The Killers recorded this cover version of the classic Eagles hit as part of their contribution to raise awareness and funds for the APE charity which, in the last month alone, has made awards of $100,000 to support both the natural disasters in Asia Pacific and the UK-based climate change group The Transition Network. Recorded with the APE house band, Rhythms Del Mundo, ‘Hotel California’ has been given an Afro-Cuban treatment and is already a smash radio hit all over Europe.

The Killers and others are promoting COP15 – the Global Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen, December 7-18, where the soundtrack to the conference (and perhaps a performance). From YATM, this is a great chance to hear The Killers in a Cuban-style-west-coast-LA-rock sound!

Check out the tracklisting below, as some of the biggest stars in the music industry have joined forces to raise their voices to the latest Rhythms del Mundo album, ‘Rhythms del Mundo Classics’ produced to raise awareness and funds for climate crisis projects and natural disaster relief.

Track-listing
Hotel California – RDM ft The Killers
Cupid – RDM ft Amy Winehouse
Walk On The Wild Side – RDM ft Editors
Imagine – RDM ft Jack Johnson
Beat It – RDM ft Fall Out Boy and John Mayer
Under Pressure – RDM ft Keane
Satisfaction – RDM ft Cat Power
I Heard It Through The Grapevine – RDM ft Kaiser Chiefs
Because The Night – RDM ft KT Tunstall
Bohemian Rhapsody – RDM ft Augusto Enriquez
Under The Boardwalk – RDM ft The Rolling Stones
Runaway – RDM ft The Zutons
For What Its Worth – RDM ft OneRepublic
Big Yellow Taxi – RDM ft Aquila Rose and Idana Valdes
Purple Haze – RDM
Smells Like Teen Spirit – RDM ft Shanade
Are You Ready For Love – RDM ft The Kooks
My Cherie Amor – Eros Ramazzotti
Stairway To Heaven – RDM ft Rodrigo Y Gabriela

Read more………………….The Killers Cover Hotel California for RDM

Coming from mostly HP EVA environments I got used to identify a Volume/LUN by there LUN number which was a real unique identifier. I could always ”talk” LUN number and be sure that it was understood and unique.
So ever since I’ve been working with our LeftHand environment I disliked the way that every Volume/LUN is marked with LUN 0.

Goal of this blog is to show you how you can easily rename a published LeftHand Volume to something that is easy to recognize and is unique.

As you can see in the image below the SCSI target number (T) seems to be the unique identifier  instead of the LUN number.
Well, fair enough you might, just switch to T number instead of the L number.  Unfortunately the SCSI target number can vary on the ESX hosts so it isn’t a static number that uniquely identifies a LUN!

VMHBAx:C:T:L:(P)
x=SCSI Adapter Number
C= Controller
T= Target
L= LUN Number
P= Partition (if available)

The only real unique identifier in fact is a very long string, which can be compared to a WWN from FC devices.

So what’s there to dislike more? We are using many RDM’s and it takes a long time to identify the correct RDM with the LeftHand Volume.
First I needed to link either the “Identfier” or the “Target”-number to the actual target

Step 1: Select Paths and link the LeftHand volume name to the target number

Alternative to Step 1: Select Paths, right mouse-click the title bar, select Devices and link the LeftHand volume name to the Device which also contains the “Identifier” (this is a lot of scrolling work!)

Step 2: Go back to “Devices” and link the Target number to the “Identifier” (if you’ve done the alternative step above you already have the “Identifier” linked to the correct LeftHand volume)

Step 3: Add the new RDM to the VM and either identify the correct LeftHand volume by:
- Target number (if the VM is on the same ESX Host as where the ‘Target number to LeftHand volume’ is checked; Remember that the Target number isn’t a real unique identifier in the ESX Cluster!)
Or
- The long Identify string.

Now this procedure could be easy when adding 1 RDM but in my case I had situations in where I needed to add 20 RDM’s in the same time so I needed to get a pen and paper and make an overview.
Lately (too late IMHO ;) I discovered that the Volume Name can be renamed, making the new procedure as followes:

Step 1: Select Paths and link the LeftHand volume name to the target number

Step 2: Go back to Devices, select the correct Target number, right mouse click the entry and select rename. It’s advisable to keep the LeftHand volume name the same as the new VMware Name.

