iSync and a Motorola RAZR V3m

iSync and a Motorola RAZR V3m at ClockSkew

It appears there are a few hacks that allow one to sync a V3M with a Mac. In general phone vendors are foreclosing device sync to make money from online services...

Update 1/12/07: It's quirky, but the free ClockSkew plugin does seem to work. A few tips:

• After installing in /Library for an individual user, log off and then log in to get it working. If installing for all users restart.
• The "erase all data on client" iSync option doesn't work. The sync will fail with an error message like "connection lost". Merge works.
• Use iSync options to sync email, etc.
  

Windows Home Server: At last, I say something nice about Microsoft

Paul Thurrott's SuperSite for Windows: Windows Home Server has the summary. I’ve been waiting a long time for this — but I was hoping (against hope) that it would come from Apple.

This is where we need to go; a home computing appliance with integrated backup and integrated secure remote access.

Microsoft is providing WHS users with a free Internet address via Windows Live. This address will give you a remote interface into your entire home network, not just WHS. You will be able to access any shared folders remotely, or even control individual PCs remotely.

All is not lost however ...

Mac user? You can access the WHS shared folders as you would any other Windows share, and that means your backup program--like Apple's Backup--can use a share as a save location as well. "We're a great back-end store for Time Machine," Headrick told me, alluding to the new backup feature Apple recently announced for Mac OS X Leopard.

Detente perhaps?

The missing piece is remote application executing using Microsoft’s very robust windows terminal services. That omission may be related to cost (CPU and memory demands on the server) or support and licensing concerns.

Very good, very impressive, and it’s about time. I’d very much like to see something comparable from Apple, but maybe they’d decided to surrender this to Microsoft. That would not bode well for Apple Computer Inc.

Word does not save my custom toolbar

I dislike Word. So I wasn't surprised to see Word 2003 misbehaving. Contrary to this kb article, Word is not "saving" the custom toolbar I embed in Normal.dot. It seems to work, but on restart my stuff is gone.

I'll see if I can track this bug down, but initial investigations haven't turned anything up.

Update: If I directly edit Normal.dot and save the result as a template overwriting normal.dot I can get my changes to stick. I suspect direct editing of Normal.dot is a workaround for issues with styles as well.

Update 3/29/2010: Jon, in comments, suggested: "hold shift while click on the "file menu". Choose "save all". I've not tried this myself; I'm on Word 2007 these days. I've also updated this post to lower my "rant level" -- I'm a mellower guy than I was 3 years ago.

TUAW news: Parallels, AirPort Extreme, Google Earth

The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW) is one of my favorites. Some news today that caught my eye:

1. Parallels has a new beta -- I'll update. Sounds great.
2. The new AirPort Extreme has special features to support USB drive mounting -- so it's a bit of an occult and very slow NAS device.
3. Google Earth 4 is out of beta. The prior version was very crashy on brand new Mac Mini I was testing ...

Nisus Writer Pro: pending in the spring

Nisus Writer Express is our family wordprocessor. I like it very much, but there are a few things I miss. Nisus Writer Pro sounds like it will have most of them. I do hope the upgrade pricing will be reasonable. I wonder if they'll support open document format, but their key value is selling a very solid and well structured wp that uses RTF -- the only real "universal" (meaning Word users open it without paying attention) document format.

iPhone letdown: the problems loom and Palm gets a bit more breathing room

As I’ve detoxed from my “Jobs reality distortion field” intoxication the dark sides of the iPhone have sunk in. I agree with all the items on Top 10 things to hate about the Apple iPhone | APC Magazine, here’s my personal summary:

• Cingular may be the only US carrier with a worse reputation than Sprint.


• EDGE means this is basically a voice/SMS phone, an iPod, and a WiFi Slate (Remember Jobs saying Apple would never do a slate/PDA/Newton? You didn’t believe him did you?) in one package. It’s not a wide-area network device.


• It will need a case of some sort to protect it, so it’s getting bulky.


• It sounds very much like this will be a locked device — no third party applications. In particular, no ePocrates for physicians. Maybe this will change, but that’s the consensus. [jf: this appears certain. Closed and locked, maybe because Jobs remembers his career as a phone hacker.]
  


• I assume it will have a bluetooth keyboard/headset combo that’s easy to carry, so I’m not that worried about the data entry issues. The onscreen stuff will be for portable use, the remote kb will hold the earset in one’s briefcase.


• TIME claims you can’t sync it wirelessly! Pardon me??!!


• No Exchange/Outlook support?

