Home Tech

Which Flickr Google Gadget to use on your Blog

2008-12-03T08:39:00.006-05:00

When I was moving my blog to its new location I decided I wanted some of my recent photos from my Flickr account to be shown. In the Layout style of Blogger it seemed that the way to do this was to add a Gadget. I clicked Add Gadget and searched for Flickr and back came 151 gadgets. The first page was things like photos of Christmas, Cannes, France, Italy. Not what I was looking for.

I googled for "which is the best google gadget for flickr" and found a zdnet article on 10 essential google gadgets. It recommended Flickr Nugget which I tried, but it didn't let me do exactly what I wanted which was to show a particular label out of my photostream. I also found that when added to my blog it didn't look good and had scrollbars and things.

This was the problem with the next 2 or 3 gadgets that I tried as well. Either they didn't fit well on the page, or they didn't do what I wanted. It seemed that I - like 151 people before me - was going to have to build my own google gadget. I plan to write more about my experiences writing my first google gadgets another time, but the short version is that it was not the simplest way to go.

What turned out to be much simpler was the following

Go to the Flickr Badge Generator and follow the steps to create an html badge. I entered a label from my photostream, and a random selection of 3 in a vertical orientation of thumbnails
Select All the HTML shown in the text box and copy to clipboard
In Blogger from the Page Elements tab of the Layout tab click Add a Gadget
Scroll down and pick the HTML/JavaScript Gadget in the Basics category
Give a Title like "My Photos", paste in the code, and save

After the fact I went back and tweaked a few things like removed the flickr_badge_uber_wrapper table with the link to flickr.com, as well as changed the text in the source link to just "more...". But that was really about it. I had spent more time searching and trying out flickr google gadgets than I did in implementing the final solution.

picnik.com - how to add borders to photos

2008-11-30T10:58:00.005-05:00

All the photo sharing sites, like kodakgallery, offer the ability to add borders. But few of them let you download the edited photo in full resolution. You can also add borders using photo editing software on your computer, like PhotoShop or PaintShop Pro. But those cost money, and take some learning if you don't regularly use them.

I just wanted to add a few photos to a web site and have a border around them. After some searching I found www.picnik.com. Here are the steps I followed to make the polaroid looking image on the left

go to www.picnik.com and click Home
click Upload Photo and select the photo on my drive
click Create
click Frames
click Polaroid
click Background Color and pick White and click Apply
click Save & Share
click Save Photo and save it to your drive

That's it. No registration necessary. The whole process took 30 seconds. There are some premium features in the editor which require a paid registration, but even that looks cheaper than PaintShop Pro or PhotoShop. What software or web site do you use?

AlphaCom Insat Wireless Modem

2008-11-28T17:13:00.002-05:00

In June 1997 I read a post in a local newsgroup, triangle.online-access, about a new product, the AlphaCom Insat Wireless Modem. The claims made about the product were

$20-25/month all-inclusive unlimited CDPD wireless internet access
consistent throughput of 56-156Kbps
wireless modem unit price of $349-$399

This seemed far too good to be true, so I began to follow the product. The same month, PCWeek Online posted a preview of the product based on a demonstration at PC Expo. The article quoted Andrew Seybold, editor of Outlook on Mobile Computing, and Alan Reiter, editor of Wireless Internet and Mobile Computing.

My initial skepticism was due to the pricing/bandwidth claims. But then I discovered that they were planning to distribute the product via Multi-Level Marketing. As the months went by without any hands-on reviews of the product, and the number of distributors advertising the product grew significantly, it became clear to me that this wasn't a company making exaggerated claims about vaporware, but was an outright scam.

I wrote an article on my web site in September 1997 expressing my skepticism, and posted on local newsgroups to warn people away from the company. I also wrote to both Andrew Seybold and Alan Reiter, each of whom had been conducting their own research using their more extensive contacts in the communication industry. They each subsequently wrote articles of their own, which I referenced from my web site, along with other information such as links to all the distributors advertising the product.

Shortly after this I received my first phone call from AlphaCom.

The caller threatened to sue if I didn't take down my web site. It was quite a disturbing phone call, and was followed up with a cease and desist letter. I really had nothing to gain by keeping the site up, but I didn't like the idea of being silenced by a legal threat, when I was quite confident that everything I had written was true.

