Not Such Deep Thoughts; Special Worst to First Edition

It’s that time again; the old brain pan is full to bursting with random thoughts and opinions, and it’s time to spew forth and relieve the pressure. I will now proceed to entangle the entire area.

What better way to start than with; How ‘bout them Red Sox?

Wow, from worst to first, and could these guys be any more likeable? In the words of the ubiquitous Bob, I doubt it. I was pretty down on them the last time I did one of these rambling pieces, and I speculated that there was only one way for them to get back into our good graces. Read for yourself:

Not Such Deep Thoughts – Freaky February Edition

“Spring Training is cranking up, and the question on all good Sox fan’s minds is; can they pull their nards out of the fire? The team has pretty much self-imploded and it appears that things can’t get much worse, so that’s something to hang your hat on. But how they fare in the standings this year is of less importance to me than how they act and play. As long as they give it 100%, I’m behind them. Any less and I’ll be turning them off.

Note to Red Sox; forget the fancy demographic studies and bringing in high paid mercenaries. If you want a successful and embraceable team, start with the basics; hard working players with integrity and a love of the game, add in a little inspirational leadership, mix well and bake for approximately 180 days. It’s a no fail recipe.”

I guess great minds think alike, and I’m convinced that Ben Cherington has a pretty great mind. I’m almost tempted to think he may have been much of the reason behind Theo’s initial success here. Almost. Same with John Farrell and Tito, but no one does it alone. There was a brain trust in those heady days, and although Theo was a bright guy, it was group think, strong leadership, and team camaraderie that turned the tide and made the Sox the team of the new millennium, and it took the same mix to bring them back from the dead. Success can be the great spoiler though, as we’ve seen, and I hope they remember that. There’s no telling how they’ll fare in the post season, but for now, I’m happy, and I have high hopes, finally. Go Sox!

While we’re on the subject of sports; how ‘bout them Patriots?

3 and 0 to start out the season, but a shakier start I don’t think I’ve ever seen. Tom has looked downright un-Brady like, but I blame a lot of that on his lack of receivers. With a timing offense, you’re either all on the same page, or you’re looking bad and getting beat.

It’s been the perfect storm as far as Pat’s receivers go; they lose Wes to the Broncos (for the life of me I still can’t figure that one out), Gronk can’t seem to shake his injuries, and then you have the whole Hernandez thing. Sheesh, what a mess. They pick up Amendola and the promising rookie TE Sudfeld in the off season, and they both go down. Who does that leave? Edelman, Hoo-Man and a couple of rookies. Sudfeld came back for game 3, but he wasn’t much of a factor.

The defense has been the only bright light so far, and has been keeping them in the games. Although it’s tough to watch, it may be a good thing. In previous years, Brady has carried the team on his back, running up the score. Problem was, the D wasn’t very good and a lot of teams were hanging in there, matching them point for point. When they’d hit a team with a tough D, one that could stymie their high powered offense, they’d invariably lose. The Giants and Ravens, for example. I think a few ugly wins courtesy of a tough D bodes well. When the Offense gets it together, and they will, the Pats just might have the whole package. They certainly looked a hell of a lot better in the second half of the Tampa game. Brady started to click with the 2 rookie WR’s, Thompkins and Dobson, and they got some good production from their platoon of running backs. They looked sharp and crisp for the first time since camp.

Gronk will be back, and Sudfeld will find his stride again, and both will draw coverage and take some pressure off of the wide receivers. I see good things in the future, time will tell. For now, let’s just say they’re a really lucky 3 and 0.

OK, time to talk some tech. File this one under; ooh, shiny…

The new iPhones are here, and “ooh, shiny” is really all you can say about them. The 5c is basically just like the 5, only it’s composed of cheap plastic and comes in a variety of gaudy colors. The 5s has a faster processor, a fingerprint reader, and is now available in gold, silver and graphite. Both models have slightly better cameras, the 5s in particular, and both come preloaded with iOS7, but that’s about it.

iOS7 is being pushed down to the iPhone 4 and 5 also, so there’s really no big advantage there. There won’t be as many features available when you run it on a 4 or 5, but that’s hardly a reason to sleep on the sidewalk, people. And you never want to be an early adopter when it comes to a major iOS upgrade.

Never.

Ever.

Here’s the thing, if these were really new models, they’d be the iPhone 6 and 6c, but they’re not. 'Nuff said.

As for waiting in line to get one… OMG, please, these aren’t in limited supply, little children in China are cranking these out by the boatload as we speak. Whenever I see a news videos of someone coming out of an Apple store holding a new iPhone over their head in victory, my first thought is; there’s a sucker born every minute, and my next thought is; I bet I could sell them some really expensive accessories…

Speaking of tech, file this one under; the times they are a changin’.

