Where's my Movie Data?? - Media Management

I know it's been a while since I posted on here, but I have been busy checking out and learning all kinds of things. My biggest time suck lately has been a combination of Windows 7 (Win7) with its Windows Media Center (WMC), Windows Home Server (WHS), and XBOX 360 as a media "extender" of sorts. There are lots of pieces to Win7 and WHS that I have been spending time learning, but I'm going to mainly focus on media content for this post. Future posts will discuss the other, more geeky, features and functions of these two operating systems.

As you may have read in a previous post of mine, I purchased a Roku and have loved that device for playing back Netflix content. However, Netflix's library for instant play is pretty limited, so I wanted something more. I was able to talk my wife into letting me get a 2nd XBOX 360 to place in the living room (the 1st one is in the family room) as a replacement for the DVD player, Roku and then even adds gaming. She bought into it because it let her get the current DVD player for her bedroom and my daughter get the Roku (the other biggest user besides me) for her bedroom.

iPhone: Mobile Air Mouse - On Sale

**UPDATE** - Forget about the Air Mouse, Logitech release a killer app that includes mouse functionality as well as a keyboard, and it's FREE! Grab it here.

iPhone : Mobile Air Mouse: **Currently (as of 9:20am EDT 8/7/09) on sale for $2.99**
"Instantly transform your iPhone or iPod touch into an air mouse, trackpad, and wireless remote for your computer! Sit back and surf the web, browse your photo library or control your music player from the comfort of your couch. Our air mouse uses the built in accelerometer to translate your hand motions into mouse movements on your screen. It can also operate as a trackpad, allowing you to control your computer with a single finger.

Cloud Computing Conundrum

I am listening to the "Cranky Geeks" podcast #174 on 7/8/09 (here's the iTunes link to the MP3 audio only edition... they also have video podcasts as well), and they started to discuss the potential disaster of having your info in "the cloud", as well as the fact that you don't "own" your information in a sense, or at least that these services have access to your information (no matter what the privacy agreement states). One of their comments was that Google has more private/personal information than the NSA.

For the disaster part, they discussed the threat of someone targeting these "mega-hubs" where these datacenters and backbones are located, and the effect this would have on the country. I think there is some validity to this, but I feel like there is a decent amount of redundancy and fault-tolerance in this day and age. I see their point though. If you lose your internet connection, how do you retrieve your data?? If the company you have this data with folds, where does it go??

Because of my mobility and want for having my information everywhere AND always in sync (so one device doesn't have the latest copy when I'm not at that device but need that data), I have started to try and move ALL of my computing data into the cloud with services that

IndyCar - Finally Refreshing

Just watching the last IndyCar race on my DVR at Watkins Glen… how refreshing to see these cars have to turn more than left!!

I started watching IndyCar only this year. At first I was truly upset to find them only running on ovals ( I thought they would mimick F1, but on US territory)… I just don't find that much fascination in oval racing, but it was still a bit better than Nascar. I guess it stems from my affinity for motorcycle racing which has ALWAYS been about right AND left turns.

I got into Formula One racing this year as well, as I've found more time to watch recorded TV. I've always benn a *fan* of F1 racing, but couldn't fit it in my schedule. This year has been awesome with Jenaon Button!! Both my son and I try to watch every race(from our DVR).

So, to finally see IndyCar having to race both right and left… it was very refreshing. I like it a LOT!!


-- Post From My iPhone via Blogpress

Moving Notebooks to the "cloud"... trying to do this with Evernote

***UPDATES AT THE BOTTOM OF POST***

I have been an Evernote user for a little over a year now, but I never really used it to its full potential. This may have been in part due to the fact that I had a BlackBerry for a while and there was no Evernote application for the BlackBerry (there is now of course). I recently bought an iPhone, and there is a pretty solid Evernote client for the iPhone. I also have been feeling the need lately for better organizing and mobilizing (is that even a word? - looked it up... it's a word, but not the definition I am using here) my notes. I suppose I have simply used email in the recent past, but that's not a great solution and is too cluttered (in my opinion), so searches tend to have a lot of junk I'm not interested in sifting through and wastes time. I have also used Microsoft OneNote for some things, but it's SOOO limited to a PC (or Windows Mobile device which I don't own any longer... and even that mobile app is lame for mobile notes access IMO). My main concern, similar to my Task Management Solution concerns, is that the solution needs to be ubiquitous and work on all of my devices... which dictates some form of web-based backend and syncing.

Evernote seems to fit that bill, and since I have an account and notes already in it, I am deciding to experiment more with it and see if I can make it work better for me. I am trying to

TomTom for iPhone en route | Software | iPhone Central | Macworld

TomTom for iPhone en route | Software | iPhone Central | Macworld:

"There are also logistical issues. For example, because the iPhone doesn’t support background processes, any navigation app must shut down during phone calls, making real-time tracking difficult—something that doesn’t happen on a dedicated GPS unit, even one that includes telephony features."

This is the biggest drawback I've had with ANY phone based GPS application. I had the Verizon VZ Navigator on one of my phones in the past, and while it was a great GPS app, if you took a call or were on a call, GPS no workie. One time, I was on a conference call and wasn't familiar with where to exit on my trip. A while later I realized I MUST have missed my turn and had to hang up on the call and wait nearly 7 minutes for the GPS to reinitialize and find my location to then tell me that I essentially went 30 minutes out of my way... extending my trip by 1 HOUR!!! Ugh! I will never forget that mistake, and since have purchased a Navigon 2100max stand-alone GPS. The Navigon is truly awesome (none are perfect as far as I'm concerned) and has some incredible features. However, Navigon is pulling out of the US for both sales and map updates at some point in the not-too-distant future. They will be honoring the remaining subscriptions for map updates from their customers, but then that's it. What does this mean??? I'm not entirely sure, but I'm guessing I still have about 3 years of (up to date) life left in my GPS. Past that I have no idea, but technology changes pretty fast anyway and something better may come along by then.