I had a few sleepless nights before making up my mind to keep the site up. What I did do was carefully edit out everywhere that I expressed my own skeptical opinion. This kept all the same information, including the quotes from others more qualified on the subject to have opinions. And the top of the page still said "Too good to be true?".

By 2000 I had stopped seeing advertisements for the AlphaCom Insat Wireless Modem, so I took down the site, and put up a web site with general information about CDPD. I'd read quite a lot about the technology and legitimate providers of CDPD modem technology and wireless service during the time, and thought others might find this useful. Back in 2004/2005 most US providers shut down their CDPD networks in favor of newer and faster standards. I am writing this article as I finally get around to deleting my obsolete CDPD site.

In late 2004 I came across an interesting footnote to this episode as I was making an update to the site about how AT&T and many others were shutting down their CDPD networks. As I researched some details, I happened upon an SEC litigation release about AlphaCom. A complaint had been filed against the officers of AlphaCom in 2003. Among the defendants named was the very person that had threatened me, verbally and in writing, with legal action.

[...] from September 1997 through October 2000, the defendants raised $8.9 million from the sale of AlphaCom securities to over 1000 investors. The Complaint alleged that the defendants raised these funds by falsely representing that AlphaCom owned exclusive rights to novel Internet technologies, Network Utilities (NU) and Very Minimal Shift Keying (VMSK), that were supposed to increase Internet downloading speeds and the speed of access to the Internet. [...] [U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Litigation Release No. 18895 / September 23, 2004]

Yes. It was too good to be true.

About this Blog

2008-11-28T16:25:00.002-05:00

The Home Tech Blog contains reviews of various gadgets, hardware, software and web sites that I own or use. It started in January 2006 at hometech.budgetweb.com and moved to hometech.sitesz.com in November 2008.

About other sites

2008-11-28T16:08:00.002-05:00

Here's some background on other sites that I look after in addition to this blog and the LIST of low cost web services

OS/2

In 1993 I began publishing the OS/2 Meta Faq, containing a list of useful links for OS/2 users. In 1995 when I wanted to upgrade my computer I did some research into places where I could buy a system with OS/2 preloaded. I later published this as the OS/2 pre-load list. In 1996 when Netscape shipped a browser for OS/2, I published a list of Hints and Tips for using Windows 3.1 plugins with Netscape Navigator for OS/2.

James Grove Thurber

Around 1998 my wife did a project for school which she published online as the PATHFINDER: JAMES GROVER THURBER (1894-1961).

Beech Mountain Bliss

In 1996 we bought a condo on Beech Mountain, NC. We love getting away there as often as we can to enjoy the spectacular views, especially during the summer when the cool temperatures are a welcome relief from the sweltering heat of Raleigh, NC. My wife manages the rental of this property at this site.

Beech Mountain Bliss Blog

In November 2008 we started a blog about Beech Mountain where we pass along things that we've learnt from vacationing there with our little daughter.

About budgetweb.com

2008-11-28T16:04:00.002-05:00

LIST of low cost web services

The domain name budgetweb.com was registered in Feb 1996 to host the LIST of low cost web services. This resource began in Nov 1995 as a short list of web space providers with their monthly rates, setup costs, and space offered. Originally it was published as Surviving the WWW on a tight budget on alt.internet.access.wanted.

Installing WordPress on Pair Networks

2008-11-28T15:34:00.008-05:00

The Famous 5-Minute Install told me everything that I needed to know. The only step I had to do before that was to create a database using the Pair Networks Account Control Center.

And don't forget, when editing wp-config.php, that Pair hosts MySQL on different servers from your web site. So you'll need to change localhost to the server specified in the Database Administration page.

Once I had it installed, I spent some time looking for a theme. Eventually I settled for the default theme and just changed the header graphic. The steps for this were

upload a 1024x192 JPG (MountainHeader2.jpg) to ~/wp-content/themes/default/images
edit ~/wp-content/themes/default/style.css
change kubrickheader.jpg to the MountainHeader2.jpg

Because I host other content on my web site, but I wanted this blog to be the home page, I needed to add links from this blog to the other content. I struggled with the terminology a little on this. Pages are content authored in WordPress, so I couldn't use that. Links seemed to want to group into categories. The solution is to create a category called Links in Link Categories and then to add the links in the Links section, assigning them the category of Links. Clear? What took most of the time was tracking down the plugins and widgets that I needed to display twitter, flickr and del.icio.us in the sidebar. I was going to write a post on the widgets that I selected, but I've found a great plugin called WP-PluginsUsed which generates the report below automatically. This way if I change the plugins I use in future, this post will always contain the ones I currently have active.