Home entertainment has changed so much in recent years. Music has branched out from physical to digital mediums, allowing us to carry our entire music libraries with us wherever we go. Same with print. I can move seamlessly from my eReader to my smart phone to my PC, and always be on the right page. TV has gone High Def. The sets have gotten both larger and thinner, you can hang them on the wall like art, and there are literally hundreds of channels to choose from. Between the DVR, Video on Demand, the Internet and devices like Apple TV, it’s no longer necessary to watch on the network’s schedule anymore; it’s now possible to watch whatever you want whenever and wherever you like. Growing up in the Record Player, 3 channel TV generation, these are unimaginable advances.

Now I’m not telling you anything that you’re not already aware of here, but what’s truly amazing to me is that these changes have occurred in such a short period of time.

Digital technology makes all these things possible, and more. How cool is it that we no longer need film for our cameras? Way cool, and the list goes on and on. Why are things developing so quickly? I think in part it’s because we’ve hit a point where the workforce is largely comprised of people who have grown up immersed in 1’s and 0’s, never known a world without them. They don’t need to struggle to understand and accept the new technologies like my generation does, and consequently they see some things more clearly. Some things.

Anyway, it’s got me wondering what new technological advances we’ll see in the next 10 or 20 years, and I think we’re in for a mind blowing ride. Forget about 3D, I’m looking forward to the day when I can convert my man cave into a holodeck. Talk about getting into the game... that would be the ultimate.

Alright, that’s enough for now, but before I go, I’ll leave you with this; I saw a video of Louis CK on Conan titled “Everything's amazing nobody's happy” that’s worth watching. Pretty much sums up how we all tend to take amazing things for granted these days. Don’t.

That is all.

Buying a PC This Holiday Season?

There are some great deals out there, but before you pull the trigger, there’s some important things you need to know.

I’m not going to get into the whole “what’s the right device for me” question. There are so many choices; desktops, laptops, netbooks, tablets, and there’s a plethora of good deals in all categories. For most, usage patterns and pricing will drive their purchase. What I want to talk about today is ensuring that you get the most out of your purchase, and my advice holds true across all platforms.

First thing; whatever you end up buying, make sure you ask the question “How do I reload the system if it becomes hosed up?”

Some systems come with a copy of Windows, or a manufacturer specific recovery disc. Most systems require you to create your own recovery disc. You must do this immediately, and you must store your recovery disc somewhere safe. Store it where you can find it in say, a year or two, and label it boldly, so you don’t accidently toss it, should you find yourself in a cleaning frenzy one day.

You also need to have a plan in place to back up your data on a regular basis. By data, I mean your music, photos and documents. Basically the contents of you’re “My Documents” folder.

Last, but not least, you have to have a decent antivirus program loaded on your PC before you start surfing the web, and you have to update and run it regularly. Symantec/Norton antivirus is great, and usually comes preloaded on your new machine, but you need to pay for it, and renew your subscription periodically. I find that most people either put it off, or just forget. I recommend using a good free program, like MSE. Note: If you’re going to replace Symantec/Norton, you’re going to need the Norton Removal Tool, because a plain old uninstall just isn’t enough.

OK, so here’s why these things are so important;

This past month I’ve worked on 3 PC’s, all were hosed up to varying degrees with spyware and viruses. One of them was my own desktop, proving that no matter how careful you are, it will happen to you. It’s just a matter of time.

Of the 3 systems, the easiest to repair was my own. I have the system recovery discs, and I also have a couple of recent backups. All I needed to do was format the drive, reload the system from the recovery disc, run Windows update, and then reload my music, photos and documents. It took me all of one night and I now have the equivalent of a brand new machine. Anything I hadn’t used recently didn’t go back on, which freed up a ton of disk space, and the reformatting of the drive cured one of the biggest problems with an older system, fragmented files.

The other two systems were a different story. The owners didn't have the recovery discs, they weren’t even sure if they had ever made them, and they had never backed up their files. I could wipe their systems and reload them with another copy of XP, but then they’d lose all of their personal data.

If they had a copy of their My Documents folder, the fix would be easy. Without it, it’s a slow and painstaking process. You have to clean up the machine enough to be able to write the data to DVD, and if the machine is really hosed, that can be a daunting task.

Both machines had Norton Antivirus and Lava Soft’s Ad-Aware loaded on them when they were new, but neither program had been updated in months, and the last full scan run with either program was back when I had installed them.