That’s an awful pile of negatives. I’m waiting for the smoke to clear, but I wonder if I’m going to have to buy a low end Treo and wait for the next iteration of the iPhone …

Update 1/10/07: There remains a faint hope that Apple will sell a version of this without the phone that is not locked. In other words, an iPod/PDA/Slate product with VOIP support but no phone, including an 80GB hard drive and an open platform for $500. Sigh. I don't get a good feeling about this ...

Update 1/13/07: I've heard a few theories about why the phone is locked. The last three are mine.

• slow phone hackers: unlocking the phone, attacking Cingular's network, etc.
• the OS implementation is very unstable -- so Apple wants to limit who can work on it
• Apple will create a software channel and extract a percentage for every app produced
• Optimize user experience and reliability
• Create a robust DRM environment for viewing and distributing digital media
• Security (no virus, bot, spam), security management, and authentication for eCommerce (digital cash) and all authenticated transactions. Expect the iPhone to have some sort of biometric identifier at launch time.
• Enable a shift from selling software to leasing sofware.
  

The last is why the iPod is locked, why iTV is locked, and why iTV doesn't manage anything but iTunes DRMd media. More on the DarkSeid of Apple in a future post.

Belkin USB hub powered by firewire

I'm quite pleased with my Kensington USB dome hub -- it's solid and very accessible. The only downside is the power supply -- it means yet another cable. I was a bit disappointed that Kensington didn't take power from the Mac's firewire port.

That's the neat part of the Belkin USB 2.0& Firewire 6-Port Hub For Mac Mini. Power comes form the Firewire. It consumes one Firewire port (on the Mac) and provides two on the hub, so net 1. That's nice, but it's really a USB hub powered by firewire. Great -- I wish more vendors did this.

There are two problems. The Mac connector cables are very short -- it's really designed for the Mac mini and one Amazon reviewer claimed the cables were too short for his Intel Mini. Also, the USB ports are mostly in back of the device, I'd rather have more in front.

Worth keeping in mind.

Guidelines for the construction of content-rich web sites

The Basics of Search Engine Optimization is a high quality essay on how to build topical websites that will be popular and thus well ranked. It's a reference worth keeping.

Regenerating and maintaining Outlook's Master Category List

Outlook (all versions) stores the master category list in the stores the master category list in the registry. This is absurd, but since only a tiny number of Outlook uber-geek users care about Categories (tags in modern parlance) it’s not a big deal.

For Outlook PIM-geeks, it means changing machines deletes the list. Individual tasks retain their categories (the string is stored in the PST), but there’s no corresponding Master Category List entry.

Here’s how I regenerate under these circumstances:

1. Export all tasks to Access. (this is easiest for me, other formats will work better for non-Access people)


2. Dump all categories into a text editor (I use TextPad)


3. Turn them into a list (trivial grep task) and sort with duplicate delete.


4. Edit and cleanup.


5. Turn into comma-separated strings.


6. Copy and paste into the Master Category List enter box

It only took a few minutes to regenerate my MCL this way.

PagePacker makes pocket-sized books

TUAW pointed me to this an application that produces very nice booklets from OS X printing:

Big Nerd Ranch Weblog » PagePacker makes pocket-sized books

... I often wander around without a computer, so I needed a nice easy way to print important bits into little books of information that I could carry around in my pocket. Chad Adams figured out a brilliant technique of cutting and folding pieces of paper into little books and called it PocketMod. The technique was brilliant, but the software was a little awkward. So I, knowing a little about Cocoa, hacked together PagePacker. ...

You need to read the folding directions. Very clever, and very 21st century in terms of how this has evolved through the contributions of several persons. However, note the odd mention that it expires in June due to Leopard …

Integrating an iPod into a home: multispeaker

Wireless remote speakers have been disappointing, but I’d love to put something like this in the kitchen with remote speakers in the living room. Price is competitive, $300 for the base station and one remote speaker.

EOS Wireless - Products

... IntelliTouch announced Eos, a digital, wireless, multi-room audio speaker system for iPod. The system links up to four stereo remote wireless speakers using a frequency hopping scheme that the company says provides a range of up to 50 meters through walls and ceilings. It offers a base station with an iPod dock, two high performance stereo drivers, a ported sub-woofer, and SRS WOW sound enhancement, while the remote speaker systems feature the stereo drivers and subwoofer plus a removable, integrated power supply that allows the speaker to mount directly on a wall power outlet. A weatherproof wireless outdoor amplifier, which features two audio zones with separate volume controls, is also available. The Eos is scheduled for release in March at $299 for the base station and one remote speaker. ...

The base station has an IR remote control. They use a proprietary wireless technology.

