I scoured various reviews and picked the MSI Wind with the 10″ screen, 160GB hard drive, 6-cell battery, and bluetooth. Here’s why I picked it over the competition:

• I passed on the Lenovo Ideapad S10 because it only had a 3-cell battery and a poorly-reviewed keyboard.
• The HP Mini 1000 was a bit more expensive and sacrificed too much performance to get the slightly smaller size; I didn’t like the tiny and slow iPod-sized hard drive and it doesn’t have a 6-cell battery option.
• The Asus Eee PC 1000H was my second choice and is largely identical to the Wind, but I ultimately picked the MSI due to better Mac OS X compatibility should I choose to purchase and install that OS. It also has a better keyboard layout, although the Asus has a larger trackpad that supports multi-touch.

The best part is the price. $337 after applying the Live.com 25% cashback from Ebay. I can’t believe how inexpensively laptops have become.

Of course, I had to do an upgrade. More memory is always better and I purchased an additional 1GB of Crucial Memory for $13 shipped from Newegg.

More details on my experiences with the MSI Netbook are to follow.

This is such a good deal that I’ve I installed the Live.com search Add-on for Firefox and replaced Google as the default search engine.  I’ve found the search results to be just as useful as the Google results.  Live.com earned bought my loyalty.

Here are the details:

This discount applies only to buy-it-now items purchased with PayPal on Ebay.

Go to http://www.live.com and search for something like “wii”.

You should see (at the top of the page in the Ad area) something that says “Live Search cashback” and an Ebay link and the 25% off offer.  Click the Link.

Once on Ebay, search for whatever you want (Wii, Nikon D90, MSI Wind, Sonos ZP90, etc.) and filter by “buy-it-now” items.  Purchase the item with buy-it-now and PayPal, and get 25% off. If the seller uses a third-party checkout, then the offer is not valid and you will be warned that the offer does not apply.  If they do use PayPal, the amount of the discount will be shown on the checkout screen before you pay.

This offer is good for up to $200/purchase and $2000/year.  The only catch is that you have to wait 60 days to get the 25% refund (to make sure you don’t return the item.) This is good for up to 12 purchases on Ebay and then you are no longer eligible.

Apparently it was 35%-off a couple of months ago, then disappeared entirely, and now is back at 25%-off.  Who knows how long it will last. More details are available here:

http://pages.ebay.com/cashbackoffer/terms.html

Thank you Microsoft! (Who needs Yahoo! anyway? This is a much better use of that money.)

Pros:

• Wireless design
• Smallest wireless headphones on the market
• Does not completely block outside noise (so you can still hear traffic if you’re running/biking)
• Lifetime guarantee against failure from sweat intrusion
• Includes everything you could need: USB charger dock, wall charger adapter for dock, iPod bluetooth dongle, carry pouch, USB cable, replacement ear tips
• Fairly comfortable to wear for an over-the-ear design (but not as comfortable as the stock Apple earphones)
• Can control iPod from the right earphone (previous/next track and play/pause)
• Can change volume from the right earphone (press and hold the previous/next track buttons)
• Can be used as bluetooth headset for iPhone or any bluetooth-capable cell phone (auto-switches from music to phone mode when a call is made/received)
• Sound quality is adequate for spoken recordings (audio books) and video dialog and very casual music listening

Cons:

• Poor sound quality – zero bass ; stock Apple headphones sound much better
• Poor sound quality – background hiss can be heard when music volume is low, hiss increases with headphone volume
• Poor sound quality – high frequency noise / compression artifacts
• Expensive – $150
• Experienced a bug where I turned power off, but LED on headset remained dimly illuminated even when I powered it off multiple times – completely drained battery
• Overly large desktop charging dock into which earpieces do not firmly lock (can be knocked out much too easily)
• Bright flashing blue LED on iPod bluetooth dongle – very distracting when watching video
• Flashing blue light on the side of the earpiece – I don’t like it when my ear blinks
• Bluetooth dongle works only with these bluetooth headphones (an FM transmitter dongle would work with any radio or car stereo)
• Buttons are small and somewhat difficult to press and hold (must hold the earpiece with your thumb and middle finder and firmly depress your index finger tip)

Conclusion: I returned them to Target. I decided that $150 was too much to pay for poor audio quality.  The Jaybird JB200 headphones are a pretty descent solution for listening to the spoken material while exercising or for casually listening to “background” music, but that’s about it. They need larger drivers to deliver more bass and a low-pass filter to remove the high frequencies they can’t accurately reproduce.

I’ve decided to purchase an Griffin iTrip FM Transmitter for $50 and use my existing $20 FM armband radio. This gives me flexibility to listen to either my iPhone or FM stations while at the gym.  I can also play my iPod through any car stereo if I so desire. The battery life of my armband radio is much longer and swapping AAA batteries every 6 months is easier than recharging earphones every 2 weeks. The sound quality of the FM radio is not audiophile-caliber, but the bass is better, the high frequencies roll off instead of producing noise, and the price is more appropriate to the audio quality.

The Jaybird JB200 is a very compact wireless headphone solution that addresses a specific need very well (small, wireless, casual listening, exercising.)  But for me, it was not compelling enough to overcome the poor audio quality and the high price.

I finally found the Zonet ZVC7630W camera and the features seemed to be everything I was wanting, so made the purchase.  In summary, I’m very pleased with it.  It does everything I need it to do very well.  There are some advanced features that I haven’t been able to get working but, truthfully, those are features that I don’t really need.  In my experience, this is the best network web camera available.  Here is my usual list of pros and cons:

Pros:

• IR (Infra-Red) LEDs for viewing in total darkness.
• The included mounting hardware worked well for wall-mounting.
• Works for wired and wireless networks.
• Worked with my WEP and WPA2-PSK encrypted wireless networks.
• Support for multiple users and multiple user roles, so you can give different people different access rights.
• Support for multiple image protocols: MPEG4, MJPEG, 3GPP
• Works with all browsers (Java Runtime Environment required.)
• The basic features are Java-based and work with any operating system that supports Java, which is pretty much all of them.
• The flashing network activity LEDs can be disabled via the web configuration page.
• It was simple to setup. All I did was plug the wired network cable into my network, found the IP address it acquired, entered that into my browser, entered the default username and password (admin, admin), and it was working.  No manual required.
• View away from home. Dynamic DNS allows you to assigning a domain name to the camera so that you can find it and view it when you are away from home.  Support is provided for a large number of providers, including DnyDNS.org.  Unfortunately there is no support my new favorite provider DNS-o-matic, which can update multiple domains names and services.  Because of this, I used the Dynamic DNS update service in my router instead and had it update the netcam account as well as the other accounts that point to the same network.
• 
• uPnP support is provided, which should enable the camera to automatically open ports on your router to allow you to view the camera when away from home.  I didn’t try this feature and instead assigned a static IP address to the camera and manually opened ports. (The default is port 80 for the web server and port 554 for the steaming video.)
• Motion detection feature that allows monitoring of a spercific area of the an image. When motion is detected, the picture is e-mailed, FTP’d, or saved to a flash drive (via USB port on camera).
• A built-in microphone and a speaker jack for 2-way communication. (I didn’t test this feature.)
• USB port for adding a flash drive or exteranl hard drive, to allow storing of motion capture events.