For now, I will be staying away from any phone based GPS system/app. I think the Tom Tom package looks promising... but if it still means taking a call stops the function of GPS telling you where to turn, I don't want any parts of it.

Going Greener (Electric Push Mower)

My gas-powered push lawn mower started to give me problems recently. I got it for free from my in-laws a while back and it's served me well (nice and light). The wheel adjustments were a BEAR though, sometimes requiring a hammer to adjust some of the wheels. The throttle seemed to have some issues as well, but it worked at any rate. Recently it ran out of gas, sputtering to a stop (normal) and I went to refill it. I accidentally over filled the gas tank by a little, and when I started it up, it was sputtering... almost identical to when it runs out of gas. My guess is something (dirt, whatever) was in the gas tank and got into the line or carb and is blocking the flow of gas. I tried slightly to see if I could track down the problem, but had no luck.

My wife and I have wanted to get away from a gas powered lawn mower for some time now, and even went as far as increasing the landscaping in our front lawn to minimize the use of the lawn mower. So I saw this as an opportunity to possibly go greener (I was also thinking of getting the gas powered mower fixed). I started to look around to see what a new mower might cost in case it was not much more to buy new instead of getting it fixed. I saw electric mowers for hundreds of dollars (like $350+) and kind of wished we could get one, but just couldn't see putting out that kind of money. Then, I happened upon this Task Force Electric Push Mower at Lowe's for only $208!! So, I asked my wife, "What would you be willing to pay to go to an electric mower?" She started off saying we couldn't afford it... it would be great, but we just couldn't afford it. So I repeated the question with, "What would be your top $ we could afford?" She said, "$200." I said, "SOLD!" She couldn't believe it, and I couldn't either. So I went and bought it, and I have to say

To Jailbreak... or not to jailbreak: iPhone 3GS jailbreak “purplera1n” tool released - SlashGear

iPhone 3GS jailbreak “purplera1n” tool released - SlashGear:
"The iPhone Dev Team may have held off on releasing their ultrasn0w iPhone 3GS jailbreaking and unlocking tool, but that hasn’t stopped long-time Apple hacker George Hotz. He’s released a tool called purplera1n which, while not unlocking the iPhone 3GS, does at least jailbreak it so that unofficial third-party apps can be installed."

I have been contemplating jailbreaking my iPhone 3GS, but up until recently there was no tool available to do it. The "iPhone Dev Team" is holding off on their release of ultrasn0w until 3.1 so Apple can't shut them down, which I have mixed feelings about. I think George Hotz has a valid point here:

“Normally I don’t make tools for the general public, and rather wait for the dev team to do it. But guys, whats up with waiting until 3.1? That isn’t how the game is played. We release, Apple fixes, we find new holes. It isn’t worth waiting because you might have the “last” hole in the iPhone. What last hole…this isn’t golf. I’ll find a new one next week. Also your purplera1nyday files ensure that you can always get back to a jailbroken state, so if you have it it’s just a matter of tools.” George Hotz

One point of clarification on this article... from the purplera1n web site, it looks like there is a OS X utility now. My main PC is Windows, so I don't have a quick easy way to check it out right now.

Now comes the decision of whether or not I chance it with my shiny new iPhone 3GS... hmmm. It would seem to me that it is pretty safe since you can restore from a backup... but if I were to brick my phone, I have no recourse and not enough money to buy a new one without a contract. I'd like to know from someone I trust that this works without issue (but there's always a chance something could go wrong).

Any takers??? ;-)

Appigo Todo and Toodledo… a dynamic duo!

I recently purchased both Appigo's "Todo" iPhone app (for $9.99) and Toodledo's Pro account (for $14.95/yr) which offers advanced features over the free account that were important to me. However, the free account itself is pretty spectacular, in the sense that every other web-based backend that works with an iPhone app charge you a yearly fee, and generally over $24.99/yr (which is what Remember The Milk charges for the account that works with its iPhone app or Appigo's Todo)! You, personally, may never need anything more than the free account from Toodledo, but I like what the Pro account offers in conjunction with what Appigo's Todo application offers with such grace and ease in their iPhone app. The most important to me being subtasks to create "projects" and "checklists", both which *require* sub-tasks (in all honesty, Toodledo can still handle this in the free version, but the subtasks show up as regular tasks. For you, it may not matter, but I like seeing where they are associated and also be able to hide them to remove the clutter). To demonstrate this, I suggest that you visit Appigo's site and watch some of the screencasts. It helped me better understand what the capabilities are, and is partially what sold me on this iPhone app over others. I also first downloaded the Appigo Todo Lite app, which is free, signed up for the free account at Toodledo and upgraded to the free 7 day trial of the Toodledo Pro account to check it all out together. The Todo Lite app only allows 10 tasks total, but it was enough for me to see the benefits over other solutions out there. By the way, checklists and projects seem to be considered 1 task for the limitation, but there is also a limit of about 5 subtasks for these in the lite version (NOT in the full version).

I suppose I should give a little background on my situation regarding task management so you can better understand what I was looking for in a system. I've read

Fell off the grid for a bit... but got my new iPhone 3GS!!

