TITAM - Technical issues that affected me

As the title says... A little background: My old - actually, ancient - Shuttle-based PVR system decided to more or less give up on me.  It still worked, but the old Shuttle case had a poor habit of overheating.  An easily predictable consequence of the form factor, no doubt, but let's not forget the poor old thing was merrily cranking away recording live TV and playing back edited videos for many, many years. Time to upgrade.  I figured, if a lousy old Shuttle SS54G could handle it, who knows what I could do with a modern Core series processor and an SSD? So I go get a little system built, scavenging the Hauppauge WinTV-PVR 150 TV capture cards out of the old Shuttle.  Hell, they're perfectly good, and they're on the BeyondTV compatibility list.  They have hardware encoding and do a fine job.  Anyone who tells you that you need uber-great hardware to code NTSC TV is crazy.  (HD is another story, maybe.) The old system used SageTV, which has ...

My old PVR having given up - and, admittedly, rather behind the times when it came to video formats - it is time for a new one. I heard about Plex on Lifehacker, and it sounded worth a try.  I prefer to keep my PVR (recording) and media center playback software separate right now, so the fact that Plex does not record TV was not an issue. Plus, it's free.  Why not? I have found a few things that I do not like.  Note that I am not criticizing - well, maybe I am, a little - but free software is free, and you can't complain, really, or it wouldn't exist.  This information is here to help other people decide if Plex is right for them. Here's a few things that I have learned so far: 1.  You need a dedicated folder for your media library. Why?  Plex has no "exclude" function.  The developers don't seem to think it worthwhile.  ( "Can you explain why you want this?" is a pretty amazing comment to me.) Given there are a near-infinite numbe...

I have the same problem with text entry that is described in this thread on XDA.  It sort of works, but not really.  It's only half a solution, as I can't really control the phone properly. It's such a pity these are all so difficult.  The idea is soooo awesome. I re-rooted my phone, may try AndroidScreencast again, but I prefer wifi over tethered USB. Note that I had to use RealVNC in order to (a) get a connection and (b) be able to re-size the Droid VNC Server window from HUGE/IMMENSE down to a reasonable size.  I couldn't figure out how to do either very well using TightVNC. Both apps have problems with screen rotation.  I put my phone in landscape orientation on my little stand so I can plug it in.  VNC and Screencast both show it sideways.  :-(

[Update 2]:  As of 2015, just forget about AndroidScreencast and go with Teamviewer . It (mostly) just works. Original post below. ---------------------- I can't get it to work. [Update]:  Just figured out the latest Android update broke my root access, so I can't chmod the device properly.  Will have to wait until a new upgrade rom is available, I guess. You can try the instructions here, but they are (at best) incomplete.  Useful links below, you have to put all the pieces together yourself. Notes: The Android SDK landing page has changed.  What you want to get is the SDK installer executable file.  Click "Download for Other Platforms" to see the Windows .exe file, which is what you want.  Don't use the "Download Package" button you see first - clock "Download for Other Platforms", look for "SDK Tools Only", Windows EXE file. When you install, do yourself a favor and put the installation in an easy-to-find directory....

I tried Zoner Free to try to get around Adobe, which was acting very slow.  Unfortunately, Zoner was worse - faster for viewing, but unusable for tagging. The answer is:  It's the network, stupid.   I host all my photos on a central file server, which was just too slow for either Adobe or Zoner, Gigabit connections and RAID6 notwithstanding.  The only solution is to move everything to a local drive. You can kind of forget about any kind of graceful migration from one photos location to another using Adobe Elements Organizer.  I have never seen a program that has such brain-dead defaults and crappy file handling in my life.  It's almost like they make it intentionally difficult for you to re-organize anything at all. Example:  everyone says to "backup" and "restore" your Adobe catalog in order to move drives.  Awkward, as the backup / restore functions take HOURS. Then, when you restore, you will probably check "Restore original file locat...

