free phone calls

I remember Roy showing me he could make phone calls from his ipod touch.

I didn't remember how he did it, but looking at this chat session to me on google, evidently he does it with talkatone.com.

It doesn't work over the computer though, it works with your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad.


From the faq:

What is Talkatone? How do I use it?

Talkatone gives you free calls, text messages and real-time location sharing on your iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad via 3G or WiFi connection. Talkatone uses Google Talk and Google Voice services and bridges the gap between instant messaging on your computer and regular cellular calls on your mobile device.

Basic Talkatone product is free. Wherever you can find data connection you can make a call or send a text message. In order to get most out of Talkatone you need to have Google Voice Account and setup Google services.

Another reason to get an iPad or iPod Touch.

[7/26/12] And still another reason! Turn your iPhone into a 1960's Star Trek Communicator. Pretty cool!

Also now available for Android.

***

[7/26/12] Hmm..  Maybe if I get a Clear Spot, it could replace my cell phone, my regular phone, my DSL, and (somewhat) my cable.

If I want to use a computer (or laptop), I guess I could use it in conjunction with Magic Jack.  But then I'd have to carry around a telephone to plug into my computer.

turn your laptop into a dvr?

Can you do it?  Apparently it's easy according to this page.

Apparently all you need is a HDTV tuner stick. 

The thing is that they say to connect the cable directly to the tuner stick.  Which would mean it can record only unscrambled channels.  What I'd like to be able to do is record the output from my HD cable box since it unscrambles the HD channels then feed that to the computer.  Then play back from the computer.

I guess one could connect the coax cable from the cable box to the stick.  But then you'd only be able to record SD.

They have a link to this HDTV stick from Amazon.com.  It's the Hauppauge 01200 WinTV-HVR-850.  However, it gets mixed reviews.  The reviews are better for the Avertv Hybrid Volar Max TV Tuner, though it still gets a fair number of poor reviews.  Even cheaper is the Diamond TVW750USB ATI Theater HD 750 USB TV Tuner (on the box I see it says ATI TV Wonder HD 750).  Strangely I don't see a coax connector.  But a lot of negative reviews here too.

another computer scam

My cousin and my neighbor got hit by this scam.

A person cold calls you to tell you that there is something wrong with your computer.  They tell you to type something in and they tell you yeah that's the information they're seeing at their end.

Not to worry though, for a modest fee they will fix the problem for you and ask for your credit card info.

More information here and here.  The second link mentions logmein which I recall was on my neighbors computer.  I uninstalled it the last time I was there just to be safe.  But she told me they called again.  I told her to hang up.

Googled logmein scam and came up with these links

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/257822,how-the-microsoftlogmein-support-scam-works.aspx

http://community.logmein.com/t5/Rescue/SCAM-artists-using-LogMeIn-for-nefarious-ends/td-p/65824

http://antivirus.about.com/od/emailscams/a/Your-Pc-Is-Infected-Phone-Scam.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuCFlR-YNdc

[12/26/12] The Click Chick writes about the scam.

[7/15/15] Bob Jones writes about the scammers (Midweek article to be archived later?)

Compaq Presario 5000 and DVD drive

My dentist wanted a computer just to put a slide show of his photos for his waiting patients.  He got a long VGA cable to connect the computer to the flat sceen TV (Dynex 32").  The problem is that it wouldn't fit.  One connector was male and the other was female.  But then it turned out that there was included adapter to turn the female into male, so no problem.

So I hooked up his new Windows 7 computer which I had set up at home on my LCD monitor (instead of using the picture screensaver I used Windows 7's feature of rotating the desktop background).

All seemed well as it was booting up.  But then the picture went blank.  It seemed the the Windows 7 was kicking into a video mode that the TV couldn't handle.  It's definitely a problem with the computer.  As I hooked up and old laptop and even his DOS computer running his dental software and the picture appeared.

One possible solution would be update the video driver.  But why waste a new computer for such a routine task.

Hey let me try this old Compaq Presario 5000 that my uncle gave me since they were going to throw it away.  They removed the hard drive, so I put in an old 3 GB hard drive.  And what do you know, the thing booted up Windows ME and installed most of the drivers.  Even the video driver and network adapter.

I hooked it up to my router and could connect to the internet.  But Internet Explorer kept crashing with an error.  Maybe because it's version 5.  Well, it's not supposed to be an internet computer anyway.

Luckily Windows ME supports flash drives.  So I put in the flash drive with the photos.  At first it didn't seem to recognize it. Uh oh.  But a few minutes later, suddenly the drive started installing.  And I was able to copy the pictures over.  And the slideshow was working.

I even hooked it up to my 42" plasma and it seems to be OK.  Disappointingly the picture on my 720p screen didn't turn out as crisp as I would like it to be with the VGA connection.  But I guess it's ok for video at a distance.

Next I wondered if I could watch DVDs on it.  Unfortunately the DVD drive (and the CD drive) doesn't open.  So let me see if I can replace it.

The problem is how to get them out.  The Compaq Presario 5000 has an oddball case that is tricky to open up.

I finally found this website that gave me the answer.  You have to open the lower front panel (just push it in and it should open).  Then pop off the upper front panel.  Then you can just pull out the drive from the front.

Unfortunately I didn't have any spare DVD drives lying around.  (Though I might have one or two in an old computer lying around.)  So I opened up the DVD case to see if there was a DVD in there before throwing away the drive.

Sure enough there was a broken belt.  I wondered how difficult it would be to replace the belt.  And looking at this video, I was suprised to see you can replace the belt with out opening the inside mechanism of the drive.

Now how do I get a replacement belt?  This site says you can use an o-ring, but they even tried a rubber band.  OK I got plenty of them.  Now let's see if this guy works.

Put in the drive and a new mouse (I want to keep the good mouse).  Power up.  Nope drive don't open.  And now not getting any video :(

ripping a DVD

[5/22/12] Believe it or not, I've never ripped a DVD.  I've never had a reason to do so as I believe in buying rather than copying DVDs (the rationale being that the people who created the movie deserve to be paid -- I guess that attitude comes from my long-ago aspirations of making money by creating software).

But now I'm thinking of ripping DVDs of TV shows I recorded from TV (hey they're generally not for sale anyway -- at a reasonable price anyway..).  So I can watch them on my computer.  And possibly uploading them to youtube (or whatever) so they can be viewed on the internet.

Here's one possible solution I might try: WinX DVD Ripper.

[6/10/12]
Here's a tutorial using Hand Brake.

And you can even do it with VLC!

[4/16/13] I tried VLC using this tutorial on youtube (created by a 12 year old).

It was only a like a 5 minute video (a bonus featurette on the Dog Whisperer Season 3 DVD set).  It worked.  The file was automatically saved to the videos folder.  It was a MPG file 300 MB in size.  That's quite big. I see some of my videos of hour shows that are smaller than that.

I assume there's a way to make it smaller.  (But don't see it.)

How about converting the VOB file to supported video format?  I found this utility called Convert VOB to AVI.  Looks simple enough.

OK, it's going.  The file I converting is 1.04 GB.  The created MP4 file turned out to be 556 MB.  But the file plays horribly in VLC.  Very blocky and stretched horizontally.  Actually playing a VOB file from VLC is also very blocky and choppy.  But playing the DVD is fine.  What gives?

Forget it.  Let's try ripping a DVD.  I note the VLC is also supposed to be able to rip a DVD (instead of recording it as above).  Let's try.  This tutorial looks fairly straightforward.  It's going, but it looks like it takes a long to rip the DVD as to play it.  Whereas I don't think that's the case with other software.

[4/27/13]  Hey VLC worked!  I ripped my first DVD, or part of it anyway.  The Dog Whisperer bonus features.  However it takes as long to rip as it does to play.  And it didn't do well with my Chop Socky DVD-R which I recorded on my DVD recorder.  Maybe I'll try another DVD-R or try another program.

