile list."

Independent control over the top of the Start menu
While you can drag and drop items to the top of the left side of the Start menu, you can also independently tell Windows what you'd like to see up there. To do so, right-click on any empty part of the taskbar, choose Properties, pick the Start Menu tab, and click Customize at the bottom.

There you'll see listed the items that, if checked, will always appear at the top of the Start menu. If you accidentally right-clicked and unpinned an item from the Start menu list, this is where you go to get it back. If you lament the passing of Control Panel, Music, Network, or the others, you can bring them back to the top of the Start menu with a couple of clicks.

The Start Menu tab of the Taskbar Properties dialog is also where you go if you want to kill the Start menu entirely and revert to the Windows 8-style Metro Start screen. I think of that as the Windows 10 equivalent of going feral.

Get rid of apps on the All Apps pane
When you click on All Apps at the bottom of the left side of the Start menu, you'll be overwhelmed by the huge number of Metro apps (and possibly desktop programs) that appear in a large, alphabetized list, with folder names at the bottom and all other items at the top.

If you find any third-party Metro apps (that is, Metro apps not originating from Microsoft) on the list, it's easy to uninstall them and thus take them off the All Apps list. To do so, right-click on the All Apps item and choose Uninstall. Windows will terminate with extreme prejudice, as shown in the screenshot.

While it's possible -- even easy -- to eliminate built-in Metro programs with a right-click and Uninstall, I'd avoid doing that, at least for "important" Metro apps. You can shoot Sound Recorder that way and nobody will know the difference, but it isn't advisable to uninstall, say, Store or Windows Feedback. If you accidentally uninstall a built-in Metro app that you later discover you need, the only recourse I know at this point is to perform a System Refresh (Start, PC Settings, Update and Recovery, Recovery, Refresh).

You may find some links in the All Apps list don't have a right-click Uninstall option. If you want to get rid of one of those, look in the folder C:Users<username>AppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms or in the folder C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms. Shortcuts there (other than Documents and Pictures, which appear for every user) can be deleted with impunity: Delete the shortcut, and the associated entry disappears from All Apps.

Custom folders on the All Apps list -- not yet working correctly
Microsoft has yet to bring full Windows 7-level support to customizing the All Apps list, but most of the meat is there and operational.

In the screenshot shown here, I created a folder called AskWoody in C:ProgramDataMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms, and put four more folders inside the AskWoody folder. (…Start MenuPrograms is the location used in Windows 7 for All Users additions to the All Programs list.) I then logged out and logged back in; as you can see, the folder structure is faithfully replicated in Windows 10's All Apps list, as any Win7 guru would expect.

The same procedure works with C:Users<username>AppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsStart MenuPrograms, which is the Win7 "this user only" location.

Programs, shortcuts to programs, and shortcuts to folders placed inside the homegrown folders appear on the All Apps list, and they function exactly as they do in Win7.

Unfortunately, files placed inside the homegrown folders don't appear on the Win10 All Apps list -- at least, not in Build 9860. Files in that location appear in the All Programs list in Win7. My guess is we'll see the functionality restored in a later build.

For those of you who have asked, I tried and tried but couldn't figure out how to stuff all of those Metro app icons into different folders. (Ping me in the comments if you've figured it out!) Microsoft will certainly give us tools to manage all of those All Apps entries by the time Win10 ships, I assume.

Basic actions on the right side
In many ways, the Metro tiles on the right side of the Start menu behave much like their counterparts on the Metro Start screen we've all come to love and admire in Windows 8 and 8.1. You can drag them around, and they'll bump other tiles to line up in a rather strict formation: Small tiles go next to each other, new columns show up automatically, you can't create your own new columns unless the other columns are full. Any -- but not all -- of the tiles can be resized, to one of four sizes. (The screenshot shows four Small, six Medium, one Wide, and one Large tile.)

Some of the apps change what's displayed on the tile, and if that activity bothers you, then you can right-click and choose “Turn live tile off.”

Don't want to see any tiles? Easy: Right-click on each, one at a time, and choose Unpin from Start. Right-click and choose Uninstall, and the app is uninstalled. Want to pin an app that appears in the Metro tile portion of the Start menu to the left side of the Start menu? No sweat: Drag it from right to left.

You can drag a Metro tile from the right side of the Start menu to the desktop and create a shortcut. The shortcut is like any other shortcut; right-click and choose Properties to change the name or the icon -- the default icons look like ghostly apparitions, if you can see them at all. It's not as cool as a Win7 gadget, but we're getting there.

To date we haven't seen any intelligent tiles -- ones with interactive controls on the face, like a Play button on the Audio tile -- but many people figure that will come when the Win10 consumer beta version hits early next year.

Make the Start menu taller or shorter
You can drag the top bar on the Start menu and make the entire menu taller or shorter, within the confines of your screen. But you can't adjust the size left to right. The Start menu gets wider and narrower to accommodate the tiles you've pinned in it. If you have too many tiles, they flop over to the right, and you can scroll to see them.

Make File Explorer open to This PC
Many of you have complained to me (and to Microsoft) that you don't want File Explorer to open to the new, made-up Home. In Windows 7, Explorer opened to the Libraries folder. In Win8/8.1 it opens to This PC, which shows your main folders (Desktop, Documents, Downloads, Music, Pictures Videos), drives and devices, and network locations.

