When will I start? Good question.

No PC March

Based on some work I’m doing in the mobilization space and my personal challenge to discover whether our devices have actually reached a tipping point, I will be turning my home-PC off for the month of March. I previously noted several challenges that I may have to simply work around.

So it looks like if there are no cloud options, I’ll be limiting my ability to:

• Edit Video & Audio
• Transfer picture/video from my home camera
  • Looking at a solution for FTP from my camera, unsure if my phone will support this yet
• Printing
  • At this point the products I’ve found require a home system up and running (since I don’t have a wireless printer)

My goals

1. Determine whether I can go a month without a Home-PC
2. Identify gaps in the technology, for integration into the home
3. Identify gaps in usability
4. Turn gaps into opportunities

  This article has been Digiproved © 2011

When I first started looking at this problem I thought the solution was one of event notification.

Does this problem sound familiar? Years ago this problem (or a similar one) was solved with the advent of the subscription and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) models. Instead of frequently going to your favorite websites to see what changes have happened, you could instead drop their RSS feed into your reader and/or subscribe for email notification on changes.

As I worked through it became clear that the problem goes a bit beyond the “communication on changes” activity. Vendors seem to lack any history related to their own products, especially companies that create collectibles. They instead seem to focus on the current and don’t care about the past.

There is a large disconnect with their customers. Collectors care about the past and completing collections. They also care about pictures and descriptions; those specific attributes that paint the full picture of the collectible item.

Do I have a solution?

Well it just so happens that I do, and that solution is free from most technical costs but does require a small investment from the people side. The returns will drive more business to their presence and increase the value that customers see from their products and services.

Now imagine that for each product you create, you also populate some minimal documentation for it. Attributes such as photographs, name, description, links to a family of like products, would be helpful to collectors. This “metadata” can be connected to the product within the catalog used by customers to purchase inventoried items. This could also reduce the need for duplicate entry of data if the catalog actually read the stored attributes from the wiki and displayed them within the catalog to be viewed by the customer during purchase.

When the product is no longer available (end of run, inventory at zero, retired), then catalog entry is simply removed. The key is not to remove the wiki entry while removing the catalog mapping. This allows for some persistence of product information without inventory in the catalog. And that is what makes collectors happy.

I do realize that there may be some issues with this level of public documentation and content availability. You now begin to expose information which could be consumed by others assembling their own catalog to compete against you. There are simple security measures to minimize this type of activity.

Instead of keeping everything close to your chest — choose to share. Making the information available will only grow your customer trust and commitment to collect your products.

If you are interested in continuing this discussion or digging into other ideas, drop me a note.

  This article has been Digiproved © 2011

This is a question I pondered during my six hour drive home from Anaheim yesterday. While I was there my smartphone (Motorola Droid-X) kept me connected and gave me sufficient features to fully work online. There are restrictions but I’m wondering how close we are go just dumping the desktop. This is not the same NO-PC initiative that some companies are backing for developing countries (or is it)?

Do you have thoughts on this?

What do you see as challenges? I think if I could generate a mostly-complete list of my challenges, and identify solutions (or potential solutions), it may be something I can work with.

• Video
  • Watching Video
    • For limiting eye strain, I would need an HDMI television and to carry my HDMI (with a mini adapter) around, so I could output to that device.
  • Editing Video
  • Video upload (web)
    • Requires WiFi connection, which I setup in the room but on in the park
  • Transferring photos/video from my camera to my media server
    • Use the computer as an intermediary, to connect to camera and transfer to Raid device
• Photo
  • Editing
  • Transferring photos/video from my camera to my media server
    • Use the computer as an intermediary, to connect to camera and transfer to Raid device
• Typing
  • Yes, even with swype, I still end up using the wrong word, and get in such a rush I don’t spell reread before post
  • On second read, this is really a human issue, not a tool issue
• Printing documents

• Photo (take, edit, post)
• Contact Management
• Navigation (map and turn-by-turn)
  • Motorola has a nifty dock, which makes it nice to just drop and use while driving
  • Replaced my separate GPS for our last trip
  • Also used to stream music (with Pandora), while traveling to Mexico2
• Web Browsing
  • Buy/Sell items (ebay)
  • Email
  • News
  • Social Networks
  • Plane tracking, reservations, pre-boarding
• Social Media (chat, blog, stream)
• Phone (so simple, but overlooked when compared to a PC)

  This article has been Digiproved © 2011

Can I read books not purchased at Amazon?
Every time someone sees me reading my Kindle, I get a ton of questions about it. This is the number one question and one I can answer — yes!

