In The Weeds of Feeds

Bold Battery Life - Real World

2009-01-11T05:38:00.008-05:00

So I have had the BlackBerry Bold for a while now and have had an opportunity to test real world battery life. First let me say that this thing sucks down the juice. Not unlike the iPhone 3G which needed a software update to improve battery life - so to could the Bold use a software update that improves battery life.

I was able to get 4 hours of talk time during a recent conference call I had to make. In this screenshot

You can see I was on a 4:05 min call. This was in less than ideal conditions. I was using the my bluetooth (Jawbone 1st Gen) headset and I was in the server room which cuts down the signal a fair amount. Wireless was turned off.

I have since upgraded my battery to a 1750 mah type in an effort to gain more time. The battery is still the same size as the unit that comes with the bold so no need for the extra thick cover. My informal testing so far has been to just observe how much battery life is left when I get home from work. I plug my blackberry in every night and I'm away from the house for a minimum of 13 hours at work before returning. I've been keeping WiFi off for now as it really sucks down my battery switching from WiFi to 3G as I move around at work. I've also disabled my PeekaWho application as it was really draining my battery life as well (shame really because this is a great app). I do not take many phone calls on my BlackBerry but do get a steady stream of email all day long. I already have my device tweaked for battery savings (brightness, backlight, etc.).

I really just want to be able to use it the whole day (I have to check it constantly - nature of being in IT and responding to customers) without having to plug it in at work. I can say that I'm able to do it with the Bold but just barely and after upgrading my battery to a larger capacity. My iPhone 3G is getting better battery life but I think the reason is I've set it to manual fetch of emails. I enjoy both and they both have their advantages and disadvantages. I carry both on me at all times during the day; the Bold for work and the iPhone for home. If I had to choose just one it would have to be the iPhone but fortunately I don't have to choose and can carry both and have the best of both worlds.

THN vs. THN (BlackBerry Bold App vs. iPhone App)

2008-12-23T07:40:00.001-05:00

The Hockey News has released their mobile application on both the BlackBerry and iPhone. Since I have both a Bold (Work) & iPhone (Home) I thought I would compare both platforms. I'm on AT&T's 3G network with both devices.

Here are screenshots of THN on the bold:

As you can see they are not to bad but there is much less screen real estate compared to the iPhone.

Here are screenshots of THN on the iPhone:

One thing you should notice is that there are a lot more features on the iPhone app. Scores, standings, player stats and schedules. The app also loads much faster. The BlackBerry version takes advantage of push technology and allows the app to run in the background. You have access to everything even without network signal. Conversly on the iPhone it has to pull everything down fresh each time you launch the app. For my money (both were free apps) the iPhone is the better application platform when done right and provides a faster more feature rich experience.

Trapster = Battery Drain

2008-10-11T08:40:00.005-04:00

So I had an opportunity to download try out free app Trapster. This little app provides real time notifications about "reported" speed traps, red light cameras and known police hangouts along the roads. It is updated by users and so your mileage may vary. While the app appeared to work okay it is one heck of a battery drainer. My iPhone was fully charged and within an hour it had drained my battery. So word to the wise, make sure you have it connected to power in your vehicle before leaving this thing running. It does a pretty good job but you will want to change the notification interval to 15 secs most likely. The default is 5 secs. I was in an area that had three known spots where police hang out (close together and within the half mile radius setting I choose) and the voice was constantly telling me "Police hang out here, Police hang out here, Police hang out here..." and repeat. Very annoying!

Trapster is available for multiple devices like RIM BlackBerry and several GPS Navigation units (Garmin, TomTom etc.) visit their website for more information: http://www.trapster.com/

Firmware 2.1 is a Winner!

2008-10-04T06:11:00.001-04:00

Well it has been almost a month since I've updated my iPhone 3G to firmware 2.1 and I can report it has been rock solid.

What it fixed for me:

1) No more crashes - I have not had to reset the phone due to the OS being locked up. Sure the occasional app freezes but that is to be expected with early release of any software. Due to iTS review process it takes a lengthy amount of time before updates are released. Not the developers fault as they have updates pending in the system. Just visit a developer site/blog and you will see that in a lot of cases they have multiple releases in the system just pending approval.

2) Backup Time - The backup time is soooooo much faster. Maybe a function of iTunes 8 but I don't care. Its just faster.

3) App Icons stay put - Finally I can arrange my app icons in a manner that works for me and not have it move to the last screen whenever an update is released.

I'm sure I'm missing some things but I'm almost taking things for granted now as it just works smooth like you except an Apple OS product to work.

iPhone Stable at Last!

2008-09-07T09:01:00.005-04:00

Well I think I will call this fixed (temporary solution) until either new Firmware or new iTunes versions are released. My phone has been stable for the better part of 4 days now. I will attribute this to the fact that I do not have to many apps installed. Here are screen shots of my iPhone pages.

As you can see I only have 3 pages and not all are ITS apps. I have several that are web apps to sites that are configured for iPhone use but do not have downloadable apps. It has been rock solid and I have even played Lumen quite a bit over the last two days. To give you an idea of how bad this issue is for folks just spend some time in the Apple Support Forums. This link http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1644828&tstart=0 has over 530 replies. All of them with roughly the same issue I was experiencing and all the different methods they have tried.

I don't even bother arranging my app icons as they will just get bumped to the last page any time there is an update. So what's the point. I guess I could put my web app icons first but really I'm just happy it's working again like it should.

So until a permanent fix is released no more trying out all these free apps as I just don't want to risk having my iPhone crash again. It's a shame really as this is the fun of the iPhone App Store.

Gmail 2.0.5 for BlackBerry

2008-09-06T10:07:00.002-04:00

I just updated my gmail app on my blackberry (I'm on OS 4.5). Beside being quicker the most significant feature is the ability to check multiple gmail accounts without having to log out. This is a great feature and quite frankly I'm surprised it has taken this long to become available. I only have a couple of issues with this update: 1) The icon looks crappy (NBD) and 2) The body field for typing in your message is a lot smaller. Otherwise it is a recommended update.

Available if you have Google Updater or go to: m.google.com/apps from your blackberry browser.

iPhone - So Far, So Good

2008-09-06T07:56:00.007-04:00

Well another 24 hours has passed and I have yet to crash my iPhone. I find it quite interesting that I'm not the only one having issues. I ran across this article over at TUAW in which having to many Apps is causing this issue. Tell me this is not a firmware issue. I can corroborate that I have not had my issues since I reduced the number of Apps. My iPhone only has 3 pages of home screens vs. the five or six I used to have. No longer am I loading apps that I may only need to use once in a while but have on there just in case.

