Tech Update 2016

Looking at some of my past posts, it's been interesting to reflect on how some of my tech choices have turned out in recent years. I thought it would be fun to post about where I'm at now.

Phone -- In the years since posting (here and here) about my first smartphone in 2011, I moved on to a couple other now-deceased Android phones after I lost that Motorola Backflip to water damage: a Motorola Atrix 2 (cracked screen) and a HTC One Mini (failing to boot). I'm picky about wanting a "small" phone (screen less than 5") and kept compromising on other features to maintain that. That's why I had been getting by with a 1st-gen Motorola Moto G for the past couple of years. However, being hamstrung by the 8GB of onboard storage (less than 6GB usable) got too annoying; I kept running out of room for apps without trying very hard. And so I moved on to an Xperia Z5 Compact. It's basically last year's flagship from Sony, and have nothing negative to say after a week with it. I've invested in a nice bumper case so hopefully this one will enjoy a long reign in my palm.

Laptop -- I parted ways with that Acer netbook from 2010 when it died after a couple of years. I lived life with no portable PC until I decided to pick up a Lenovo ThinkPad E545 in 2014. The E545 is from the ThinkPad lineage of boring but venerable business-class laptops. It's most crucial job now is streaming Internet content to the TV through the HDMI port. So, really, it also replaced my no-longer-supported first-generation Roku box.

Desktop -- Amazingly, the Vince-built PC from 2010 based around an i3-530 CPU is still my primary desktop machine. The RAM has since been doubled to 8GB, This month I splurged on an upgraded GPU, the nVidia GTX 750 Ti, because I wanted to dabble in more PC gaming, starting with  Cities: Skylines. (Getting pulled out is the nVidia GT430 which had been good enough for many years of Minecraft.)

Server -- The HP Mediasmart is still dutifully performing daily PC backups. One of the Western Digital hard drives I had added after purchase failed last year, but surprisingly I was able to exchange it under warranty. 

One e-Reader to Rule Them All (Or . . . Nook's Last Stand?)

For about two years I've been wielding a dual-solution to my e-reading needs. For text-only books, I've been using the Sony Pocket (blogged back here) with it's super-sharp e-ink screen. And for large-format/color PDFs and magazines, I was rocking with one of the original Nook Colors.

But in one week, Barnes and Noble announced that they were adding Google Play -- Android's biggest app store -- to the Nook HD and HD+ and cut the price of the HD+ by $90 for the week before Mothers Day. So I decided to jump on it.

With B&N's Nook business on shaky ground these days, this may be the beginning of the end of Nook as we know it, as rumors have swirled about Microsoft possibly buying up the business.

But no matter what happens next, I think I'm pretty darn happy. The Nook HD+ has a color screen that's not only larger than my previous two eReaders, but plenty sharp for text. Not only that, but by opening up app horizons with Google Play, I can see this device capturing a lot of use cases that used to be given to my Intel Atom-based Windows 7 netbook.

More impressions to come....

Tweaked

After a week of tweak after tweak, I think I'm now finally satisfied with the way Houston Running Calendar -- my "side blog" -- looks. The most significant change was finding additional code to tighten up a lot of wasted white space in the gutters. (If anyone else needs the CSS answer to reducing padding in Blogger's Simple template, I found it on another blog -- thanks, Simple Blogger!).

The resulting layout pushes the advertising slots much closer to the edge, making more room for what everyone really comes for -- the race listings. Those listings get a bump up in text size, which may be appreciated by a certain segment of visitors.

And web visitors continue to come. I think half a million total pageviews by the end of this year is possible. Not too shabby for a linkblog. As always, community contributions are a big help. If you know of an organized run event happening within 60 miles of downtown that could use more publicity, send a link to their webpage to list@houstonrunningcalendar.com.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all, and if you want to make a last-minute plan for an area Turkey Trot tomorrow morning, I know this online reference you can check.....

More Android smartphones belong in a museum

Last week, the Houston Museum of Natural Science released a nifty little smartphone app that gives us more background text and images to go with the vast new Paleontology Hall that opened in the summer. The next time I stroll those exhibits, I look forward to having this guide in my hand. I recommend that everyone install it before their next museum visit.

If you can, that is.

While reading the app's Google Play page, I took notice of the operating system requirement -- Android 4.0.3 or above, a.k.a. "Ice Cream Sandwich." That statement took me aback because AT&T had only released Ice Cream Sandwich for my phone model, the Motorola Atrix 2, just the previous week, and this was for a phone that was purchased new this year. Only recently had I joined a small minority of Android users that could install the app.

At first I thought it was a bittersweet oversight on the part of HMNS's part to go to the trouble of reaching out to a limited audience. But then I suppose this only underlines the laggard manner with which the wireless carriers have been taking in regards to OS updates. The cynic in me says that this is a ploy to get customers to buy new handsets on a frequent basis. But it's even worse, because there are STILL brand new handsets that are being sold with Android 2.3, a.k.a. "Gingerbread,"

And these new phones are being unboxed in an environment where there's no assurances that they're not already obsolete. It's a real waste to see one-year-old devices being left behind. Consumers should start taking note of which manufacturers and wireless providers are most guilty of this behavior and spend their dollars elsewhere.

Singing the Kenwood Bluetooth blues

I think I can squeeze a  few more quality years out of my old designed-before-the-21st-century car. But I also felt that I couldn't spend them with a 20th century car stereo. So I decided to operate the audio system under the new management of a Kenwood KDC-BT752HD.