I wanted to back up my Z3 using Hiren's Boot CD .  I have done this before, and it worked well. (I recommend Image For Windows, available on Hiren's, but you should buy a licence.  IFW seems to be one of the only programs out there that can actually do a bare metal restore.) Oddly enough, when I booted the Z from the USB stick, I did not see Image for Windows.  In fact, I did not see any programs at all.  Mini Windows XP ran fine, but all the programs were missing! Scrounging around the File Manager turned up nada.  It looked like the USB stick was not there, even though the machine had booted from it just fine. The conflict in my case was an SD card that I had added to the system.  It seems Mini XP got confused after boot and replaced the USB stick drive with the SD card.  XP was not capable of reading the SD card owing to the large capacity, and essentially got stuck, unable to locate or load any of the Hiren's apps. Removing the SD card (a...

So two years ago, my car got stuck in a snowdrift.  In my defense (and that of my car), more than half the city got stuck that day. Ironically, by 1:00 pm it had gotten so warm out that ALL the snow had melted.  If I'd known, I would have walked home and come back 3 hours later to drive the car away. (It also made those people who took a "snow day" and stayed home from work look a bit silly.) My car is equipped with the best snow tires money can buy, and had 100 lbs of sand in the rear, but they were no match for this snow.  It was heavy, wet, and deep.  The RWD just could not do it. Now, I hate being stuck.  Possibly more than some people, it is a recurring nightmare for me.  I used to own an AWD sports sedan that would not get stuck, period.  In bad weather, I could literally wait for a couple of 4x4s to lay ruts in the medians and follow right along.  I loved that about that car, and the RWD of my current vehicle is the only thing I dis...

So I tried posting this on EEVblog , and promptly got kicked in the nards.  I had little hope that the thread would progress but some good folks did take up my cause (for the promised $100, of course). Results of my search to date are here . [Update]: eBay seller 99cent Hobbies has been able to source two units for me through TaoBao (Chinese only) .  The supplied units have been verified to have the USB port and software CD, and reportedly have no overshoot issues ( unlike the Quakko and Protek) . [Update 2]:  I have gotten the two units are they are as advertised!  One supply has an issue where it only will output up to 9.0V, but it is almost certainly just shipping/manufacturing issues and not the fault of 99cent Hobbies. So far the supplies have exceeded my expectations for functionality.  Even the 9V issue on the one has not really gotten me down on them.  The software is better than I expected. If you are interested in any, you may want to ta...

Unfortunately, there are too many out there.  As usual.  (The market is so crowded, it's amazing anybody can find anything worthwhile.) I only found about six: Android Lost Free Wheres My Droid Plan B SeekDroid Lookout Mobile Security Prey Cerberus I had to take quite a bit of time to compare them.  Some are free, but require monthly subscriptions in order to operate.  Some are PC-oriented.  Some - oddly - do not provide proper pricing information on their own web sites.  Some are just free period but don't support some of the nice-to-have features. I could have possibly saved myself some considerable time by looking at this review from Android Police .  It has a handy - though not easy to read or modify - chart that shows a feature-by-feature showdown between many phone finder apps.  The "best" ones, arguably, are those on the left-hand side of the chart. Anyway, I found the chart after I had already plowed work into doing the com...

This is just some ramblings on equipment reviews. Personally, I love EEVblog.  If you have not already done so, be sure to go over to EEVblog.com and check out some of Dave's his ratings, rants and reviews.  Just listening to him is enough to make me say "hell, yeah!".  I wish I could do what he does. One of Dave's many services to the electronics community are honest, no-BS reviews of digital multimeters and other equipment.  He's amazingly thorough and calls them like he seems them, including teardowns to reveal the inner nastiness of some of the units.  He's managed to blow several up by just using them. It's an invaluable service, but not without pitfalls.  Not knocking Dave here at all - I can't think of anyone I'd rather have telling me which equipment is good and which is crap.  But the whole review methodology is limited by design. Here's the deal. Variation is the thing.  Reviewers - any reviewer - can only review one (or, in...

Looking for rooting help with my new GSIII, I found this very helpful thread from XDA Developers .  User "Mrrobinson" has created several modified-stock images that give the user root access without really changing anything else.  This was useful to me, since I really don't want to fool around with custom ROMs right now. I did/do know something about embedded electronics, but nothing specific about the Android rooting process.  So there were some points I was not clear on when I did my first root.  They caused me much anxiety, but they did not have to. [Update]:  Some of these items are fixed in the original thread, some are new/not. 0.  Flashing the wrong ROM to your phone is a great way to make it non-recoverable.  Unfortunately, the thread does not make clear which images are which. In the thread listed above, the root66 GLW image is for Wind Mobile.  (GLW is Globalive, which is the parent company of Wind.)  TMO is for T-Mobile (ob...