I am tempted to try a restore from backup just to see but at this point I'm just so happy to have not crashed that I don't want to go thru the trouble of re-entering my account info for all those apps.

Tuesday the 9th, Apple is having an event (Let's Rock @ 10:00PST) in which the rumor mills are predicting new product announcements of the Nano 4G and iTouch 2G and maybe even iTunes 8.0. Let's just hope firmware 2.1 is announced and we can get to using the iPhone like we want; with as many apps as our 16gb will allow.

I really love this iPhone 3G but the instability is cause for much angst and I can only imagine what kind of support issues I'm going to have once my company allows them on the corporate network.

iPhone Firmware Redux

2008-09-05T07:21:00.002-04:00

The saga continues. After spending all weekend getting my iPhone setup (see below) it crashed again less than 24 hours later.

This time I was just trying to send an email (via gmail) when the phone suddenly froze and restarted. Same problem as before.

Again I tried to backup and it would never complete. This time around (after having left it over night and it still didn't complete) when I got home from work I erased everything on the phone. It takes two hours by the way. After which I only loaded the firmware (no 3d party apps).

It ran fine for 24 hours. Not that useful (my Blackberry has more 3d party apps and never crashes) so I decide to load about 5 apps I don't want to live without. Apps like NNW, Facebook, Exposure, DC Traffic Cams.

It runs fine for another 24 hours. So I decide to load some more apps that I want on my phone. Apps like Poker, Lumen, Cellspin and a bunch more but not all of the apps that I've downloaded. It's been another 24. So far so good.

BEWARE: iPhone Firmware 2.0.2 is for Crap! and so is Backup!

2008-09-01T10:48:00.011-04:00

Okay, maybe that was a bit harsh sounding but I'm more than a little bit aggravated after having to reload my iPhone not once but twice now and the wife's iphone as well; and before you go saying what about the backup let us just say have you actually tried it!

Today is Labor Day and while I'm enjoying being on a holiday from work this firmware has forced me to work the majority of the weekend.

All of this started after updating to 2.0.2 which came out just before we left on vacation. I updated both mine and my wife's and made sure I did a complete backup just prior to the trip. Now I will say we had no troubles on the vacation but then of course we were not using them all that much. On the Monday just after we got back I got a harsh email from the wife talking about all her information was lost for an app she was using. Now I like everybody else attributed it to the app and it being a 1.0 version. I told her that I could just restore from her backup and she would just have to add back whatever she updated since the last backup.

- First sign of trouble number one: When I went to do her backup it found it no problem but after starting it could not continue as the "backup was corrupt". Well that really sucked but the wife drove on and just recreated her missing information. [background info: the wife sync's with our HTPC which is a WinXP box and has all our music on it. This box has been in service for over 5 years and although recently updated with newer hardware we have never had a problem with it other than a power supply failure. It syncs with a 3rd Gen and 5th Gen iPod, a 1st Gen iPod Touch and most recently her iPhone 3G.]

- Sign of trouble number two: Last Monday I was using my iPhone like I usually do, reading a few news articles with the NetNewsWire app and then quitting that app and starting the iPod player because my commuter bus had arrived. I listen to music on the way to work every morning. Well everything was normal until the first song finished. There was a long pause of silence...really long...way to long...I'm clicking the play button on my Etymotic HF2's (earphones) and nothing is happening. So I take the iPhone out of my hip holster to see what the "F" is going on. The iPod app is frozen. Well that's just great isn't it. I reset the iPhone (pwr+home). After it restarts I launch the iPod app. Holy Shit! all my music is gone and it's telling me I need to load some music or connect to iTunes (pretentious SOBs). Wonderful! I have a corrupt iTunesdb (verified by the fact that I have over 10gigs of file space in use but zero music and zero videos). Okay, what to do now...commute is over an hour long and I cannot stand listening to my fellow passengers. I know, I will use the Last.fm or AOL Radio app. Kewl - I knew there was a reason I kept those apps on there. So I launch Last.fm. It starts and...and...and...it quits. Damn...@#@#$%%^^^ and a bunch of other extreme expletives that my 20+ years in the Army taught me so well. Okay, let's try AOL radio; ditto - same thing happens. Okay, lets try anything - Nadda, nill, nothing. So I'm carrying an expensive paperweight at this point. Thank goodness I also carry my 80gig 5th Gen Video iPod for watching podcasts on my way home (I use it with a Phillips DVD/iPod player which gives me a 7" viewing screen) and has my entire music library on it as well. Okay crisis to work averted. I can listen to my music and drown out the sounds of the bus and passengers. [background info: I sync my iPhone with my MacBook Pro running Leopard (you see where I'm going don't you) and I also ensured I had a successful backup after the upgrade to 2.0.2.

When I get home I tell the wife I have just experienced a similar problem with losing stuff on my iPhone. I'm a bit skeptical after what happened to the wife but I figure hey I'm on a different computer, different OS and it's a Mac right? WRONG! Same damn thing!!! Your backup is corrupt. Only difference is because I have a corrupt iTunesdb on my iPhone I have to do a complete restore which wipes out everything. Even after it reconnects it tells me that there is a backup for this iPhone and would I like to do a restore. Same flipping problem. It can't because it's corrupt.

So I after I get my music reloaded and my apps put back I do not worry about setting everything back up the way I had it. At this point I just want to listen to music on the way to work and be able to answer a phone call from the wife. This was Monday night and because I have a plan and I want to test it out this weekend - fast forward to today.

- Sign of trouble number three (or the final straw and this angry post): I have used my iPhone without incident since I reloaded it Monday night. I decide I want to do a good sync, a successful backup and then go ahead and do an immediate restore before I go through the trouble of setting everything backup the way I had it. Well long story short while the backup was not corrupt (at least not indicated by iTunes) the restore would never finish and always left my iPhone in a quite unstable state. I have since just said to hell with it and hope that Firmware 2.1 will be out soon (like when the Apple September product announcements are made). I know they have seeded it to the developers and it has had numerous RC (release candidates). It has taken me until today to finish setting everything back the way I had it. It is working fine and I just have to hope it doesn't crash hard like it did before because the morale of this post is the firmware and backup of 2.0.2 is for Crap!

LifeCast iPhone App

2008-08-31T09:57:00.001-04:00

Testing again as all my iPhone setting were gone. Long story and will be in a follow-up post.

Posted with LifeCast

Site Updates

2008-07-28T07:10:00.001-04:00

So I've made a couple of changes to the site. First I have changed the "Feed Weeds" to pull automatically from news I've clipped using my iPhone instead of my shared google reader.

