shahine.com/omar/

I've been a bit pre-occupied lately (t-minus 2 days till baby due date) but I need to shout out to the Brad, Frank and Deva at ClearContext for their v3 release.

I've been using v3 when they were first ready to let some folks get their hands dirty. These guys are really dedicated to making this a showcase for Outlook. They had Outlook 2007 Ribbon support within a few weeks of the Schema for the Ribbon being unveiled, and they fixed some Vista stability bugs early on. Basically, they were able to keep the product usable and stable for two moving targets while adding a ton of great new features to ClearContext. Most importantly they kept me pretty darned happy this entire time. I was even able to abandon my own ThreadKiller add-in because their is simply less buggy than mine .

Anyway, congrats guys! I'm looking forward to v4!

Thanks to Deva for the pointer. It appears that GMail has incorporated a feature I came up with for Outlook last year called ThreadKiller. They call it mute.

Oh wait, that’s not exactly right.  Officially, the new feature is called Mute Thread, or “Mute” for short.  Here’s how it works:

THE OLD WAY:
1) You’re reading some posts about the elections.
2) You were once excited about reading this stuff.
3) But at least one conversation is now on its 471th message.  You keep hitting Archive but the damn conversation keeps popping up every time someone makes a new post!
4) You’re ready to tear out your hair.  The posters’ hair.  Your keyboard’s hair.  Er, keys.
5) MAKE IT STOP!  MAKE IT STOP, PLEEEEEASE!

THE NEW WAY:
1) You get yet another annoying message in the same damn conversation that’s already been conversed to death.
2) You press the ‘m’ key.  Unless a message is written *directly* to you (e.g., your name is in the TO spot), you’ll never see that message in your inbox again!

In short, the Mute feature enables you to tell Gmail: “Archive this conversation AND all future posts in it… just have ‘em skip the inbox!”

They also implemented another feature idea I posted on my Outlook Wishlist:

When replying to a thread and a new message comes in please please please tell me that happened so that I don't create a thread fork and screw up the conversation. Geez, Instant Messaging has this baked in. Corporate Email needs it. How about a message that says "A recent reply to this conversation has arrived... would you like to include that message in your reply instead?"

GMail's version:

Embarassment-reducing [sic] new message notifications
Ever replied to a message only to find out that someone sent a better, smarter reply right before you? Now, if someone sends a reply while you're in the middle of reading a conversation (or replying to it), you'll get a notification that a new message has arrived. Click "update conversation" to see what you’ve missed.

Hmm, I wonder if they read my blog... but they should correct their spelling of Embarassment, my spell checker tells me it's spelled Embarrassment. I guess that's embarrassing for their proofing folks (har har).

I really need these two features to be built into Outlook.

How many times have you heard this (or this happened to you before you learned not to do this any more).

1. you receive a document in email
2. you double click it
3. you edit it
4. you save it
5. you close word/xl/ppt

result: where did my doc go? OH NO I LOST EVERYTHING I WORKED ON.

Why does this happen, and why is it still broken? Why do I need to first save the document somewhere else before I edit it?

Even more annoying is how difficult it us to reply back to some one with your edits. You have to:

1. save the document to the desktop
2. go back to email
3. reply-all
4. attach the document on the desktop
5. send the email
6. delete the document on the desktop

This is a pretty common workflow for millions of people (I think).

Starting November 14th, MSN Music will stop selling music. The best way to buy music these days is Amazon.com 1-click with Amazon.com Prime for free 2 day shipping. I refuse to spend more than $20 a year for downloaded music. The whole authorization mess and software + DRM makes it a hassle. I think for music subscription is still the way to go.

This is a super cool post on what it's like developing software at Microsoft in the drive to RTM. My heart started pounding towards the end (just kidding). I've always wondered why my desktop background on XP is a 20 MB BMP file in the windows directory... and I didn't know that Vista will auto crop/scale images to fit your desktop.

Hmm, had this email exchange today with my sister. I found it pretty amusing.

Sister: can you send me some ideas for laptop ... So many options out there. 

Omar: Sony VGN-SZ390

Sister: cool, thanks.

Omar: there are a bunch of models and Sony’s site sux so you should probably customize it. However, if you can wait you’d be better off as Vista is about to come out.

Sister: customizing sounds like a pain.  we can wait.  let me know when it comes out.  thanks!

Omar: You know what vista is right? You should install IM at work.

Sister: no, but i bet it's worth waiting for.  right? i have aol IM at work.  didn't put my msn at work.