After updating both, Norton found five viruses on the laptop and Ad-Aware flagged 253 suspicious items. That one went pretty well, all things considered. I was able to clean it up and save all the data.

On the desktop, neither program would even start. Some piece (or pieces) of malware had disabled both Norton and Ad-Aware, and the host table had been diddled, so I had to resort to reloading them from DVD, along with a few other cleanup tools. The machine was so slow that it took hours to load and configure them.

Very frustrating, and way too much time and labor to be spending on a frelative’s PC. In my spare time, no less, but what are you going to do? It would be a pretty costly endeavor for them to take it somewhere to be fixed, so I try to help, that’s what friends are for, but my rule of thumb is this; The first time it happens, I try to save things, but if you find yourself up the same tree a second time, it’s wipe and go service only.

I value my digital pictures, as do most, and I’ve seen the reaction when someone realizes that all of their files are dust in the wind; anger, anguish, remorse, and sometimes, tears. It’s an awful thing to see. Without those recovery disks and a recent backup, all you’re left with when the hammer comes down is a useless hunk of junk.

Don’t put yourself in that bad place; backing up isn’t so hard to do. I use an external drive with a built in backup program (HP SimpleSave) that’s brainless and painless. I also copy my pictures and documents to DVD and I run the iTunes backup tool periodically. It only takes a few minutes, and it’s time well invested. I keep the most recent copies with the recovery discs, someplace safe.

Also, don’t use rewritable DVD’s when you’re backing up your files (DVD-RW), use write once discs only (DVD-R). I had someone hand me a DVD recently, saying proudly “I have all of my pictures saved on here”. I found out later that they had been writing and rewriting to that same DVD-RW for days, and had overwritten most of the files. It was a hard drive replacement, and a hard lesson. Luckily, I was able to recover the contents of the drive later on, but that’s another story for another time. What I want you to focus on here is that rewritable DVD’s can be dangerous. Capisci?

So, to sum things up:

• Find out if the machine comes with a recovery disc.

• If it doesn’t, create one.

• Store the disc(s) somewhere safe.

• Add or activate antivirus software.

• Back up your important files regularly.

Simple, right?

I hope you’re all nodding your heads out there... If you're not, then we're both in trouble.

That is all.

More Extreme Tech - Rigid VP2000 Wet Vac Pump

I found this baby at Home Depot this weekend while I was looking for a replacement squeegee head for my Rigid Wet/Dry Vac.

I love my shop vac, except when it’s full of nasty water and I need to empty it. I could drain it into the sump pit, but that would be kind of counter productive. Instead, we ladle some off with a bucket, and then we lift it up and pour the rest down the basement utility sink. Back breaking work. No fun at all.

With this baby, you pop it on before you start, and then when the unit is full you connect a hose and you can pump the water up to 50ft at a rate of 10gpm. Nice!

I know, I know, I should have done these last two posts before and not during Irene. Can’t be helped; busy, busy, busy.

Backyard Tech – Extreme Edition: Generators

Having a basement that’s prone to flooding, we were way overdue in adding a generator to our flood fighting arsenal. We’re fine as long as the sump pumps run, but if they stop working, disaster ensues. We finally bit the bullet after we remodeled Man Town this past year.

I knew nothing about generators when we started looking, but after a little research, and some professional electrical advice, we came up with a plan. Our main concern was the pumps, but we also wanted something that would help us out during those ugly winter Nor’easters that we’re prone to around here. There’s a great Wattage Estimation Guide on the Honda Power Equipment website that helped us out a lot.

We settled on the Honda EG5000. It’s big enough to hook up to your house via a transfer switch and run quite a few devices, and yet small enough to still be considered a portable. It’s from Honda’s Economy line, which means it has the power of the more expensive models, just fewer frills. No key start, no wheels, no fancy panels. It does, however, pump out 5000W (4500W rated) of power, both 120/240V, via a nice variety of outputs (two 20A 125V outlets, one 20A 125V locking plug, one 30A 125V locking plug and a 30A 125/250V locking plug).

It’s powered by Honda’s commercial grade 389cc engine, which is relatively quiet (73dB), and it has some great features that you won’t find on cheaper generators, like DAVR (digital automatic voltage regulation witch prevents power fluctuations) and Oil Alert (the unit shuts down the engine before you hit the add level). It also comes with a 3 year parts and labor warranty that’s valid for both commercial and residential use.

I bought mine from a Honda dealership (Parkway Cycle), rather than on line, because I wanted one that was assembled, bench tested, and ready to rock and roll. It has an important job to do, so I did it right, and you should too.

