Category: Computing

June 30, 2008

My Apple Airport Extreme Base Station Woes

I apologize for the recent 3 days of GearBits.com outage. The cause was my shift from an old Netgear 802.11g router/access point to a shiny new Apple Airport Extreme 802.11n router.

The problems were several, but suffice to say that the main unresolved issue lays in the AE's inability to suck down DHCP information from my ISP. Is it the AE's fault or my ISP's fault? I don't know...it just doesn't work. So, after figuring that out and entering in all the data manually, I now have to reset the broadband modem each time I update the router's configuration.

Sure it's a pain-in-the-ass, but now we have 802.11n (my laptop says it's connected at 144mbps) and I'll soon be adding an external drive to the AE for some inexpensive NAS action.

Anyway, things are back up and they should pretty much stay that way until I switch out the webserver sometime in the next week or so (the 5+-year-old WinXP machine, which is powered by a 1.2GHz AMD Athlon with 512 megs of RAM will soon be replaced by a new dual-core Mac Mini, so the site should be a bit more responsive).

So, sorry again...I'll now return you to your arguments over how much Time Warner Cable sucks, griping about FedEx Smartpost, and reminiscing about TV shows from your childhood.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Wireless
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June 21, 2008

Share Large Files with Wikisend

Have an attachment too big to email? Wikisend makes it pretty easy to distribute files up to 100MB in size without a lot of hassle. And it's free, and free is good.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Internet
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June 5, 2008

Mitch's Hot/Not List

Mitch, seeing my Hot/Not list from yesterday, compiled his own, so here it is:

HOT

iPod Touch - I tried the Archos 605 Wi-Fi first and its mediocrity makes the Touch that much more delightful. I really love well done user interfaces and this one is first rate. My only complaint is its picky eating habits when it comes to video formats.
iMac - I waited longer than any other tech purchase to finally go with Apple's all-in-one desktop PC. I opted for the top of the line 3.06 GHz 24" model and have been completely blown away by it. So far I have found no flaws. It is stunning.
High Gas Prices - Innovation rocks and if it takes $5/gallon gasoline to get us out of this oil addiction then I'm more than willing to pay my dues. Fewer SUVs and pickups, electric cars, solar energy, alternative fuels, more big butts on bicycles, less traffic congestion; I'm all for it. Let's drop our consumption by half and let OPEC drink their devalued crude.
Synology - A NAS will soon be as ubiquitous on a home network as the router is today. The clever, feature-filled offerings from Synology are the best of the breed. I'll have a DS508 please!
Subaru - Totally agree with Craig here. I've been
in Imprezas now going on six years and I still feel like I'm cheating when I share the road with normal cars. Scoobys are fabulous.
Ken Follett's Historical Novels - "The Pillars of the Earth" and "World Without End" are two of my favorite books of all time and I just took them in this Spring. I listened to both on my iPod (over 40 hours each) after downloading them from Audible and they made a month of 1000 mile weekly commutes totally enjoyable. Masterful stuff.
CrossFit - I was in good shape 20 years ago and at 44 I can wipe the floor with my 24 year old self (if that was possible). I've been CrossFitting for almost a year now and some of the things I can do now would have seemed outlandish back then.

NOT

General Motors - If you Google dinosaur, out of touch, lethargic, and unimaginative you should pull up GM's home page. I used to be a fan, but they have been disappointing me for 25 years now and don't seem to be planning any big changes. The sooner they finish themselves off, the better off we'll be.
Labor Unions - Working in the industrial world I cross paths with unions
of all sorts way more than I would like. I completely understand why our manufacturing sector is fleeing to other countries. I have never seen such a lazy, selfish, destructive, regressive bunch of people in my life. They can't all be like that, but the ones I've met surely are.
Sheeple-Filled Corporate IT Departments - My 26,000 strong corporation is going to switch to Vista because they don't want to be left with no anti-virus support for their XP platform. Goodbye nice warm frying pan and hello fire.
Cable/Satellite TV - I'm SO tired of paying $80 a month for a bunch of
garbage that I would never watch even if I had the time. It won't be long until I cut that cord and start rolling my own TV. If I could just decide which way I want to do it!
Global Markets - I realize that even the lowliest trader in/on most investment banks/trading floors/commodities exchanges is smarter than I am, but I would really love to see them use those brains rather than run with every emotion that riffles through the world markets. Do investors even pay attention to P/E ratios or supply and demand or is it all about what the hot analyst is saying or the sheeple are doing?

Posted by Craig in Cars and Computing and Health & Medicine and Home A/V and Industry and Internet and Mobile & PDAs and Movies & Books and Music & Audio and Popular Media and Science & Nature and Society / Politics and Technology and Wireless
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June 4, 2008

GearBits' First Hot/Not List

I've been remiss on posting, so I thought I'd assemble a whole mess of opinions in one place. Over the past several weeks or so, I've come to appreciate some things/companies and have come to be disappointed in others. So, here's a quick run-down:

HOT

Shutterfly - always gets me great-looking prints/books in a timely manner at low prices.
Google - just keeps rolling out the innovative, useful, and well-designed web apps
Subaru - they just make terrific cars...durable, high-performing, and affordable
Amazon.com - with reasonably good, if not great, prices, excellent customer service, and a stellar website, what's not to like?
Subnotes - The sudden rash of low-power, low-weight, cheap laptops coming out (which I predicted would happen back at the beginning of the year) is a joy to behold...portable computing for everyone!
NPR - Always informative, enjoyable, and worth supporting.
Logitech Cordless Presenter - Have had it for two years now, am still on the first set of AAA batteries, it has taken tons of abuse, and it still works perfectly. Amazing!
Private Electric Car Companies - It's as if we're on the cusp of another time like the 1920's, when every town seemed to have a local car manufacturer, except now they're all electric, hybrid, or alterna-fuel vehicles (a very good thing).

