PocketPollster

Rogers Adoption Curve

2008-03-28T12:09:00.000-07:00

I just saw an interesting video about the Technology Adoption Curve, developed by scholar, Everett Rogers, in 1983. While the actual percentages vary in every single case, the general trend is supposed to be quite consistent. This is a vivid reminder to all innovators to remain persistent in the beginning because it will be an uphill climb!

Close-Up Photos

2008-02-14T23:26:00.000-08:00

I bought a fabulous new digital camera, a Canon Powershot G9. Here are some experimental shots with it:

Interesting Article from Marketing Sherpa

2007-12-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

There's a fascinating article on MarketingSherpa.com entitled "Mobile Surveys Show Higher Response Rates, Lower Costs: 12 Strategies & Creative Tips. It's a long article, but a fascinating read that illustrates the many advantages of conducting surveys in a mobile fashion.

Is Another Tech Bubble About To Burst?

2007-12-06T10:25:00.001-08:00

If you're in the I.T. business then you may be following the latest crisis going on at Facebook. On paper, Facebook is worth a LOT of money right now. But will that value last forever? I wonder.

Watch this hilarious and yet telling video:

Even Microsoft Has A Sense of Humor!

2007-08-31T11:12:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has created a website called "Untamed Workforce" that takes a few humorous jabs at users of mobile technology. It's made to look like it was made many, many decades ago!

Windows Vista: A New Way To Sync

2007-08-18T12:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't jumped on the Windows Vista bandwagon yet, as I'm waiting for the expected [HUGE] service packs that are sure to come along. But the laptop of a colleague of mine crashed the other day and she had to buy a brand new one. It came with Windows Vista.

In helping her set it up, it became clear that Vista no longer used ActiveSync. It was supposed to be built in. However, when we synched her Pocket PC it would only allow synchronization of music and basic files, not the Outlook data she was most interested in. Some research quickly lead to this update of the Windows Mobile Device Center.

Strange that Microsoft would have overlooked this necessity for the millions of Pocket PC and SmartPhone users out there! Anyhow, install it and all works pretty much as before, albeit with an updated UI on the Windows machine.

Pocket Pollster on the SoMo 650

2007-06-09T07:43:00.000-07:00

Socket Mobile has kindly loaned me one of their new SoMo 650 Pocket PCs. It's a Windows Mobile 5 device and is absolutely spectacular in every way. They included one of their combo RFID / Barcode readers that plugs directly into the Compact Flash port on the top.

There's always a moment of anticipation when I try installing Pocket Pollster onto a new device I've never seen before. But sure enough, it installed flawlessly and worked immediately. I loaded in several existing templates and used one to start a new poll that had a Freeform text field. I positioned the reader near an RFID tag and pressed the hardware button on the left side with my thumb. The tag number was read and immediately copied into the text field.

It's always wonderful when technology works flawlessly from the get go!

New Pocket PC from Socket Mobile

2007-05-31T10:48:00.000-07:00

Socket Mobile, long famous for their mobile computer accessories, are launching their first Pocket PC. It's called the "SoMo 650" and comes equipped with these great features:

Intel 624 MHz processor
128 MB Base RAM
256 MB Flash RAM [permanent storage]
WiFi
Bluetooth
Windows Mobile 5.0
Extremely durable case
Pre-loaded Socket Mobile scanning software
Compact Flash and SD sockets

Into this device you can insert one of their many RFID and/or Barcode scanning adapters. The device will retail for US$650.

It reminds me a lot of the old Casio E-800 Pocket PC that I absolutely loved. It was super durable - not military grade but good enough for most industrial applications. But the internal guts of this unit are very modern and fast!

Working with an iMate Phone

2007-05-14T23:11:00.000-07:00

One of my clients had an iMate phone onto which I installed Pocket Pollster. In the early days of the software I would have faced such a situation with great trepidation because there were so many different devices, each with different nuances. But this forced the "smarts" of the installation engine to be tremendously beefed up.

With this unit, the .Net Compact Framework 1.0 had to be installed and then Pocket Pollster. It ran flawlessly the first time!

Compact Framework 2.0 - Moving Ahead

2007-05-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

The original version of the Pocket Pollster mobile software was built using Microsoft's "dotNet Compact Framework 1.0" (CF 1.0). This is a comprehensive library that provides functionality to do an assortment of tasks. The great thing about this version was that it could be installed on any Pocket PC dating back to the very first. In fact, I've successfully tested Pocket Pollster on the original HP Jornada - circa the late 1990's. Even with just 16MB of RAM, the software actually works fine on it!