To date I’ve only purchased two books from Amazon (not counting free books) and read over two dozen.  There are plenty of free books, so reading for free should not be an issue.

But I often simply grab books from other sources:

• Project Gutenberg
• LIBrary Project
• ManyBooks
• FreeBookSpot
• 4eBooks (Programming books)
• FreeComputerBooks
• Intech (Open Access Publisher)
• Memoware
• KnowFree.net
• Various individual publishers who do not want to push their content into Amazon

What you need to understand is that many books from these publishers will be in various formats (html, .pdf, .azw, .pub) and as such cannot be natively dropped onto the Kindle and read natively.
Enter Calibre.

What is Calibre?
Calibre is an open-source (free) software product created specifically to help you manage your personal library of eBooks. As of this blog post, there are twenty different files that can be converted and then targeted towards an eReader. In this instance, we are talking about the Kindle, which is fully supported as a target platform and a file format.

What file format should you convert to? Well, the Kindle currently supports TXT, PDF, HTML and their own AZW format (based on the MOBI format, which also works). For me the MOBI format seems to be the easiest to view and navigate, but really that all depends on the publisher and how well they build the eBook to start with.

To use Calibre, it’s as easy as installing the product, configuring it for your Kindle, grabbing some files, dropping them onto the interface and telling it to convert and load. The volunteers supporting Calibre have done a really great job with video tutorials and such.

Are there any roadblocks?
Some of us who believe what you buy you own, can take it a step further and purchase books from somewhere like (eBooks.com), which may not provide you with a format that supports your Kindle. Of course, you cannot take a file from them and simply drop and convert. There is this nice little piece of protection called DRM, which encrypts and protects the product from piracy. Now I’m all for protecting the intellectual property of something created and sold for profit. But placing DRM on a book is like telling me I can only listen to a CD in my car.

Recently I purchased a book called, “Start with Why” since it was not available in any Kindle version on Amazon (which now is for $6 more than what I paid for the eBooks version). What I discovered is that due to the DRM, I could not convert it to the Kindle and view it. So after five minutes of research, downloading and installing Python (free), and grabbing a script, I was able to remove the DRM and convert for my personal consumption. Will I share this file with anyone else — absolutely not, but do not force me to sit in my car and listen to that CD folks. And for those agencies wanting to throw around the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, there is an exception for eBooks, since I couldn’t get it on my Kindle for read-aloud function. Or, this was merely an exercise to see if that forum posting was accurate, and my name is not Dimitry Skylarov, so don’t come after me.

Warranty
Sometimes it’s important to know the bottom line. The warranty that comes with the device is good for only one year and has certain limits. Buy an extended warranty, but know you have to do so within 30 days (through Amazon) or within 90 days (from Squaretrade)

And yes, I have had one problem with a cracked screen that was fully replaced at no cost (the next day) by Amazon and their warranty program. Unfortunately, right now I am outside of warranty with no way to purchase an extended one from Amazon. Due to the fragile nature of the screen, which can break by placing it on the counter too hard, I’m extremely careful and a bit nervous when using it now. Not a position I should be in with a consumer product.

Update: Played with something fun.

  This article has been Digiproved © 2011

What are some options?

1. Services such as iTunes or Zune, which will give  you the choice to buy and download a movie or television episode to your player. More like renting.
   These work great and keep you perfectly legal while holding all software security and licensing intact.
2. Carry around a portable USB optical drive allowing you to use your own DVD movies.
   This reduces your battery life and increases the complexity and weight of a portable Netbook system. It’s also a tad bulky and sort of distracts from the benefits of a highly portable netbook.
3. Copy a digital copy to the hard-drive
4. Create (convert/encode) a digital copy, copy to the hard-drive

All of them work. All of them come with their own baggage; it’s a matter of finding the more (or two) that work the best for you.

