In a piece on NewTeeVee, they announce that VoloMedia has been awarded a patent on podcasting. I’m not a lawyer, and I haven’t read the patent, but the information in the NewTeeVee piece they list key points, and it looks like most podcasts are covered. It’s not at all obvious what this will do to the world of podcasting, though VoloMedia says they won’t be going after individual podcasters. Just who will they be going after, then? I suppose we’ll all have to wait until a newer episode to find out…

Categories: Consumer, General computing, Publications
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A month — wow. How the time does fly. I’ve been busy, but it’s time to get back to regular posting here.

Last week, I had the opportunity to see my town with fresh eyes. We participated in the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk 2009 here in Gainesville, Florida. Carol and I each took a bunch of photos, and have been working with them in order to get the pool down to the two we’ll submit for possible prizes. The rest of mine are available on Flickr, as are Carol’s It was really great meeting new people and getting together after the walk for pizza — it’s amazing how few people we really know here after a dozen years of residence.

What kind of photos did I take? Here are two or three of my favorites…

I love the “art” aspect of the sign in the window. Simple, but fun.

I “popped” the color a bit on this, but really enjoyed the depth of the greens in the shot. Finally…

This shot just worked for me…nice color, and good light-to-dark contrast.

Hundreds of photographers took thousands of photos around the world — check out some of the groups at the web site, or on Flickr!

Categories: Consumer, Outdoors
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My next podcast is going to be about cardiac rehab. To be honest, I’ve just been so busy with work and life that I haven’t had the time to put the episode together. To tide us over until then, I decided to post some of the photos Carol took of me during one of my early rehab sessions.

In general, I go to rehab three times a week, spending about an hour and a half there each time. While there, I’ll spend about fifty minutes doing aerobic exercise (stationary bike, NuStep, treadmill, and arm machine) and twenty minutes or so lifting weights. During the whole time, I’ll have a heart monitor attached so the nurses can keep tabs on my heart activity. So far, I seem to be handling everything well — at least, that’s what the nurses tell me.

Speaking of nurses, Angela is great at offering encouragement and keeping the atmosphere upbeat — I haven’t had experience with rehab nurses who do it any other way, but the team at North Florida is great. Here is Angela getting me set up on my least-favorite machine, the arm cycle.

That machine takes some work, and I seem to spend a lot of time concentrating and looking quite serious while I’m turning the hand cranks.

Of course, I have to work my legs, too, and the stationary bike is good for that. At the half-way mark on my time, I let the nurses know and they check my blood pressure. So far everything is looking good — my BP goes up (indicating my heart is working) but not too much, and when they check it one last time before I leave it tends to be slightly lower than when I came in. Today’s check out BP? 100 over 58. Not too bad.

The part that I’ve really been looking forward to is weight-training. I didn’t realize, though, just how weakened I’d become. The photos below show me working with 7-pound dumbs, and by the end of a dozen reps I was ready to put them down. I’m working my way up in both weight and reps, but it’s going to be a while before I’m pushing any sort of serious iron.

I do several exercises including front arm extensions…

and good ‘ol arm curls.

By the time I finish with the routine, I’m ready to sit for a little while, but at least I’m up and moving, getting some exercise and feeling better. I’m to the point of truly looking forward to September, when I get some numbers back on my heart function. I feel like they’ll be good numbers, but the confirmation will be nice.

Podcast to come, but work for revenue comes first, so look for the episode sometime next week.

Categories: Consumer, podcast
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First, sorry that this is the first post of the week. For a “short week,” it’s been jam-packed with action. Where to start? How about this…

My second column appeared in the Gainesville Sun. This one revolved around  on-line collaboration tools for small businesses, families, and students. The longer I do the things I do, the more I’m a fan of on-line collaboration tools. I remember what an effort it was to keep track of chapters when I co-wrote two books–now, we’ll just set up a project on a collaboration system and be in Fat City.

I had a first, this week, as well: I wrote a small feature article for the Sun, on the new AT&T usage filters for cell phones. After more than twenty years as a journalist, this was my first feature for a newspaper. Not much of what I’ve done could count as straight-forward reportage–it was nice seeing that I can do the job when I need to.

