July 2005 Archives

According to this story posted on Broadcasting & Cable, the US Senate is still full of baffled, bewildered, and bollixed lawmakers seething at the thought of unregulated peer-to-peer file sharing.

The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee Thursday issued a stern warning to operators of file-sharing networks and Internet service providers that Congress will impose penalties on them if the industries don't do more to stop illegal downloading of music, movies and TV shows.

"We are going to be watching," said panel chairman Ted Stevens, adding that he is disappointed file sharing companies haven't done more in the wake of the Supreme Court's Grokster decision holding P2P liable for copyright violations if they encourage copying without compensation of the artists, record labels and studios that produced the content.

"We've got to find some way of protecting our intellectual property. We can't expect people abroad to protect our intellectual property if we can't protect it at home," he said during a hearing on the impact of the Grokster case. ...

Reading this made me wonder a couple of things. First, why haven't the lawmakers gotten this upset about roads? Our highway system is used by far more people than P2P networks, and I'd bet that as much, if not more (I'm too lazy to look up figures), stolen property (dollar-wise) is transported on highways each year than on P2P networks. Why aren't they threatening the state transportation departments with added oversight and regulation unless they police their roads more effectively (e.g., mandatory searches on every trip, signed agreements by motorists who want to transport something on the roadway, etc.)? Other than the digital/corporeal difference, why aren't P2P networks and a roadway networks subject to the same standards?

Second, Senator Stevens obviously has no clue about technology, innovation, or world commerce, but how can he believe that our development of P2P networks, one of the most powerful concepts overlaid on the Internet, is somehow encouraging people in China and India and elsewhere to pirate content? Does he really think the guy standing on a Shanghai street corner selling low-quality DVD copies of Revenge of the Sith is doing it because he thinks "well, the Americans use their P2P networks, so this must be OK"?

If the senators are so concerned about this copyright violation problem, why don't they worry about enforcing the copyright laws we already have instead of adding new regulation that will only stifle technological innovation?

Like many consumer electronics and technology addicts, I have drawers full of aging gadgets that, while they still work, no longer meet any of my needs. Here's a sample of such things from the closest drawer to where I'm sitting at the moment:

- Powered 4-port USB 1.1 hub with A/C adapter
- US Robotics PalmPilot Personal with cradle
- Leather case for a PEG-N series Sony Clie PDA
- Sony Walkman Sport portable FM/cassette player
- Aiwa HS-T50 portable FM/cassette player
- PalmPilot modem
- Palm m100 PDA
- Realistic (Radio Shack) microcassette recorder
- USB1.1 Smartmedia flash card reader

What the heck do I do with this stuff? No one thing will fetch more than $10 on ebay, if that much, making it not worth the time to sell them individually. Nobody is going to want the whole batch of stuff, either. Donating it to Goodwill or the like without manuals isn't a very appealing option either, since they'd probably end up throwing the stuff away for lack of knowing what it's for. And I just can't bring myself to throw perfectly functional tech into the garbage...I just can't do it.

Any suggestions?

Google continues to innovate and improve the web experience. Bless 'em. A feature that was just recently turned on is the ability to add any RSS feed directly into your Google Personalized Home page (which resides at http://www.google.com/ig). The screenshot below tells the story.

Adam Boettiger, long-time Palm community member, recently penned some extensive thoughts for a mailing list on his experience with the PalmOne LifeDrive Mobile Manager, a multimedia Palm OS handheld equipped with a 4GB hard drive.

Thought I'd share my initial experiences with the LifeDrive for those considering upgrading. Hope this is useful.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Poor buying experience from Palm Store. Some difficulty setting up,
primarily with apps that conflicted. After that was resolved I am very pleased with it overall, with the exception of the lag time issue.

DETAILED COMMENTS

Buying experience - As I have done with all of my Palms back to the first unit, I called the Palm Store 800# to order via phone. Evidently the unit is popular or they are understaffed, as I was on hold for approx 10 minutes. Most consumers would not wait this long to order a product by phone. They'd be off to an OEM or retail outlet, or another store online.

Like many considering upgrading I looked at their Special Offers currently in place, which are A) Trade in / Trade up for $50 gift cert and B) $100 off if you sign up for a year of Audible.com membership.

Since I could not use the gift cert until I received it, I decided to go for the $100 off for one year membership to Audible.com, which is advertised on the Palm site at $21.95/month.