NOT

Archos - if my 605 Wi-Fi completely hangs on me one more time, I swear I'm going to chuck it off an overpass (I'll post more about this later)
Palm - if my Treo 700p resets on me one more time, I swear I'm going to chuck...aw, who am I kidding? It'll probably reset before I finish this post. C'mon Android...fill this void in my gadget-hoarding soul, will you?
Megalomaniacal Corporate IT Departments - I hope the day comes soon when we can definitively show that the TCO actually improves when you let corporate tech users select their own personal devices.
Flash memory format proliferation - I mean, seriously, do we really need SD, MiniSD, and MicroSD? It's getting as bad as the dang Memory Stick (and that's saying something).
Download-only music stores - I may be in the minority, but I just don't like the DRM associated with most online music stores. And even without the DRM, the cost seems too much if I'm not getting permanent physical media, liner notes/art, etc. Call me old school if you like...go ahead, it only hurts a little.
Intel's Marketing department - Seriously, guys, could you make keeping track of your product lines any more difficult and confusing?
Getting older - I am no longer the kid I still think of myself as being.

So what are your Hot and Not?

Posted by Craig in Cars and Computing and Home A/V and Industry and Internet and Mobile & PDAs and Phones and Popular Media and Technology and Wireless
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May 14, 2008

Fixed the 'Power Drain During Hibernate' Bug on my Fujitsu LifeBook

Recently, I got a Fujitsu LifeBook P8010 ultraportable. It's a black, shiny beauty with ports and features a-plenty. And at just 2.9 lbs, it certainly won't break my back.

But (and there always seems to be a "but") the notebook had this annoying tendency to drain power even while hibernated. I'd hibernate it on, say, Friday afternoon with the battery at 100% and, when I turned it on again Monday morning, the battery would be at 40%. That's certainly not the way hibernate in Windows XP is supposed to work (for the unfamiliar, hibernate writes the contents of RAM to the hard drive and then shuts down everything; it takes longer to resume than Standby mode, but it doesn't draw on the battery...or at least it's not supposed to).

After Googling for an answer, I came up with nothing. Calling Fujitsu lead to some less-than-satisfactory results:

Call 1: Tier 1 support tells me this is normal. I argue differently; none of the other three Windows XP laptops I have do this. She refers me to Tier 2.

Call 2: Tier 2 says it's not normal and, because the unit is obviously drawing power when not in use (and, therefore, producing heat), they'd rather have me send it in than risk self-combusting in my bag (I added the self-combusting part). Five days later, and after spending $33.75 in postage out of my own pocket, the LifeBook returns with a new motherboard. Same problem.

I start seriously searching around for an explanation. I discover that some Lenovo Thinkpads don't react well to Wake-on-LAN (where the laptop can be resumed from sleep/hibernate when it receives a special packet via its Ethernet port). I check my Windows Control Panel settings; the computer's Ethernet controller is set to permit Wake-on-LAN. I disable it. I then delve into the BIOS and disable Wake-on-LAN there, too.

So far, no battery drain when hibernated.

How could something this simple escape the resources of a giant, experienced computer maker like Fujitsu?

I want my $33.75 back.

Posted by Craig in Computing
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May 1, 2008

Infochaining the Social Net for Personal Productivity

Yesterday at lunch I demonstrated for a colleague a rather ridiculous, Rube Goldbergian reminder mechanism consisting of Web 2.0 information management and communication tools.

I called Jott and told it to contact Sandy with a message to feed the parking meter in 30 minutes. A half hour later, Sandy sent my Twitter account a direct message, which ended up arriving to my phone via text message. I also had an email message waiting for me, just in case.

Sure, it's absurd to do something like that for a task so trivial as reminding yourself to refresh a parking meter, but it does demonstrate how amazingly interconnected these mobile/web tools are becoming.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Internet and Mobile & PDAs and Technology
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April 26, 2008

Famous Look-Alikes: Steve Ballmer and Peter Boyle

Why does Steve Ballmer (photo borrowed from Gizmodo)

keep reminding me of Peter Boyle in Young Frankenstein?

Seriously...is it just me?

Posted by Craig in Computing and Industry and Movies & Books
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April 3, 2008

In Defense of Email

Over at Gizmodo, I came across this entry musing about the pervasiveness of text messaging (apparently not written by a European):

"...I began to wonder about the phenomenon of text messaging as a whole. Sometimes it seems that it would make more sense to call or send an email, but that crap is for old people."

Perhaps I'm mistaken in believing the merits of email should be obvious and that nobody can honestly believe that texting is superior for all, or even most, occasions. So, I thought I'd put together a brief table outlining what I consider the advantages of each technology:

	Text Messaging	Email	Comments
Synchronicity (absence of delay between send and receive)	High Near-instantaneous delivery	Moderate Delivery can be delayed	A clear advantage for texting
Convenience	High Included in all phones	Moderate Increasingly common	Not as much of a difference as even a year ago
Ease-of-Use	High	High	Good mobile email clients are no harder to use than most Texting interfaces
Flexibility	Low 160-character limit	High What can't email do?	Attachments, long messages, and rich text are all things email does easily but that texting doesn't do well, if at all
Archiving	Low no long-term storage	High email archives are forever	Some messages you don't care about referencing in the future, but can you be sure when you send it that you won't care?
Cost	High $0.10+ apiece when not bought in bulk	Low Free with any Internet service	Some may find this contentious, but I pay extra for texting on my cellular account whereas email is just part of my overall Internet connectivity fee

I think the biggest drawback I see to texting is the whole temporal retention issue. I rely extensively on my ability to search through my emails, both professional and personal, sometimes going back years to look up something. In contrast, I don't know anyone who saves their text messages for even more than a few months. I asked a classful of college seniors how long they kept text messages on their phones. Less than 10% keep them longer than a week!

Do I txt? Yep, everyday, but I still use email a lot more. I'm not going to pull the "age = wisdom" card and claim that "old people" (per the Gizmodo story) use email more because they're wiser (I'm not even sure I'd be considered "old"), but my perception is that email offers a lot of advantages that texting just can't match right now.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Internet and Mobile & PDAs and Phones and Society / Politics and Technology
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April 1, 2008

Bringing Social to the Desktop: The Buddy Bar

The sheer power of social computing had me wondering how I could best capture some of these new technologies in my everyday life. What occurred to me was that I spend a lot of time sharing: links, stories, photos, videos, etc. Sure, there are lots of tools for sharing these days. Sites like Digg and the sharing feature in Google Reader are just two examples.

But those tools rely on my friends/colleagues to use those same tools, go to those sites, or interface with them in some other new way. No, what I'd really like is a sharing interface that spans multiple media and methods. My idea for that is...the Buddy Bar:

Basically, the Buddy Bar combines (some of) the functionality of an IM client, an email client, a photo/document-uploader app, and blog interface. Here's how I envision it working:

1) You add some friends to your Buddy Bar. You include their name and all contact info you have for them: phone number(s), email address(es), IM/Twitter IDs, and so forth.