To date, every line of code of the Pocket Pollster software has been created using Visual Studio 2003. A newer version - Visual Studio 2005 - has been available for some time but I stayed with 2003 because it was the last version to support the CF 1.0.

But all things must eventually come to an end. I'm now in the final stages of transitioning from 2003 to 2005. This newer version will only support the CF 2.0. A comprehensive table of information is provided here.

What I plan to do is compile a "final" version of the mobile software for the older devices, which will always be available should a customer happen to have such a device. I'll then be free to proceed forward with a new version of the mobile software, which will have a host of new features that take advantage of the great new offerings bundled in CF 2.0.

Make no mistake that this was a difficult decision to make. But I spoke with a number of industry experts and they pointed out that mobile devices get upgraded even more frequently than PCs. The good thing is that CF 2.0 supports as far back as the Windows Mobile 2003 devices so it's really only the much older ones that won't be able to use the many new features being planned.

Alpha 1.32 Released

2007-03-06T11:49:00.000-08:00

Several new features have been added, one of them quite significant.

Change Mobile UserName
From its inception, I always envisioned Pocket Pollster being used in the field with one mobile device per user. But the new client wanted to have a smaller pool of devices and let anyone take any device at any time. This meant there had to be a way to allow the mobile user to input their name on-the-fly.

The solution is the introduction of a special screen that now appears at the very beginning of a poll. It displays the current user's name but provides a simple way to change it, if required. Here's an example of this screen:

The presence of this mobile screen is controlled in the Pollster Privileges section on the Settings screen of the Desktop software:

If checked then the screen will appear on the mobile device; if not, it won't. The poll's creator is thus given the maximum amount of flexibility to control whether this option should be provided.

Data Transfer Options
In the past the Options screen on the Desktop consisted of just a few items that all resided in one small dialog box. But the addition of some new items necessitated an expanded version. There's now a Data Transfer page that looks like this:

The initial two items added to this screen are these:

Unattended Sync - Sometimes Pocket Pollster is setup on a desktop computer and then isn't used for a period of time. Unchecking this box will prevent the Data Transfer dialog box from automatically appearing every time a mobile device is synched. If, however, the Pocket Pollster desktop software is running then the dialog box will appear.
Audible Feedback - When the Data Transfer dialog box appears a distinct series of tones are heard as well. Unchecking this box will turn off these sounds. It should be noted however that the sounds emanating from ActiveSync are unaffected by this setting.

Testing in the Real World

2007-03-06T11:27:00.000-08:00

Even before Pocket Pollster is officially available for sale, an engineering client wanted to try it out. So they purchased 4 new HP iPaqs, 4 Rhinoskin cases, and 4 x 1GB memory cards.

The software installed flawlessly, each unit taking less than 1 minute to configure. All mobile installations were done with just 1-touch, and that can even be reduced to hands free installation if so desired.

As part of our agreement, I added one major new feature to the product and a few minor ones. These I will describe in a subsequent posting.

Pocket Pollster was tested on a prominent construction project in Vancouver and then another one in the Canadian Maritimes. At such time that I'm at liberty to provide details, I will. But all reports back were very positive. In fact, the Desktop's graphical Summary screen was used to present the field testing results to top executives of the company, much akin to a PowerPoint presentation. I never envisioned the software being used in this way but there's an old adage amongst software professionals to never assume your customers will use your software in the same way you would!

Automated Export

2007-02-15T07:57:00.000-08:00

Ever since Alpha Version 1.2, there has been an automated export feature in Pocket Pollster. It has become apparent that the powerful nature of this feature is not fully understood by everyone.

Once activated (on the Settings screen of a poll), an associated MS Access MDB file will be updated every time new data is downloaded from a mobile device.

This MDB file can reside on the same computer where Pocket Pollster is installed or on a computer half way around the world, if one's Intranet so allows. Other software applications could then potentially (and continuously) be fed with the updated info in the MDB file.

It is envisioned that once setup in this way, the Desktop component of Pocket Pollster may seldomly ever be used again, instead just serving as the automated data collection engine for most any other software a company owns. Powerful simplicity indeed!

Pocket Pollster is Still Going Strong!

2007-01-16T07:57:00.000-08:00

Some colleagues have asked me why there haven't been many blog entries on here the past few months. There are actually three reasons:

I've been consumed with some consulting for a major client, which had to be attended to.
I took some time off in December, including a trip to Chicago to visit some old friends. While there I met with some people who are interested in creating Chicago Digital Divide, modeled after the organization I founded, BC Digital Divide.
Now that Version 1.0 of Pocket Pollster is essentially complete, I've been focusing my time on building a brand new version of the website using ASP.net. It'll be much more functional (and better looking!) than the existing one.