What took most of the time was tracking down the plugins and widgets that I needed to display twitter, flickr and del.icio.us in the sidebar.

del.icio.us for Wordpress 1.8
» Ricardo González (url)
Displays your recently listened links. Based on Pownce for Wordpress by Cavemonkey50.

Flickr Thumbnail Photostream 1.1
» PlusNet Plc - Developer Responsible: James Tuck (Web Development Team) (url)
Generates a random selection of photo thumbnails from a given Flickr account.

Twitter for Wordpress 1.9
» Ricardo González (url)
Displays your public Twitter messages for all to read. Based on Pownce for Wordpress by Cavemonkey50.

Updated 11/28/2008: I no longer use WordPress, choosing instead to use Blogger with a Custom Domain, but I'm keeping this post in case it's helpful to others.

Netflix Player by Roku

2008-11-26T20:53:00.003-05:00

I bought my Roku Netflix Player on Aug 10, 2008. I've been a Netflix subscriber since 2004, and I've been using Netflix Instant Play sporadically for a year or so, but I don't have a computer plugged up permanently to my TV, so it really wasn't that convenient. So when the Roku came out at $99, I immediately wanted one. The selection of movies available on Netflix Instant Play was still somewhat limited, but there were enough Family movies to make it worthwhile if only for my 4 year old daughter.

The Roku arrived with cables and batteries. I plugged it up to my TV, and to the power. The setup was astonishingly simple. Only slightly tedious thing was typing in my WIFI WEP key on the cursor remote, but after that and a simple activation sequence from my computer, it was on, and in a few moments it was showing all the movies I had added to my Netflix Instant Queue. Far simpler than I had anticipated to setup.

The remote control is great. Pause, fast forward and rewind are all more usable than the IE browser interface to Netflix instant play. I've read complaints in some reviews that you can't add movies to the Instant Queue from the remote control, but that really doesn't bother me. I like to be able to control what shows up on the queue from my computer, so that my daughter doesn't accidentally add something I don't want her watching.

I find the image and sound quality entirely acceptable. I really can't tell the difference between it and a DVD. I've watched a lot of movies and programs and not once has the program got stuck while watching. Which surprised me considering that my Living Room does not get great wifi reception when I use my laptop.

This has been an excellent gadget purchase, and I've recommended it to a lot of people.

Plaxo Toolbar for Outlook

2006-10-01T13:09:00.001-04:00

I use Microsoft Outlook at work and at home for managing contacts, tasks and memos. I've tried various approaches to keeping these in sync. When I regularly carried a Palm, I would sync to the Palm from home and work. But this was inconvenient and I would often forget. I also tried Yahoo Intellisync for a time, but found it to be buggy, reporting errors that I couldn't trace down and fix.

After reading Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen, I began relying upon Outlook Tasks even more. So I needed to find a reliable approach to keeping these uptodate and in sync. I have been using Plaxo for a while to keep my address book uptodate, and discovered that their Outlook Toolbar allowed you to sync Outlook calendar, contacts, tasks and memos with the Plaxo server.

So by simply installing this both at work and at home, I am now able to keep in sync. So far I have found it to be 100% reliable, and have had none of the strange errors or duplicates that plagued me with both the Palm and Yahoo Intellisync approaches. At first I had it prompt me each time it wanted to create or delete an entry. But after a few weeks of never needing to correct it, I've since checked the box so that it can just go ahead without prompting.

I still sync separately with my Palm and my cell phone, but these are now 1-way synchronizations from Outlook to the device.

Digital Voice Memo Recorder

2006-09-04T15:28:00.002-04:00

I wish I knew the brand/model of this device, but I bought it on eBay and it has no identifying marks. It says "Made in China" and "AG13x4" on the back (indicating it takes 4 x AG13 batteries), but nothing else. I've remove the batteries, and nothing under there either. I've even taken it apart, and there's no marks inside.