OK, so I love trying new things: After talking about my excitement over ZuluPad,  I think I may have already found something I like better–at least for keeping notes for grad school. Debrief is a feature-packed application for taking and organizing academic and research notes. It’s not so free-form as ZuluPad, but it has great facilities for keeping track of references, setting up assignment reminders, and organizing class and research notes into usable groups. There are three versions: one is always free, and the other two are free for a 30-day trial, after which you can pay for them. I’m trying the Professional version, and I can feel a payment coming on in twenty days or so.

Speaking of school, first assignments are due tomorrow. Today was an incredible day–multiple articles to edit and file at InfoWorld, multiple assignments due for classes, a conference call to talk about changes to a production system, a newsletter deadline, and an evening stint playing the piano for a high-school drama audition. You know what? On the whole, I love it. The moments of panic are good for the circulatory system, and staying busy is good for me. About 15% percent less busy than today would be fine, but, hey, you shouldn’t ask for too much. All of this is a long-winded way of saying that I’ll be posting links to some of my homework assignments (because I’ve been asked to do so, not because I have such a huge ego), but I don’t think this first assignment will be one of those. If you really want to hear it, let me know and I’ll send you the link.

Next time, news about an exciting discovery (or two) that are making my life ever so much better…

Categories: Consumer, Grad School, Media
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PC Magazine, the publication Jim Louderback has helmed for the last couple of years, has always been a staunch supporter of whatever Microsoft’s been doing lately. Now, Jim’s leaving, and as he changes roles he’s writing about a change in opinion. He doesn’t like Vista. I have to say, I agree with him on his major points, and have several of my own to add.

I moved to Vista on my Gateway laptop as soon as the OS became available. After using Microsoft’s latest for most of 2007, I’ve come to a solid conclusion: This software isn’t ready. I’m not positive I’d put it into final beta status, but it certainly isn’t a general release candidate. Promised features don’t work (see: sleep mode), drivers from key hardware and software partners don’t work, and the overall experience is much closer to rock climbing than rock steady. My latest adventure came after the most recent Vista updates, when my machine took to blasting off into blue-screen hell at every boot. It took several days of wrestling with Vista and ATI to return to something like normalcy, and I know that another Patch Tuesday is coming.

Microsoft became so fixed on making a ship date that they released software that isn’t consumer-ready. They shouldn’t have done it, and the fact that so many computers continue to be sold with Windows XP installed illustrates the extent to which customers and hardware partners recognize the very real limitations of Vista.

The truly frustrating thing is that it’s an OS with promise. There are many features I like (or, at least, I think I’d like if they worked), and the interface tweaks between Vista and Office 2007 make for an acceptable way of working. A few folks are looking at Linux as an alternative to Vista, but Linux remains an operating system with a high-geek perception. I know that recent distros have made great strides in ease of installation and use, but the general perception is that Linux is “too hard” for most consumers to try. I still think it would make for most interesting times in the computer industry if Apple were to release the next version of MacOS as a retail product for installation on pretty much any Intel-based computer. I know I’d install it, and I would recommend it to a lot of people who ask for my input on computer purchases. That’s something I can’t do with Vista right now: I will not recommend it to anyone who needs a computing platform that’s reliable and business-ready. I truly hope Microsoft can fix the myriad problems sooner, rather than later, but so far they’re giving few signs of moving in that direction.

Technorati Tags: Vista, XP, linux, MacOS

Categories: Consumer, Enterprise, General computing
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I mentioned a while back that I am going to graduate school. This week was orientation–a most fascinating experience–and classes start next week. Since I’m going to be working full time (including a new gig that I’ll write about soon), I’ve been looking for the tools and tips that will help keep me sane and productive while I do a bunch of things. Here are some of the things I’ve found:

I’m going to try ZuluPad for taking notes. It looks like a rather nifty affair, and since the price is right, I’ll probably go ahead and try the Pro version. I’ll let you know how it works out, but so far it looks promising. Why not just take notes in Word? The big reason is that Word has so many features it tends to get in your way when all you want to do is type.  I’m sure I could just use NoteTab Pro, which is my standard application for text and simple HTML editing, but it’s another very full app and, frankly, I just like trying new stuff.