Cons:

• Ugly navy blue color.  Why not white? Or even silver?  The color should try to match the surroundings of a typical home, not stand out like an ugly blue gadget.
• No audio support within Firefox browser (Java client).
• Username and password is sent a clear text and is not encrypted.
• It was not possible to change the administrator user name.  For security purposes, it’s better to use non-default user names so that a curious third-party has to guess both the username and the password to gain access.
• I never could get RTSP (real time streaming protocol) to work, though I tried QuickTime, Windows Media Player, and VLC. According to the manual, it is supposed to work by viewing the url rtsp://your.camera.ip.address/mpeg4 .   I was hoping I could use one of these programs and not even have to user a browser to view the video. Unfortunately, the camera wouldn’t work with either. If I went to the root URL, I was prompet for a password and if I went to the /mpeg4 url, I was not prompted for a password and received only a “not found” error message.
  • Non-intuitive RTSP URLs; you shouldn’t have to enter “/mpeg4″ or “/3gp” to the end of the URL, the camera should auto-forward RSTP requests to the correct address.
• No default NTP (time) server specified in the firmware for auto-setting of camera time. (I just entered pool.ntp.org)
• The Motion Detection screen was very confusing to configure and gave very inconsistent results. There are “threshold” and “sensitivity” areas on the config screen, but I have no idea which slider position makes it more or less sensitive.
  • No support for secure SMTP email servers for sending Motion Detections pictures.  This means that you have to use the SMTP server provided by your ISP; it will not send pictures through your gmail account.
  • Requires ActiveX (Internet Explorer) for motion detect configuration.
  • 
• Overlay of motion event name is on top of date and time overlay, making it difficult to even understand what this setting does.
• No firmware updates from the manufacturer, which makes me wonder how committed they are to improving their product.

So even though I found several issues with advanced featues of the Zonet ZVC7630W, it does all of the requried basics very well and it doesn’t have the “only works with Internet Explorer” problem that most other cameras have.  I highly recommend this network camera.

Bill Gates portrait photo in landscape rotate

I’m astounded that Microsoft has not figured out that people take photographs with their camera rotated 90 degrees. Not every photograph is in landscape mode. However, Windows Vista thinks that they are. All modern cameras contain a sensor that detects whether a photo is taken in portrait or landscape mode and the picture is tagged accordingly. Most software auto-rotates the photo accordingly. But not Windows Vista and not Windows Movie Maker. You have to manually edit/rotate the photo yourself. It’s time for Microsoft to become more customer-focused and start including these features in Windows.

1. Torrent Tracking and Seeding: Amazon S3 can server as an ultra-reliable torrent tracker; share/seed the files from your local PC and let S3 act as the tracker. Or let S3 handle both the seeding and the tracking. Here are the details on how to do it.
2. Enable / Disable directory browsing: If you are sharing files of HTTP, you may or may not want people to be able to list the contents of a bucket (folder.) If you want the bucket contents to be listed when someone enters the bucket name (http://s3.amazonaws.com/bucket_name/), then edit the Access Control List and give the Everyone group the access level of Read (and do likewise with the contents of the bucket.) If you don’t want the bucket contents list-able but do want to share the file within it, disable Read access for the Everyone group for the bucket itself, and then enable Read access for the individual files within the bucket.
3. Prevent the contents of a bucket from being indexed by a search engine: If you don’t want the contents of a bucket to be indexed by Google and company, place a file named Robots.txt in the bucket and share it with Everyone. (This trick works for any webserver.) The file needs to contain the following two entries to prevent indexing:
   • User-agent: *
   • Disallow: /
4. Use your own domain name: You can use your own domain name (http://s3.carltonbale.com) instead of the default Amazon URL (http://s3.amazonaws.com/s3.carltonbale.com/). You just need to edit your DNS settings. Here are the details on how to do it. Bucket Explorer has an option to “Use bucket name as virtual host” to make sharing files in this manner even easier.
5. Temporarily share a file using an auto-expire link: You many want to allow someone to download a file but prevent them from sharing the link and having 100’s of people download it as well. With S3, it’s possible to create a link that expires after a defined period of time expires. The easiest way to do this using Bucket Explorer. First, make sure that the file has permission set so that it is not readable by everyone, since temporary access is what you’re going after in the first place. Then select the file, right-click, and select Generate Web URL. Select Signed URL and specify the expiration date. Then send the URL to the person with which you are sharing the file
6. • 
7. Share your bucket with someone. The Third-party bucket features allows you to share the contents of a bucket. In Bucket Explorer, right-click on the bucket and select “Update bucket’s access control list…” and set the permissions and add the other persons email address. See this documentation page for more details.
   • 
8. Upload any file extension as an HTML file (to redirect to another location.) Say you have a picture shared on your account and it is being leeched by multiple, external sites. Instead of just deleting the picture, you can create a web page to replace it that directs people to your site. If you picture name was picture.jpg, create the HTML file and save it as it on your local computer. Then change the file name to be picture.jpg. Now if you just upload this file normally to S3, it will be treated as a jpg image and will not download properly. But you can use BucketExplorer to upload it as an HTML file, which specifically tells S3 to treat it as a HTML file and not a jpg file. Here is an example of picture that I converted to a HTML redirect: http://carltonbale.com.s3.amazonaws.com/distance_chart.png
   • 
9. Store your media on Amazon S3 while running your WordPress blog on a different server. If you’re like me, your web host has overly limited storage space restriction. If you have a bunch of small pictures or just a few large videos, it can quickly consume your available disk space. To combat this, you can use the Amazon S3 plugin for WordPress. Instead of uploading files to your web server, it instead uploads them to your Amazon S3 account and automatically links to them, all within the WordPress admin interface.
10. Bonus Feature 1 – Compare local and remote file versions using MD5 check sums. Wondering if version of a file on your local computer is the same as the one stored in your S3 account? Perform a MD5 check sum and see if the results match. On you local computer, you can use a program such as HkSFV to calculate the MD5 sum. To see the MD5 sum of the file on S3, right-click on it and select Properties within Bucket Explorer. If the sums match, the files are identical.
    • 
11. Bonus Feature 2 – logging: You can enable logging of all activity within a bucket through Bucket Explorer. Right-click on the bucket and select “bucket logging”. You can create log files in the bucket being logged or in a separate bucket.

