An angry stampede of turtles and Windows 7

November 3, 2009 by phillip.

I have received quite a few calls, emails and such lately about Windows 7. “Should I buy it now?” is the common jist of the conversation. Being the kind of person that I am, I never like to make uninformed opinions on things. So, of course I have to be one of the early adopters of most new things related to computers or the Internet because sooner or later someone will ask me about it. First, let me give you a little bit of background so you see where I’m coming from.

Computers are to make your life productive, comfortable and easier. Stick with that in mind whenever you’re making a purchase. My job as the tech guy is to tweak your choices to suit your life better. Now, think back. Microsoft gave you Microsoft Office 2007 and what did you get that you already didn’t have in Office 2003? Very little if anything at all. Apple people just saw this with the new version of Mac OSX Snow Leopard. All the fanfare and when I got it on a laptop it hearkened back to the great old Wendy’s commercial slogan from the 80’s. “Where’s the beef?”

Upgrades for the most part now days are like selling new cars. How much different is this car from the other one? Well… other than the different shell. A turtle with a new shell is still a turtle. He’s just shiny now. Software vendors have learned something from auto companies. Toyota wanted to market to a higher class audience so they made up the company Lexus and use the same engines but put on a nicer shell. Honda, Ford and a few others have done the same. Windows Vista got a well deserved bad wrap from consumers so what do they do? Throw a new shell on it and call it a different name.

With all that said, I am liking Windows 7 for the most part only because it’s an upgrade from Vista. Nothing like standing next to the unattractive person to make yourself look just a little bit better. It boots up a little faster but still slower than Mac and Linux. Gaming isn’t fully working but I am still using the pre-release version. I can’t say that I’ve experienced too many problems with networking either but things working faster than Vista is still a major selling point. Now here’s the clincher and listen to me good. If you have Windows XP running I don’t see any reason to change. Windows 7 will actually take away features in XP like remote desktop so they can sell it to you in the higher end version for $100 more.

This is why I relate this new upgrade to an angry stampede of turtles. Usually a stampede would have the ferocity of wild elephants with dust, vicious tusks and chaos. You see it coming in the distance and it’s unavoidable. In this case, the stampede is coming in the distance. Those new shells are menacing. Those turtles look pretty angry. Let’s keep it real though people. Those are still just dressed up turtles. Stand still and let this upgrade stampede pass you by. You won’t even get dust on your shoes.

P.S.: I get all the features of Windows 7 and more with Linux or free software on XP and Yes, I know that it’s a tortoise with legs and a turtle with fins but turtle sounds so much better.

Posted in Windows | 4 Comments »

Turning the Samsung Rogue into an iPhone and Blackberry killer

October 9, 2009 by phillip.

For the longest time I’ve been a huge proponent of getting Verizon wireless except for one major flaw. The wireless coverage is the best around however they just never seem to get any cool phones. They do have Blackberry’s, yes, but even those are just as mediocre as can be and the Blackberry Storm was supposed to bring Verizon back in the game but it crashed and burned after bad reviews (even though I do know of some people that really like theirs).

Enter Verizon back into the game with the Samsung Rogue. It’s their newest phone and after seeing all the features, looking at a lot of customer reviews and editor’s choice awards after being out for only a week I had to get one. That’s where all the fun starts.

First off let me say, I love this phone. However, if I get it, you know I’ve got to figure out all that I can make it do. My goal with all phones is of course to measure them against the gold standards of phones: The Blackberry Bold and the Apple iPhone. I’m sure this is going to be an ongoing project but to date I believe I’ve come close to my goal.

Let’s start with what you’ll need: Mail client (Outlook or Thunderbird), Handbrake, a memory card (I got a 4gb for about $10). You’ll find all the steps are cross-platform like I always do (Linux, Windows, or Mac) however, this tutorial will be in Ubuntu Linux with KDE showing differences for each operating system.

So, when you think of iPhone what do you think of? Maybe: Touch screen with smooth finger scrolling, music player, playing videos, apps, and internet. Check to all of those.  When you think of Blackberry what do you think of? Maybe: Email, contacts, syncing with desktop mail, and some multimedia. Check to all of those too. How you may ask? Well it wasn’t easy for me. There was a lot of documentation and experimentation that I had to do but I am very happy with my results. So, let’s make it easy for you.