It's mostly been a blast. The HD Radio hype is finally a reality for me. For capable stations where the Kenwood can get  a strong enough signal for a digital signal lock, the sound quality improvement is very noticeable.  The USB port and Bluetooth connectivity means that I no longer need to tether my phone with an AUX cable to hear digital music.

If everything was perfect, then I might not have even been motivated to type up this blog. But it hasn't and I'm really posting this to possibly assist others that run into Bluetooth issues with this stereo. You see, a few times while paired with my phone, the audio has started stuttering. Last night, the pairing completely failed, to the point where the display gave an "HF ERROR 68" which the manual instructed me to remedy by performing a factory reset. But I had remembered reading a couple of reviews (versus many, many positive ones) on the Crutchfield website that alluded to some Bluetooth issues on this headunit model.

Well, I hope I've fixed the problem in a more permanent fashion, because it turns out that Kenwood has released a firmware update that is supposed to address Bluetooth pairing and Pandora stability issues. Oddly enough for the year 2012, the firmware can only be updated via a file burned to CD-R, and not a USB flash drive. Luckily, I still had a few of those around, and I followed the instructions to the letter, including the part about idling the engine while parked during the upgrade. The instructions say that it may take up to 15 minutes, and I got my "COMPLETE" message after about 12. Checking the firmware version on the display again confirmed that the device updated from firmware version 3.00 to version 3.01.

If I never post about this again, then it's safe to assume everything's peachy. If you've come here via some sort of search engine link, then I hope I've pointed you in the right direction in addressing your Bluetooth issues.

A Six Weeks Report With The Nook Color

When I was "on the shelf" with a summer cold last month, I decided to distract myself from my otolaryngological misery by splurging on a Barnes and Noble Nook Color, my second e-reader.

What this new gadget brought is a larger rich color screen, a decent CPU, and a Nook Apps store from which I made ezPDF my first purchase. This will be perfect for the illustration-heavy tech reference material with which I'll cuddling up in the coming months. B&N pre-loads the Nook Color with a rudimentary PDF viewer, but ezPDF will likely save you two bucks worth of your time very quickly the first couple of times you flip back and forth through a long document.

I suspect that the big reason why B&N won't officially support the full Android Market on this device is that the thought of millions of Nook Color devices with the Kindle app installed gives them the creeps. B&N-centric features are configured to inspire loyalty to the retailer. Not only does the built-in Wi-Fi give access to purchase and download "Nook Books," but if the Nook detects that it's connected to a hostspot in a brick-and-mortar Barnes and Noble store, it can download any Nook Book in full and unlocks it for reading for up to one hour per day. So there's a little prodding to get out of your cozy reading chair at home.



Nook Books are EPUB files, but with a DRM wrapper unique to Barnes and Noble and only readable on their devices. Because I want the option of enjoying novels on either one of my e-readers, I will actually be staying away from buying from BN.com unless one of these factors is true:

• It's a title that greatly benefits from the larger color screen.
• It's a BN.com exclusive.
• BN.com offering the Nook Book version significantly cheaper than the counterparts being sold by Sony, Kobo, or Google Books.
• It's a Nook Book title enabled with LendMe that I predict other Nook oners will enjoy.

So far, it's turned out to be less of a substitute for my Sony Reader Pocket Edition than it has for my netbook PC. I am keeping both e-readers around. The Nook Color has capabilities that runs circles around the Sony RPE, but it also weighs a pound and isn't very pocket friendly, unless we're talking about a cargo shorts pocket. For most of my for-fun reading, I'll choose to pick up the five-ounce e-ink screen that is happy to go weeks between charges and promises not to distract me with any icons in a notification bar.

Incidentally, Barnes and Noble launched a new version of the e-ink Nook this summer, and it looks like a winner to me. I test-drove the "Simple Touch Reader" in a store and the weight and shape had good feel for a reading device. I would have given it serious consideration if I was shopping for another e-ink device.

Case Sensitive

A postscript to Monday's story about library e-books being unexpectedly deleted from my Sony Reader:

Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) is a "traffic cop" that enforces DRM embedded into copy-protected EPUB files from distributors. Customers sign up for an online account with Adobe, and the username and password are used to "authorize" a particular PC with that account.

This morning I noticed that I had authorized the two computers with the same account, but on the second one, I had typed it in uppercase letters. The authorization had worked on both machines, so obviously Adobe didn't care that the logins didn't exactly match.

But perhaps the DRM used by Overdrive (which handles e-book lending for thousands of public libraries, including mine) did actually care. To test this, I de-authorized the second PC and then re-authorized it, typing in the account name to match how I had typed it on the first.

After re-connecting my Reader to the second PC, I still got the "not authorized" message when attempting to access the copy of the library checkout on the Reader. This was expected, as Overdrive's DRM "rules" claim that only one PC -- the one that originally did the download -- can access a library checkout. But happily, the software didn't freak out and wipe them off the Sony Reader this time.

Lesson learned. But I still despise DRM.

Making the Canon LiDE 35 work with Windows 7 x64

Some of the biggest "gotchas" about upgrading from one operating system to the next are finding out that some of your well-worn hardware won't make the journey with you.

In terms of everyday user experience, there's very little difference between the 32-bit and 64-bit versions of Windows 7. But from the standpoint of device driver support, they are two distinct OSes. When I tried to move my Canon LiDE 35 from my Pentium 4 (32-bit) PC to my newer Core i3 (64-bit) PC, I was stopped with an "installation failed" message, even though the scanner had worked just fine under Windows 7 on the old machine. Checking online showed that Canon never officially released 64-bit drivers for the LiDE 35.