So all is well. In fact, I will soon have some great news to report about the first major customer of Pocket Pollster!

Deleting Users and Devices

2006-11-15T22:29:00.000-08:00

From the beginning, the basic version of Pocket Pollster was not going to initially have a full-fledged User Manager. But it became apparent that the ability to remove users (and similarly devices) was going to be necessary. So this feature has been added.

After selecting Tools-Users or Tools-Devices, just select the items that you wish to be deleted and then press the button at the lower left.

Charting Has Arrived!

2006-10-15T21:53:00.000-07:00

The Summary Screen can now display the results of each question in 4 different ways:

Bar Charts
Line Charts
Pie Charts
Textual Summary

Each is fairly self-explanatory but there are some additional special features too:

Some answer formats allow the data to be summarized in a "Simple" or a "Weighted" manner.
The Freeform answer format, which contains purely textual data, has its own way of summarizing the responses.
There's also a "No Chart" option. This is for those circumstances when none of the summary methods adequately displays the collected data; rare, but possible.

The particular chart settings you choose for each question will be remembered when you reopen the poll again, thus allowing you to tailor each poll precisely the way you want.

These new features are contained in Alpha Version 1.3. If you don't yet have access to it then please sign up for our Alpha Testing program.

Intel's Vision for Future Mobile Computers

2006-09-28T10:14:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting article about what's coming down the pipe from Intel in terms of "Ultra Mobile PCs". Imagine a device the size of a Pocket PC but with the same power as a modern desktop computer. Pretty amazing!

Export: MS Access File Format Now Selectable

2006-09-17T22:27:00.000-07:00

A while ago one of the Alpha Testers reported that his company still uses MS Access 97. Unfortunately Pocket Pollster has only been able to export in what is known as the "Jet 4X" format. I just received some new information from Microsoft that showed how the format could be changed to the older version, "Jet 3X". So now in the latest version you can go into Tools -> Options and set whichever version works best for your organization.

Seeking Feedback on Target Markets & Uses

2006-09-13T11:46:00.000-07:00

With Pocket Pollster Version 1.0 nearing completion it's now time to replace the current, temporary website with a new one that'll be more focused on selling & supporting the product.

From the customer's point of view, a huge advantage of the software is its versatility. There are no specific limitations on how it can be used. But this does pose a dilemma from a marketing point of view. As any marketing expert will tell you, in the beginning, trying to use a "shotgun" approach and going after every possible customer at once is a poor idea. So instead I've been advised to initially pick 3 target markets and focus exclusively on them (the so-called "rifle approach").

To this end I am contemplating the following target markets:

Market research firms

On the street interviews
In stores
At tradeshows

Political polling (polling firms & political parties)

Exit polls
House to house canvassing

Industrial companies

Safety inspections
Quality assurance surveys
HR surveys
Production/Process stats

If you have any suggestions about the choice of target markets or can offer suggestions for more sub-items, then please do leave a comment here!

Alpha 1.23 Now Available

2006-09-13T01:10:00.000-07:00

Alpha Version 1.23 is now available. It includes the recent features just mentioned, plus fixes a number of small issues that have been detected in testing.

If you would like to be part of our testing program then please go here and send us an e-mail with the pertinent info.

Copy & Duplicate Questions & Answers

2006-09-13T00:44:00.000-07:00

Pocket Pollster now has the ability to duplicate existing Questions and Answers. There are two ways you can do this. The first is the most flexible and involves Drag & Drop. When you start dragging a Question Button or an Answer Panel then hold down the "Ctrl" key and you'll see a little plus sign appear beside the cursor. Keep this key pressed when you let go of the mouse button and the item will be copied.

Another way to copy a Question or an Answer is to just press the appropriate "Duplicate" button. These function in exactly the same way as "Duplicate Slide" works in PowerPoint: The duplicate item will be placed directly below the original.

This new functionality should help speed up poll creation & modification.

Multiline More Info Textboxes

2006-09-13T00:32:00.000-07:00

One of the best things about the ongoing Alpha Tester program is the excellent feedback I receive from people all over the world. Last week two suggestions came in from Joe D. in Cincinnati, Ohio. One of them involved the "More Info" textbox. "More Info" is a feature similar in nature to the extra space provided for a person to add more detail on a paper form. The difference is that it can be added to any answer, not just the last one. In certain circumstances, Joe wanted to use this textbox to add multiple entries.

So now, when you choose "Allow More Info" for an answer, you'll be able to specify whether you want the pollsters to have a 1-line or multiple-line textbox.

