NPR Boy

Rooting the Nook Simple Touch Reader

2012-02-18T08:44:00.004-05:00

I rooted my Nook Simple Touch Reader (STR) in order to gain some Kindle features via the Kindle app. But the experience left much to be desired. I am not sure why people root it - well, maybe because they don't have a Nook Color lying around to do the things I use it to do. But with a Nook Color around the house, it doesn't make any sense to root the Nook STR. I bought it for reading epubs comfortably like a book and it does the job fairly well.

However, I do not like the way dictionary works. I like the way Kindle does it much better. On the Nook STR, you touch and hold a word and then touch Look Up to see its meaning. The dictionary definitions are not as good as on the Kindle but that is a separate gripe. But anyway, on the Kindle, you touch or click a word and it shows the meaning in a section of the screen right away. You have the option to highlight and take notes etc. I like that way better than the Nook STR.

For the record, I used the TouchNooter on the STR (Google it, instructions are everywhere) and it rooted it without any fuss. But then to get the Kindle app was a much harder than it should be. The market doesn't work unless you wait a day and I just didn't want to do that (but eventually did). So I tried the Amazon app store, copying the apk, restoring Titanium backup (you need to install Titanium backup first so, no go) and other tricks. However, it was a thoroughly frustrating experience so I ended up just waiting. And finally when I installed the Kindle app, the layout was so bad that I immediately decided to unroot the STR and go back to stock. Yes I know stock reader works just the same with a rooted STR but I did not want any of the rooted mess making the device act weird.

Unrooting was a different battle. I tried the 8 failed reboots first and that restored the device to factory setting BUT it was exactly the same as before. Then I tried a restore image and that did the factory restore again but I had the same problem again. I looked for another restore image on XDA but the link was dead. Then I tried to Unregister and Reset the device and that did the trick. After a reboot, the Nook STR was good as brand new.

I think I will use the Nook STR as stock for a little while since it gets the job done but I will look for a good deal on the Kindle Keyboard or the Kindle Touch and then sell the Nook STR.

Nook Color - Thoughts

2011-06-17T10:22:00.001-04:00

Writing this down to help someone else make up their mind if they are debating getting a Nook Color. I own an iPhone and a Sony Reader PRS 350. So my opinions maybe biased. And I have had the Nook Color (NC) for all of 3 days.

First, the executive summary for the impatient: I like it.

Now the details for the non-Executive. I bought the NC for reading PDF's. The Sony Reader is the best in class for handling PDF's but it falls short. There are numerous things you can do to make PDF's look acceptable, but after a while, it gets frustrating. On the NC, you basically load and go.

Unfortunately, the built in PDF reader on the NC has a few shortcomings too. When in landscape mode, which is the only way to actually read a PDF book, there is no way to page up. You have to scroll the page by dragging it and it is not ideal. Enter a third party application ezPDFReader. It is available from the Nook Marketplace for 99 cents and can be downloaded from the Android marketplace too. It allows you to tap bottom right corner to page up your PDF. That gives me near perfect PDF reading experience. There are other features in the app which make it superior to built-in PDF reader in every way.

I removed the stock Barnes and Noble interface and replaced it with the CM7 mod the very first day. I liked the stock UI. A lot. But I couldn't justify not using the hardware to its full potential. Specifically, CM7 allows you to:

- Overclock the device to run flash smoother
- Watch Youtube videos
- Watch streaming Netflix

On the downside, you lose the excellent Barnes and Noble UI with a library view of all your books and a couple of decent games it came with: Sudoku and Crossword. I didn't miss the games too much but the UI was excellent and I missed it once it was gone.

CM7 comes with a ADW Launcher which is awful IMHO. Of course I am used to an iPhone so you mileage will vary. But I got Launcher Pro and without any widgets or other Android gunk, it looks and acts almost like an iPhone. I like to keep things simple.

GV Mobile+ vs Google Voice App on the iPhone

2011-03-27T08:05:00.000-04:00

I have been using the GV Mobile+ app since before the official Google Voice app was available on the iPhone. It had a few shortcomings but overall was very pleasing and useful app. Yesterday I saw a Lifehacker.com article that said it has been upgraded to support push notifications. That was one of the shortcomings as it was impossible to know when you received a new text. Even though I had a workaround, I wanted the upgrade. The problem: it broke on updating. It dropped my credentials and the new version of the app would not sign in. After searching Google, deleting and reinstalling the app, when nothing worked, I tried the official Google Voice app. I thought I was going to keep it until GV Mobile+ developer fixed the app. But it turns out, the official Google Voice app does everything GV Mobile+ app did - and more!