Step 3: Add the new RDM to the VM and easy identify now

As a last remark I like to note that this ”identify issue” doesn’t really occur while making new VMFS datastores.
Whenever walking through the wizard “Add Storage” the wizard ask you to select a Disk/LUN. Within this window (see image below) there’s a “Path ID”-property field in which you can directly see the LeftHand Volume name. This “Path ID”-property isn’t availabe in the wizard that lets you connect a RDM.

J’ai toujours pensé que vouloir protéger les droits d’un créateur était légitime (pour le moins). Aussi, de prime abord, des DRM (Digital Right Management) pour protéger une oeuvre, ça ne me gêne pas pourvu que tout soit clair, précis et convivial et que ces DRM soient en fait des RDM (Right Digital Management). Le client sait à quoi s’attendre. C’est un “faire trade”, un commerce équitable.
Libre ensuite aux hackers, crackers, nutters et frostedflakers de relever le défi et aux “pirates” de télécharger l’oeuvre. C’est dans l’ordre des choses et c’est aussi un autre débat.
Mais ce qui me fait fumer le disjoncteur, c’est quand ces DRM sont un parcours d’obstacle qu’aucun cheval dûment vacciné n’oserait entreprendre, tels les ADE (Adobe Digital Edition).
Réjouissez-vous, j’ai un exemple. Vous décidez, un beau matin de novembre, de nourrir votre Sony Reader.
Vous allez sur un site-entrepôt appelé pompeusement plateforme numérique qui vous renverra aussitôt chez un libraire (comme c’est bien pensé!).Vous soulagez votre carte de crédit de 14,90€. La TVA est incluse. Vous êtes au Canada? Vous ne devriez pas payer de TVA ?Désolé, ce problème n’est pas encore résolu! 14,90€ !!!
Vous téléchargez.
Enfin, l’objet(?)précieux est là, hum…un instant, on vous demande aussi de télécharger Adobe Digital Edition. Inscription chez Adobe, nouveau téléchargement, long,long,long et installation du logiciel Adobe. Vous allez pouvoir ouvrir le fichier, ça tourne, ça tourne et hop! le serveur Adobe refuse d’authentifier votre fichier! Vous pouvez tout désinstaller, réinstaller, vous désinscrire, vous réinscrire, niet, nada, kaput.
Supposons maintenant que vous avez réussi — j’en connais, croyez-le ou non — le test de cette fameuse authentification. Le livre est sur votre ordinateur, c’est le temps de le passer sur votre Sony.
Malheur à vous si vous avez un Mac! Il vous faut un PC sous Windows! Car le logiciel de Sony ne marche pas sur Mac. On se croit revenu au temps de la guéguerre Mac/PC! Moi qui pensais vivre dans un monde désormais multiplateforme? Ais-je reculé dans le temps ? Ais-je changé d’univers ? Le Cirque du Soleil m’a-t-il embauché? Suis nommé président de l’ADQ?
Acheter un livre en fichier numérique ressemble, pour l’instant, à un cauchemar de fonctionnaires et de formulaires mauves, verts ou jaunes, un scénario qu’aurait pu écrire Goscinny.
Si j’achète un texte sous forme numérique, je veux, comme consommateur, pouvoir le lire sur un iPod, un Sony, un Nook, un Kindle, ou un Mac . Tant qu’on oubliera celui à qui est destiné le produit et ce qu’il veut pouvoir en faire, tant qu’on ne l’écoutera pas, on condamnera le livre numérique à la confidentialité.
C’est peut-être ce que recherchent certains. Ils n’ont pourtant qu’à penser à leurs taux de retour. Ça devrait les mettre sur la bonne voie.

A little post from me since I  got an error message while working with large RDM’s. While I twittered out the message it seemed that Duncan Epping from VMware had a posting ready at which he only had to press the “Publish”-button. See his very helpful article over here.

What you might have noticed is that a RDM’s size is displayed as the real size of the physical LUN that it is referring to. So for example, when I publish a 1 TB LUN it will show up as a 1 TB VMDK file even while my actual VMFS volume in which it resides is much smaller (500 GB in this sample). 