Second I've added my blogroll.

These changes will hopefully allow me to post more frequently.

Posted with LifeCast

Testing

2008-07-26T12:30:00.001-04:00

Lifecast mobile blog test.

Posted with LifeCast

Posted on 26 Jul 2008 at 15:26 UTC

2008-07-26T11:22:00.001-04:00

Testing cellspin from the iphone.

Offline

2008-06-21T09:34:00.002-04:00

Let's just say I've had a busy couple of weeks and haven't had time to post. First there was my CCNA 2.0 Bootcamp which had me in class and labs morning & night for a week straight while also watching my Redwings win the Stanley Cup - Congrats Wings! My truck of 12 years blew a head gasket seal so there was vehicle shopping, DMV, etc. My boss left so there was transition plus I moved up to new responsibilities; Father's day, the US Open, school letting out for the summer, it just goes on and on. Suffice to say while I was able to catch a few moments waiting for the bus each day to pick some good weeds out of the feeds I haven't had the chance to get them shared or mention them.

Well there are a bunch in there so feel free to check them out and I'll try to get back on track with at least weekly postings.

Update: No surprise but I've not heard anything from Kensington tech support. The diNovo's been working great and I didn't have to use the their adapter anyway.

Evernote ᴙ0(k$

2008-06-01T06:53:00.009-04:00

Evernote Rocks [ᴙ0(k$ - Sorry, a throw back to the o'l days] - So I've been trying out Evernote for a couple of weeks now and I have to say I really like this application. My definition of a great application has changed over the years and now requires at least 2 of the items below:

Multi-platform (Windows, OS X, Linux, Mobile)
Web browser component or accessible
Sync abilities
Freeware or Opensource

I ran across an article on Touchtip's site and I'm sorry I didn't share it in the feed weeds (in my defense because you had to sign up for an invite I probably choose not to share it); regardless I'm sharing it now because of how useful I'm finding the program.

First off it is available on Windows & Mac, has a web site which works like the desktop clients and it also has a bookmark component for your browser. It will sync everything between all the clients and lastly it is freeware.

The program is akin to say bookmarking sites that have sync abilities but is really taken to the next level. You can capture anything, save anything, bookmark anything, sync it, and have it available where ever you are. You create "notebooks" in which to organize items. You can even decide to keep some notebooks private and available only on the machine in which the content was created.

I have Evernote installed on an iMac G5 running Tiger, my Macbook Pro running Leopard, my Dell workstation running WinXP, and have the bookmark applets working on Safari 3 & FireFox 2 & 3 on OS X and FireFox 3 on Windows. I have even gone from my iPod Touch and everything is all in sync and available no matter where I'm located at the time (home, work traveling).

I find the interface for the desktop client more friendly and has more viewing options on OS X [a shocker to you I'm sure] but not to worry my windows friends as the web based version makes up the difference.

In these screenshots OS X is on the left & the web on the right. I cannot find a way to do thumbnail views on the windows client but otherwise the same functionality is there. I prefer the thumbnail view.

If you would like to try out Evernote for yourself drop me a line and I will send you an invite.

Kensington Bluetooth Mystery - False Advertising?

2008-05-26T10:31:00.001-04:00

Today I decided to find out what happened with my Kensington order from BestBuy. I checked my receipt against the web site and sure enough same part numbers: 33348.
Here is the product shot from BestBuy:

Here is the product shot from what I brought home (sorry for the blurry shot):

The two look nothing alike. I jumped over to to see if maybe something had changed. It hasn't and their own tech support document still states that the 33348 has a range of 65 feet.

I have sent an email to Kensington Tech Support with an attachment including all these photos asking them to explain the packaging differences and to answer once and for all if this product's range is 33 or 65 feet. I don't expect a satisfactory answer if at all but I will post any response I do receive. I still haven't decided on if I am going to return the device and guess it will depend on the Kensington reply.

Bottom line you have to be careful and double-check things despite the photos shown on retail websites.

HTPC - diNovo Mini Success

2008-05-26T09:50:00.001-04:00

Yesterday we made a quick run to BestBuy [fyi - they open an hour later on Sunday, Argh!] to pickup the Bluetooth adapter and 10' USB A-A extension cable. I had ordered from the web for in-store pickup because I like to know they have what I want in stock. After we got home I noticed that the box that the Kensington USB adapter came in didn't look anything like what I had seen on the web. A closer inspection revealed that this product is only rated for a 33 foot range. I was a little pissed to say the least and figured that they gave me the wrong part but decided I would worry about that later and give the extension cable a try with the usb adapter the diNovo came with. I quickly ran the cable up behind the TV and then ran to grab the mini. Success! Now I'm easily able to control the HTPC from the bedroom.

HTPC - New Addition

2008-05-25T00:57:00.001-04:00

Friday I received my Logitech diNovo Mini keyboard. I first saw this little guy in some of the reviews from CES 2008. I knew I was going to have to get one and now that I've completed the upgrades to the HTPC it was time to get a keyboard for control from the bedroom.

This thing is tiny (which I like) but I didn't realize how small it was. The photos on the web just don't really convey its size. Think of a Treo' without it's battery you are starting to get the idea.

I had no troubles and had the unit up and running in 15 mins. 30 seconds to plug in the usb receiver and the rest letting it get a quick charge. According to the manual a 10 min charge will allow it to run for a day and I can agree with that statement.

I use a Blackberry everyday for work so getting used to the small keyboard was no problem for me but then again I don't plan on writing a term paper with the thing either. The mouse is a little sensentive and those of you who don't like touchpads will probably have a hard time. For me though it works great.

Now for the bad part. I bought this to keep on my nightstand and access the HTPC while in the bedroom. Unfortuntely the bluetooth doesn't quite reach. I can stand at the door to our bedroom and it works fine but as soon as I go in I lose connectivity. It's only rated for 30 feet and that's about exactly what I got. I've ordered a new bluetooth adapter which claims to have a range of up to 66 feet and I'm picking up 10 foot USB A-A cord so I can mount the adapter higher up and move around for best receiption. We'll see how that works but if that still doesn't do the trick I've found the ultimate solution for a price - a USB adapter with a 1km range. Yes you are reading that right 1 kilometer. The AIRcable Host XR available for $129.00 will take care of it but let's hope I don't have to go to that extreme.

Application Testing

2008-05-24T11:30:00.000-04:00

This week I had an opportunity to try out a few applications that I've bookmarked in the feed weeds.

