The LowTech Zone

Life with a Roku Streaming Stick 4K

2022-01-11T17:03:00.002-06:00

Roku Streaming Stick 4K (2021)

We’ll get this out of the way, right up front: the reason I bought a new version of the Roku Streaming Stick 4k (2021 version) is that my old one would no longer support streaming Amazon Video. Don’t ask me why… We’ve had a Roku in the mix since about 2014, first a Roku 2 (replaced last year for the same [suspicious] reason) and later a earlier-generation Roku Streaming Stick (3500R). The two go along with a trio of Google Chromecasts that cover three of our four televisions; one of which travels with us when we rent from VRBO or Air B&B.

I bought this model from Amazon, where the price has increased by something like 56% since I placed the order. Lucky me… except that I had to send the first one back, and the replacement got lost in transit. Try talking someone at Amazon “support” into sending you a new one instead of issuing a refund so that you can buy another at the new, “improved” price. Sheesh!

Whatever the case, I got the replacement and lo and behold, it had exactly the same “problem” as the original. It took some sleuthing, but I finally found out what was up. More on that later. The stick plugs directly into an HDMI port on the Television and is powered by a cord with a micro-USB on one end and a full-sized USB on the other. You can either plug it into a USB port on the television (not all TVs will power the unit) or into the supplied wall adapter. The cord has a fat plastic section that Roku (somewhere) says is a WiFi booster. I didn’t need it, but it’s probably nice to have.

The stick itself is about 20% longer than the model it replaced (84mm vs. 69mm), making it too large to fit into one of the HDMI ports. Lots of people complain about that, enough that Roku will send you a free flexible extender if you can find the order form. They are, of course, backordered… for three months.
Setup is typical Roku; plug it in and follow the on-screen instructions; you’ll have to enter a code on the Roku website as well as an email address and password. Just like every smartphone, Roku then automatically installs about seventy channels of bloatware, including such clinkers as the golf channel. OK, maybe some people like to watch golf…

On the GOOD side, the streaming stick is wicked fast compared to my old version, which was about five years old. The remote (included, as are 2 AAA batteries) has been upgraded to include volume controls and a mute button on the right-hand side and a voice control button where the OK button used to be. There’s also a power button that can be used to control the television. That’s in addition to the usual array of right-left-up-down-back-home-pause. Four pre-programmed buttons take you to Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ (pbbbbt) and Apple-tv (double-pbbbbbbt). Still can’t program them to your choice of streaming services.

On the BAD side, there’s damned near no documentation for this thing, so it was only by accident that I learned that the unit has a power-save mode that is, for unknown reasons, set to ON by default. Since it’s not documented anywhere, you won’t know that this is the reason the unit has to be reset every time you want to use it. Can you say, “Pain in the ass?”

So here are my two tips for living with this new version of the Roku Streaming Stick. First, find the power-save function (it’s in system settings) and turn it off. Otherwise you’ll be cursing Roku for the duration. Second, if you power the stick with the TV’s USB port, DO NOT set the power button on the Roku remote to control the television power. If you do, the television won’t come on until the Roku boots up ten seconds, maybe) and then you hit the power button. Again, PitA.

Once I figured out those two caveats, I’m perfectly happy with my Roku Streaming Stick 4K, and will most likely stay that way until the company makes a deal with Netflix or Hulu to stop supporting their streaming, thereby forcing me to buy a couple more Rokus. Oh, well, at least they’re faster than the old ones…

Summary

PLUS: wicked fast, good streaming experience, upgraded remote function, interfaces with Alexa, Siri, or Hey! Google

MINUS: poor documentation of "hidden" features, bloatware channels

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: Cut the cord and get a Roku.

Decent Enough Earbuds, I Guess

2021-05-06T13:03:00.002-05:00

SoundPEATS TrueFree+ Wireless Earbuds

SoundPEATS TrueFree+

I'll be honest: I am not one of those people who spends his entire life tethered to his phone. In fact, I get maybe two calls a day, most of them spam; about the same for texts. So when I decided to get some wireless earbuds, I wasn't interested in forking over a pair of Benjamins just to have some nifty white things that Siri has kissed. No, I picked up a pair that cost a quarter of that: SoundPEATS TrueFree+ Wireless Earbuds. In case you're like me and don't care whether people know you have a "cool" smartphone, here's what I think of them.

