Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Steve Jobs Thoughts on Flash


Thoughts on Flash

Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe’s founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years. The two companies worked closely together to pioneer desktop publishing and there were many good times. Since that golden era, the companies have grown apart. Apple went through its near death experience, and Adobe was drawn to the corporate market with their Acrobat products. Today the two companies still work together to serve their joint creative customers – Mac users buy around half of Adobe’s Creative Suite products – but beyond that there are few joint interests.
I wanted to jot down some of our thoughts on Adobe’s Flash products so that customers and critics may better understand why we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. Adobe has characterized our decision as being primarily business driven – they say we want to protect our App Store – but in reality it is based on technology issues. Adobe claims that we are a closed system, and that Flash is open, but in fact the opposite is true. Let me explain.
First, there’s “Open”.
Adobe’s Flash products are 100% proprietary. They are only available from Adobe, and Adobe has sole authority as to their future enhancement, pricing, etc. While Adobe’s Flash products are widely available, this does not mean they are open, since they are controlled entirely by Adobe and available only from Adobe. By almost any definition, Flash is a closed system.
Apple has many proprietary products too. Though the operating system for the iPhone, iPod and iPad is proprietary, we strongly believe that all standards pertaining to the web should be open. Rather than use Flash, Apple has adopted HTML5, CSS and JavaScript – all open standards. Apple’s mobile devices all ship with high performance, low power implementations of these open standards. HTML5, the new web standard that has been adopted by Apple, Google and many others, lets web developers create advanced graphics, typography, animations and transitions without relying on third party browser plug-ins (like Flash). HTML5 is completely open and controlled by a standards committee, of which Apple is a member.
Apple even creates open standards for the web. For example, Apple began with a small open source project and created WebKit, a complete open-source HTML5 rendering engine that is the heart of the Safari web browser used in all our products. WebKit has been widely adopted. Google uses it for Android’s browser, Palm uses it, Nokia uses it, and RIM (Blackberry) has announced they will use it too. Almost every smartphone web browser other than Microsoft’s uses WebKit. By making its WebKit technology open, Apple has set the standard for mobile web browsers.
Second, there’s the “full web”.
Adobe has repeatedly said that Apple mobile devices cannot access “the full web” because 75% of video on the web is in Flash. What they don’t say is that almost all this video is also available in a more modern format, H.264, and viewable on iPhones, iPods and iPads. YouTube, with an estimated 40% of the web’s video, shines in an app bundled on all Apple mobile devices, with the iPad offering perhaps the best YouTube discovery and viewing experience ever. Add to this video from Vimeo, Netflix, Facebook, ABC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, ESPN, NPR, Time, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Sports Illustrated, People, National Geographic, and many, many others. iPhone, iPod and iPad users aren’t missing much video.
Another Adobe claim is that Apple devices cannot play Flash games. This is true. Fortunately, there are over 50,000 games and entertainment titles on the App Store, and many of them are free. There are more games and entertainment titles available for iPhone, iPod and iPad than for any other platform in the world.
Third, there’s reliability, security and performance.
Symantec recently highlighted Flash for having one of the worst security records in 2009. We also know first hand that Flash is the number one reason Macs crash. We have been working with Adobe to fix these problems, but they have persisted for several years now. We don’t want to reduce the reliability and security of our iPhones, iPods and iPads by adding Flash.
In addition, Flash has not performed well on mobile devices. We have routinely asked Adobe to show us Flash performing well on a mobile device, any mobile device, for a few years now. We have never seen it. Adobe publicly said that Flash would ship on a smartphone in early 2009, then the second half of 2009, then the first half of 2010, and now they say the second half of 2010. We think it will eventually ship, but we’re glad we didn’t hold our breath. Who knows how it will perform?
Fourth, there’s battery life.