I was beginning to think that a new scanner would become a wishlist item for me until a Google search turned up a 2008 online discussion indicating that this device would work with the Windows x64 driver for the LiDE 60. I visited the Canon support page for the LiDE 60 and downloaded and installed that scanner's driver software and CanoScan Toolbox application.

After installing the LiDE 60 driver, I had to go back into Windows' Device Manager and manually choose to use it, acknowledging Windows' stern warning that it may not work. But when I was done, I was able to perform a test scan successfully. (The ease with which I was able to do this suggests that Canon doesn't wish to officially update the LiDE 35 driver software mainly because of how old this model is, and not due to any technical hurdles.)

So if you have an LiDE 35 (or have the opportunity to acquire a used one cheap) don't give up on using it with a new computer running 64-bit Windows Vista or Windows 7!

This e-book will self-destruct . . . now.

Without even trying very hard, my new Sony Reader and I stumbled into the cursed fangs of the copy-protection serpent today. Last week I had downloaded a couple of e-books from local libraries via Overdrive to one of my computers and transferred them to my Reader.

This morning I made the "mistake" of plugging the Reader into one of my other computers. Sony's Reader software launched and immediately told me that it was not authorized to view the book. In addition, I discovered that both library books were erased from my Reader! (The titles purchased from e-bookstore sites appear to have been untouched.)

I was able to recover the library books (but not my bookmark notes) without much fuss by plugging back into the computer to which I originally downloaded and transferring the files again. But what if I was travelling and made this "mistake"? Sheesh.

Coincidentally, the Free Software Foundation has designated next Wednesday, May 4, as Day Against DRM. It's a campaign encouraging resistance to Big Media's abuse of fair use. One of the most blatant examples came recently when HarperCollins told libraries that they were capping the number of e-book checkouts at 26, after which they would be required to buy the book again.

The music industry is surviving just fine with iTunes and Amazon selling music files unshackled from DRM. Book publishers ought to lighten up on their customers too. Owning more than one computer does not make me a pirate.

Motorola Backflip: One Year Later

Last year, I bought a Motorola Backflip and blogged about my first impressions of AT&T's first Android phone. After a full twelve months of everyday use, these are the points that sum up my long-term user experience:

• Multitasking under Android sounds great, until a runaway app bottlenecks the already-underpowered CPU.
• The camera takes OK-looking still pictures but is no match for a dedicated digital camera.
• Attempts at shooting video at concerts result in garbled audio as the microphone seems overwhelmed.
• The reverse-clamshell design with physical keyboard is still AWESOME.
• The Backtrack has proved to be completely useless, probably because no programmers design an Android app with a trackpad in mind.
• It should have shipped with the then-current Android OS version from the beginning.

If you own this phone and haven't updated to Android 2.1, I highly recommend taking some time to visit the Motorola update site and get the new operating system. It runs smoother and sticking with the factory-installed Android 1.5 will mean missing out on some great apps.

Finally, one more tip for Backflip owners: I noticed that the phone would spontaneously reboot on occasion. This seemed to happen when the keyboard is folded out. I believe that this is caused by the battery moving around inside the phone, losing contact with its contacts. What I've done is wedge a folded-up piece of paper into the space beside the battery, causing the battery to fit more snugly into its space and preventing it from shifting around.

It'll do for now until I get the bug for the next upgrade.

Seven days with the Sony Reader Pocket Edition

This year, I felt that the time was right for me to adopt e-books as a way to kickstart a new reading habit in my life. As with other personal electronics, I wanted to get some hands-on time with the contenders. After pondering many online reviews, I spent an hour at a local Best Buy last weekend test-driving various e-ink screens from four of the big names -- Kindle, Nook, Sony, and Kobo.

I had entered the store thinking of the third-generation Kindle Wi-Fi as my first choice. But surprisingly, when the madcap page-turning battle among the endcaps had wrapped up I walked out with the Sony PRS-350SC, the company's second-generation Reader Pocket Edition.

I'm smitten with the Pocket's form factor. At roughly 4-1/8" wide it actually slips easily into most of the shirt pockets in my closet (nice dress shirts: NO, casual button-down flannel or Hawaiian print: YES) so I'm more likely to bring it with me. With a brushed aluminum frame it's really lightweight (5-1/4 ounces), with a "spine" bulge running down the left-edge that makes it easy to hold one-handed, leaving my right hand free to reach for the stylus tucked in the opposite side. Text on the "Pearl" e-ink display is suitably crisp and flicking the screen to turn pages feels quite natural. (There are also hardware buttons below the screen dedicated to page turning as well.)

Not choosing the Kindle meant forgoing advantages of the Kindle ecosystem, especially access to Amazon's vast e-bookstore and Whispersync. But the world outside of Amazon's "walled garden" has much to explore as well. Sony is a company with a history of locking in their customers with proprietary formats, so I'll give them credit for embracing the EPUB file format and Adobe's digital rights management (DRM) scheme for transferring copy-protected e-books. So far I've exercised this "freedom to shop and browse" to purchase or borrow titles from:

• Sony Reader store
• Kobo
• Google Books
• Houston Public Library
• Harris County Public Library

Not having Amazon or Barnes and Noble (which uses EPUB but their own unique DRM for copy-protection) as shopping options is a definite limitation. So is a lack of wireless capability, as the device must be loaded with content through a micro-USB cable attached to a PC or Mac loaded with Sony Reader and Adobe Digital Editions software. Finally, while the 5-inch monochrome screen is perfect for the text of paperback novels, it's not suited for larger books with illustrations, such as technical references or comics. That's an area where something like the Nook Color would be nice to have as a supplement.