1 TB RDM VMDK (virtual compatibility mode) on VICL01-15

VICL01-15 showing that it’s actual size is 500 GB

So far so good you might think since the VM accepts that you connect this 1 TB RDM. Strange thing though is that if you try to datastore migrate this VM it will give an error stating that the destination VMFS has insufficient disk space available, while the destination datastore is an empty 500 GB VMFS datastore offering more free space than the original source datastore.
Removing the RDM from the VM, migrating the VM and reconnect the RDM does work in this situation.

Next odd thing is the fact that you cannot take a snapshot of this VM, this brings on the error message: File ….. is larger than the Maximum size supported by datastore “[datastore]” (more on this later on in this post)

So lets take a look at the VMFS Block Size as Duncan is also referring to in his article. The default blocksize we used is 2 MB since we figured we can’t make VMDK files bigger than 512 GB (see the table below for sizing’s) on a 500 GB VMFS volume. Exception to this obviously is the RDM VMDK file which can be bigger than a) the datastore size and b) the datastore blocksize.

1 MB = 256 GB
2 MB = 512 GB
4 MB = 1 TB
8 MB = 2 TB (minus 512 bytes) (see Chad Sakac’s article over here)

So now we know that we can connect bigger RDM’s then the original size of the VMFS volume, but what happens if we:

- Snapshot a VM with a 1 TB RDM  on VMFS (500 GB, blocksize 2 MB, free space 470 GB) –> Error: File ….. is larger than the Maximum size supported by datastore “[datastore]“
- Snapshot a VM with a 1 TB RDM on VMFS (500 GB, blocksize 8 MB, free space 470 GB) –> Error: File ….. is larger than the Maximum size supported by datastore “[datastore]“
- Snapshot a VM with a 500 GB RDM on VMFS (500 GB, blocksize 8 MB, free space 470 GB) –> Is working
- Snapshot a VM with a 500 GB RDM on VMFS (500 GB, blocksize 2 MB, free space 100 GB) –> Is working
- Snapshot a VM with a 500 GB RDM on VMFS (500 GB, blocksize 1 MB, free space 470 GB) –> Error: File ….. is larger than the Maximum size supported by datastore “[datastore]“

So apparently it’s the block size and the VMFS datastore size (not the free space!) that is important while making a snapshot of a VM with RDM attached. Keep this in mind while sizing your environment!

If you’re not reading Daniel Eran Dilger’s “Roughly Drafted Magazine” you are missing out on some fantastic tech analysis and history.

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/10/29/techcrunchs-erick-schonfeld-insists-google-wrote-the-iphone/

This could not have happened sooner. ….

http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2009/10/28/apple-retail-stores-upgrading-easypay-from-windows-to-ipod-touch/

And we’ll always have the memories….

Now that was Aldo and how he appears in ACP, which I have yet to complete!

After that distraction, Wynth has _finally_ reached level 75 for Red Mage, that would make it her second job to level 75.

Thanks to Flynne for his lap dancing and Darkx for his incessant whining for Blood Lust, they have given me their great support all the way until I dinged 75.

Now I can retire Red Mage…

Oops…or maybe not.

Meditating before Dynamis – Xarcabard…

Totally at peace with myself… happy thoughts… happy thoughts…
yamma yamma yamma yamma yaaaamma…
Ok, im good to go…

Its no secret Ive been hoping for the Duelist’s Chapeau for… well feels like ages, but looking at the times we have done Xarcabard, we are doing it for the 13th time this lovely Saturday evening… in the 12 previous times Ive seen that hat drop once…

Just facts that makes a person cry… Also listening to other ppl saying “Pfft, in mah LS it drops every run”… great… ty for that completely useless information… cause in “mah” LS it drops fairly rare… *mumble* *grumble*

Anyways…. come 19:30 and we entered…

MNK dropped… ok, not the rarest piece, but still made a person very happy…

Then DRG dropped… ok, havent seen that much…

WHM was next… made Sblonde 5/5 on her WHM set, grats on that…

Then it was like… drops died… And I admit… I gave up, I lost faith, lost my will, lost my mojo… whatever…

Then 30 min left of run something drops into Treasure and almost gives me a heartattack… I yell out in LS chat: RDM!!! and everyone is omg’ing and screaming it excist… Im on currency duty this run and do my best to keep focus and lot currency as Im watching my hat sit in the treasure… oh djeez Sblonde, tell me to lot already… my heart is pounding, my hands feel slippery…

Then finally Sblonde says: {Gongratulations} Ari!!!!

