Archive for category Tech
eReader on a Netbook
With the upcoming release of the iPad tomorrow, everyone is going iPad crazy. Debates and discussions are flying everywhere about what is good and bad about the product; most of those I have been involved with have been over at The Unique Geek discussion group. Well, I honestly have no want for the iPad or any other tablet-like device in the immediate future. I am going to try to be patient to see what other manufacturer comes out with in the coming years. The ones I will actually be looking closer at will be those running Android. Having recently switched from an iPhone to the open platform of an Android powered device that is the Droid, I have been really impressed with that operating system. With the flux of tablet devices hitting the market recently, and in the coming months, I have high expectations that these devices will only get better, and cheaper, over time. Right now I just see no need to own a tablet device. The only need I have seen is the ability to read electronic books.
As mentioned previously, I have been on this mission to reduce space in my house with the elimination of books and other media. Well, recently I have started using the eReader application on my Droid and Dell Mini netbook and I have to say, for now, it does what I need it to do. If you have never used the eReader application, try it out, it’s free. The only issue I have found so far is that the electronic book prices in their market are a little higher than the rest of the market, as compared to Amazon’s and Barnes & Noble ebooks. If you are curious, here is what the eReader looks like on a netbook turned to portrait mode:
The advantage I have on this netbook is that the computer came with an Intel graphics card that has the ability to rotate 90, 180 and 270 degrees. All that I have to do is launch the eReader application and then hit a keyboard shortcut combination of CTRL+ALT+LEFT and the display rotates. As you see in the above picture, I can then hold my netbook almost like a standard size hardback book. Granted, this is not a perfect solution but for now this will work perfectly until 1.) I can find a practical need for a tablet device, 2.) devices advance technologically, and 3.) the devices and the media for the devices become more competitive and affordable.
Flip UltraHD Battery Charging Issue
In case you do not follow my Twitter account, I posted a short video from my Motorola Droid on Qik regarding the purchase of a Flip UltraHD back in January. Here is the video:
Well, after owning my second Flip product, I’ve run into a pretty common issue with the UltraHD that a lot of other people have run into. It took me a while to find the solution online so I thought I would post it again on my blog. Here are the steps:
1) remove the battery pack from the camcorder
2) connect the camcorder to a powered USB port on your computer
3) when the “Connected” indicator comes on, insert the battery pack into the camcorder
4) safe eject your camcorder from your computer
5) reconnect your camcorder to your computer
6) the battery pack should now begin to charge within the camcorder
Some people who have attempted these steps have stated that it did not work for them. At first, it did not work for me either but I found one owner who stated that they had to perform the steps more than once before the problem was fixed. I tried the steps again myself and the problem was fixed. So, if those steps don’t work for you try it more than once.
Good luck.
Data Backup – Part 2
In part one of my two part article on backups I submitted an old post on backups. In this post, part 2, I will discuss my research on online backup services, like Dropbox, Carbonite and others. I will also discuss my final choice of service and why I chose it.
First, lets start with an old favorite I was using for a couple of years, Box.net. I believe this is one of the few first online backup service that offered the option to upload your files for data storage and data sharing. I first tried their 1 GB free service almost three years ago, mainly to share files with friends and family, and for times I needed to post videos and such to this blog (before I discovered Vimeo). But then I found out that their free service only allowed a 10 MB file upload limit – they have since changed that to 25 MB. Due to that limitation I decided to sign up for their 5 GB storage for $5 a month; I used that service up until a month ago, for over two years. To keep this article relatively short, I will only post the key features of Box.net and the other services I researched.
- Good: Web link to private files for sharing; files accessible from anywhere via web; online drag and drop files; 1 GB free
- Moderate: folder sharing, but only with another Box.net user
- Bad: No desktop client synchronization; no security for personal edition (business edition only); $5/month for 5 Gb; $10/month for 10 GB with 1 GB file limit
One of the few reasons I left Box.net was because they do not have a desktop client for easy uploading and synchronization. I’ve contacted their customer service about this and they stated that there is no plan in the near future to offer a desktop client.
- Good: 5 GB free; desktop client; files accessible from anywhere via the web
- Moderate: N/A
- Bad: Adds Live Desktop remote desktop (mirror drivers installed) without the option to deselect; no security; No web link to private shared files
I was using Live Mesh for close to a year until I ran into an issue with the mirrored drivers that are installed when you install the Live Mesh client. As mentioned above, these drivers are used for the remote desktop feature that allows you the ability to remote into your computer from anywhere you have an internet connection. I believe the service is still in beta so I hope in the future they change this so that you have the choice to install the remote desktop client when you install the Live Mesh Client. Also, since I use Logmein Free to access my computers remotely, there was no need to continue using Live Mesh.
- Good: 25 GB free; folder sharing; online drag and drop files; files accessible from anywhere via web
- Moderate: Desktop client synchronization via third party tools (SDExplorer)
- Bad: no security; No web link to private files
- Good: 2 GB free with the ability to gain extra storage with every referral; desktop client; files accessible from anywhere via web; sync files of any size; secure transfer and online encryption; use on unlimited devices; works on Windows, Mac and Linux
- Moderate: folder sharing, but only with another Dropbox user; Public folder with web link to files; $10/month for 50 GB
- Bad: No web link to private files
For most people who want online storage and have less that 2 GB of data, I would highly recommend Dropbox. The ease of use alone is one of the main reasons I would recommend. For someone like my Dad who only has a few documents but has more than a 100 MB of photos, this was the perfect choice for him. I’ve used it (and still use it from time to time), mainly, for purposes of sharing files with my family.