A note from my test drives: I couldn't help but notice that one of the page turn buttons on the demonstration Nook (the original, not Color) was cracked at Best Buy. Previously, I saw a similar crack in the buttons on the demonstration Nook at a Barnes and Noble store. I suppose it could be just coincidence, and store demos do take a lot of abuse, but seeing this damaged my confidence in the long-term durability of that product.

With this blog post written, I'd better get back to reading. Next week my download of Helen Hollick's I Am The Chosen King will expire. Unlike a paper book checked out from the library, hanging on to this copy and paying a little overdue fine isn't an option. Welcome to the 21st century!

Seven days with the Motorola Backflip

My well-loved Nokia 6820 -- a text messaging powerhouse -- succumbed to water damage a couple of weekends ago. While running I got caught in a spectacular lightning storm and made the mistake of taking the phone out to reply to a text message. Oops!

While losing my phone was bad, in retrospect it could have been a lot worse. At the time another runner and I were running home along the trail on the top of the Addicks Dam, which is at treetop level. We remarked that we were some of the tallest objects out there when a bolt of lightning struck less than a half-mile in front of us. After seeing the resulting red sparking fireball in our path, I can honestly say that we were pretty foolish for not descending to lower elevation sooner. So here's my public service announcement for today: People and massive discharges of static electricity do not mix!

Returning to the phone discussion: In need of a new cell phone, I shopped for a new model just as I do for running shoes: I read reviews to develop initial impressions, then did a lot of test-driving in the store to select a final winner. After nearly thirty minutes of giving in-hand time to all the display models in the AT&T store, I had confirmed that my number one candidate, the Motorola Backflip was the right choice for me.

At first glance, the reverse-clamshell design struck me as odd. But the more I have handled it, the more brilliant this arrangment appears. Opened, the screen and keyboard are aligned at virtually the same angle as the two halves of the Nintendo DS Lite, and it's nearly as natural to handle. Closed, the Backflip operates as a simple touch-screen slab, just like the Apple iPhone.

By the way, I really wanted to like the iPhone, but a combination of three things put an end to that:
1) An iPhone (and Motorola's Droid for that matter) is a half-inch taller and a half-inch wider than a closed Backflip. The Backflip is a better fit in the palm of my hand and is better at sharing space with the wallet in my pocket.
2) After being spoiled by the old Nokia, I really do want a tactile physical keyboard on my phone, and it has to be well-sized. (I can't help but think that the Blackberry engineers at RIM are all dainty ladies with tiny hands.)
3) iTunes for Windows makes me want to tear my hair out. The less I have to see of it, the better.

In the closed position the Backflip's keyboard is disabled, so there's no worry about the dreaded "butt dialing" phenomena. And despite being always exposed, I'm not very worried about the keyboard. It has no discrete keys, having one imprinted and continuous sheath covering the keyswitches.

The camera in my old phone was terrible, so the Backflip's 5-megapixel camera with LED flash is a welcome step up for me. I discovered that the reverse clamshell design enables the use of the LCD screen as a viewfinder in both directions. Want to take one of those phone-in-outstretched-hand self portraits? The Backflip makes this easy. I'm surprised that none of the reviews I've read has pointed out this fun fact.

On the back of the touchscreen is a small trackpad called "Backtrack" used to scroll and select items on screen. I'm rather lukewarm about this feature. It sounds great in concept, but so far it doesn't seem to be much more effective to me than the arrow keys on the keyboard. Perhaps I just need more practice to appreciate its true value.

I trashed the Motoblur widgets that display by default on the home screen of the phone. It's supposed to be like a running ticker of social networking notifications, but I find it more showy than useful. In addition, the default setting of Motoblur to continuously get background notifications is a battery drain. Instead, I've installed full-featured clients for Facebook and Twitter (Twidroid) and just refresh their listings only when I want to.

I do like finding so many free apps in the Android Marketplace. So far the most expensive app I've splurged on is the MLB At Bat 2010. I'm listening to streaming audio play-by-play broadcast of a Cardinals-Braves game right now as I type this.

Now what I might really enjoy is a dependable Blogger app. I actually began composing this post originally in the application AndroBlogger right on the Backflip itself, but it crashed on me ("force close") right as I was nearing the end. AndroBlogger is a free app, and I suppose I got what I paid for!

Thanks for tuning in!

TGIF and cheers to the ones and ones of my readers out there. CurrentlyVince turns three years old today! Huzzah!

This exercise in blogging has been mostly running-centered, but I never meant for it to be totally running-centered. In that spirit, this post is dedicated to the tech infrastructure I've added at home since getting the home server and notebook in February:


The new PC. In the end, "Vince-built" beat "vendor-built." This was going to be a media machine, and I had a certain set of specifications in mind. So during a weekend of pet-sitting at my parents' place, I homebrewed a box on the stovetop with these ingredients:

• Case: Antec NSK1380 -- This is a fairly compact enclosure that accepts microATX motherboards and features a quiet and efficient power supply.
• CPU: Intel Core i3-530 -- With no gaming expectations, I was happy to go with the new energy-efficient, dual-core mighty mite of Intel desktop processors and its on-die integrated graphics.
• Motherboard: Intel DH55TC -- A comfortable throne in which to seat the i3, this microATX board offers three expansion slots, a choice of three different video connectors, and my first gigabit Ethernet port. 4 gigabytes of RAM from Corsair fill two of the four memory slots.
• Hard drive: 1-terabyte Western Digital Caviar Green -- Hard drives should never be noticeable, except for their capaciousness!
• Tuner: Hauppauge HVR-2250 -- This is the key hardware ingredient, featuring two TV tuners and an FM radio tuner onboard.
• Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium, 64-bit -- And this is the key software ingredient, because a big part of the reason I wanted to step up from Windows XP was to harness the goodness of Windows Media Center.