I've tried to find a supplier on the internet, but there's a million and one key chain voice recorders out there, and I wasn't able to find one that looked like this. So I'm going to write about it, but if you want one, the only thing I can suggest is trying the same eBay supplier. If you do happen to know the brand of these things, please let me know.

I was looking for a voice recorder for those occasions when I couldn't make notes in the small pad I carry for that purpose. For example, on my daily commute. I'm always thinking of things, and forgetting them by the time I get to my destination. Since I started following the organizational techniques in David Allen's Getting Things Done (GTD) I realized this was all the more important.

Digital Voice Recorders seem to fall into two categories. The $100+ professional models that can record hours, and the <$15 models that are integrated into key chains or pens and record <20 seconds. I just needed something that could record a few thoughts on the drive, so I didn't need the professional model. But some of the cheap models got really bad reviews about sound quality (for example, the integrated pen model that Radio Shack sell) and others only let you record a single memo.

This model let's you record multiple memos upto a total of 20 seconds. Voice quality isn't great, and a couple of times, when there's been a lot of background noise, I've not been able to tell what the message I recorded was :( But in general for what I wanted it for, it's been great. Very simple to use, with one button for play, and one button for record. They record one after the other, and there's a button for rewind to go back to the beginning to play or record over.

I don't know how long the batteries will last (no problems yet), but for what I wanted, it's been great. Just wish I knew what brand/model it was.

Magellan Roadmate 760

2006-08-27T21:23:00.001-04:00

I've wanted a GPS/SatNav since first seeing them in luxury cars. A few years ago I bought a GPS add-on for my Palm. But it was cumbersome to use on the road, there were no spoken directions, the map had a fixed orientation, and it only could store a partial map. This combination quickly resulted in it not being used after the first few trips.

A few months ago I drove with a friend who had a Magellan Roadmate 760. This seemed to have everything. Complete US maps (so no having to plug it into your computer to download new maps for each trip), spoken directions, intuitive user interface, and a map that automatically oriented itself to your driving direction.

I've since bought one, and spent about the last month driving with it, and I love it. The suction device and armature that attaches it to the windscreen is excellent. It holds the device exactly in the position you want it, and very convenient. It can easily be twisted from the driver to the passenger.

The setup really was as simple as the one page startup guide said. Attach it to the windscreen, plug it in, and turn it on. In my case the street I live on has a lot of trees, and I did have to drive around the corner for it to first sync up with the satellites. But having done that it worked.

Picking a destination is simple. It's a touch screen. Simple menus. Just point and click. Know the address? Just enter the city, then the street, then the number. Know the intersection? Enter the city, first street and second street? If you're not sure of the city, you can also just enter the state. Once you've entered the city or state, the street entry is filtered down just to the possible streets. Similarly for intersections.

Looking for a shop, or a restaurant, or a park? You can search by name, category, nearest, by city. Basically all the searches you might want to do, are just a few clicks away. There's a few categories that appear to be missing from the menus, which has been a minor inconvenience, but not a big deal. For example, if you search for Walgreens it will find you the nearest one. It shows up as a Pharmacy. But if you just want any Pharmacy, there's no such category (nor is there Drug Store). But really this is a minor thing.

As to the navigation. The maps are very clear, and customizable as far as colors and brightness (I've found the defaults to be excellent). Your route is highlighted with arrows, and the map rotates to be oriented the same way as your car (although this can be turned off, if for some reason you find this irritating).

As you approach a junction, there are spoken directions, as well as ding-dong noises as you get right up to the junction. By default the map switches to a 3-d type perspective of the turning you are about to make, alongside a narrower version of the street map. I'm torn as to whether I find this useful. At the moment I have this behavior turned off. This is a really nice thing about the device. It has sensible defaults, but they are easily configurable.

You can have the spoken directions include the street names, or just tell you things like left or right. The street names are a computer generated voice, and pronunciation is a little off at times. Be default the device doesn't say street names, and I'm torn on whether I like it or not. The street names are also clearly displayed on the map, together with the street that you are currently on.

There's lots of other great features. Click Locate twice and the screen changes to a display about the street you are on, and the street numbers you are currently passing on your left and right. It also shows the previous street intersection name, and the next one, together with how far past the previous one, and how far still to the next one.

