Wishing you all a very Happy New Year

Wishing you all the very best of everything in 2016

Hau’oli Makahiki Hou!

Aloha,

This turned out quite well this year, except for the fact a miscreant stole content from over 900 of my posts. Google could not help, they would have, if I had sent them 900 documented infractions! notices. Things should change at Google!

I think I did pretty well this year. Total number of posts have exceeded over 1000 plus, this year contributing over 200. The syndicated views have been over a million or so. But it has taken a number of years and lot of work.

The blog is more technical than political. Political or social events did appear in the blog when the issues touched my personal beliefs. The blog is somewhat slanted towards Microsoft technologies and I do hope I will move away to more Open Source and try to follow the Internet of Things and AI.

I take this opportunity to wish one and all a very Happy New Year.

Mahalo

Jay

Creating web apps with Intel XDK, step-by-step

Intel XDK is an easy to use program that you can use to create cross-platform apps (http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2014/08/cross-platform-apps-are-easy-with-intel.html). There is continuous build activity with Intel XDK and you can sign up and get the latest build. It is free and updated continuously.

It is somewhat slow, but that is my experience. I have used it so far to only look at some simple stuff and if you are interested, it may help you to review the following posts. It is written from the point of view of someone who has not done a lot of programming but still interested in building some apps.

You learn how to do a ListView app using Intel XDK here,
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2014/09/creating-listview-type-of-cross.html

You learn how to do a TabView app using Intel XDK here,
http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2014/11/creating-cross-platform-apps-with-tab.html

You learn how to do a Side Menu app using Intel XDK here in a four-part post,

Part 1:
http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2015/11/develop-side-menu-app-using-intel-xdk.html

Part 2:
http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2015/12/develop-side-menu-app-using-intel-xdk.html

Part 3:
http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2015/12/develop-side-menu-app-using-intel-xdk_19.html

Part 4:
http://hodentekmobile.blogspot.com/2015/12/develop-side-menu-app-using-intel-xdk_26.html

Besides Intel XDK, there are lots of posts on my Mobile blog here:
http://hodnetekMobile.blogspot.com

Enhancements in Window 10 Build 10568

I had build 10240 which developed some problems after a regular Windows 10 Update (not the build update) following a Trojan attack.

This post is for a Toshiba Laptop running Windows 10 Pro. The changes that you see in a tablet or a Windows 10 Mobile( what I have is the Preview on Nokia Icon) will be quite different. Although Microsoft has Windows 10 on all device sizes, it is really not possible to have the same kind of settings, of course the core is the same, the bells and whistles are different.

Windows 10 Build 10568

I decided to get the latest update, the November Update 10568. This has a lot of new features  as described in one of the web sites mentioned towards the bottom of this post. I wanted to see if the changes are really there, and if they are, how effective they are. The following are some of the changes that I find mostly in Settings and Display.

Enable colored title bars

It does work as shown for Notepad.exe.

Off

On

Disable Backgroupd Image on Login Screen

Show more tiles on Start Menu

Did not make a difference on my laptop.

Off

On

Changes to Personalization riverted back

Lock screen background settings

There are three options to choose for the image but it is sluggish.

Windows Spotlight is now back. Browse should first pick up from a default folder and then a chosen folder. It is very sluggish and does not work well

Save Locations under System / Storage has new options



Multitasking SNAP options

When a you 'snap' by dragging a window by title bar to one of the sides and beyond you will see a trasient readjustment of borders and the snap action is finished.

Before snapped

After snapped

Environmental Windows Access
System Properties | Advanced and choose Environmental Variables. Not much of a change, but the window can now be resized.

New Look

In previous versions of Windows
I do remember that it could not be resized (don't quote me)

Things that are enhanced for the Microsoft Edge are here.

More here:
There are couple of more things that are in this new build.
More details here.