This was my first PC build in several years, and I did impress myself when it powered up without complaint after assembly. That hubris was short-lived, however, as the machine suffered a disturbing amount of instability for the first couple of weeks, spontaneously shutting itself down at random intervals. In the end, I discovered that I had not properly fastened the heatsink fan over the CPU, allowing it to overheat.

With that problem corrected, the machine is now stable and quietly recording my desired over-the-air TV programming in Windows Media Center. Hauppauge's software lets me schedule the recording of radio programming, including the entirety of A Prairie Home Companion, which is an NPR show oddly not available via podcast at this time.

With this new desktop PC in my bedroom, the rest of this ensemble had the task of delivering content to the living room.


Media Extender. There are other devices dedicated to playing digital content on the TV, but they are almost as expensive as the XBOX 360 Arcade, which comes out of the box ready to work with Windows Media Center and Home Server. I did add on Microsoft's media center remote control, which conveniently controls the TV as well. (I really needed this since my TV's original remote stopped functioning!) Someday, I may even try playing a game on it!

Wireless bridge. I didn't want to string Ethernet cable across my apartment, and 802.11g speeds weren't going to make the grade for streaming video. The 802.11n adapter for the XBOX360 would cost around $80 -- virtually the same amount as the Linksys WET610N from Cisco. Cisco markets this as a "gaming adapter," but the WET610N has the advantage of being usable in the future with any device with a wired Ethernet port, so the decision was easy.

Wireless router. I splurged on the Linksys WRT610N, which can operate 802.11n networks on two separate frequencies. I've dedicated the less-frequently used 5-GHz spectrum to the wireless bridge. Meanwhile my ordinary networking chores are taken care of on the 2.4-GHz range, a space that is shared by a few other wirelesss networks in my apartment complex.

The result is a DVR setup that is nearly on par with the functionality of TiVo or a box from the cable companies, minus the subscription fees. I had been previously using a Philips DVR for recording shows, but programming it was just like setting up a VCR -- set channel, set start time, set finish time. That interface is a clumsy mess compared to the slick interface of Windows Media Center. The oncreen program guide makes selecting shows simple. And having two tuners on the PC means being able to record two shows at once while using the TV's tuner to watch a third. When combined with the Roku Player I got last year, I have a bottomless well of stuff to consume from the comfort of my couch.

Tomorrow, this space will be turned back over to a post on running -- a different variety of geeking. Have a great weekend!

Tech Refresh

After reading a new year's resolutions update from my fellow blogger Michelle at Tea At Dusk, I decided to revisit mine. The running one (average 2 mi/day) lacks momentum right now. I could blame it on the colder-than-usual winter or reports of a cougar roaming the area. But instead I'll point to the easily predicted drop in motivation I always have after achieving a goal race. But there's always the spring season of events to rejuvenate activity.

My second resolution -- spending more money on myself -- has been much easier to fulfill, as I gave myself permission to update more of my personal tech:First I snagged one of the screamin' cheap post-Christmas eMachines EM250 netbooks at Wal-Mart. Powered by Intel's Atom and barely a couple of pounds, it displaces my five-year-old Pentium M "Centrino" portable with the broken hinge. (I think I was ahead of my time: I bought that four-pound Averatec notebook at a time when eight-pound portables with huge screens for watching movies were in vogue -- and ridiculously weighing down students' backpacks.) So far I'm loving the EM250 for what it does, but there's no way I'd want this to be my sole PC with its cramped keyboard and the limitations of Windows 7 Starter.

January is a popular time to put our minds on organization, and my other tech splurge for the month was an HP Mediasmart EX490. Running Windows Home Server, this nifty box took over the workload of a slow NAS with a small drive crammed with files. I can also stop my old practice of running Norton Ghost once a month, as WHS also does set-and-forget backups of my computers over my home network.

(Of course, this still only provides "in-house" backup and leaves things vulnerable to natural disaster or break-ins by thieves. Readers, do you include offsite backups in your routines? If so, what do you use? Online services like Carbonite, Norton, or Mozy? Or do you distrust "the cloud" and combine a set of USB flash drives with periodic visits to a safe deposit box?)

Coming up: I think I'm ready to take the plunge with a new desktop PC. There are some digital media homework assignments that I'd like to have done, and the ol' P4 isn't going to make the grade at those. Right now I'm weighing the pros and cons of vendor-built versus Vince-built and neither side seems to have won the argument in my mind.

Transactional Epiphany

It took the better part of the evening, but last night I finally tackled the chore of setting up Quicken 2010 to track my financial life. In the days following my previous botched attempt at automatic conversion of my Microsoft Money data, I arrived at a simple, yet powerful realization:

"I don't need to carry everything over."

I had more than a decade of account transactions in my MNY file. I had been allowing it to accumulate in size like a rolling snowball as I upgraded to progressively newer versions of Money, never bothering to archive and purge old data. Between ringing in the new year and switching to new software, however, I knew that this was an opportunity to start over. I retrieved the December 2009 statements from only my active accounts and used only those balances to populate my new QDF file.