Hey All,

Sorry I sort of fell off the grid for a bit. I've had a bunch of things going on that really didn't allow me to easily blog... but I've had things I've wanted to discuss. First of all, I got the new iPhone 3GS on June 19th!! WooHoo! I new this model was coming out before my first 30 days was up with AT&T, and I made sure I would be able to exchange my 3G for the 3GS when it came out. I only had to pay a $20 "restocking" fee to do it. I am EXTREMELY impatient, so I couldn't just sit it out and wait for the new model to release. I'm actually glad I did, because it allowed me to experience just HOW different and better the 3GS is to the 3G. I'm also glad that I upgraded my 3G to OS 3.0 before turning it back in. This allowed me to see that OS 3.0 most definitely had some performance improvements on the 3G, let alone the new feature set.

Most recently, I have been trying to find a solid task management system that I could use on both my iPhone and my PC (Windows, not Mac... but my wife has a Mac and I wanted something that was universal for the desktop). I'm pretty sure I finally found the right solution for this, so I will have a post on this specifically (hopefully over the weekend). In the meantime, there is a box on the top right of my main blog page that lists what I am using, with a link that has my referral number in it. If you decide to sign up for it, I'd sure appreciate you using my link so I get the benefits. ;-) I honestly would be happy paying for the service either way, so that should tell you how much I like it. I tried some others, and none of them had everything I was looking for, or were too expensive... or a combination of the two. I will discuss my findings and thoughts on these other services/apps in my review.

I want to get back to my app review series because I have found a lot of apps that are worth their price. So look for more in that area soon as well. Hopefully my Task Management System will help me along in this area! ;-D

iPhone OS 3.0 - Upgrade now or wait?

Not that I am extremely surprised, but my upgrade experience today on my iPhone 3G was less than flawless. This is classic Apple unfortunately, but we all (mostly) put up with it. I would actually guess that a bit of the problem truly stemmed from getting my phone re-activated by AT&T. However, downloading the update from Apple alone was somewhat trying. Both companies are to blame for lack of available bandwidth. Better planning could have certainly mitigated this stuttered experience for so many today.

Now, not everyone experienced the same issues as me, and by the looks of things, a ton of peoe were able to get the update quickly and apply it without issue. Good for them... Seriously.

My upgrade process started at approx. 1:15pm, and consisted of the 3.0 download timing out in iTunes about 4 times. When it finally finished and began to apply to my iPhone, the update failed leaving my 3G in "Recovery Mode"... Nice. Apple's web site suggested I look for iTunes updates, or reboot my pc if there weren't any. Hey, at least they routed me here upon failure, so good on them. So I rebooted.

After reboot, iTunes recognized my phone was in recovery mode and suggested I restore... Uh, yes please. This time it worked just fine, but it took a while to complete. After it installed the 3.0 OS, it had to deactivate my phone... Here's where it got exceedingly annoying. Over 12 times it timed out with a "communication error" trying to communicate with the "iTunes Store"... Seriously?!? I had NO problem browsing the store. I think this where AT&T came into play, and I wasn't alone as others twittered their frustration too. At one point, my phone was activated, but it was STILL trying to connect for some reason. It eventually finished whatever it was trying to do.

Once this completed, it asked if I wanted to restore from a backup... Uh, yeah... Duh!

The restore took quite a while, and I'm not sure what it did during this time, because I STILL had to sync all my shit back to it!! Literally, there was nothing but stock 3.0 shit pn there... WTF? so I tell it to sync... Now I was down to about 100MB free on my 8GB iPhone, so that's a lot of info to sync, but I can't even believe how long it took to sync. I even decided to drop a ton of apps to shorten the time it would take.

When all was said and done, it was 5:32pm!!! Are you kidding me? That was painful. That's 4 hours of my life I would like back. I guess that's what I get for wanting to get it ASAP. ;-)

I just hope it's not as painful when I get my 3G S!!

-- Post From My iPhone

FriendFeed has my attention

I just started using FriendFeed, and I think I like it better than Twitter at this point. For one thing, it can pull updates from other services, such as Twitter, and displays everything from everyone I am following in one place... that's efficient. Another thing I like about it is the easy conversation view... so you can actually see what other people are saying about something... I haven't found a great way to display conversations in Twitter yet (though I haven't invested a lot of time figuring it out either... but should I have too??).

I currently have it pulling in blogger, FaceBook and Twitter content from people I am following. I am now seeing content from these people that I wasn't seeing before... so A+ from me!

iPhone App Review Series

Being that I bought an iPhone recently (5/22/09 to be exact), I have been trying out and buying applications based on finding reviews from other various sites. I will attempt to share some of those sites as I determine them to be worth it (some I haven't found very helpful, or I disagree with the reviews).

This first post in this series will be a quick summary of some of the apps I've come to like/love. I hope to do much more in-depth reviews of specific apps as I use them and my phone more. So look for more in this series.

Games:
I want to lead this category by saying that I don't have a ton of time to game on my phone. Because of that, games that I find to be challenging and offer some life may not provide this to someone who has hours at a time to game on their phone. I've read some reviews from people saying they beat the game in 2 hours or whatever... If you are one of those people, my reviews may not be the best for you.

Real Racing, by Firemint (genre = Racing) - This came out a few days ago and looks to be the best racing sim game so far. I haven't had a chance to play it much yet, but the graphics and depth of the game appear to be second to none. I will review this in more depth at a later date.