I wanted some to wear while riding my spin bike in the basement and occasionally while walking. For the most part, they remain securely in my ears, but I would NOT recommend wearing them while running: you'd spend half your life looking for them after they fell out.

As far as sound quality is concerned, I'm not an audiophile but they seem to recreate the digital signal at least as well as any of the wired earbuds I have (SkullCandy, for instance). Since I rarely get or make phone calls, I can't address microphone quality. The MFB (multi-function button) seems to work, at least for pause-resume. Again, not something I use a lot.

What I do use is the case, which functions as a recharging station. After each use, they go back in the case for charging. I rarely use them for more than about ninety minutes at a time, so can't address the length of time a charge lasts. Ditto the length of time a charge of the carrying case lasts, although supposedly it holds a charge sufficient to recharge the earbuds nine times or so. YMMV...

Like so many imports from Asia (China, in this case), support is lacking. For instance, there's no information about orienting the buds in the ear; after some trial and error I decided that the sound is best and the buds are most secure when they're mounted with the indicator light at the bottom (see photo at right), essentially the opposite of the pretty white ones people pay so much for.

The instruction book is also a little hazy on when to recharge the case, telling you that, "When the charging case battery is running out, the last indicator would flash, please charge the case then." I don't know what the "last indicator" is, but it might refer to the left indicator light on the front of the case, Whatever the case, the only time I've ever seen either of those light up is when it's through charging. Unfortunately, the text on the website is exactly identical to the text in the little manual.

Summary

PLUS: Decent enough sound, functions as promised,

MINUS: Not suitable for running and jumping, substandard owner's manual

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: If you can't imagine paying $150-$200 for earbuds, these will certainly do the trick.

A Visitor From Another Planet, or Just a Helpful Tool?

2018-09-15T10:54:00.002-05:00

Homedics PA-200H Programmable Percussion Massager

"Take me to your leader," a scratchy whisper interrupted my nap.

"Whaa?" I mumbled to my dream.

"PA phone home?" came the querulous reply.

"Whaa?" I repeated. I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer when three-quarters asleep.

"Awake, foolish earthling!"

OK, that got my attention. But when I did awaken, there was no evil, ray-gun toting alien at my bedside; just a Homedics PA-200H massager that I'd left lying on the night stand. Oh, sure, with that gray triangular "head," the long skinny "neck," and those pupil-less black "eyes" at the corners of its "face," the PA-200H could easily be mistaken for an escapee from a Whitley Streiber novel as brought to life by Industrial Light and Magic. But on second glance, there are no long, bony fingers and no stereotypical lipless mouth; just an array of teeth, err, buttons and a long, dangling cord. So, my bedroom safe from alien invasion, at least for the moment, I went back to sleep.

Besides, my lower back was feeling so much better!

Features

The PA-200H may look like something out of an episode of "The X-Files," but it sure doesn't act like a marauding interstellar visitor. It's well behaved; even well trained. It's an impact massager, with twin heads (on the opposite side from its face) that pound your sore spots like tiny fists, only lots faster. You can use any of three black rubber heads of varying hardness to give yourself a good thumping, or use plastic heads that can be heated. Those nice alien wranglers at Homedics taught the little guy some additional tricks, too, including:

Five Intensities: when used with the manual massager setting these simply change the speed (although there seems to be very little difference between numbers 4 and 5).

Three Programs: in which the thumping frequency sweeps from minimum intensity to maximum and back; the different programs have different rates of change and stay at the extremes for different lengths of time.

Three Intervals: allows you to speed up the whole cycle on any of those programs.

Heat: either on or off, and usable only with the supplied heatable pads. It appears to raise the temperature to about 10-15 degrees (F) above body heat. Soothing...

Auto Width Adjustment: hold down a button and the heads slowly move apart, keep depressing it and they come back together again. Maximum spread is about 4 inches, minimum is about 3 inches; the gap between heads ranges from about 1-3/4 inch down to 3/4 inch.