Fixing the non-responsive Mail app on Windows 10

Windows 10 Mail App stops responding and probably Calendar and People apps as well. When you click on the app nothing happens. You go to settings to see if you can uninstall. You will find there is no uninstall for this. It is part of the operating system and you cannot uninstall it.

This happened on my Windows 10 Pro on my Toshiba Satellite S70 series as well as Toshiba's Windows tablet running Windows 10.

What now?

You can run the following (System File Checker) on the command-line with elevated permissions. It will try to verify and fix problems with files (http://hodentekhelp.blogspot.com/2015/05/how-to-run-system-file-checkersfc.html).

However, this did not solve the problem on both the devices.

Next following this thread I launched Windows PowerShell with elevated permissions and ran the following statement (it appears the problem is due to some permissions with Windows Store) :

Get-appxprovisionedpackage –online | where-object {$_.packagename –like "*windowscommunicationsapps*"}
| remove-appxprovisionedpackage –online

Here is the screen shot of this run:

MailAppProblem

This fixed the problem on my laptop, but the Tablet is still having the same problem- non-responsive mail app.

Just before I ran the PowerShell application I had noticed that there was a new Windows Update and the Windows 10 build was 10586.

My tablet still had the build 10240 which I am upgrading to 10586. Let me see if this fixes the problem. Since these are Windows 10 programs, Microsoft should make sure they work all the time as most users may not even know what powershell is not to speak of elevated permissions, sfc etc.

Note: The build on the tablet now  is 10586  and is working.

Microsoft Edge does not support WebRTC

WebRTC provides the eyes and ears to web applications and this is going to be given when it comes to future of web.

Microsoft Edge is the odd man out when it comes to supporting WebRTC. This is not news.

webrtcorg.png
However with the ORTC APIs Microsoft has a way to talk to browsers that support webRTC.

Mozilla Firefox passes all the tests devised by WebRTC.org as shown in the following. All you need to do is launch your browser and type in the address, test.webrtc.org. You will be asked whether you are ready to share the devices like camera, audio etc. After getting an affirmative answer you will be presented with this test screen.

Webrtc_MOZ_test.png
You start the test by hitting the Start button. The various tests are run and if you wait a little while you will get this display,

Webrtc_Moz.png

As you can see most of the tests were successful except for one. This may be due to the configuration as you see this detail:

 Reflexive connectivity
[ INFO ] Gathered candidate of Type: srflx Protocol: UDP Address: 24.25.241.5
[ WARN ] Could not connect using reflexive candidates, likely due to the network environment/configuration.
With Microsoft Edge most of the test fail and the results are as shown in the following images:

 WebRTC-MSFT01

 WebRTC-MSFT02

WebRTC-MSFT03
 
I did wait for a while to see if it runs the remaining tests and it did not.

The good news however is that ORTC through its APIs, support WebRTC in Edge so that Edge can communicate with Firefox a la WEBRTC. We shall look at it in another post.

One stop agile BI with Sisense

Analytics on complex data made easy.
You do not need extensive IT resources to get meaning out of complex data. Sisense uses an In-Chip engine.

Main features extracted from Sisense site :

• It is a single stack software-single tool to analyze and visualize, save on data warehouse costs
• Shortest time from complex data to dashboard visualization
• Short learning curve
• Join tables from different sources on the fly
• No need to prepare data, just jump to analysis and visualization
• In-Chip engine optimize resource removing hardware and software stacks
• Sorry DBAs, you are not needed
• Unmatched TCO
• Scaling to Terabytes, OK

Sisense Users

Watch this video:

Bullet trains to run in India

Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have agreed for the Bullet train to run between Mumbai and Ahmadabad. The joint study  by India and Japan has already progressed and is in its final stages. However there are still many policy matters to be ironed out. The decision to go ahead with Japan instead of China has lot of merits. Basically China is a new comer to this area with little field experience.