Those are all of the “hidden” features I’ve found, but I’m sure there are more. Please let me know of any features I’ve missed.

To be clear, this is the older Stacker 810 case, not the newer Stacker 830 Evolution. I think the 810 offers many for features for a much lower price; I’m not sure why the 830 is even around.

Th Stacker 810 is a great case if you have a bunch of drives and need a large, well cooled case. If you purchase 2 additional 4-in-3 modules, this case has 14 5.25″ drive bays, so it can handle 12 hard drives plus a DVD and a floppy drive. It is extremely large inside and can easily handle pretty much any motherbaord, plus there is a removable motherboard tray. There is a 120mm fan on the top as well as one on the front of each drive bay and the case has provision for two power supplies (one above and one below the motherboard tray.)

My DVD drive was very easy to install in the case, just place a plastic guide rail on the side and slide it into the locking drive bay.

The 4-in-3 drive bay (which fits four 3.5″ hard drives in three 5.25″ bays and includes a 120mm cooling fan) was not so easy. The drives are secured using screws, but there are 2 panels and 4 rails that must be held in place before sliding it into the front of the case. And if you take it out, it completely fall apart. I would prefer these snap together somehow, but I guess I won’t be removing the drives all that often.

If you really want to stretch the capacity of the case, you can use three SuperMicro CSE-M35T-1B 5-in-3 hot-swap SATA enclosures and fit 15 hard drives plus two more 5.25″ drives. Personally, I think spending more on drive enclosures than you do on a case is a waste of money. I seen no need to hot-swap drives in a home server, but it is an option if you need the space and can tolerate the loud, high-pitched fan of these SuperMicro enclosures.

This case is designed for a bunch of airflow. The downside of this is that it creates more noise as compared to my almost-completely-sealed-and-silent Antec P180 case. The perforated covers on front of each of the Stacker 810 drive bays are great for airflow, not so great for sound blocking. Luckily, due to the large 120mm fans and super-quiet Samsung drives, the noise is a soft, background noise rather than a higher-pitched, shrill, annoying noise. But hey, this is a server case, and servers should be hidden away in a back room, and not in your living room or home theater. Cooling trumps noise for a server case, and this one has great cooling. I monitored my hard drive temps, and all were at or below 26-degrees C.

Conclusion

Pros:  This is a great case because it is very simple to work with, supports multiple motherboard sizes, has great cooling, and has a large number of drive bays. For the price, it is a very well-made server case.

Cons:  The disadvantages are that it is not super-quiet and it takes up quite a bit of space (more than it really needs to due to so much unused space inside.) Unfortunately, it does not come with a power supply and it only includes one 4-in-3 hard drive module.

Extra Info: Part Number Detail

Unfortunately, there are a bunch of different Stacker 810 cases and the differences are not clear. After some research, I figured out which is which. Here are the details and the part numbers:

• STC-T01-UW – Silver; Dual Power Supply Locations (top & bottom); ATX, mATX, BTX, mBTX motherboards
• STC-T01-UWK – Black; Dual Power Supply Locations (top & bottom; ATX, mATX, BTX, mBTX motherboards
• RC-810-SSN1 – Silver; Single Power Supply Location (bottom); ATX, mATX motherboards
• RC-810-SKN1 – Black; Single Power Supply Location (bottom); ATX, mATX motherboards

If you are looking for accessories, here are some part numbers:

• STB-3T4-E1-GP – 4-in-3 drive bay adapter with fan (case comes with 1 of these)
• RC-880-FKR1 – 3.5″ drive bay cover (case comes with 1 of these)
• SPB-S01-E1 – PlexiGlass side window – Silver
• STF-B01-E1-GP – Cross-flow fan

What’s Great about the Treo 650

• Ability to install third-party Apps – Treo usability is lacking in many areas, but at least they allow third parties to develop software to make up for them. Password managers, area code look-ups, etc.
• Stability - Other than occasional bluetooth problems, the the Palm OS Treo 650 is extremely stable and reliable — as long as there are no third-party utilities runnings, which add great features but can cause instability with the operating system and each other.
• Battery Life - I always get at least 2 full days out of each charge, and often 4 days. Battery life has never been a problem, even with a 2-year old battery.
• The Keyboard – The keyboard with the hard keys is awesome. People praise the touchscreen keyboard of the iPhone, I’ll take a Treo hard key keyboard any day.