Usage

The PA-200H is hand-held and corded with a 12-foot line, there's a Velcro loop on the line to help stow the cord neatly. All controls except the width adjustment are on the face, where they can be operated with a thumb or the other hand. These controls are the soft-touch type often seen on calculators and cash registers, which helps keep dust and dirt out of the works. The auto-width adjustment button is on the other side, adjacent to the vibrating heads.

Recommendations

Extra contact pads screw on and off fairly easily, though they don't look all that well made to me. The threads for screwing them on do not go all the way around, and it's easy to accidentally cross-thread them. There's also no way to store the accessory heads that aren't in use except for the crumbly styrofoam block from the original packaging.

The unit weighs about six to eight pounds, most of which is concentrated out at the business end. It's awkward to use if you're trying to support its weight (e.g., using it on your hamstrings while sitting). The massager works best when held horizontal so that its entire weight is on the vibrating pads, so why not get someone else to do your back for you!

Since it's apparently sturdy and possessed of plenty of features, we're happy to have our PA-200H hiding in that little nest in the master bath. As of this date, it doesn't seem to have made contact with the mother ship, although there are some suspicious "signs" shaved into the back yard grass. I'm keeping an eye on the little guy, just in case!

Summary

PLUS: versatile thumper, heated

MINUS: awkward weight distribution, "face" may frighten small children

WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: Though it might look like a Close Encounter of the Third Kind, the Homedics PA-200H is actually a handy device for soothing aching muscles.

Another Great Mouse from Logitech

2018-08-12T12:44:00.001-05:00

Logitech M325 Wireless Optical Mouse

All good things must come to an end. Considering the amount of abuse my Logitech V450 Nano wireless mouse suffered week in and week out, it’s not surprising that it eventually stopped working. On the other hand, it did last more than 4½ years – longer than a lot of laptops these days. They were not easy years, either, entailing heavy work with precision 3D modeling software and also an owner who regularly eats lunch at his desk. Messily.

So when it did come time to replace that V450, I didn’t bother looking at Kensington or Microsoft or any of the others: I headed straight for Logitech’s catalog to see what had replaced the V450. The answer is a Logitech M325 Wireless Mouse, and it’s (pretty much) just like my old friend.

Here are some basic specs for the M325:

The mouse operates on two AA batteries; not included. Logitech claims “up to” 18 months' battery life, but we all know that’s just a guess. On the other hand, I only remember changing the V450 batteries a time or two, so more than a year sounds reasonable. It operates under (almost) any flavor or Windows or iOs, as well as Chrome and Linux.You’ll need a USB 2.0 or 3.0 port for the receiver (in case you don’t know, a USB 3.0 port [usually] has a blue plastic insert and a 2.0 has black).The body's about 3¾” x 2¼” x 1½”, slightly smaller than my old V450. It’s ergonomically shaped to fit the hand with a rubber grip notched on both sides for the thumb, and can be used either right- or left-handed. Logitech calls the scrolling "micro-precise," and I have no argument there. The 2.4GHz wireless signal is highly reliable: I’ve never experienced a dropout or delay, even from across the room.The eensy-beansy nano receiver is called a “unifying receiver” because you can run as many as six USB devices on a single receiver… assuming they’re Logitech devices, I think.

Like its little predecessor, the M325 is a two-button mouse with a scroll wheel that can be programmed to act as a third button (for Linux fans, among others). For everyone else, the wheel operates as a forward/backward switch for web browsers; just tilt the wheel to the right or left, respectively. You can download Logitech drivers to enable an extended set of mouse features, but I prefer to use it as a standard “dumb” mouse with the Windows default mouse driver. If you want to run multiple devices on the unifying receiver, you also have to download the unifying software. Haven’t tried it…

That receiver is one of Logitech’s Nano receivers, so called because it’s a tiny (about ½” x ¼” x ¼”) chunk of plastic sitting on a USB plug. It’s so small I never bother to unplug it, even when stowing the laptop for travel – it sticks out perhaps a quarter of an inch. If I do you want to disconnect and store it, the receiver tucks into a dedicated slot in the battery compartment, which also turns the mouse off. You could also leave it plugged in and turn the mouse off with its bottom-mounted switch. There’s a tiny green LED on the top to show the power’s on, which turns red when the battery’s low – aat which time the mouse seems to have another week or two of battery life.