Read More here:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Shinkansen-will-transform-India-the-way-it-transformed-Japan/articleshow/46139274.cms

My first time on the bullet train (Shinkansen) from Tokyo to Osaka was a thrill ride that included the view of Fuji from within the 'Vista' car. The curtsy of the railway staff bowled me over completely. The inside cabin cleanliness was 'out of the world' for one flying out of Calcutta. Over the years the image has not changed. Lots of local systems have the same level of service even today.

 I wholeheartedly endorse this project even though it is really making the wealthy more comfortable. Is it going to be inexpensive for the regular folks? I hope it will spin off a development spree in other regions.

There are huge cultural differences between the two countries. Just because it is running like clock work in Japan does not mean it will be a similar experience in India. Indians will be able to cover this gap by doing some learning on existing systems by paying attention to:

Punctuality
Cleanliness
Cleanliness
Security
Customer care
Maintenance of toilets
Clean catering

Cleanliness repeated for emphasis.

Although I share and agree with most of the comments here, I really believe this is a good thing. The amount involved is quite large while there are pressing problems of greater importance like,

Clean Toilets
Urban garbage removal
Traffic Congestion
More effective schooling
Physical education at schools

Here is a video

IoT will get a big boost if Laser Egg takes off

The Chinese are really worried about their environment, which looks pretty bad right now. The winds are not helpful, they drive the pollution across the seas to Japan and Korea.

More importantly Chinese are concerned about themselves. by monitoring pollution using the Laser Egg (a very fancy name: http://www.origins-china.com/) common man on the street is montioring the weather to see for himself what it is like, not waiting for the Government data.
But it could really take on and democratize the pollution question getting it out of the hands of politicians and into the hands of the people. Laser egg will get the data people need to so that they can plan their actions.
Here is a picture of the Laser Egg from the Chinese site,

Here is a video.




Right now it is sold out, wait for a few more days before you try.

When it comes to MathML, Firefox does a much better job than Microsoft Edge

This is just the view point looking at just one example and must not be construed to apply to whole of MathML. You may review some basic MathML information here.

Here is an example of displaying a matrix using the presentation elements of MathML. Browsers do not support MathML the same way, some do better than others. Generally speaking browsers that support HTML5 should support MathML to some extent. This post considers only the latest versions of Firefox and Microsoft Edge at present.

This page can be hosted on a web server(in this case on the local ISS, IIS Version 10.0.10586) on Windows 10 Pro)

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head><!--<script src="http://fred-wang.github.io/mathml.css/mspace.js"></script>-->
<title>Page Title</title>
</head>
<body>

<h1>Matrix Display with MathML </h1>
<p>Matrix A</p>
 <math>
      <mrow>
  <mi>A</mi>
  <mo>=</mo>
  <mfenced open='['; close=']'>
    <mtable>
      <mtr>
         <mtd><mi>x</mi></mtd>
         <mtd><mi>y</mi></mtd>
      </mtr>
      <mtr>
         <mtd><mi>z</mi></mtd>
         <mtd><mi>w</mi></mtd>
      </mtr>
    </mtable>
  </mfenced>
</mrow>
    </math>
</body>
</html>

This is a very simple page but there are differences how the browsers display them. The MathML is highlighted in yellow in the HTML page.

Firefox 42
Firefox displays as shown here without any modification. This is the correct way of displaying a matrix.




Microsoft Edge 25

The HTML code used as is (with the <script/> item commented out) will display as shown.

 

This one with <script/> included:

Firefox 42 better than Microsoft Edge 25.10586.0.0 when it comes to CSS3

This is if we were to look at the results from this site here (http://css3test.com/). Still Firefox undergoes lot more tests than Microsoft Edge to arrive at this conclusion. The following Specifications were tested.