Let’s get the easy stuff out of the way. I don’t make any judgements on how you get your content it’s just that you get your content onto your phone. I had to look around to make sure of how to do this. I first wanted to make my computer see the phone as a USB drive.

First, lets format your new memory card. Put in your memory card. Next hit your green phone button and click the lock on the screen to get to the desktop screen (if it’s not already up). Next click “Menu” and “Settings and Tools” and go to “Tools”, “Memory”, “Card memory”, “Format Card” and “Yes.” You’re now done formatting the card and ready to go.

Plug your USB cable into your computer and connect it to the port on the side of your phone. If you get a question asking you Modem or Sync then click “Modem” if not go back to Setting Tools as in the previous steps and choice 0 “USB Mode” and select modem. Next scroll up to choice “2 Tools” and then to choice 0 USB Mass Storage. Now you have a USB hard drive on your computer connecting to the memory card you put in.

Your computer should display a USB drive connected with the folders: my_contacts, my_files, my_flix, my_music, my_pix, my_ringtones, and my_sounds. These are pretty self-explanatory but what goes in them and how is the key. The important ones for us are contacts, flix, music, and pix. Music and pics are simple. You can simply copy music and pictures to the appropriate folders as mp3’s or jpg’s.

Video’s take a little fine tuning according to what types of video files you have. The program HandBrake runs on Win, Mac, and Linux and will convert any movie or DVD to the “iPhone and iPod touch” video format that you need. Go to this site if you want to do any of this on the command line. Once done copy the file into the “my_flix” folder on your phone.

Now for the hardest part that may need some tweeking as you experiment with your setup. I will use the most vague directions here so you can fine tune it to your liking. The “my_contacts” folder has to contain .vcf files. This is a common vCard format that every email client even gmail will export contacts as .vcf. The trick here is to export your clients as .vcf files and tell your program to save them to the “.my_contacts” folder. In the future you can sync them with your desktop by whatever way you know of to sync folders. I use Thunderbird and Gmail. On Thunderbird you can get this plugin to give you .vCard capabilities. Outlook has some good ones built in and Gmail does as well. Since I use Thunderbird and Gmail, I use the Zindus plugin and Provider for Google to sync my Thunderbird contents and calendar with Gmail.

Now back to our phone. Get the screen back on and click disconnect. This will stop if from being a USB device. If you get text messages a lot, you’ll get a lot right now because your phone was not usable while it’s a mass storage device. Now go back to “Menu”, “Settings & Tools”, “Memory”, “Card Memory.” The list presented to you has all the folders on your memory card. Going into those folders will show you the folders on your memory card. Number 8 on that list will be “Move all to phone”.

There you have it. That’s enough to start playing with and hopefully by the time you read this there are apps out for the phone. At the time of the writing the phone was too new and there were none out even though it has a couple built in for Facebook, Myspace, and a couple other web related content. As of this writing I haven’t fully figured out how to sync the Calendar with the PC but I sync it with gmail and go on the web from the phone to see that. Not as good as having it integrated so it can give you an alarm but I’ll figure it out soon enough.

If you’re a Verizon customer or thinking about it the Samsung Rogue is definitely the choice to go with.

Posted in Mac, Windows, Linux, Only for the techy people | 25 Comments »

Pidgin insecure and my stupidity

August 28, 2009 by phillip.

For quite some time now I’ve been having a problem with my internet chat program Pidgin. It would work for a while and then all of a sudden I’d notice that the whole computer would come to a screeching halt. Resource usage would go up to 100% on a Linux machine. Not unbelievable but not very common for me. So, I figured out the problem was my instant messaging software Pidgin. Upon further investigation I found out that it probably was due to the Facebook plugin that I installed that let Pidgin log into my Facebook account and show me all the people available on Facebook chat.

Months went by without spending the time to find a solution for this until today I finally decided to really get into it because I love having my clients accessible to me through instant message rather than phone calls or texting. I had switch to using Kopete for the most part till I got around to fixing it but don’t like anything as much as Pidgin.