Initially on this page I was confused as to whether or not this promotion applied to the LifeDrive.

http://www.palm.com/us/products/mobilemanagers/lifedrive/

If you scroll down to the special offers and click to launch the popup that features details of the Audible offer, they list all units BUT the LifeDrive. I clarified with the Palm sales rep that the Audible.com offer *is* available for LifeDrive purchases.

What Palm does not tell you in the details of this offer is that there is another plan other than the Premium Member Audible plan at $21.95/month. From a marketing standpoint I imagine Palm is being paid a kickback per membership sold and it makes sense from their standpoint to only display the Premium Membership option.

However, from a consumer standpoint, they're probably losing a lot of sales because they are not listing the alternative, which is a regular membership at $14.95/month. I did not find this out until I asked if there were other plans. So if you're ordering via the Palm Store, know that there is a lesser expensive alternative. I don't think they meant to omit the lesser plan on purpose. Most likely it was a mistake. I dunno.

The Palm rep experienced problems three times trying to create an Audible account for me before she finally succeeded. From a usability standpoint, it made no sense to me whatsoever that Audible.com is making the Palm reps create user ID's and passwords and checking which are available while the customer is on the phone. This could have easily been much smoother by just taking my information, processing the order, sending me an email with instructions on how to set up my user ID and password on my own time. It seemed awkward to have the rep do it.

In any case, ultimately I was on hold for a total of 30+ minutes, between wait time in and processing time etc. I finally decided that it was taking too long and it was too difficult to order, so I cancelled the order and drove down to my local Staples and bought it from one of their OEM's. I don't normally ever do this and prefer dealing with Palm directly. Normally
they are very good. This time it was like having a root canal trying to buy the product via the Palm Store and combine it with the offer.

At Staples I purchased the LifeDrive, Hard Case and Universal Keyboard - at retail prices, unfortunately; so Palm Store lost a sale and Audible.com lost a potential annual customer. Perhaps someone from Palm is monitoring this list and can do something to make the process a bit smoother.

One of the coolest technologies that I've seen - that makes perfect sense - is used by my Power Company. You call them and if the queue time is longer than three minutes, they give you the option to leave your name and number and have a rep call you back, all without losing your place in the queue. I really wished that Palm had invested in this technology as it is especially great when you are calling from your mobile phone. They just call you back. It's so simple. So practical. I can't believe more companies are not doing it. They're probably losing a lot of sales due to long hold times.

SET-UP

Set up went fairly smoothly, however there are a couple of different ways to upgrade from your current user ID / old unit during a hot synch. These only apply to those of us who already have a profile and data and want it transferred to the new unit.

Method #1: Use the same user ID / Profile Name and follow the install instructions. Hot synch etc. The major problem with this method of upgrading is that it does not just import your core data files - Tasks, Address Book, Memos, Notes. It imports all of your apps from your old machine as well, and some are not compatible with the LifeDrive.

Naively, I tried this method first thinking it would be faster. Don't do it. I ended up having to go through several soft resets and finally a hard reset before I did it the way I should have in the first place, which is:

HOW TO MOVE YOUR CORE DATA FILES FROM OLD PALM TO LIFEDRIVE THE PAINLESS WAY

This may or may not be obvious to some long-time Palm users, but I'm including it because inevitably one or more new users ask this question - how do I move data?

On previous OS, moving your data from one Palm to a new one was fairly easy by locating the files and dragging them to overwrite the same files in the new user.

On the LifeDrive, here is the best and fastest way to move your core data (Addresses, Datebook, Tasks, Memos, Notes):

1. You're going to be using the Export/Import function of the Palm Desktop program to export your old core data files to a temporary directory and then change identities and then import those files into your new LifeDrive identity. If you know how to do this, read no further.

If you've done what I described above, you should have two identities, the old one from your old unit and the new one that you created for the LifeDrive.

2. Launch the Palm Desktop program.

3. There should be a dropdown menu that allows you to switch between identities. Click to select your OLD identity, i.e. The data that you want to move to the LifeDrive.

4. On the text menu, choose:

File > Export

You should see a drop down list of the core data files available for export, with the Calendar/Datebook being first. Where your cursor is change the name of the file to be exported from "Untitled" to "Datebook-Export" and then create a TEMP directory (so you'll know where it is) called "Palm Old Export".

Click the "Export" button. Repeat this for each file, exporting them to the same temporary directory.

5. Go back up to the identity dropdown menu and change identities from your OLD identity to your NEW LifeDrive identity.

On the text menu choose:

File > Import

And then locate the directory and files that you just exported. Import them into the new identity and you're done. Two minutes.