[4/27/13] Here's a list of five DVD ripping tools.  Still want to try Hand Brake and I guess DVD Shrink since I've heard so many people use it (or used to use it).

[2/22/14] here's an easy guide using Handbrake [via Roy]

electric car reviews

The Nissan Leaf is a fun car that accelerates impressively, handles curves and turns smoothly, and just drives bigger than it looks.

As is the case with other drivers I've spoken to, it all comes down to "range anxiety," that fear that you will run out of electrical juice and not be able to find someplace to recharge, the worry about the time it will take make a charge, or both.

Until there are more charging stations in public areas and the technology advances to the point that a full charge can be completed quickly, it's going to be difficult for my wife and I, and likely many other households, to view a 100 percent electrical vehicle as a viable, full-time option.

The Leaf, at full charge, is supposed to go 100 miles. But that depends on how and where you drive it. The range gauge, which I affectionately dubbed "The Estimator," estimates how long you have left to drive on the current charge. But its estimates fluctuate wildly during a drive. Go up a hill and it will drop a few miles. Take your foot off the pedal as you cruise down a hill and it will rise back one or two miles.

The charge time is also a problem. Using the standard 110-volt outlet in my garage, some nights I plugged it in for 12 hours, and it was still not completely full.

Fortunately, the two 220-volt recharging stations at Ewa Town Center have been open each time I've been there, and that's helped immensely.

I would totally recommend a Leaf — which sells for $27,700 after a $7,500 federal rebate — for a family that lives and works in the same 10-mile radius and that has a pretty set daily routine.

***

After a week of test-driving a Chevrolet Volt — and with the deadline for this story fast approaching — I knew I would have to be able to answer the question of whether I would be willing to give up my gas-powered car and join the roughly 1 percent of Hawaii motorists who have made the switch to EVs.

Conceptually the answer is yes. I loved the freedom of cruising past gas stations and not having to check whether the price of gas had gone up or down from the day before. It was also satisfying to know that even though most of the electricity used to charge the battery was generated by oil, the EV was using fuel much more efficiently than a typical internal combustion engine.

The Volt's 40- to 45-mile range on a single charge was more than enough for my 28-mile round-trip daily commute. And roughly 90 percent of the electricity I used in the car came from free 240-volt charging stations in town. The rest of the electricity I used was from a 120-volt home charger at an estimated cost of 8 to 9 cents a kilowatt-hour, about half the fuel cost for a standard car getting 25 miles per gallon.

 

Realistically, however, there are a few hurdles in my particular case that will keep me in my Nissan Versa for the forseeable future. First and foremost, I have no place to plug in the car at my townhouse complex. The one time I used a "home charger" was actually at my father's house about a mile away.

The other thing holding me back? Financial considerations. Even after the $7,500 federal rebate for EVs, the Volt would set me back $31,165 — more than the household budget could bear at this point.

***

After I put up my first blog post at evlife.staradvertiserblogs.com, I heard back from a six-month owner of a Mitsubishi i-MiEV, who said, "Enjoy your week with the Miev and smile as you drive knowing that you are not contributing to the air pollution on Oahu!"

At that moment I wasn't smiling. What was to have liberated me from frequent treks to pay parking meters during my workday was taking up more time in a near-daily search for an open battery-charging station and more energy calculating how much power I needed to get through my day. All of us are accustomed to jumping in our cars and going, and not being able to do that became one more source of daily stress.

But on Friday, day five, when I was asked whether I was giving up the car that day, I said, "No, I'm going to be like the Hawaii News Now people and return it Sunday."  

I have to say, the car had grown on me.  The car is zippy and fun to drive.  Its small size makes it easy to slip zippy and fund to drive. Its small size makes it easy to slip through spaces where other cars can't fit. Free parking at metered spaces is a plus and makes you feel as if you're getting away with something, so much so that you think you can get away with other things, like illegal U-turns. It feels like a toy rather than a "serious vehicle." Getting accustomed to the car was just a matter of learning its quirks, and I found, in just one week, it was changing my driving habits.

The main cause of stress in the beginning was a miles-to-go meter that, like an hourglass, counts down the miles until your battery charge is depleted. I left the Cutter/Mitsubishi dealership with 67 miles, but by the time I got to work, it was down to 30. Because the meter "predicts" future mileage based on your current driving modes, simply turning on the air conditioner immediately wiped out 10 miles.

The main challenge had been the hunt for open charging stations. There's a lot of competition for the few stations, where you must typically plant your car four hours for a full charge at a 240-volt station. I learned the EV/hybrid crowd is still a small, helpful and courteous community who will call the next person waiting for a charge.

There are not nearly enough stations to serve all EV drivers. I considered going to Kahala Mall on Saturday but didn't because I had no guarantee the charging station would be available.

During a workday, recharging is generally no problem, because I have eight hours to leave the car. On the weekends I'm not likely to linger in one place that long.

This should be no problem for car owners who can charge up their cars on their home electricity for 12 hours or install a faster-charging unit.

For me the cost of the EV cars — the i-MiEV sells for $21,625 after a $7,500 federal rebate — is still a factor in whether I would own one. My current BMW?Z4 cost $11,000, paid in cash, two years ago. My Chinese parents didn't raise me to be a financial fool, and the cost difference between running an EV car and gasoline-engine car is negligible when you consider that any savings in gas will, in the long run, go toward buying a new battery.

***

Visit HawaiiNewsNow.com for reviews on the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt by Dan Cooke, Steve Uyehara and Tannya Joaquin.

For video reviews on each car, visit the following sites: Dan Cooke's Mitsubishi i-MiEV: goo.gl/cgNZs; Steve Uyehara's Nissan Leaf: goo.gl/TqjJW; Tannya Joaquin's Chevy Volt: goo.gl/sWl8e

*** [5/22/12]

On a somewhat related note, I was always kind of interested in getting an electric scooter.  Ever since I saw some a few years ago at the 99 Ranch shopping mall.  They had it discounted to $100, probably because the store was going out of business.  But I didn't know that and while I was mulling it over the store had sold out and/or closed.

Now I see an ad in the December 14, 2011 MidWeek about a place called Aloha E-Bikes.  Their website is alohaebike.com.  I see they have an electric scooter for $300.  Might be fun to try out.  No mention of charging time or range (unlike the $800 and $850 models).  Their top of the line is their electric motorcycle which will run you $7600.

*** [5/30/13] The LA Times reviews the Nissan Leaf, Fiat 500e, Honda Fit EV

Antenna TV

Now see a new channel when I plug the cable direct to the TV.  Channel 122-13.  Can't quite figure out what channel it is.  There's a KHNL logo on the bottom left and it's playing an old movie with James Coburn.  OK, now I saw a brief blurb as it cut to commercial.  It's Antenna TV.  Apparently available only if you plug in the cable directly into the TV.  Don't see it on my cable box.  And what's playing doesn't match this schedule.  I guess I'll keep watching it to see what happens after the movie.  Maybe KHNL is using it as a partial feed.

Saw the credits at the end.  The name of the movie was Duffy.  And now they're playing Valley of the Head Hunters starring Johnny Weismuller.  Looking like they're using the Eastern Time Zone schedule.  And the movie now is supposed to be Jungle Jim according to the schedule.  Looking it up Valley of the Head Hunters was a series of movies in which Weismuller played Jungle Jim.

OK, did a google search.  "Statewide, on or about May 16, 2012, Antenna TV (KHNL Multi-cast) will be added to digital Ch. 541, QAM Ch. 122.1" [actually it's on 122.13]

And more..

Statewide, on or about May 16, 2012, the following HD channels will be added: Hallmark Channel to digital CPST HD Tier Ch. 1452, Fox Soccer to DVP HD Tier Ch. 1230, HBO2 to digital Premium HD Tier Ch. 1612, HBO Family to digital Premium HD Tier Ch. 1614, Showtime Too to digital Premium HD Tier Ch. 1634, Encore to Movie Pass HD Tier Ch. 1666, Cooking Channel to DVP HD Tier Ch. 1322, and National Geographic Wild to digital DVP Tier Ch. 1561 [all right!  Dog Whisperer in hi-def.]