Special programming features: If you download SetPoint, the M525 will end up with additional functions. By default, the wheel’s programmed to scroll the current window right-left with a wheel “tilt.” If you press and hold the wheel, you get software zoom to enlarge/reduce the current window. Tilt and press functions can be re-assigned to several other actions, like volume control for yout speakers.

Life with a Logitech M325:

Installation is easy, since it's plug-n-play. My laptop runs Windows 7 64-bit,, and the mouse worked immediately upon installation.
Download: The download software is massive, which is the reason I didn’t bother with it – I’ve used it on other machines and don’t find that it adds that much to my experience. I have no need for the unifying software, so ditto on the no-download.
Physical stuff: The receiver only projects about 0.25" out from the USB port so you really can plug it in and forget (though maybe not so much if it’s on the side that rests on the bottom of your laptop bag).
Range: It's a minimum of ten or twelve feet from the receiver, at least with fresh batteries. I always like that for presentations, because I’m a bit of a roamer.
Surface Sensitivity: It works fine on a plain countertop, rubber mousepad, magazine surface, newspaper, cloth, and wooden desk without any tracking problems. Like other mice (mouses?) it's pretty useless on shiny or monochrome surfaces.
Portability: Though decidedly compact, it’s also pretty dense. It’s probably worth the extra ounce, though.
Buttons: Some aftermarket mice have extra programmable buttons under the thumb and ring finger for additional controls; if you're used to them, you'll not find them here. If you're not, you probably won't care. I find that the mousewheel is super-sensitive, allowing me to scroll line by line instead of the noticeable jump of some cruder mice.

Is it really Ergonomic? Well, that might depends on your tastes: the M325 is kinda chunky, but it’s still a little small for large hands. If portability isn’t your driving need, a larger mouse might fit your hand somewhat better.

Overall: A nice little mouse with few shortcomings. Logitech sells sexier mice, but they cost more than this one’s $30 price tag . I’d recommend the M325 for medium to heavy use, though not for cursor-intensive pastimes like CAD or gaming; and I especially recommend it for travelling, where its small size and Nano Receiver will be a blessing. Oh – and replacement receivers are available from Logitech, so you can literally forget the receiver as well!

Summary

PLUS: tiny and tough even while it's sensitive
MINUS: some of the software downloads are a little "much"
WHAT THEY'RE SAYING: I liked my last couple of Logitech mice so much that when the latest one died I didn't bother to look at anything but the Logitech M325 Wireless Mouse.

A Complete Waste of $1300

2018-03-04T14:07:00.000-06:00

NordicTrack Elite 13.1 Elliptical

NordicTrack Elite 13.1

After we wore out a cheap elliptical machine a couple of years ago, we dithered for a while about buying a new one. Having survived a frozen winter or two when we couldn’t get outside to exercise, we broke down and went looking. Sadly, the only consumer-grade ellipticals we could lay hands on we found at Sears – Dick’s sells the Sole brand, but has none on display – so we picked out a NordicTrack Elite 13.1 Elliptical (their model 24055.0). To be frank, it’s the worst $1300 we ever spent.

First things first: the gigantic cardboard box weighs about 250 pounds, and most of that (around 200 pounds) is one piece, the base assembly. Once you get a couple of weight-lifters to move it into place, the machine is relatively easy to set up. All you have to do is set a couple of pieces in place and tighten a few bolts. That’s the good part.

Much of my problem with the NordicTrack elliptical revolves around customer service. Within minutes of setting up the machine, we realized that the minimum resistance was considerably higher than it should be. At this point, I should state that both of us regularly exercise at a gym and are quite familiar with elliptical machines of various types, so we know how much resistance there should be. At maximum resistance on this machine – a 26 on their scale – it is almost impossible for a 200-pound man to move the pedals. Think that’s right? I don’t.