I’m completely thrilled that AirSet has finally released a beta version that synchronizes with Microsoft Office 2007. Carol and I like AirSet for pulling our calendars together, and I’ve missed it since upgrading to Office 2007. There are a bunch of caveats that accompany the beta version, but it seems to be working pretty well, so far.

When it comes to paper, I’m sold on two things: 3 x 5 cards, and Circa notebooks. The Circa system just works beautifully for pulling lots of things together (including 3 x 5 cards), and it’s a pleasure to use for various projects. I’ve carried a bunch of PDAs, but for nearly 20 years I’ve rarely left the house without a small stack of 3 x 5 cards in my hip pocket. I carry them in a Levenger pocket briefcase that, unfortunately, they no longer make. When this one wears out (and it’s well beyond the “patina” stage now), I’m not sure what I’m going to do.

Another tool that I’ve come to depend on is Microsoft OneNote. Brian Chee introduced me to OneNote several years ago, and it took me a while to figure out how to really make good use of the software, but it has become a lifesaver since I’ve been working on a bunch of different on-line research projects. I’ve moved to the Office 2007 version, and it’s making my life much easier. This is one of the packages that I don’t feel bad recommending to a lot of people–if your work life involves a lot of research from Internet sources, OneNote is a Very Good Thing.

I have many more questions than answers at this point. I don’t know how professors will feel about taking notes on a keyboard (especially since I’m told that I pound the crap out of the keys), I’m not sure how collaboration with my fellow students will work out, and I don’t know how I’ll end up splitting my campus/office time. More on all those, and a whole lot more, after things really get rolling.

Technorati Tags: productivity, tools, notes, college

Categories: Consumer, General computing
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So I’m a big fan of iGoogle, but ran into an issue with my new job at InfoWorld: there are Google productivity features that the team uses to coordinate activities, but we’re supposed to use an account based on our InfoWorld information, rather than our personal Google accounts. Fair enough, but I like to keep calendars and such open, and Google says that you can only be logged in to one account at a time. What’s a geek to do?
Well this geek started playing around and found that you can log in to two separate accounts as long as you use two separate browsers. Now, I use IE 7 for the work accounts and FireFox for the personal information, and everything seems to be working fine. If I can keep from having a third group that requires a separate account, I should be in good shape.

Technorati Tags: Google, productivity

Categories: Consumer, Software
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One of the things that Windows has never done particularly well is manage the process of getting rid of software. Sometime an application shows up in the “install/uninstall software” dialog, sometimes the software has its own uninstaller, and sometimes neither is true. Sometimes the supplied process gets rid of every trace of the unwanted software, and sometimes stray bits and pieces are left scattered across your system. Now, there’s a bit of freeware that helps get rid of software you don’t want: Revo Uninstaller. It’s a great little piece of software that gives you several options for zapping unwanted applications. There are also features for managing the software that automatically starts when you boot your system.

I tried Revo Uninstaller on a USB camera application that, it turned out, was incompatible with Vista. The app didn’t show up in the Windows dialog, and didn’t include its own uninstaller. Revo Uninstaller found it, got rid of it, and even asked about some stray registry keys when it was finished. I end up loading and unloading a lot of software on my systems, and I can see this being the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Thanks to the always-useful LifeHacker for the pointer.