UtimateDefrag - I'm always on the look out for utilities for my "technicians tookit" so I installed this and gave it go. It's not the fastest freeware defrag utility out there but it does have one thing going for it that the others don't and that is the ability to move files or folders to faster portions of your hard drive. I ran this on my external drive that I keep all my utilities, drivers and services packs on at work and it did exactly what I wanted by moving those files I use the most to the inner portion of the hard drive. I'm already taking a performance hit by using an external usb drive so every bit helps when you are copying 300+mb service packs to install. Recommendation - Add it to your toolkit.

FreeSnap - This one was unique in that it will allow you to quickly resize or move application windows using keyboard shortcuts. With my dual monitor setup at work this one really saves me time. I always have many windows open and I'm constantly resizing and moving them around as I assist users remotely. Recommend - You really need this if you only have one monitor.

HamachiX - I've used the hamachi client since it's very early days on windows but knew I had to install it for Mac when I saw this. This is still in early development but it makes it much easier to get up and running on OS X with it's GUI. Hamachi is very good at cutting thru all the firewall issues usually associated with remotely connect to a machine in the office. It's secure and easy to implement. I was remote controlling my iMac G5 on an external network from my Dell workstation at the office in nothing flat.

FolderView - If you are like me you constantly have folders open to quickly access files you need. This app adds access to all your folders from the toolbar in an explorer window. The really time saving feature is the recently used list which makes it very easy to get back to a folder you are working with for the day. Recommend - Your mileage may vary depending on how you use your system and use explorer.

PstPassword Utility

2008-05-19T17:13:00.003-04:00

Came across another useful utility yesterday. PstPassword is a small utility that will recover a lost password of an Outlook .pst (personal folder) file. It purportedly will recover Outlook versions 97, 2000, XP, 2003 and 2007. You don't even have to have Outlook installed just access to the original .pst file.

This looks like another tool to add to the technician's toolkit. Download over at MajorGeeks. If you get an opportunity to use this drop me a line and let me know how it works for you.

Shout Out for Alex

2008-05-18T10:58:00.003-04:00

This week past I attended Mac OS 10.5 Support Essentials training. With more and more Macs showing up at the office by clients and in user's homes work thought it worthwhile to have folks trained in supporting them. While I admit I had learned a lot of what was taught through trial and error and heavy doses of online reading and research I enjoyed class as I always learn something new and useful and most often faster ways to accomplish things.

More importantly the instructor was easy going with a great style and didn't seem to mind when I was wandering during topics I was familiar with. One of the days he was in instructor hell which I can very much relate to having previously been an instructor but he was unfazed and had us up and running again in no time.

So I just wanted to give a shout out for my instructor Alex Kaloostian and say if you have an opportunity for some Mac training go with FMC and ask for Alex; and if you get a chance drop by his blog where he posts useful tips-n-tricks.

Thanks Alex

Upgrade Part III - Final Thoughts

2008-05-17T14:33:00.004-04:00

After checking the system last Sunday to make sure everything is working like I want it I find out I have no audio via HDMI. I was running audio via the S/PIDF digital out while testing so I thought maybe I have to disable the S/PIDF port. No, that doesn't work either. I can't find anything in device manager regarding HDMI audio so I figure it's time for more research. A quick stop by the AVS Forums and I find over 50+ pages on video/audio issues/fixes with HTPC's using the Asus P5E-VM-HDMI motherboard. Thanks to those guys in there I find the answer. I need to install the Intel HD Audio Drivers and disable the audio driver provided by Asus. Of course I do not find this out until Wednesday and with my son camped out on the TV playing COD4 & GTAIV I can't try it out until Thursday night. I download the latest G35 Intel Chipset drivers and hope for the best. Reboot - Success.

This little motherboard is something else. I have 720p video (limited by the front room TV) and all digital audio both over HDMI and via the S/PIDF out to my Pioneer amp. I am able to watch the HTPC in the bedroom as well. All-in-all this upgrade was fairly easy, cost less than buying a new HTPC and gives me all the functionality that I want or need for right now.

I will definitely need to go ahead and buy the WinTV-HVR 1250 (before Feb 09) and will probably add a Blu-Ray DVD combo drive and drop in another 500gb or 750gb SATA drive to handle HD recording. I would also like to try out Logitech's diNovo Mini bluetooth keyboard/touchpad just to see if it would reach all the way to the bedroom for computer control. I'm able to use my MacBookPro to control the HTPC plus my Harmony remote can control the BeyondTV interface.

There are more pictures of the upgrade on my flickr site here and information on G35 Intel Motherboards can be found in the AVSForums

Upgrade Part II

2008-05-17T10:47:00.044-04:00

This is Part 2 - Click here for Part 1
So I have all the parts put back together (rush, rush cause hockey is coming on) and the final layout is quite clean and rather open. Much better airflow from last time. I attribute this to less PCI boards being installed and less power cables due to the modular design of the Thermaltake PSU. Have a look at the before on the left and the after on the right.

The moment of truth - Here running the unit with the cover off to see if all is going to work the first time.One of my main concerns was if the OS would recognize everything and boot correctly the first time. The first thing I did was of course boot into the BIOS and check/setup the options. Upon review everything is looking good so far as all the parts I have installed are recognized by the BIOS. The OS is on a 250gb EIDE drive so I have to set the boot drive order as it defaults to SATA. Other than that its time to fire it up. Success! a Windows XP boot screen so now it's time to wait and see (windows hardware wizard).

I wait and let Windows find all the new hardware then I load the drivers from the provided Asus CD. Remember I said I had two issues. Exception Number 2 - After all the drivers have been loaded and I reboot the computer I have video issues. It's defaulting to VGA mode and HDMI video out is not working. Note: I have the system connected via VGA input on my TV as well as via HDMI thru my 4x2 HDMI switcher. A quick check in device manager reveals my fear. Yellow exclamation points on the two G35 Intel Video devices. I uninstall - reboot - and let the hardware wizard find them again. This time I use the Intel video drivers provided by the OS. That's the trick. Now I'm seeing video over the HDMI port. Now the rest of the time is just quick tests of the system (but only between periods of the hockey game).

Above you can see BeyondTV 4 starting which is the software I use as my DVR. This is about as far as I get last Saturday. Sunday I upgrade Windows XP Professional to Service Pack 3 and start doing a full check of the system to see if everything is working the way I want it.

To be continued...

Upgrade Part I

2008-05-17T10:00:00.001-04:00

Last Saturday - I finally took out all my parts and decided to do the upgrade to the HTPC box. Everything went pretty much as expected with a couple of exceptions. First the new equipment: Asus P5E-VM HDMI Micro-ATX motherboard. From the packaging to the contents this is a well built, well stocked motherboard. In these pictures you can see that it is quality built with lots-o-extras (click on photos for highres).