For starters, there are push notifications of text messages. It also shows the transcripts of your voice mail. Its interface is slightly different but I am sure I will get used to it. It is still a very pleasing interface for a very useful service.

Quitting Facebook

2011-03-20T08:36:00.000-04:00

I quit Facebook after using it for nearly 5 years yesterday. When I joined they used to not allow free web based emails to sign up. I enjoyed my time on the site through all the privacy issues reported in the press. I never put too much information on the site so did not have much to fear. But it was getting to be a hassle to keep up with all the privacy "gotchas." However, that is not what precipitated the change.

Yesterday I saw a link posted in my friend feed which seemed out of place. The headline said something like 99 out of a 100 people found this funny. It had a little risque photo underneath and it was from a friend who I wouldn't associate with posting risque stuff like that. So I clicked on it thinking it was a joke he found funny.

The tab that opened had a grayed out video and a small popup asking me to take a survey. The popup did not have a cancel or a no button. And it was not a window that could be closed. So I am not sure if I clicked the survey link or not but even if I did, I closed the entire tab quickly without waiting for the video or submitting any survey.

A few hours later I accessed Facebook on my iPhone and there were posts from "Eyes Never Lie" with similar risque photos and random lines. There were many comments on those status updates. It seemed odd and at first I thought Facebook had mixed up some random "friend" in my feed. After a few minutes of putting the phone down, it didn't feel right. So I picked it up again and started poking around. That is when I realized it may have something to do with the link I clicked this morning.

I got concerned and logged in from another PC. I first searched for some "Facebook virus" that may be trending. Then I looked for "Eyes Never Lie" hoping it would be trending. But neither returned any useful link. Well, the first search did return some info on Koobface virus and explained the activity to be similar to what I saw.

So I logged into Facebook and checked my account settings. Much to my dismay I was showing as "Liking" three pages I never clicked Like on. In fact I never click that button so putting anything there was wrong. My wall also showed a risque image with a link to cute-girl.info website.

That just killed it for me. I posted a warning to others and asked them if they saw some shady activity from my Facebook account. I waited six hours but by the end of the day, it was becoming clear to me that I will hve to quit Facebook. I just did not need any nonsense like that. Facebook was responsible for putting their users in this situation. They could have avoided that with tighter privacy controls.

It is like Windows in a way. Facebook now is like Windows XP of 2002. It was not Microsoft's fault that Windows was the target of malicious software writers all over the world. It was the dominant operating system so everyone wanted to target it. But Microsoft could have made Windows more secure to avoid the situation in the first place. The analogy is not perfect because Windows has longer release cycles. So when Windows XP was released they made security mistakes but they could not fix those until Windows Vista's release. But Facebook has much shorter release cycles and should/could have done plenty to avoid this situation already.

Goodbye Facebook. Let us see what Google has to offer.

Bookmarking solutions

2011-01-03T13:48:00.003-05:00

After delicious.com (del.icio.us) was reported shutting down last month, I started looking for a replacement service. My requirements are simple:

1. Synchronized bookmark across machines
2. Easy bookmarking and bookmark management
3. Online access

Surprisingly, delicious.com with a Firefox extension was fitting all these needs perfectly. But Yahoo's uncertain future plans made me nervous and I started looking for alternatives.

At about the same time, I switched to using Chrome and liked its speed and synching features across machines. However, its bookmarking still left a lot to be desired. About a month into using Chrome, I got fed-up with its inability to block ads and certain audio clips from playing. I never had these problem with years of Firefox usage. So I decided to go back to using Firefox 4 (beta, at the time of this writing).

Firefox 4 fixes the speed issue bringing it almost on par with Chrome. Sync is built-in like Chrome. Unfortunately, it does not let you access the bookmarks online. So I started looking again.

My bookmarks fall in two categories:

1. I store some commonly accessed websites on the bookmarks ribbon for quick access
2. I save some websites for referring back later

The first category is well served by Firefox Sync. Since I need the quick-click ribbon to look the same across machines, I drag the site's address to the ribbon and have it show up on all my machines. To be honest, this feature was not available to me before I discovered Chrome Sync. So my previous (delicious.com) setup was lacking this. But Firefox 4 and Chrome handle this without any issues.

The second category is where I am having troubles. There are a bunch of extensions (Diigo, Xmarks are the more popular ones) that store your bookmarks and allow online access, but I don't want a repeat of delicious.com so I don't want to get stuck with a bad or failing service. I also looked at the import and export options these services provide and I was not too happy.