The second time a service tech inspected the elliptical, he reported his findings to the company. A few days later, we were informed by ICON Fitness that the machine “Meets manufacturing speculations [sic].” The tech left the machine disassembled; it took more than five weeks to get someone to the house to reassemble it because ICON’s tech support people were apparently on semester break from the University of Utah. A different tech reassembled the machine and, without setting foot on it (same as the first guy) informed me that the resistance is set as low as it will ever go. Neither of the techs performed any sort of measurement or test, they just took it apart and put it back together. So much for that…
The machine is iPad compliant (who cares?), meaning that it has a USB port (so you can charge your device while exercising). They boast that it will run iFit routines, assuming you want to spring for $15 a month to subscribe (fat chance). It has a few on-board routines, once of which I attempted to run one day: it started at level 9, which immediately put my heart rate over my supposed maximum (which, by the by, is programmed into the machine). Speaking of heart rates, the Elite 13.1 has a pair of sensors that are supposed to measure HR. They don’t: I once tested them by taking a measurement every fifteen seconds. Successive readings went something like 58, 163, 97, 109, 131. According to my FitBit Charge, my heart rate was more or less steady in the 130-135 range. No points for accuracy…

The machine is (supposedly) Bluetooth compliant, but only with heart rate monitors (good luck finding one of those…); making me wonder why they so prominently display the Bluetooth symbol. It is also (supposedly) wifi-enabled, but we’ve had little luck with that – it drops the wireless connection almost immediately after being turned on. That seems to be especially common if you have the onboard fan running. By the way, the fan seems to work pretty well.
As far as the preprogrammed workouts, I have to admit that I haven’t tried anything but the weight-loss routine, and I quit that almost immediately because it was going to destroy my knees. Both of us routinely use the elliptical on the manual setting only. I almost never get above resistance level 3, my wife says she runs it at level 6¹. You can also adjust the ramp incline between zero and 20 degrees; I typically run at an incline of zero to three.

A 40-minute workout on this machine, always set at incline = 0° and resistance = 1, can raise my heart rate to almost 140 BPM. By comparison, in an hour on a commercial elliptical, I have to bump the resistance to 10 and the incline to 5° to raise my heart rate above 130. ICON doesn’t seem to think that heart rate is a valid proxy for resistance, though.

The company has stopped responding to my email, so who knows what will happen next. All I can do is warn anyone who is looking for an elliptical machine that you don’t want to buy anything sold by ICON, and that includes NordicTrack, Pro-Form, Altra, Free Motion, Gold’s Gym, Weider, Weslo, HealthRider, iFit, UTS, and Lotus. You’ve been warned...

¹ This makes me wonder if the resistance problems are dependent on the user's weight, perhaps because something is misaligned.

White Noise Without the Fan

2018-01-04T13:28:00.001-06:00

Marpac Dohm-DS Sound Machine

Because she's had a case of chronic tinnitus for several years, the woman of the house often finds it difficult to sleep without a low-to-medium level of background “white noise” in the room. Years ago, we tried some of those “sound machines” that have settings that are supposed to mimic waves or rain, but they seemed intrusive and the variations in pitch and volume seemed to make it harder to get to sleep, not easier. For years, she’s used a fan on a low setting. That’s no big deal in summer or during what Houston calls “winter,” but when the Midwestern temperatures drop below 0°F you don’t want a fan running in the bedroom at night!

The solution turned out to be simple: I bought her a “fake fan.” With her new Marpac Dohm-DS Sound Machine, she’s happy as a clam and sleeps like a baby. Believe it or not, this machine actually is little more than a fan inside a cylindrical housing; a cylindrical package about six inches in diameter and six inches tall. This model (Marpac has several) has a two-speed fan, plus the outer casing rotates to adjust the volume. Best of all, there’s no moving air around the machine to stir up dust or chill the room. That's because the company, which has been making these machines (or something like them) for more than 50 years, designed the fan blades to pretty much cancel each other out.