Pollster Privileges

2006-09-06T23:40:00.000-07:00

Pocket Pollster is considered a "horizontal application" in that it can be used in a multitude of industries and has not just one specific niche. But there are subtle differences in the way every organization collects data. To satisfy these many needs, a number of different settings have been planned from the outset. This includes several "Pollster Privileges". These are settings that are set by the poll creator on the Desktop but only come into effect when the poll is used on a mobile device.

On the Settings page of every poll you'll see the following. Please focus in on the third section:

If the first one, Review Data, is unchecked then the pollster will not be able to review the data they’ve collected. This is useful in those circumstances when reducing the bias of the pollsters is of extreme importance. When selecting a file for review, those with this setting unchecked will have the international "Not Allowed" symbol beside them, as shown beside "Sample 4" here:

Can Abort Records – A pollster can press Finish to skip through a given set of questions. This is useful in those circumstances when the respondent leaves or for some other reason the current set of questions can’t be completed. If this item is checked then the pollster will be asked whether they want to abort the record (not save it at all). If the item is unchecked then every record will be saved, even partially completed ones. This is useful in those circumstances when auditing of a poll may be carried out to precisely verify what happened during the polling session. To use an analogy, if this setting is checked then it's like using a pencil on a paper form; if it's unchecked then it's like using a pen.

Internal vs. External Polling

2006-09-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

Two of the key features of Pocket Pollster are ease-of-use and flexibility. Further to the previous posting, work is now underway to expand the flexibility of the software so that it can be used as readily for "internal polling" (within an organization) as it already is for "external polling".

With the existing software, the fields on the Respondent info screen are all of the "freeform" variety. The pollster is prompted to fill in the following fields for each new respondent they interview:

First Name
Last Name
Address
City
State/Province
Postal/Zip Code
Area Code
Telephone Number
E-mail Address
Sex
Age

This seems to be an appropriate set of general purpose contact fields for external polling.

But when surveys are conducted internally, it's clear that another set of respondent data is needed. To this end, I'm looking for feedback about what crucial set of fields would be needed for internal polling - that being those polls where all or most of the possible respondents are known ahead of time. Here's a preliminary list for consideration:

First Name
Last Name
Company
Department
Employee ID
Phone number
E-mail

Remember that the whole purpose of such respondent info is to uniquely identify the subsequent set of polling questions with each respondent. And unlike external polling, internal pollsters will have the added benefit of being able to quickly pick a given person by identifying them from a list, something that just isn't possible when you're doing random polling of people you've never met before.

A New Idea

2006-08-23T23:20:00.000-07:00

One of the Alpha testers called me today and offered several interesting ideas that definitely will be added to Pocket Pollster in the future. One of them involved adding a setting that would determine whether Respondent info is added like it is currently - namely freeform - or instead picked from an existing list.

This second method would likely be used by companies where all/most of the respondents were existing employees. Since their names are already known, there's no point in adding them anew every time.

There are many ways such a contact list could be added and maintained. But I got to thinking that the Pocket Outlook Contact List might perfectly suffice for this purpose. So rather than building another list, Pocket Pollster could just tap into the Outlook database.

I'd like to get some feedback from corporate users if this approach would suffice for them. I'm particularly interested in the answers to these questions:

Does your Desktop/Laptop Outlook contain all of the employees in your company?
If so, then approximately how many entries would this be?
Is this list of employees automatically copied over to your Pocket PC?

Alpha 1.2 Released

2006-08-08T11:21:00.000-07:00

Thanks to excellent feedback from several Alpha Testers, some significant new features have been added. Here's an overview of them:

Export
An export engine has been added to the software. This first generation of export can save the data in the common MS Access MDB file format. It can be used manually by just clicking File -> Export. Auto-Export can also be setup by going to the Settings page of a poll and clicking on the "Enabled" checkbox in the green panel:

Since every poll is different, the big challenge with Export was to make it universally functional for everyone. To this end, it creates these 3 tables every time: Questions, Choices, and Respondents. Their internal structure never changes. It then creates one table for each question, with the name "Question_#", where # = 1, 2, 3, ... The structure of each of these Question tables varies depending on what Choices exist for it.

Once Auto-Export is turned on, whenever new data is brought into the poll, it is automatically exported to the associated MS Access database file. This means that once you’ve defined and published one or more templates, you may not find any need to go back into the Pocket Pollster software for some time because all of the data will be fully available in the external database file, which could then be accessed by other software applications too. Thus in some organizations Pocket Pollster will serve as a highly customizable (and completely seamless!) front-end mobile data collection tool.