2) Simply clicking on a friend opens up an IM dialog. Buddy Bar would be service agnostic, so it would use whatever IM service your friend used.

3) Drag and drop a URL onto your friend's avatar would send it to your friend via one of the predetermined methods you set up for him/her (e.g., email, IM, etc.).

4) Dragging and dropping a file would generate a pull-down menu for you to send that file via one of the various methods you set up for that friend. For example, drop a JPG and the menu might include
• Email
• Email
• IM
• MMS
• Flickr
• Webify*

*Webify could be to upload it to a web space under your control and send your friend a URL to that location.

Drop a Word file and you might get a different set of options:
• Email
• Email
• IM
• Google Docs
• Webify*

5) Select some text from a webpage or document and drag that over to your friend's avatar and you'd get a similar drop-down for methods of delivery.

6) Drop something big on their avatar (e.g., a 200MB home movie file) and it could initiate a Torrent invitation to your friend.

7) Right-click a friend and you get options for audio/video chat, invite to room, ping, and other options.

You get the idea. Basically, it would be an automator for distributing content and managing communication with those in your private social network. I think it could also be very handy for people who work in a distributed environment and constantly need to share info (extra functionality could be built in if it was being used in an intranet setting).

One thing Bob mentioned is the chance for abuse. "Stop sending me this crap!" was his actual comment, IIRC. So, you'd have to have some sort of content/contact moderation much like you have in good IM clients, but with better discrimination based on the type of content being offered.

Anyway, I'd love to see something like this developed. Anyone know of an app/service that accomplishes even most of this?

Posted by Craig in Computing and Internet and Society / Politics
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March 31, 2008

Google Docs Now Goes With You Offline

Google's wonderful Docs suite (browser-based alternatives to the core Microsoft Office apps) now lets you work on your documents while offline.

Check out this Google Docs Blog entry and the little video. It looks pretty easy...can't wait to try it out.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Internet and Technology
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March 19, 2008

Noisy Volume Knob? Try Fixing It

A lot of devices have electro-mechanical controls that can degrade over time. Take the pair of Kilpsch ProMedia 2.0 PC speakers I've had for a few years as an example.

Recently, the volume knob started introducing lots of static/noise whenever it was turned, sometimes throwing off the L/R balance or even dropping out the volume altogether. More fiddling would fix it, but it was annoying.

At this point, most people would simply replace the speakers. But I really like these; they sound utterly fantastic for a 2.0 setup. So I set about finding a fix.

It turns out that the 1-2 punch of CAIG Laboratories DeOxit cleaner followed by DeOxit ProGold contact preservative (which I got from RadioShack.com) was just the trick. After cracking open the speaker with the controls, I spritzed the cleaner into the potentiometer and worked the knob back and forth. Then, a few minutes later, I spritzed in the ProGold to help protect the contacts, and worked the knob a bit more.

A half-hour later, I reassembled the speaker, plugged everything back in and it's perfect. The volume knob is now silky smooth and there's no sign of drop-outs or static. For $15, this sure beats trying to replace some fantastic speakers.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Home A/V and Technology
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March 18, 2008

The iPhone and MacBook Air: What Can't I See?

Apple's iPhone and MacBook Air have come to represent cutting-edge, state-of-the-art consumer electronics. We're approaching the iPhone's first birthday and Wired magazine is still calling it "handset of the moment -- maybe even the next few moments."

And the MacBook Air was popular enough last month to single-handedly account for 20% of Apple's notebook computer sales. Any way you slice it, that's impressive.

So what is it that keeps me from getting excited about these products?

I don't think I'm biased for or against Apple. We have a Mac Mini in the house and I'm always happy to see strong competitors in the personal computing space. So I don't think it's any sort of systematic unwillingness to accept Apple's products.

I'd like to think it's the technology. Sure, the iPhone and the MBA are pretty. The iPhone has a user interface that's somewhat innovative, and the Air is very, very svelte. But beyond that, I see more sacrifices than benefits.

The iPhone is a keyboardless EDGE handset with no expansion card slot. To me, that's three strikes right there. I feel like I need a real keyboard; I use the stink out of my Treo's EVDO connection and would dread going back to EDGE speeds; and, as far as I'm concerned, SD cards are the new floppy disk (i.e., ubiquitous). And then there's the issue of the non-user-replaceable battery. Ugh.

Similarly, the MacBook Air is rife with trade-offs: you don't get a removable battery, internal optical drive, Ethernet port, or VGA output (all things I rely on pretty frequently). Yes, it's light, but not markedly more so than many other laptops (for one, my 12.1" Fujitsu subnote weighs less). And don't get me started on the decision to hamstring it by including just a single USB port!

So, is it me? Am I somehow missing the real benefit of these devices? I'll admit, I've always been a function-over-form kinda guy, so is it that obsession with features that is blinding me to the design, or some other source of value entirely?

Or, am I more normal than I think, and it's it just that the media and a significant part of the digerati who write about this stuff have different utility functions than most of the rest of us?

Posted by Craig in Computing and Phones and Technology
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March 17, 2008

Hello Verizon, may I introduce you to GPL?

I'm a techie that spends most of my days in the the software world. I sometimes deal with litigation concerns. So this little news update caught my eye, "Verizon settles open source software lawsuit." It seems that a hardware device manufacturer, Actiontec, supplies a FiOS router to Verizon and the device had shipped with some code that it didn't properly license. The code in question was some software, called BusyBox, which is released under an open source license (in this case, GPLv2.)

I actually have an Actiontec FiOS router in my house.

Except for the flaky wireless access point, it does a great job serving up my FiOS internet with phenomenal uptime. I do find myself disappointed that the Actiontec folks didn't concern themselves with the rules of open source.

I haven't dug deep enough to know if Actiontec was sued as well, but they will have to play by the rules and post their own code online. Now, perhaps, I can add some neat features to my Actiontec router at home!

It is interesting how Verizon got caught in the mix here. Not that I know what happened, but you might assume that they picked a hardware supplier and didn't fully check out the suppliers development processes. It almost makes me feel sorry for Verizon.