I completely uninstalled Pidgin and re-installed it and didn’t like when I saw my accounts log back in. There was obviously some information left on my computer after I uninstalled the program. First, I hate that! If you make a package, clean up all your crap when I uninstall it. Second, I found where it was saving its extra information. The folder “./purple” in my home folder. That’s not the shocking part though. I looked into the directory and noticed my biggest screw up ever. I saved my passwords! I never do that and always advise people to never save a passwords on a computer.Within a file called “accounts.xml” were all my username and passwords for my different instant messaging accounts in clear text for anyone who sat down at my computer to look for and see. I ddin’t check this on a Windows PC or on a Mac (Adium on the Mac) yet but knowing that I do use it on these other operating systems I will be more aware. I also realized I use Pidgin’s portable version on my USB stick that I keep on my keychain. I don’t save passwords or accounts there because I use it so rarely but what if you did and lost your keys or USB stick. Your information is out there for anyone to see.

If for any reason you’ve saved a password on your computer delete them. Go into all your programs and empty out that information. A little bit of extra time logging in will save you many untold hours of grief. Many people use the same passwords over and over again. An experienced hacker knows to start first with the passwords he knows and just figure out the usernames. Don’t be a victim to this possible openning in your security.

Posted in Windows, Mac, Linux, Something to know, Software, Tips | 1 Comment »

Upgrade Linux KDE or Windows 7? Hmmm.

February 16, 2009 by phillip.

I’m never a fanboy of any particular thing. I’ve always got to see the good and the bad in whatever I get or use. This might be enhanced even more after reading some great books in the past couple months like “Predictably Irrational” by Dan Areily and “The Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell (not getting anything just personally loved those two books). However, recently I was looking through the CNET site and found this video that I thought was fantastic.

Basically, the CNET columnists were thinking about the fact that Windows 7 looks a lot like KDE 4 on Linux. I’ve got to say, I’m much more impressed with Windows 7 than Vista since I have been playing with the beta lately but as stuck as I was on KDE 3.5 I’ve finally upgraded to it full time and love it now. Think is, I think the Linux desktop is pretty much all there now with KDE 4 which is evidenced by this video. In the video they showed random people KDE 4 and told them it was Windows 7 and asked if they’d upgrade.

My conclusion is: Whatever road you take in life. Please skip Vista.

Posted in Windows, Linux | 1 Comment »

Linux doesn’t need “Grunt theory”

October 30, 2008 by phillip.

 I was getting my Linux podcast listening in and listened to the Linux Outlaws and it brought me to my subject.

First a little background on my thinking. I am a consultant that works for various companies, in many industries using many operating systems and hardware. So, I try to come in and understand the business so I can serve them best. I have a cousin who is a low level filing clerk that totally subscribes to what I call “Grunt theory.” Grunt theory is a mindset that I’ve coined as people who think the company is always some massive evil thing that’s always treating them wrong. Don’t get me wrong. In most cases this is kind of true but you have to have a more discerning eye. Every company would go under if it would follow the grunt theory which would make them give everyone more money, more vacation days, very little employee discipline and not fire employees that hurt the bottom line. This is business people. Businesses are here to make money.

Ok, now that said, I get kind of upset when I find Linux enthusiasts falling into “Grunt theory” thinking. Microsoft and Apple are companies that are here to make money. That’s what they do. Now, I am all for opening people’s eyes to the vast amount of options that are available from open source alternatives. I seem to be able to bring a little Linux into every company I work with when they realize they can get great performance and features for free (or with little investment if I can get them to donate). The thing that keeps bothering me is people that rely on constant Microsoft bashing on non-technical areas. I’ve even got to give Apple credit for the Mac vs. PC commercials focusing on real issues and making very good attacks on them.

As a community, let’s stick to the issues. Don’t join the bandwagon and try to get community street cred by just aimlessly bashing because honestly, that’s the same thing Microsoft is doing. They can make aimless claims on Linux and because of their market share people listen. I have Linux running on everything all over my house but as I was typing, just now, I realized that I would be a serious hypocrite because I’m typing this on a Microsoft keyboard on one of my computers that runs Windows. I am seriously hoping for the day that Linux’s market share at least rivals Apple’s OSX because I wouldn’t even have this machine running so much if I could get Photoshop on Linux but I’m patient.