YAAAAY!!!! wait… what?!?!?!

I died inside… Thats not my name…

And Ari is like “eh? not Zareen? “

And im like  T_T;;;

And everybody else is like tee-hee lol lmao tji-hi…

Gawd…

Yea, most dreaful 10 sec’s of my life…

Then finally she said “Awesomesauce Zareen, cast lot!”

K, she didnt say exactly that, but close…

And oooohmahgawd!!!! RDM AFv2 COMPLETE!!!

Then later on I got a question how long it took me to get full set, so I looked into it… since I keep a nice tidy blog here I can check exact date when I got the first RDM AFv2 part…

Check this out…

Got my very first RDM piece 1 year ago… Heard people waiting for years to get this set complete… and Seeing this I feel very lucky… and wanna send a big fat TY to my dyna shell… Wouldn’t have gotten it without you guys <3

Lors de cette séance certains parmi vous ont fourni l’effort pour aborder la question de résistance des matériaux

Le document de mise en situation de la question, nous montre une poutre encastrée à gauche, supportant une action mécanique en K, appelé (avec logique !!) F2 (comme une force) et décrite ensuite avec l’outil torseur écrit d’une façon spartiate sans donner son nom…

Les composantes de ce torseur sont décrites dans un repère qui n’apparait que dans le document réponse. mais cette action étant dessinée sous la forme conventionnelle habituelle d’une force, on peut deviner le repère

Les documents réponses fournissent en même temps des données, pour vous aider à répondre.

Un document ressource, vous donne les formules de RdM, et nous verrons plus loin qu’il s’y est glissée une donnée importante du problème à résoudre.

Le deuxième document ressource est une documentation technique de profils creux rectangulaires à utiliser

I’ve decided that rhythms del mundo deserves another post. I’ve been finding out more about them since my last post and it turns out that they sell their albums to raise money for natural disaster relif projects. For more information you can follow the the link below to their website. The site has snippets of all RDM songs so you can have a listen before you decide what to buy from iTunes.

www.rhythmsdelmundo.com/classics/

This really is the best collection of covers I’ve ever heard – in my opinon it beats Mark Ronson’s ‘Version’, which I love. The Latin twists given to the songs mean that you don’t feel like you’re listening to the same old songs again – you’re hearing something completely new. With tittles like Big Yellow Taxi and Hotel Calefornia, as well as huge artists like KT Tunstal, The Killers and amy Winehouse, the Album is a MUST buy.

Fate works in such mysterious ways.

After playing RDM for so long in Dynamis, Flynne came to me one day:

Flynne >> I’m tired of playing RDM in Dynamis… maybe I should start playing BLU

Flynne >> >_>

Today, Flynne trudged to Dynamis-Xarcabard with a heavy heart as he steeled himself for another night of nail-biting sleeps that may get resisted and moments of living on the brink of death with each pull…

Then they pulled Duke Berith and Defy, the thief let out a big “AAAAAAA” as he soloed the last bit of Duke Berith’s life…

and… the Duelist Chapeau dropped.

Defy was next in line for the Duelist Chapeau when he spoke in the LS:

LS>> Defy >> Fly … Lot! This one I give to you…

Wynth >> Cast lots, you ninny before it freelots into the inventory of someone who doesn’t have RDM!

LS >> Flynne >> Thank you! Thank you!

LS >> Flynne >> I promise!

Now.. Flynne will never get to be Blue Mage in Dynamis. ;p Mostly never…

Congratulations Flynne on completing your RDM AF2!

I’m here in the cold,
waiting for you.
demons lurk at every corner,
with strange eyes watching…
Yet, I come back all the time
to wait for you.

He holds you hostage,
stingy and mean,
never letting you go.
Yet, I come back all the time
to wait for you.