The CPU is what you would expect in a Retail box. Unfortunately my old heatsink & 92mm fan would not work with this. It's a shame as the old one is much more quiet due to the larger fan size. I will say that I like how easy it is to drop an LGA 775 CPU onto a motherboard. Things sure have changed for the better (can u say easy!).

Now remember I said everything went fine with a couple of exceptions. Exception Number 1 - Not really a problem unless you count not having a power supply. Having not built a system in a while and having many other things going on I kind of over looked the fact that motherboard power connections have updated the specs to 2.0 ATX. Which is to say it is a 20+4 (24 pin) connection now. So when I went to go plug in my old PSU it was one of those "hey this can't be right" kind of moments. After a few expletives "#*&!" and a quick search on the net it turns out you can use a 20-pin on a 24-pin as long as you connect starting with the correct pin numbers. They also make 20-pin to 24-pin adapters. Now it turns out that when I last replaced the PSU I didn't go with a very powerful unit (only 260 watts). I'm sure this was to keep heat and my electric bill down. Not remembering that the PSU was so low I thought I better check the recommended minimum watts (this was an Oh Shit! moment) as it was 400 watts. Now I'm in a bit of a spot here as Saturday is quickly drawing to a close, my hockey team was playing at 7:00 and I have parts everywhere and no home theatre. All I can say is thank goodness for "Best Buy". Some quick checking for availability and a few mouse clicks later the wife and I are speeding off for the in store pick-up. I picked up a new Thermaltake 450 watt modular unit. It would of been much cheaper buying it from Newegg or another on-line site but when you gotta have it...the morale being do thorough research.

To be continued...

Equipment Arrived

2008-05-08T05:18:00.001-04:00

The UPS man made a delivery yesterday so I now have the parts in for
the HTPC Upgrade. It's on as they say. I will have the unboxing this
weekend and will post photos and my first impressions of the gear.

Remember hockey conference finals start tonight. Go Wings!

Site Update

2008-05-06T05:27:00.003-04:00

I've just added my Zazzle panel where my photography and other artwork is/will be available for purchase. I've just started getting my portfolio on-line so more will be added over time as I have a few years worth of stuff to go through. I have been told many times in the past that I should do this but I've
never found a site that works well for me until now.

• FULL DISCLOSURE • I do get a cut of any sale of my stuff or a
referral fee if you find other stuff on Zazzle's site and you use my
links. This is not a sales pitch nor should you feel obligated to
purchase anything but if you do that's great and I thank you.

Regards, Kevin

HTPC Upgrade

2008-05-04T00:00:00.003-04:00

So I got the go ahead to purchase the parts I need to upgrade our home theatre pc. I decided to go with upgrade option 1. I had to make a slight adjustment as the 2.2ghz core 2 duo was out of stock. I went with the 2.4ghz core 2 duo and it actually cost a $1.00 less. Total cost for the items including S/H was $369.30 but with a $10.00 mail-in rebate (I hate doing these) I kept within my budget.

In case you are wondering my HTPC is on 24/7 and has been running just short of 5 years. In that time I have only had to replace the power supply. I added a few of items along the way, an additional 500gb SATA drive, upgraded the stock CPU cooler to one with large copper heatpipes and larger fan which was much more quiet and added the WinTV-PVR-500. I have the ability to record three simultaneous SD (standard definition) programs and watch a fourth live if I wanted. Since getting my HD-PVR cable boxes I really only record one station at a time for use on my iPod. This unit also serves as our jukebox holding our entire collection of music plus is my MAME (multiple arcade machine emulator) rig which when I plug in my custom built authentic arcade control panel (buttons, joysticks, trackball etc.) allows us to play over 5,000 classic arcade games like PacMan, Galaga, Centipede and Donkey Kong.

I will post pictures of the equipment along with how this upgrades goes. I don't anticipate to many issues other than the OS and if it will recognize all the new stuff enough to boot or if I'm going to have to wipe and reinstall.

Mobile Blogging

2008-05-03T20:20:00.002-04:00

So this is an example of posting entries from my blackberry. Sorry
folks just trying it out to make sure its working correctly. In case you are wondering I'm using the gmail app to compose and send to my mobile blog which I have linked to this blog. I should be able to update more frequently now. Well hockey is on so I gotta run.

Time for a Makeover

2008-05-03T14:24:00.000-04:00

So I've been planning to upgrade my HTPC (home theatre PC) for a while now but just haven't gotten around to doing it. Well I've taken the first steps and that is planning what exactly I want to upgrade and making a shopping list on Newegg.com

The List thus far:

ASUS P5E-VM HDMI LGA 775 Intel G35 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E4500 Allendale 2.2GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E4500
CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model
Turtle Beach TBS-3300-01 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Montego DDL Sound Card

Cost: $361.00

Items to be reused:
Case, PSU, 2xHD, DVD-RW, Combo 3.5 FDD/Memory Card Reader, WinTV-PVR-500 Dual Tuner Card

Items still under consideration:

Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1250 MC - White Box 1187 PCI-Express x1 Interface so I can record ATSC digital TV OTA HD or Clear QAM digital cable TV from my HD cable feed.
-or-
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1800 1129 NTSC/ATSC/QAM/FM Tuner Card PCI Express X1 which does the same thing but can record two programs plus has the on-board MPEG2 encoder for analog; however since analog broadcasts are going away in Feb 2009 I may just use my existing dual tuner non HD PVR card and pickup the 1250 later.

LITE-ON Black SATA Blu-ray DVD-ROM Drive Model DH-4O1S-11 - OEM

Now the HVR1250 is fairly inexpensive at $60.00 but the blu-ray drive is $130.00 and since I already have a PS3 I'm not sure I will opt for this right now since they are still pretty expensive and I don't have but a couple BRDs anyways. I'm still not sure about the HVR1250 either as most of the recordings I do are for my iPod to watch during my commute.

So I'll keep you all posted when I finally get the okay from my wife to spend the funds ;-)

One-to-One, One-to-Many

2008-05-03T12:47:00.004-04:00

I've pulled seven new weeds which you can find in the Feeds but I wanted to specifically mention ooVoo. This is a free video cross-platform conferencing application that looks quite interesting. It has one-to-one, one-to-many (up to six) simultaneous video connections. Skype only has one-to-one plus the new higher definition version requires a specific Logitech video camera. I am interested to try/test this out with some folks. My userid is zx6warrior. Drop me a line if you want try it as well.

Does Your Grandma Need Help?