Fieldrunners, by Subatomic Studios (genre = Tower Defense) - This is a more classic style Tower Defense gameplay model where there is a blank canvas for you to layout the path to force the AI to follow to their doom. ;-) This style of Tower Defense is a LOT of fun, and can play different based on how you lay out your towers. Tower Defense has become one of my favorite genres lately, and this game does NOT dissappoint. I started off on Medium and failed the first level. I like that, because it tells me it will challenge me and stay interesting! I should say that what I am calling level 1 has (I believe) 100 waves of "runners". These included helicopters that didn't have to follow my path of death, and it also included tanks which can take a LOT of firepower before dying. I got defeated by wave 40. Obviously, I need a better strategy for the choppers and tanks, since they are the only things that got through. One EXTREMELY nice feature of Fieldrunners is the ability to pause your game, even exit and resume a pauses game. This is a must have for any phone based game, but I don't believe most have it.

Star Defense, by Ngmoco (genre = Tower Defense) - This game has some beautiful graphics and great gameplay. You are at a 3D planet with a path that the alien invaders will follow, and in certain areas the path will loop and come near to the other side of it, so placing one tower can get both sides. I only played one world and on Easy, and I got through it easily... But I've been playing Tower Defense games for a bit and understand the strategy, so I should probably never play them on easy.

I think I'll stop here for my first post in this series. I will talk about other types of apps besides games... Like the app I'm using to post this to my blogger account, BlogPress. So far I really like it, but I want to use it more before reviewing it.

-- Post From My iPhone

Roku - STILL loving it to death!!! Honestly

I am still completely in love with my Roku player... maybe even MORE so than when I bought it! I literally use it almost every single day.

From what I can tell these days, the XBOX 360 is as good a player as the Roku, and actually will be better shortly as they release some better feature set for the 360 and Netflix... but I am hopeful they also bring this to the Roku player as well. The feature I am referring to is the ability to browse the Netflix instant play library and add to your queue DIRECTLY FROM THE 360!!! That's huge! I actually bought an app for my iPhone to be able to add to my queue without having to visit a PC... but I'd much rather do it from my device when I'm ready to watch.

At any rate, if you are looking for a device like this and do not already have an XBOX 360 in the room you want this feature, the Roku for $99.99 is a KILLER DEAL! I highly recommend it to anyone, and am very happy I spent the money on it.

Another - Palm Pre review (Engadget this time)

Palm Pre review:
"The Palm Pre. It's not just a phone, it's a myth, an idea, possibly a legacy... and a really, really long time coming."

I didn't read the entire review yet myself, so I may edit this post... just wanted to share.

Gizmodo - Palm Pre Review - Palm pre review

Gizmodo - Palm Pre Review - Palm pre review:
"It's here.

One last effort. A slow, but firm, shove of the chips. All in. Palm's only hope to save a company once synonymous with smart handheld devices: the Pre. Their eyebrow raised, daring you to call. They flip. Full house. Respectable. Decent. Impressive even. But not the highest hand.

That's not to say that the phone isn't good, because it is. The software has quite a few interesting innovations that push the concepts of what people can do with smartphones, like Google Android when it debuted—only better. The market needs this. The industry needs this. We need this. But the hardware? Cheap. Flimsy. Dangerous even."

Before the actual launch of the Pre, this is a WONDERFULLY complete review, I think. I also think the Pre will be a decent phone, especially in its next release of hardware, but I'm VERY glad I bought an iPhone instead.

iPhone 3G Review - Part 1

I want to preface this review with the fact that I am coming from T-Mobile where I had a BlackBerry Curve 8320. So much of my review will consist of comparisons because it's foremost in my mind. The devices are VERY different (in my mind) and I would say are directed at very different audiences. The BlackBerry models and software is more utilitarian and targets the enterprise user with a HEAVY focus on email, and in my opinion it is the best here hands down... no question. I don't think there is a close competitor for business type applications and usage.

With that said, the BlackBerry kind of sucks for internet and other personal goodness. Don't get me wrong, it is hanging in there with apps like Facebook and other things... and the Storm (as well as the Bold and Curve 8900 I believe) have a MUCH improved internet experience... but I don't think they are as good or as slick as the iPhone in this regard (or the Pre from the videos I've seen... the Pre is using the webkit, same as the iPhone, so the web experience should be identical... signal strength aside... more on that later). I had contemplated buying a NetBook or cheap laptop just to have around for web browsing so I had a larger screen, etc. I didn't really like this idea because I think I would eventually stop using it or it would become cumbersome (it CERTAINLY doesn't fit in your pocket).

My recent decision to go with an iPhone consisted of quite a bit of research that encompassed: AT&T as the carrier, so their signal strength in my area since that's where I am most of the time; The iPhone itself compared to other phones that I could buy (understanding a LARGE portion of what is getting fixed in the 3.0 software release for the iPhone and what that fixes); and finally the applications available to any phone I might purchase.