Oh Duelist Chapeau! Duelist Chapeau!
I yearn for the day when your feathered form will grace my large tarutaru head.
Oh Duelist Chapeu! Duelist Chapeau!
I year for the day when I will reap the benefits of your enfeebling skill +15
Oh Duelist Chapeau! Duelist Chapeau!
One day, you will be mine.

{Actually I’m just writing about Flynne’s private’s thoughts. Just substitute the “large tarutaru head” for the “large dhalmel head”}

The never released Uninc the muvie teaser

Check more from Rdm,Jps,Dcp, Gigi & Jmz here

Morning World. I have to say my weekend was much improved by not being online. Which considering this is a blog about my online adventures, is somewhat contradictory.

However whilst I skipped out on most of Friday and all of Saturday, I was home in time for Einherjar last night.  I’m actually surprised how well we’re doing but we have, I admit stalled. Not because we don’t have enough muscle or support but because we are having a hard time pulling cleanly and controlling those pulls. I’d really, really like to come SCH because I think it’s the answer; but for one reason or another we were low on WHMs yesterday and so I came WHM. Don’t get me wrong, I’d rather be on WHM than any other job in there, but I was excited to try SCH and AoE Grav. Still, yet another member joined so we have more job flexibility now. Numbers are creeping back up. Meanwhile ampoules are rolling in.

After Einherjar we went up to Sky. There’s been a sudden interest in it recently as peeps get various jobs up to 70+ and start wanting haidate etc.

Crappy Byakko Pool

Unfortunately Byakko gave us one of the shittiest pools we’ve ever seen.  Shortly followed by Suzy doing the same thing. We need a bunch of stuff from Byakko as ever and there was interest in some Suzy drops but nothing of any use dropped.

Crappy Suzaku drops

Seiryu was a little better, especially for me as on my third pop set (thanks guys) the abjuration I wanted dropped!

Seiryu

Take one of these

Cursed Finger Gauntlets -1

… the aforementioned abjuration,  a priest in North SanD’oria  and you get some of these!

Blood Finger Gauntlets

So now my RDM/DRK CS Stun kit is doing much better. RDM gets a shitty E rank in Dark Magic (needed for Stun), a whole 200 skill. With Nashira Manteel, merciful cape, dark torque and these hands I’m getting there.  Jupiter’s staff and Macc all over the place helps.

RDM Dark Magic for Stun set so far

But I have to be honest, I wanted them even more for my COR >.> Hoping to get some time to level it this week, but not sure I will. Tonight maybe, but tomorrow it’ll be an odd Soboro run, Weds Nyzul and Thurs is likely to be Limbus/missions.

We did Ultima with 12 last night. Not exactly low man but not exactly a big budget production. Considering how messy our first one was with 18, it’s kinda funny. Two of the mages up for drops, pulled out without much or any notice and as this was our second attempt to get this done, we decided to go ahead without them. Considering how much work goes into getting an Ultima pop and how much of a pain in the butt he is, I think disappearing without a word after you’ve said you’ll be there both on the forum and earlier in the day was pretty crap.  Text messages are awesome.

Still I guess that now we know the nashira list is shorter. Carpenter needs his body, Brach wants legs/feet and Shao needs some legs/body. Shame that all Ultima dropped last night were 2 pairs of gages… Surprised Jazzy didn’t login for the first time in months just to come lot them! Carp and Josiey got a pair of hands each.

Nashira Gages for all!

Seren has decided to try and zerg Kirin. We’re fully aware it might be an almighty balls-up but it should be a lot of fun.  We’ve put it off forever because we didn’t want to risk a pop until cuisses dropped but they’re still not dropping and so we’ve said screw it. If we get this down then at least we could more Kirins, more quickly.

Also going to do some more Ouryus so we can try Baha v2 before the beta for XIV comes out and half the shell disappears >.>

With so many choices for advanced devices today, it seems like in terms of mainstream popularity, Windows Mobile is being shimmied from the spotlight by phones like the Apple iPhone, the Blackberry Storm, and most recently the long-awaited Palm Pre. However, the Windows Mobile phones available on the market today running Windows Mobile 6.1 are capable of just about everything. What they lack is the powerful advertising campaigns that effectively shove these assets down your throats.