2008-05-03T11:35:00.005-04:00

Does your grandmother, mother, in-laws or the rest of your family need computer help from time to time? I know mine do and the biggest challenge is talking them thru where you need them to go without sounding impatient or condescending. Now there are plenty of different remote control software applications out there but none of them seem to be a combination of easy to use, easy to install and configure, and have no cost associated. Not to mention cross platform capability. That is until now. I pulled this weed (TeamViewer) from among the many and let me just say hands down the right choice for the majority of us who just want to quickly help family. This is not for those who are technically savvy and want to control their own stuff. We have many more options and ways of doing it, but if you want to quickly get connected to grandma with very little to do on her part then TeamViewer is it. Two options, you can have grandma go to the website and click on the link or just email the small .exe file to her then have her double-click on it. The software launches a window with a number listed and passcode. Ask grandma to read each number to you, type them in on your end and your done. You now have control of grandma's machine. This software seems to breeze through NATs and firewalls with ease. It has very good encryption and did I mention it was free (for personal use). You may read on different sites that there is a 25min a month limit but that is no longer the case. You just have to put up with some advertisements after you disconnect. What really seals the deal is the cross platform capability. I know lots of folks who are putting family on Macs since they generally have less problems with just general use. But what if you are at work on a PC and grandma calls with an issue on her Mac? Or better yet as is my case, what if grandma calls with Vista problems (those never happen, right ;-) and I use a Macbook Pro. Well it's no problem at all.

I had this working in less than 2 mins between my Mac and my home theater Windows XP PC. It only took that long because I had to download and install the software on my mac. It would be even less now that I have it installed and have a saved copy of the client executable to send to family.

Busier than a one armed drummer...

2008-05-03T10:22:00.017-04:00

in an all night rock concert. Sorry, couldn't help myself. Just saw Def Leopard this week on the "Dancing with the Stars" results show. So between family visiting, hockey playoffs, work, and all the stuff I'm playing with gadget wise it's like whew I need a vacation. Okay so I'm on a little mini vacation, took a couple days off to spend with the family.

Just for reference its my birthday this weekend so I got some new gadgets. More specifically, I bought a Nikon D40 digital camera and a 55-250mm IS lens for my Canon. Yes I now own two digital SLRs but I found changing lens all the time a pain in the butt. Now I have a great little camera to handle the everyday family shots etc. It was a great bargain cost wise and of course it comes with the 18-55mm kit lens. Now I can cover most of my shooting needs between the two. I still need a super-wide and the Canon 10-22mm is one of the best but that can wait for another time.

So what do you do when you get a new camera. Why take shots of course. But how do you share them? Well I've had a Flickr account for a while but have never posted my shots. I have a few on facebook but mainly family photos to share with friends and family. I'm a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to my own work so they never seem quite good enough to post. Well, if you never post, they are never seen, commented on, and we'll never learn or share how we made the shots. This all got started because a co-worker has started into photography and posted shots with his new Canon XTi. He knew I just bought my new lens and wanted to know how the 55-250 shot since he was considering buying it. So I decided to heck with it and just posted the shots unedited. The first shots I took with the Nikon were amazing. I created a panoramic of our backyard and didn't even use a tripod. Just handheld from the deck and fired off about six shots.

I used CS3 to stitch them together but no other image adjustments. The 55-250 worked great also.

These were taken at the full 250mm from the deck with no tripod. Again just handheld and no image adjustments other than resizing for the web. The IS (image stabilization) of this lens really pays off. I wouldn't say they are "tack sharp" but they are pretty sharp for just handholding. If you interested in photography or why I bought a Nikon D40 instead of the newer 40x visit Ken Rockwell's site. Click on the recommended cameras link. Oh, and by the way, I picked up mine for even less that what is listed there.

So why Flickr and not Facebook? Well for one thing I can pull my photostream into my facebook profile and for another I can easily display the photos on my HDTV for the family thru Apple TV. Add to that the fact that I like the free upload application better than facebook's own and there you have it in a nutshell.

Site Updates

2008-05-03T10:19:00.003-04:00

So I've made a few additions to the site. I added some links to some of the more popular sites I visit like lifehacker & pinstack plus where to find gadgets. I've also added links to Twitter & Flickr.

8310 Bought the Farm - Playoffs Started

2008-04-26T09:36:00.006-04:00

So I haven't posted in a bit. Sorry about that as I have been kind of busy. First thing that happened was my BlackBerry 8310 Curve broke (actually just the usb charging port) so after I got my warranty replacement I had to spend a bit of time getting that reloaded and everything put back to the way I had it. It would of gone much quicker but I could not do a backup as every time I connected it to the computer at work it would disable the usb ports due to it drawing more watts than is allowed by the usb specification. Hence the reason I had to get it replaced...it was shorted out. The good news is I learned that the password keeper app is also stored in your profile on a BES. So after I manually copied down all the passwords I use at work just in case they didn't come back after Enterprise Activation I checked and they were all there; whew!

Secondly, Hockey playoffs started so I've been consumed watching hockey and trying to get enough sleep to still function at work. This is the one sport I follow and in case you are wondering I have been a Detroit Redwing fan for a long time. Since I work in DC I also watch and cheer for the Capitals and since they are in the Eastern Conference I don't think it's a conflict of interest. I have to say while my team is still in it the Caps made a good run and it was an exciting game 7 in the first round. The fans were out in force "Rocking the Red" at the phone booth (Verizon Center).

Third, this is a busy time personally as the majority of my family has birthdays from mid April through the end of May. We just celebrated my son's 21st.

Well I've shared nine new weeds so check them out in the feeds.

How do you say that?

2008-04-05T14:47:00.003-04:00

I came across a neat web site whose goal is to capture all the words in the world correctly pronounced. It is a neat idea and lets hope it continues to grow. You can look up a word and click on it to hear an audio file of the word being spoken. Check it out at Forvo

Oanda Currency Converter

2008-03-30T20:52:00.003-04:00

We've been using & recommending Oanda to users for a quite some time to handle currency conversions when filling out expense reports. Well now you can easily access these conversions while you're traveling or after you are back on your BlackBerry. Available free at Sweet Caesar or OTA from your BlackBerry at http://m.fxconverter.com

Rove Products Now Free

2008-03-30T20:26:00.004-04:00

I've used the BlackBerry Viewer for a while now, it's great for training users. Well now Rove has released two products for free; File Manager & Mobile Viewer (formerly known as the blackberry viewer). This is a great offering and everyone should download and have these applications readily available in their app arsenal. I installed File Manager and was quickly able to access my files located on my Home directory back at the office. The ability to access files back at the office is a great feature and they are secured as well. I can see setting up a folder that I can dump files in just in case I need something. I also get asked where to find certain applications/utilities on our network at the office. The ability to quickly see file listings is very handy to answer these questions. Beside window shares, you can access WebDev & FTP sites as well. Visit Rove to download.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