Manual setup forced me to think about what I really needed to see -- and not see -- from this point forward. Accounts for long-closed store credit cards would only be zero-balance clutter onscreen. The historical graph of my fund balances during the 2001 dot-com bust isn't something I needed at my fingertips every day either. Perhaps most significantly, I didn't bother to copy over data for personal loans which realistically will never be paid back. I had mentally written those off long ago, but leaving them out of Quicken makes it seem more official now.

Eric Tyson authored some really good books in the "For Dummies" series that got me started with managing my own money long ago. More than ever, I now appreciate that the opening paragraphs of his personal finance book begin with a discussion about the emotions and psychology behind our relationship with our financial life. He warns against going to extremes. It's neither wise for a person to lose sight of their basic financial state, nor is it healthy to obsess over the disposition of every penny that comes into his hands.

Sometimes, letting go of yesterday helps us take control of tomorrow.

I'm not going to pay a lot (and several times a month) for this muffler.

Just a few PC-related musings today....

MS Money to Quicken Converter: It's a Flop.
Microsoft Money is decidedly the single most important application I currently use on my home PC. Plainly put, it works great for my purposes. I launch the program, it scoops up data from my various financial institutions automatically and gives me a true dashboard view of my fiscal situation. It was my trusted co-conspirator during my transition away from paper statements and billing. ("Kids, you know the truck that drops off Netflix DVDs? It used to deliver envelopes containing messages from companies that wanted you to pay them something. We would write the amount we wanted to pay on slips of paper and send those back....")

Know that feeling when you've become totally hooked on a new television show, only to have the network cancel it prematurely? Well, that's what I'm dealing with as MS sends Money off to manage its own retirement. I've been pondering some alternatives as support will fall away over the next year, but I can already report that my number one option of switching to Quicken isn't looking smooth.

I bought and installed a copy of Quicken 2010 Deluxe and followed the prompt to import my existing Money file. The result was insane. The first thing I noticed was that the program downloaded statement updates from the bank that duplicated existing transaction entries and failed to notice the duplication. Not only that, but there is no facility to match the downloaded transactions. The "Downloaded Transactions" tab that is supposed to handle this . . . doesn't exist. Picking out and deleting nine months worth of duplicated transactions isn't exactly my idea of a good time.

It got even more entertaining when I started looking closely at my mangled transactions. All of my purchases from a frequently-visited store were tagged with the memo "car muffler," when that store doesn't even sell mufflers. And all of my PayPal purchases were categorized as gifts . . . for one very lucky individual.

I have a feeling that if I do choose to switch to Quicken, it will be less headache in the long run just to start a new file from scratch and populate it with only my current accounts.

I Wish The Upgrade Advisor Had Told Me My Media Player Setup Was "Obsolete"
For day-to-day CD ripping and music playing, I had gotten very comfortable with using Windows Media Player. My digital music collection is currently on a small NAS device. Under Windows XP, both my desktop and laptop machines had their WMP libraries pointed there. After last month's OS upgrade I was surprised to find out that Windows 7 Libraries simply will not include network drives such as the one being shared from my inexpensive NAS. Yes, WMP will play the individual files, but it's not nearly as nice as having them actually cataloged and indexed in the Library.

I could copy the files over to the local hard drive, but then I'm faced with the organization hassle that using a network server solved in the first place. I'm thinking of upgrading the slow and aging NAS to something like an HP Mediasmart. It would certainly be a spiffy addition to the home network, and it should solve that Windows 7 annoyance. I just wish buying Windows Home Server wouldn't make me feel as if I was rewarding Microsoft for disabling something that worked in an earlier version of Windows.

Or I could use iTunes full-time. On second thought, no I won't. Eek!

So That's Why I Kept That 25-Foot Patch Cable
Oh, there was resolution to my roadblock with wireless networking in Linux. Once I stretched a cable across the room to connect my router and my desktop PC, Ubuntu immediately updated itself by downloading and installing drivers for my wireless adapter. Put that one away in the "chicken-and-egg" file. It's too bad SUSE wouldn't respond the same way.

Keep your surprise penguins. I just want to connect to the Internet.

I've been settling in comfortably with Microsoft's new toy -- Windows 7 -- but at the same time, I've become determined to give Linux another try on this computer. I know I said otherwise, but I'd rather lend out some space on this nice and big hard drive than bother with conjuring up another PC right now. After re-partitioning my hard drive, I ended up installing not just one, but two distributions -- openSUSE 11.2 (as I tried right before Thanksgiving) and Ubuntu 9.10.

While messing around with the openSUSE installation from DVD, I noticed something. Most of the time GRUB -- the Linux bootloader -- appears on a screen with a mostly green background. But occasionally, it popped up with what appears to be a holiday season theme, with a Santa-hatted penguin marching back and forth on a menu screen with an igloo in the corner. The last time it happened, I grabbed my digital camera to capture it:

It may be winter, but in computer slang, I think this counts as an "Easter egg."

I'm sad to report that the cute penguins have been the most pleasant surprise so far. My ASUS WL-138 wireless adapter isn't functioning under openSUSE or Ubuntu. When I figure that problem out, it will be worthy of another blog post. But meanwhile, I was going to share some tips for the enthusiast that is looking to dual-boot Windows 7 and Linux:

1) Unless there is a need to change the starting cylinder of the Windows partition, use the "Shrink Volume" option in Windows 7 own Disk Management to create unallocated space. When I used GParted previously for resizing, Windows got confused and I had to pull out my Windows 7 DVD and re-install.