Coronal Mass Ejections and You

This past week there were several medium to large Coronal Mass Ejections, otherwise known as solar flares. As the resulting electromagnetic pulses, travelling at about four million miles per hour, collide with Earth’s magnetic field, there will be increased Northern Light activity, and also sporadic disruptions of Radio and Satellite signals.

So what does that mean for you and I?

Well, if you’re far enough north (Maine), and the conditions are right, it means that you may be treated to some strange and beautiful light shows in the night sky. It also means that the satellite feed your cable company gets could suffer periodically, as well as the signals from the GPS satellites.

We we’re up in Maine this weekend and we went down to the beach to star gaze, but it was too overcast to see any Aurora activity. We did however suffer from some strange tics in the cable feed, and when we started our car to leave, the GPS put us squarely in the Atlantic Ocean. It stayed pegged to that spot, just off the coast, until we hit the Hampton tolls, then all of a sudden it came back to life, plopping us on I95, where we belonged.

Phew.

Anyways, it seems we’re in a period of increased solar activity that won’t peak until 2013, so keep a weather eye to the sky, just be sure you have those polarized Ray Bans on, can’t be too careful. Matter of fact, I just finished fashioning myself a jaunty little tin foil cap, and I think I have enough left to line a couple of pairs of shorts.

That is all.

Backyard Tech - Aquabot Turbo T

Vacuuming the pool is one of those chores that you start off enjoying, but quickly run out of time and patience for.

Early in each pool season I’m gung ho to clean it by hand. It’s a great feeling to do something that shows such obvious results, and it can be an almost Zen like experience; standing quietly poolside, hypnotized by the rhythmic motions and the sighing, woodwind like sounds as the air escapes from the pole on each down stroke. It slows things down and gives me time to think and relax.

As the season goes on though, my thoughts increasingly focus on what a time consuming pain in the ass it actually is. The setup, the breakdown, the backwashing, the standing in the hot sun during the day, or trying to keep my focus while swatting mosquitoes in the evening, and as the summer heats up and the algae starts blooming, each vacuum becomes longer and more tedious. You never hit every spot either, no matter how much time and energy you put into it. Consequently the pool liner starts to get that slimy “Slip and Slide” feel to it, especially on the down slope to the deep end. It’s hard to put enough pressure on the pole to really scrub those deep angled places.

A couple of years ago I purchased a rechargeable pool “dust buster”, the Pool Blaster. It attaches to the end of your pole and does a great job. It’s a self contained device, so it cuts out the setup time and the backwashing part of skimmer vacuuming, but you still have to go over every square inch of the pool. It’s great, but it’s not the ultimate solution to vacuuming, it’s more of a spot cleaner.

We also thought about having the pool cleaned on a regular basis by our pool people, but that gets costly. We have them come by when we’re away and they do a great job, but its $70 bucks a pop, and that’s just too rich for my blood over the course of the summer, so we started to look for a pool cleaning robot. There’s a ton of them out there, but after much research we settled on the Aquabot Turbo T.

Aquabot has a whole line of pool bots, one for every type of pool and every budget. The Turbo T model is on the high end of the spectrum, but it pays for itself in time, chemicals and results. It motors around the pool like a little submersible Sherman Tank, scrubbing, vacuuming and power washing every inch of the pool, and leaves it sparkling clean. By the second use we started noticing that the vinyl liner felt like it did when it was new; firm and textured instead of smooth and slippery.

This baby is amazing. It even climbs up the wall and moves along the water line,defying gravity while it scrubs the liner all the way up to the coping. It picks up everything; sand, leaves, rocks, and I’m always amazed at the amount of debris inside the filter bag at the end of its cycle. I run it about twice a week, and the pool has never been so clean. I’m even saving money on earth and chemicals because I don’t need to backwash as much, plus I now get to do my Zen like thinking while seated and watching the bot clean the pool. Much better.

I got my Aquabot online from In the Swim, who I found via GoodSearch. GoodSearch provided me with a discount coupon and made a donation to the charity of my choice based on a percentage of the sale price. Nice. Check them out, they do great things, and check out the video below of the bot in action.

Nook Color Firmware Upgrade

Barnes and Noble recently released their long awaited firmware upgrade for the Nook Color, Version 1.2. It’s based on the Android 2.2 OS, and it brings all kinds of new features to the already cool and functional device.

With the addition of Email, Adobe Flash Player and the availability of productive Apps like Quickoffice® software, as well as time wasters like Angry Birds, it’s got the whole package now, and at half the price of an iPad, this device has become pretty hard to pass up.

Check out our previous review of this device for more details.


That is all.


Oh, wait… Angry Birds anyone?

Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel

I had the pleasure to stay at the new Renaissance Boston Waterfront Hotel last week and I give it two thumbs up.

We had been working with them since before they officially opened, planning a large 4 day symposium, and I can't say enough about the hotel and the staff.

The hotel is beautiful. Ultra modern with an ocean motif and gorgeous views, and it's equipped with the latest and greatest technology and a staff that knows how to use it.

Add in the great food, the incredible turn around time in the meeting spaces, and the luxurious rooms (HDTV's, iHome iH9's, and pillows to die for) and you can't go wrong.

Check it out for your next meeting, or even for a weekend getaway with your significant other. South Boston has a lot to offer these days, and it's only a block from the Bank of America Pavilion.

Looking For a Digital Camera?

A coworker was asking me about digital cameras today. He's looking to buy one as a gift and really wasn't sure what to look for. I sent him a link to a nice primer I found on Boston.com, Nine questions to ask when purchasing a digital camera.

If you're new to digital photography this article will give you a leg up before you hit the stores. It covers the main points well, megapixels, optical vs. digital zoom, batteries and storage media. As with most things today different users have different needs and the article is quick to point that out and give you a good basic foundation to build on.

Once you're ready to get started you should check out another great source, Steve's Digicams. This site does very comprehensive reviews of digital cameras with sample photos from each and "Steve's Conclusion" which cuts right to the chase. There's a ton of info on this site.

My wife and I happen to favor lens quality over megapixels and we prefer SD cards for storage to keep to a standard, plus they're pretty reasonable. We're not real big on teeny-weeny either. They just don't seem to fit right in the hand. For a small, carry around, I won't croak if I lose it kind of camera we have a Canon PowerShot A540 . It's small enough to tote but has a knurled edge that aids in one hand shooting. It's also got a lot of features and functionality for the price. There are newer models out in the PowerShot line, be sure to check them out.

Of course there's a lot of options out there and there's a camera that's right for you. Take your time and do your homework. Then get out there and start snapping!

Stay Connected With Chumby.

Looking for something different for your favorite geek? Check out Chumby.

I recently saw a Globe review of cool gifts that mentioned Liveboard’s blue tooth enabled baseball scoreboard and Ambient Devices’ datacast driven stock and weather displays. They both make cool gifts for the connected set, but Chumby takes the idea to a whole new level.

It’s a small wifi enabled device with a color touch screen that gives you an interactive window on the internet anywhere in the house. You set it up with your pc, downloading widgets for the tasks you desire it to perform. Track something on eBay or Craig’s List, get updated news and scores, receive incoming email, make and send ecards, use it as a digital picture frame linked to your Flickr account. It's even a clock radio and iPod player and charger.

You can set it up anywhere, all you need is power and wifi. Stand it on a counter or stick it to the fridge with the provided magnets. This thing is the Swiss Army Knife of networked gadgets. And get this, the company even encourages you to hack it. They’ll give you all the hardware and software specs and even show you how to change it physically by customizing its enclosure. You can have your own little Franken-Chumby!

A little pricey at $179.95, but it gets decent reviews and is a perfect gift for that friend or loved one that never wants to be off the grid.

I Learned Something New Today

I learned something new today and it turned a bad day around. It was a rough morning to begin with, when the Pats play at night the next morning is never pretty, but this morning I had the added bonus of cold rain and an outdoor project that's had it's ups and downs.

One of the things on my to do list this month is to upgrade a fiber optic link between a couple of buildings. Time is of the essence on this project as the cold New England winter fast approacheth. The conduit for this particular run has been in place for twenty-something years and had been damaged in the past so I have been sort of expecting trouble on this job.

Last week just before the holiday we hit a blockage in the vicinity of the original damage, but the job foreman probed the area and found a pull box just below the surface, cleverly hidden by a few inches of lawn and dirt, and cleared the blockage. We all went home for the Thanksgiving weekend with high hopes of finishing the job easily on our return.

This morning my Nextel gave it's familiar bleep moments after I arrived in my office. It was the job foreman and he wanted to know if there might be another pull box that I hadn't told him about, as they'd once again come to a screeching halt. They were on the home stretch, the last 500 feet before entering the next building, and there was no record of any more pull boxes or manholes in this section. This was going to be a long day.

After joining the crew for a wonderful game of probing the path with steel rods in the pouring rain, hoping to strike the lid of another splice/pull box, I decided we needed to take a different approach. I called the Facilities Engineer and he arrived like the cavalry with an underground cable locator that not only traced the conduit but it also gave depth readings. We found a spot where it was closer to the surface than normal and with the assistance of a great construction crew and a Bobcat, uncovered an unmapped splice box. Why it was buried (rather deeply, I might add) and never recorded, will remain one of life's little mysteries. You can bet the farm that it's on the map now.