Eos uses GigaWave, a proprietary digital wireless technology to broadcast interference-free CD quality digital audio to up to four satellite receivers at a distance of up 150 ft (50 meters).  To avoid interference, Eos’ GigaWave uses proprietary digital spectrum technology (DSS). The special communications algorithm used in our GigaWave technology will not interfere with WiFi networks (both 2.4GHz & 5.8GHz) or digital products (like telephones) in the 5.8GHz range.  This same technology allows Eos to stay clear of interference cased by with by other products that communicate in the 2.4 and 5.8 GHz range (as well as microwave ovens which operate at 2.4GHz).
 
Another reason that Eos has such phenomenal broadcast characteristics is the fact that it incorporates an error correction scheme that is capable of resending packets if signal is interfered with.
 
Our proprietary wireless protocol, combined with error correction technology is the reason why Eos is the only product on the market to ever can broadcast interference-free, CD quality audio to up to 4 satellites.

I’ll be looking for reviews ...

Optimizing a blog for ad revenue

Guy Kawasaki Still Leaving Money on the Table [Adsense Case Study] at Digital Inspiration has great tips on optimizing blogs for Adsense revenue, but note that Guy Kawasaki is only pulling in 3K a year. Really, it's not worth the bother for most of us.

Windows On-Screen Keyboard (OSK)

When Some Keys on the Computer Keyboard Aren't Working (Digital Inspiration) - just type osk in the command line. Great tip!

iShowU: screencasting for OS X

I've been using iShowU to create a series of OS X video tutorials (screencasts) for my mother. I'm impressed! It's one of only 2 or 3 OS X apps that can do this, and it's only $20. Works fine and you can edit in iMovie. I'm going to experiment with exporting from iMovie as a "iPod" video, which in my past experience is surprisingly viewable.

For screencasting use create a very simple user account and run the screen res at 800x600 (or 1024x768). Screen rate is 2 screens/sec and set size to match the res (800x600). Stop and start with the shortcut keys. I'm experimenting with output.

For viewing the choices seem limited. I wonder if .Mac would work better! I'm currently using a link, which in Firefox causes the .mov file to be downloaded then played by Quicktime. I'm also staging via Google Video, but then in it plays in very low res Flash (like all shared video I can find).

What I want is a "free" (ad supported) video sharing site that would stream using the better Quicktime codec.

Update 1/1/10: I'm impressed! This works extremely well. I do my screen captures now using H.264 for compression and res 800x600 with "thousands of colors". I set the low refresh rate to 1 fps and the high refresh rate to 4 fps and choose the 'use low when mouse not moving' option. A short tutorial screencast takes only about 6ooK. I upload the videos to my Google web creator page as files and then create a blog post pointing to them. I don't use the video pages because the files are so small I don't need to stream, and the QT H.264 codec gives far better results than Flash video.

Update 8/17/10: iShowU is still around, now with 10.6 versions and a "pro" version. Price is very reasonable, the upgrade price is just the delta between the original and new price. Unfortunately, the've adopted an insane licensing/copy protection strategy. You need to consider this new hassle in your purchase decisions.

OS X unzip: what to do when it seems to fail (hint: Stuffit)

I downloaded the latests version of Chipt's excellent Backpack widget today, but when I unzipped it I saw two files instead of one widget. One had a size of zero, the other had no size information. It looked corrupt, so I tossed it and started to write the author. As I started my email, an idea struck me.

It had been opened using an old copy of StuffIt Expander (9.0.1). That's not the way OS X normally opens zips. I used get info to view the file information, and saw that the "Open with" setting was StuffIt. I switched to the obscurely named BOMArchiveHelper -- the internal OS X application. That did the trick; the folder now had a proper widget and I installed it. I clicked the "Change All" button as well.

There's more than one problem here. As has been well described by 'Drunken Fireball' and others, Apple seriously mangled the innards of OS X when they switched from the well designed Mac Classic metadata system for data file type and creator to the kludged mixture used by OS X (way too weird to describe, it's some mix of old metadata, new metada, the three character file extension (whether hidden or not) and the phases of Venus).

The other problem is StuffIt. I don't know if Chipt was using StuffIt.... Chipt wasn't using StuffIt, but a few misguided developers have stuck with it. StuffIt is an abomination. It was once a great product, but a few years ago the current owner went a bit berserk with various DRM schemes, hiding the well established free version, working to lock users into proprietary schemes, etc. I don't know the current version of StuffIt, and I don't care. Stuffit's day has passed. I keep it around only because a few people use the .sit format (alas), but I'm beginning to rethink that. I'm going to delete it from my system, and install it again in the rare instance that I need it.