2) I'm planning to use Windows 7 as my main operating system. I did not want the Linux installers to molest the master boot record as I know from past experience that this can make Windows very cranky. So during both installs, I specified that GRUB be installed to the boot sector of the Linux root partition.

3) Once the installations completed, I used DISKPART from the Windows 7 DVD to make my original Windows XP partition (which contains my Windows 7 bootloader) active again. Then I used the utility EasyBCD to add the other operating systems to the Windows 7 bootloader menu. Experiencing the tedium of using Microsoft's BCDedit made me really appreciate EasyBCD. I found out the hard way that the release version 1.72 of EasyBCD is actually outdated. After using 1.72, I would only get a message that the operating system was missing when trying to boot one of the Linux distros. Go ahead and register on the publisher's forum to gain access to one of the version 2.0 betas. Only with the beta was I able to set up my system for a nice quad-boot among Windows XP, Windows 7, Ubuntu 9.10 and openSUSE 11.2. The list appears as part of the bootloader screen that would Identify Windows XP as only a "previous version of Windows."

4) Oddly, I noticed that EasyBCD doesn't really recognize an extended partition at all as possible to boot from, only the logical partitions within. So if you install Linux into an extended partition. be sure to install GRUB to the logical partition so EasyBCD can find it.

As I mentioned, right now neither distro has my wireless network adapter functioning. I suppose I could just string a cable across the room from my router and attempt to update the systems via my wired Ethernet adapter. Maybe that will do the trick? Or I could just keep searching for answers in the online forums. This experience is beginning to look a lot like the days when tweaking DOS and Windows 3.11 was a chore every computer user faced.

This Old PC: Setting Sail for New OS Shores

My copy of Windows 7 arrived from Amazon right before the weekend. After adding memory and a new video card to my Shuttle box previously, I was ready to take the plunge.

When making a major change like this, it's always a good idea to leave a fail-safe option if something should go wrong. My first step, therefore, was to create a system image file of my existing Windows XP installation to an external hard drive using Norton Ghost 2003. Then I yanked the internal drive out and placed a new (and larger) drive in its place. After cloning the old drive's image to it, I was free to make a mess, knowing that I could bring the old drive back at will if things got hopeless.

As long as I was in an experimental mood, I was not only installing the new version of Windows, but also wanted to see how my system would react to a Linux installation. So the second part of this project was supposed to be installing OpenSUSE 11.2. From past experience, I remembered that Windows installations tended to wipe out Linux bootloaders, while a Linux installation is more amenable to accomdate a Windows boot option. So the Windows 7 Setup would be up to bat first.

I booted from the Win7 upgrade DVD and was presented with very few prompts before the installer got to work. The only real detour I made was needing to indicate that I wanted the new OS to install itself to unallocated space on the hard drive, creating a new partition in the process. The install appears to have completed flawlessly. I started a load of laundry in the washer at the same time I started the Win7 install, and I was back on the web in less time than it took my Kenmore frontloader to get reach the spin cycle. All hardware was detected perfectly, including my WLAN adapter, my wireless network printer, and even the native 1440x900 resolution of the Westinghouse TV that I use as a monitor. Since there is no direct upgrade path from Windows XP to 7, I'm still left with migrating or replacing my applications, but Microsoft gets an A+ grade from me for handling this old PC configuration.

The OpenSUSE install, on the other hand, could be described as "rough." I had downloaded the ISO file from the OpenSUSE site and burned it to a DVD-R using Active@ISO Burner. I used GParted to shrink the Windows partitions and leave some room for the Linux filesystem. Booting from this disc also kicked off a pretty friendly installer program. After a few basic questions, the YAST2 Setup tool got to work. In just a few minutes, I was poking around the KDE desktop environment. Hardware support was incomplete, though, as drivers for many devices were just absent. Most prominently missing was support for the WLAN adapter, which was surprising since the Broadcom chipsets are common, and a functioning network adapter would have been useful for possibly downloading drivers for the memory card reader, printer, and monitor (resolution was stuck at a distorted 1280x1024). In the end, I removed the ext4 Linux partitions and just left Windows, the new and the old, in a dual-boot setup on the hard disk. I still want to investigate today's Linux possibilities, but I may stick to experimenting with it purely on a test PC.

With support for Microsoft Money fading away, one of the new apps that will be added to this Windows 7 system will be Quicken Deluxe 2010. Let's hope that installation goes as smoothly as the Windows setup program itself.

This Old PC: Freshening up hardware for 2010

One of the remarkable things about my experience in personal computing is the current period of relative stability in which I've found myself. In the 1990s I'd build another box every other year or so to keep up with advances in speed needed to keep up with the demanding programs I was running, i.e. games. But my computing habits have changed. I game less, and most of those titles are now on consoles. The most demanding PC game I run now is SimCity 4, and that was released back in 2003.

What this means is that I've been able to get by with the same desktop chassis at home since 2002. It's what I consider a classic, the brilliant SS51G from Shuttle's XPC series. When many enthusiasts were still obsessed with big tower configurations, I chose this toaster-sized box as the foundation of the system I still use today. The oddly translucent blue faceplate is a reminder of the influence that Apple was exerting in product design at the time with its original Bondi Blue iMac.

Within the SS51G's compact dimensions, Shuttle left enough breathing room for what has turned out to be a long life of expansion options. For the past eight years I've been back inside the case to swap or upgrade components several times. (For example, there used to be a floppy drive where the flash memory card reader is now.) This past weekend, I gave this old PC what will probably be its last internal hardware upgrades -- a second gigabyte of RAM and a new videocard.