Ultimately, the features don't matter if the maps are innacurate. But in this regard I've been very satisfied. There have certainly been occasions where the maps were wrong, but most of the parts of North Carolina that I have travelled so far, they are complete and accurate enough to get you where you are going.

For example, over the last few years, US-421 from Winston-Salem up to Boone has seen several bypasses built, resulting in this being a 4-lane road the whole route. On driving this last weekend there were several occasions when the Magellan Roadmate 760 clearly thought I was driving across a field.

I also visited a subdivision of a friend of mine the other evening, to discover that the entire subdivision was missing from the map. In the latter case, it's also missing from online mapping services like Google Maps.

Roads change all the time, and there's not much that a GPS can do about this. Magellan offers downloaded updated maps. You are charged for these. I haven't downloaded one yet to see whether it addresses the US-421 issues. But I plan to do so soon.

If roads change, businesses open and close with even greater frequency. I've found several innaccuracies in the businesses listed. But really I don't find that to be that important. I use the features for finding restaurants or shops when I'm out of town, and for the most part it finds me ones, even if it occasionally first takes me to a place that isn't there.

Overall, the device is great. My only concern is with reliability. I've had no problems yet, and I leave the device in my car which gets well over 100F during the day. But my friend has had to send his back twice so far, and I've read reviews from others reporting similar experiences. So fingers crossed.

Kodak EasyShare Picture Viewer

2006-02-11T14:27:00.001-05:00

The Kodak EasyShare picture viewer has a nice clear screen, built-in memory, as well as the ability to take memory cards, and an intuitive set of controls and menus.

It's let down by the Kodak EasyShare software in my opinion. All I want to do is put photos onto the viewer, and to do that I have to use this big klunky software package, that wants me to add all my photo albums, which I already have nicely organized in Picasa.

Having added a group of photos I then have to tag ones as favorites - again something I've already done over in Picasa - for them to be uploaded to the viewer. Having said all this, once the pictures are in the viewer, it is very easy to use, and clear to see the pictures.

I tried to find a way to use the device just as a USB drive. With the EasyShare software removed, Windows XP recognizes the device, and gives you an icon. But clicking it just shows 3 files, none of which are the images I had on it. And it wasn't possible to add further files.

After a few google searches I did find a reference to the Kodak Connectivity Software that is included with the EasyShare software. If you already have the EasyShare software installed, you can read more about this here C:\Program Files\Kodak\Kodak EasyShare software\ReadMeCamera.htm.

To install it you must select Custom, and remove everything except for the Connectivity Software option. In fact, I could only get it to work by removing the EasyShare software entirely, rebooting, then re-installing and going into Custom and only electing to install the Connectivity Software.

Having done this and rebooted I now have a new drive that let me access the Picture Viewer. There was an "Internal Memory" folder which contained all the images I had already put on it. Unfortunately everything is read-only, and it won't let me make it read-write. So I can't add any additional images.

I was able to verify that the EasyShare software is resampling the images before moving them onto the PictureViewer. This probably accounts for why the transfer seems to be so slow, and may well justify putting up with the EasyShare software.

For me the disadvantages of this device is that it doesn't come with a recharger. Instead it must be recharged from a computer via USB, or via the purchase of a very expensive recharger. This effectively makes it useless for the one purpose I was hoping to put it - which was to give it to my mother-in-law who doesn't have a computer. Also, even if you can get around the recharger issue, you can't move images from a memory card onto the internal memory without transferring them to the computer and back. Meaning that I would have to take a notebook with me when we visit our mother-in-law just to transfer pictures from our camera to the device.

It's not obvious to me why someone would buy one of these rather than an inexpensive color PDA or something like an iPod - both of which it would seem can do everything this device can, and lots more. I only have it because KodakGallery sent it to us for spending so much with them over Christmas.

Netgear USB Mini Print Server PS121

2006-01-24T22:40:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm not sure this falls under the category of products that I'm passionate about. But it is something I've just added to my network, and so far seems to work.

Netgear PS121 USB Mini Print Server

Now that Heather and I both use notebooks as our primary workstations, and we use a Linksys NSLU2 for network storage, the only purpose that my old Dell workstation was being put to was as a print server for my usb attached HP PSC 1210 printer/scanner/copier.