Improvements that are Needed – for the pretty much the Entire Palm Treo Lineup

• Too Much Need for Third-Party Software: I think third party apps such be programs such as Password Managers, not utilities that modify the core operating system. But there are so many usability problems, I’d venture a guess that most every Treo Palm OS user has installed a Phone App replacement, a Calender/Launcher replacement, or a Utility to modify behavior of the O/S (Butler, Phone Technician.) These are key applications; the defaults should delight uses, not send them looking for replacements and add-on. Improve the core applications and the interface — because applications that make these type of changes to a device make it much less reliable (I’ve installed and then been required to uninstall enough of them to know.)
• Bluetooth Headset Auto-transfer is Annoying: When the phone rings, I want to know who is calling and whether or not I should answer it. I don’t want to think if I left my bluetooth headset on, if so which pocket it is in, and decide whether or not I need to install it on my ear before answering the phone. What I’d like to see is buttons on the phone for “Ignore Call” or “Answer on Phone” or “Answer via Bluetooth Headset.” I don’t want the phone to auto-connect to my headset and have me yelling at my pocket while I take the phone from my ear and de-activate the headset. Apple figured this out with the iPhone and I complained about this years ago on Treo forums. But still this feature is not available.
• Power and Data Sync Connector Unreliable and Non-standard: The power connector is fine for charging at home, but I can’t get it to stay in the phone when charging in the car. How about a connector with a locking mechanism on it, like Motorola has? Also, the data sync connector is very unreliable; I have to disconnect and reconnect it several times before it will sync with my laptop. I’ve taken a toothbrush to the contacts on the phone and there has been no improvement. Yeah, the connector has a hotsync button on it, but so what. Why not just use a mini-USB connector to attach to the PC and software to active the sync? The phone could even charge over USB. The current connector sucks. (Note: The new Palm 500 addresses this complaint!)
• No Voice Dialing: There is no voice dialing feature on any Treo. Voice dialing is available on $50 phones but not on a Treo costing several hundred dollars? Ridiculous! Sure, you can purchase the VoiceSignal software to add voice recognition, but the demo version caused me many stability problems. Palm needs to release an integrated, reliable, and fully-functional voice dialing solution.
• No WiFi: A few years ago, Palm stated that wireless carriers would not sell phones with WiFi due to potential for VoIP taking their revenue away. Now every major carrier has a WiFi phone, and Palm hasn’t even released drivers to allow use of a SD WiFi card, much less a new model with built-in WiFi. They should have been the first company with a WiFi smartphone, not the last.
• Phone is Off after Crash/Reboot: My Treo did occasionally crash and reboot. When it did, the phone application would not turn on, so my phone would be off and I wouldn’t know it. The phone should return to its previous state after a reboot, or at least give the user the option for it to always power-on the phone. (There are 3rd party utilities to add this feature.)
• Main buttons behave differently based on when they are pressed, leading to user confusion. There are 49 buttons and 1 switch on a Treo 650. With so many buttons, why can’t they behave consistently? When you press the home button on an iPhone, it does exactly what you’d expect. Not one singe button on a Treo 650 does this!!! Here are some specific compalints:
  • When the “Home” button is pressed once, it goes to the the application list screen, showing the last-viewed category; twice or more and it switches to the next application category as well as the SD memory card applications, or prehaps a list of all applications. Why can’t is just go to the same home screen each time so I know what to expect?
  • When the Green “answer button” is pressed once it turns on the phone in the phone screen; twice and it brings up the previous call list, three times and it redials the last number. And if you get stuck in the wrong one of these functions, there is no way to go back. Relegate some of these functions to soft buttons on the screen!
  • Short-cuts to applications and contacts can be assigned to keyboard keys, but shortcuts only work when the phone application is open and won’t work when in any other view. Shortcuts need consistency!
    
  • When the Calender button is pressed, it displays the same daily view, which is a good thing. Repeated presses toggle the view between week, month, and daily summary/ to do. Assign discrete functions to buttons. One press of the calender button should only switch to one calender view. Assign an additional view to a double-press of the button. An action (button press) should always result in the same result!
• Bluetooth is very unstable. I have to reboot my phone every 2 weeks because it starts acting weird when using my Palm bluetooth headset and eventually stops working all together. I thought it was the headset, but eventually figured out that it was the phone causing the problems.
• Unable to Copy Files Directly To/From SD Memory Card: When connected to a computer, the SD card doesn’t show up as a drive, so you can’t copy software to/from the SD card. To make matters worse, Palm Desktop has a utility to copy files to the SD card, but it only allows *.prc files. To get this functionality, you have to purchase yet another third part utility. This should be included by default by Palm.
• No built-in Audio or Video Player – OK, my Treo 650 came with Real Player, but it sucks. We passed the year 2000 mark almost 8 years ago. Include a great music player with support for every file format available and a great video player with support for every video format available. Basically, if you put a great front-end on the TCPMP (The Core Pocket Media Player), you’d make a lot of people happy.
• A New Form Factor Is Needed: The Treo 500 / 800 is a step in the right direction. Thin is in. But how about a larger (iPhone-like) screen and a slide-out keyboard (HTC Kaiser.) In fact, why not take a HTC Titan and put your name on OS on it. It even has WiFi.
• HotSync Manager Odd Pop-up Messages: Every time I boot, I get a message stating “the selected port, COM1, is not available at this time.” No kidding. My computer has never had a COM1. It has a COM4 for my Bluetooth connection, and when I open the HotSync config it shows COM4 being selected and no other options, so why must I be subjected to this error message every time I logon to my PC?

• Palm Desktop Software Availability: Why can’t I download the latest released version from the Palm site? Why is it only included on a CD that shipped with my Treo? Just give me the latest download. And while I’m at it, why did it take 6 months after the launch of Windows Vista to release a beta version that is compatible? Shouldn’t the beta have been available 6 months before Vista was launched?
• Palm Desktop Alarm Reminder Application Crashes: It crashes every time I come out of hibernation. When I finally reboot, the Alarm program starts and pop-up reminders from the past 2 weeks fill my screen. Why must it crash? If it does crash, why doesn’t it restart itself? Shouldn’t I be able to depend on it to remind me of appointments?

Conclusion

There are many, many opportunities for Palm to make improvements and delight their customers the way Apple has with the iPhone. I really hope Palm does just that.

This is pretty surprising, first of all that they are releasing new features, and secondly that they once again care about TiVo customers, since they dropped TiVo as their DVR supplier many months ago. My best guess is that they know there are a lot of loyal TiVo users who are more loyal to TiVo than to DirecTV. With the TiVo HD out, this makes a jump to cable even more attractive. I just posted a couple of days ago about my plans to do just that.

The brochure touts:

What do you need to do to get the most innovative new features? Nothing. We will bring them to you!

[. . .] And know that DIRECTV and TiVo will continue to explore ways to bring future enhancements to our valued DIRECTV customers with TiVo service.

The new features are what has already been disclosed in a press release: Remote Booking via the web, a Recently Deleted Folder, and Overlap Protection. These features are great, but I wouldn’t call them “the most innovative new features.” If DirecTV wants to keep loyal TiVo users like me around, they need to give us some of the more advanced features, such as:

• Network support (come one – a lot of people don’t even have a phone line anymore and we’re sick of the “make a daily call soon message),
• Multi-Room Viewing
• TiVoToGo (or I guess it would be DirecTVToGo)
• No need to offer TiVoCast or Amazon Unbox support, because these services are (somewhat) competitors to DirecTV, just give us ways to use the content DirecTV provides.

If could get these features from DirecTV, I’d be very happy and would stick with DirecTV for a long, long time. But with only the features listed, that’s not quite enough to keep me from eventually jumping to cable and a TiVo HD. However, it does bode well for a new DVR collaboration between DirecTV and TiVo. If they offer an MPEG-4 capable box with network support, it would be the ultimate combination for me. Here’s hoping.