The test at the above site checks which CSS3 features the browser recognizes

    Backgrounds and Borders
    Image Values and Replaced Content
    Selectors
    Media Queries
    Basic User Interface
    Transitions
    Animations
    Transforms
    Text
    Text Decoration
    Fonts
    Writing Modes
    Color
    Multi-column Layout
    Values and Units
    Regions
    Speech
    Flexible Box Layout
    Grid Layout
    Box Alignment
    Resetting All Properties
    Conditional Rules
    Masking
    Compositing and Blending
    Shapes
    Exclusions
    Filter Effects
    Pointer Events
    Fullscreen API
    Fragmentation
    Positioning
    Will Change
    CSSOM View Module
    Ruby
    Scroll Snap Points
    Logical Properties


Firefox 64% -> Determined by passing 816 tests out of 1469 total for 335 features

Microsoft Edge: 48% ->Determined by passing 650 tests out of 1469 total for 335 features

I did have the latest Chrome and as it presented some problems, I had to remove it. Perhaps I was testing on a Trojan infected computer.

PHP 7 is out, start developing with PHP 7

This is a major version of PHP in years. PHP 7 has numerous improvements and new features with the new version of ZEND engine.

Importantly the code can be downloaded from here.

For Windows there are versions for IIS as well as APACHE. Find more information and downloads here.
http://windows.php.net/download#php-7.0

Note:
The VC11 builds require to have the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 x86 or x64 installed
- The VC14 builds require to have the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2015 x86 or x64 installed

See what you get if you ue PHP 7.0:

 . PHP 7 is up to twice as fast as PHP 5.6
•Significantly reduced memory usage
•Abstract Syntax Tree
•Consistent 64-bit support
•Improved Exception hierarchy
•Many fatal errors converted to Exceptions
•Secure random number generator
•Removed old and unsupported SAPIs and extensions
•The null coalescing operator (??)
•Return and Scalar Type Declarations
•Anonymous Classes
•Zero cost asserts

The best open source software for you to develop and prosper. It almost looks like a Christmas Gift!

Firefox 42 has a slight edge over Microsoft Edge

This morning a Windows 10 Update was applied. It took a while to get the computer back for working. Microsoft Edge has many neat features and it is supposed to be better designed for HTML 5  for speed and performance than the earlier browser versions. On the other hand I recently installed Firefox 42 which is also pretty good.

For both Firefox and IE(Edge) there has been a quantum improvement during these past two years.

I just wanted to see how they compare and ran a test on this site (http://html5test.com/) for the two browsers I have on my Windows 10 Pro.

Firefox 42



 MicrosoftEdge (EdgeHTML13.10586)

It appears Firefox 42.0 is quite good with a slightly (not a big difference) better rating. May be you should go to this site and check out the details.

But surely, Microsoft Edge is catching up and coming out Open.

Microsoft's Javascript Engine Chakra will go Open Source

Going Open Source has become the modus operandi to get the most attention. I think this is a great move. Chakra (DOB 2008) is the an excellent JavaScript execution engine, the power behind the Microsoft Edge and other Microsoft Products.

Chakra_02

It is characterized by dependable performance, reliability and ability to scale. Microsoft's move can only result in positive returns to the bottom line.
Of course only the Core parts will go Open Source as ChakraCore.

What is needed in a browser?
Start Fast
Run fast
Deliver great user experience using all that the hardware can offer.
absence of 'we are looking for a solution' messages.
absence of 'A slow running script..."  messages.
The last two are my expectation from any browser (all of the browsers suffer from this). According to msedgedev (dedicated to Microsoft Edge Development site) blog the first three of the above were achieved by a
"unique multi-tiered pipeline that supports an interpreter, a multi-tiered background JIT compiler, and a traditional mark and sweep garbage collector that can do concurrent and partial collections."
Here is a picture from the Edge site:

Chakra_01
Chakra has reached out and influenced other applications such as,
Apps in stores
Server Side applications
Cloud Service
NoSQL Databases
Game engines
Front-end tools
Internet of Things

It is not just Edge Browser but a whole lot of Microsoft technologies from Azure to Xbox that has been benefited. Additionally Chakra supports most of ECMAScript 2015 features.
Actually you can go here and compare the browsers.

