Ask Paul: April 9 (Premium)

Happy Friday! Here’s another great set of reader questions to kick off the weekend a bit early so we can enjoy this Spring weather.

Changes to mobile tech

drjohnnyray asks:

What do see will change (if at all) with your mobile tech and supplies as you start traveling again?

I guess I don’t see any major changes from a hardware perspective, at least for a while.

The big stuff, to me, is what I bring in my laptop bag: A laptop, obviously, plus my iPad, some headphones/earbuds, and so on. And I just replaced my iPad and headphones (with earbuds) so that’s mostly set, though I’ve been using mostly reading-based apps during the pandemic and will need to (re)install some video apps (Netflix, etc.). And I usually bring whatever laptop I’m currently reviewing, and I’ve got a backlog of that.

I was also looking at the gadget bag I travel with around the time of the recent D.C. trip, and I think it’s mostly there for whatever the next flight-based trip is. (We’re probably going to fly to Charlotte next month and then rent a car to drive our daughter home from school so we don’t need to drive in both directions back-to-back.) I adjust that on a trip-by-trip basis and at least I don’t need to worry about international adapters until late 2021 at the earliest. Probably later.

My bigger concern is about logistics/habits. I’m just not used to traveling, and whatever habits I honed over time are now rusty. I’m going to forget things and do things more inefficiently than I’d like. And the only way to really fix that is to just keep traveling.

On a related note, I was reading something recently about the seasons and how the pandemic really wrecked whatever happiness many people would normally feel during winter because they had already been cooped up alone at home for the previous year as it was. And I commented to my wife that I wanted to travel the hell out of 2021 so that by the time winter came again, I’d be happy to hang around inside at home for a few months.

And then I was like, screw that. I want to travel next January too. 🙂

WordPad

hrlngrv asks:

Partly in jest, whither WordPad? Or does MSFT prefer to hush up its existence because it’s more than sufficient for term papers through American high school, so might eat into Office 365 Home subscriptions if more people remembered it was available?

I’m not sure that the current WordPad app has a big role to play today, but one thing that had occurred to me while working on the .NETpad apps in late 2019 and early 2020 was that it would be very easy to transition Notepad (or my own app) into a dual-purpose text editor that could handle both plain and rich text and maybe it could sport a toolbar or simplified ribbon when editing rich text. I know that’s blasphemous to some. But if Microsoft is going to update Notepad more often going forward, it’s kind of an obvious evolution. And the text editor in macOS (and, before, OS X) supports rich text natively. Why not?

Related to this, I evaluated WordPad a few years back to see whether it could replace Word or a Markdown editor, the idea being that it was preinstalled in Windows and was one less thing to install and keep updated. Most of what I write ends up on the web, so a key part of my workflow is pasting words into a web form. And the way WordPad formatted things wasn’t compatible or whatever and would require too much work cleaning it up. I realize that’s not the issue for most, but that sort of cut WordPad out of any contention on my part. But a version with a simplified ribbon would be interesting.

The answer is always Commodore…

jimchamplin asks:

The question to end all questions: Commodore 64, Atari 800, or TRS-80 Color Computer?

I grew up on Commodore and my first real computer was a Commodore 64, so that would normally be my answer. But one of the things I learned over time was that the genius who created the Amiga and its multiple chipsets, Jay Miner, had previously created the Atari 400/800, and those computers’ multiple chipsets, and they were actually more sophisticated, overall, than the Commodore 64. If I could go back in time and do it over again, I might do things a bit differently.

Or not. I will say that I also learned, growing up, that so many things we associate with being “the best” or “the right way to do things” are just circumstance, like growing up Catholic and assuming that’s the right religion, or growing up in the Boston area and only caring about Boston sports teams. I hated the Lakers and 76ers as a kid, for example, because they were the hardest teams for the Celtics to beat. But looking back on the 1980s as an adult, I have a different view. Those were awesome teams as well. And I can kind of appreciate basketball on a different level now. I guess I view those early computers the same way. They were all very interesting in their own rights.

Xbox Mini-Fridge

rossfinnie asks:

Would you buy a Xbox mini-fridge?

I mean, I don’t really need a mini-fridge. But as a prop of sorts for my office? Yeah, I could see doing that.

Microsoft 365 for consumers

helix2301 asks:

Where do you see the Office365 consumer play going? My wife and I have thought about it but in practicality its just easier for us to share a google calendar and for her message me on whatsapp or text me. I really want this to take off but I just cannot see consumers using teams unless they are running a small business. For personal use I just don’t see it taking off. I do see a lot of people home users and single person businesses needed office365 I know many people that buy it cause they need it for personal stuff, school or work.