Here's how to create a Metro tile on the Win10 Start menu that opens to This PC and how to pin that tile to the desktop's taskbar. (I believe this trick is previously undocumented.)

1. In the Start menu's “Search everywhere” box, type This PC (note the space). This PC appears as the first item on the search results list.

2. Click and drag that This PC item to your desktop. You get a shortcut to This PC.

3. Right-click the new icon and choose Pin to Start. That puts a tile on the right, Metro side of the start menu.

4. Left-click the new Metro tile and drag it to the taskbar.

You end up with a This PC Metro tile on the right side of the Start menu and a This PC icon on the taskbar.

You can use that new Metro tile, or the new icon in the taskbar, to open File Explorer at This PC. Removing it is as easy as right-clicking and choosing either Unpin from Start and/or Unpin this program from taskbar.

Make a shortcut to show your printers
Here's another tune to the same theme, using an old Control Panel hack.

Do you remember the Windows 7 Devices and Printers list? It's still around in Windows 10, but you have to dig for it. There's an easy way to stick a link to the Devices and Printers list on your desktop, and from there move it into the Start menu. Try this:

1. Right-click the Start button and choose Control Panel.

2. In the Hardware and Sound section, left-click the line marked View Devices and Printers and drag it onto your desktop.

3. Drop it on your desktop, and you have a new shortcut into the Devices and Printers list. Right-click on the icon and choose Pin to Start. It'll show up as a tile on the right (Metro) side of the Start menu.

4. From there you can click and drag the tile over to the left side of the Start menu, and/or right-click and choose Pin to Taskbar.

Many of the old Control Panel applets can be pinned in a similar fashion.

Create a Start menu entry for any drive or folder
Generally, pinning a drive or folder to the left side of the Start menu is pretty easy. I say "generally" because I've hit situations with network drives where the general approach doesn't work.

Most of the time, you can left-click and drag the folder or drive to the Start icon, then place it on the Start menu.

If that doesn't work, navigate to the drive or folder, right-click on it, and choose Pin to Start. That puts a tile on the right side of the Start menu. Click and drag that tile to the top of the left side of the Start menu; the resulting pinned item will sweep you directly to the chosen drive or folder.

In either case, you can right-click on the tile or the Start menu item and choose "Pin to taskbar" if you'd like to see it down at the bottom.

If you ever want to remove the Start menu item, right-click on it and choose "Remove from this list."

Make File Explorer open to any location
There's another way to skin this cat -- an approach with additional options. Nothing like an old trick with a new twist. Windows shortcuts have the power to launch File Explorer and have it start off in the directory of your choice. Here's how:

1. Right-click any open spot on the desktop and choose New, Shortcut. You’ll get a properties dialog like the one in the screenshot.

2. In the Target box, type explorer.exe followed by the switches that tell Explorer to open the right way, in the right place. There's a full list of valid switches in Microsoft's KB 152457. In this case, I want Explorer to start "rooted" at the location C:UsersWoodyDocumentsInvoices. I type: explorer.exe /root,C:UsersWoodyDocumentsInvoices

Note there is no space to the right of the comma. (Use quotes around the folder name, if it has spaces.)

3. Click the General tab and give the shortcut a name. You can also click the Change Icon button on the Shortcut tab and pick a different icon. (Tech Republic has a good overview of files with icons.) When you're done, click OK.

4. Click on the icon and drag it to the Start button. When the Start menu unfolds, drop the icon onto the top of the left side of the Start menu.

5. If you want a Metro tile on the right side of the Start menu, drag the new Start menu item over to the right. If you want a taskbar icon to match, right-click the Start menu item and choose “Pin to taskbar.”

I believe that trick's previously undocumented in Windows 10, too.

Change the Start menu's background color
You can change the background color on the Start menu, but in doing so, you change the background color on the taskbar and the title bar of all of your windows. Knock yourself out: Right-click on an empty spot in the Start menu (either side) and choose Personalize.

By default, Windows adapts the background color to make it stand out -- that's the default setting, in the upper-left corner. You can choose from the offered colors or mix one of your own, manually adjusting intensity, hue, saturation, and brightness.

Pin the Recycle Bin to the Start menu and the taskbar

Probably more effort than it's worth, but you can (finally!) pin the Recycle Bin to the taskbar and/or the right (Metro) side of the Start menu. That way you can avoid digging all the way down to your desktop to empty the Recycle Bin. I figure I do that once every six months.

Right-click the Recycle Bin on the desktop and choose Pin to Start. Then in the Start menu, right-click on the new Recycle Bin tile on the right and choose “Pin to taskbar.”

Keyboard shortcuts for Start menu apps
Several people have complained that they can't set up keyboard shortcuts for their programs. In Windows 7, you could right-click on any entry in the Start menu, choose Properties, and assign a shortcut key to the program. Typing the shortcut would invoke the program.

In Win10, you have to be a little more devious. Here's how.

You have to keep track of your own shortcut keys. Win10 inherits Win7's inability to warn you about duplicated shortcut keys, and if you assign the same key combination to two different shortcuts, heaven only knows which one will respond first. Caveat emptor.

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