I have a Samsung Omnia i910 by Verizon Wireless. One thing I can say is, Verizon was so kind as to cripple the phone’s GPS for any third-party app other than their own expensive VZNavigator. VZNavigator is a good program, but I’m not sure that it was worth the $9.99 that I was shelling out monthly just for the few occasions when I was without my car’s GPS system.

The Omnia is fairly stable, lacks much true internal memory but comes with a built-in 8-gig storage card. With the proper memory management software (I use MemMaid) and a habit of installing next to nothing on the device’s internal memory, the device has been able to handle everything that I’ve thrown at it and can be a solid example of Windows Mobile 6.1’s potential.

Notice that I said “can be”. What makes the iPhone so great? Yes, it does look cool, and yes, it was one of the smallest smartphones at the time that it first came out, especially when compared to things like the XV6800. What really makes the iPhone impressive really isn’t the phone itself, but the App Store. Every commercial for the iPhone is really a commercial showing you all of the amazing apps that it can run.

Back to my point, lack of advertising for Windows Mobile has left most mainstream consumers in the dark about the realm of capabilities that a phone like the Omnia has. Let me give you a list of what I use mine for.

• Touch-Friendly Interface
  • Spb Mobile Shell 3.0 [Pictured above]
    • In my opinion, unless you really enjoy using a stylus or really have a true affinity for the Windows Mobile interface (or whatever interface came with the phone, such as the TouchWiz UI which came with the Samsung Omnia), then a touch-friendly interface is a must. Mobile Shell version 3 bonuses: Facebook integration for contact photos, a carousel for screen selection and a contact carousel.
• Communications
  • E-mail
    • AOL E-mail: Pocket Outlook (part of WM6.1)
    • Corporate E-mail: VZWSync
  • IM
    • AIM: AIM for Windows Mobile
  • Social Networking
    • Facebook: Facebook for Windows Mobile (recently released by Microsoft)
    • Twitter: PockeTwit
• Entertainment
  • Games
    • I’m not really going to bother with this category since I don’t use my phone much for this. I have some basics like Yahtzee, Monopoly Here & Now, different versions of Solitaire and Sudoku, but I find there are better uses for the device.
  • Video
    • YouTube: YouTubePlay
  • Internet
    • Skyfire: Skyfire for Windows Mobile
      • This browser provides a full web browser experience and handles pretty much everything, videos, java, flash, you name it… just as a desktop computer would, without downloading plug-ins.
    • Opera: pre-installed with Samsung Omnia i910
    • Internet Explorer: Pocket Internet Explorer (part of WM6.1)
  • Satellite Radio
    • Sirius: Sirius WM5 (requires a subscription)
  • Music
    • Windows Media Player: WMP10 Mobile (part of WM6.1)
    • Touch Player: pre-installed with Samsung Omnia i910
    • Song Identification: MusicID
  • Browsing Pictures
    • Digital Frame: pre-installed with Samsung Omnia i910
    • Photo Slides: pre-installed with Samsung Omnia i910
  • Browsing Pictures/Videos/Music
    • Media Album: pre-installed with Samsung Omnia i910
  • Editing Video
    • Video Editor: pre-installed with Samsung Omnia i910
  • Camera/Camcorder
    • Camera: Samsung Omnia has a 5MP camera with all of your normal photo and video settings and mods plus a few extras
    • Business Card Reader: Smart Reader (pre-installed with Samsung Omnia i910)
  • RSS
    • Spb Insight: Version 1.5.1
    • RSS Reader: pre-installed with Samsung Omnia i910
  • E-Book Reader
    • Mobipocket: Mobipocket Reader v.5.3
      • Free e-book reader, ability to buy e-books directly from the phone
• Providing Internet
  • Sharing Internet
    • Internet Sharing: IntShrUI
      • Verizon removes this from WM6.1, however, it can be found and installed. This program allows you to share your phone’s internet connection with a computer via USB cable or Bluetooth.
    • Broadcast Wi-fi: WalkingHotSpot
      • This program is not supposed to work with Verizon phones because it requires Internet Sharing to be installed on your phone. As mentioned above, this is easily added, which means that once added, WalkingHotSpot can be an invaluable way to provide internet access to up to  five computers via wi-fi. Note: This will only work with WM phones with built-in wi-fi.
• Remote Access
  • Remote Programs
    • Remote Desktop: (part of WM6.1)
    • Remote Desktop for Mobiles Plus: RDM+
      • This program has two (or more) parts. One part is installed on your phone. The other is installed on the computer or computers that you wish to access remotely. I have installed it on my laptop that stays home on my desk and is on full-time. When I want to access the computer, I use the program, and it displays my desktop on my phone’s screen. It allows me to pan the desktop, view it entirely, or it has some console commands and file management (i.e. I usually use it to download a file when I forgot one that I needed on that computer.) When I was goofing around with it, I remotely accessed my laptop’s webcam (since I left the lid open) to see if anyone was in my bedroom while I was at work.
• Productivity
  • Writing/Notes
    • OneNote: OneNote Mobile
      • This is free for anyone who owns OneNote – I use OneNote constantly, so it’s great that when I’ve got an idea and I’m no where near my precious laptop, I can quickly record it into the mobile version. When I sync with my laptop later, it will synchronize the OneNote Mobile notes into a special notebook in OneNote for me to organize as I please. I like using the “Transcriber” input method for when I’ve got some ideas to jot down because it feels like I’m writing on a memo pad, but if that’s not convenient, my second choice is T9 because I can do that type of data entry single-handed.
    • Blogging: moBlog
      • This app currently supports Blogger, LiveSpaces, and WordPress with a few others in the works.
    • Word: Mobile MS Word (part of WM6.1)
  • Spreadsheets
    • Excel: Mobile MS Excel (part of WM6.1)
  • Slideshow Presentations
    • PowerPoint: Mobile MS PowerPoint (part of WM6.1)
  • Time-Management
    • Tasks: (part of WM6.1)
    • Calendar: (part of WM6.1)
    • AgendaOne
    • Spb Diary