My new 2012 Vaio Z was putting out a ridiculously low output on the headphone jack.  Not enough to notice until I took a plane trip, when I realized I couldn't actually hear most of my movies - even at 100% volume. (This is with some Sony noise-cancelling headphones, which have always worked well for the past 50 hours of flying time.) Anyway, the instructions most helpfully provided by Antriksh Yadav about how to boost the volume on the Vaio E series helped quite a bit.   On my Z, the Dolby enhancements were switched off for some idiotic reason.  Turning Dolby on boosted the headphones output by at least 50%.  Selecting "Movie" mode gave the midrange a bit of boost, good for dialogue. The studio quality made no difference, the disable all sound effects was already unchecked, and there are no equalization settings on my Z as there are on the E.  But the Dolby tip alone was enough to raise my headphone audio from useless to usable. If this isn't en...

OK, so the "Z3" is really the SVZ13, according to Sony.  Most everyone else is calling it the Z3, or maybe the Vaio Z 2012 Edition.  The model I'm referring to is the first Vaio Z with the Ivy Bridge chipset, came out in early 2012. Anyway, the Clear-Coat skin for the VPC-Z2 model will fit the SVZ13 / Z3 model fine.  I've done it on mine.  It includes pieces for the sheet battery too.  Good fit and looks good too. Caveats:  As with all skins, it is hard to get 100% of the air bubbles out.  It can also be hard to handle the large pieces, and figuring out which pieces go where can be a bit of a PITA. The key seems to be to keep your hands only a little bit wet (to prevent sticking/fingerprints) but get the film and the laptop good and wet.  This provides more margin for air to get forced out and lets the film "float" better on the laptop to allow centering/alignment before drying. You will want more of the application fluid than is provided...

I found this one out when I called WIND to switch to their $29 Back-To-School plan, and (rather despairingly) asked if I could get a GSIII as well.  Apparently, they opened up the GSIII for purchase without actually telling anyone. You still cannot buy the phone outright.  If you have a WIND phone number and a Tab, you need to upgrade on your Tab.  If you have a WIND phone but no Tab, you'll need to switch to a Tab, which means changing your plan.  So if you like your current plan, you may not be able to buy the GSIII yet. Either way, you do get to keep your existing phone number. Unfortunately, no store in Calgary has any white GSIIIs in stock.  They said "a couple of weeks" for more stock.  Since I don't want blue, I'm stuck again.  (Irony just continues to proliferate abundantly.) They also said outright purchases in "a couple of weeks".  My impression is that the staff  at that store say "a couple of weeks - hopefully" to nearly ...

Like the title says.  This is on a Vaio Z series (3rd generation, 2012). Before anyone things I'm an idiot and simply don't know how to do it: it works with Internet Explorer fine.  AND the fingerprint login to Windows 7 x64 works fine as well.  But not with Firefox. What doesn't happen is that TrueSuite does not prompt to remember a password when you log in to a web page.  In IE, you get a message asking "do you want TrueSuite to remember this password" or something like that.  With Firefox, nada. I tried disabling Firefox's buit-in password manager, which I had temporarily enabled.  Didn't help. Nothing mentioned on either Sony's site or Authentec's site, so I must be the only one.  I'm betting I'll have to do a video to prove it to Sony. [Edit]:  The fingerprint login sure is handy.  I had almost forgotten how much I missed it when I had to give up my old Lifebook.

Spotted this little tidbit on WIND's Twitter account, concerning the Galaxy S III and why ordinary mortals cannot buy it from WIND:

WIND has extended their $200 service credit for new customers buying the Samsung Galaxy S III. I guess I'll have to wait until August to get my SGSIII, since I STILL can't buy one.

