Wednesday, May 22, 2002
The ugly truth about ActiveSync and categories
Posted by Jason Dunn in "THOUGHT" @ 11:01 AM
About a month ago, I started writing one of my final PocketPC.com articles on category syncing, based on the ASSSUMPTION that it worked like I thought it would - you know, separate categories for each piece of data, only sync category "A" at work, and category "B" at home. You'd think that would allow you to keep your data isolated on each machine, right? It doesn't.
There is NO ability for the Pocket PC to isolate data from two separate systems based on categories. I wasted four hours trying every conceivable scenario, absolutely convinced that there was some way to make it work. Why else would they have categories? Would they really design ActiveSync to dump data from one PC to another with no regard for what the user wanted? I should have known better. :twisted: Surprise surprise, that's what people were complaining about for years, and I'd always assured them that "categories were the answer" because that's what the product managers told me - yet I never had two PCs to sync against because I work from my home and never tested my own advice. I owe the Pocket PC world an apology <sigh>.
I felt like such an idiot :oops: when I discovered the truth about ActiveSync: Microsoft never intended for a Pocket PC to sync with more than one computer and keep the data isolated. So the answer to people that ask about syncing to multiple PCs is that unless they want to co-mingle all their data, they should only create a partnership on ONE computer and be a guest on the other. How "real world" is that? Not very.
I think the entire Mobile Devices team should be given the task of taking their Pocket PCs home, creating a partnership, and not letting any Microsoft corporate data leak onto their personal computers - then they'd see the agony normal users go through, and what a significant problem this is.
There is NO ability for the Pocket PC to isolate data from two separate systems based on categories. I wasted four hours trying every conceivable scenario, absolutely convinced that there was some way to make it work. Why else would they have categories? Would they really design ActiveSync to dump data from one PC to another with no regard for what the user wanted? I should have known better. :twisted: Surprise surprise, that's what people were complaining about for years, and I'd always assured them that "categories were the answer" because that's what the product managers told me - yet I never had two PCs to sync against because I work from my home and never tested my own advice. I owe the Pocket PC world an apology <sigh>.
I felt like such an idiot :oops: when I discovered the truth about ActiveSync: Microsoft never intended for a Pocket PC to sync with more than one computer and keep the data isolated. So the answer to people that ask about syncing to multiple PCs is that unless they want to co-mingle all their data, they should only create a partnership on ONE computer and be a guest on the other. How "real world" is that? Not very.
I think the entire Mobile Devices team should be given the task of taking their Pocket PCs home, creating a partnership, and not letting any Microsoft corporate data leak onto their personal computers - then they'd see the agony normal users go through, and what a significant problem this is.