We having our unit sitting across the bedroom from the bed, set on low, yet it’s still as loud as the floor fan we had been using. The motor draws a measly 18 watts, so you can run it for about a week and only use one kilowatt-hour. It sounds almost exactly like a fan except that the tone is slightly “hollow,” which only took a night or so to get used to. Oh, and if you’re worried that it’ll clash with your décor, the little guy comes in white, black, or tan – ours is black.

We’re sold – so much so that we might get the Marpac Rohm for travel use!

I really wanted to like this TV

2017-11-11T09:34:00.000-06:00

Toshiba 32L310U18 32-inch LED Television

When the family spent a few days in temporary lodging not long ago, we found ourselves TV-less. Not in the mood to miss the big game (much less the latest episode of Jeopardy!), we quickly scanned the offerings at a nearby BestBuy. That’s where we found the Toshiba 32L310U18; a small, 32-inch model television (LED, 720p) and brought it "home," along with a low-end amplified antenna for grabbing over-the-air broadcasts.

The set was easy to set up and, once hooked to that amplified antenna, seemed to provide a good picture and decent enough sound. Then again, we were only about 12 air miles from the broadcast tower. This model is equipped with AV inputs, two HDMI ports, an antenna port, a USB port (though you can only browse a flash drive, not hook up a computer), and an optical output port so you can route the audio through a sound bar. The usual remote is in the box as well. We lived with it for six or seven days, and never noticed any problems.

We did find that the process for setting up and using “favorite” channels was clumsy, and that doing manual tuning to block out unwanted stations (e.g., HSN and QVC) seemed even clumsier. But what the heck: decent picture, decent price.

Once we went back to our real home and unpacked the television for its “forever home,” though, we found some problems that hadn’t been apparent before. First, when we ran the automatic tuning to find the local OTA stations, the Toshiba only detected about half of what was available, even when we hooked it up to the same Mohu Leaf antenna as an older television sitting just a few inches away. The older TV (an Insignia model from BestBuy) found more than sixty, the Toshiba found twenty-seven. By way of comparison, we're about 25 miles from the broadcast towers here.

As if that weren’t enough, the Toshiba suddenly quit responding to the remote. To be sure, I installed fresh batteries. The only way I could turn it off was to use the power button on the set. Once I turned it back on, it “saw” the remote… for a while.

After that, I gave up and returned it.

If you can find one of these that actually works correctly, it would make a decent enough TV for a kid's room or the guest room (that’s where we were going to put it). It’s obviously not suitable for a home theater, but then it costs less than $150.

Pros: good picture, good sound, reasonably priced, some nice features

Cons: clumsy remote, weak tuner, electronics issues

Another Reason I Won't Use Comcast

2017-02-05T09:05:00.001-06:00

There have been plenty of news reports about Comcast over the years, such as the time the company's so-called customer service kept badgering a customer who was trying to disconnect service. Well, as of late last year (2016), I think the company still has problems. Here's why...

In the last week of December, my wife -- that grandmotherly silver-haired fox -- was walking the house's adorable yellow lab in the 6200 block of Tennison Drive (ZIP 46236) when she came upon a tablet lying in someone's front yard. She looked around but there was no one in sight. Feeling that protecting the valuable electronics from the elements, accidents, or light-fingered pedestrians was the best option, she tucked it in a pocket and carried it on the rest of the walk.

Forty-five minutes later, as she was composing a "found" ad for the neighborhood website, the doorbell rang. I answered the door to find a burly, red-faced man in his fifties with a second man "on his wing." The first man shoved an iPhone in my face and asked, "You got an iPad here?"

Don't buy xfinity, stream instead!

I immediately turned to my wide ans said something like, "Bring that tablet you found. The owner's here." No denial, no claims of "no iPads here, dude!" no nothing: we just immediately handed the guy his property. Instead of thanking her for caring for the tablet he had dropped on the way into a client's house, however, the man became belligerent.

"Where'd you get it?" he demanded.

"I found it in the grass," she said

"No you didn't. You came in the garage and took it."

At this point, I asked, "Are you calling her a thief?" and instructed him to leave the property. He climbed into the white van with XFINITY printed on it in five-foot-high orange letters and drove off, presumably to insult someone else. Oh, yes, and to park in their driveway blocking the sidewalk...