- Good: 2 GB free; folder sharing; desktop client as a Windows Explorer view; $10/month for 100 GB; sync files of any size; use on unlimited devices; works on Windows, Mac and Linux; secure transfer and online encryption
- Moderate: sharing folders is a little difficult to setup
- Bad: No web link to private files
Before a friend’s recommendation, I had never heard of Spideroak. I first signed up with Spideroak’s free service to check out their desktop client and was immediately impressed. With services like Live Mesh and Dropbox, their client is a predetermined folder that is installed on your computer. To backup files you have to dump your data into this folder. However with Spideroak’s desktop client you have a explorer-like interface that will show you the folder structure. If you want to backup a folder or file all you need to do is make a checked selection on that folder or file for it to be backed up. Very simple.
- Good: desktop client that encompasses the entire computer; $55/year unlimited; works on Windows and Mac; sync files of any size
- Moderate: N/A
- Bad: only sync one machine; no web access to files; no sharing of files or folders
With Carbonite, its only function is to backup your computer, at that’s it. Once you install the client all you need to do is right click on a folder or file and enable Carbonite to back it up to the “cloud“. Its really straight forward and nothing fancy about the service.
- Good: $60/year for 100 GB
- Moderate: N/A
- Bad: client – after installing I couldn’t create the free 2 GB account they advertised because it would not allow me to choose a storage package. Also, it minimizes to the system tray but has no option to close without killing the process in Task Manager; works only on Windows
Data Backup – Part 1
I haven’t posted for quite some time so I thought it appropriate to submit my recent research on online data backup. I wrote an article on the Technical Difficulties Podcast a little over a year ago so I will post that first as part one of this two part segment. Some of the information in this article is a little out dated but most of it still applies.
You can find the original article here: http://www.techdiffpodcast.com/?p=12
Update: The original site is having some technical difficulties (pun intended) right now so I will point you to the temporary WordPress site until the issue is resolved: Backups: Everybody Is Doing It. Why Don’t You?
Backing up your personal computer data is probably the most important weekly task you probably are not doing right now. All those photos of your family and friends, that video of your child’s football game, that spreadsheet you created of your personal financial budget, even some of those work files that you may have saved on your personal computer while working from home one day is just sitting there on your hard drive awaiting that one time when your hard drive crashes and everything is lost forever. That is all it takes, just one time for your hard drive to crash – and it will crash at any time – that will cause all that personal data to be wiped out.Many people do not realize it but we have been backing up our personal data since the beginning of time; this ancient form I am speaking of is handwriting. If you think about it, when we write down that grocery list, or take notes in class, at church, or in business meetings, handwriting is a form of backup. It is taking the data from our brain and transferring it to another form of media storage so that it will not get lost just in case our brain wipes it out by forgetting. Backing up our personal data is just as easy as handwriting. If we own a computer, another type of brain, and are storing personal data on that computer we should be doing what we do every day when we write on a piece of paper.There are many ways to backup your personal data on your computer. Some of them inexpensive and some of them free. First, I will tell you what I do in my personal backup strategy. Most of the data I own that is vital and precious to me are my photos and videos of my friends and family. I have other data in the form of documents and also some applications that are not available online any longer. I store all this data on the hard drive that came with my computer. Knowing that this was my only copy, and knowing I needed to backup my data, I went to the local retail store that sells computer equipment (Best Buy, CompUSA, Staples, OfficeMax, etc.) and bought a Western Digital 500GB MyBook USB external hard drive to plug into an available USB port on my computer. You can get this item, pretty much, anywhere for less than $100. If you want to save money on an item like this, it would not hurt to search online on a site like pricewatch.com for bargains. Once I got this external hard drive home and plugged it in, I then copied all my personal data that was under one folder (a.k.a. My Documents in Windows) to a folder I created on the external hard drive. Now, every time I add data to my computer, be it a transfer of photos from my digital camera or a document I created, I also copy those files to my external hard drive. As a safety precaution, I also use Microsoft’s SyncToy to synchronize my local folder to the external hard drive once a week. That way if I forgot to copy the files in that first stage when I originally created them, then a confirmed copy would take place with SyncToy in the second phase. Another precaution was to buy a small portable 160GB USB external hard drive in the form of a Western Digital My Passport drive so that I could carry around a third copy of my data in my laptop bag. In the extreme, if my house were to burn down while I am away from home I still have all my personal data with me in my laptop bag and nothing is lost.Some of this, you may say, is a little extreme or too much. Actually, if I were to go a step further and actually bought another 160GB USB external hard drive to copy my data to and store at a family member’s house or in a safe deposit box would be labeled as extreme, but not insane. I have heard many experts state that this “extreme” step of storing your personal data off site is actually the only true means of ensuring valid backups. Corporations do it for all their business data to ensure they stay in business in case of any major catastrophes. Why shouldn’t a home user do the same thing when their personal data can be classified as just as critical?There are so many ways of backing up your data; my strategy was just one example. Separate from completing backups to a local storage, you can also backup your data to online storage. There are quite a few online sites that offer this service at a cost and for free. Box.net is a service that offers both free and pay service. I actually use a paid box.net service for some of my storage so that I can get to the data I need at any time when I have a internet connection. Here are a few other services that offer online storage: Amazon’s Jungle Disk, Dell’s DataSafe, and Carbonite. The beauty about these online backups is that they usually have an application that you can download, install, point to your data folder, and schedule it to backup your data in the background once a day. This way is all automatic and no extra steps are needed by you to complete a backup versus completing a manual backup to a local hard drive.No matter how you do it, it is really important that you backup your data. Do your research first and find out what suits you best in your weekly, or daily, backup task; local backups to a hard drive or remote backup to an online service. Either way, you can’t go wrong.
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