USAGE

The only thing that I do not like so far about the LifeDrive is the lag time. Lag time occurs in two areas:

1. When you power on the machine, it acts much like a computer does in booting up the OS. It is not the "Instant On" that we had all hoped for. Not even close to the T-3 or T-5 which are fairly instantaneous.

2. A second lag occurs during usage. Simply moving from one app to another, there is a noticeable lag time - half a second or longer. Earlier someone on this list indicated that they tried installing apps on an SD RAM card and booting from there, rather than the handheld, and that doing so seemed to be faster.

I have not tried that yet, but IMHO we should not have to do that just to get the device to work as quickly as earlier-released units.

Definitely get the Palm Hard Case. It is elegant, titanium-looking with a black rubber bumper. The unit slides in vertically and there are holes in the case for the reset button, stylus, cradle plug etc., allowing the user to use the unit while it is in the hard case. Very nice design.

The hot synch socket is less than optimal. It is a breakaway type, with separate areas to plug in power and synch. The unit does NOT come with a cradle charger, but rather a poorly-designed Hot Synch cord and charger. You must plug both cords into the bottom of the unit to charge and synch. There is a Hot synch button on the cord that you can push to initiate the hot
synch process.

IMHO the cord it comes with is less than optimal and was likely created so to encourage users to shell out the extra $49 for a cradle charger. Sadly, I would recommend that you do buy the cradle charger.

Those are my observations thus far. The biggest things to remember if you are upgrading to the LifeDrive is to NOT try to use your existing UserID/Profile, but create a completely new user via the Palm Desktop, install the basic software via the CD. Before you start adding third party apps, go into the Palm folder using Windows Explorer or the Mac Finder. Locate your old core database files for Tasks, Contacts, Calendar and Notes. Back them up by creating a copy of each file in a "Backup" folder, "just in case". Then drag them from your old UserID/Profile to the same positions in your new UserID/Profile to overwrite the LifeDrive files. Test it to make sure you have your old core stuff in those apps, then install ONE third party app per day. It is hard to wait, but you'll be happier in the long run and have a more stable LifeDrive.

Hope this helps some of you!

Overall I am very pleased with it and I upgraded from the T-3.

Cheers from Portland, Oregon,

/AB
--
Adam Boettiger
boettiger@pobox.com
IM: AdamJBoettiger
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I recently followed a link from LostRemote.com (a TV/press industry blog) to a news story on MSNBC.com. There, I wanted to watch a brief, free video about one of the stories.

First, you can't do this in Firefox -- the MSNBC.com site won't let you access any of its multimedia content (hosted by MSN Video) unless you use Microsoft's browser. Strike 1.

Second, you have to have at least version 9 of Windows Media Player installed. No other formats are offered for guests not willing, or able, to use Microsoft's multimedia player. Strike 2.

Third, the site requires you to have Macromedia Flash 7 installed into Internet Explorer in order to watch the video (why, I have no clue). But, once installed, you have to completely reboot your system. Other browsers' handling of plug-ins is much less ridiculous -- a simple restarting of the browser app (NOT a complete shutdown of Windows) is all that's required. Strike 3.

Sorry, Microsoft, I'm not going to update and/or install 3 pieces of software and restart my entire computer just to watch a news story clip. Despite your claims that you "get" the Internet, you certainly don't understand the diversity inherent in the Internet community. You can't be, and you certainly aren't, the best solution to everyone's computing needs, so why lock out those from your partner's (NBC) content whose needs have advanced past your offerings? If you're going to start convincing us that you're not a monopoly, you'll have to first stop acting like one.

TiVo's (relatively) new TiVo To Go feature is really nifty -- I use it a lot more than I expected I would. In a nutshell, TiVo To Go allows you to download TiVo'd content onto computers on your home's network (assuming your TiVo is networked) and watch them on those devices (handy on a laptop if you want to take your shows with you on a trip or commute). You can also burn DVDs of the shows (for backup) if you purchase a 3rd party app for $50 or so.

The central software component that allows all this is TiVo Desktop, which interfaces with your TiVo. Besides allowing downloads, TiVo Desktop also shares photos and music with your TiVo so you can use it like a networked media device.

Well, all that's cool, but I really didn't want to have to install all the communications stuff that comes with TiVo Desktop just to watch content on my networked PCs. TiVo Desktop installs several TSRs that, if I'm not using TiVo Desktop's media functions, do nothing except chew up PC resources and generate network traffic.