Locking
As soon as you publish your poll template, it is “locked”. This is because subsequent changes to its structure or contents could cause data integrity problems. Imagine the situation where a poll template is published, distributed to several Pocket PCs, and data is collected using that template. If the original template is then altered, the incoming data may no longer “fit” into the changed version. It is the age-old problem of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

If you’re doing scientific polling, then it’s advisable that no changes whatsoever be made and instead a new poll template be issued. If you’re collecting data for an internal business process then there’s likely no harm in correcting a spelling mistake or improving the Instructions, etc.

In any case, once you’ve published your poll, if you then try to alter anything on the Instructions or Questions & Answers pages, a dialog box like this one will appear:

You are given several Unlock options or you can press Cancel to abort the change.

Unpublish
It became apparent that there are several circumstances under which one might want to "Unpublish" a poll. This feature can be accessed from the File menu. It simply removes the associated file in the “Templates” folder.

Abort Record During Data Entry
The mobile software has always allowed the pollster to instantly jump to the end of the questions. This was useful in those circumstances when the polling questions had to be stopped midstream - ex. Maybe the respondent didn't want to participate anymore. But the data record itself was still saved for historical purposes.

The option has now been given the pollster to decide where to keep the partial record or not save it at all. Note: If users demand it, the poll creator could be given the ability to override this pollster option, thus keeping all data, even when it is not complete.

If you're not yet a Pocket Pollster Alpha Tester and would like to try out the software then please contact us.

Data Transfer Monitoring Tool Added

2006-07-14T16:00:00.000-07:00

A few Alpha testers are still experiencing problems with the data transfer process. So to help resolve their problems, I've added a Monitoring screen to the Desktop application. It can be accessed from the Tools menu.

This feature was added to the July 14th version of the application aka Version Alpha 1.15.

Improved Response Time on Mobile Devices

2006-07-10T13:17:00.000-07:00

When you are selecting a poll to start, resume, or review, the mobile application has historically just queried the file to get such information as the summary, the number of questions, and the number of responses. On a newer mobile device, this poses no problem whatsoever and occurs almost instantaneously. However, on older units it actually takes quite a few seconds to retrieve this info. On some really old units, the delay was completely unacceptable.

So I introduced an indexing scheme that involves new code in each of the Desktop, Data Transfer, and Mobile modules. The system now caches all of the necessary summary info of the Template files, which are the ones used to start new polls. The speed improvements on the mobile device are dramatic.

Data Transfer Video

2006-07-03T18:24:00.000-07:00

A few testers have had a "less than perfect experience" with the Data Transfer component of Pocket Pollster. The fact is that Data Transfer is supposed to be absolutely simple and straightforward, with almost always no interaction required by the user. Just sync your device, as you normally would with ActiveSync and then everything after that is taken care of automatically.

I thought it would be helpful to provide a short video of what should happen in a typical Data Transfer operation. To view this 7.04MB video, please click here.

The speed of the entire procedure is most dependent on the speed of the mobile device. In this video the device was an older Pocket PC 2002 model, quite slow compared to today's units.

FAQs 2 - Pocket Pollster Setup Files

2006-06-30T12:31:00.000-07:00

If I use Add/Remove Programs to uninstall Pocket Pollster, will my Data files be removed too?
No. All of the files & folders in your "Data" folder will remain intact. So, in fact, will a personal preferences file called "SysInfo.xml". So when you install a newer version, all of your files & settings will be exactly the same as before.

Do I have to first uninstall the old version before I can install the new one?
You did before but beginning with Alpha Version 1.1, you no longer do.

What has to be installed on my computer before I can setup Pocket Pollster?
Just 3 things:

A working version of Windows, with the latest service packs installed.
The dotNet Framework, either Version 1.1 or 2.0 or both installed.
A working version of ActiveSync 3.8 or 4.1. Newer versions will likely work too, though have not been tested yet. It's of critical importance that the synchronization with ActiveSync is working properly before Pocket Pollster is used, since the latter does not have the ability to correct any problems with the former.

FAQs 1

2006-06-29T22:48:00.000-07:00

An Alpha Tester asked some excellent questions today. I thought I'd start posting such questions, along with the answers, as they may benefit others too:

What exactly happens when I press Publish?
The master/working copy of a PP file resides in the "Data" folder. Pressing "Publish" simply puts a copy of it in the Templates folder, cleaning out any collected data it may have.

When collected data is transferred back to the Windows computer, where is it stored?
All collected data is stored in the files in the "Data" folder.

What's the Archive folder for?
Nothing at the moment, actually. The collected data, downloaded from the mobile device(s), is first appended inside the master copy of the files in the "Data" folder. But then each individual file is archived inside of the "Archive" folder. This is done purely for historical purposes at the moment. In fact, other than placing the files there, the program currently does not use them at all. At least not at the moment. But a future auditing feature will be available to interrogate these files, producing a detailed report of the data within. This won't be necessary for everyone but will likely be useful for certain clients with specific legal or accounting requirements.