As long as I had the system unplugged and the case open, it was a convenient time to exorcise all of the dust bunnies that have been collecting for many months. A few minutes with the ever-popular can of compressed air stripped away the fluff clinging to the inner crevices. A couple of tips I thought I'd pass on to readers looking to perform this chore themselves:

• Turn the computer on its side, or even upside-down if necessary, but always keep the can of compressed air upright. Or else be prepared to see liquid propellant squirted into your machine.
• Use a stick-like object to stop fans from spinning from the blasts of compressed air. Not only is it more difficult to blow dust off of moving blades, but remember that DC electric motors double as generators. Who knows what might happen if you start pushing random current upstream from the fan?

Once things were dust-free inside and out to my satisfaction, the new components were swapped in and I was booting back into Windows XP soon enough. The videocard, based on the GeForce 6200 from nVidia, was a bargain-basement purchase, but it should be enough to enable the Aero interface of Windows 7 -- which we'll leave for a future installment of "This Old PC."

Review: Roku Digital Video Player

YouTube proved that the masses were ready for Internet video. Every hour millions of people visit that site for a song, an informative message, or a quick laugh. But for a full-hour TV show or feature-length movie, I don't want to huddle around my laptop; lounging on the couch and watching on the 31-inch screen in my living room is a much better experience. This is especially true if I have company over.

For some time I had even been interested in the idea of building my own home-theatre PC (HTPC) to route streaming video to the television, but this summer I decided to try a cheaper and simpler alternative -- the Roku Digital Video Player. I've been living with it for three months and have had a positive experience so far.

The most important concern, of course, is exactly what programming is being delivered. The two main content partners at this time are Netflix and Amazon. As I've discovered, the two companies' offerings are plentiful and complement each other very well.

Netflix is most well-known for its DVD-rental-by-mail business, but it also makes a portion of its catalog available for viewing online by subscribers with one of the "unlimited" plans. Anything added to a member's Instant queue will show up as available to watch on the Roku player. (The queue can only be altered on the Netflix website, so I recommend having a laptop computer in the living room to fully enable the couch potato lifestyle.) The Instant selection seems dominated by older or more obscure movies and documentaries, but it does give members something to watch while they wait for the postal service to deliver the next DVD. Be aware that as Netflix makes and breaks deals for distribution rights, the list of titles available for Instant viewing is in a constant state of change. For example, I had added Happy Feet, Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story and Eddie Murphy: Raw to my Instant Queue, but they were later made unavailable (marked as "Saved") before I got around to watching them.

For newer or more popular releases that are not available on Netflix -- or when I don't want to wait for a mailed DVD -- I can turn to Amazon and spend a few dollars with its Video On Demand service. Some titles can be rented for one day, others are purchased to "own" for permanent availability in "Your Video Library," and some offer both options. The available titles include both hit movies and television programs.

This brings me to my example of how the Netflix and Amazon selections complement: Thanks to DVDs from Netflix, I had gotten myself hooked on the drama Mad Men. I splurged and signed up for an Amazon "TV Pass" for the current season so I wouldn't have to wait for the DVD release to find out what happens next. Every Monday morning, the previous night's episode of Mad Men appears as available on my Roku player. Yes, it feels a bit strange to pay $1.89 per episode. But it is still cheaper than subscribing to cable just to get the AMC channel.

Earlier in the month, Roku added Major League Baseball as its third offering, letting MLB.com Premium members watch games online on their TV. At the price of a Premium membership, though, I can only see only die-hard fans of out-of-town teams finding this worthwhile. Roku has announced that it is working on partnerships to deliver more "channels" by the end of the year.

Physically, the Roku player is a very compact device, approximately the size of a small stack of CD jewel cases. Setup is as simple as it gets: Connect a cable to the TV, power up the Roku, and use the remote control to tell it how to connect to the Internet. There is an Ethernet cable port on the back, but I decided to take advantage of the built-in Wi-Fi adapter to join it to my my WLAN. (The longest part of the install was entering in my absurdly-long WPA key.) The remote itself feels like a "throwback" in its sparse design, being "chunky" in feel and sporting only nine buttons, but I like it. I'm still trying to figure out if I can use my universal remote instead. Once online, the setup routines for the Netflix and Amazon "channels" will display codes that are used to link the box to the customer's existing website accounts.

There is no internal hard drive to store programming. so the Roku player must always have a live broadband Internet connection to function. Every time a program is started, rewound, or fast-forwarded, a few seconds are needed to reset the buffer. (On the plus side, there is no hard drive to mechanically fail, either.) It will modify the video quality of the stream according to the bandwidth available. To my eyes the quality was very acceptable with a 3-Mbps downstream connection. Upgrading my DSL service to 6-Mbps enabled the device to achieve its potential of delivering high-definition video at 720p. Roku only packs a cable with RCA-style composite connectors in the box as standard, however. Consumers will need to bring their own HDMI or component cables to put the hi-def party into full swing.

There are other products on the market -- such as certain Blu-Ray players and TiVo DVRs -- that can also stream Netflix and Amazon content. But shoppers not interested in the other features that those devices offer may see the $99 Roku player as a do-one-thing-and-do-it-well alternative. I believe it's a compelling value for my readers that are Netflix devotees with broadband connections. Depending on the future partnerships Roku can forge, this little box could represent the beginning of a big alternative to the cable and satellite companies in the pay-for-TV market.

Stay tuned.