And that, dear Comcast, is just another reason I'm supremely uninterested in your products. If you can't teach employees to act graciously toward the public when emblazoned with your advertising, they sure as hell aren't going to be polite when we can't see them.

And you wonder why people are cutting the cable? Get a clue, Comcast!

An Ode to Incomprehensible Instructions

2016-11-11T08:29:00.001-06:00

I bought a new USB wireless adapter once upon a time. Don’t laugh, I'm not a complete Luddite: the desktop computer didn’t have an internal radio and the house wasn't wired for Ethernet, so a fifteen-dollar USB plugin fulfilled a need. Whatever the case, it’s a compact device that is compatible with all kinds of operating systems and also supports all the common wireless protocols. Like darned near everything in the world these days, it was made in China; sold by a company called Panda. I have no complaints: it worked as advertised and it was (reasonably) easy to install. It was a lot faster than the old one it replaces, too.

That installation part is why I’m here, though. The adapter is plug-and-play with Windows 10, but I installed it on a Windows 7 computer. That meant I had to use the installation guide. It’s a good thing I worked six years for a company with an office in Beijing, because I can now read the Mandarin-English mashup language people call “Chinglish.” If I couldn't, I might not have been able to finish the installation, or at least I'd have been pretty puzzled. Here's are some samples of those instructions (transcribed from the user’s manual):

"Once the wireless USB adapter be plugged into an USB port, the flowing message will appear on screen."

"Click the ‘Install’ to confirm the installation, there shows the installation progress."

I worked for several years at a software company whose Beijing-based programmers embedded messages like “Exception Happens” in their code, so wording like that doesn't bother me much: you might say I’m fairly fluent in the language. Not everyone is, though, and even I have difficulty puzzling through some of the more convoluted constructions. Years ago, I bought a bicycle trainer manufactured by Minoura. I still remember (with reluctant admiration) the convoluted assembly instructions, which you can find in an online version of the manual. I always thought it looked as though it had been translated from the original Mandarin to English using Google Translate, with a brief stopover in a third language – Arabic, maybe. Here’s what I mean:

"We suggest you do not need to move the left side coupling away so much. It should be fine to move by the center of its length, but it needs to be adjusted depends on the hub width."

I have to say that even my level of fluency failed there…

We’ve all seen examples of instructions that read like those. They can be quite frustrating. They may leave a bad taste in our mouths for the product, the maker, even the country. Most of all, they look unprofessional and give a buyer the impression that the manufacturer doesn’t care. That may be right, but I doubt any manufacturer wants buyers to realize that inconvenient truth.

Don’t get me wrong: I am not one of the people who demands that everyone speak English. I have immense respect for anyone who is even reasonably fluent in a second language, because heaven knows I can barely find a bathroom or order a beer in any other language. OK, to be honest, I’ve made it a practice to learn “beer” and “bathroom” in the local language. But how much trouble can it be to find a native speaker who can read through your customer documents to clean up language errors like that?

Come to think of it, I’m available. If you have brochures, instructions, technical documents or a user’s manual in Chinglish, Spanglish or some other mashup language, give me a call: I may be able to edit those incomprehensible instructions for you…

This Light’s Easy to Install, but it Doesn’t Last

2015-06-17T08:36:00.001-05:00

Cooper MS188W Motion-Detecting Halogen Security Light

I’m not particularly paranoid, but it’s still something comforting to see a motion-detector light mounted at our garage door. For one, having one is easier than scrabbling for keys and keyholes in the dark and for another, the kids like to leave toys just outside the back door for me to trip over..

Soon after we got settled into our last house, we put up a security light with a motion detector in just that spot. At one of the BigBox stores, we found a 300-watt halogen fixture; the Cooper MS188W Halogen Motion-Detecting Light (available in white or bronze).

Installation

We mounted ours on the soffit, but it can also be installed on a wall. The light itself’s in the middle of a hinged arm with a motion detector at the end. When mounted on the wall, the light sticks out with the sensor hanging straight down. Mounted on a soffit like ours, the arm forms a straight line with the light in the middle and the detector at opposite end from the mounting point. The whole thing’s about ten inches long.