Wirepas: Internet of Things (Networks) with limitless scalability

That is correct PINO from Wirepas is the Internet of Things.  PINO is fully automatic, multi-hop mesh IOT platform. Nodes of PINO are the network. All optimization is by the node.
It is also scalable and can handle couple of million nodes.

Get your product brief here:
http://www.wirepas.com/Pino_Product_Brief.pdf

Here is a summary of the above brief:

Fully automatic operation 
Ultra low power, even routers  can be battery-powered
Extreme robustness
Limitless scalability
HW independence

EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS 
ƒSmart metering ƒ
Smart grid ƒ
Smart cities
ƒTraffic control ƒ
Telemetry ƒ
Wireless sensors ƒ
Environmental sensors
ƒHealth monitors
Industrial measurements & control ƒ
Home automation  & security
ƒWireless lighting control ƒ
Waste management

Windows Defender and the Trojan:DOS/Alureon.E

Recently my computer was infected by the Trojan: DOS/Alureon.E. The symptoms are, the browsers(Edge,FireFox) will not respond; the tiles menu is gone; the Cortana is there but does not respond.

I followed the procedure in my previous post and got some relief. However, it survived the next Windows Update and it was back again. It appears to be highly persisting.

I tried Windows Defender by running the scan again and removing the trojan (read my previous post) and it seems to partially recover, but again on the next restart of the computer (which is followed by the Windows Update!) the tiles disappeared and the browsers became inactive.

However, a new notification appeared indicating the use of the Windows Defender Offline (you can download if from here) and a clickable link to run the program. On activating this, the computer restarts and the off line tool starts working. It took almost an hour looking at over 100000 items on the computer. After the offline tool sanitizes, the computer restarts all by itself.

Again it looked like the tiles menu was absent, but after a sufficient (hissing and sighing) time after starting the tiles menu was active once again and the browers started responding. It appears to me that the Windows Update defeats whatever the defender program corrected.  I hope after the next restart I still have access to some useful browsers. No problem was observed when you right click the start to get the Windows 7 type experience.

Here are some screen shots.

The detection.

The details.

 The effort and the off-line tool



  The rest of the screen shots are on  my phone.

You can also download this program on a couple of media options

Targit Self-Service BI gets on board of Azure Cloud Platform

• As announced of today Targit's BI and Analyticss platform has announced its first offering of Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines.

This allows access to advanced data discovery; simple self-service BI analytics; comprehensive reporting with cutting edge dashboards in Azure Cloud. It works using the Bring Your Own License Model similar to its on-premises infrastructure (pay-as-you-go).

These are the declared benefits as seen on the Targit site:

• No upfront investment for hardware and software licensing: TARGIT on Azure users are able to scale up or out over time without the typical massive reinvestment in additional hardware and software.
• Full support for Azure database technologies: TARGIT Decision Suite 2015 comes with official support for Azure SQL Database, the dedicated relational database service hosted on Azure.  
• Fast ROI realization: TARGIT on Azure has a rapid timeline for deployment, and is the most cost-effective way to get started with BI. Users don’t need to have IT resources dedicated to managing an on-premises solution to glean problem-solving BI insights

If have an Azure account you can create a new VM for Targit quite easily:
Read more here or go to Azure Portal

Cumulocity is IoT Ready, go for it

 The keywords for this IOT company are Connect, Manage, Extend and do more things. In order to have wide applicability you can connect anything over any network.
Connect at Cumulocity has the following features:

• Connect out-of-the box to more than 30 usable certified devices (whole list is here, but I could only recognize, Raspberry and a Arduino variant). Looks like it is heavy on LINUX and JAVA-based but I may be missing the others) 

• More than 10 embedded environments supported

• RestAPIs for any connected device

Connect Over any network

•     Runs on all networks, mobile or fixed.

•     No need to open your firewalls.

•     No need to purchase additional VPN services.

•     Reduce your mobile traffic using SmartREST by 80% over other HTTP APIs.