For these reasons I want to keep my category 2 Bookmarks with Google. The only problem is, Google does not make it easy to add or manage these Bookmarks from any browser including Chrome. I installed the Google Toolbar extension in Firefox and even that does not provide a good interface to manage the bookmarks. All it gives me is the ability to add bookmarks to Google with ease. And to do that, I have to give up a lot of room on my browser because running the extension in compact mode hides the Bookmark button.

Frustrated, I searched the web and finally found a javascript button on Google Bookmarks FAQ.

I changed the text to be a plus sign to save screen real estate. You can drag it to the bookmarks ribbon if you like. It allows you to save links to your Google Bookmarks. You are still stuck with Google's lousy interface for managing those bookmarks but until I find time to write a nicer UI for it, you will have to make do with that!

Words I hate: Automagically

2011-01-03T13:25:00.001-05:00

99% of the time, replacing the word "automagically" with "automatically" in the text you are reading makes more sense. Writers tend to forget that it is a made up word that adds nothing to the language except cuteness -- if you are 10 years old.

I beg all the writers of the world to stop using "automagically" and let it fall off the face of the planet automatically!

My Photo Workflow

2010-11-08T16:52:00.000-05:00

I am a Nikon [D50] user and have gone through a lot of tools over a period of about 3 to 4 years of shooting raw (NEF) pictures. Only now, I have more or less settled on the tools of my choice and have developed a stable workflow. So I want to talk about what I like to do and how I do it in this post with the hopes of helping someone else facing similar decisions. You can write in the comments section if there is something you like or hate about my workflow. Or if you have any questions.

First off, I manage all the images in Finder (or Explorer) myself. I do not like any digital asset management (DAM) software. There are way too many of these DAM software and they do not inter-operate. And the value they add is iffy at best, in my humble opinion.

For the longest time, I used ACDSee (on Windows) because it was fast, worked directly with files and had excellent UI. It fit my requirements perfectly until I started shooting raw. I used to backup my Pictures folder manually and ACDSee did not litter my hard drive with small library files like some other software do.

All that changed once I got my DSLR. I needed something to post process my raw images and I am not sure ACDSee even supported Nikon's raw format. Also, about the same time, I switched from Windows to Mac so that played changed the requirements further. I evaluated Nikon's Capture NX, Lightroom, Capture One etc and liked the raw conversion engine of Nikon's software but the UI sucked. Also the ability to store your edits in Capture NX is nice and the no-library way of dealing with files worked really well for my workflow. But I fell in love with the Lightroom UI and found the controls very intuitive. Despite Lightroom's ease of use, I still stuck with NX for the longest time. But gave in in the end when I noticed the time I was spending dealing with NX's sucky UI.

So, here is what I do now.

I copy the shoot manually to a folder. The folders are structured:

Year / YYYY-MM-DD, Keyword / Raw

So the Raw folder gets all the DSCNNNN.NEF files and its parent folder (eventually) gets the exported jpegs. This lets me maintain my years worth of photos in the same structure starting with jpegs only in the pre-DSLR days.

I open this folder in Nikon ViewNX and apply the GPS location to the raw images. Sometimes I use the iPhone GPS Logger application but mostly I know the location I shot the pictures at so I just do it manually in ViewNX.

I then import the Date+Keyword folder into Lightroom. During import, I apply a profile I saved that sets the Adobe2010 Camera Portrait on the image. In my experience, this profile gives me the closest rendering to the NX exported jpegs. since I shoot in Portrait mode, NX applies the correct settings but those are lost in the default Adobe profile leaving me with a bland colorless image. Applying this profile on import makes things equal.

I then go through the shoot in Lightroom hitting X key on photos that I want to delete. There are times you take multiple shots to keep one but since "storage is cheap," most photographers end up keeping them all. Not me! I don't like clutter.

After this first pass, I choose to delete rejected photos from disk.

Then I do the post processing on all photos. This used to be a labor intensive process but last few months I have been forcing myself to save time here by shooting better photos in camera. This includes getting the exposure right and framing the subject better. Getting the white balance right in camera is a little harder and its easier to fix in Lightroom since you can get one image right and then apply the change to your entire set easily.

Lightroom post processing is a whole different subject so I am going to leave that out of this (long) post.

When I am done, I select all photos and press Cmd+S to save my edits as XMP sidecar files. This allows me to ditch my Lightroom library if needed since all the edits are now saved with the raw files (almost) like Capture NX. Importing the raw files with their XMP files applies the edits. However, it does not show history but that is a small price to pay.