So, we're back on track and I learned all about underground cable locators. We have a variation for tracking cables in house, but I'd never seen one like this. That baby was a Godsend, as were the crew and the Facilities Engineer. And there's something to be said about playing in the rain, as long as I don't have to do it too often.

An iTunes Mystery - The Case Of The Disappearing Cover Art.

I’m running iTunes on XP and I’ve got a problem with disappearing cover art. Songs I rip from CD’s and add cover art too mysteriously lose it. I’ll go to sync my iPod and notice track names flash by in the info box (i.e. syncing Boomtown) that I know have been in my library for months and I’ll know right away that it’s happening again.

It’s usually only a handful of songs and it only happens once a month or so, but it’s frustrating because I spend a fair amount of time copying cover art from Amazon or elsewhere and adding it to the tracks.

For a while I thought it was related to a particular version of iTunes and that the next rev I downloaded would clear it up, but it’s dogged me through every upgrade (I’m at 7.5.0.20 now). I haven’t been able to rule out the platform I’m running it on (XP Pro/Media Center 2005) but I think I’ve finally found a pattern and may have figured out what’s going on.

It seems to only happen to ripped songs that aren’t available through the iTunes store, never to ripped tunes that are part of the iTunes catalog and never to iTunes purchased songs.

I noticed that on the General tab of the Preferences box I had “Automatically download missing album artwork” checked. I think iTunes looks at the non purchased songs in my library and says “Hmm, I’ll get you some cover art for that.” then looks through its catalog and doesn’t find any. Somehow in the process it displaces what you’ve put there. I’ve unchecked the box, so we’ll see if I’m right within a couple of weeks.

In the meantime let me know if you’ve experienced anything similar, and if so, how you’ve gotten around it.


Check out the latest update to this post: An iTunes Mystery - Solved for more info.

Safe Tech Toys For The Holidays

OK, unless you've been in a cave you know that there's been some serious issues with toys lately. A couple of weeks ago my grandson was showing me the cool bee he had made with his new Aqua Dots play set. A few days later I saw the news piece on how toxic this crap was and almost choked on my morning coffee.

I called my son even though it was 5:30 in the morning. Scared the daylights out of him, of course, everyone answers late night/early morning phone calls with a touch of dread, but I was freaked out enough about the story that I just didn't care. It turned out that he had seen the story also and had already scooped it and hidden it. Smart man, my son.

We were lucky this time, but I for one am not taking any chances this holiday season, and you shouldn't either. I'm going to give you some safe and really cool high tech alternatives today that are guaranteed to be a hit.

First up is the VTech V.SMILE game console. It's actually called a learning console and I have to say that it's a pretty apt description. We bought this for my grandson last Christmas and he loved it. It's geared for ages 3 to 7 so it grows with the child. The games/learning modules actually feature popular characters like Bob the Builder, Scooby Doo, Sponge Bob and Spiderman and do a great job of disguising learning as an arcade game.

The games are broken up by age group, 3-4, 4-5 and 5-7 and each group works on a variety of skill sets. The controllers are intuitive and easy to use and the console and games are quite reasonable. The console goes for about $49 and the games are about $19 each.

This has stood the test of time for us. It's still being used on a regular basis after almost a year, and I don't need to tell you parents out there that holding the interest of a 4 year old for a year is quite a feat.

Vtech also makes a system for children 6 and up, the VTech V.FLASH. Same deal, $49 for the console and $19 for the games.

There are some great add ons for both systems and plenty of games, so you can make buying them a family affair. Someone gets the console, others can pick up games or accessories. You also get the added bonus of knowing your not giving them some mindless piece of crap. Bonus!

Got a tween or teen? How about a reasonable but fully functional laptop? The Asus Eee PC is a close cousin to the Laptop for Every Child device but is a very slick computer that can be used by all. It's small and light and comes with a web cam, WiFi, Open Office and either a Linux or Windows operating system. It's flash based so there's no hard drive, boots up and shuts down really quickly, and according to all the reviews on the tech sites and, more importantly, the user reviews on Amazon, everything works right out of the box with no configuration necessary. Does it get any better than that? Why yes it does, the price is just $399!

I'm thinking this would be a great device for someone like my 83 year old dad. Easy to use, hard to hose.

There's not a lot of free disk space, only about 1.5 gb, but for mail and word processing apps it doesn't need much. Plus it has 3 USB 2.0 ports, so thumb drives and portable disks can solve that problem. Check it out.