Statewide, on or about May 16, 2012, MGM HD will move from digital Ch. 1561 to digital Ch. 1564.

Statewide, on or about June 7, 2012, ESPNews Ch. 23 will be removed from the analog lineup. ESPNews digital Ch. 225 and HD Ch. 1225 will move from CPST to DVP and will only be viewable with digital equipment such as a digital set-top box.

Statewide, on or about June 7, 2012, Oxygen Ch. 62 will be removed from the analog lineup. Oxygen digital Ch. 558 will be available on CPST-Digital format only and will only be viewable with digital equipment such as a digital set-top box.

Don't know what CPST and DVP is.  Cable Programming Services Tier?  And DVP must be the Digital Variety Pak.

Google's Self-Driving Car

Google has managed to get its self-driving car licensed in Nevada, though someone must still be in the car at all times. Essentially, the automobile was not given a license, but rather a learner's permit. It's a start.

Google's whole robocar idea has been overlooked in general. This is probably one of the greatest inventions of the last 100 years and people are fairly ho-hum about it. In fact, it addresses numerous transportation issues and is simply revolutionary. Google is poised to make more money with this device someday than it ever has with search.

I predict that at some point in the future, nobody will drive cars. We'll get into these things and program (or tell) the car where we want to go. Fleets of cars could actually be shared the way limousines are shared. You could have your car drop you off at the airport and go home, then return to pick you up at a later date.

-- via libertarians_2000

Hawaiiantel DSL

My DSL was running slow for a while (like a month or two).  I had been getting about 1.4 Mbps, but then it dropped to like 500 kpbs.  I called them and they told me to change the phone cord.

It didn't do anything, but somehow I got back to to 1.4 Mbps.

Then it dropped again and for awhile I was getting like 400 Mbps.  I finally called them a couple of nights ago and they had be connect to the main phone jack.  Same thing.  So they're going to send me another modem.

And in the meantime, it dropped to like 200 Mbps.

The modem came yesterday and I hooked it up last night.  The speed improved to 800-900 kbps.  Which I guess is good in comparison, but not as fast as it used to be.

So call Hawaiitel again.  The guy checked and said the blockage (or whatever was slowing down my connection) was fixed with the new modem, but they had to upgrade my connection (which was downgraded for connection problems or something).  I asked him what speed I was supposed to be getting.  He said I had standard (I have the cheapest possible) and it's rated for 3-6 mpbs and I might be able to get 4.

He did his thing and told me to run another test.  Hey 3.5 mbps!  I'll take it.

Thanks.

***

Looking at the website, Hawaiiantel.com can now go up to 50 mbps.  And I see the price for the basic speed is down to $22.95.

***

testing later in the night (at 11:42 PM), speed now down to 2.9 mbps.  We'll see if it starts spiraling down from here.

*** [5/3/12]

unplugged the modem and the computer last night.  plugged it back in this morning.  Now getting 2.89 mbps.  Well, that's still twice my former peak speed.  I can live with that.

*** [7/17/12]

tested my internet speed last night (or was it the night before).  Was getting 5+ mbps from San Francisco and Los Angeles.  But dropped off from New York for example.

tested today.  Getting a more consistent 5+ across the board.  However New York first got only like 0.9, but then 5+ on the second try.  It seems the 5+ is the peak speed, but there could be more congestion when testing from more far away sites.  (On the other hand, when I tested Sue's speed on Sunday, she was getting only like 0.7.)

white bins being taken away

Consumers will no longer be able to drop off their recyclable items at those familiar white bins in school or shopping center parking lots after June 30, the city announced today.

Signs notifying the public about the end of the community recycling program on Oahu will begin appearing on the bins this weekend by the city Department of Environmental Services.

Some drop-off bins may be taken away as early as June 15, the city said.

Ending the program is expected to save the city about $1.5 million annually.

The city said it is continuing to expand its curbside and condominium recycling efforts.

Meanwhile, Rolloffs Hawaii, which provides trash service to most of Oahu's public schools, intends to launch its own program at schools while Honolulu Disposal Service, which once held the city contract for the bins, expects to maintain the recycling bins at about 50 of the locations.

The community recycling program first began with 20 bins in 1990.

The city is discontinuing the program as more Oahu households turn to curbside recycling.

The city estimated about 70 percent of items that once went into the white bins are now going into curbside blue bins. A recent survey also showed 97 percent of households are now recycling at some level, with more than two-thirds placing 75 to 100 percent of their recyclables into blue carts, the city said.

About 160,000 Oahu homes are part of the curbside recycling program, and the city is intending to being expanding to the remaining 20,000 households this year.

***

Well, if they take away Lanakila's bin, I guess I'll recycle via the blue bin.

connecting Vista and XP on network

For a long time, I had a Vista computer outside and an XP computer in my bedroom.

The problem was that my printer was connected to the computer in the bedroom.

After several months, something triggered me (probably just fiddling around) to change the workgroup name on the Vista computer to the same workgroup name on the XP computer.

And what do you know, I was able to see the other computer on the network and connect to the printer.

So that worked for a few weeks (or whenever) until yesterday. When I tried to print to the other computer, nothing happened. Then I noticed the computers no longer could see each other on the network.

The only thing I might have changed was that I had switch from my hub to a wireless router (for testing the wireless NIC on a computer I was working on), then I switched back to the hub.

When I do an IPCONFIG on each computer, I notice they have a different IP address for the default gateway.

I'm unable to ping the Vista computer IP address from the XP computer. But oddly, I'm able to ping the XP computer IP address (and its default gateway) from the Vista computer.

After I discovered the problem, I turned on network discovery from the Network and Sharing Center but that didn't solve the problem.

Don't know what gives?

So what I did was upload the file on skydrive and go to the XP computer to print the file. But then I saw no printer was installed on the XP computer. Print spooler service is not running it said.

Then I shut down and reboot and the printer is back. And was able to print.

I dunno. Maybe I'll try putting back the router to see what happens..

Maybe it's because I'm using a hub and the modem assigned different default gateways to each computer. But if I use the router, it'll assign the same default gateway to the router?

Sounds plausible now that I think about it..

displaying japanese kanji

Japanese characters appears as strange blocks on your computer. How to see?

The normal answer would be to install East Asian Languages. that works, but you need the Windows XP (or whatever you use) to complete that.

A quicker way would be to just install the Japanese Language pack (I think).

I can't test what I just said because I already enabled Japanese characters on this computer.

HawaiianTelcom TV

Hawaiian Telcom officials said the company is receiving strong customer demand on Oahu for its recently launched Internet television service, which it hopes to have in 80,000 households within five years.

The state's largest telephone company, which launched the TV service in July, has been quietly building a subscriber base that totaled 1,600 on Oahu by the end of 2011.

When the state Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs approved Hawaiian Telcom's cable TV license in June, it noted that the service would provide consumers more choices in a cable market dominated by Oceanic Time Warner.

Hawaiian Telcom crews have been installing fiber-optic cables across Oahu to provide the bandwidth needed to deliver the TV service. By the end of 2011,27,400 households were "enabled" to receive the service, the company said in its quarterly earnings report released Thursday.

Of the homes enabled, 1,600, or 6 percent of the total, were receiving the service, paying an average monthly subscription price of $70, according to the company.

"We are excited about expanding this service to other parts of Oahu in 2012 and increasing our share of the significant TV and entertainment market opportunity," Eric Yeaman, Hawaiian Telcom president and chief executive officer, said in a news release.

Hawaiian Telcom has not undertaken a marketing campaign to promote the TV service, instead opting to individually approach its existing customers who have sufficient bandwidth to support the service.