The Palm Pre:
The Pre shows promise because it has the ability to multi-task well (though it remains to be seen what the performance will be with multi-tasking... so let's assume it will be adequate... AND, there is rumor that Apple will be starting to utilize multi-tasking with the new model of iPhone because it will have a faster CPU and more RAM... but that's rumor at this point). Not only that, it is also using the WebKit for its browser (like the iPhone), and from what I can see the browser experience is pretty much identical to the iPhone (cellular carriers and signal strength aside). I, personally, like the idea of the slide out keyboard for several reasons: 1) I am coming from a line of keyboard phones (Palm Treo w/Palm OS, Palm Treo w/ Windows Mobile, finally BlackBerry), so I am more comfortable with a physical keyboard; 2) This allows the screen to display more info since it is not being filled with the keyboard on-screen (this is not a *huge* deal, but I personally think it would be nicer and have found the lack of screen real estate when the keyboard is up to be somewhat limiting on the iPhone... but not a big deal); 3) I always fear that the "touch" portion of the touchscreen will stop being responsive (this has happened to me on several touch only devices, some older Palm devices included). Some of the videos of its capabilities are impressive (here's a 26 minute video that provides GREAT coverage of it's features... at least what they'll tell us) ... but SO much is still unknown because Palm and Sprint are keeping very tight lips on capabilities, etc. They don't want any bad press before the launch is my guess. Not only that... this is a COMPLETELY new phone and operating system from the ground up, so it has NO proven track record (other than Palm's track record, and I've always been a fan of Palm). This also means that accessories and software (applications) for the OS will be very limited for quite a while I would think. Developers are going to have to get ramped up on this OS, and are they *really* going to spend on this phone/OS unless it takes off like gangbusters?? Me thinks not... not until it gets some presence in the market and proves it can hang with the iPhone. This finally brings me to Sprint. Sprint has some good things about it, but they are bleeding and the Pre is pretty much its last effort to gain back some ground in the market. So who knows what will happen to Sprint in the meantime... but I doubt they will be investing in new towers for a bit. And that brings me to the lack of coverage where I live. It's not EVERYWHERE around me that is a problem... but my house and the neighborhood I live in basically are not even on Sprint's coverage map (it's listed as "Roaming"). That pretty much clinched it for me... and the fact that AT&T's signal strength at my house is now stellar (as good as Verizon in my area, which is saying something).

As far as the iPhone goes, I am still struggling with getting all of my email accounts, calendars and contacts squared away. Don't get me wrong... if you have one email/calendar account and one set of contacts to sync up, you should be golden. I have several, and it seems you can't have them all doing updates at the same time... so I have to make some decisions on what to do. Don't worry, I will share my experience with everyone in case someone else is in the same boat. That will all be in Part 2 most likely, since that is currently my main focus.

One quick thing I found that bugs me. You can't create an appointment and invite someone else to it. This is what prompted my current project to get me and my wife on the same calendar and also simplify my workflow... more later.

HOWTO - Use MobileMe with Your Own Domain! - macosx.com

HOWTO - Use MobileMe with Your Own Domain! - macosx.com:

****UPDATE****
I have since decided (I think) that I am NOT going to go with MobileMe (unless they release some serious enhancements and reasons to keep me) and am going to figure out a way to utilize Google for free (GoogleSync for the iPhone). I will post more on my solution as I figure it out.
****/UPDATE****

I actually figured this out on my own by playing around a bit, but then I found this post that confirmed my findings.

What this allows is all of the MobileMe push/sync goodness while still allowing you to send replies as a different domain email account. The Sent items become a bit scattered, but at least it's something.

Here's the post:

"HOWTO - Use MobileMe with Your Own Domain!
I really want to use MobileMe with my own domain and with a new feature in iPhone 2.0 I have managed to pull it off.

1) Setup your MobileMe account with all the push and syncing features so that life is good and jolly.

2) Setup your own mail account and setup, just as you normally would until your satisfied with it.

3) Go into Settings and Fetch Settings and turn your 'non-mobileme' account to manual. Go in and read any emails you need too to get your new emails down to ZERO.

4) Forward your emails from your primary domain account to your MobileMe service, most email providers provide this type of feature. Worst case, setup MobileMe to POP your mail account, but that won't be 'instant' like forwarding is.

5) When you get a new email in to MobileMe and reply to it, if it's an email you want to come from your own domain, just select the 'from' field, and a new feature allows you to choose which account to send the email FROM. Select the other domain account and send it.

Your SENT items will appear in your personal domain email account Sent folders, not MobileMe.

While it's not a PERFECT solution, its better than nothing."

Hell froze over...

I'm still in shock, but I actually went and got an iPhone 3G 8GB from my local AT&T shop.

This wasn't an easy decision, and I *DO* have 30 days to return it, but some of the key features it has were just too compelling. AND, one of the biggest deciding factors of going with AT&T over Sprint was signal strength in my area. The other phone I was *seriously* considering was the Palm Pre, which I think looks like a great phone, and even has some better features than the iPhone... but the AppStore and the apps for the iPhone trump the Pre. I mean... they have a frickin' Kindle app for the iPhone!! So you get access to all the Kindle library and pricing!!!! That's killer! I used to read books on my BlackBerry (read Angels & Demons on it) and found it to be great... but the library was limited and pricing was nearly identical to physical books.

So, back to Sprint and the Palm Pre... my wife and kids are on Sprint for their phones, so I was thinking maybe it would be better to all be on the same account... and the Palm Pre was about to be released and it looks like a really slick phone. However, I've known for a long time that Sprint hasn't been very good where we live, and T-Mobile was in the same boat... but at least with T-Mobile and the ability to use WiFi for my phone was pretty killer. AT&T was never great in my area in the past... but that's a long time ago that I had them, so I decided to compare AT&T with Sprint as far as coverage. AT&T was showing full strength signal and 3G in my area, and Sprint was showing *Roaming*... seriously... not even 1 bar in the surrounding area of where we live... roaming.

There was NO way I could deal with that, and I think it may actually get the rest of my family out of their contracts without paying the fees to cancel (this is what got me out of T-Mobile and they were at least showing 1-3 bars for my area.

So, between the signal strength (and it IS good for me, by the way) and the iPhone AppStore... it won. I'm sure I will find things I dislike and can't work around... but I think I'm finally okay with that. And with the 3.0 update right around the corner (June 8th, 2009) which fixes a LOT of my initial complaints, I think I will be happy.