Pros:

• Keyboard: This keyboard is incredible; it has a great feel to it and the large, white letters on the black keys make them very easy to read. I dislike the keyboard on my Dell D620 even more now and am not overly impressed by the feel of the MacBook Pro keyboard. The ThinkPad keyboard is the best.
• Think Light keyboard light: I love having a keyboard light! The backlit illuminated keyboard on a MacBook Pro is beautiful and extremely easy on the eyesl. The ThinkPad uses a somewhat crude yet practical approach with a single white LED above the screen that shines down on the keyboard. But when the lights are off, when you occasionally need to hunt for a key, they light works.
  • 
• nVidia Quadro NVS 140 Video Card+ Docking Station: runs my 30″ Dell 3007WFP monitor at full resolution (2560×1600) with no problems. That’s exactly what I need. Many laptops can’t address a monitor that requires dual-link DVI; a ThinkPad with an nVidia graphics card can. The higher resolution options were not initially presented through the Windows video control panel; I had to use the nVidia control panel to select the 2560×1600 resolution.
  • Also note that DVI dual-link is a single DVI connection using 14 pins (instead of the standard 8 pins.) This allows a single DVI connector to driver high resolution monitors (above approximately 1900×1400 pixels. DVI dual-link is not the same a two DVI connectors for driving 2 monitors — see this wikipedia article.
• Clear WXGA+ Screen: The higher resolution WXGA+ screen is extremely clear and very easy to read. I was concerned that the font may be difficult to read at this high of a pixel density, but it is very sharp and clear using the default Windows settings.
• Fingerprint reader: It has worked flawlessly after I got through the initial print entry. I love how quickly I can now sign-on to Windows; it makes the multi-user feature of Windows pain-free.
• Three raised mouse buttons: I love having 3 mouse buttons and the fact that they are raised above the adjacent surface to make them easier to depress. I absolutely hate the 2 recessed trackpoint button on my Dell D620; the ThinkPad buttons are perfect.
• Trackpoint: It is very configurable via the Thinkpad utility, so I can add options such as “tap to select”
• Touch Pad: the touch pad is very configurable; the extra options for scrolling, scroll continuation, and corner taps make the touchpad useful, but I still spend most of my time using the TrackPoint.
• Keyboard customization utility: This little utility allows keyboard remapping of both the internal and an external keyboard, so your can initiate the special Fn+F7 to toggle internal/external monitors and any other of the special Functions.
• Lenovo System Update Utility: Automatic updating of drivers and Lenovo software; much better than with any other manufacturer I’ve experienced.
• Build quality: This is one solid laptop. It’s rigid, purposeful, and balanced
• Docking Station: It’s great that there is a docking station available: fast docking for charging, mouse, and monitor.
• Easy to Upgrade: I upgraded to 2GB of DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) memory as soon as I unboxed my laptop. Instead of looking for service instructions, I decided to figure it out myself. I flipped over the T61 and each one of the screws that had to be removed to access the memory was labeled with a small icon. I unscrewed each one, the cover popped off, and the memory was right there.
  • 

Cons:

• Screen Blanking 6 Seconds after Logon: 6 seconds after I log on or unlock Windows Vista, the screen goes completely blank and then immediately comes back on. This closes the start menu (if I opened it during those first 6 seconds) and also resets the screen brightness to a default level, rather than the level I manually selected prior to the screen locking. This is annoying. Leave the display as it was. Switching back from the logon screen should be completely seamless and it isn’t.
• Weird “Bouncing” Sound from Front Right of ThinkPad: About every 5 minutes or so, I hear a weird sound from the front right of the T61 where the hard drive is located. I pretty sure it’s the hard drive. It sounds similar to a small wooden ball being dropped on a hard surface from about a 1/4-inch height. It’s not loud, but it is persistent and annoying. I’d buy a different hard drive if I knew it would eliminate the sound. It’s not the accelerometer detecting motion and parking the drive heads; I disabled that protection feature and the sound continue to occur.
  • Update: This turned out to be a failed Seagate hard drive; it was bad from the start.
• ThinkVantage password manager: It is supposed to allow fingerprint-protected automatic password entry of passwords on websites. But for WordPress, when I go to create a new post on my site, the password manager box pops-up for no apparent reason (that is not prompting for a password.) It seems best to leave password management to Firefox.
• Disk Keeper Slows Everything Down (w/default settings): It is automatically scheduled to defragment the hard drive, which kills the battery and slows the computer. This shouldn’t be the default setting, it’s best to disable this software and run it manually.
  • Update: This may have been due to the failed hard drive.
• No Auto-Wake on Lid Open: When I close the lid, Windows can be set to automatically go to sleep (although I have this feature disabled.) What I really want is for the ThinkPad to automatically wake-up when I open the like, the way a MacBook Pro does. Why else would I be opening the lid if I didn’t want to use my computer? Why must I push the power button; can’t it just turn on?
• No DVI-I port on the ThinkPad: There should be a DVI-I port on the ThinkPad instead of the VGA port. DVI-I supports both analog and digital signals, so a small dongle converts it to a standard VGA port. Plus a DVI-I port can drive a digital flat panel monitor (such as my Dell 3007WFP 30″ monitor). Instead, I have to purchase a docking station just to connect to my external monitor. I would have purchased the docking station anyway, but I shouldn’t be required to do so.
• Windows Vista stability and Issues: I initially had problems, but after I installed all of the updates and rebooted, there have been much fewer problems. Unfortunately, ShutterFly software and the ShutterFly Firefox plug-in both crash on Vista (not XP.) Also, the power save feature doesn’t work properly — it’s set to sleep after 10 minutes, but it stays on until the battery is dead. When the screen is deactivated due to the power save feature and it reactivated, it goes to a default brightness level, not the one I had manually set 20 seconds before the screen momentarily powered down.
  • Update: After installing the new hard drive and performing a clean install of Windows Vista Ultimate, I’ve had zero problems with Windows Vista!
• I ordered a CD burner instead of a DVD burner: I figured I’d save $50 and burn DVDs on my desktop PC if I needed to do so. But when I was burning 8 CDs to create the backup media, I knew I’d made a mistake. When I downloaded a 1 GB iso file that needed to be burned to a DVD, I was positive I made a mistake. I should have gotten the DVD+CD burner instead of the CD-only burner.
• Tiny Touchpad: The touch pad is absolutely tiny. It should be 4 times the size that it is. And it should have 2-finger scroll.
• Unresponsive Trackpoint: The trackpoint isn’t as sensitive as it is on previous Thinkpads or on my Dell laptop. It seems that I have to push too hard and it still moves too slowly, even with the configuration app in control panel set to the most sensitive settings.

Other Application-specific thoughts:

I tried using Microsoft Internet Explorer and Microsoft Outlook since they are the default Windows programs; I wanted to avoid additional installs. Outlook was unbearably slow syncing with my IMAP server. After an hour of frustration, I installed Thunderbird and all is well. I fared better with IE, but the lack of search-while-you-type finally broke my resolve, and I then installed Firefox. The customization and add-ons make Thunderbird and Firefox almost impossible to beat for anyone who is obsessive about details.