2008-03-24T08:26:00.003-04:00

The GBU of my new Logitech Harmony One universal remote. First let me start by saying I own the Harmony 880 model and have used it for two years. It works great but it is not the best looking remote around. Harmony One The Good - design, feel, hard button layout, charging cradle. The Bad - only 3 activities & six buttons per LCD screen (vs. eight on the 880) and battery life or lack thereof between charges. The Ugly - this model lacks a media list feature and for me this is awful. I have two 400 DVD changers and the ability to have my DVD library on the remote makes choosing a movie to watch as simple as pushing one button on my 880. This new remote was purchased for the bedroom gear. I have hardwired an IR control system & run HDMI over a Cat5e extender to bring the signal of the DVD changers back there as well. Now I'm going to have to print out a hard copy catalog to keep in the bedroom or figure out a way to list my catalog and display it on my AppleTV (which its not designed to do). Both options are not ideal and is a major strike against recommending this device to someone if they have a multi-disk dvd player. This is one of those rare times when I did not do a lot of research before making an electronics purchase; bad idea. I do not think I would of bought it had I known this ahead of time. Here's hoping that Logitech does a firmware update that will provide this feature in the future. Oh, BTW this is not the only model that does not support this. The Harmony 1000 does not as well. Pretty sad when your two top models lack an important feature that was previously offered on older models.

ProClips Gets 5 Stars

2008-03-18T17:57:00.003-04:00

So it turns out that the FedEx man arrived on Saturday afternoon bearing gifts. My vehicle mounts for my Blackberry & iPod arrived that I had just ordered. First off the items come with detailed installation instructions with pictures and not just for one way to install but for all the different ways to install and possible combinations. The mount themselves are made of a high-density (very sturdy) black plastic. These actually clip on to your dash and are custom ordered based on your vehicle. The install was straight forward and quick; as in 5 min to install the mount in my wife's car. Best of all it got the wife's seal of approval and required no drilling, sticky tape or velcro. The best thing I did was to order (optional) the quick clips. This makes moving the devices in and out of the car extremely fast. I've tried numerous different mounts, cup-holders etc. over the years and none have been as easy nor worked as well as these. The only downside is I think the prices are a little on the high-side. Other than that I give ProClips 5 Stars.

Where to Stick It!

2008-03-15T11:12:00.003-04:00

My BlackBerry that is when I'm in the vehicle. So I spent some time searching around and I came across ProClip Mounting Systems. I have ordered a custom mount and holder for my BlackBerry and my iPod (5Gen). While it is true that I take a commuter bus to work every day when I go in on the weekends I have to drive myself. So I've been looking for a semi-permanent custom mount system that allows me to quickly mount/unmount my devices. I think I've found it by making use of ProClips male/female clips. I also ordered a custom mount for my wife's vehicle. I should get them in this next week and will need to make use of them next weekend. So I will report back on how well they work in case any of you are interested.

Google Maps Updated

2008-03-15T10:57:00.004-04:00

Since I'm on a Google kick at this moment Google Maps has been updated to Version 2.0.3. for the BlackBerry. FYI - I used my Google Mobile Updater app to check for this update when first announced and it did not find it. I had to manually update to this release. It does require a reboot of the device so keep that in mind. So far I've noticed that it loads and runs much faster on my 8310. If you want to get your own update go to http://www.google.com/mobile/gmm/index.html from your computer or http://google.com/glm from your BlackBerry browser.

One Number for Life!

2008-03-15T10:42:00.004-04:00

Quite a while back I remember running across GrandCentral. The idea is you have one Phone Number that you use and keep for life and just add & remove your other numbers as needed. This way when you provide your number to people you never have to have them update it in the future. I didn't join back then because it was in beta and sometimes these sites go away. Well Google has now acquired GrandCentral and with Google's long history of supporting "Beta" applications (isn't gmail still in beta, lol) I decided to get my number. It was very simple and straight forward. The feature set is quite long and I haven't had the time to implement yet but I will. I'll let you know how it goes. If you want to secure yourself a number head on over to Google GrandCentral.

PinStack.com

2008-03-15T10:05:00.006-04:00

I've added a link to Pinstack.com as it is my favorite resource for BlackBerry related information. I'm sure I'm there at least once a week and a lot of the weeds are pulled from their Feed. Interestingly enough I received an invite from a co-worker to join his network on LinkedIn this week. I had just added a couple of weeds about LinkedIn's announcement of their mobile client on my feed from Pinstack. They (Pinstack) have added a group for LinkedIn. All the folks at Pinstack are very helpful so this is a good group to join. The mobile client is a web app designed for the iPhone and works really well but they do not have a native app for the BlackBerry so it is not as user friendly. After a quick review of the comments added, it seems the BlackBerry community is calling for a native app akin to what Facebook did. Let us hope that this new association between Pinstack and LinkedIn yields us a native app soon.

iPhone SDK

2008-03-08T10:34:00.003-05:00

Way cool! Yes, I downloaded the free SDK to code for the iPhone. I'm also excited about the new announcements for Enterprise support on the iPhone. Do I own one...not yet, I'm a hold out (hoping for 3G) but I did get the iPod Touch the first day it was available back in October of last year just to be able to play with the way cool interface. I use it every week day, I've hacked it twice (jailbroken) and restored it back to a standard 1.1.4 plus apps Touch. Why, because I've been wanting 3d party app support and now it's coming. You can get the whole story in the Feed Weeds. Suffice to say if there are too many neat applications I may have to breakdown and buy one (iPhone) before 3G support is available. We'll have to wait and see.

Apple TV2 Review

2008-03-08T09:25:00.002-05:00

So I've had some time to try out my new Apple TV Take 2. All I can say is I really like it and it was worth it for me if only for one thing...the ability to finish watching my video podcasts or TV shows after my nightly commute home from work.

So here is my setup: About 5 years ago I built a HTPC. I tried lots of different front ends but at that time there was really only SnapStream & MythTV. My cable company did not have PVRs available then so I basically built my own and went with SnapStream's BeyondTV. It worked great and continues to work great although now I have 2 cable box HD PVRs that handle most of my recording needs for the family. The HTPC holds our entire music collection, is a MAME PC (I built a custom arcade controller for that as well) and handles all my podcast subscriptions for sync to my iPods for my daily 3+- hour round trip commute to work.