To achieve long battery life when playing video, mobile devices must decode the video in hardware; decoding it in software uses too much power. Many of the chips used in modern mobile devices contain a decoder called H.264 – an industry standard that is used in every Blu-ray DVD player and has been adopted by Apple, Google (YouTube), Vimeo, Netflix and many other companies.
Although Flash has recently added support for H.264, the video on almost all Flash websites currently requires an older generation decoder that is not implemented in mobile chips and must be run in software. The difference is striking: on an iPhone, for example, H.264 videos play for up to 10 hours, while videos decoded in software play for less than 5 hours before the battery is fully drained.
When websites re-encode their videos using H.264, they can offer them without using Flash at all. They play perfectly in browsers like Apple’s Safari and Google’s Chrome without any plugins whatsoever, and look great on iPhones, iPods and iPads.
Fifth, there’s Touch.
Flash was designed for PCs using mice, not for touch screens using fingers. For example, many Flash websites rely on “rollovers”, which pop up menus or other elements when the mouse arrow hovers over a specific spot. Apple’s revolutionary multi-touch interface doesn’t use a mouse, and there is no concept of a rollover. Most Flash websites will need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices. If developers need to rewrite their Flash websites, why not use modern technologies like HTML5, CSS and JavaScript?
Even if iPhones, iPods and iPads ran Flash, it would not solve the problem that most Flash websites need to be rewritten to support touch-based devices.
Sixth, the most important reason.
Besides the fact that Flash is closed and proprietary, has major technical drawbacks, and doesn’t support touch based devices, there is an even more important reason we do not allow Flash on iPhones, iPods and iPads. We have discussed the downsides of using Flash to play video and interactive content from websites, but Adobe also wants developers to adopt Flash to create apps that run on our mobile devices.
We know from painful experience that letting a third party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in sub-standard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform. If developers grow dependent on third party development libraries and tools, they can only take advantage of platform enhancements if and when the third party chooses to adopt the new features. We cannot be at the mercy of a third party deciding if and when they will make our enhancements available to our developers.
This becomes even worse if the third party is supplying a cross platform development tool. The third party may not adopt enhancements from one platform unless they are available on all of their supported platforms. Hence developers only have access to the lowest common denominator set of features. Again, we cannot accept an outcome where developers are blocked from using our innovations and enhancements because they are not available on our competitor’s platforms.
Flash is a cross platform development tool. It is not Adobe’s goal to help developers write the best iPhone, iPod and iPad apps. It is their goal to help developers write cross platform apps. And Adobe has been painfully slow to adopt enhancements to Apple’s platforms. For example, although Mac OS X has been shipping for almost 10 years now, Adobe just adopted it fully (Cocoa) two weeks ago when they shipped CS5. Adobe was the last major third party developer to fully adopt Mac OS X.
Our motivation is simple – we want to provide the most advanced and innovative platform to our developers, and we want them to stand directly on the shoulders of this platform and create the best apps the world has ever seen. We want to continually enhance the platform so developers can create even more amazing, powerful, fun and useful applications. Everyone wins – we sell more devices because we have the best apps, developers reach a wider and wider audience and customer base, and users are continually delighted by the best and broadest selection of apps on any platform.
Conclusions.
Flash was created during the PC era – for PCs and mice. Flash is a successful business for Adobe, and we can understand why they want to push it beyond PCs. But the mobile era is about low power devices, touch interfaces and open web standards – all areas where Flash falls short.
The avalanche of media outlets offering their content for Apple’s mobile devices demonstrates that Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content. And the 250,000 apps on Apple’s App Store proves that Flash isn’t necessary for tens of thousands of developers to create graphically rich applications, including games.
New open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win on mobile devices (and PCs too). Perhaps Adobe should focus more on creating great HTML5 tools for the future, and less on criticizing Apple for leaving the past behind.
Steve Jobs
April, 2010