Roku Digital Video Player: First Impressions (Review)

My Roku Digital Video Player arrived via FedEx yesterday (on a Saturday no less)! I have to say I am VERY impressed with this pint sized device. It is VERY small (as you can see by the picture of a hand holding it), contains output for HDMI, Component, S-Video and even composite. For audio out, it has HDMI, optical and plain old RCA R+L.

The TV that I hooked it up to is only an SDTV, so no HDMI for me yet. In fact, the TV is quite old (all things considered) and doesn't even have component inputs. Thankfully, it at least has S-Video input, so I went with that. The picture, I would say, is at least as good as my DVD player, and there are even HD videos through Netflix that look better than DVD (trust me, even though it's an SDTV, you *can* see a difference... even if it is slight. I first noticed the difference when playing HD channels from my Verizon FiOS TV set-top-box).

The Roku Digital Video Player was designed to work with a Netflix account and it's digital streaming videos. I've been a member of Netflix for a VERY long time, and have been a huge fan of the delivery model (mail-order video rentals; you pay a monthly fee and can have a certain number of videos out at a time; turn-around for exchanging videos has been 2 days for me). I hate having to leave the house, or worry about returning a video on time. The streaming video service from Netflix wasn't stellar at first, in my opinion, but since it's startup it has gotten MUCH better. And with faster home-based internet connections, and I'm sure storage costs coming down considerably since it's launch, the quality that I am experiencing is VERY good. I have Verizon FiOS internet at 15mbps down, 2mbps up. I test my connection fairly regularly and I get a pertty consistent 12+mbps. It all depends on where you are testing against, and the available throughput of the routes you take... but my connection has been very good.

The device has wireless built-in!! I actually wasn't even thinking about this when I bought it because I have network cable to many different areas of my house... but I set it up using the wireless and have to say that it is providing excellent quality with absolutely no stutter or apparent latency issues. So, for now anyway, I am skipping the wire.

The remote it comes with is very simplistic, and works just fine. I may be getting a Logitech Harmony 550 refurbished to control everything... but for now I'll use multiple remotes. Again, I am really impressed with the fit and finish of this device.

Once I hooked it up and turned it on, it starts up with a setup wizard that is VERY easy to follow and use. Once I got it hooked up to my wireless network, it downloaded and applied a firmware update (very quickly too). This update provides the ability to play Amazon Video On-Demand. I haven't messed with this yet, but from what I can tell, this provides you the ability to either rent or buy movies to be watched "on-demand" via the Roku player or your PC/Mac. This is a neat idea, and I could see renting a movie from here that isn't available via Netflix streaming, or that is a "long wait" through Netflix DVD, but I'm not sure I would "buy" a movie from this format... at least, not yet. Rental prices seem to be $1.99, however I'm not sure at this point what that gives you (e.g., do you only get to watch the movie once? Do you get to watch it as many times as you can over a 3 day period? etc).

All in all, I have to say this device is killer for me and my usage and only costs $99.99. A quick tip for you folks looking to buy one: If you go to Roku's web site and click "Buy Now", it will take you to an order page where there is a "Shipping Cost" listed. What I realized in discussing this with my friend is that this "cost" is not a static cost. For instance, mine was showing up as $14.99 for shipping, but his was showing up as $4.99 for shipping! At first I couldn't believe it... I thought he was messing with my head, but he sent me a screenshot of it. Then he gave me the idea of clearing my cache and cookies in my browser and trying again. I then started to see different shipping costs each time. The first time I did it, it came up as $9.99, then finally it came up as $0.00!!!! I stopped on that one and actually bought it! So, I paid $99.99, with no tax and paid nothing for shipping! They use FedEx and it actually arrived on Saturday around 1:30pm (shipped from California, and I live in PA... almost as far as you can get from CA. So, if you live closer, I imagine it would arrive sooner than 5 days).

For me, the ability to watch all kinds of classic TV shows and a bunch of movies, all without having to change discs in my DVD player, AND the fact that you get to see the box art as well as a description is pretty killer. I have a 400 disc DVD changer, but I have to say that it became more of a pain in the ass than beneficial. In fact, I've resorted to using my XBOX 360 as my DVD player in that room, and have a single DVD player in my other main TV room. Part of the problem with that beast is that any DVD movie data you put into it gets lost if there is a power loss (I didn't know this up front). So, originally, I thought it was great... there is a menu to browse your DVDs, and I hooked up a keyboard and spent hours inputting the movie titles and actors, genres, etc... then we lost power and all of that hard work was gone. I was furious and never did it again... so I had to keep a separate notebook of what DVD was in what slot. Needless to say, it didn't turn out to be all that it was cracked up to be. :-(

The Roku, on the other hand, gets all that data from Netflix and pulls info from my account. I only wish it could stream music and videos from my PC on TOP of Netflix and Amazon... but I'm okay with it not doing that.

[ubuntu] Can I install LAMP on my Ibex workstation ? - Ubuntu Forums

[ubuntu] Can I install LAMP on my Ibex workstation ? - Ubuntu Forums:

On this page you will find the aptitude code to install all of the packages. This makes it VERY easy to install. ;-)

How to display your web site logo on the address bar and in the favorites list

****UPDATE****
My friend sent me a link to this site (http://tools.dynamicdrive.com/favicon/) when I told him how much I struggled with created an icon that was only 16x16 pixels. I put in the original (much larger) image I was trying to recreate in a 16x16 pixel square and it resulted in almost an IDENTICAL image to my final from scratch!! I was blown away. It *was* too light, but I could have started with this and just added some darker colors where needed to make it pop and standout. I also realized I could have cropped the original image tighter to remove the surrounding white space which would have helped when it converted it.