Technorati Tags: consumer, enterprise, software, utility

Categories: Consumer, Enterprise, Software
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So MSNBC has an article telling us that some folks are still complaining about Vista. They’re right about the major problems–driver incompatibilities and the utterly ridiculous way in which User Account Control was implemented–but they haven’t really touched on the basis of the bad feelings some of us have toward this product.
I sat down over a year ago with Jim Allchin and other members of the Vista team, and they told me two things: First, Vista was going to be on time; and second, Vista was going to be fabulous. At that point, they had already been tossing features overboard to make the ship date, but by now it’s obvious that either the final feature set or the ship date should have been revised in a big way before the end of last year. Microsoft had become so heavily invested in their self-imposed deadline, and so wrapped up in the hype machine surrounding Vista, that it was beyond their corporate ability to give full value to both. I say this because most of the “Vista will be fabulous” talk we got that day on the Microsoft campus revolved around Vista’s 64-bit capabilities. Guess what? Installations of 64-bit Vista are still rare as hen’s teeth because Microsoft is working very hard not to sell the licenses. They work so hard because the still-growing number of 32-bit drivers dwarfs the number of 64-bit drivers available.
I’m still using Vista on one machine, and the experience has spanned the distance from acceptable to intensely frustrating. Will I go back to XP on the one machine? No. I need to keep Vista for part of my work, and I’ve gotten it to a state in which it doesn’t interfere with most of my projects. Will I recommend anyone else move to Vista? Not right now…at least not if the anyone else is someone I like. If XP no longer meets your needs, look at Linux, try Mac OS, but don’t plan on shifting to Vista unless you feel you just have way too much productive time on your hands. I’m sure that Microsoft will eventually get it right, but I have absolutely no way to predict when that will happen.
It’s a shame, because Vista does show promise. The slow-motion, dribbling release of Vista might go unnoticed at a lot of firms, but Microsoft isn’t a lot of firms. Microsoft will use bluff and bravado to try to convince the world that the Vista roll-out has gone precisely as planned, but if this is how things are supposed to work, God help us if Microsoft ever has a broken release.

Thanks to Instapundit for pointing out the MSNBC article. It’s worth reading.

Technorati Tags: Vista, software, operating, system, Microsoft

Categories: Consumer, Enterprise, General computing, Software
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Following up a link to blogging resources, here’s list of more than 70 podcasting tools and resources. Looking through the list, there are a variety of different ways of podcasting represented, so if you’re not ready to take the plunge with a home studio you’ll still find tools to help.

Get out there, and get podcasting! The world is always looking for great stories…

Categories: Consumer, Media
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One of the things I’ve already started thinking about is the computer I’ll haul around campus. I’ve got a neat Gateway desktop-replacement laptop, but it has two qualities that make it just slightly less than ideal as a classroom machine. First, it’s just a hair heavy–I’m guessing it comes in somewhere in the 6.5 lb range. That only bothers me so much, though. The thing that really has me worried is that I keep my life on this thing. Really. The up-to-the-minute version of my work, my e-mail, my schedule, all my cool reference files–they’re on the hard disk here. Oh, I know about backup, and I do keep things backed up reasonably well, but those back-ups are analgesic, not truly prophylactic. Having them reduces the pain when something goes wrong, but they can’t keep the pain from happening.

To avoid the pain, I’m thinking about using a little Dell XPS machine I’ve had sitting around for a couple of years. It’s not the hottest new processor, it has a tiny hard disk (less than 20 gigs), and not much memory (384k), but it’s really small, really light, and has built-in networking. I’m thinking that a stripped-down OS with just enough applications might make this the perfect note-taking platform, since it would also let me check e-mail, do a bit of research, and check my schedule between classes. My real question is whether to keep it on Windows XP or try a Linux variant–Ubuntu, perhaps? I’d be interested in your thoughts on this one…and I’ll keep you posted on the decisions.

What made me really think seriously about this? The introduction of the Foleo from Palm. I’ve heard a number of folks talking about what a useless concept it is, but I disagree. Sometimes, you just need something to do basic work on until you can get back to the Mother Ship. The Foleo isn’t trying to be your only computer–it’s trying to be the device you carry with you when your real computer is just a little too much. I don’t know whether the Foleo will be a wildly successful device, but I think the category will be, though it may take a little while to fully develop. Jeff Hawkins has a good track record on this sort of thing–I wouldn’t bet against him here.

Categories: Consumer, Enterprise, General computing, Mobile
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Over on Instapundit, Glenn Reynolds has been talking about his search for a good compact fluorescent lightbulb. I’ve been trying to convince my family to switch over, with mixed success, and in the process we’ve worked our way through a significant lists of the energy efficient bulbs.

In the press packet we received when we registered at the International Builder’s Show, there was an n:vision 100w (equivalent) bulb. You can’t get it at Amazon, but you can find it at Home Depot, and you can find a similar bulb at the Home Depot web site. I’ve installed the n:vision next to my favorite chair in the living room. The good news is that it has a fairly short warmup time and is warmer in color temperature than the CF bulbs I’ve installed in the overhead tracks here. The overhead bulbs make me feel virtuous, but they take the better part of two minutes to come to full brightness, and when they do they give the living room the warm glow of a steel-fab shop. Needless to say, my lovely wife is less than thrilled.