Posted in My humble opinion, Linux | 1 Comment »

What is a simpler time?

July 30, 2008 by phillip.

What is your definition of a simpler time? In our efforts to make everything easier are we neglecting what is… simple?

In the new millinium the 1950’s are considered a simpler time. In the 1950’s the 1920’s were considered a simpler time. What are these people that search for this simplicity really looking for? Usability experts look to make the computer or your electronic devices think like you do. With this logic your DVR will know you so well that when you get home from work it will probably listen to the tone of your voice and decide if you want to watch an episode of “Lost” or the local college basketball game. That sounds pretty simple (by the way Sony, you can have that idea for free) but I don’t think that’s what we’re really looking for.

Maybe we’re looking for freedom. Freedom sounds simple, right? You wake up in the morning and the government wants nothing more than for you to be happily content. Nobody want’s anything from you or gives you anything so you have no expectation either way. Cave men had it that way but that simple kind of scares us. Knowing what needs to be done like hunting down your food. Let’s fast forward to at least the age of bartering.

Let me propose this concept for your approval. You are living in the simpler time if you chose to only accept it. Not because you can talk to your phone and tell it who to call or even the fact that everyone has a phone on them all the time. Not because your TV has a thousand channels and you can even have the TV in your car. Not because the internet allows you to find someone somewhere that had the same problem as you and has solved it or allows you to find a product you could find for cheap in your local store. These are not the answers but in all actuality the causes of more of the problems. Psychology studies have shown that more choice actually causes people to get more unhappy. Thus as our lives seemingly become more simple they do get more complex.

These are the good old simple days. Just narrow your choices intentionally. Take the first parking spot you see and walk to the door to the mall. Realize that once you’ve made a decision on a product you’ve got the best thing possible at there and there could be no better. Realize that almost any computer you get (at least for the average user) is so much more than enough. If you could take a time machine back to any time in history they would tell about some of the complexities in life that you would absolutely laugh at while hopping back into your time machine back to the present. Keep reading my blog. I definitely try to keep it simple.

Posted in Windows, Something to know | 1 Comment »

Service Pack 3 for all my friends

June 5, 2008 by phillip.

Let’s face it. Vista really isn’t making it happen for Microsoft or users. If you’re one of the people that is really enjoying Vista then more power to you. However, I’m finding that more and more people are looking to make their new PC purchase and asking me if I could install Windows XP on their hardware. At this point I tell them that I could go to the site that they are looking for thier hardware and find out if they could put XP on it instead. Dell has quite a few tricks to get this done on their hardware but they do realize that people do hate Vista.

This is where service pack 3 is a gem for me. If I have to be the one to install a new system with Windows (whether it’s an Service Pack 1 or 2 disk from the PC they’re thowing away) then the almost 90 updates from service pack 2 to present all being in one file is great.

Microsoft does recommend you to use Windows update unless you’re installing to multiple machines. I disagree. I’m big on going to www. microsoft.com then going to the “downloads and trials” and downloading the one big 350 mg file. Then I run it from the hard drive. Quick and easy.

I’ve heard a couple people say that they’ve had minor issues but I haven’t seen anything on this and I’ve installed it quite a few times already. Definitely run it if you’ve cleaned up a past virus/spyware computer. you never know what was effected that this will fix.

Posted in Windows, Only for the techy people | 2 Comments »

Communist design

April 22, 2008 by phillip.

I was recently watching TV and there was a Mac vs. PC commercial on. The commercial was a therapy session where the therapist was telling PC that it “Wasn’t his fault.” Mac explained that due to the fact the Windows tries to make itself available  to so many types of hardware and Mac only makes it’s computers from specific hardware that Mac approves that Windows can’t help but have problems. This has long been Mac’s policy but it really made me think about that concept that I want to explore a little bit more. I call it “Communist design.”

I refer to it as communist design because it reminds me of the Russian automobile industry of the 80’s.  During the cold war communist Russia only allowed their people certain choices. The government decided what it thought you needed and gave you choices in colors of basically black or white. Now, granted, if Apple was the government of cold war Russia then they would still have less choices but have been really stylish ones.