I'll admit that the fact that I like my FiOS internet makes me more than a bit subjective in this case. :)

If you didn't know, the BusyBox developers are a smart bunch. Their little utility helps you turn some ordinary hardware devices into an interactive computer. (I've recently run BusyBox on a DNS-323 network storage device to improve its ftp support.) It supports a wide range of useful unix commands on a command prompt (for you Windows folks out there, imagine being able to open a Windows command prompt or "dos box" on you wireless router and do a dir command.)

Posted by Bob in Computing and Industry and Internet
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February 25, 2008

Fujitsu LifeBook P8010 Review

The LifeBook P8010 is the latest model in long line of terrific ultraportables from Fujitsu. Its predecessor, the P7230, was very popular and the P8010 looks to continue that success by way of some cutting-edge technology. The first major improvement is the screen, which has grown to 12.1" (1280x800) and is now backlit with LEDs (which reduce power consumption, cut weight, extend display life).

The second major change is the inclusion of Intel's newest mobile processor, the SL7100 Core 2 Duo, running at 1.2GHz. That might not sound too impressive, but given the 800MHz front-side bus, 4MB of Level 2 cache, and GS965 chipset with integrated X3100 graphics (using up to 384MB of system RAM for video), this should benchmark very well against older C2D systems with higher clock speeds.

My first impressions with this machine (it was shipped from Japan on Friday) are that it is quite swift for normal tasks and even processor-intensive activities, like video encoding, are quite acceptable for an ultraportable. The 18mm-pitch keyboard is reasonable, although users with largish hands may notice the loss of that extra 1mm from full-sized keyboards. Body flex is pretty minimal. Not quite as rigid as the Panasonic Toughbook I used to have, but perfectly fine.

I don't have a sense of battery life yet, but after about 3 hours of modest use, power shows around 50%; definitely a good sign. I'll update this post more as I use the machine.

Overall, the P8010 seems fairly pricey (they start at $1700 and can go up fairly dramatically once you start adding more RAM, bigger HDDs, and so on), but anyone who has complained that the MacBook Air is too hamstrung by a dearth of ports, fixed battery, etc. need only look to the Fujitsu LifeBook P8010 for a very attractive alternative. And it already comes in black!

Full video review:

Additional resources:
• Fujitsu North America product page
• Original Fujitsu press release (1/6/2008)
• Matrix comparing the P8010 to several other ultraportables

Posted by Craig in Computing
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February 11, 2008

What's Next for Laptops?

I admit it: I'm tired of hearing about the MacBook Air. Apparently, Apple's marketing people believed (and perhaps rightly so) that the only spec that consumers cared about was thickness, as that's the Air's only really exceptional bit ("world's thinnest notebook"). It's not the fastest, the lightest, the longest-running battery, the best screen, the most ports, or any other really meaningful spec...no, just the thinnest. Whee.

But that got me to thinking. What other claims could rival laptops make to pump up their own launches? Here are some I'd like to see:

"World's most symmetric notebook!"

"World's shiniest On button!"

"World's most tapered laptop!"

"World's quietest screen hinge!"

"World's strongest security lock!"

"World's clickiest keyboard!"

"World's longest power cord!"

"World's squarest trackpad!"

"World's fewest USB ports" (actually, with just one, the MacBook Air can claim that, too)

Posted by Craig in Computing
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February 5, 2008

Competition is Good...Unless It's Not

Microsoft's recent play for Yahoo!, an effort to advance its online advertising market share and more effectively ~~dominate the entire world~~ compete with Google, got me thinking back a bit to those interesting days in the late 90s when Microsoft was having to defend its monopoly status in the operating system market. A couple of graphs and quotes might be helpful, here.

So, according to Microsoft, the market on the left is just fine and doesn't need any intervention, whereas the market on the right has no compelling "number two competitor" and would benefit from some consolidation.

I think that's called wanting to eat your cake and have it at the same time.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Industry and Internet
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January 15, 2008

Subnote Comparison: How Does Apple's MacBook Air Stack Up?

Today at MacWorld, Steve Jobs announced the MacBook Air (shown), which Apple is calling the thinnest subnotebook / ultraportable computer available. And they're right...it is the thinnest. But is it the best?

As I'm interested in purchasing a new subnote soon, I've begun keeping tabs on specs for different models. To see what I've put together so far for the Toshiba Portege R500, Panasonic Toughbook W7, Fujitsu LifeBook P8010 (forthcoming), Lenovo IdeaPad U110 (forthcoming), and Apple MacBook Air, check out this Subnote Comparison Google Spreadsheet I've assembled. I'll keep updating it as new info emerges.

At first blush, the MacBook Air seems to have a lot of compromises, including just one USB port, no optical drive, a smallish HDD, no flash memory slot, and no expansion card slot. Granted, it has a lot to like as well, such as 802.11n and a backlit keyboard, but it's certainly not a slam-dunk in my mind.

Posted by Craig in Computing
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January 4, 2008

GearBits' Predictions for 2008

As has become customary around the changing of the calendar, here are GearBits' official predictions for 2008.

1) Blu-Ray Wins the Format War
Yep, I'm going to pick a winner and it's going to be Blu-Ray. The one-two punch of Warner Brothers's move to Blu-Ray exclusivity (from its Switzerland-like neutrality of supporting both formats) later in 2008 and Apple's announcement that BD will be the only HD format available in its products will cement HD DVD's demise. And none too soon. I don't really care which wins...just make it snappy so that prices on players and media can plummet, thanks.

2) Google's Android Shakes Up Phone Industry
For a while now, the cellphone industry has been fairly static. A few smartphone and mobile OS makers have generally tussled for market share, but the overall industry has been pretty evolutionary. Google's entry will prove to be a watershed moment, with open source finally making a big impact in the handheld space (and no, I don't consider the Zaurus to be a big deal...sorry). Actual handsets running Android will be announced, if not available, before the end of 2008.

3) Palm Supports Android
This is more of a hope than an actual prediction, as I just don't know whether the egos at Palm will let the company do the right thing and admit that their next-generation OS (which has been under development since 2004!) will be a viable contender against Android (which has essentially the same technical details but scads more developer support). But, if cooler, more rational heads prevail at Palm, they'll announce that they're plans will be to produce at least one Android-based product (probably to come out sometime in 2012 :-/ ).