Over one month since the 'launch' of the Galaxy S III on WIND, and I still can't buy one. Yes, I'm bitching.  And why not?  Unfortunately, I'm too budget-minded to vote with my wallet and switch away from WIND, as that would entail me paying several hundred dollars more over the life of the phone.  But there is such as thing as goodwill, and mine is being seriously eroded by this whole debacle. I do think WIND could have done a better job of managing expectations.  They cast themselves as all 'social' and connected to their customers, a company who listens.  But in the end it's just a facade; they keep things to themselves for the most part. Part of this may be from a legitimate understanding that they simply cannot make everyone happy.  Certainly that applies to tower construction / coverage zones; that's a purely economic decision, and WIND has to spend the money for the best return on investment. This obviously comes into play for the G...

If you have any combination of multiple Google Apps and Gmail accounts, you're probably sick of signing out and signing in to different accounts to do different things.  Fortunately, Google allows "multiple account sign-in" that can alleviate the pain.  Makes it sooo much easier to manage all that email. The feature is not supported across all Google services (like Blogger, for example).  Not working for you?  Try these other solutions from TechRepublic.

Like many people, I had to do this when setting up a Google Apps account - I needed my personal calendar and Apps calendar to both show up on my phone. You often cannot just add another Google account to an Android.  You typically get a "Can't establish a reliable data connection to the server", which is complete crap.  Essentially, you are stuck, unable to add another Google account to your mobile - dumb, but true. However, if you follow the instructions so helpfully provided by Marc Fonteijn , you can get it working.  No import/export required.  Basically, you share the Calendars between both accounts, and give both sides the ability to edit events on both calendars. If you run into the bug where "Share all information, and outsiders can change calendars" is not shown as an option:  Set up the share email accounts anyway.  Shut down all your Firefox windows, restart Firefox, and clear everything in your history.  Then sign back in to your Apps ...

If you are anything like me, you usually have a lot of crap going on your desktop at once. You know - you are working on something, and then you stop for lunch.  Reading the news or whatever, you find something that you want to explore, so you open up a new Firefox window for that.  After lunch, it's back to work, but you leave the extra FF window open so you can go back to it later. Then you come back the next day and Microsoft has pushed out an update that restarted your computer in the night.  Bye, bye, all your stuff, you have to go find it all again. Yes, OK, I know why they do it.  Doesn't stop it from being a PITA. Yes, you can re-set Windows to try and update during daytime hours.  Doesn't really help that you will probably get endless pop-ups telling you to reboot RIGHT NOW, while you are trying to get crap done. Fortunately, Jon Galloway has written up a little tutorial on how to stop Windows from rebooting after each update .  There ar...

OK, you're stuck in the middle of the pissing match.   What do you do? Maybe try Google Apps. I'm usually pretty wary about this sort of thing.  I don't want to waste time, I'm leery of cloud-based 'stuff', and 'free' services are often anything but.  So I did some homework, and here is what I found: Apps is (supposedly) to custom domains what Gmail is to personal domains.  In fact, it seems that there is no difference between a Gmail account and an Apps account - except Apps email 'comes' from your own domain name. For example, in Gmail, I am "titam@gmail.com".  In Apps, I am 'titam@titam.com'.  Cool. Aside from that, Apps is just Gmail.  Sure, you do get Calendar, Drive, Docs, etc.etc. thrown in for good measure, but for the purposes of getting off GoDaddy email and on to something else, the Apps mail service is what we really need right now. I've used Gmail for a while now to back up my GoDaddy email.  So I kn...

Very recently, my emails to a very good client of mine began to bounce.  Not too much in the way of error messages, except for an obscure code that indicated my email was somehow marked as a spam account. A little more digging on the client side shows that my Godaddy mail server is blacklisted by the Abusive Hosts Black List - AHBL.  As far as I can tell right now, AHBL is the only one blacklisting GoDaddy email. Why?  Well, most of the evidence points to what basically amounts to a pissing match between AHBL and GoDaddy. In the red corner:  ABHL!  AHBL claims that GoDaddy is hosting a website that "uses abuse, harassment, and intimidation to conduct [it's] ‘business’."   They have asked GoDaddy to remove the site; GD refuses, violating their own terms of service.  AHBL claims they are standing up for "a growing trend that seems to indicate GoDaddy is turning a blind eye to abuse and spam".  On the flip side, AHBL states "there is nothing t...