The good part about this is that Apple really knows their hardware like the back of their hand before they build anything on that platform. It allows them to integrate all the parts together well without worry of a quirk (for the most part). This is a good idea in one way of thinking but has its flaws to me. First, what I like about it is that Apple has it’s people focused in order to knock out a problem.

The problem with this concept is that part that troubles me the most. Totalitarian decision making. Steve Jobs need only have a beef with one company, say Nvidia, and decide not to use any of their cards. This really stops the user from having all the choices he wants. This is one of the problems with Linux on the desktop but only for a short while as the drivers are soon developed as the product becomes more mature. This also hurts Apple for the discerning user due to the fact that Macs are always more expensive than their counterparts.

Apple I’ve got your solution so give me the credit (and a check). Put more eyes on the problem because they’d love to help. The way you do this is by contributing to the BSD and Linux effort to your benefit (as well as theirs). Stick to the design that makes you so famous. People love the look and feel of a Mac. However, throw your hardware guys into the open source driver development arena. They get and give with their code. This allows Macs to be able to take on more devices internally and Unix variants to do the same. Why do this? Even if Mac doesn’t like Linux their core is developed by using the Mach kernel that comes from BSD (Linux’s cousin). Helping your cousin ends up helping you at the same time it hurts your enemy (Windows).

Posted in My humble opinion, Mac | 1 Comment »

Addicted to IM

April 18, 2008 by phillip.

As an agent of change I continually invite you to look at what you’re doing everyday and say, “Maybe there a better and cheaper way.” I continually look at my everyday processes and think that. Well, today I’m going to address my changes with concern to my addiction to instant messaging.

  When it comes to me sitting down doing mindless work I never want to be alone. Therefore, I sit down at a computer and fire up an instant messenger client. Here’s where I’m inconsistent. If I’m at a Linux machine I use Pidgin (it’s time to stop saying it but… “formerly called Gaim”). On a Windows machine I use Trillian. On a Mac I use Adium. Also, even though it’s known mostly for internet telephony I use Skype for those very few people that stay on Skype at work. Just for good measure I’ve added a new one to the flock. If I’m at a computer that isn’t mine I use Meebo.com to log into all my accounts.

I’ve been using Trillian for the longest and I’m finally going to have to end my many years with the program. It’s not that it did anything bad but it didn’t do anything really good. Pidgin however is open source and it’s great. It works on Windows and Linux/Unix/BSD (Amiga too reportedly). Since it is open source I’m looking forward to a OS X port soon but for now on that front I have to stick to Adium.

Here’s where the better comes in. Pidgin seems to be able to connect to every protocol imaginable. It does: AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Google Talk, Jabber, ICQ, Groupwise and believe it or not even Skype (with an easy to install plugin). Think that’s it? No. That’s only half the list that I know of. That’s the cool part of it.

Get addicted to Instant messaging again at home and in the office. Trust me, it’s a lot more productive than talking to people on the phone too. You can work and still keep in contact with all your friends. Let me warn you though, if you decide to use it from work you may decide to use the built in encryption or Off the record plugin (which also does make one for Trillian).

Posted in Mac, Windows, Linux, Software | 1 Comment »

Chicken of the VNC Fullscreen exit

March 27, 2008 by phillip.

I’ve just got to say, I really like the Macitosh Freeware program Chicken of the VNC. I recently had a little screen problem with my Dell laptop so, since I have CVNC on my wife’s laptops (in case they’re the closest computers to me). At my house I’ve got to have some kind of computing device within arms reach except if I’m in the shower (sounds like a hack I’m going to do doesn’t it).

Here’s the catch. Fullscreen mode. I went into fullscreen mode and was stuck! When you go into fullscreen mode there’s no logical way to get out. Just in case this happens to you, I’ve figured it out (and even posted it to a couple other blogs that talk about the problem).

Type in the key combination: [ctrl] + [alt/option] + [Apple] + [shift] + [`]

the twist is that sometimes taking out the [shift] works too so if one doesn’t work try the other.

Works like a charm. I still hate one thing about Macs though. The single button on the mouse. It really annoys me when I’m connecting to EVERY other operating system in the world from a Mac and have to improvise.

Posted in Mac | 1 Comment »