Well, lo and behold, Jamie Attilah came up with a really cool hack (not really a hack, just some clever programming) that lets you watch your TiVo content on a PC without installing TiVo Desktop. Check out his TiVoToGo DirectShow Filter hack.

You still have to have a key DLL (TiVoDirectShow.dll) and you still have to have all the media access keys and everything, so this isn't circumventing the DRM. But Jamie's app will automatically register the DLL and let you set up your media access key and media passwords in the registry (necessary to unlock the .tivo files to play within WMP). Works like a charm and I'm appreciative...thanks, Jamie!

p.s. Yeah, it's been a while since my last post. Sorry about that...been busy.

I was able to see a sneak preview of Fantastic Four, the latest of a long line of movie adaptations of Marvel comic series. Given the heritage of the venerable FF comic, expectations for this movie have been exceedingly high.

Without giving away any of the plot, and without going into any depth about the characters (you can find that many other places anyway), I will say this: it is not a fantastic movie.

The casting/acting was variable -- I thought Torch and Thing were OK, but Invisible Girl and Mr. Fantastic were awful. Dr. Doom was nothing special either.

Special effects were OK, but certainly nothing cutting edge or new.

The script, and writing in general, was perhaps one of the more awful things I've seen on screen. It was sophomoric and completely without nuance or subtlety. The audience is bludgeoned over the head with every piece of information -- even the foreshadowing is nothing but stale and obvious plays on words, generally eliciting groans when it's even acknowledged.

My brother-in-law, who runs FFPlaza.com, a Fantastic Four fansite, gave it a 6 out of 10. I think when your most ardent fans pan it like that, the rest of us schlubs don't have much to look forward to. At least it ain't Daredevil.

My wife's GSM Treo 600 (yes, a hand-me-down, but a nice one) started acting up a couple weeks ago. 90% of the time when I turned on the cellular radio, it would soft reset. A new SIM card and every kind of Palm OS reset known to man failed to fix it, so I started casting about for options: repair, replace, anything. Her daily glares from not having a working cellphone were strong motivation.

PalmOne wanted a flat $179 to fix it, plus $25 for an advance exchange (I get the new one before sending the old one back, saving my wife ~10 more days without a PDA). Steep. Buying a new one, or even a used on ebay was just as costly, if not more so ($190+ with new ones hovering around $240).

Then I decided to call T-Mobile, just to see if they could help me out. I was skeptical since I hadn't purchased the phone from them in the first place. But lo and behold, they came through! Because the phone was out of warranty (by 5 months..grrr), they offered to charge me just $70 for a replacement Treo 600 via advance exchange (it would have been free had the phone been less than a year old). I was stunned, but the very pleasant and helpful Tier 1 (Treo) support guy on the phone assured me they do this all the time for T-Mobile customers.

So, yesterday a small brown box appeared with the daily mail. In it was a new (I'm sure not refurbished) Treo 600 with a return postage-paid label included. I just swapped the SIM and SD cards, restored the RAM image from the old device to the new device (thanks, BackupMan!), and the phones were effectively switched. The longest part of the whole swap process was removing, washing, and applying the Brando permanent screen protector the old Treo had on it. Tomorrow I'll drop the bundled up old Treo off at the Post Office and that will be that. Could it be any easier? I doubt it.

I gotta say, folks can gripe all they want about T-Mobile, but my personal experience with them so far (2+ years now) has been nothing but highly satisfying. I've always had pleasant, competent people on the phone and in the store, and their rates are among the most reasonable available. What's not to love?

Bush Is Serving Up the Cold War Warmed Over is well-written and insightful. It's recommended reading for anybody willing to think about the state of our union (those of you with "God Bless President Bush and Our Troops" bumper stickers can ignore this message).

Rob Griffiths at MacWorld writes up why podcasting is a fad (my words, not his).

My interpretation of is article is that podcasting is popular at the moment only because it is new, and I would have to agree with that.

Let me clarify: by "fad," I mean something popular with the masses, and by "podcasting," I mean producing podcasts, not listening to them. Producing high-quality audio content is hard work, and producing low-quality audio content isn't nearly as easy as producing written content (such as what you're reading now), so I think that a lot of people currently producing podcasts will give it up fairly soon and we'll be left with (a) those with something interesting enough to say that they become/remain popular, and (b) professional outfits using podcasts as a supplemental channel.