Can Pocket Pollster adversely effect ActiveSync?
No. Pocket Pollster is a self contained application that in no way modifies any files or functionality connected with ActiveSync. But the opposite is not true. The current version of Pocket Pollster absolutely depends on ActiveSync working properly. There's an inherent assumption that a mobile device already properly syncs with ActiveSync. This is easy to test before Pocket Pollster is ever installed: Just sync your device and see if ActiveSync interacts with it normally.

European Success!

2006-06-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

I received word back from the tester in England and the one in Portugal that the Desktop component of the software is now working on their computers! With that said, the English fellow is having synchronization issues but we're going to figure out why that's occurring.

The new version they installed is a preliminary version of Alpha 1.1. There are a few more changes to be made and then a newer version of 1.1 will be released to all active Alpha Testers.

Pocket Pollster on an Old Pocket PC

2006-06-23T16:46:00.000-07:00

An Alpha Tester in Colorado informed me that he wanted to try out Pocket Pollster on an old Pocket PC 2000 device, namely an HP Jornada 540. This device uses an "SH3" processor, the files for which are not currently included in the MobileCabs installation package. But I compiled a special set of CAB files for him. He reported that it seemed to install okay but then he was getting an error upon startup.

It turns out that I had an old HP Jornada 545 (same device, albeit with 32MB RAM) in storage. So I found it, charged it, and tested Pocket Pollster with it. The problem was quickly revealed.
As is often the case with such things, it was one seemingly innocuous line of code.

The mobile component of Pocket Pollster examines the hardware and makes a distinction between a Pocket PC and a Smartphone. Unfortunately the hardware identification string retrieved from these old Jornadas is not "PocketPC", but "Palm PC2". A minor distinction but the app didn't know what to do with it and raised an exception. I laughed when I saw this string because it made me recall that Microsoft had originally used the moniker "Palm PC" before they lost a lawsuit to Palm Corporation and had to adopt the new name, "Pocket PC".

Anyhow, I quickly got the application running. Certain parts of it run really slow, but with only a 133 MHz processor, compared to today's 600+ MHz models, it's little surprise. Still, once one got into the poll itself, it worked pretty well. Whether I support this device permanently is really dependent on customer demand. But it was an interesting trip through memory lane nonetheless!

The International Culprit: Dates!!!

2006-06-21T06:31:00.000-07:00

As the Alpha Testers in England and Portugal know, the current version of Pocket Pollster will not run properly on their computers. Today I found out at least one of the reasons why. It's the handling of the dates.

Here in Canada (and the U.S.) June 21, 2006 is stored as "06/21/2006". But in a country like England, it's stored as "21/06/2006". So when Pocket Pollster is running on a computer in England and sees "06/21/2006" it thinks "The 6th day of the 21st month". And then kicks out an error!

This is a little more tricky to resolve than one might think at first glance because we have to be sure that a file created in England can be properly viewed & used in the U.S. and vice-versa. But at least the error is now tracked down and obvious. I just have to find a solution that works for every situation.

Significant Mobile Installation Improvements

2006-06-19T00:34:00.000-07:00

That older Toshiba e330 Pocket PC 2002 I was loaned by one of the Alpha Testers has proved invaluable. Since I need to send it back tomorrow, I did extensive testing with it this weekend. This consisted of complete uninstalls and reinstallations - over & over & over again. What started becoming clear is that the OpenNETCF 1.4 CAB file would not consistently install its contents; sometimes it would, sometimes it wouldn't. Though this isn't my "fault" it simply isn't good enough to tell a customer this. I hate it when one department or company blames another and then says, "Sorry, but there's nothing we can do." Nonsense! Customers just want the product or service to work properly. Period. And they're right!

The strangest thing is that this problem never seems to happen with a newer, faster Pocket PC. I considered removing the functionality that the OpenNETCF libraries provide but they offer some good features so I quickly dismissed the idea. I then went on a long walk and considered my options. I suddenly realized that OpenNETCF is merely a series of DLLs, so why couldn't I just incorporate the ones I need directly into the Pocket Pollster CAB file? I researched this on several developer forums and some anecdotal evidence suggested it to be a viable approach.

So I implemented the idea. And lo and behold, it worked perfectly each & every time! A side benefit is that the overall installation is now about 25% faster because the entire OpenNETCF library doesn't have to be installed.