The downside at the time was I had to manually re-encode TV programs to put in iTunes for sync to my iPod. Well the last major release from SnapStream introduced automatic conversion to iTunes compatible format and subscription via podcast feeds. So basically I subscribe to my own recorded TV shows. This was the absolutely best thing they could of ever added and was tailor made for me. Any one who has ever been in my office knows I'm a bit of a motorcycle nut, specifically sport bikes. I own and ride one, I go to the races almost every year (work permitting) and I watch a ton of races on TV. The problem was my wife is not quite the fan of watching as I am. So now I watch all the television programming she doesn't care for on my commute home from work (I would watch in the morning as well but it's something of a taboo on my commuter bus having a brightly lit screen at 5:00 AM).

So this works great, incredibly so, and all I have to do is drop my iPod in the dock and then put it in my bag for the next day. There was just one little hiccup and this is where my new Apple TV finally (sorry for the long background) comes into play. Most of the time I get thru one & half TV programs on my commute and a lot of the time I hate waiting until the next day to finish watching the race. I used to have to come home and finish watching on my iPod instead of the TV because my son would be playing video games. Now he has his own TV but let's face it if your Dad let you play on a 50" HDTV connected thru a Pioneer Amp with 5.1 surround wouldn't you use that instead all the time. I guess I've become a softy or even maybe a little guilty for having been in the Military and gone all the time but I just can't ask him to quit in the middle of a game.

Well now I don't have to and I get to watch on my 46" LCD HDTV in the bedroom. That's where I hooked up the Apple TV2 and it sync's with the same HTPC. Now I get home drop the iPod in the dock and while it sync's what I've watched or partially watched and get the new stuff for the next days trip it's identical on the Apple TV. After I've unpacked, kissed the wife, chat about our day, see how many Enemy KIAs my son has in COD4, and get in my sweats I fire up the Apple TV and finish watching my program from the commuter bus exactly where I left off. There's usually only 10 or 20 minutes left which is just about right while dinner is finished being prepared. Exactly what I've been wanting all these years. This alone was worth the $215 bucks I paid (I know, but I get a discount when I shop at the apple store).

Last night we rented our first two movies and it really is as easy as it seems and I'm doing it with a wireless connection. No problems at all. I still think the price is a bit high but for ease of use and to watch those questionable shows we are not sure we want to buy on DVD it's great. It's so easy and great that I'm going to have to get one for my non-techie parents. They like to rent movies and with the inclusion of Flickr access it will be easy for them to see my photos right on their TV (to heck with internet digital picture fames).

Yes I like it and would recommend it for sure!

BlackBerry® Enterprise Server v4.1 with Service Pack 5 for Microsoft® Exchange

2008-02-23T11:16:00.004-05:00

All I can say is WOW! I can't wait until we roll this out and get OS4.5+ for our handhelds. I've watched the webcast, available here: (registration required). You may also view the slides less audio commentary following the link in the Feed Weeds section. I will be emailing the presentation with my added comments to a few folks.

New Toys

2008-02-18T19:50:00.002-05:00

Thank goodness for private enterprise. Even though today was a holiday I had two knocks on my door from some of my favorite people...Mr. Fedex and Mr. UPS. I wasn't expecting them today but was happy just the same. I got my AppleTV Take2 (40gb) and my Windows Vista.

I had the AppleTV up and running in 15mins. Granted I have a HTPC which I keep my iTunes collection on so it was quite easy to type in the 5 digit code and tell it to sync. Its taking a while to copy all the media over but at least its not as long as Vista geez.

Speaking of Vista...I started my install over an hour ago and while it is up and running I am now doing the update thang! Man, what a difference OSX is to Vista. We've only had 2 point releases since Leopard came out and yet my nice clean install of Vista requires another 46 updates which I'm not sure that gets it all. I'll have to let ya all know. BTW, I just shared a cool article from Chris Pirillo called "50 Reasons to Switch from Microsoft Windows to Apple's Mac OS X" It's a good read and oh so true.

I finally take the Vista Plunge

2008-02-16T11:36:00.005-05:00

Given recent events with my son and the fact that Vista SP1 will soon be available for the masses I decided to purchase a copy of Vista. I've been holding off for several different reasons:

I switched to a Mac last year
Complaints from Users of Vista
We weren't upgrading in the office
The Cost

But since I now have 3 family members using Vista (my sons & my mother-in-law) and they all come to me for computer help I figured I better get the dang thing and really get familiar with it. This is not to say I haven't played around with it already; I had the early public beta RC that I ran with VirtualPC 07' in the office but that expired and I just haven't had the time.

Okay, so where did I get it and what was the cost? I ended up buying it from newegg.com for $169.00. I checked everywhere and compared all discounts like our EPP available thru work to possibly buying a cheap computer that has it pre-installed. None came close to what I got from newegg. The only caveat is it's an OEM Vista Ultimate version which means no refunds (unless the media is defective) and it can only be installed on a single computer with no transfers. Since I'm going to run this on my MacBook Pro using Parallels I figured it was worth a shot. I'll let you know if I run into any problems.

Hindsight is always 20-20

2008-02-16T11:11:00.003-05:00

Wednesday after I got home from work my wife informs me that my 14 year old son had set the password on his Windows Vista Dell laptop and can no longer remember what he entered. Apparently he set it a couple of weeks ago and quickly forgot but was afraid to tell me.

While reading thru my feeds this weekend I came across how to Enable Vista's hidden administrator account so of course I've shared it. I wish I had done this tip earlier which would of given me an even quicker way back into his system.

In case you are wondering I used a linux boot disk to directly access the NTFS partition and promptly blanked his password (took about 30 mins total). I'm not going to provide links on how I did this but if you ever need this kind of help just email me. The important thing to remember beside creating an additional account that only you know the password to is that no system is safe if you have physical access to it including Vista!

Mac Hardware Links

2008-02-16T09:34:00.004-05:00

All of these sites I use (have used) and would recommend. I put my money where my mouth is so here is a list of purchases made:

200gb SATA 7200rpm 2.5" Notebook HDD
3gb RAM upgrade (1gb/2gb)
2.5" SATA HDD Enclosure to Firewire 800+400+USB2.0 & Case
3.5" Ultra AL 'Quad' Firewire, 800+400+USB2.0+eSATA External HD Enclosure Kit
750gb SATA 7200rpm 3.5" HDD
TruePower MacBook Pro 15 Rechargeable Battery
Kensington Magsafe 120w AC/DC Car/Airline power adapter
invisibleShield Full Body for Macbook Pro 15" and iPod Touch