This is not an exhaustive list of what is available for Windows Mobile. This is not even an exhaustive list of what I have installed on my device, just to give you an idea of how much this thing has put up with from me! However, Windows Mobile provides a phone that offers a Windows-based computer in a small-form factor – be that what it may. For me, I am completely obsessed with computers, so being able to have corporate e-mail delivered to my phone in real-time with no extra fee or the ability to log on to my home computer when I was at the company picnic and quickly make sure that no critical financial transactions came in through the Remote Desktop for Mobiles+ program is great. When everyone at work wanted to watch the inauguration but the corporate firewall started to block it due to the high levels of traffic, I was able to watch it through Skyfire. I keep track of inventory and financial reports through the mobile Excel for a non-profit organization I belong to. When the wi-fi network went down at work and my small team of three co-workers were left stranded when in the middle of critical work, I was able to share my phone’s wi-fi network with all three of them and still have internet myself due to WalkingHotSpot.

For people looking for real productivity and power, Windows Mobile can deliver. Like the iPhone, Windows Mobile is limited in its’ capabilities without its’ apps, and not all apps are free, but there are quite a few freebies to be found. Unfortunately, there really is no universal location for Windows Mobile apps, but then again, that is because anyone in the world is welcome to develop a Windows Mobile app if they are capable – no approval necessary. If you can think of something that you need, someone else probably needed it too – and developed it. If you are interested in any of these apps but can’t find them, let me know and I may be able to help.

Some places to look for Windows Mobile software:

• www.handango.com
• www.handmark.com
• http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/
• http://spbsoftwarehouse.com/

Coming Soon: Windows Mobile 6.5, My Phone, to sync text messages, photos, video, contacts and more to the Web, & Windows® Marketplace for Mobile, a new marketplace that will provide direct-to-phone mobile applications and can be accessed from both the phone and the Web.

Find more information on the things to come from Microsoft for WM6.5 here.

I’d like to lovingly thank Allister and Posseidon for causing the disbanding of our party though – too busy sat picking other peoples playstyles apart when they couldn’t even handle hate on their own jobs. Oh yes – Pecking Flurry hurts, doesn’t it sweetie? See, you leave hate on the tank, and you won’t die.

Bless.