Omar: Can I post this email to my blog? It’s pretty funny.

Sister: what's funny?  seriously.

Yeah, she is going to wait for Vista, and yes, she knows I work for Microsoft.

But this brings me to a point. Outside of the tech and business world who knows or even cares about Vista and the fact that it was delayed? My sister will buy a new computer one day and it will come with Vista. She'll probably call me and be like "hey, it looks different" and not even think twice about going about her day. She will appreciate the performance and reliability as well as the new applications and improved usability of the OS (not to mention the improved security). The OEMs will continue to dilute the improvements in usability by injecting their little craplets to do things like muck up the built in DVD burning, Malware projection, Firewall and bunch of other things and the world won't really be all that different... or will it? I think it will, because the PC industry will be fueled by a new operating system with half a decade of engineering improvements, hopefully raising the bar in albeit subtle ways... and last but not least maybe it will move the stock price up rather than sideways.

Well I was back a few days go. I went to Dublin, Ireland last week for work. I wasn't there long enough to get over my jet lag, which made for interesting days to say the least. On my flight home, via Amsterdam, my Air Lingus flight front door would not close and it took them 2 hours 10 minutes to fix this. Normally no big deal, but my layover was 2 hours 20 minutes. Well needless to say I barely made my flight, after they had closed it... so they hand wrote me a boarding pass and let me on board. This was after I was delayed 5 min by a security guard who was upset that I forgot to remove my regulation zip-loc bag from my carryon for inspection. I told him he could have the bag so long as he would let me walk over 5 feet to the checkin counter to get my boarding pass. He wasn't too interested in my offer so I sat there ready to cry thinking I would be spending the night in the Amsterdam Airport. Did I mention it was Friday the 13th?

Anyway, I really enjoyed Dublin. I found it to be a really charming city. Everyone was extremely friendly and nice. I did make some time to go see the Book of Kells, hang with some former co-workers, have dinner and lunch with Reeves' wife Paula (Reeves was in Redmond, go figure ), and visit the Guinness Storehouse for some yummy Guinness. Yes, that's not a real pint in the photo, it's a half pint. I was about to pass out from jet lag so I figured I'd be better off with a smaller portion.

I posted my pics on smugmug.

One of the add-ins I wrote, Insert Code for Windows Live Writer, is now posted on Windows Live Gallery. I also just found a small bug I introduced (don't resize the window). Oh, and Phil, I added that Embed StyleSheet checkbox for you . Special thanks to Jean-Claude Manoli for CSharpFormat.

Special thanks to

Well, I've had my Nokia E61 for a couple of weeks now. I've been putting off writing anything about it because I really would like to do a detailed review like my 3 part Treo series, but alas I just don't have the energy right now.

Also, whenever anyone in the office sees me with a new phone, I usually get a fair amount of ridicule. You see, I've grown a habit for replacing my phone every 8 or so months, and well,that's just faster than everyone else. Oh, and I usually proclaim that the current phone that I have is the best thing since sliced bread, and of course I end up replacing it which erodes my credibility.

But anyway, you don't care right? You just want to know if this phone is worth salt. Well here goes.

I like this phone. I've never used a Nokia in my life, however, the experience reminded me a lot of my first GSM phone, an unlocked Ericsson T39. That was a great little phone, and it was a great way to enter the world of GSM. I'm happy to say that my experience opening, using and messing with this phone reminds me a lot of my Ericsson. There is something about a European made phone that is so obviously different from the phones made in Asia. Anyway, since I have spent the past few years using Windows Mobile devices and one Palm Treo I'll try to focus on where this device is better and worse.

Hardware

The device is solid. It feels so very good to use, hold, and type on. The keyboard is just perfect, and while the device is a bit larger than the Moto Q it doesn't feel big. It's thin enough to fit in my pocket.

Attention to the Details Part 1: The only blinking light on this device is a white light that comes on when you have email. Take a look at your phone now and tell me how many blinking lights it has. My old phone had two, the blinking green light telling you that you have signal and the blinking blue light telling you that you have Bluetooth. BOTH of these lights are useless. I could give a crap about either of these events to have an outside indicator telling me these things, but a blinking light telling me I have email? Now that is useful. I don't like having my phone vibrate or make a noise whenever I get email cause that's like every minute of the day. But on the off hours and evenings where I might want to glance at my phone to see if I have mail, the little white light is a great way to do it. One of my biggest pet peeves of the Pocket PC WM5 devices is that there is no way to keep the phone from constantly putting up things in the UI telling you that you have new mail. This problem isn't as bad on the Smartphone WM5 devices as their alert system is less obtrusive and doesn't require a finger or stylus to deal with.