Thursday, August 9, 2012

"Installing Agent failed with error code: 1618" occurs when attempting to install Backup Exec Windows Agents


Problem



When attempting to install Backup Exec System Recovery (BESR) Management Control on a client system the error below is generated.

Error



Installing Publisher failed with error code: 1618

Environment



Windows based environment.

Cause



Issue can occur if multiple instances of MSIEXEC.EXE is running.

Solution



 
End process all
MSIEXEC.EXE
processes in the Windows Task Manager and attempt the management control install again
. If issue persists, reboot the system before next install attempt.

Friday, August 3, 2012

Reverse DNS does not Match SMTP Banner




1.    Open EMC Server Configuration, Hub Transport - Your Default Receive Connector, right click it to view the properties.

2.    Type your mail.domain.com in FQDN blank like below snapshot:


3.    Make sure Exchange Authentication is not enabled, click Apply – OK.


4.    Restart the Microsoft Exchange Transport Service in services.msc

5.    Issue should be resolved now-

Monday, July 23, 2012

SCVMM fails to P2V Server due to VSS Writter error

Error (13243)
The snapshot creation failed because the VSS writer {4dc3bdd4-ab48-4d07-adb0-3bee2926fd7f} on source machine MACHINENAME did not respond within the expeted time interval.



Fix 1:


  1. Open regedit and go to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList
  2. Under the ProfileList key, delete any subkey that has ".bak" on the end.
If that was not the case, then try this:

Fix 2:

When we run the "vssadmin list writers" command from the command prompt, we don't see the system writer in the list. This is because of the access permission not defined properly. In order to assign the correct permission, please run the following commands from the command prompt:

Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /a
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(F)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\temp\PendingRenames /grant BUILTIN\Users:(RX)
Takeown /f %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\* /a
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM:(RX)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant "NT Service\trustedinstaller:(F)"
icacls %windir%\winsxs\filemaps\*.* /grant BUILTIN\Users:(RX)
--------------------------------------------------------------
- After that we ran

net stop cryptsvc
net start cryptsvc
-------------------------------------------------
Once this has been done, again ran the "vssadmin list writers" command and this time we should see the system writer listed there.

Friday, June 15, 2012

Microsoft Outlook 2010 Autocomplete Import

The Auto-Complete List is a feature which displays suggestions for names and e-mail addresses as you begin to type them. These suggestions are possible matches from a list of names and e-mail addresses from the e-mail messages that you have sent.
Tip To watch a video of this procedure, see Video: Import Auto-Complete List entries.
Auto-Complete list
In Microsoft Outlook 2010, the Auto-Complete List is no longer saved in a file with an extension of .nk2. The Auto-Complete List entries are now saved in your Microsoft Exchange Server mailbox or in the Outlook Data File (.pst) for your account. However, if you want to copy the Auto-Complete List (.nk2) from another computer that was using a POP3 (POP3: A common protocol that is used to retrieve e-mail messages from an Internet e-mail server.) email account or an older version of Outlook, you must import the file.
Top of Page Top of Page

Step 1: Copy the Auto-Complete file from the old computer

  1. Because the default folder is hidden folder, the easiest way to open the folder is to use the command %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook on the Start menu.
  • Windows 7 Click Start. Next to the Shut down button, in the Search programs and files box, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook and then press Enter.
Windows 7 Start menu with Search box
  • Windows Vista Click Start. Next to the Shut Down button, in the Search box, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook and then press Enter.
Windows Vista Start button and Search box
  • Windows XP Click Start, click Run, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook and then press Enter.
Windows XP Start button and Run command
  1. After you press Enter, the folder where your Auto-Complete List file is saved opens.
Note By default, file extensions are hidden in Windows. To change whether file extensions are shown, in Window Explorer on the Tools menu (in Windows 7 or Windows Vista, press the ALT key to see the Tools menu), click Folder Options. On the View tab select or clear the Hide extensions for known file types check box.
  1. Copy the file to the new computer. The file is small and can be placed on a removable media such as a USB memory stick.
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Step 2: Copy the Auto-Complete file to the new computer