After this I export the entire shoot to the Date+Keyword folder as jpeg files keeping the same name (in case I need to correlate the jpeg with its raw file later). This export also puts a small copyright and logo on my jpegs. I mention it here because it has become important for me to mark my photos this way.

At this point, I [used to] drag the jpegs to iPhoto and create a new event with Date+Keyword. iPhoto gave me the ability to tag people using face recognition and to play very good slideshows. But last few months, I have stopped doing that. Since it takes time and the payoff is not that much.

I also have Picasa which lets me upload photos to Google and also some printing services. But it is neglected (until needed) now just like iPhoto.

That's all for now. More later.

Hibernate broken in Windows XP SP3 with /3GB switch

2010-07-17T08:01:00.001-04:00

I have used hibernate instead of shutdown for years on my various XP machines. On my old work laptop, I upgraded the memory to 4GB a couple of years back. I had to delete and recreate the hibernate file but it started working well after that. Then about a year ago, I used the /3GB switch to enable 3GB user mode memory for Visual Studio 2008. Ever since, hibernate on that machine stopped working. When I tried to hibernate the machine, after a few seconds, I would get a message in taskbar saying “Insufficient resources to complete this API” and the hibernate option was removed from the shutdown menu. This left me with no choice but to either shutdown the machine and waste 3-5 minutes booting it again or put it in standby with the blinking light and battery usage.
Now I have a brand new XP laptop and following the addition of /3GB switch, the same thing is happening again.
Searching google is no help. The error is well known on XP SP2 and there is a patch. But my machine is XP SP3 so the patch is useless.
Anyone have any ideas?

Windows Live Desktop Email Client

2010-07-13T16:14:00.001-04:00

Time for some serious griping! The awfully named Windows Live Desktop Email application from the Windows Live suite of application is getting on my nerves now. I have used it for years in all my computers because it does what it does and no one else does it: connect to Windows Live (hotmail) email accounts without any special configuration. With that said, I have a series of complaints against the application:
1. No installer: You have to install the suite and uncheck every other junk application you don’t want. This means I cannot have an exe in my applications folder on an external drive to install this “must have” application on every computer in the house. And frankly I do not need any other junk software Microsoft wants me to have.
2. Missing icons: The first versions of this application had nice icons against all the toolbar buttons. It made delete button easy to recognize with that “x” icon next to it. For some reason, Microsoft has removed the icons in newer versions. So much for progress. Not only that, they shuffled the buttons around for no particular reason which means I am always hunting for that button!
3. Non-standard UI: Why on earth do they need a special color for the title bar of this one application in Windows XP?? Having this means that they have to custom paint the title bar and hide the system title bar. Which means when the application or Windows hangs, the real title bar shows up. No big deal, except the question WHY OH FRIGGING WHY!
4. DOES NOT WORK WITH GMAIL IMAP: Without getting into all the details for the lack of time, it has some serious issues working with Gmail using IMAP protocol. This is despite years of development (and presumably testing) and is what prompted the frustration and this blog post.
Sorry, Microsoft. You have a giant FAIL written on your forehead these days.

I am switching from Bloglines to Google Reader

2010-04-25T21:49:00.000-04:00

After about 5 years of using Bloglines RSS reader, I think time has come for me to switch. Thankfully, I had already imported my subscriptions to Google reader (years ago) but did not like the interface so stayed with Bloglines. But last week there was an inexplicable outage at Bloglines for a couple of days. It was made worse by the fact that my subscriptions were not tracked during the outage. So the "new" updates to those subscriptions showed up as already read. That just killed it for me.

Also, I read on some websites that Bloglines does not have that many subscribers and maybe on its last legs. So I decided not to wait for the inevitable and make the switch now. I realize that my move may have accelerated their fall but there is only so much I can do.

I really love Bloglines and want to thank them for their years of wonderful service. If it were not for them I may not have gotten into reading and subscribing to Blogs. I tried a desktop based RSS aggregation software and did not like it. Then I tried Outlook and Internet Explorer[1] and did not like those. Bloglines was just the right interface and the right way to read Blogs. Their keyboard shortcuts (J and K) were innovative and very useful. (Thank God Google Reader supports those). Their iPhone UI was just as nice and well thought out as their regular web offering. Overall they did a great job so far and I hope they do well in the future.

Adios, old friend!
---
[1] Ironically, years ago, Internet Explorer 4 had that great "Push" technology with channels and what not. That was nothing more than the Blogs and RSS of today. But that never took off. Maybe what was missing was Bloglines. To me, IE and Outlook's RSS implementation is too reminiscent of the Push/Channels of yesterday.