I'd also like to congratulate Nokia on making a keyboard for humans. Yes, things like copy and paste can be initiated from the keyboard (compared to the HTC Pocket PC phones which lack a control key and the Smartphones that lack copy paste support). I will never purchase another smartphone that can't do such a simple thing from the keyboard (the Palm Treo supports this of course, some one over there is paying attention). Other than this, all the functions you'd expect work as expected (much like the Palm OS). In all applications numbers work where numbers are supposed to work and letters work where letters are supposed to work. The OS also gives you appropriate status as to what is about to be typed (for extended characters etc). My experience with the Windows Mobile devices is that you often have no idea. In other words, the software integration with the keyboard is superb and not an afterthought or Band-Aid implementation for what is normally a stylus driven or keypad driven device.

Software

The software took the most getting used to. It's very different from Windows Mobile or Palm, but it's also the most out of the way of all of them. The beauty of the phone is in the simplicity of the OS. It looks great, text is readable, and is efficient at all the tasks that I try and do.

The Web Browser is excellent. By far the best web browser I've used. It can load most pages and many that use AJAX (like the 37signals products).

Mail for Exchange, which is the only reason that I considered this phone, will synchronize email, calendar and contacts to the device from a compatible Exchange Server. This feature worked much better than on the Treo 650 that I used to use (more stable) but it does lack a few things like category and task support. But they NAILED the email support. Push email just works flawlessly. I did find an annoying bug where all day events from exchange come down as events that last 23 hours 59 minutes, but in the grand scheme of things, it's good enough for now. Reading email and processing large amounts of mail is the closest thing to the blackberry that I've seen (far easier and more efficient than Palm or Windows Mobile). It's a real joy to delete and reply to mails. Unfortunately you cannot move messages to different folders or sync anything but the inbox. Also missing are the ability to accept meeting requests or resolve email addresses against the Global Address List.

One of my favorite apps for the phone is the J2ME version of Google Maps. It's just excellent for finding local places and getting driving directions. There are also a ton of great games that look stunning as wells as your requisite support for opening word docs, xl files, powerpoint slides, and pdf files. Third Party apps, while not as abundant as Palm or Windows Mobile are out there and pretty decent.

Phone

By far my favorite feature of the phone is the phone capabilities (imagine that). The E61 has the best call quality of any mobile phone I've used. It's also extremely reliable and can hold on to a week signal well. Best of all are all the wonderfully sounds.

Attention to the Details Part 2: Unlike Windows Mobile, where practically every event has the same sound from 1999, Nokia has a TON of really great sounding and unique tones for calls, emails, messages, etc. They really make a big difference when you are trying to figure out why your phone is trying to get your attention. Some one really needs to put some effort into updating our tones for the next version of Windows Mobile.

Final Thoughts

This is a great phone and email device. It works well enough with Exchange and does a fantastic job surfing the web that I actually like the thing. I don't love it, I think there is plenty of room for improvement, but it will hold me over till I can get my hands on the Palm Treo 700 for Cingular (running Windows Mobile 5.2). The Treo 700 truly looks fantastic as Palm has ported many of it's best of breed applications and functionality to the Windows Mobile OS from the Palm OS (like the SMS Chat app which is the BEST SMS experience on any device period).

The Nokia E62 was just released for Cingular for $200 retail or $150 with renewal of your contract. It's a full $200 - $250 cheaper than the E61 that I bought (the no contract renewal price is $350). The differences are that the E62 lacks Wifi and 3G and has a mini-usb port and standard headphone jack. However, the 3G support on the E61 does not work in the US anyway (different frequency). For $150 the phone is a really great value IMHO. The Cingular E62 also support the major IM carriers in the US (which the E61 does not without third party software).

One of my favorite Outlook hacks is to show tasks that you completed today in whatever view you are accustomed to using.

By default when you mark a task as completed, Outlook will remove it from any view that only shows active tasks. However, if you mark a task as completed by mistake it's a bit of work to correct this. I really like to have a sense of what was done today in my task view and the good news is that it's pretty easy to enable this due to Outlook's seemingly infinite customizability.

Step 1: You must enable the Query Builder tab to appear

Open Notepad and enter the following text:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\QueryBuilder]

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Outlook\QueryBuilder]

Save the file as Enable Query Builder.reg and then open that file.