While connecting is the first step, managing the connected items has top priority.
Cumulocity can,

• Store and Manage all your data- Store, search and track all assets, devices, configs, measurements,etc

• Control assets in real-time securely from anywhere

• Keep everything online; monitor device availability, monitor/control SLA violations, etc

Extending is important as you may need tailor to your needs.

• With Cumulocity you can fashion your own IoT in minutes using the Cumulocity Application Builder mashing it up with your business rules.

• Extend by plugging-in your own devices

• Add real-world capabilities to your data

• Cumulocity has the  most modern web interface (speed and responsive) and supports tablets and smartphones right away.

• Cumulocity is enterprise-ready: users, groups, permissions; audit security related events etc

Want to try for free, no problem.
Look at all these happy customers.

HPE's Hyper Converged 250 for Microsoft CPS Standard is hybrid cloud ready

Following the recent announcement of preferring Microsoft Azure for its Public Cloud, HPE (Hewlett-Packard Enterprise) has a box ready to hook up to the Cloud. Dell is also offering a similar system, but the focus is on service enablement and provisioning.

The specifications are here if you are interested (lifted directly from the specifications sheet here). These are highlights but you can get the complete specs at the link above.


It is fast, simple and efficient:
Fast:

• Pre-configured appliances are easy to buy, manage, deploy, and scale
• Accelerated time-to-value with workload optimized mobility and cloud solutions
• Scalability to meet ever-changing business needsSpeed troubleshooting and problem resolution
• Ability to deploy in minutes using HPEOneView InstantOn wizard

Simple:

• One integrated infrastructure with modular building blocks 
• Easy expansion; deploy up to four appliances in the same cluster 
• Familiar management console
• Single-vendor accountability, global support

Efficient:

• Purpose-built for virtualization
• Built-in proven resiliency
• Improved operational efficiency
• Support for a wide range of workloads and environments
• Flexible expansion; open and extensible to heterogeneous environments

Here is the HPE Hyper Converged 250 box

Read regarding Cloud Platform System here. 

Read regarding Dell Hybrid Cloud system for Microsoft here.

HP picks up Microsoft Azure Cloud as a Preferred Public Cloud

This is not announced yet but imminent. This is an arrangement to ship its Helion Service customers to Microsoft Azure. Recently HP as one knows was split into two companies, HPE (HP Enterprise) and HP Inc (the rest of HP, printer, desktop, etc). HP dropped Helion. These trade separately (ticker tape) as HPQ and HPE. Microsoft's Hybrid IT approach was the key driver for this selection. This announcement covers only the public cloud partnership.

It is interesting to watch the future for Helion's version of OpenStack infrastructure hosting and the CloudFoundry hosting applications software.

HP is also active in providing consulting services for rolling out Windows 10 compatible solutions.
Read more here and here.

New Microsoft Software-as-a-Service: PowerApps

 Mobile First, Cloud First --> Repeat this mantra three times, breathe deep each time

That is what Microsoft is doing by developing PowerApps. This is presently in limited preview (by invite only) being developed by a small team at Microsoft's Cloud and Enterprise Group. Microsoft believes that there is a huge bundle to be made.




PowerApps service can used for creating,sharing and managing mobile business apps on iOS, Android and Windows devices. It is really apps development for dummies kind of thing. Developer need not be a coder and it is best suited and used by those who have a business need but no programming skill. This app is supposed to provide a quick fix for app creation in these days of skilled developer scarcity without having to worry about security and other details.

 
Basically PowerApps,

• Turn data into apps

• Mobilize your systems - Sharepoint, SQL Server, Oracle databases, SAP and Custom business Systems

• If you have Microsoft Office Skills you can create apps

• Professional developers can use Azure App Service

• App sharing is as easy as an email

• Device neutral- smartphones and tablets from Apple, Android and Microsoft

Read more here:
https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/
https://powerapps.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/introducing-microsoft-powerapps/
http://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-takes-wraps-off-powerapps-mobile-app-creation-service/