Micro Torrent (uTorrent) for OSX is pretty good

2009-12-28T20:54:00.000-05:00

I have been using Transmission since I switched to OSX/iMac. On Windows, I used to love uTorrent (or Micro Torrent). But since I switched, I found Transmission and it got the job done.

But when the latest version of Transmission started freezing my OSX, I first looked for updating to the latest version. And it informed me that the installed 1.76 version is the latest. However, I knew the OS was freezing because of Transmission and it was really inconvenient. So I thought I would install uTorrent in Parellels and use it that way. But to my surprise they had a beta version for OSX out. I downloaded and installed it and it seems to be working very well. I think I am going to switch to using it over Transmission from now on.

How to Remote Desktop into Apple iMac (and OSX) from Windows

2009-12-24T21:45:00.000-05:00

Technically, its not "Remote Desktop" but VNC. But regardless, I am not sure why this not more well known. If it were, I would have found out about it sooner. I have owned a Mac for more than a year and one thing I missed was the Windows Remote Desktop. If you are like me and have several computers around the house, you are used to starting Remote Desktop and connecting to another machine over your home network. This ability comes very handy at times. So when I got a Mac, the only thing I missed was the ability to connect to it from my Windows machines. I did some searching and most of the hits I found were about connecting to Windows machines from the Mac. A feat easily accomplished using the Remote Desktop software for OSX provided courtesy Microsoft. There is another freeware tool called CoRD, but since Microsoft's Remote Desktop is free and works well, I never looked into CoRD.

More searching led me to Apple's Remote Desktop software that you can run on OSX. So if you have a Macbook, you can use it to Remote into your iMac. Not quite what I was after.

But my first surprise came when I tried to VNC into a Linux box from my Mac. On searching, I quickly found Chicken of the VNC. After I installed and used it for a couple of times, I noticed the VNC server shows up in Finder sudebar with a Share Screen button in the Finder window. On clicking the button I discovered OSX's built in VNC client called Share Screen (poor naming, I know).

Despite the quirks, it worked wonderfully and I got rid of the Chicken of the VNC client. There is no shortcut for the built-in client, so you can either launch it via the said button in Finder or by doing a Connect To Server and typing "vnc://" in Finder.

The best part, however, came a couple of days back when I discovered that OSX has a built-in VNC server too. And its hidden in plain sight. In your Preferences panel, you can go to Sharing, and in there, there is a check box to turn on Screen Sharing. I suggest you set a password by clicking the Computer Settings... button. After doing that, it is simply a matter of getting a VNC client on your Windows machine. Tight VNC is my favorite. You can download the viewer as a zipped executable. Nothing to install on your Windows machine. You can click the exe and give it the IP address of your iMac and you are in business!

Happy remoting!

Still searching for a way to play iTunes playlists in XBMC

2009-11-27T23:20:00.003-05:00

XBMC is the coolest Media Center style application on the planet. It even included DAAP support for playing iTunes music shares. However, iTunes version 7 and up changed the sharing scheme to authenticate sharing clients and that broke XBMC's support of iTunes shares (though it still supports the DAAP protocol).

Unfortunately, all the Google searches on this subject lead to the same old (broken) DAAP support. I have not been able to find a way to play the iTunes music in XBMC.

XBMC can play music files from a share. But that doesn't work for me. I am using picking a few songs from my entire library and queuing them for play. Picking a few songs from multiple folders is tedious at best if I know the song locations. But if I don't know the song locations, searching for them is near impossible. Also, iTunes playlists can be created using artists, genre, last played and ratings etc. That kind of stuff is impossible to do with files and folders.

Frustrated, I looked for, and found a way to turn the iTunes playlist into an m3u file. I thought I could play the m3u file in XBMC but unfortunately the m3u created by the script was invalid. So that didn't work.

I am just about ready to pay Apple for Airtunes Express and use that instead. As a bonus, I would use it for the network connectivity to the Xbox/XBMC as well.

Windows 7 – The good, the bad and the ugly!

2009-10-15T22:26:00.001-04:00

I like Windows 7. So far. It seems snappier than Windows Vista but that is not saying much. It seems prettier than Windows XP but unfortunately, even that is not saying much for the new OS!

The laptop I am using came with Windows Vista. There were no preconceived notions about the OS, as Microsoft would like you to believe, but my wife and (then) 8 year old did not like Vista. There were a few bugs in the Synaptics Touchpad driver software and the overall slowness of the laptop made my wife want to get XP installed on it.