4) Microsoft's HD Photo Replacement for JPEG Image Standard Goes Nowhere
I'm not saying it's a bad idea technically; I'm just saying that JPEG is so entrenched now that replacing it would be about as reasonable a thing to try as would be replacing MP3 with any of the multitudes of better formats. JPEG, like MP3, isn't great, but it's adequate (at least for consumers) and ubiquitous. We'll still be saving all our photos in JPG (and maybe RAW) at the end of 2008...and likely long after that.

5) Subnotes Will Explode in Availability (and Maybe Popularity)
I've always been a fan of tiny, sub-3-pound laptops, but I think 2008 will see a huge number of these clamshell devices come out of every corner of the consumer electronics space. The Asus EeePC and the OLPC XO Laptop are two examples. While Microsoft had a good idea in its UMPC (Ultra-Mobile PC) concept, the hardware was just never executed all that well. Frankly, I think a 7" touchscreen for Windows is just too difficult. But, going with the traditional clamshell design and using cheaper and/or smaller technologies (e.g., flash memory instead of a HDD) will bring us a raft of interesting (and some good) designs at <$500 price points. Bring 'em on! And I think we'll start to see a lot more people toting these things along that traditionally avoided laptops for whatever reason (cost, weight, etc.).

6) The GPS War Heats Up
TomTom, Nokia, and Garmin will exchange hostile fire over the GPS market due to convuluted agreements regarding mapping data as well as market-share for hardware. Products will continue to decline in price and improve in functionality, and >50% of cellphones will have some form of GPS functionality available on them. I guess that's two predictions in one...oh well.

7) DRM Hits Choppy Water
2007 saw some movement away from DRM (digital rights management), especially in the music industry, but I expect we'll see similar initiatives in all areas of media. DRM has been proven again and again to be little more than an expensive technological boondoggle, and the leading innovators at the consumer media interface (e.g., Apple, Amazon, and Google) will make some headway into reversing the trend of more encumbrance for our media. The RIAA and MPAA will continue to fight it...they know how to do nothing else...but economic results will start to demonstrate that DRM actually hurts profitability.

8) Major Tech Stocks End 2008 Up Significantly
These are bound to be wrong, but what the heck...nobody pays me for stock tips. I think Apple will end 2008 at 235, Google will be at 960, and Microsoft will finish the year at 50. As for other stocks, iRobot will end up at either 46 or 12 (can you tell I'm a cynical shareholder?), IBM will show tepid growth to 112, and RIM, hurt by the continued weak US dollar and facing increasing competition, will struggle to match its 1-year high of 127.

9) I Buy a New Laptop and Am Disappointed
My Panasonic CF-W2 is now three-and-a-half-years-old and I'm starting to cringe every time I turn it on (my luck with hard drives makes me skeptical of many living past their 4th birthday). I've been looking at possible replacements (e.g., Toshiba R500, Panasonic W7, maybe the Lenovo IdeaPad U110 or the rumored Apple subnote) and so far every single one has some significant trade-offs. So, I expect I'll get one and it will turn out to be not significantly better than my aging Toughbook. You'd think in nearly four years that two grand would buy something markedly superior. We'll see...

10) Major Changes in Automotive Industry Announced
While the car business makes actual change only very slowly, we'll see some huge announcements in 2008 that will fundamentally change the future of that industry. Things like record oil prices, an increasing attention to sustainable/green technology, and significant ownership changes will substantially change the competitive landscape. Make no mistake; Toyota will continue its ascent and eclipse GM as #1 car-maker in the world. But, we will see several major announcements that will start affecting actual consumers in 2009 and beyond.

So, I'll check back in about 12 months to see how I fared. In the meantime, what do you think will happen?

Posted by Craig in Computing and Gaming and Home A/V and Industry and Internet and Other and Phones and Photography and Popular Media and Science & Nature and Society / Politics and Technology and Wireless
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December 21, 2007

Our OLPC Arrived Today

Our One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) device arrived in the mail today. We participated in the Give One Get One campaign (we bought two; one was sent to us and the other was donated to a developing area of the world somewhere).

After less than an hour with it, I'm pretty amazed at the hardware that's packed into this little guy, especially for the price of <$200. Sure, the processor is a little slow for handling complex Flash-enabled websites, and you won't win any speed races initiating apps, but it has just an amazing mesh Wi-Fi interface (which allows instant sharing amongst other OLPCs of most activities on any one of them), an embedded webcam, and a whole host of pre-installed applications (from a music mixer to drawing to a web browser to a journal/notebook and so on).

I'm not sure it is a better solution for a kid's school laptop if that kid has access to regular electricity and his/her parents can scrape up the cash for an Asus EeePC or cheapie Dell (I just saw one in a flyer for <$370), but as it was designed for children in third-world countries, I think it should be a great fit for any kid 5+ who wants to just explore what computers can do.

Photo borrowed from the OLPC website.

Update: I just noticed that our unit does not have the two "keyboard LEDs" shown in the above pic. I wonder why not...they'd be handy for nighttime 'puting.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Mobile & PDAs and Society / Politics and Technology
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October 19, 2007

iStumped: Can't iPhoto Simply Display Photos?

A few months ago, I upgraded our family room's HTPC by replacing the old Shuttle box with a nice Intel-powered Mac Mini. So far, nearly everything has been hunky dory. Front Row pretty much works as advertised, and that's the computer's main use.

But one sore point with me has been an inability to wrangle iPhoto to display my photos I have on an external drive attached to the Mac so that we can view them through Front Row (which only talks to iPhoto for photo-viewing purposes).

Basically, what I want iPhoto to do is simply index and display photos stored on an external hard drive, in much the same fashion that iTunes handles MP3 files stored externally. You see, I keep all my "original" photos on a machine elsewhere on our network -- the files on the Mini's external drive are merely copies, updated as needed via network backup. So, when I add some new photos to the collection, all I want iPhoto to do is realize I've done so and make the new folder available via Front Row. Isn't that easy?

Yet there's apparently no way to do that. iPhoto wants to be the sole photo-management app and really makes it difficult to interact with photos that aren't "imported" directly through it. In that sense, iPhoto is really an overly egocentric, yet very lame, program.

Anybody have a suggestion as to how to view our photos via Front Row? Anyone? Bueller?

Posted by Craig in Computing and Photography and Photos
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September 18, 2007

The Original Emoticon :-) Turns 25

CNN has an interesting story on the origins of the smiley emoticon :-) that is now ubiquitous.