In a conference call with analysts, Yeaman said that the company hopes to have an additional 50,000 homes enabled for its TV service by the end of 2012, with the goal of enabling 240,000 households over the next five years.

The company's target penetration is 30 percent, which translates into about 80,000 actual subscribers, Yeaman told analysts.

the new iPad

SAN FRANCISCO >> Apple's new iPad model, with a sharper screen and a faster processor, will go on sale in the U.S. and six other countries next Friday, the company confirmed Wednesday.

The new features mean the iPad will be slightly thicker and heavier than the iPad 2.

Prices aren't changing from the previous models. They will start at $499. Versions capable of accessing cellular networks will cost $629 to $829.

However, Apple is keeping the basic model of the iPad 2 in production, and dropping the price to $399.

Apple said the new display will be sharper than the high-definition television set in the living room. The company says it will show more saturated colors than previous models.

The company said the iPad is powered by a new chip with four processing cores, for smoother graphics.

Google goggles

People who constantly reach into a pocket to check a smartphone for bits of information will soon have another option: a pair of Google-made glasses that will be able to stream information to the wearer’s eyeballs in real time.

According to several Google employees familiar with the project who asked not to be named, the glasses will go on sale to the public by the end of the year. These people said they are expected “to cost around the price of current smartphones,” or $250 to $600.

The people familiar with the Google glasses said they would be Android-based, and will include a small screen that will sit a few inches from someone’s eye. They will also have a 3G or 4G data connection and a number of sensors including motion and GPS.

The glasses will have a low-resolution built-in camera that will be able to monitor the world in real time and overlay information about locations, surrounding buildings and friends who might be nearby, according to the Google employees. The glasses are not designed to be worn constantly — although Google expects some of the nerdiest users will wear them a lot — but will be more like smartphones, used when needed.

As I noted in a Disruptions column last year, Apple engineers are also exploring wearable computing, but the company is taking a different route, focusing on computers that strap around someone’s wrist.

[via iluvbabyb]

the insanely great history of Apple

Here's the article.

And here's the chart.

be more explicit

when showing your work

(this is apparently a famous cartoon)

-- via Chuck32961

Kindle Touch vs. Kindle Fire vs. IPad

This past week, I got the Kindle Fire and the Kindle Touch in. My wife and I already both own Apple iPads to compare them to. One thing that jumps out almost immediately to me is that the Kindle Fire is to the iPad what the Mazda Miata is to an Audi A4. When price and small size matter, it’s a better choice, but only if they matter significantly more than functionality. In short: The Kindle Fire and Apple iPad appeal to different users.

To take that analogy a step further, the Kindle Touch is to the Fire what a scooter might be to that Miata. The Kindle Touch is even more limited, but it’s not only a better reader, it’s actually a good complement to people also own an Apple iPad. In the end, I think the Kindle Fire begs for a larger sibling that actually could go head to head against the iPad more evenly.

-- Rob Enderle

*** [10/5/11]

Since Amazon initially released the Kindle in 2007, it has successfully sold more than 18 million. In an attempt to further compete with Apple’s iPad and delve deeper into the tablet wars, and after much hype, last week Amazon debuted the Kindle Fire for $199.

“Kindle Fire brings together all of the things we’ve been working on at Amazon for over 15 years into a single, fully integrated service for customers,” says Jeff Bezos, Amazon.com founder and CEO. “With Kindle Fire, you have instant access to all the content, free storage in the Amazon Cloud, the convenience of Amazon Whisper-sync, our revolutionary cloud-accelerated Web browser, the speed and power of a state-of-the-art dual-core processor, a vibrant touch display with 16 million colors in high resolution, and a light 14.6-ounce design that’s easy to hold with one hand all for only $199. We’re offering premium products, and we’re doing it at non-premium prices.”

The Kindle Fire is the only device that runs the Amazon Silk browser, a “split browser” architecture that accelerates the power of the mobile device hardware by running with Amazon Web Services Cloud. It has a dual-core processor and runs the latest Google Android software, so you can download apps from the Android Market. It also sports a 7-inch color touchscreen display, and you can watch videos from Amazon’s streaming Prime service and play your music from the Amazon Store.

While the Fire is smaller than the iPad’s 10-inch screen and doesn’t have a camera, it is lighter and supports Adobe Flash (a seemingly huge issue everyone keeps bringing up).

***

Shares of Amazon.com (AMZN -1.82%) were down more than 2% Monday afternoon as investors fretted about a report in the New York Times detailing a litany of woes affecting the Kindle Fire. The newspaper likened Amazon's new tablet computer to Ford's Edsel -- one of the biggest flops in the history of corporate America.

As the Times noted, the Kindle Fire is enduring a torrent of negative reviews on the company's website, of all places. This is a huge headache for Amazon, which is counting on the Fire to fuel future growth. "Slightly more than a third of the 4,500 reviewers of the Fire on Amazon have given it mixed to negative reviews, three stars or fewer," according to the newspaper.

My wife and I decided this weekend to buy an iPad. Although it is twice as expensive as the Fire, it is also twice as good. We found the Barnes & Noble (BKS +0.56%) Nook to be inferior to the Fire. Like many consumers, we are not oblivious to price. Quality, though, is important. The iPad, to many minds -- ours included -- is by far the best product.

After reading the Times story, I realized that we made the right decision. One surprising tidbit was that some people found the Kindle Fire's performance as an e-reader to worse than the original Kindle. Amazon, of course, told the Times that fixes were in the works.

The parallels to the Edsel, a car brand that flamed out during the 1950s, are hard to avoid. Like the Kindle Fire, Ford Motor's (F -1.63%) Edsel over-promised and under-delivered. The Edsel was hurt by quality problems that earned it the nickname: "Every Day Something Else Leaks." Owners of the Kindle Fire are complaining about the device's lack of an external volume control and the poor placement of the "off" switch, according to the Times.

hacked?

got an phone call from someone asking about an email I sent them.

Only I didn't send them anything. Not on purpose anyway.

Apparently, my yahoo email has been hacked with a virus or something and send a virus email message to everybody in my contact list.

Here's what might have happened.

Although there is a possibility you were 'hacked', it is far more likely that your address was compromised by one of the powerful spam bot networks. They can also 'spoof' the addresses in the From: area to make it more likely that they will be opened. Remember all those who use the To: or CC: heading rather than BCC: for addresses? Remember all those who forward e-mails with countless addresses still in them? They open all those addresses to spammers - all it takes is one infected computer down the line somewhere! Merely changing your password will not be enough - your account has been seriously compromised, and more of this type of letter will keep happening. Deleting your Contacts list won't help - the addresses have already been harvested. You will not spread any virus unless naive people click a link or even open the mail.

And more..

Hi,somebody is sending emails to my contacts using my email address to which I haven't sent. How can this be? Have I been hacked into? I do have full internet security avg 9,could you please let me know what action to take if any as I find this quite worrying! I have changed my password so far, but that is all.

You should be worried.

I'm not sure that I'd say you've been "hacked into", but my guess is that your email account has indeed been compromised.

The big clue here is that email is being sent from you to contacts in your address book.

What more likely occurred is that your email account has been compromised - meaning that you probably have an on-line email account, free or otherwise, that someone has gained access too. By virtue of doing so they now have access not only to your email, but to your address book as well. It's all too common these days to hear of folks whose accounts have been compromised only to have all their friends get inundated with spam, threats, malicious emails or messages that try to impersonate you and scam your contacts out of money.

How this happened is difficult to say. It could be anything from a weak password that's easy to guess, to your account credentials being sniffed in an open WiFi hotspot, to your simply having shared the account information with someone you should not have.

As I've discussed before, changing your password is important, but it's not nearly enough. You also need to change any and all security related information associated with the stolen account. Why? Because the thief has access to all that too, and he can use that information to steal your account again. And again. And again.

[curse word]

Google+

Google finally made its move into social networking with its latest Google+.