We used XP happily for over a year. To XP’s credit, it performed very well and got the job done without getting in the way. Then last week, Microsoft gave me a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate, and yesterday I installed it on the same laptop. So far the speed difference is barely noticeable and Vista’s shiny-ness is back.

First thing I did after the install was to turn the text size to 125% and I really liked it. The fonts looked very crisp and more readable. But this laptop does not have a high-res screen so the screen area was greatly diminished.

Next, I installed Live Mail, Live Writer and Live Photo Gallery applications. This is where things went downhill fast. For one thing, why can’t an OS made in 2009 come with a mail and a photo gallery application? For another, these Live applications are really bad and getting worse. Live Photo Gallery application does not understand Nikon’s NEF files. Live Mail application used to have nice icons in the toolbar but they removed them! And I do not like the missing menus that show up on pressing Alt. That whole trend is stupid.

Other than that, the out of the box experience is a lot better than Vista. Windows 7 recognized my wireless and prompted me for the key right after the install. It gave me a nice, clean looking desktop and got out of my way.

I will write an update after a few days of using it.

Testing Writer

2009-10-15T22:00:00.001-04:00

Here is a post from Windows Live Writer.

Resharper 4.5 works fine now

2009-09-24T15:22:00.001-04:00

As a followup to my earlier post detailing all the problems I had after I upgraded to Resharper 4.5, I just wanted to post a quick note to say that I upgraded my laptop to 4GB memory and a few weeks later, I tried to upgrade to Resharper 4.5 again. Admittedly it is a newer revision I downloaded but I have had ZERO issues with it now. It works exactly as fast as Resharper 2.0 and as a bonus, the few bugs I had learned to live with in 2.0 are fixed in 4.5. So I am very happy with Resharper 4.5 now and would stick with it for a long time.

Followup on Pergo

2009-09-24T15:15:00.002-04:00

I noted my experience with Pergo Flooring in this post

I just wanted to write a quick followup to say that I got a check refunding me about 60% of the cost I paid for my flooring. Thanks to the class action lawsuit by Steele, I did not have to file any lawsuit of my own. For once in my life, I am glad we live in a litigious society. This is a very good way to keep manufacturer's honest.

Apple Mail 4.1 Exchange sync

2009-09-24T14:53:00.002-04:00

I had high hopes for Snow Leopard's support for Microsoft Exchange. I was expecting Apple to implement it the same way they implemented Exchange support in iPhone. When setting up a new email account in iPhone, you can provide your Exchange webmail credentials and it figures everything out. But for some reason doing the same does not work on Snow Leopard. I have tried various other settings but I keep getting connection errors. Various Google searches have not led me to any good discussions on the subject. I am still waiting for someone to enlighten me.

Photo Printing - Photoshop v Picasa v iPhoto

2009-07-16T22:53:00.007-04:00

Today I tried printing some 8x10 photos using my printer. I have printed some 4x6s in the past with this printer (hp 6310 All-In-One) but it’s the first time I tried printing an 8x10.

I tried Photoshop CS4 first. People in forums were saying it’s the best thing for printing on a Mac. And it let me bypass color management (Use Printer's CM) but the page layout just sucked. It was putting the picture smack in the middle with big margins (at 300 dpi). I checked the stretch checkbox and that reduced the dpi to 250 (or something) and also gave me a weird layout. There is a quarter inch border on left and right but the top and bottom border is smaller. The color also showed some jpeg artifacts (or patches). I thought it was because of the reduced dpi.

I tried Picasa 3 next. I picked a different pic because I didn't want to completely waste photo paper. It completely destroyed the pic. There are ugly bands of color. Now, to be perfectly fair, I let the printer driver do the enhancements. In PS's case, I turned off all the lightening, sharpening, auto this, auto that settings in the driver setup dialog. But for the Picasa test, I left those settings in there. I don't know what caused the ugly banding but the picture is useless. Printing controls and layout options are nice in Picasa, though.

Finally, I tried iPhoto '09. It did an awesome job! Apple has put in a lot of emphasis on photo printing services in iPhoto. But it let me do a simple full page 8x10 shot and it did an amazing job of handling everything for me. Print dialog let me choose between colorsync or vendor's CM (I used vendor's) and I turned off all the hp enhancements again. And it was a different (third) pic. But I can't see any color banding or patching and margin is even (16th of an inch?) like photos are supposed to have.

I can get into all sorts of fancy color profiling stuff, and I'm sure I will get better results, but for an ignorant layman, iPhoto printing is pretty good.