I use #4, with an open-source product called Handbrake.
With this product, I simply created a profile for my netbook, and easily take DVD’s and convert them.
Then it’s a matter of copying the files across the network and viola – movies to go.

(I started creating this post in June, and forgot about it — I suck)

This article has been Digiproved © 2010

From a filling breakfast we walked for about three hours through shops at the towns version of “Rodeo Drive.” This slowly building area now has paved roads but still no public restrooms, it cost $0.25 to use the bano. Each person was able to find a few things for friends and loved ones and Heather was able to grow her unicorn collection with a few new friends.

After getting back to the condo the kids went down to the pools while Lisa and I started our Christmas feast dinner. Yes, we brought at turkey and all the fixings across the border. The meal was super with fresh gingerbread for desert. Lisa really thought to bring everything. All luggage and food and six adults fit in the Tahoe!

Following several games of Uno, we decided to hit the hot tubs and heated pools. Our night was concluded with some marble board games where team Heather-Mitchell kicked us all hard. That was with Heather learning the game right before we played.

And thus concludes todays fun filled adventures in glorious sand filled Puerto Penasco Mexico.

  This article has been Digiproved © 2010

Last year a good friend and coworker shared her condo with us as a gift and we loved the beach and ocean setting. We have now been back three times and this trip we brought all four adult kids.

Today started with a 6am departure and a 4 hr drive into Mexico. Now it must be said that the scenery leaves much to be desired, unless you like (a lot) desert plants and trash. No one got sick and we arrived in time to check in, unpack and grab some lunch at La Cuerva.

After filling ourselves and going on a scenic trip (a wee bit lost), we went down to the beach and slept in hammocks until sunset. Then apples to apples game came out until people got hungry again, followed by snacks and a movie (The Santa Clause).

Having to change condos to one we were unfamiliar with meant a smaller master bed, which meant we had to change the sleeping plans. But now everyone is sleeping, I connected my portable wireless router up and jacked in with my Droid-X to write this brief update for friends and family. And yes my cellular service is off (airplane mode).

Good night and God bless everyone.

  This article has been Digiproved © 2010

www.MyCodingHeart.com can be yours!

Make me an offer! This DNS is current and has been purchased through 08/09/2014.

  This article has been Digiproved © 2010

He gave it to me!
Compared to the G1, the Ion lacks a physical keyboard and is a tad thinner. Other than that, the same screen size and inability to auto-upgrade past the Android 1.6 O/S makes it slightly reduced in capability. This led me down the path of finding out whether I could  root hack it and install the newest Android 2.2 (aka: Froyo) system.

Searching does you little good if you don’t know what you are looking for. You’ll find all sorts of articles exclaiming that this can be done with little links to any place where details are listed. Like most open-source systems, the Android community has tons of documentation.

• Android Developers
• Android Developers Blog

This did nothing for me except explaining how due to memory issues, the phone companies have abandoned distribution to certain early phone models.

Open source communities know better. They are inventive and do more with less.

Further reading led me to CyanogenMod, which is a free, community built distribution of Android 2.2 (Froyo).

• HTC Magic
• Find out which phone version I have
• Full update, which includes root hack
  • It should be noted that anything copied to your phone will not be available on a file manager until you disconnect it from your computer.

It wasn’t easy and those aren’t the best instructions in the world. I also had to go back and do the Gapps install twice to clear some errors, but my little HTC Magic is running Froyo at full speed.

Some things I’ve tested so far.

• USB Tethering (at home works like a champ | compare to Android 1.6 on my Dream)
  
• Gallery and multi-touch (buggy initially, but settled down)
• Gmail
• Youtube
• Shazam

Bottom line — just do it!

Update: Decided to add a photo showing the version.

The hack attack

This article has been Digiproved © 2010

  This article has been Digiproved © 2011