More on windows 7 application compatiability. I've heard (from the grapevine) that:

• Nero 9 will support Windows 7 in October 2009
• HP will release updated Windows 7 scanner drivers in November 2009

I've found another bump with 2008 server R2. Before the upgrade I had VMware workstation installed and I had number of virtual machines set up to run as a virtual domain. After the upgrade, my vms still started up and appeared to work but I could no longer communicate with them from the host PC (ping, etc).

I finally ended up uninstalling vmware then reinstalling it then re-adding the host adapter (virtual network adapter). Now all seems to be fine.

It looks like Nero 9 supports 2008 server R2 and Windows 7. My intention is to upgrade, I'll let you know how it goes.

I'm still having problems with my HP 8250 scanner. I found a message board posting suggesting that I right-click on the install and say "troubleshoot compatability". I did this and the driver appeared to install but still doesn't work. It may be that I did something wrong (I chose 64-bit 2008 R1 as the compatability O/S) and I'll fiddle with it a bit more.

It's really disappointing for me how little HP has to say about Windows 7 and their scanners.

So I've just downloaded and installed Windows 2008 R2. 8 hours (or so) after installation, here are my thoughts:

• It takes a *really long* time to upgrade an R1 installation. On my PC it took three hours to run the upgrade. I do have 2 terrabytes of disk space on-line so that may be a factor, but still that seems like a very long time.
  
• My HP scanner stopped working. After a visit to HP's web site, it looks like no HP scanner currently supports Windows 7 (on which Windows 2008 R2 is based, or vice versa). Comments on forums do not give hope for a quick update to HP's drivers and as my scanner is an 8250 (an older model) I may be out of luck. Time to find an old PC I can install XP on to run my scanner, I guess.
  
• Nero 7 doesn't work either. Nero's web site says that older versions of Nero (prior to V9) won't support Windows 7. This sucks as I use Nero to burn my Audible.com books to CD (I refuse to install iTunes on my PC). I did find out that I can run Nero in an XP Vmware workstation VM and in that environment I am able to burn CDS...Perhaps my scanner will work in a VM as well...?
  
• My volume shadow copy software won't work with 2008 server R2. I'm hoping that this is simply a matter of recompiling it with the latest SDK, and to that end have downloaded and installed the Windows 7 SDK.
  
• The interface has changed a bit. Not sure if I like it more than the Vista interface of 2008 server (sp1). Let me use it for a few days and I'll get back to you...

One issue that I commonly confront as a programmer and analyst is the perception by business folk that requirements are self-evident.

Folks will say something like "I need a website for my business" or "I need a software application" then ask how long it will take and how much it will cost. They often don't realize that a more information, a lot more information is required before any kind of estimate can even be hazarded at.

Compounding the problem is that the business person is often so busy managing day to day details of their business that they don't feel that they have time to answer a bunch of seemingly generic questions. I like to have a robust view of the segment of the business into which the application will fit, so I can plan for efficiency and scability and avoid duplicating existing functionality.

Small business people tend to be pretty guarded about this information though. They don't want to tell you about the internal structure of their business unless they feel that you have a pressing need to know, and when you ask about something that is not directly related to the process that they want automated then they can be vague and evasive.

It helps a lot if you can talk face-to-face with the business person, or at least arrange for telephone conversations. While I really like email as I can save and search it, I find that business folks often to not take the time to provide complete answers to questions phrased in emails.

Today's definition:

Demagoguery: strategy for gaining political power by appealing to the prejudices, emotions, fears and expectations of the public — typically via impassioned rhetoric and propaganda, and often using nationalist, populist or religious themes.

Lately I've been hard at work engaged in converting some of my web applications to httphandlers.

I have several web apps that I developed that are a mix of ASP.NET pages and a compiled library. The web apps are used on multiple sites and deployment is a pain. Since each of the sites where the web apps are compiled, when I make a change to a web app, even a small one, I need to recompile each of the sites that use that app.

It's a lot of work to convert a web app to an HTTPHandler. All the HTML has to be rendered and sent out as strings, so there's quite a bit of typing. But the benefit is huge: Now, each site has a directory with a web.config file. The web.config file points all requests to the directory to the corresponding HTTPHandler, which I've put in the library along with the business and database logic for the web app.

Now, deploying a revision to a web app is as simple as just copying the compiled web app DLL to the bin directory on each web site where it is utilized. Cool! Yea!

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My air conditioning went on the blink over the weekend. The repairman came out today and determined that the problem was a burned-out fan motor on the external unit. The work seemed simple to me--I was shocked at the cost to replace the motor: $250! Since the actual motor was covered under warrenty, this is all labor and the serviceman was here only for about an hour and a half. That's $166/hour. I think I'm in the wrong business!

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I've been reading George R.R. Martin's long (really, really long) series "A song of fire and ice". It's a great series. Wonderful, very realistic descriptions of medieval intrigues and battles with all the blood and realism of braveheart. No disney here! However, I just couldn't soldier on to the fourth book in the series, "A storm of crows". It just got to me after a while---too many protagionists, too many of whom seemed to die or be disfigured just as I was starting to become interested in them.

Then I cheated--I looked at the amazon.com book reviews for the book (a wonderful feature of amazon). What I found is that there is a fifth promised book in the series, not yet published. So that if I did continue on, I would find myself at a cliff-hanger ending with no fifth book in site for what could possibly be years. Better to wait until all the books are written. Perhaps then I'll continue on...