For those individuals or families who need the Office productivity apps, I feel like Microsoft 365 is a no-brainer, and that’s even truer if you need the online storage (as I do).

But with regards to Teams, I’m with you. I think that a consumer version of Teams is a terrible idea. This app is far too heavy and complicated for normal people. Instead, I think it makes sense for Microsoft to stick with Skype on the consumer side (and we can debate the merits of Discord and whether that might now replace Skype). And on the business side, I think it makes sense to evolve Teams so that it can integrate with individuals’ Skype contacts lists so that users who rely on Teams only need a single communications app.

C what I mean?

crunchyfrog asks:

I do not have a programming background (although I do understand basic concepts) and would like to learn the ‘C’ language to enhance my role at work. I am hoping you might have some ideas for folks like me where the best resources are to learn programming structure and can run exercises that are: 1. Not too dull 2. Not too time consuming 3. Not too expensive 4. Speaks to the mind of a newbie.

Someone else commented that you would be better off learning a more modern (and though unstated, more managed) language like Python, Java, or C#, and I do agree with that. These languages are also object-oriented where C is not, and that might be the bigger issue. (C++ is an object-oriented superset of C and its notion of classes are based on C structs, but I doubt you’ll find any resources for learning OOP techniques in straight C.)  C is low-level by comparison, and there are fewer reasons to learn it today than there were back in the early-to-mid-1990s when I learned it.

But if you’re serious about learning C and/or doing so really would be beneficial at work, then that’s reason enough to make the effort. And from a Devil’s Advocate perspective, I suppose learning some of the more grueling parts of C, like pointers and memory management, could be beneficial just from an experience standpoint, and that much of the language—types, syntax, and so on—is so similar to more modern languages, most of which are “C-based” or “C-like”—that it would carry forward anyway.

That said, it’s been a while since I learned C. At that time, there were two basic options: You could learn on your own using books or you could take a class. I did both, but I found the latter is what put it over the top for me, being able to interact with someone(s) who really understood the language and could help you get by the tougher bits. If it’s possible, an in-person (or perhaps these days remote) class might be best.

But it’s the 21st century, too, so I’d investigate online courses. With the understanding that I’ve not actually taken any of these, sorry, but there are C courses at a variety of places, including Coursera and Udemy. I normally start with Udacity, but it looks like they’re all C++ and newer. If you haven’t, I’d check YouTube as well. I watch a lot of YouTube developer videos.

Sonos Roam

louiem3 asks:

Hey Paul, any thoughts on the new Sonos Roam portable that is shipping soon? Are you looking to give it a try once it is available?

Yes. I was sort of hoping they’d offer me a review unit, but that doesn’t appear to be happening. I preordered one regardless and will write it up when it arrives.

By the way, if you like Sonos, I strongly recommend following the Smart Home Sounds Ltd. YouTube channel. These folks are a UK-based retailer, which means I can’t ever become a customer. But they’re a Sonos reseller and their videos are fantastic. I really enjoy their Sonos content, and their new Roam review is great.

Ignite

Anlong08 asks:

Question about Ignite. I work in the live event space and specifically corporate ones. Like the rest of the people that do that kind of work I’ve been doing a lot more livestreaming where there is a remote guest joined to a studio. When you and Mary Jo made your appearance I’m guessing you joined via a regular Teams meeting and saw the people in the studio as another person in the meeting, maybe with some sort of countdown clock too.

That is correct.

How was the experience as a remote presenter? Was there anything they did to make it easier that you really appreciated? Or was annoying or distracting?

Appearing live at an event and doing so remotely are two totally different things, but the one commonality with doing so for Microsoft is that there’s an enormous support staff in both cases, and I don’t have a lot of insight into what most of them do. It’s more obvious in person, since you can see them, and they’re either working at PCs or running around with headsets, and of course there are makeup people and so on.

With the remote versions, Mary Jo and I both feel like there’s been a bit of “job justification” where multiple people want you to call in for test calls to test the quality, lighting, and so on. And while that’s annoying, since we record podcasts all the time, it’s also necessary. I know that TWiT does this ahead of time with guests we have on Windows Weekly as well.

For the remote shows, the bit I really appreciated is that there’s a person who is your go-to for everything. They talk to you offline in your ear when you first sign in, keep you up to date on whether it’s behind schedule, and let you know when you’re going live and being unmuted, and so on. I’ve been on over 2000 podcast episodes over the years, but the reality is that in every case, someone else is doing the work to make it happen, and having someone who can hold your hand along the way is ideal. That will be doubly true for people who rarely do this kind of thing.

Whoever did production for that show was top notch. It looked fantastic.

Yeah, it’s really impressive. I know that Microsoft makes Teams, etc. but really what puts this kind of thing over the top is having enough resources and the right team of people in place.