My favorite Windows Vista feature: Start Search. Press the Windows key, start typing the name of the application, and it is automatically selected. I still think Launchy is better, but I could live with only Start Search if I had to.

I re-tasked my current desktop as a dedicated server (more on that in a future post) and needed a replacement. My initial reaction was to buy a bunch of parts from Newegg and build a desktop myself — this is what I’ve done every couple of years for the past decade or so. But after I spec’d and ordered the parts, I experienced a paradigm shift: “Why are you buying a desktop when you really want a laptop.” Not 30 minutes later, I receive an alert from DealNews.com that there was a 10% discount on ThinkPads. I canceled my order for a desktop and embarked on the first purchase of a laptop.

The only other laptop I considered was an Apple Macbook Pro. I just purchased one for my father-in-law and it is a great piece of hardware. Truthfully, I went Mac to recduce the number of support questions I receive (I can always claim ignorance with Mac OS.) But after using Mac OS for a while, I was slightly irritated by the interface and very irritated by a lack of free / open-source programs. I’m very specific about the software I use, and some of it does not conform to the Mac way of thinking. Plus, I’d have to re-purchase some of the software I own. The final nail in the Mac Book Pro coffin was that could get pretty much identical hardware for a half the price. Case closed; I’m a Windows / Linux control freak and will remain so for a few more years.

Here are some details on the deal I got:

• 10% coupon from DealNews.com
• 7% cash back from the American Express TailorMade program
• 3.5% cash back from FatCash.com

The Upgrades that I Picked:

• Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7300 (2.0GHz 800MHz 4MB L2 cache) — passed on the 1.8GHz 2MB L2 Cache CPU
• 14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ Camera — an upgrade from the lower-res WXGA / no Camera version
• NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M (128MB) — I need this to drive my 30″ Dell 3007WFP LCD monitor
• UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad) with Fingerprint Reader — upgraded to the fingerprint reader for quicker log-ons
• 100GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm — a priced-reduced upgrade from a 60GB, 5400RPM drive
• 7 cell Li-Ion Battery — the standard 3-cell battery is a joke
• ThinkPad Advanced Mini Dock – unfortunately, this is the only way to get Dual Link DVI-D output; shame on Lenovo for no on-board DVI port

The Downgrades that I Picked:

• CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max, Ultrabay Slim — I don’t burn DVDs, so no need to waste money on a DVD burner
• ThinkPad 11a/b/g Wi-Fi wireless LAN Mini-PCIe – I can get an Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN Laptop card off of Ebay for less than from Lenovo and don’t need it unless upgrade to 802.11N wifi at home
• 512 MB PC2-5300 SDRAM DDR2 667MHz SODIMM Memory (1 DIMM) — I can order 4GB of memory from Newegg for the price Lenovo was going to charge me for 2GB; I’m not afraid to take thinks apart
• No 1GB Intel Turbo Memory Card — I’d need to get more memory to qualify for this, plus it’s a standard Intel part that I can get a card cheaper off of Ebay than I could directly from Lenovo; I’m not afraid to take things apart
• Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic — the cheapest Operating System option; I already own a Windows OS — and shame on Lenovo for not offering an even cheaper Ubuntu Linux option!

Unfortunately, because I picked the WXGA+ screen with camera, it may be several weeks before I receive my new object of tech lust. I’ll be sure to post when I’ve tried it out.

• Scheduling of temperature based on time of day and day of week.
• Automatic switching between heating mode (temp not to fall below lower set point) and cooling mode (temp not to exceed upper set point)
• Capability to display a remote (outside) temperature

I’ve researched some of these thermostats recently and here’s a summary of the information I’ve found.

Level 1: Scheduling Thermostat

The Aprilaire 8570 (shown above) meets all of the basic requirements for which I was searching and has a large display that makes it easy to program. For basic scheduling, auto heat/cool mode switching, and outside temperature sensing, this is the best thermostat I’ve found. Price: about $120.

Level 2: For those looking for even more features:

The Proliphix NT20e offers all of the features of the Aprilaire but includes Ethernet network integration, which opens up an entirely new set of capabilities. For example, you can connect to an embedded webserver on the thermostat and configure all of the settings and schedules from any computer on your local network. The thermostat can update its time over the web, so you never have to set the clock. It can also send e-mail / text page alerts if the temperature gets too high or too low. In addition, you can connect to the thermostat when you’re away from home through a free account on the Proliphix website. If you have an advanced home automation controller, it can send commands over the network to change thermostat settings. Price: about $260 (Note: the NT10e does not include remote temperature sensing, but does include everything else is a bit cheaper.)

Biggest Disappointments:

The RCS X10 was my initial first choice, but after preliminary research, I found that it has no scheduling feature! Sure, you can raise and lower the temperature from an X10 remote device, but it doesn’t have any built-in automatic scheduling. I you are one of those people with advanced home automation system, you can use that to automate the thermostat settings. For me, this is a complicated and potentially troublesome combination. I’d rather have the thermostat itself taking care of all of the scheduling, not a computer or external controller. I think the Proliphix is a much better option and it can also be controlled over the network (many home automation controllers are capable.) I’m glad I didn’t purchase the first thermostat I found. Price: about $200.

The Aprilaire 3020t Communicating Thermostat has most of the features of the Proliphix NT20e, but it requires a central control until. The thermostat cost about $200. . . but the controller unit is another $800. This is way to expensive for my needs, and offers many multi-zone control features I’d never use. But if you have a multi-zone system, this may be a pretty descent option.

I’ve recently found myself using nothing but point devices with no scroll wheel: my Mogo Bluetooth Wireless Mouse, my 3M Renaissance Ergonomic Mouse, my Dell Latitude laptop. One thing is missing: the ability to scroll. That is, until now.

History: About 10 years ago, when Steve Jenkins was running Windows95.com shareware site (which become download.com), he would select the best software each year and give it a “WINner Award.” One of the software products that deservedly earned that designation was Pointix Scroll ++, a handy little app that sits in the Windows tray and allows you to scroll by holding and dragging the left (or center) mouse button. Back in those days, the first scroll wheel mouse was just released and Scroll ++ gave “old school mice” the ability to scroll without one. I downloaded it, gave it a try, and purchased it instantly. But soon the scroll wheel became common place in the cheapest mice, Pointix was acquired and disappeared into oblivion, and this piece of software history was all but forgotten.