Step 2: Set The Filter Options for the Current Task View

Go to any task view in Outlook, and select View -> Current View -> Customize Current View and click Filter.

Step 3: Configure the view like this:

Viola.

Mad props to Tim Marman for the suggestion.

Installed Vista a few weeks ago and I really like it. I hope to write a series of posts over the next few months going through some of the feature I like the most.

However, one feature I like the least is the flickering and dimming that occurs when the "elevation prompt" appears. This is a little dialog box that asks for your permission before some admin task is allowed to go through. I personally know what I am doing on my computer and don't care much for it but I also don't mind it that much... However, I really don't care for the side effects of this feature in RC1.

The good news is that there is at least 4 ways of disabling it. Tim Sneath discusses how the best way to disable the dialogs is literally to just disable those dialogs, but not the UAC feature.

I originally used the Group Policy Settings to make the change, but I think the msconfig option is probably the easiest.

I'll turn it back on on the RTM build and see if things improved. But for now it's off.

This topic is a bit unusual for this blog, but over the past few weeks I've grown a bit alarmed about Bisphenol-A or BPA.

BPA is a chemical compound. It's most often found in Polycarbonate Plastics. Polycarbonate Plastics are those cool clear plastics you see everywhere. For example, all those trendy Nalgene colored and clear water bottles are made from Polycarbonates. Another common item is made from Polycarbonates; over 90% of baby bottles. You can see all the types of things Polycarbonates are made into.

So who cares, lots of things are made of plastic. Well, there is a fairly raging debate that BPAs can leach from plastic when heated, and that BPAs can cause all sorts of ails like cancer. Now I don't consider myself an environmentalist, and I certainly realize that in the modern industrial world we live in we are constantly exposed to things that are bad for us; the air we breath, the weather, the hole in the ozone layer, pesticides, global warming and so on. However, a few weeks ago my wife went to a talk at Stanford given by a colleague of hers and one of the issues discussed were BPAs. Anyway it was enough to pique my wife's interest and then mine.

My basic philosophy on these sorts of things is this. If all the "industry funded plastics research" says one thing, and much of the "independent" research says another thing, then something is fishy. For all we know, this is just the very beginning in our understanding of the long term affects of BPA and 20 years from now we'll look back at this and wish we knew more... OR it's perfectly safe and there is nothing to worry about. But when presented with a choice in the matter, I would rather avoid this sort of thing, especially when my child on the way. What I do find scary is the number of pro BPA websites that the plastics industry has already set up to remind us how "safe" it is because the FDA has yet to prove otherwise... (www.NoAB319.org, http://www.bisphenol-a.org/)

Before I go on I should explain that not all plastics contain BPA, and that you should mainly be concerned with plastics that come in contact with food as the heat is what can accelerate BPA leaching. There are a few kinds of plastics and they can be identified by those little triangled number symbols.

Number	Code	Name	Example	BPAs
	PETE	Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET)	Soda & water containers, some waterproof packaging.	No
	HDPE	High-Density Polyethylene	Milk, detergent & oil bottles. Toys and plastic bags.	No
	V	Vinyl/Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)	Food wrap, vegetable oil bottles, blister packages.	Yes
	LDPE	Low-Density Polyethylene	Many plastic bags. Shrink wrap, garment bags.	No
	PP	Polypropylene	Refrigerated containers, some bags, most bottle tops,	No
	PS	Polystyrene	Throwaway utensils, meat packing, protective packing.	Yes
	Other	Usually layered or mixed plastic.	Acrylic, polycarbonate, polylactic acid , nylon and fiberglass.	Maybe

So the past few weeks Lora and I decided to get rid of of Beloved Polycarbonate Nalgene bottles, plastic coffee mugs, or any other form of plastic that we might heat up. This includes any tupperware (luckily we use the pyrex class tupperware). We replaced all our Nalgene Lexan bottles with the excellent swiss SIGG bottles. You can also opt to use the white Nalgene bottles as they are made from High Density Polyethylene (BPA free).

However, when it came to finding Baby Bottles that weren't made of Polycarbonate things to a bit tougher. Basically you have a few choices:

1. Good old Glass bottles. Evenflo makes them into two sizes (4oz and 8oz)
2. Playtex Original Nurser Polycarbonate bottles with Polypropylene Drop-ins Inserts (the formula goes in the Polypropylene which does not contain BPAs).
3. Born Free (I was actually wondering when a Baby Bottle company would get wise and take advantage of the uncertainty around BPA safety and market this fact). I have yet to try see these for myself, and the web site is not clear about what kind of BPA free plastic they use. update: Whole Foods and Amazon (5oz and 9oz) now carry Born Free Bottles and I purchased some. They are made from a material called Polyamide which appears to be a bio-plastic.
4. Snappies - Polypropylene breast milk storage bottles.
5. Medela breast pump storage containers and baby bottles are all made of Polypropylene

What's also very interesting is that San Francisco just became the first place in the world to ban the use of baby products with BPA effective December 1st 2006.