So I've been looking around for an inexpensive print server. The cheapest I found was a refurbished Netgear PS121 from overstock.com for $24.95, which came to $27.90 with shipping. It arrived today, and I've spent the last few hours installing it.

Not because of any problem with the print server itself. Setting that up was very straightforward. Connect to Printer; Connect to Power; Connect to Network; Install Software from CD; Follow instructions. That was easy. The problem came when it prompted me to select the printer driver. No sign of a printer driver for the HP PSC 1210.

I'm doing this from my new notebook, so I figured Windows XP doesn't include the driver by default, and I'd just need to download and install it from the HP site. But come to find out that the driver installation for the HP PSC 1210 doesn't add an entry into the Add Printer Wizard like standard printer drivers. Instead the driver only gets enabled when the printer is physically connected to the computer's USB port.

This meant I couldn't select it when using the PS121 Add Printer Port wizard, because there was no driver available to select. I tried a few other HP printer selections in the hope that one of them was compatible. But no luck. I went in search of an alternative driver that I could install and select, but no luck there.

Eventually I came across this article on the HP site: HP All-in-One Products - Print Sharing Setup or Connection Using an HP Jetdirect Print Server in Windows. It gave me the hint that the HP DeskJet 3420 was compatible with the HP PSC 1200 Series. So I searched and downloaded the HP DeskJet 3420 from this site (I'm sure it's available on the HP site too, and that's probably a better place to get it).

That self-extracting zip gave me the following folder .\win2k_xp\enu\drivers\win2k_xp which contained the hpf3420k.inf which I could select from the Add Printer Wizard when I clicked on "Have Disk". After that installation went smoothly. I was able to print a test page (I did have to power off and on the printer and the print server once - I think prior attempts with other incompatible HP printer drivers had caused something to get locked up).

Now I just need to repeat these steps on Heather's notebook.

Online Backup for the Home

2006-01-08T19:42:00.000-05:00

I know several people with home networks hosting gigs of movies, photos and mp3s, only a few of whom have any kind of backup strategy, and only one of whom (that I can think of) has an offsite backup strategy.

I've been familiar with the concept of offsite backups since I started working in the software industry. I suppose companies developing open source software don't have the same problem, but companies writing commercial software have to keep their source code secure from prying eyes, but at the same time safe in the event of a disaster such as fire or flood.

But despite this familiarity, a personal experience losing data, and a growing number of important files on my home network, until 1998 I still had no backup strategy at home. I thought about it from time to time, but I knew that if I just got a tape drive and tapes, and relied upon myself to do it manually on a regular schedule, I would start forgetting, and eventually give up altogether (I'm the same way about exercise). And at the back of my mind was the thought that it would be just my luck if the disaster I experienced was a house fire, rather than a hardware failure - thus ruining any tapes.

So when a colleague (the same one above who is the only person I know with an offsite backup) turned me on to Connected Online Backup I was immediately sold. Here was a solution that ran automatically, totally unattended and offsite. I happily paid the $14/mo for unlimited storage (at the time) and continued to run that for about 5 years. But then they changed their policy, and wanted to start charging more for a limited amount of storage. For the amount I had stored, the price was prohibitive to me, so I reluctantly cancelled my service.

I did so a little rashly, since I had no alternative strategy in place at the time. But I thought it wouldn't take me long to find an alternative more cost effective approach. I'm ashamed to say it took a few years before I had something setup - and in part only then because Heather would casually inquire from time to time into what kind of backups we had of all the digital photos we were taking. I did burn a few CDROMs but these were not offsite, were only partial, and I think I only did it twice during this time.

During this time I did research from time to time on what online backup services were out there, but they all basically wanted to charge me $20/month for a limited amount of storage. The ones charging less had even smaller storage limits.

Until in April 2005 I discovered Melody-Soft's Backup to Neighbor. It looked like for a very small one time cost I could setup an arrangement very similar to Connected with a friend or family member who, like me, had an always-on internet connection and a computer they kept on all the time. I bought it, and proceeded to use it with my Dad.