That's it for now. Next time we'll talk about some cool toys for grown up geeks. I can't wait!

My PC is Gone, Baby, Gone.

I’m a pretty careful guy when it comes to caring for my systems and preserving my data. I’ve seen enough “data disasters” to last a lifetime.

You know the drill. You get the call from a relative or friend who has been dumping digital pictures onto their PC for the last 2 years and has never backed it up. Their hard drive is clanking, the PC won’t boot, and they’re frantic. “Oh my God, little Nell’s first communion pictures are on there!” they wail.

Usually you can recover some or all of their stuff but it’s always a pain in the butt and your friend or relative always stands behind you the whole time, wringing their hands and asking “How’s it lookin’?” every 5 minutes. Such a fun time! Once I even had to resort to a trick I learned from one of my coworkers to rescue data, freezing the hard drive. If you pop a bad drive in the freezer overnight sometimes it will work for about an hour after you take it out. It worked, but just barely. The drive started clanking again about halfway through the copy and died for good right after I finished.

I actually think there was divine intervention on that one. The drive belonged to a loved one who was particularly distraught and close to tears as I left for the evening with the dead drive in hand. I was flying home the next morning and although her computer was working, she had no hope of ever seeing her pictures again. Man, would I have loved to have seen her face when the FedEx guy delivered the DVD’s I created a few days later. That would have been priceless.

Anyway, we all say “I’ll never be that guy!” but it’s almost impossible not to be that guy.

I have a laptop, an iMac and a honkin’ Media Center PC at home. Any digital pictures and videos we take get loaded onto both the PC and the iMac, and they all get copied to a portable hard drive also. In addition, once every couple of weeks I burn a copy of the My Pictures folder onto a DVD. Same with the My Videos and the My Music folders and just because I’m totally anal, I also run the iTunes backup routine once a month and rip all purchased tracks to CD.

So, you would think that with all this preparation a machine meltdown wouldn’t be such a big deal for me. Well guess what? Even when you’re prepared it still sucks.

The other night, right after I finished the previous post, my PC went into a coma from which it still hasn’t recovered. It froze and that was it. I couldn’t even get it to POST, let alone reboot. Fried motherboard. Gone, Baby, Gone.

Luckily it’s still under warranty so we made a copy of the hard drive (told you I was anal) and off I went to Buy More. The store was great. They popped the hood, confirmed my original diagnosis, then packed it up and shipped it off on its long trip home to the manufacturer.

Beautiful, right?

Not exactly.

Now I’ve got to wait for its return, which could take up to a month, and when I do get it back there’s a good chance I’ll have to reload everything. A small price to pay, especially if I end up with a brand new system, but a time consuming hassle nonetheless.

In the meantime although I’ve still got my laptop and iMac, I’m out of business on a lot of fronts. My laptop isn’t powerful enough to process video and doesn’t have a video capture card and PVR software like my desktop. The iMac can process the video, but the video projects that I had already started on the PC will need to be restarted from the raw video files on the Mac, or they’ll just have to wait. Also a lot of the software I use regularly on the PC isn’t on the laptop or iMac, which means I’ve been busy loading software.

The coup de grace is that my iTunes library is on the PC and my wife’s is on the iMac. Both are radically different and if you’re familiar with iTunes you know the hassle of transferring to another computer.

On the plus side, this will force me to do some things I’ve been putting off. I’ll probably run all my music through a leveling program and then re-import it into iTunes with sound check off. As you may know, the iTunes sound check software really sucks. My levels are all over the place.

And then there’s…

and…

Ah nuts, there is no plus side. A PC meltdown is just no fun at all.

Be a smart geek.

I saw a reader poll on a tech website the other day: HD DVD vs. Blu-Ray, which one will win over consumers and why? My answer is... hopefully neither.

I know it's great to have the newest cutting edge technology, but we as consumers have the power to shape the direction the industry goes in, albeit only to a small extent, by not buying either Blu-Ray or HD DVD. If sales lag, it WILL force a compromise, or even the quicker emergence of a newer technology.

Personally, I'm happy with my upconverting DVD player for now. Things change too quickly to choose sides in an ongoing technology war unless you have money to burn. 1080p won't be embraced by broadcasters for a myriad of reasons, and when and if they do embrace it, it will be in an mpeg-4 format or something new that has yet to be decided, rendering the current crop of 1080p TV's and HD DVD players obsolete. You can read more about the reasons why in this article on Wikipedia and also on berryjooks.com in the article "Everything you need to know about HDTV".