Fast-forward to present day: There are new and innovative pointing devices that just don’t have room for a scroll wheel. Users are frustrated, everyone complains about it, and there is no apparent solution. Unless you remember Pointix Scroll ++. Unfortunately, I couldn’t even activate the version I purchased because the company is long gone. I tried to contact the original copyright holder, but had no luck (it’s just a generic spam-like advertising site now.). Since the US Copyright Office has given approval to share abandoned software, I’m posting for download Pointix Scroll ++ version 2.05 for Windows (including activation) for anyone else who may need it. Below are details on how to install it and activate it.

Download, Installation, and Configuration Instructions (after the break):

• Download the zip file containing Pointix Scroll ++ 2.05 + activation (as well as PopMouse 3.15 + activation)
• Extract the Zip file (using WinZip or an equivalent)
• Run the file named Pointix Scroll++ 2.05.exe to install (you’ll need to enter your name and a company name – be sure to enter both!)
• Run the file named Pointix Scroll++ 2.05 Activation.exe to activate (you’ll need to again enter your name and a company name)
• If you have issues with activation, try Pin:  Netplaque000000000000 (12 zeros) and Password: 00000010 (6 zeros)
• Pointix Scroll++ will load when Windows boots (make sure there is a shortcut to Scroll++ in your Start -> All Programs -> Startup folder)
• Click the Pointix Scroll++ icon in your system tray, select Preferences, and make the following settings

Edit: My article is also mentioned in the podcast from that week.  Well, at least someone named “Carlton Babble or something” is.
For anyone curious, the result of the link was an increase in site traffic from an average of 1,200 page views/day to 21,000 page/views per day. There was also an increase in referrers from stumbleupon.com and del.icio.us as well, probably because of the EngadgetHD article. I’m not sure how word got out, but my best guess is that the article was first posted on digg.com, then was referenced on avsforum.com, and finally picked-up by EngadgetHD.com. Here is a graphical summary of the change in site traffic:

This is an update of my previous list of Firefox 1.5 Extensions

I’m a long-time user of the Mozilla and Firefox browsers. The base feature set is amazing but the extensions are what really make this browser a requirement. Here are my favorite extensions: Required (I use constantly):

• Tab Mix Plus: If I had to choose only one extension, this would be it. It makes the tabs behave any way you want them to behave. I use it to make child tabs open beside their parent, for the title text to be blue when the tab is unread, to show page download status in the tab title.
• AutoFill Forms: Tired of continually filling in the same info over and over again? This extension allows you to add a button to your icon bar. When you click it, it will auto-complete the common form fields on the currently-displayed page.
• Copy Plain Text: Will not copy formatting when copying text. Prevents the need to do an Edit / Paste Special / Plain Text command in the destination application. Can be set as the default copy option and optionally removes excess whitespace. I use this on every time I copy from my browser now.
• Download Status Bar: A great replacement for the annoying download window that pops up. Less obtrusive and it give the user a bunch of options to make downloads behave how ever you want them to behave.
• DownThemAll: A download manager built inside of Firefox – no external programs to worry about.
• FasterFox: Automatically modifies settings to speed-up Firefox.
• IE Tab: Can switch the current tab back and forth between IE and Firefox, all within Firefox. Great for sites that don’t support Firefox and for page design validation.
• Link Alert: Displays an additional icon by your cursor to let you know if a link is an e-mail link, external site link, java script, office document, PDF, etc. Great to prevent the opening of unexpected files.
  
• OpenDownload: Gives you the option to download a file to a temp location and launch it to the default Windows application. This is perfect for program install files that you don’t want to keep, so you don’t have to download install files to your desktop, run the installer, and then delete the file. Plus, it will automatically delete the temp downloads a few days later. This is similar to a feature offered by IE, one of the very few IE features I miss.
• PDF Download: Asks you how to handle a PDF: view in browser, open in external viewer, or download. Prevents those frequest lock-ups I had from acrobat crashing inside of Firefox.
• QuickJava: Disable Java and Javascript quickly, in case you visit a suspicious site that you suspect may be running suspicious code.
• Remember Mis-Matched Domains: If you frequent web sites / servers that have self-generated security certificates installed, you’ll always get a security pop-up. This extension allows you to ignore that message for specified domains.
• Smart Middle Click: I love using the middle mouse button to open links in new tabs. Unfortunately, some sites don’t use conventional links and instead use javascript to link to the new page, resulting in a blank tab instead of the page you’d expect. This extension resolves that problem.
• Update Notifier: The best way to see when there are updates to Firefox and any extensions.
• URL Fixer: Fixes the common typos people make when typing a URL in the location bar (such as .con -> .com); fixes about every common mistake you could make.
• Firefox Extension Backup Extension: backs-up all extensions, preferences, and bookmarks (for Windows and Linux)
• These aren’t really extensions, but be sure to check the Additional Toolbar Search Engines page (I added Wikipedia and IMDB.com)
• MozBackup: This stand-alone program (not an extension) backs-up everything in Firefox and Thunderbird (Windows only)

Website-Specific Extensions:

• Amazon S3 Firefox Organizer (S3fox): If you use the Amazon S3 backup service, this is the easiest way to manage bins, change share permissions, and upload/download files.
• Kaboodle.com Add Item to Wishlist: Kaboodle.com seems to be geared toward young women, which does not classify me. Oh well, it still offers the best central wishlist features of any site I’ve found, using a clean web 2.0 approach.
• MyTimeZone for Ebay: If you don’t live on the west coast, or if you don’t like to read times in the 24-hour format, this extension is for you. It converts the times on Ebay listings to your local time zone, so you don’t have to perform math to determine when an auction ends.
• Verizon Wireless Minutes Used Extension: Don’t you hate it when you use more minutes than your plan allows? This extension allows you to track the number of minutes used during the current period and display it along the bottom in the Firefox info bar. Also available for T-Mobile.

Recommended for a Work Laptop:

• LeechBlock: Find yourself checking the news too often? LeechBlock will let you know when you’ve passed your own pre-set threshold.
• Quick Proxy: Quickly turn the proxy on and off. Great for your work laptop. (Replaces Proxy Button)
• User Agent Switcher: At work, you are more likely to run into a website that thinks it requires IE to function properly. This extension allows Firefox to temporarily trick the server into thinking it is IE, eliminating the “You must be using Internet Explorer to view this site” message.
• Webmail Compose: Integrates webmail in case you don’t have Thunderbird or any other mail client installed on that machine. Great for your work laptop if want to send an e-mail from your personal account rather than your work e-mail application.

Lightly Recommended (I use occasionally):

• Xinha Here!: Lets you launch a client-based WYSIWYG HTML editor. Uses the Xinha editor, but I would prefer TinyMCE or FCKeditor.
• Mozilla Labs Weave: great for bookmark backup, but there is so much more it can do beyond that.
• Colorzilla: If you do any web design, this is great for figuring out which colors are used anywhere on a page.