It’s basically what many of you want Facebook to be. Or as Google describes on its blog, “We want to make Google better by including you, your relationships and your interests.” And so begins the Google+ project.

Key features are Stream, Circles, Photos and Profile. The Stream is the core part of Google+ and revolves around a Facebook-style newsfeed. Here you can add your friends from your Google Contacts into different groups called Circles. You can share updates with individual Circles or combinations of Circles. So if you posted a picture of your co-workers, you can share it just with your colleagues and not everyone (as you would have to on Facebook).

Next, the Photos section is fairly basic. It pulls the pictures saved in your Picassa Web Albums, and you also can view Photos from your Circles. From your mobile device, you can use the Instant Upload feature to have your photos and videos that you take with your phone automatically uploaded to a private album on Google+. You can then decide with whom you want to share them.

Finally, your personal Profile page replaces your standard Google Profile, and you’ll want to make sure you don’t put anything on there that you don’t want to be public knowledge since it’s searchable on the Web. In addition, the Sparks feature keeps track of your interests, so it sends you stuff it thinks you’re interested in. And Huddle turns all your “conversations” into one simple group chat (as opposed to sending text messages). Conveniently, everyone gets on the same page at once.

***

Sure, but can you play Cityville from it? Yes!

Bob Jones on light bulbs

You’ve no doubt seen MidWeek columnist Jade Moon, in commercials for Hawaiian Electric, selling us on compact fluorescent (CF) bulbs because the incandescent bulbs might go out of existence in 2014, and because with CFs we’ll use less electricity.

Well, only maybe the latter. California utilities spent $550 million subsidizing CFs and discovered that electricity savings fell 73 percent short of what studies had estimated. And CFs contain mercury.

Some of us don’t like the CFs. It’s about the quality of light.

Incandescents give off “warm” light. CFs still do not. That’s because of our eyes. The natural outdoor light we see is actually our brain taking in many colors from our eyes’ receptors and giving us what we perceive as white light.

CFs give us too much blue-end light and not enough red-end. So our brains tell us the light isn’t very “warm.”

But here come LED light emitting diode bulbs. They’re on the right wave length to give us “warm,” but you’re unlikely to pay $30 per bulb. You’re set on the since-1870 technology of the incandescent light bulb.

I’m betting that new light bulbs will get better and the price will come down to about $5. Not too bad if you consider that the latest-invented LED may last 20-plus years and use little electricity.

***

Bob Jones’ “Shedding Some Light On New Bulbs” is valuable, but does need a few tweaks.

First, compact fluorescent lamps (CFLs, not CFs) needn’t deliver “too much blue-end light.” The color given off by fluorescent lamps is determined by the mix of RBG (red, blue, green) phosphors. Add more red, and you’ve got warm lamps. Light color is measured by degrees Kelvin (K). Incandescent lamps deliver about 2,800K. You can buy 2,700K CFLs.

Mr. Jones didn’t mention economics. If you have 20 60-watt incandescents in your home burning an average of 1,000 hours a year, you’re paying $372 a year, based on 31 cents per kWh.

(That’s Oahu the Neighbor Islands pay much more.)

Replace the lamps with 15-watt CFLs and you can redirect $279 a year to your family. (By the way, incandescents burn at 450 degrees hot enough to cook steaks. Do we need more heat in our homes?)

Finally, most of Hawaii’s electricity is generated by oil imported largely from countries that don’t like us and are costing us many defense dollars.

If you want to be supporting your family instead of those countries, shift to CFLs or LEDs.

6 reasons

The Guy Who's Fixing Your Computer Hates You

Pat posted this on his facebook page. What Pat is really thinking when he's fixing your computer.

boost your wi-fi signal

boost your wifi signal using a beer can

ebay email

I recently tried to update my email address on ebay from hawaiiantel.net to gmail.com. Why because I'm transitioning to gmail online instead of hawaiiantel.net on Outlook Express. For one thing, they don't even make Outlook Express anymore. And I can read gmail from any computer.

So I'm changing my email address from xyz@hawaiiantel.net to xyz@gmail.com. But ebay didn't allow me to change it, saying your "eBay user id cannot be the same as your email address". Well my eBay user id isn't my email address, but it's the same prefix. In fact, it's the same prefix currently. I think I must have opened my account before they instituted this policy.

So the message is incorrect. It should say your "eBay user id cannot be changed to be the same prefix as your email address." (Even though it already is, in my case.)

Why? Apparently to decrease spammers. (But out of all my many online accounts, eBay is the only one with this annoyingly safe policy.)

But here's one workaround if you're changing to a gmail account:

If any of you use gmail or google apps, you can trick this.

for example, put yourusername+ebay@gmail.com

Google mail ignores everything after the plus, so the end result is that it goes to yourusername@gmail.com. Hehe.

Don't know if I'm going to try this yet though, since if I change it to gmail and change my mind, I can't change it back to hawaiiantel.net (or to any of my other email addresses which all have the same prefix.

***

[10/29/11] I guess another way to do it is to create another gmail account and have that account forward to your regular email. For now, I have decided to forward hawaiiantel's emails to my gmail account as I want to transition my regular email over to gmail.

Trash Inc.

Caught the end of this on CNBC. Looked pretty interesting.

Here's the description from their website.

Garbage. It's everywhere — even in the middle of the oceans — and it's pure gold for companies like Waste Management and Republic Services who dominate this $52 billion-a-year industry. From curbside collection by trucks costing $250,000 each, to per-ton tipping fees at landfills, there's money to be made at every point as more than half of the 250 million tons of trash created in the United States each year reaches its final resting place.

At a cost of $1 million per acre to construct, operate and ultimately close in an environmentally feasible method, modern landfills are technological marvels — a far cry from the town dump that still resonates in most people's perceptions. Not only do they make money for their owners, they add millions to the economic wellbeing of the towns that house them. Technologies, such as Landfill Natural Gas and Waste To Energy, are giving garbage a second life, turning trash into power sources and helping to solve mounting problems. It's particularly important in places like Hawaii, where disposal space is an issue, and in China, where land and energy are needed and trash is plentiful.

One sure thing about the garbage business: it's always picking up.

And the program is available at the website as well.

internet on your TV (or TV over your internet)

I've (and you) have been bombarded by Roku ads while browsing in the last couple of weeks.

I had been considering buying a laptop to hook up to my Panasonic Plasma TV, but Roku may be the cheaper way to go.

Roku is a device that allows you to access Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Video, and more and view the content on your TV. It's small and cheap and apparently works fairly well. However it's not the full internet (no web browser, no youtube yet). Reviews have generally been positive.

Another option is Google TV. This doesn't seem as readily available. And is available only on select Sony TVs, Sony Blu-Ray players, or via the Logitech Revue box. The Logitech Revue looks a little more clunky than the Roku but apparently allows you to access the whole internet and includes a keyboard. Here's a review. Ah, not quite everything. No Hulu. Or ABC or CBS.

Another competing device is Apple TV (see end of Roku review). Looks pretty good, but no Hulu Plus (not sure why).

[10/24/11] How about the boxee? And others!

Will these replace my subscription to my cable TV. Not for me. No ESPN is the main bugaboo. But if you just want to watch movies or TV, I could live w/o paying the $90 per month that Oceanic charges for my HD Entertainment Pack and DVR.

Maybe PlayOn will work? But apparently it streams from the internet, so it's doubtful they would stream live games. Apparently you can watch ESPN, but you have to be a Time Warner subscriber already. So what's the point?

[10/24/11] And apparently you can't watch Hulu, only Hulu Plus, on the Roku (and I assume on any of the other devices too).

[12/27/11] Tried out the Roku which was set up at Best Buy yesterday. It occassionally pauses for a significant amount of time, I assume due to internet traffic and/or buffering. But once it gets going, it's not bad. For one thing, you get free Three Stooges episodes at crackle (though I got em all now on dvd). And also kdrama (korean dramas) which are apparently normally only available as an apple app. Then I went over to Costco and saw it selling there for like 15 bucks cheaper. The Blu-Ray players are getting cheaper too. Like in the $60 range now.