Weekend Mashup

Check out the Buzz Report on CNET. Molly Wood is very good. I especially like the out takes from her tech reviews.

To effect the quality of the day is no small achievement. I got this in a fortune cookie recently and it made such an impression on me that I googled it. Seems like its a very common fortune as I found quite a few blogs and websites where people were referring to finding it. I also found that it's a subtle variation of a Henry David Thoreau quote: "It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful; but it is far more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look. To affect the quality of the day--that is the highest of arts." Here's the thing. I like the quote because I've found that there is hardly anything more rewarding than changing the quality of someones day. For the better, that is.

Brady and Manning have a shot at the same record this week. Being the first QB to beat all 31 opponents. Brett Favre has a shot at it next week. Also, both the Pats and Colts will be trying to remain undefeated.

Daisuke Matsuzaka ( 松坂 大輔 ) is on the mound for the Sox tonight in Colorado and I think he's going to give us another good outing. I saw a press conference with him today and he said that after holding a replica of the World Series trophy he's anxious to hoist the real thing. Could be just the motivation he needs. We'll see...

Go Sox, Go Pats!

That is all.

Safe Computing

I'm going to give you some information today that may save you a lot of time and aggravation. First thing I want to talk about is targeted ads. Have you ever noticed that sometimes websites seem to be able to read your mind? You go to Autofinder or the Ford website and for the next couple of weeks every site you go to is showing you ads for cars and trucks. Thats because sites put tracking cookies on your hard drive.

Targeted ads cue on your cookies and from the sites you redirect from, among other things. Most websites use tools to collect your info. All you need is to be on them for a second and they have a ton of info about you. They map your location and system info to the stories and the ads you click on so they can use it to adjust what they present. It also tells them how the user found the site, whether searching Google or redirecting from another page's link.

Not all of them collect personal info like IP address, computer names, etc. but some sites do. It's a good reason not to use your name when you are configuring your computer i.e. "Frothington family computer". You should also make it a practice to clean your cache. Get rid of the cookies, offline internet pages and mru lists.

The quickest way is to open Internet Explorer, go to Tools (Top left of the IE window next to Favorites), scroll down to Internet Options at the bottom of the drop down list. This will bring up a window of IE options and on the first tab or page (General) you will see Delete Cookies, Delete files, and Settings. Click on both Cookies and Files. When you hit the delete files button, be sure to select the offline content checkbox. Piece of cake, but it can be even easier...

If we're talking about your home machine, you should install Lavasoft's Ad-Aware. The personal version is free and it's the best tool out there. It not only roots out spyware but also blows away all your cookies. There are some upgraded versions that have more functionality like real time (constant) scans and a version for buisness computers, but the free one is fine for home use. Update it and run it weekly. Please note that Ad-Aware is not a replacement for Norton/Symantec anti virus. You need them both.

Second thing I'm going to talk about is music downloading and P2P (peer to peer) file sharing in general. Don't do it. There is no such thing as a free lunch, or free music. What you are doing is opening up your hard drive so that any unscrupulous person can put anything they want on it. Think spyware or malware. I see a steady stream of people whos PC's are virtually unusable because they are so polluted. The crap comes from music downloading, surfing porn, or both. You need to stick to trusted sites like iTunes or Amazon. If you're concerned about DRM's and cost, you should read my article on DRM free downloads on berryjooks.com. You'll find it on the berry's shuffle page.

OK, I've rambled enough for tonight. The Sox start back up tomorrow night and I need my beauty rest.

berry's new blog

Hi, you've found berry's new blog. I've got a website @ www.berryjooks.com with technology reviews and how-to's along with music and sports news but I thought it would be fun to ramble a bit on here.

This space is where I'm going to vent and pontificate and perhaps even entice you over to my site for a closer look at what I'm up to. My real passion is for building large scale voice and data networks but I love all things electronic. I'm also a real nut job for the Patriots, the Red Sox and ABC's Lost. Quite the strange brew... and speaking of strange brew, Clapton has a new autobiography and a new compilation CD out. The book is getting great reviews and the CD is on my gottagetit list as most of my Cream collection is still on vinyl (yup, I'm that old).

As you can see I'm already all over the place, but that's exactly why I wanted to start this blog. I try to keep to the subject on my website, this place I can be a little more free form.

Well, that's it for now, but I'll leave you with these thoughts:

The Sox can win 3 playoff games in a row and have done it as recently as 2004. You've just gotta believe.

The Pats will continue to crush all opponents and finish every game with, as Bill Simmons so succinctly put it in his last column, the eff you touchdown.

Always do right. This will gratify some people, and astonish the rest. Mark Twain