  1. On the new computer, in Control Panel, click or double-click Mail.
Where is Mail in Control Panel?
Mail appears in different Control Panel locations depending upon the version of the Microsoft Windows operating system, Control Panel view selected, and whether a 32- or 64-bit operating system or version of Outlook 2010 is installed.
The easiest way to locate Mail is to open Control Panel in Windows, and then in the Search box at the top of window, type Mail. In Control Panel for Windows XP, type Mail in the Address box.
Note The Mail icon appears after Outlook starts for the first time.
  1. Click Show Profiles.
  2. Make a note of the name of the profile. You will need to change the .nk2 file name to match the name later.
  3. Copy the .nk2 file to the new computer in the folder where Outlook configurations are saved. Because this folder is hidden folder, the easiest way to open the folder is to use the command %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook on the Start menu.
  • Windows 7 Click Start. Next to the Shut down button, in the Search programs and files box, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook and then press Enter.
  • Windows Vista Click Start. Next to the Shut Down button, in the Search box, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook and then press Enter.
  • Windows XP Click Start, click Run, type %APPDATA%\Microsoft\Outlook and then press Enter.
  1. After the file is coped to the folder, right-click the file, click Rename, and change the name to match the profile name that appeared in step 3.
Top of Page Top of Page

Step 3: Import the Auto-Complete List

You are now ready to start Outlook and import the file, but you must start Outlook with a special one-time command.
  • Do one of the following:
  • Windows 7 Click Start {picture}. Next to the Shut down button, in the Search programs and files box, type outlook /importnk2 and then press Enter.
  • Windows Vista Click Start {picture}. Next to the Shut Down button, in the Search box, type outlook /importnk2 and then press Enter.
  • Windows XP Click Start {picture}, click Run, type outlook /importnk2 and then press Enter.
The Auto-Complete List should now have the entries from your other computer when you compose a message and begin typing in the To, Cc, or Bcc boxes.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Disable automatic forwarding Exchange 2007

Disable automatic forwarding Exchange 2007

  1. Open EMC
  2. Expand Org Config
  3. Expand Hub Transport
  4. Right-Click "Default" under Remote Domains
  5. On the tab that reads "format of original message..."
  6. Check or Uncheck "Allow automatic forward"
If this setting is not here, it might have arrived with SP1.  I will post back if i can remember the cmdlet, which would have been available even before SP1.

Cmdlets:
Set-RemoteDomain and AutoForwardEnabled
Set-RemoteDomain and AutoForwardDisabled