Under the proposed ordinance, no product that is intended for use by a child under 3 years of age could be manufactured, sold or distributed in San Francisco if it contains bisphenol A, or BPA, an ingredient in hard, clear polycarbonate plastic. Some forms of phthalate, a chemical that softens plastic, including polyvinyl chloride, or PVC, would also be banned.

And it looks like the State of California is considering similar legislation:

But evidence is mounting that even in low exposure levels, BPA can be dangerous, especially for infants and developing fetuses. BPA is eerily similar to estrogen, the naturally occurring hormone that regulates sexual development, and since the 1990s, early exposure has been linked to a variety of problems, ranging from early puberty and undescended testicles to birth defects like hypospadia. Recently, scientists at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Illinois at Chicago found that exposing newborn rats to low levels of BPA permanently damaged their genes in ways that caused them to develop prostate cancer. Given that BPA tends to concentrate in the placenta and amniotic fluid of pregnant women in five to 10 times the levels found in the average adult, the research raises troubling questions about the potential for prenatal exposure to BPA to cause prostate cancer decades down the line.

As with all animal studies, it remains to be seen how well the findings will apply to humans. But as scientific evidence of the risks accumulates, and as rates of reproductive-system diseases continue to rise, it’s time to take some common-sense measures to limit exposure. For consumers, this means avoiding using cookware or food storage items containing BPA and being especially careful about microwaving plastics, which can cause them to leach BPA at higher levels. For our state legislators, it means following San Francisco’s lead and banning BPA from child-care products.

Assemblywoman Wilma Chan of Oakland introduced just such a ban in January, only to have it die in committee amid intense lobbying by the plastic industry. Chan is planning to reintroduce the bill later this year, and we urge support for this important effort.

I found this great blog post from  Julie Deardorff of the Chicago Tribune, where she writes on her blog:

Just last week, researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and the University of Cincinnati found the first evidence that early exposure to low levels of BPA, which mimics the female estrogen hormone, may result in a predisposition to prostate cancer later in life. The exposure to BPA permanently altered genes in the rat pups, according to the study published in the journal Cancer Research.

The plastics industry plays down the threat from BPA, but at least one enlightened city—San Francisco—is considering adopting the nation’s first ban on BPA, a move that comes after a similar measure died in the California Legislature. The proposed ban would also prohibit forms of phthalate, a chemical that softens plastic, including polyvinyl chloride, or PVC.

What can a pregnant woman do? Plastic is impossible to avoid. The U.S. produces more than 1.6 million pounds of BPA annually. But for starters:

1. Don't microwave in plastics. Use heat-resistant glass containers, Corning Ware or ceramics to microwave all your products, even if it is "microwave safe."
2. Cover food with a paper towel rather than plastic wrap in the microwave. Never microwave baggies.
3. Even organic microwavable foods have plastic coverings. Take two minutes to remove the product from its plastic wrapping and put it in a glass or ceramic bowl before cooking.
4. Don’t drink hot liquids through a straw. Not only will you burn your tongue and throat, but the heat will pull the chemicals from the straw into your coffee.
5. Drink water out of glasses or glass bottles

So it's really very simple. You can do nothing and that's your prerogative. But I think folks should at least know that this debate is brewing, and that you can avoid a potentially harmful chemical if you chose... Why take the risk if you can find a cost effective suitable alternative for you and your child?

Anyway, I hope this information serves useful to some one. I documented this in the hopes that folks searching for this information will at least find some links to BPA free baby bottles which is what I really wanted to find before stepping into this quagmire. I seriously think plastic is an amazing invention, but I also wonder if the plastics industry is in for a lot of scrutiny in the next few decades as people begin to better understand the effects of plastic in our lives.

Oh and I definitely recommend reading the Smart Plastics Guide.

At long last dasBlog 1.9 is finally out. Originally this release as a few bug fixes but in the last few months a lot of new folks started to contribute some great stuff and all the small and not so small things that Scott and I did started to add up to quite a bit of stuff .

You can read all about the new features on Scott's blog.