Old & Obsolete or “Still On the Fence” (but I’m listing them anyway):

• Adblock Plus + Adblock Filterset.G Updater: Great for removing unwanted ads in web pages; auto-updates the blocked sites list. However, if everyone used this extension, no websites would earn revenue from ads and would go out of business. So I no longer use this extension.
• del.icio.us: Not sure I get to popularity of this site, but it allows a user to mark, save, and share interesting web content.
• Flashblock: Disable Flash animations until you give them permission to run, to disable many of those annoying advertisements. Sounds like a great idea, but this extension block way too many things and wouldn’t unblock them. So I uninstalled.
• IE View or IE View Lite: Since switching to IE Tab, I don’t use these two. However, I do respect their small size and simplicity. These two programs let you open the current page in Internet Explorer (useful if case the web page author does not properly support Firefox).
• StumbleUpon: Helps you find new sites that match your interests.

One must-have utility for backing-up setting prior to a reformat or computer switch is MozBackup.

Links to other Extension Lists:

• The most popular extensions on the official Firefox extension page
• Security extensions
• 25 Extensions you didn’t know you needed
• List of Extensions recommended by Google engineer
• List of almost-necessary extensions
• Download.com extension lists: Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, User Favorites
• Mozilla.org recommended extensions
• Top 10 Firefox Extensions to Improve your Productivity

Advantages of the browser itself:

• Tabbed browsing – once you start using tabs that open with a center mouse button click, you can’t stand using IE, right clicking, and selecting “open link in new window”. IE7 has tabs, but too little to late, and they are not a configurable (especially with the Tab Pref plugin)
• Security – not integrated into Windows – this means that ActiveX can’t be used, which is a pain for developers, but also for virus writers. Why use a browser with so much potential to install mal-ware? Firefox is even more secure when you install the “Disable / Enable Java & JavaScript” plug-in.
• Search while you type – start typing a phrase and Firefox auto-searches the page. By default, it searches link text only, but it can be switched to search all text through the Options menu. Once you go back to IE and realize you have to hit CTRL+F before using search, you become even more frustrated
• The favored browser of Google - the first third party application to be featured on their home page (with the Google tool bar extension, of course). If Google likes it, it must be great, right?
• Standards-based, so it follows the design standards of governing bodies
• Extensions, extensions, extensions

Extensions:
Say Firefox doesn’t behave exactly the way you want it to. Your brother-in-law is probably used to that, seeing as he is using five-year-old browser technology, so he’s not into improvements. However, you could probably show him something to get him interested because there is probably something he doesn’t like about his browsing experience and there is probably a plug-in to fix that. Here are some links to lists of extensions:

• The most popular extensions on the official Firefox extension page
• Security extensions
• 25 Extensions you didn’t know you needed
• List of Extensions recommended by Google engineer
• List of almost-necessary extensions
• Download.com extension lists: Vol 1, Vol 2, Vol 3, User Favorites
• Carlton Bale’s personal list of extensions

For web developers:
Your brother-in-law is a web developer after all. How about a list of the enhancements that make it easier to develop. Here are a few:

• Basic Web Development Search extension – A basic web developer extension that allows a user to search the PHP function list, mySQL developer database, freshmeat, and the Java API. Also comes with session destroyer. Just what a Microsoft developer needs help with.
• Web Developer extension: Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools (disable functions, CSS, Forms, etc.)
• View Cookies extension: It adds a tab to the Page Info dialog box, which shows the cookies of the current webpage. Great if you’re brother-in-law is using cookies on the site he develops
• ColorZilla extension: Since your brother-in-law copies all his designs from everyone else, this extension will help him quickly figure out the color being used within any aspect of the to-be-copied page.
• HTML Validator extension: Since he can’t write valid code, this handy HTML Validator will come in handy to point-out the mistakes.
• FireBug extension: Because of the the bugs in his code, he can use this to explore the far corners of the DOM by keyboard or mouse. All of the tools you need to poke, prod, and monitor your JavaScript, CSS, HTML and Ajax are brought together into one seamless experience
• View formatted source extension – To help with the countless hours of debugging, this plugin displays formatted and color-coded source and optional CSS information for each element.
• List of 9 must have extensions for web developers
• The official extensions pages list many more besides these

Look cool even if you are running IE:

IE Tab extension: Your brother-in-law needs a status upgrade and using a 5-year-old browser doesn’t help. Even if he can’t let go of IE, he can at least make people think he has by running IE inside of Firefox. With this extension, he can still easily open links in IE tabs within Firefox. Just right-click the link and select “IE Tab”.

Is your brother-in-law still not convinced? Well, there is probably no hope for him. Unless maybe he gets a new car and then realizes how great new and improved models/versions can be.

I have no problem paying for their software. I was getting ready to purchase it, in fact. I would definitely pay for a compiled executable because I don’t want to mess with compiling source code. However, the fact that they are not living up the requirements of GPL has changed my mind. Instead, I’ll be using the free VOB Merge to merge multiple VOB files into one and AutoGK to convert that VOB into a Xvid file. After reading the Omniquiti forum, it looks like I would have to use VOB Merger anyway, so there is really no great benefit to paying $8 to use their software.

I tried Clone DVD Mobile from Slysoft and it was extremely simple to use and also very fast. It eliminates the 2-step process of VOB Merge + Encode, and was much easier to use. However, at $39 for a license, it is a bit expensive. Hopefully there will be another discount code soon. For now, I’ll stick to the free, 2-step process. And I’ll stay away from Ominquiti regardless.

I just upgraded to WordPress 2.0 and I’m not all that impressed with the results.  The WYSIWYG editor (that I was so excited to see included) does not work well. In fact, I couldn’t even get it to apply formatting at all in Firefox 1.5. I would highlight the text, click the bold button, and it would flash bold for a brief period before reverting back to non-bold. No idea why. Also, no way to format pictures (float right, for example) or browse images on the server before inserting them. I switched back to ChenPress, which is much more functional.

Also, the file-uploader is not very useful for uploading pictures. I received safe-mode errors and it would not upload.  IImageBrowser worked much better, but I had to disable WYSIWYG editing to access the text area toolbar from which IImageBrowser is launched.

On the positive side, the new admin interface looks great and the usability there has been improved quite a bit.  It’s possible to edit plugins, easier to figure out the .htaccess file, has the comment spam plug-in by default, etc.

Eventually, I think the WYSIWYG editor will catch-up with what people need.  But at this point, it is an unremarkable first attempt.

For similar opinions, see Tikun Olam’s review.