[6/11/12] Here's JDoyle32's setup.  He cancelled his cable in 2008.

[6/18/12] What's the difference between Roku LT and Roku HD?  Not much (aside from 10 bucks).

[12/28/13] Another difference, according to erikvines, is the the LT has 256MB flash memory while the HD has 2GB.  But according to wikipedia, both the LT and HD have 256 MiB.

[12/11/12] Ah, here's a difference between the Roku 2 and the older Roku boxes.  The Roku 2 supports closed caption on Netflx.

[12/11/12] Ah, apparently Roku LT supports closed caption too.  How about my Roku HD? maybe, since it's a "new" Roku.  Nope.  So there's another difference between the LT and HD.

[6/20/12] A nice review of the Roku 2 XS (which I saw at Costco for 79.99).

[10/31/12]  Here's a Roku-like device (I think this was the one I saw in a Best Buy ad some months ago) called NeoTV from Netgear.  One advantage: native youtube access. One disadvantage: connects only via HDMI.  And currently only $39 online from Dell.  Gets mixed reviews on Amazon.  The Roku gets better reviews on Amazon and is the same price as from roku.com.

[11/13/12] lifehacker's guide to watching TV shows and movies on the internet (without cable)

[3/5/13] Here's another article from DailyFinance (from two years ago)

[11/28/12] Hey, gave in to the black friday frenzy and picked up a roku at Best Buy on Saturday.  Good deal.  It's the Roku HD, normally $59.99, but on sale for only $39.99 (plus tax).

Spent a couple of days browsing channels.  And some channels are pretty quirky.  It ain't live TV.  There's only a few live channels.  Not much in sports.  It allows you to look at your facebook photos and videos on TV.  No hulu, no youtube.  But then I came across this channel VideoBuzz.  It allows you to access your youtube videos sometimes even better than youtube.  The search function brings up some playlists that I couldn't find on the youtube site (or I don't know how to find playlists on youtube).  This alone probably makes this investment worthwhile as there's a lot of videos available youtube (temporarily anyway as the legality of some these are questionable).  Even VideoBuzz might be of questionable legality as Google has taken away youtube access from roku before.  It's kind of like a pirate NetFlix.

[12/25/12] looking up tablets, I went from this page to this page to this page to this page where I came across Aereo.  What's this?  It's a service in New York which allows you to watch the major network TV channels over the internet without cable or an antenna.  This would seem to be the future.  But they're getting hit by lawsuit after lawsuit.  So maybe not.

[4/1/13] In a blow to major TV broadcasters, a federal appeals court ruled Monday that startup Aereo can continue to stream live local TV through its website and app.

Consumer groups applauded the decision because it ushers in greater flexibility in choosing TV shows without paying a hefty cable bill. However it also signals that more legal fights will likely be waged by broadcasters eager to hold on to advertising revenues and retransmission fees that cable companies pay to carry their channels.

Backed by Barry Diller's IAC Interactive, Aereo enables subscribers to stream live broadcast content from local stations - including the networks, public television and Spanish language channels - on their desktop computer, tablet or smartphone.

[1/30/13] Lifehacker reviews and compares Apple TV, Google TV, Roku, Boxee, WD TV Live.  [The reviewer actually likes his  homebrew XBMC the best.]

And a comparison between Roku and WD TV Live (which Libert has).  The main advantage of WD Live is you can play media files on a usb drive.  One error, this review seems to think that roku supports youtube.  [and there's this report that WD is blocking youtube videos]

[8/29/13] Disney added to Apple TV lineup.  Roku has that already.  But I see they previously added ESPN.  So that might be reason no. 2 for Apple TV.  The ability to stream (AirPlay) from your ipad or itune to TV plus ESPN.

Hmm.. Chromecast can now do that too, but no ESPN yet.  Not on Roku either.

[10/12/13] which streaming device is right for you?

[2/13/14] Another article comparing the Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast.  [and previously posted on my What's On Roku post: Here's a smackdown between the Chromecast, Roku 3, Apple TV.  Notable is that Netflix takes longer to load on the Apple TV.]

hiding a page from google

I have some webpages on htohananet.com that I want to modify or remove, but hawaiiantel cut off my access to it a couple of years ago without telling me (well it was someplace on their website, but who looks there? I found out only after the fact.)

Anyway, hawaiiantel now says they no longer have access to those pages. And what's worse, couldn't direct me to anybody who does.

Anyway, the site has now been spidered by google. And google effectively says virtually anything on the web is up for grabs (except for confidential information like social security numbers).

Well, to prevent this from happening again, I want to prevent the search engines from finding some webpages when I upload them to another site.

And here's a page that tells me how.

From what I gather, all you have to do is create a robots.txt file with the following commands:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

Alternatively, you can insert this meta tag in the HEAD section of the page



***

Here's google's instructions.

Steve Jobs steps down as Apple CEO

Steve Jobs has stepped down as CEO of Apple after nearly 14 years at the helm of the company he co-founded with Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in 1976, Apple's board of directors said in a statement after the close of trading on Wednesday. Jobs has been elected chairman of Apple's board.

The board has named Tim Cook, previously the company's chief operating officer, as Jobs' replacement as Apple's CEO and a member of the board, effective immediately, the statement said.

"Steve's extraordinary vision and leadership saved Apple and guided it to its position as the world's most innovative and valuable technology company," said Apple director and Genentech chairman Art Levinson, in the statement.

"Steve has made countless contributions to Apple's success, and he has attracted and inspired Apple's immensely creative employees and world class executive team. In his new role as chairman of the board, Steve will continue to serve Apple with his unique insights, creativity and inspiration."

Jobs submitted his resignation earlier Wednesday and "strongly recommended that the board implement its succession plan" and name Cook as CEO, the statement said.

Apple released Jobs' resignation letter, which read as follows:

"To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple's CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple's brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

—Steve

Jobs' first stint at Apple began with the company's founding on April 1, 1976 as a vehicle for selling Jobs' and Wozniak's Apple I personal computer kit. Wayne left shortly thereafter, but Jobs and Wozniak went on to help usher in the personal computing revolution with innovative machines that were among the first to use graphical user interfaces, helping knock IBM from its perch as the dominant PC vendor.

Jobs resigned from Apple in 1984 following a power struggle with its board of directors, going on to found the computer platform developer NeXT and help build Pixar Animation Studios. He returned to Apple in 1996 as a result of the company's buyout of NeXT, was named interim CEO in 1997, and became permanent CEO in 2000.

His second stint at Apple was even more successful than his first. Jobs rescued Apple from irrelevance with a string of popular products using the letter "i" as calling card—the iMac, iPod, iPhone, and iPad—and even referred to himself in 2000 as Apple's "iCEO."

In recent years, Jobs' health has led to extended leaves of absence from his regular duties as CEO. In the mid-2000s he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and in public appearances he appeared to have lost considerable weight.

He underwent a liver transplant in 2009, and in the ensuing years, Jobs had ceded many of his duties running Apple's day-to-day operations to Cook, though he still made public appearances at Apple product launches and its annual Worldwide Developers Conference, as well as hosting the company's quarterly earnings calls.

Hydrofracked?

I was never really interested in this topic, but it was the subject of much discussion at chucks_angels (well, it was a fair number of posts by a relatively few number of posters -- as is par for the course for these discussion groups).

The topic is how environmentally safe is fracking?

Apparently much of the recent discussion was ignited by a New York Times article.

[Hey, how safe is anything?]

*** [7/4/11]

Somewhat related: gurufocus commentary on New York Times vs. Aubrey McClendon

chinese inventions

The four great inventions of ancient China were: papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, printing. I get the other three, but the compass?

They also invented lots of other stuff.