MS Money discontinued

2009-06-14T19:34:00.003-04:00

Microsoft has decided to discontinue their personal finance software Money, aka MS Money, aka, MSN Money, aka Money Deluxe. As a 9 year user of the software, it leaves me with a bad feeling. Money had become the raison d'etre for me having a PC. It was the reason I could never switch to using Linux. It was the reason it took me so long to switch to Mac OS X, and even when I made the switch, I made sure that VMWare running Windows XP would run MS-Money just as well as a Vista machine.

MS-Money had its shortcomings but I was familiar with the software and its competition (Quicken) was way worse in every respect.

From 2000 to 2008, I always got the newer version with my Tax software for free. I never paid for it because the updates were mostly cosmetic and did not add any value for me. I think in 2005, Microsoft added activation and required an upgrade every two years (the software was set to "expire" in 2 years). In 2008, there was no new revision and now in June 2009, they came out with the announcement of discontinuation.

Mircosoft has cited changing competition as the main reason for this move. Their main competitor Quicken is still available but they have created a free online version too. The online version was mainly in response to Mint which offers a personal finance management website. I guess Microsoft was probably facing a similar move to web but their MSN Finance website may not be ready to handle this responsibility.

All this is part of running their business but the problem is the way the executed the idea. They should have at least disabled the copy protection, activation and expiration of the software for their loyal customers. It was simply a matter of updating the software using the usual channels or just allowing users to update a simple utility. As it stands, I am left with 9 years worth of my financial data and a March 2010 date when it becomes useless. Technically the data would still be useful but the software will not be able to download transactions from my bank websites. Which would make the software a lot less useful to me and consequently I will have to migrate to another software.

I have been evaluating a few Mac OS X personal finance software in the last two days and I will probably write another entry for those. But for now, I will continue using MS-Money for a few more days. When it expires, if there is no easy option to transfer my data, I might look into downgrading to Money 2004 or older and see if that works.

In either case, it is going to be a very unpleasant experience. Thanks Microsoft!

Mio C320 useful hacks - III

2009-06-12T21:26:00.003-04:00

As a followup to my earlier post on Mio C320, this post provides all the links. If you need to know the background, please read the earlier post. Most likely, you don't care...

Download the new Simple Unlock from xtyler's website here

C320 Unlock

Download my updated files in a zip file from either of the two locations below:

Rapid Share
Send Space

Follow the directions in xtyler's unlock. Overwrite the files with the same name in your Mio's internal memory with the few modified files in Custom.zip file. Copy the icons folder from the Custom.zip into icons folder in the Mio memory.

You should have a working screen on boot that gives you access to MioMaps and iGo8.

Finally, here is the latest working iGo8 location:

http://filefactory.com/file/af52870/n/iGO8_rar

And maps are here:

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=6773b9f5ccd405034c17ca8801618ef7e04e75f6 e8ebb871

If you decide to get Navigon working too, write me a comment below and I will dig up the links for that.

Mio C320 useful hacks - II

2009-06-08T10:08:00.002-04:00

My post on Mio C320 hacks has generated a lot of traffic. So I thought about updating everyone on the status of my C320. First of all, here is a snapshot of what it looks like when it boots up now (sorry about the rather crude iPhone snapshot, but it was either this or nothing):

As you can see, I have tweaked the xstyler unlock I recommended in my older post. This gives me the most common choices I needed in the last few months of usage right up-front with easy to press (while driving) buttons. All the work was done by xstyler (and another person; I forget the name) and I just tweaked the script and copied some icons. I think it is a really big improvement considering how little I worked (about 2-3 hours one night).

Also, I updated the maps to latest available Navteq maps and the iGo software to 8.3.2. All this was done because of the problems I was having with the older version. Specifically, on two occasions, it led me to a location nowhere near I wanted to be. The second time it happened, I was standing in the middle of a residential area a few miles from the BJ's store I was trying to reach. I exited iGo and switched to MioMaps but had the same results. I did not try Garmin XT, which is a shame because three days later when I did, it had the right location. So I switched to using Garmin XT full time. But unfortunately, it froze on me several times so I had to give that up as an option.

Next, I looked on the forums and fortunately, there were updates available to maps and the software. When I used those, the (immidiate) problem was fixed. There may be other problems that I do not know about yet, but there is nothing I can do about those.