Another lesson I learned (read "was reminded") from all of this testing with the old Toshiba was how much the Pocket PC hardware has improved in the past few years. The speed of installation is dramatically improved with the newer devices. For example, once the NetCF CAB file is copied to my Dell Axim X30, it only takes 2 - 3 seconds to install itself. But on the Toshiba it takes well over 10 seconds! The original version of the Data Transfer module never accounted for such a slow installation process. It's now improved dramatically. It now goes through 10 iterations of 2 seconds each, checking each time to see if the CAB file has done its work. This flexible approach works equally well for the older devices as well as the new ones.

Not a very exciting weekend - especially with the World Cup going on - but it feels great to have accomplished a lot! These improvements will hopefully address all of the mobile installation issues brought to my attention so far.

Pocket PCs a Plenty!

2006-06-17T22:45:00.000-07:00

Today I had the great pleasure to meet one of the Alpha Testers from Seattle. He, his wife, & his brother were visiting Vancouver and agreed to meet me ... and brought a lot of their hardware with them!
I thought I was a mobile technology afficionado but now realize that my collection pales in comparison to that of others! Shown here is a Dell Axim X5 on the left and 3 identical iPaq Pocket PC Phone Edition units. Very, very cool technology.

The ensuing discussion was very interesting. They gave me some great marketing tips about educational institutions, GIS applications, and a host of other things. Thanks, guys!

Troubleshooting an older Pocket PC

2006-06-14T15:49:00.000-07:00

An Alpha Tester from Sudbury, Ontario shipped me his Toshiba e330 device, onto which he could not get Pocket Pollster installed. I tried on one of my development machines and it wouldn't work either. So I removed the app and then tried to remove the two "frameworks" (code libraries) that come with it: OpenNETCF 1.4 and .Net CF 1.0. Strangely, neither one would allow me to remove it via Start -> Settings -> System -> Remove Programs. I had never observed this before.

So I copied the 3 CAB files in C:\Program Files\Pocket Pollster\MobileCabs\wce300\arm over to the \Temp folder on the Pocket PC. I went into File Explorer on the device, navigated to \Temp and then installed each in sequence:

.Net CF
OpenNETCF
Pocket Pollster

When prompted as to whether I wanted to reinstall, I clicked "OK". Sure enough, everything worked fine after that!

What's most peculiar is that the two frameworks were installed, but just not correctly. What I did manually is exactly what Pocket Pollster does automatically: copy file to device and run it. If this is reported on more devices then I'll likely have to keep reinstalling these frameworks until it's clear that they're correctly in place.

At least from all of this there's a new FAQ that can be added: "If the mobile software won't run then try removing it and both of the frameworks. If either framework won't uninstall then it is likely the culprit and a reinstallation must be done."

Problems with Desktop on European Windows

2006-06-13T20:33:00.000-07:00

I've now received the 2nd report of the application not working on a version of Windows for the European market. The first report came from Portugal, the latest from England. Though Pocket Pollster is not yet "internationalized", the infrastructure is there to make it so. Since this same error is not occurring on Canadian and U.S. machines, it's logical to assume that the error must have something to do with an international lookup reference. I plan to resolve this asap.

Alternate E-mail Address

2006-06-06T16:06:00.000-07:00

I've been experiencing some strange e-mail issues of late, with some outbound ones not being received and several inbound ones not getting to me. I always try to answer all Pocket Pollster e-mails within hours of being received. If you've sent something and didn't get an acknowledgement then please try resending it to: pocketpollster@gmail.com This is a backup e-mail account that I monitor as well.

Detecting Which .Net Frameworks Are Installed

2006-06-06T13:55:00.000-07:00

I'm getting a small handful of reports that the basic PocketPollster Windows application cannot be installed and run successfully. This is very odd. The only explanation I can think of is that the .Net Framework 1.1 is either not installed or not installed properly.

To detect the former, one can look in the registry for the presence of this key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\NET Framework Setup\NDP

The children of this key determine which versions of the framework are installed. Here's a guide:

Version 1.1 - 1.1.4322
Version 2.0 - 2.0.50727

Of course, the fullproof way to ensure it's installed properly is to remove it if it's present and then reinstall it. You can get a copy here.

Installation Challenges

2006-06-05T13:34:00.000-07:00

I've been a receiving a potpourri of feedback from those testing the software. In terms of installation, they fall into one of three categories:

Everything installs & works perfectly right off the bat.
It installs properly onto the desktop but then there are problems getting the mobile app working.
It doesn't even install properly on the desktop.

I am actively working to resolve the issues associated with #2.