[via veryearly1@chucks_angels, 2/24/10]

typing special characters

[6/24/11] For a while (meaning years) I've been trying to figure out how to insert a bullet point in google docs. When I copy and paste from the Credit Suisse daily report the bullets turn into exclamation points. However once in a while, the copy and paste actually turns into a bullet. So I could copy and paste that, if I could remember in what document it was in.

Anyway, I finally figured out (googled successfully) how to do it. It's ALT-0149. Found from this list.

[4/16/15] Actually, it's easier to type in ALT-7.

[4/6/17] I haven't been able to figure out how to type a bullet point on my HP 2000 laptop (I think it's not possible).  So I would google bullet point and copy and paste from that web page.

Here's another way via this 10 Amazing Websites video.  Go to notengoenie.com and click on the bullet point (the last item on the fifth row).  That copies it to your clipboard.

Kasparov and computers

Garry Kasparov supposedly is reviewing the book Chess Metaphors, but it actually sounds like he's writing his history of the evolution computers in the chess world.

[link via brknews, 2/12/10]

antimatter captured

Okay, so antimatter's nothing like lightning, really, but bottling it in a kind of containment field? Doesn't sound like the safest gig. More like something you'd catch Geordi La Forge trying during some wild hair zero-sum Star Trek plotline involving aliens, the Holodeck, rerouting power from life support, and a self-destruct sequence.

Thankfully nothing self-destructed when CERN researchers first created, then forced antihydrogen atoms to hang around for an unprecedented 16 minutes, 40 seconds. That's roughly 16 minutes and 40 seconds longer than the first attempt roughly a year ago, which only managed to snag antihydrogen for a trifling 172 milliseconds (about two-tenths of a second). The new results were published in Nature, impassively titled "Confinement of antihydrogen for 1,000 seconds."

recording to VCR is officially obsolete

The Navigator is the new interface for Oceanic cable boxes. It looks snazzier and I suppose it has some new features that I'll find useful (e.g. like finding shows).

However to me it's not an upgrade if you can't do something that you could do with the old version.

In particular, they have removed the record to VCR feature (actually I was using it to record to my DVD-recorder). What this feature allows you to do is to record to your VCR while watching another show. So now in order to record, you have to watch the same show that you're recording.

I confirmed that this feature has been removed when I chatted online with one of the Oceanic reps (or whoever he was working with). He said (or read from his prepared responses) that it was not supported because the VCR is "obsolete" technology. [here's the quote: "I am sorry, Mr. Ching, but that option is not available anymore, the VCR is an obsolete technology and we do not work with it anymore."] In other words, it is now obsolete to want to save shows for posterity?

I think it's more like the media companies don't want to kill sales of Blu-Ray disks or streaming video. So they're not supporting anything that might hamper their sales in any fashion.

***

Now I see at the Navigator link above, that there is a link for saving recordings to VHS. And actually it wasn't written in response to the removal of the Save To VCR feature. It was because the Navigator also removed support for external hard drives. So they provided instructions to save the recordings to VCR before the switchover to the new Navigator. So if you have recordings on an external hard drive and didn't save them -- too bad. I guess they are deeming external hard drives as obsolete technology too.

teachparentstech

TeachParentsTech.org is filled with more than 50 basic how-to videos that you can send to your parents, or really anyone who might need a little tech help. These videos cover a wide range of topics from copying and pasting to how to video chat (one that I had to deal with recently). Each video is very brief (less than a minute), so they should be able to sit through them without their eyes glazing over.

Zuckerberg Time's Person of the Year

For connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them, for creating a new system of exchanging information and for changing how we live our lives, Mark Elliot Zuckerberg is TIME's 2010 Person of the Year.

At 26, Zuckerberg is the youngest "Person of the Year" since the first one chosen, Charles Lindbergh; he was 25 when he was named in 1927, Time said Wednesday. Zuckerberg beat out Britain's Queen Elizabeth II by just two weeks: She was 26 when she was named in 1952.

Zuckerberg has built Facebook into an international phenomenon by stretching the lines of social convention and embracing a new and far more permeable definition of community. In this new world, users are able to construct a social network well beyond what would ever be possible face-to-face.

"I'm trying to make the world a more open place," Zuckerberg says in the "bio" line of his own Facebook page.

WarCraft II on Vista

For some reason, I thought WarCraft II didn't run on Vista. Maybe it's because I noted previously on my old CyberClub page that Vista didn't support IPX. Actually I never tried to run it.

But Libert called me tonight. He's back in Hawaii.

Got me to google WarCraft II and Vista and found there's a version that works on Vista. Available at war2custom.com. Don't feel like I'm pirating it because I already have like six legitimate copies of War2:BNE.

Downloaded and tried it and it runs on Vista. I think it's best launched by running War2Launcher. Didn't try to play with anybody. Apparently the only server that works is the Russian server.

***

[10/14/14]  Supposedly a few people at Blizzard were working to get War2 working on the newer operating systems (I assume Windows 7 and 8).  Well, it's been almost a year since the article.

my Blu-Ray player

Hey, got my Blu-Ray player. Got it from Sue who got it from Howard who apparently bought a new one. Sue didn't really need it because she only has standard def TV. (I guess I can give it back when she gets her wide-screen TV.)

I ran XXX: State of the Union on it and compared it to the DVD running on my DVD recorder. The picture does look sharper, but it's not as great of a difference as watching a show on a HD channel on cable vs. the SD channel. Well, for one thing, the DVD does show up as wide-screen. The second thing is that my TV is 720p so that the difference between 480p and 720p isn't as big as 480p and 1080p. (Though I read that it's hard to tell the difference between 720p and 1080p anyway.)

Another difference is that the spoken audio seems softer on the Blu-Ray. I think it's made to be played on audio equipment while I'm just using the sound on the TV. When I play other tracks, the sound is louder. Adjusting the Audio DRC setting on the player (as suggested in the manual) didn't seem to make much difference. But the audio track on the special feature was louder. And when I tried Kung Fu Hustle, the Chinese audio was louder than the English. Now I'm trying the XXX DVD on the Blu-Ray player and the sound does seem a little louder (trying to compare the spoken audio volume with the background music).

Another difference was that the subtitles were smaller and smoother. The DVD subtitles were more blocky and yellow, while the Blu-Ray subtitles were white.

One more thing. I tried playing a full frame DVD (The Mummy) on the Blu-Ray player and the picture was stretched to the edges of the screen (making everything look fatter). [Trying out my full-frame Star Trek: TOS DVD -- yep same thing.] My DVD recorder actually does the same thing, but if I force the HDMI mode back to 480p, then the picture has the proper aspect ratio. (see my earlier post below) I think the TV interprets anything over 480p as a wide-screen signal and stretches the signal. (Either that or the DVD player is stretching it.) The Blu-Ray player seems to upscale everything to 1080p (looking at the info display from the TV). I don't see anyway around it. Well, maybe if I hooked up the Blu-Ray player with the A/V cables to the composite input.. (A project for later just to satisfy my curiosity. ... Yep, that works.)

Anyway, based on this initial viewing I wouldn't say a Blu-Ray player is a must-have. The Blu-Ray picture is sharper, but isn't really a quantum-leap over a DVD. I think it would be be more of a difference if you have a 50" screen or bigger (I have a 42" plasma). Or have better eyes than me.

***

Playing the XXX: SOTU special feature on the Blu-Ray. The picture is stretched. Popping in the DVD into my DVD-Recorder shows that the special feature was shot in full-frame. Changing the TV aspect ratio to 4:3 shrinks the picture horizontally solves the problem for the DVD. But changing it to 4:3 on the Blu-Ray just cuts the sides off.

Don't notice any complaints on the internet about this. So maybe it's not a common problem to Blu-Ray players but a problem with my Panansonic TV. Maybe not, because I see in my anamorphic/non-anamorphic post below that the Sony had the same problem.)