I'm still glad I went through the process of creating one from scratch because it forced me to think differently graphically than having unlimited space to create (like the original image I created). But from now on, the above site will be where I start. ;-)
****/UPDATE****

How to display your web site logo on the address bar and in the favorites list:

I have been doing a bit of web work for my personal company and when I looked at my site in the tabs compared to EVERY other web site I had open in tabs, I realized everyone was using favicon's with an image. It honestly makes it easier for me to see which tab I want to open when I have like 20 of them open. ;-)

I figured it couldn't be that hard to do, and found this page that describes how to do it. The hardest part was trying to create a favicon I liked... I mean, you only have 16 pixels squared to work with here. :-D I'm happy with what I finished with. (http://realtwistedpair.com)

Instructions from the linked site:
"How to display your web site logo on the address bar and in the favorites list
Want to make your web site standout in crowded favorites lists in browsers and address bars? How about displaying your logo next to links to your site.

First, you have to create a logo for your site; a very tiny logo to be specific. The size of the logo should be 16x16 pixels and it should be saved as a Windows icon file (logo.ico for example).

Once you have an icon file with your logo, you're ready to take the final step. Following methods will work in Explorer 5.x and higher without having any negative effects on other browsers.

Method 1

This is the easiest method to implement and it will work regardless of the particular page on your site users choose to add to their favorites list. Don't worry if you don't have access to your web site root; take a look at the next method.

If you have access to the root of your web site, simply save your icon file as "favicon.ico" there. For example, if your web site is "www.chami.com", your icon file should be available at "www.chami.com/favicon.ico". The web browser will look for favicon.ico whenever your site is added to the favorites list and if it is found at the root of your web site, the icon will appear next to the link to your site.

Method 2 If you don't have access to the root of your web site, you have to add the following tag to your web page so that the browser will know where to look for your icon. Unlike before, this time you can save the icon under any name ending with ".ico" ****You'll have to go to the page to get the html code since the blogger post barked at me for a tag not being allowed (lol)****

Multibooters - Cloning Vista

Multibooters - Cloning Vista

Good information on cloning Vista and potential problems/fixes.

Dell, Intel cut out Microsoft | InfoWorld | News | 2008-08-15 | By Mike Elgan, Computerworld

Dell, Intel cut out Microsoft | InfoWorld | News | 2008-08-15 | By Mike Elgan, Computerworld:
"Dell Latitude ON
Dell announced this week a new feature called Latitude ON that enables the use of e-mail, Web surfing, basic PIM functionality, and document reading -- all without booting Windows. The idea is to enable basic use without having to wait for the main OS to boot, and also to extend battery life.

A more accurate name than 'Latitude ON' would have been 'Windows OFF.'

The codename was 'BlackTop,' a combination of 'BlackBerry' and 'laptop.' The original aim of the project was to give users the same basic functionality of a BlackBerry using their laptops' full-size keyboard and screen.

Are you ready for event-driven business? - watch this webcast.

What Dell is really doing here is building the equivalent of a secondary ASUS Eee PC into a full-featured, full-size laptop. The Latitude ON feature uses a low-power Intel Arm processor (just like the new Eee PCs), flash storage and Linux (Suse Linux Enterprise Desktop 10) separate from the laptop's main CPU, hard drive, and Windows OS. But unlike a subnotebook, the Latitude ON system won't allow you to install applications. It's essentially a 'cloud computing' device that depends on the Internet for much of its functionality.

As far as I can tell, none of the applica"
------------------

I only just read this, and this excerpt is from a broader post, but this Dell Latitude ON feature seems pretty frickin' killer to me!

I mean, I travel quite a bit (lately) and I see people pulling out laptops and waiting for them to start up or shutdown, or even hibernate, etc, while on a plane, and it seems like such a huge waste of time for little return (this is obviously my opinion... but I'd rather sleep on a plane or read a book for fun ;-). The other part that seems like such a waste to me is battery life. Granted, the laptops and batteries today are SO much better than just a few years ago... but batteries can and do go bad, which shortens the life you have to use them without power. I have a Dell Latitude D620 for work, and I have two extended life batteries for it. They are supposed to give me 4hrs each of life off the plug. Well, BOTH have dropped in capacity to literally minutes of battery life before going critical and the PC shutting itself down. I obviously need to get them replaced, but that would also mean I no longer hold the excuse that I *can't* work on the plane. ;-)

Anyway, I suppose this sort of turned into a rant about batteries, didn't it? Oh well. I think that anything we as an industry can do to lengthen battery life is key. I also am really interested in the slimming down of operating systems to the bare essentials for certain applications of operating systems. Like smartphones and other, what I like to call, "appliances". Normal multi-purpose desktop PCs should probably remain pretty fat, otherwise they start to lose their multiple purpose use.

I am still looking for the perfect inexpensive internet device for browsing, email and blogging. I think the EeePC, or something similar, could be it... but the price is still rather high and it lacks the full-size screen and keyboard I like so much. All in all, I want incredible battery life with very little heat generated and as little moving parts as possible (i.e., no spinning HDD). The EeePC with the (nicer) 10" screen seems to ONLY come with Windows XP. I don't know that I want something that bloated for that type of "appliance"... but if managed properly, I suppose XP would work.

Checking SQL Server or MSDE Version and Service Pack Level - Cisco Systems

Checking SQL Server or MSDE Version and Service Pack Level - Cisco Systems:

"SELECT SERVERPROPERTY('productversion'), SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel'), SERVERPROPERTY ('edition')"

The above SQL query string was all I needed to verify the SQL Server version, SP level and type (in my case, the type was "Enterprise Edition", but I *thought* it was only "Standard Edition"... so this was helpful in figuring out why my attempts to upgrade to SQL 2K5 Standard were being "blocked").