Friday, February 17, 2012

How To: Install Windows 7 Or Windows 8 From USB Drive

This guide works 100% for Windows 7 and Windows 8 unlike most of the guides out there. I have seen many sites/blogs that have “Install Vista from USB guide” but either with incomplete steps or not working guide. I have also seen some guides that don’t’ use proper commands in this guide. After spending many hours I have come up with this 100% working guide to install Windows 7 and Windows 8 from USB flash drive.
Bootable USB drive
I just did this method on one of my friends machine and installed Windows 7 and Windows 8 . The main advantage is that by using USB drive you will be able to install Windows 7 or Windows 8 in just 15 minutes. You can also use this bootable USB drive on friend’s computer who doesn’t have a DVD optical drive.
The method is very simple and you can use without any hassles. Needless to say that your motherboard should support USB Boot feature to make use of the bootable USB drive.
Requirements:
*USB Flash Drive (Minimum 4GB)
*Windows 7 or Windows 8 installation files.
Follow the below steps to create bootable Windows 7/Windows 8 USB drive using which you can install Windows 7 or Windows 8 easily.
Procedure:
1. Plug-in your USB flash drive to USB port and move all the contents from USB drive to a safe location on your system.
2. Open Command Prompt with admin rights. Use any of the below methods to open Command Prompt with admin rights.
*Type cmd in Start menu search box and hit CtrlShiftEnter.
Or
*Go to Start menu > All programs > Accessories, right click on Command Prompt and select Run as administrator.
3. You need to know about the USB drive a little bit. Type in the following commands in the command prompt:
First type DISKPART and hit enter to see the below message.
Bootable USB Drive
Next type LIST DISK command and note down the Disk number (ex: Disk 1) of your USB flash drive. In the below screenshot my Flash Drive Disk no is Disk 1.
4. Next type all the below commands one by one. Here I assume that your disk drive no is “Disk 1”.If you have Disk 2 as your USB flash drive then use Disk 2.Refer the above step to confirm it.
So below are the commands you need to type and execute one by one:
SELECT DISK 1
CLEAN
CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE
FORMAT FS=NTFS
(Format process may take few seconds)
ASSIGN
EXIT
Don’t close the command prompt as we need to execute one more command at the next step. Just minimize it.
Bootable USB Drive
5. Next insert your Windows7/Windows 8 DVD into the optical drive and check the drive letter of the DVD drive. In this guide I will assume that your DVD drive letter is “D” and USB drive letter is “H” (open my computer to know about it).
6. Maximize the minimized Command Prompt in the 4th step.Type  the following command now:
D: CD BOOT and hit enter.Where “D” is your DVD drive letter.
CD BOOT and hit enter to see the below message.
7. Type another command given below to update the USB drive with BOOTMGR compatible code.
BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H:
14
Where “H” is your USB drive letter. Once you enter the above command you will see the below message.
8. Copy your Windows 7 or Windows 8 DVD contents to the USB flash drive.
9. Your USB drive is ready to boot and install Windows 7 or Windows 8. Only thing you need to change the boot priority at the BIOS to USB from the HDD or CD ROM drive. I won’t explain it as it’s just the matter the changing the boot priority or enabling the USB boot option in the BIOS.
Note: If you are not able to boot after following this guide means you haven’t set the BIOS priority to USB. If you got any problem in following this guide feel free to ask questions by leaving comment.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

How to avoid giving admin rights to a user based on app permissions

Many times app vendors will tell you that their software only runs if you give admin rights to your users. In most cases, you can give the users full control permission only on the app folder and this will take care of the problem.

This way your users will not have admin rights, but they will be able to read and write to the directory of a given app.

To do this simply locate the folders associated with the program on your hard drive
Then right click and go to properties
Select the security tab
Locate the users group and edit it for full control at the parent folder
Make sure that you replace permission to all child folders within the parent folder

If you do not want all users to have this access for that particular app, then specify the user with full access instead of using the "users" group that is defined by windows.

That's it

Windows 7 Temp Profile - Deleting User Profile To Recreate it

1- Logon with local admin profile. (or other account different that you want to use, but with admin privileges).
2- Open regedit and go to HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\ProfileList. Here you can see all SIDs of loaded profiles and probably you'll have some of them repeated.
3- You will click on each string that looks like the ones below and it will show you on the registry right view the user that is associated to it, delete the ones for the users intended. Then delete the actual user profile on Windows under "Users" (make sure to back up first)

SID-1292428093-343818398-2115-158554
SID-1292428093-343818398-2115-158554.bak

4- Restart your computer or Logoff and Logon with the profile that you want to restore and that's all, your profile will be restored Perfectly.

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Reset OS X admin password with CD

Reset Mac Password – with the installer CD/DVD

reset forgotten mac passwordResetting a forgotten Mac password is easier if you have an installer disk handy, we have covered this tip before on it’s own:
  • Boot from the Mac OS X installer disk by inserting it into the Mac and holding down the “C” key on boot
  • Select your language preferences and then under the “Utilities” menu select “Password Reset” (it may say “Reset Password” instead, depends on the version of Mac OS X)
  • Select the hard disk that the forgotten password is on, then select the username of the forgotten password, you’ll then be asked to select a new password
  • Reboot as usual from the hard drive, using your newly reset password as the login!
This is borrowed from our article on how to reset a lost password with a CD. This is obviously an easier method but it’s of no help if you own a MacBook Air with no DVD drive, or if you just don’t have the installer Mac OS CD laying around. If you’re in that situation, the best alternative is to use the above method that does not require a CD to reset the password.