... Now trying out the XXX Blu-Ray special feature with A/V cables. OK, that works. The output is 480i and switching to 4:3 doesn't cut off the edges. Actually the picture isn't that bad. I bet a lot of people hook up their Blu-Ray player that way (especially if the player didn't come with an HDMI cable in the box) and think they're watching Hi-Def.

***

Now I'm trying my Criterion Collection Armageddon which is non-anamorphic wide-screen. I'm surprised to see it display at the proper aspect ratio with the Panasonic TV in full mode. But actually it's apparently automatically zooming the picture because when I turn on the sub-titles the bottom line is cut off. I guess that's a choice that Sony made, to automatically zoom non-anamorphic DVDs?

When I play the same DVD on my Toshiba DVD-Recorder in full mode, the picture is stretched horizontally. I have to set it to 480p mode on the DVD player and 4:3 or zoom on the TV to get the proper proportion. Zoom fills the screen horizontally. (Again, it's in the post below.)

***

[11/20/11] OK found the fix to the problem on page 41 of the manual. Changed the Screen Format in Video Settings from Original to Fixed Aspect Ratio. "Changes the picture size to fit the screen size with the original picture aspect ratio."

XXX: SOTU feature now plays fine with black bars on each side. Also tested The Mummy Returns, King of Queens, Three Stooges. All OK. Dog Whisperer Season 2 and 3. Both are wide-screen, but non-anamorphic, so the picture is small with black borders on top and bottom as well as the sides (you can still zoom it with the TV). Season 4 is wide-screen, anamorphic and filled the screen as it should.

[7/25/12] I don't know if this is the same problem, but when I play my DVR-R recordings of widescreen, the aspect ratio is fine when I play it on the TV via HDMI (though the whole picture is shrunk, so I zoom it). But when playing it via the composite connection, when I zoom it, it just zooms vertically to fill the top and bottom bars, but the side bars remain.  So the picture looks squeezed from the sides.

Popping in my Armageddon, the picture now looks fine in full mode on the TV.  [Actually the picture looks pretty good - the Blu-Ray must be automatically upscaling]  Though the sub-titles are still cut off.

Setting the Blu-Ray player from fixed aspect ratio to original.  And back to Dogs In The City.  The picture via HDMI now looks stretched horizontally.  But via composite, the 4:3 and zoom modes look in proportion.

Putting back in Armageddon.  The picture still looks stretched vertically in zoom mode.  OK, I dunno.  I guess I'll have to work it on a case-by-case basis.  Between full and zoom.  And between original and fixed aspect ratio.

WTH Oceanic DVR?

I just took a look at the shows recorded on my Oceanic DVR. Only three are left!

Somehow they all got set to erase after a certain amount of days and those older than a couple of weeks are gone!

And the option to change the save time of the recorded ones is gone (at least I don't see it now).

I'm pissed, err I mean somewhat upset... Well good thing I recorded most of the ones I wanted to keep already.

***

OK, now I see the option to change save time. Select the show and the option is two above Play. (The option is missing for the show currently being played.) It's like I turned on the option to auto-erase without realizing it. I'll blame it on myself this time, unless I see a bunch of other complaints around this time.

I still think the box reset and the settings changed. The power did get unplugged this morning.

Looking more. Turning on auto-erase shouldn't have erased the shows that were set to do not erase. So I'm back to blaming Oceanic.

***

Hey cool. I see it's possible to upgrade your DVR (this model anyway) by plugging in an external hard drive.

Watson wins on Jeopardy (baby)

Machines first out-calculated us in simple math. Then they replaced us on the assembly lines, explored places we couldn't get to, even beat our champions at chess. Now a computer called Watson has bested our best at "Jeopardy!"

A gigantic computer created by IBM specifically to excel at answers-and-questions left two champs of the TV game show in its silicon dust after a three-day tournament, a feat that experts call a technological breakthrough.

Watson earned $77,147, versus $24,000 for Ken Jennings and $21,600 for Brad Rutter. Jennings took it in stride writing "I for one welcome our new computer overlords" alongside his correct Final Jeopardy answer.

***

I was watched the end of it today. Actually it seemed that Jennings and Rutter knew the answers too (hey if I knew some of the answers, I know they did), but that the machine beat them to the buzzer. You could see the frustration especially with Jennings tapping the buzzer with his thumb.

So of course the computer is going to be faster than the human. It would have been a lot closer if all of them were allowed to answer the questions instead of making it a reflex contest.

Actually thinking about it from that perspective, it was kind of amazing that the humans did as well as they did.

recycle your bottles

Reynolds Recycling, one of the state's largest recyclers of deposit beverage containers, has begun accepting and paying for glass containers not marked HI-5 now that the city is paying recyclers more for handling nondeposit glass.

Reynolds will pay 4 cents a pound for nondeposit, clean, empty, unbroken glass bottles and jars at any of its 33 Oahu redemption centers. That goes for everything from wine and hard-liquor bottles to jelly and cosmetic jars.

A champagne bottle weighs about 2 pounds, and an average wine bottle about 1.6 pounds.

power, then no power, then power, etc.

Here's an odd one.

I took home Florida's computer which they said wouldn't boot. I plugged it in and as I soon as I plugged in the power cord the thing powered up! (Didn't press the power button.)

So all seemed well. I then saw the thing had only 256MB of memory. It turns out it took DDR memory and I found I had a 128MB module available and inserted it.

Plug everything back in and no power! OK, now I see their problem.

Remove the added memory. Still no power.

OK, unplug it. And put back the other computer.

A day or so later, I try plugging it in again and it worked!

OK, try shut down. Pull out the power cord. Wait a couple of minutes. Plug in the power cord again. Doesn't power up again!

Dunno. Maybe it's the power supply?

I guess I can try put in another. Or just wait until the next day and try again.

Stay tuned..

3D without glasses

Introducing the Nintendo 3DS

looking for memory for slow computer

I notice computers running slower and slower these days. Including my own.

They still run into performance problems even after I reinstall Windows (usually XP), though it seems better for a while.

I think the problem was that these computers used to be acceptably fast when they first came out, but that Microsoft kept putting more and more junk into XP so that it taxes the system and it starts to run out of memory (and so goes to the hard drive to use virtual memory). That's my guess anyway.

So now I'm looking to upgrade memory.

A "standard" site to buy memory from seems to be crucial.com. They have a neat system scanner that scans your system, tells you what you have in your system, and makes recommendations on what to buy.

For example, my current system is a Dell Dimension 2400 with two memory modules (one 256MB and one 128MB, both DDR 2700). According to the scanner, "Each memory slot can hold DDR PC2700, DDR PC3200 with a maximum of 1GB per slot." That's good to know.

What's the difference between PC2700 and PC3200? (Shows you how out of touch I am these days.) The speed. PC3200 is the faster speed with peak transfer rate of 3200MB per second.

Let's see. Crucial is selling the 1GB module for $46.99.

[a couple days later -- actually the key to notice is DDR which stands for Double-Data Rate. I now see it's different than the old SIMMs. I assume the old SIMMs must be SDRAM (single data rate) See below.]

On ebay, I see two 512MB modules for $23.88. Only PC2100 DDR. Hey half price. 2GB for $54.48. Darn, free shipping only to 48 states.

OK, ramhut sells 1GB PC2700 for $38.95. $34.90 starting bid. I dunno. I might spring for the extra $8 and buy from Crucial.

deedan92: two 512MB modules for $24.88 (used).

fsgw: PC3200 1GB DDR SDRAM 1 GB PC 3200 DDR400 1G RAM 184 pin for $14.99 plus $6.99 shipping. So $21.98. Doesn't state compatibility though.

***

[1/20] Looking to pop in more memory into Florida's computer which has only 256MB. I notice it takes DDR memory too. I found a 128MB DDR module (I think from Tanaka) and I notice it's physically different from the myriad other SIMMs that I have lying around. OK, so much for upgrading all these computers. [Ugh, popped it in anyway and now Florida's computer doesn't power up. I guess that was the original problem.]