However, I'm still waiting on Strunk & White to nail down how it should get used with punctuation. ;-)

Posted by Craig in Computing and Internet and Society / Politics and Technology
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August 22, 2007

All I Want for Christmas

The HP LP3065 30" LCD Monitor

2560 x 1600 resolution
8ms response
400 square inches of workspace bliss

Posted by Craig in Computing
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July 5, 2007

Sick of Messing with Wi-Fi at Home? Consider a Wired Network

For the past four years, I've relied on 802.11g Wi-Fi to get our router's Internet connection up to the second floor office where this web-server and our main PC both live. When we first moved into this house, I had come to the conclusion that there was no way I could route Ethernet cable from the first to the second floor (and across the width of the house) without doing something that She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed would find objectionable.

So, after trying out three routers and countless Wi-Fi adapters looking for adequate range, reliability, and speed, I sunk into the belief that I was destined to put up with wildly fluctuating network speeds (often bouncing between 1 and 8 mbps realized throughput), intermittent connectivity loss (e.g., temporary wireless interference), and a generally unsatisfactory level of network performance.

Then, for no good reason, last week I revisited the idea of having an electrician run Cat-6 from where our router is to the upstairs office. I had always assumed it was prohibitively expensive, but figured getting an estimate couldn't hurt.

Wow! I was simply amazed when the job was done and I was no poorer than had I bought a new 802.11n router and PCI adapter for one computer. For a couple hundred dollars, we now have Gigabit Ethernet connecting our entire network. Granted, the Internet connection still trundles along at 3 mbps, but file transfers within the network (e.g., LAN backups and media copying) are blindingly fast.

So, if you're sick of mucking around with Wi-Fi for networking desktop PCs and other devices that don't move around a lot within your home, consider having an electrician give you an estimate on running some Ethernet cable. You may be surprised at how cheap it actually is (might be less expensive than buying some faster Wi-Fi gear and it's a LOT faster, reliable, and more secure). Make sure to get Cat-6 cable installed so you can be sure to take advantage of the new networking standards coming down the pike in a few years. You don't want to have to go about replacing wire inside your walls, and the better cable is only a few cents a foot more expensive (ours was 30 cents a foot).

Posted by Craig in Computing and Internet and Technology and Wireless
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June 27, 2007

Comparison Test of LCD Screen Cleaners

Last month, I became fed up with the increasingly disgusting state of my LCD screens. Both my laptop and my two LCD desktop panels at work were just rife with dust, lint, and macroscopic unmentionables. Just gross.

So, I thought I'd grab a screen cleaner and wipe them off. Turns out that's not as easy as one might imagine. Most everyday cleaners you find in grocery stores have alcohol, ammonia and/or other chemicals in them that do not play nicely with the plastics and coatings involved in LCD and other portable electronic displays.

So, I did what any conscientious tech blogger would do: I ordered three of the more commonly recommended cleaners to do a comparison test. KlearScreen, Purosol, and Mirachem Optix were all purchased from online retailer Photodon (who provided no monetary or other support for this test other than selling me all the cleaners at their standard price). I also purchased a bottle of the Photodon house brand LCD cleaner just to see how it stacked up. I also bought a brand new microfiber cloth to use in the testing.

Read on for details on the four candidates and the results of my month-long test for performance, endurance, and overall value.

First, the test environment consisted of two 20" LCD panels I use at work, as shown below. I broke up each screen into two halves (for a total of four areas, one for each cleaner). Each half-screen was then broken up into a black area and a rainbow area for visual inspection of dust and grime removal.

These had not been cleaned in any way since they were purchased new nearly a year ago. So, they were absolutely filthy, as the screen shot below attests.

To test the cleaners, I sprayed each on one half of one of the two displays and wiped it clean with the microfiber cloth. Some had better spray patterns or cleaned more easily than others, as the results table below describes. Each week for a month after cleaning the displays, I examined the four quadrants for lint and other detritus that had accumulated in the cleaned areas. My findings from that long-term examination are also described in the results table.

Results

Cleaner	Price Paid	Spray/Smell	Initial Cleaning	Long-term Cleaning
KlearScreen (8 oz.) Recommended!	$12.95	Fine mist, wide pattern; mild, but distinctive, smell (not unpleasant)	Very good	More than a week dust-free
Mirachem Optix (4 oz.)	$5.55	Generous and uneven, less misty and more droplets; faint smell	Very good	New dust attracted nearly immediately (by day's end)
Photodon's Ultra (4 oz.)	$7.95	Fine mist, smaller pattern (more targeted); very faint smell, nearly odorless	Very good	More than a week dust-free
Purosol Plasma (4 oz.)	$16.95	Ultrafine mist, wide pattern; almost odorless	Very good	More than a week dust-free

Recommendations
All four sprays cleaned quite well; the displays looked nearly new after a good wiping-down and no differences across the four quadrants were noticeable immediately after cleaning. However, the Mirachem Optix product did not seem to prevent static-attracted dust as well as the others and its quadrant had noticeable dust within a few hours of being cleaned. For that reason, and the rather unsatisfactory spray nozzel, I would not recommend Mirachem Optix (despite it having the lowest price of just $1.44 per ounce).

The three other sprays all kept their parts of the displays clean about the same length, with noticeable dust appearing a little more than a week after being cleaned. Given no differences in cleaning performance, the decision comes down to price. However, the pricing on these cleaners ranges broadly, from a low of $1.62 per ounce for the KlearScreen to $4.24 per ounce for the Purosol (the Photodon's Ultra came in at $1.99 per ounce).

So, as it offers a very good cleaning solution at a reasonable price, my recommendation is the KlearScreen LCD-Laptop-Computer Screen Cleaner. More information can be found at www.klearscreen.com.

Based on the results just described, I also used KlearScreen on my laptop and phone and both devices' screens were cleaned quite satisfactorily. While I cannot judge the long-term effects of using any of these products on LCD screens, their manufacturers state that no chemicals in any of them should have any deleterious effects whatsoever.

Note that no free samples were used or communication with companies manufacturing or selling these sprays (other than making an online purchase with Photodon) occurred during the testing and writing-up of results. GearBits has no financial association with any of these products or their manufacturers or distributors.