Pretty soon I'm gonna be a DBA!! (just kiddin)

Just Too Techy - Half Man/Half Geek: Lifesaver: Renaming a SQL Server 2005

Just Too Techy - Half Man/Half Geek: Lifesaver: Renaming a SQL Server 2005: "This one has saved my bacon a few times.

I usually do test installs of whatever I'm doing at the tiem with VM - most of the time I am able to restore these installs to the client environment. But I always forget to change the machine name. Once I do I get weird issues with the SQL Server if there is one installed. I always forget the SQL format for chnaging the name of the default instance of the server which is based on the machine name. So here it is so I don't forget it and you can use it:

sp_dropserver
GO
sp_addserver , local
GO



To find out the existing name of the server (before and after) execute the following:

select @@SERVERNAME



Then restart the SQL Server."

This one saved me!!!

Linux for spare

I have tried to use my little Nokia n800 tablet to blog in the past and find the lack of physical keyboard to be ultra annoying. I honestly haven't given the handwriting recognition a chance at all, so I may try that, but my experience is that it is never 100% and not easily edited/corrected like typing with a keyboard. Meaning, I don't type 100% accurate either, but it's a synch to hit and even hold the backspace button and re-type something.

The on-screen keyboard of the n800 is great, but you can't touch-type or type really fast with it because you have to sort of hunt and peck with the stylus. I've also tried the full-screen finger keyboard on the n800, and while this makes life better for typing, it is still less than perfect and has it's own flaws.

My desktop PC is by far my favorite device to use for everything having to do with computers, but it is a "desktop" and sits in my office in the basement. So, I'm essentially anti-social to the family when I'm down there. I have an old laptop that my mother-in-law was using and the HDD got fried... so it sat for a while until I figured I'd try it as a Linux install for blogging and internet browsing for upstairs. It has a really nice screen with higher than usual resolution (1400x1050) and lot's of other goodies. My one worry is that it may not be long for this world because the fan seems to be on it's last leg. At any rate, I dropped a 100GB HDD I had sort of lying around and got Ubuntu 8.10 installed on it in a snap. We'll see if it can last a while for me. If not, I may try and pickup a used one like this for cheap.

Hopefully, this will allow me to browse and blog with greater ease. I think I would love an Asus EeePC, but I can't see shelling out that much for an ultra-small laptop. If all I am doing is browsing the web and blogging/twitting with it, then it doesn't have to have a lot of horsepower... but screen size and resolution make all the difference in the world for those things.

Plus, I kind of wanted to keep Linux in my life in ways... so this can help with that.

Vista Tweak 6: Adding Games to the Vista Game Folder that are not added automatically | H1DD3N.R350URC3

****EDIT*****
Upon looking at the location described in the article, my registry information does not look the same. It is similar, but there are many of the values missing, and one that is not in the poster's image. That is "RatinsInfo" and has a whole mess of GUIDs and such. It would appear to me that MS may have changed this info in the registry with Vista SP1 possibly.
****/EDIT****

Vista Tweak 6: Adding Games to the Vista Game Folder that are not added automatically | H1DD3N.R350URC3: "Vista Tweak 6: Adding Games to the Vista Game Folder that are not added automatically"

It kind of bugs me that some games make it in here, while others do not... and dragging the games EXE into this folder does nothing more than create a shortcut to it... the other information on it doesn't auto-magically show up like a "supported" game.

It's only a slight annoyance really, but when I was trying to figure out why I found this post on how you can kind of hack it to manually put that info in. I doubt I'll go through the trouble of all this because it's not that big of a deal, but thought I'd share if anyone really needed to do this.

Bottom line on what I found out is, only certain games will show up and download information and performance ratings in this folder. Not sure why it can't get any game that is reviewed by www.allgame.com since that's apparently what it uses for it's info.

The one that was bugging me is "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" not showing up. I mean, this game came out well after Vista and it is reviewed on www.allgame.com as well. It's also an extremely popular game! "Call of Duty: World at War" shows up, and that's what made me look.

FOXNews.com - Flying Car Prepares for Test Drive - FOX Car Report

FOXNews.com - Flying Car Prepares for Test Drive - FOX Car Report: "Flying Car Prepares for Test Drive"

Sign me up!! Now I just need to get my pilot license. ;-)

Windows 7 Quick Launch - Where'd it go?

Live Search QnA - Windows 7 Quick Launch?:

"Just add the folder '%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch'
as a Toolbar."

I started using the Windows 7 Public Beta as my main OS, and so far I have to say it is *really* solid. I've been going through the steps of installing all my applications I use, drivers, etc, and I noticed the QuickLaunch toolbar to be missing. A quick search found the above link and there was a gentleman by the name of Geoffrey on there who had the solution. For whatever reason, I still like to use the QuickLaunch bar for odds and ends. It's just so much easier to me to have a quick list of apps or things I use often.

My true test for whether or not Windows 7 will cut it for me was to try some gaming. I just installed LOTRO (Lord of the Rings: Online) and it played as well as on my Vista install. I will install and try Call of Duty 4 tomorrow and make sure that runs as well too.

My PC hardware is in need of an overhaul. My CPU and RAM are a bit long in the tooth and are proving to be my bottleneck in just about every case. I will hopefully be able to do that if I get a tax return... but we'll see.

Look back here for more updates and opinions on Win7... It's too late for me to try and capture it all now... need to get some sleep. ;-)