My first disappointment was that it could not be scheduled. This was really important to me, but since it was easy to launch, I decided to live with it and just develop a nightly habit. But then I ran into a few snags, and in particular one circumstance where a seemingly innocent thing could render an entire backup inaccessible. I posted these to the Melody-Soft forum for Backup to Neighbor and received prompt and friendly support. But I noticed that no-one else had posted to these forums - and as of this date mine are still the only posts there. This was just another thing that hurt my confidence in the product.

This time it only took a couple of weeks to come up with another solution. It was one my Dad had previously suggested, but at the time had seemed to complicated. He has a Windows Small Business Server which he can VPN into while travelling. I would just connect to this server, and copy files across too it. When I decided to bite the bullet and set this up, it was easy. I had for sometime been using Centered System's Second Copy for synchronizing folders on my local network. I added a few new profiles to this, and I was done. There were one or two things that I had to work around, and to get everything straight I ended up diagramming my backup strategy, which has proven useful.

About the only way I could improve upon my current setup, is if I could backup directly from my Linksys NSLU2 device to a device hosted on my Dad's network, without having to do this through another computer that must consequently remain up and running overnight. I think I could do this with SSH and FTP if I hacked my NSLU2 and put a similarly hacked one on my Dad's network. Anyone heard of anyone doing this that could post links?

Here's a recent good article on Online Backup with suggestions of other strategies and solutions that I'll explore.

Dell XPS M140 Laptop - First Impressions

2006-01-08T13:55:00.000-05:00

My new Dell XPS M140 Laptop arrived a little under 48 hours ago, and so far I love it. I've used several Dell Laptops in the past for work, but this is the first one that I've owned. In fact, it's the first Laptop period that I've owned. Heather has had a Gateway 200-ARC Laptop for a couple of years, and I've increasingly found myself using it so that I don't have to disappear upstairs to my office when I want to be online. And my Dell PC was beginning to show its age, so I've gone for a desktop replacement.

Actually the Dell XPS M140 is classified a Thin & Light, although as the Dell XPS M140 CNET Review points out it's pushing it on weight. Especially with the nine-cell battery which I chose. This was a concern for me, because I've become accustomed to easily grabbing a laptop in one hand as I move from room to room following my daughter. Heather's Gateway weighs in at 4lbs and my current work Laptop, a Dell Latitude D600, at 5lbs. The XPS M140 is closer to 6lbs, but I'm happy to report I've not found that an issue.

One of my pet peeves with the Gateway 200 ARC is that the keyboard has the special function key in the lower left of the keyboard, with the control key one in from that. This is the reverse of the Dell I use for work - and I think of most keyboards on the market. This would be a mild annoyance if holding the Fn key down and hitting left arrow twice in quick succession didn't cause the laptop to freeze and require a hard reset. On a more normal keyboard layout those keys would be Ctrl+Left, of course, to skip back a word (something I do frequently to correct my typing errors). It might seem ridiculous, but that single thing ruled out Gateway laptops for me.

A concern I had going with a laptop sight unseen was that there would be some other form factor issue that became an irritant. So far I'm happy to report no such problem. A couple of things are still tripping me up a little, but I expect to get used to them. The buttons below the touchpad are a little more sunken than on my D600, and the button to eject the DVD drive is a little tricky to hit. The latter is probably a good thing in general. The former I'm already pretty much used too.

Another worry was that the XPS M140 would exhibit the same heating issue that the D600 does. By midday the left hand palm rest on the D600 is so hot as to be uncomfortable. The XPS M140 doesn't seem to have this problem. The palm rests get warm, and the fan on the left hand side ejects a pretty intense heat at times, but in general I've found it very comfortable, and I spent more than 8 hours on it pretty consistently yesterday.

All the reviews out there mention the big stuff. Good quality WXGA screen. Fast. Incredibly good battery life. I was a little worried on that front when I first used it unplugged yesterday. Windows XP reported that I only had about 2 hours of battery life. But 2 hours later I looked again, and now it thought I had about 3 hours. I guess it took a while to adjust.

The multimedia slot is great. Plenty of USB ports. I haven't tried the DVD writer yet, but it's dual layer. I haven't experimented with much of the Windows XP Media Center features either, although having volume and mute buttons exposed on the case is convenient. The D600 has this too, but not the Gateway 200 ARC.

In summary, I'm extremely happy with it, and highly recommend it (5 stars). We'll see in a couple of months if I've found anything that irritates me.