On xstyler's recommendation, I tried Navigon software too. Unfortunately, my experience with it was not quite as positive. xstyler told me beforehand that the menus are "laggy" and they are, but that was not my biggest problem. The data entry is tedious and menus are not laid out very well. Add that to the laggy menus and you have a potential disaster on hand while driving. And since for me, the alternative (iGo) is responsive and fast, I do not feel like putting up with Navigon. In short, don't waste your time.

iGo, on the other hand, is even better now. There is a new "Routing Method" button which gives you a summary of all four routes so you can make a better decision on which route to take. Also, routing with Navteq maps is a little better than the old TeleAtlas maps. Lane markings are better and the new highway signs look really good. Finally, the sky with clouds on the horizon is a nice touch and the icing on the cake is that it turns black at night. Someone paid attention to every little detail!

I will provide links for all the updates in another post. I will also zip and upload all the files I changed myself since those will not be available anywhere else. When I am done with that post, I will add a link to that post here and in the old hack post as well.

Hulu is Coolu

2009-05-19T21:08:00.003-04:00

So my Comcast DVR decided to skip recording '24' again. I usually start watch it at 10 to 15 minutes past 9 so I can skip commercials. And at least once before, I caught my Comcast DVR not recording it. Since then I checked scheduled recordings before to make sure it was in the list. Yesterday, I forgot to do that and at 9:40, I realized that it was not recording '24'.

Looking at guide, I see a red circle with strike through sign showing a cancelled recording. Reason: unknown. So I tried to force it to record the program suspecting a conflict. But to my surprise, it started recording without any problem.

Next I checked Fox's website and they wanted me to install a new browser plugin and they didn't have the episode yet. Then I tried Hulu.com and they did not have the latest episode yet but they did have older episodes. So today I went back to Hulu.com and sure enough they have the new episode and do not require any new plugins. Quality is pretty good and there are ony limited commercials with a banner showing "xx seconds to get back to the show". Very nice!

Best of all, the time slider at the bottom of the show has dots showing commercial breaks so you know when the next break is coming. Nice touch! The "dim lights" feature is very nice but I like to pop out the window and watch the show in a small window. That way you can use your computer for other things. Just shows that these guys are actually using the site or taking feedback seriously.

Kudos Hulu!

Media Portal

2009-05-12T21:42:00.003-04:00

Media Portal never works for me. I have tried it on an old computer (1.8 Ghz Pentium) and it ran so slow the first screen took 5 minutes to show up. I blamed it on the computer and never tried again. (GB-PVR on the same computer was usable but did not like my TV Tuner Card). Just for the record (pun not intended), I could record HDTV on this computer but playback was choppy. The same recorded file played on a faster PC without any issues.

On a faster computer, Media Portal was still unusable. The processor in question is an Intel Pentium E2200. It runs Vista Home Premium well. Vista Media Center runs well. Recording and watching HDTV even at the same time gave me no issues. But Media Portal was still unbearably slow. Makes me think the problem is Media Portal. I know there are some people using it happily on their HTPCs but for me, it is insufferably slow.

Pergo's (lack of) quality

2009-05-09T22:33:00.002-04:00

In 2007, I bought some Pergo laminate flooring and installed it in my house. Two months before this install, I installed some Shaw's laminate flooring that I bought at half the price. I paid twice the price for Pergo fully believing that I was getting better quality, a good brand and a better product. I could not have been further from the truth.

The three rooms I did with Shaw's flooring are still looking good and have zero issues. But Pergo, oh that's another story! The shine was all gone within 6 months and a year later the floor was squeaking, making cracking noises, and felt mushy underfoot. Since the humidity conditions were the same for both the floors, I contacted Pergo and filed a warranty claim. They sent an inspector who measured humidity/moisture in the flooring. A few days later, Pergo denied the claim saying the floor had too high a moisture reading. I tried to talk to them and tell them about the Shaw's laminate flooring holding up under the exact same conditions but the guy said that they can't comment on a comeptitor's product. My argument was that since it is not holding up as well as a competitor's product, by definition, it is an inferior product.

But Pergo did not buy that argument and told me I was free to pursue a small claims court case if I liked. I did not have the time to do that even though I wanted to. So I let it go.

Yesterday I received a letter in mail saying someone else fought that case for me. And not just a small claims case, but a full blown class-action. Woo hoo! But Pergo settled out of court and agreed to pay all the Pergo owners a full or partial refund. If you still have the floor, then you get 60% of your costs back, and if you aready replaced it, you get a full 100% back from Pergo. That does not seem totally reasonable to me because had they paid me the full 100%, I would have replaced it now. But not having done much work, I am willing to live with that.

Coincidentally, last week I ordered a transition piece from Pergo and witnessed their lack of quality again when the transition's bottom came apart at a little pulling from the contractor. The contractor also agreed that even cardboard is stronger than the stuff Pergo used for that transition.