Posted by Craig in Computing and Mobile & PDAs and Phones and Photography
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June 16, 2007

My First Month with a Mac

About a month ago, we acquired a Mac Mini to use as our home theater PC (if you recall, our old one died back in January). After working off and on to get the Mini set up to serve our home media needs, I've come to a few conclusions I thought I'd put to pixel. Many of these conclusions are not unique, but as this is my first Apple product since my IIe back in high school, they were all surprising to me.

1) The Mac Mini is a darned impressive PC for its size
One of the main reasons the Mini was attractive to me as an HTPC was its small size and quietness -- both very desirable qualities in something that will sit 6 inches above your primary television. Now that I've had some time to become more familiar with it (and Mac OS X), I'm really pleased at how capable the Mini is. Ours is a 1.66 GHz Core Duo unit with 1GB of RAM, and there's nothing I've asked it to do that has made the Mini seem like it's going to break a sweat. In Windows machines, you can always tell when they're stressed, as the UI starts to falter and you get the dreaded hourglass pointer for long periods at a time. Not so with the Mini; so far, it has seemed rather unflappable. And that impresses me given its rather modest specs (at least for the Windows world). Plus, the Front Row remote just caps off the entire package, at least for our use.

2) Mac OS can do things Windows (at least XP) cannot
I had desired to repurpose an external hard drive from backup on my main Windows machine to media storage on the Mac Mini. It didn't occur to me at first that the reason the Mac wasn't able to write to the new drive was that it was in NTFS. I've been using NTFS drives exclusively now since 2001, so I didn't even think about the file system. Well, it turns out that the only file system viable on both OS's is FAT32. But, and this just amazed me, Windows XP cannot format any drive larger than 32GB to FAT32; larger than that and it must be NTFS. So, after an hour or so of banging my head against the Windows machine's keyboard ("why is FAT32 not coming up as a format option?!??"), I discovered that little limitation. So, I trotted the drive down to the Mini, initialized the drive, and formatted it to FAT32 with no problem. If Mac OS is more capable at something as simple as formatting a hard drive, it makes me wonder what advantages Windows has (other than being an industry standard) to warrant its market share.

3) Mac OS does "just work"...mostly
As this is the first time I've actually used a Mac OS device, the experience has been pretty delightful. Many, many activities that are arduous or unintuitive in Windows (at least XP...I've not played much with Vista yet) are dirt-simple in OS X. For example, unmounting a drive means clicking an icon next to the drive picture. In Windows, you need to click the "safely remove hardware" icon in the task bar and then select the correct drive, often from among several similarly named options differentiated only by a drive letter. However, there are many things I find less convenient (or more cumbersome) in OS X, with most of those emanating from the lack of a right-click context menu. Of all the UI elements in Windows (beyond the requisite ones like icons, dialogs, and slider bars), I think the context menu is probably the single most useful addition. I also do not prefer having to go up to the top of the screen to access drop-down menus; maybe it's an issue of familiarity, but it seems weird (to me) to divorce the menus from the app window. I'll get used to all these things, I'm sure, but this experience has shown me that while Mac OS does seem to have an overall "cleaner" UI, neither OS has a monopoly on ease-of-use.

4) iTunes on a Mac is actually usable
After struggling constantly with iTunes on our Windows machine (for use with my wife's iPod), I had decided that I hated iTunes with every fiber of my being. But, using it on a Mac is an entirely different experience. It actually works...and works well! Cover Flow mode is a gorgeous interface to use, even if it does tweak my obsessive-compulsive tendencies such that I spent too many hours looking up cover art for many of our more obscure albums. Could iTunes still be greatly improved? Easily, especially in ways that would please advanced users (e.g., could we have a UPnP music server function built in, please?).

5) Apple was shortsighted when it disabled optical audio volume control
In a rare example of retarding the unit's usefulness, Apple decided that if the Mini's user decides to use the unit's digital optical audio output instead of analog, system-level volume control should be disabled. That means that no volume control at all can be done via the Mac itself. That means that we lose functionality on two of the six (a third!) Front Row remote buttons as well as the dedicated volume control buttons on our wireless keyboard. Some may argue it's a good decision because then the audio stream coming out of the Mini is pure and untainted by system manipulation of the signal. OK, I don't buy that. Nobody is going to use a Mini for state-of-the-art sound quality. Anyone that concerned is going to have a dedicated DVD player that likely costs more than the Mini. In addition, even if that's a valid argument for locking audio output as line-out, at least give us the option of disabling system-level audio volume control. Many of us are willing to give up some audio quality for the convenience of a fully functional Front Row remote; is a simple checkbox in System Prefs too much to ask?

More as I think of it...

Posted by Craig in Computing
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June 2, 2007

Webcams for Mac OS 10.4.9

With the release of Mac OS 10.4.9, UVC (USB Video Class) webcams will work with iChat. Here's part of a Logitech support document listing a few that will work:

This article applies to the following operating systems: Macintosh OS 10.4.9
This article refers to the following Logitech products: All UVC Complaint Webcams

The Logitech webcams listed below are UVC (Universal Video Class) compliant and can be used with operating systems which fully support this standard; including Mac OS 10.4.9. Please note that standard UVC drivers are provided by the Operating System and will provide minimal camera support only. Unique Logitech features, such as RightLight and Video Effects are not functional via UVC drivers. Furthermore, we recommend the use of a full Logitech installation package, where available, for supported operating systems such as Windows XP and Windows Vista.

QuickCam Ultra Vision SE
QuickCam Ultra Vision
QuickCam Orbit/Sphere MP
QuickCam Fusion
QuickCam Pro 5000
QuickCam for Notebooks Pro
QuickCam Deluxe for Notebooks

Update (6/5/07): I just bought a Logitech QuickCam Ultra Vision SE and it works immediately with iChat, including the audio. Nice. :-)

Posted by Craig in Computing
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May 30, 2007

What Palm Should Have Announced Instead of the Foleo

Today, Palm announced its new Foleo smartphone companion (shown, next to the Treo). You can learn about it at the Palm website and read some first impressions here, here, and here.

I'm going to reserve judgment on the Foleo until I get some hands-on time with it (you hear that, Palm? Bump me up a few spots on the review unit list, will ya?). It has some interesting points, but I'll admit to being skeptical that the market for this device exceeds a few thousand people.