I think that compact fluorescent bulbs (and the more-expensive LED fixtures) are important for energy conservation. They represent small steps that, if taken by enough people, could add up to significant savings. Before they are widely adopted, though, manufacturers have got to solve the warmup time issue and the color balance. Until the color balance warms up considerably, compact fluorescents are going to remain niche products. Me? I life the n:vision but I’m going to keep looking. There have to be better bulbs out there…

Categories: Consumer
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So I had planned on blogging from the press room at the International Builder’s Show. Reality got in the way. I’ve got many pounds of notes and press releases, and will be posting lots of items in the coming days. In the meantime, some valuable lessons learned this week in Orlando:

1. The Orange County Convention Center is huge, and the IBS stretches it to the limits.  It’s not so much the floor space (I’m sure there were exhibit halls that weren’t used), but the combination of exhibit space and attendee level. In coming years, this show is going to bounce between Las Vegas and Orlando–I dont think that there’s really more than one other convention center that could compete (Chicago’s McCormick Place has sufficient squre feet), but when you add up in the need for floor space, hotel rooms, and parking lot space to build model homes, you’ve eliminated all but a couple of cities in North America.

2. Tens of thousands of business owners in one place = lousy cell phone performance.

3. When Orbitz says that a property has wireless Internet, it means that somewhere on the property you might be able, at some price, to grab a signal. We stayed in a nice place (that was, unfortunately, about halfway between Orlando and Tampa) that claimed wireless Internet access. Turns out you could pay for access in the lobby. Thank heavens for vacation condo owners who haven’t figured out how to lock down an access point (and a laptop wireless adapter that is quite good at grabbing and using a weak signal).

4. There’s something just odd about trade show booths featuring fireplaces. One side of the hall had to keep the A/C working overtime. Between the number of people walking around and the gas fires burning, it could get rather warm in parts of the hall.

5. There is a vast gulf between products available for new construction and those intended for replace and remodel work. In some areas (structural members) that’s not surprising, but I think that the building automation and home theatre vendors are missing a lot of business by focusing all their attention on new construction. If the new housing market really does slow down this year (and I mean slow down in a big way) it will be interesting to see whether some of these companies change their marketing messages.

6. Kudos to show management for one detail in the press room: lockers. Great idea that should catch on at los of other shows.

7. There were a lot of companies talking about energy efficiency but I frankly expected more. The homebuilding industry is ruled by small contractors who learned the trade by example, so it’s going to take a while for the green technology message to percolate down and sink in. With that said, there were a handful of truly exciting products there that could make a huge difference in the energy use and pollution emissions from homes.

As I said, lots more soon. Thanks for sticking around–let me know if there’s something special you’d like to see.

Categories: Consumer, General computing
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I mentioned Gizmo a few days ago. I’m going to be looking at more VoIP systems in the coming weeks, but I’m really enjoying Skype. I like the quality, I like the convenience, and I like the price. The folks at LifeHacker have found a new reason to like Skype; it can be part of your home security system. This article talks about the basics of setting up a system to check on your home while you’re away and, I must say, it looks slick. When I worked with Steve Ciarcia at Circuit Cellar INK back in the day, he built a system to do about what this setup does. The only difference is that his system cost thousands of dollars to design, hundreds of dollars to build, and required several chunks of seriously customized hardware. This, friends, is the march of progress.

Categories: Consumer, General computing, Security
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Sorry about the break in blogging. It’s been a crazy week with lots of deadlines. I’m trying to get a bunch of things out of the way before I head to Orlando for the NAHB Convention later this week. I’m going to be looking at technology for building, with an emphasis on home automation, entertainment, and energy efficiency. It will be especially interesting to see the extent to which manufacturers have started  connecting efficiency to either entertainment or automation.

If there’s something you’d like me to check out at NAHB, drop e-mail to me here. I’ll be blogging every day I’m there, with followup after I’m back in the office. Should be fun…

Categories: Consumer, General computing
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