As for #3, this is a great mystery. Pocket Pollster is a regular .Net Framework 1.1 application and should install easily without any problems. But yet they are occuring on some machines. Here's the troubleshooting advice I gave to a tester in Portugal:

Uninstall Pocket Pollster.
Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Administrative Tools
Check whether there are 2 icons referring to "Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1". If not, then proceed to #5.
Go to Start -> Control Panel -> Add or Remove Programs and remove all entries referring to "Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1" (there will likely be 1 or 2 of them).
Go to here to install a fresh copy of the framework.
Ensure that ActiveSync is installed and your device is synching properly with MS Outlook.
Restart your computer and try installing Pocket Pollster again.

I'm enquiring with other developers about what else could be done to resolve such problems. Frustrating!

How's The Beef?

2006-06-04T18:34:00.000-07:00

A recent Baseline magazine had an interesting story about how the USDA implemented mobile computers to speed up the inspection process.

Smartphone Arrived!

2006-06-01T19:00:00.000-07:00

One of the great benefits of my work is that I get to interact with people from all walks of life and from all around the world. Last week I had a very interesting discussion with a gentleman from San Francisco. Like me, he was clearly a mobile technology enthusiast. After our hour long conversation he told me that he was going to send me a Motorola Smartphone to borrow for awhile. I was, well, pleasantly surprised that a complete stranger would do this.

In case you're not aware, the Smartphone is a cellular phone that uses Microsoft's "Windows Mobile" operating system (OS). This is very similar to the OS in the Pocket PC, albeit utilizing a different sized screen and input options. I don't know the actual sales figures but I've long suspected that there will soon be many more SmartPhones sold than Pocket PCs.

Personally, I don't like these devices very much. On my laptop, I have the screen setup to display a 1600x1200 resolution. My Pocket PCs have 240x320 resolution; smaller but still ideally suited for software like Pocket Pollster. Smartphones have only a 176x220 screen, no touch-screen, and just a few buttons to navigate & input data. But ... and it's a big BUT ... the cellular phone form factor is the mobile computer of choice of most people in the world. So if that's what the customer wants then that's what the customer gets!

In point of fact, right from conception, I always had a plan to create a version of Pocket Pollster that would run on the Smartphone platform. It'll utilize every last pixel of screen space available and make the most efficient use of the available input buttons. But I still think Pocket PCs are a superior mobile input device.

One thing that was really cool was that when I connected the Smartphone to my computer with its USB cable, ActiveSync fired up, immediately followed by Pocket Pollster's Data Transfer module! Pocket Pollster then asked whether it could install its mobile component on the phone! I clicked "No", because I knew it wouldn't work [yet] but it was still really neat to see.

Alpha Version Launch

2006-05-29T12:57:00.000-07:00

Hello! My name is Robert Werner and I would like to welcome you to my company's website. I'm a software engineer and serial entrepreneur in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

I've been providing mobile software solutions since 1998. Back then we were supplying enterprise solutions to large corporate clients. A lot of consulting was involved with each project and every piece of software was specifically tailored for each client. The software was extremely powerful for the task at hand, but lacked the flexibility to be easily modified for other clients. The consulting hours racked up and put such software out of reach of most small companies, let alone individuals.

In 2005 I went back to the "drawing board" and set in motion a plan of action to create a completely new generation of mobile software. This would consist of a family of software products that would accomplish different tasks but would share some common traits. Specifically, each piece of software would be:

Easy to setup "right out of the box"
Easy to use, with little training required
Universally applicable to most every field and organization
Available at a reasonably low-cost

The #1 message I constantly receive from most computer users is "Keep It Simple!" I think that too often software vendors adopt the "kitchen sink" or "swiss army knife" approach. They add more & more & more features to their software. Yes, each new addition indeed makes it more powerful, but at the same time makes it much more complicated. For the new user, it's often overwhelming and frustrating.

I very much admire the approach taken by the Chicago-based
web software company, 37 Signals. Their philosophy appears very similar to my own: Build specific tools that do a few things really, really well. If a person wants to pound in a nail, you give them a hammer. If they then also want to twist in a screw and cut a piece of wood, one could conceivably add more features onto the hammer to do those things too. But perhaps it makes somewhat more sense to instead just give them a screwdriver and a saw?

Innovative Mobile Solutions [IMS] is the parent company that will sell the aformentioned family of mobile software products. Pocket Pollster is the first product to be released by IMS. Today marks the start of the Pocket Pollster Alpha Testing Program. Avid Pocket PC users around the world have been invited to test the software. In exchange for their invaluable feedback, they will receive a free copy of the product. If you would like to apply to become a tester too then please click here.

Through this blog I plan to keep everyone apprised of how the testing program is going, what new versions of the software are available, and what interesting ideas are coming forth, both from me and from users alike. Plus I'll also share interesting stories I find about mobile computing. So please don't hesitate to leave comments about any specific postings. If you wish to reach me directly, you can do so here.