But it did get me thinking just what would have been a better product (or products) to announce today that would have served a similar purpose (i.e., extending the usefulness of a smartphone like the Treo...or the iPhone)? Here are some ideas that I've seen proposed various places today:

1) Linux-Powered Tablet Treo -- Combine the radio and multimedia functions of a Treo with all the open-source goodness of a Linux kernel and a big touchscreen display.

2) Bluetooth Virtual Display -- Giving the user a better bigscreen view of her Treo's data while only adding a few ounces to her bag seems like an interesting idea. Just one question, though: How do you interact with the Treo if your eyes are blocked by the display?

3) Clamshell Treo -- Proposed by the many who wish the Treo's 2.5" square display was a shade larger yet still pocketable, a clamshell Treo could even have two displays (a la Nintendo's DS) for double the productivity.

4) A Universal Treo-Laptop Interface -- Some have suggested that what Palm really needs to offer is a piece of hardware that would connect a Treo to any PC's USB port and automatically broker data and Internet sharing between the two devices. Imagine a continuous "smart" syncing between the two devices so that the PC could be used as an interface to the Treo's contents, or vice versa.

What's your suggestion? What should Palm have released instead of the Foleo? Or do you think it really is a viable new product category?

Posted by Craig in Computing and Mobile & PDAs and Phones and Technology and Travel and Wireless
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May 29, 2007

Managing Home Technology: Incremental vs. Wholesale Improvement

Like you, probably, I'm constantly facing "yet another technology decision" at home. This time, it's storage; my main external USB backup drive is running out of space and I need to figure out a solution. But, it just as easily could have been another episode of "there has to be a better media streamer" or the umpteenth round of "my, my, LCD monitors are getting cheap...maybe it makes sense to finally replace my CRT."

But this backup issue haunts me. It seems I am never able to get enough storage in the right place to last for very long. As if I were a gas, merrily following my Brownian ways, I tend to fill up whatever volume (pun intended) I'm given. And that line of thinking made me realize that my home technology infrastructure is the result of countless incremental changes, most being opportunistic or cost-driven and very few (if any) made with a larger, long-term strategy in mind.

So what would I do if I could scrap everything I have and start fresh? Would I go with a Drobo attached to an Apple Airport Extreme to create a massively upgradable NAS, or would I go with a Microsoft Windows Home Server? Would I change everything on my wireless network over to 802.11n? Would I even have a desktop anywhere in the house (other than a Mac Mini to use as a media center PC)?

All those are entertaining issues to mull over, but the reality is that few of us have the money or time to toss out everything and start fresh. I mean, financial implications aside, how freaking long would it take to get all that new kit functioning correctly? My head reels at the thought.

So, I'm back to my issue of a 500GB USB HDD being inadequate as my main backup unit. Should I just go get a 750GB and buy some time, or should I invest in a longer-term solution at a considerably higher price? Decisions, decisions...

Posted by Craig in Computing and Home A/V and Technology and Wireless
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March 11, 2007

Browser Shares at GearBits.com: Firefox is HUGE

I just checked the Browser Share figures for GearBits (and my personal site, craigfroehle.com, which makes up a teensy fraction of all logged traffic) over the past month and wow! At roughly a quarter of all visitors to GearBits, Firefox's figures are enormous here, especially when combined with Safari, compared to larger averages (some of which, for example, put IE still at 80% or more overall share). GearBits' readers must be a rather intelligent group! :-)

Posted by Craig in Computing and Industry and Internet
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February 7, 2007

Patriot Memory Xporter XT 4GB Flash Drive is VERY Fast

Ever on the lookout for excellent tech, I recently stumbled upon a fantastic device: the Patriot Memory Xporter XT 4GB High-Speed USB 2.0 Flash Drive.

What makes this flash drive so much better than other drives? A few things. First, it's FAST...very fast. Patriot claims that this drive has a 200X read speed (that's roughly 30 MB/sec) and a write speed somewhat less than that. My usage experience -- I've owned one for a few months now -- is that this is undoubtedly the fastest flash drive I've ever used and I've yet to see the Xporter XT be the rate-limiting device when transferring data to/from other storage media and drives.

Second, it's ruggedized. The exterior covering is a dense rubber making it a little water resistant (splashes of water don't seem to phase it with the cap on) and pretty much impervious to damage from dropping or getting mashed inside a crowded bag.

The drive also has some more typical pros, such as an activity LED and driverless compatibility with modern operating systems. One other interesting tidbit is that Patriot recently certified that the Xporter XT line is Windows Vista ReadyBoost compatible, meaning it can be used by Vista systems as an extension to system RAM. This isn't unique, but it's nice to know the device is fully compatible.

The only downsides to this flash drive are minor, IMO: size (it's certainly not the smallest flash drive out there, but I've yet to find a situation where it wouldn't fit in the USB port) and the cap isn't permanently tethered (although the little rubber tab hanging on the chain gives you a place to "park" the cap when the drive is being used).

But honestly, these are rather trivial concerns when you consider the speed, capacity, and durability of this 4GB Patriot Xporter XT flash drive. If you hate waiting and want to be confident that your flash drive isn't getting demolished in your backpack, this is definitely a recommended device, even at its street price of around $110.

Posted by Craig in Computing
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January 29, 2007

Our HTPC Died...Should I Even Replace It?

Our home theater PC -- the one labeled "HTPC" in this diagram -- died today. The boot drive, an old 40GB PATA drive, emitted the spiraling whine of death and failed to restart. R.I.P. old friend.

So, what should I replace it with? Or should I even bother at all? We basically used it for serving up MP3s to our SMC EZ-Stream audio streamer. But since I run Orb on another PC in the house that has a copy of all our media, and Orb acts as a pretty capable UPnP server, we no longer need a local PC to serve up music to the SMC.

We also ~~sometimes~~ occasionally used it to play back XviD and DivX movies to the TV. I suppose I could just hook up the laptop to the TV's VGA input in those rare instances instead.

Since our two TiVos and one Time Warner DVR handle all our time-shifting needs, I'm struggling to figure out just why I need an HTPC after all. Sure, there's the extremely infrequent case where pulling up a browser is handy. But my laptop is rarely more than a few feet away, and that's usually a more convenient alternative than dragging out the Gyration mouse and keyboard.

So, should I even bother with an HTPC? Would something like Apple's forthcoming Apple TV offer me functionality that I just couldn't live without?

Or, should I just fill the empty space in our entertainment cabinet with a Wii?

Decisions, decisions. If you have suggestions, email me