Cooper configures the light to mount on a standard junction box with two screws (no crossbar). In the box you’ll also find wire nuts and connection instructions. The wiring harness comprises aluminum lamp cord in black and white insulation and a braided grounding cable. They include a foam rubber gasket to provide weatherproofing, but if you’re smart you’ll caulk it as well. A 300W halogen bulb is included in the box. You have to remove a pair of metal clips from the glass face of the light fixture and pry out the glass to install the bulb; a rather tricky operation.

Specs

As you might expect, the light’s UL listed for outdoor use in wet areas. Its sensor is said to cover a 180-degree horizontal angle with a range of 70 feet, dependent on how high it’s mounted. There’s a photocell that detects ambient light to keep the motion detector from coming on in daylight. You can set the light to stay lit for 1, 4 or 12 minutes; and there are other modes controlled by switching it on and off at the.

I found it fairly easy to install, but it might have been easier if Cooper had included some sort of hanging strap to support the light’s weight while you connect the wiring. Adjusting the light’s position and angle and aiming the detector are straightforward, though installing the halogen bulb is a pain in the rear. Adjusting detector sensitivity is basically a matter of repetition, using simple instructions.

Durability

For a year or two, our light illuminated out the driveway and kept the local herd of feral cats in the bushes. The downside of out light was that the motion detector went belly-up within three years, even though it was in a relatively dry, protected location. The light came on only if I manipulated the sensor by hand, rendering it fairly useless. I replaced it with a different light, a Heath-Zenith 250-Watt Quartz Security Light with Motion Detector that was still working five years later when we sold the house. Based on its short lifespan, I can’t recommend the Cooper light.

Summary

Plus: easy to install, bright light, functions as expected

Minus: light bulb compartment difficult to open, fails just after warranty expires

What They're Saying: Our Cooper MS188W Motion-Detecting Halogen Security Light worked fine and was relatively easy to install; but didn't last long enough.

Roku Streaming Stick or Google Chromecast: Why not Both?

2015-03-02T10:24:00.000-06:00

Roku 3500R Streaming Stick

If you consider cable television’s combination of poor customer service, high prices and forced channel bundling; it’s no wonder many former cable customers have “cut the cord.” I did: tired after decades of paying a gigantic monthly bill for a channel bundle including more than 150 channels I didn’t watch, I bid AT&T’s Uverse farewell. I increased my internet speed, invested in antennas to capture over-the-air HD broadcasts and bought a pair of Google’s Chromecast sticks and two different Roku Streaming Players.

Description and Installation of a Roku Streaming Stick

We installed a Roku 2 and a Chromecast on the television in our family room, a Chromecast in the master bedroom, and put a Roku 3500R Streaming Stick on the little TV in our exercise room. Roku’s stick can connect to any TV that has an HDMI port, which is different from a Roku 2 that can also connect with component inputs. It plugs directly into a female HDMI port on the television, drawing power either from the TV’s USB port or from a wall AC adapter.

Roku’s stick is similar in size to our Chromecast device. Both are about 3 inches long, an inch wide and a half-inch thick. Both have a male HDMI plug at one end and a female micro-USB port at the opposite end. Other than the Roku purple color and a company logo, The Roku Streaming Stick is otherwise featureless. The main physical difference from a Chromecast is that Roku’s stick is controlled with a remote or a mobile device and app.

Setup and Using a Roku Streaming Stick

Roku’s process for setup is, like Google’s for the Chromecast, quite simple: first, plug the stick into the TV and power it up, then walk through a series of setup menus on the screen. You’ll have to supply your wireless router’s name and password. Once you’ve finished, you must register the player with Roku with a code displayed on the screen and then you’re good to go. Like all Roku devices, the stick is 802.11 a/b/g/n compatible and supports WEP, WPA and WPA2 security protocols

Each remote pairs to a specific player, although they occasionally un-pair randomly. Usually you can re-pair them by taking the batteries out of the remote and re-installing. The remote is pretty much bare bones, having only about eight operational buttons. A lot of people choose to use the free Android or iOS app to operate Roku devices. Although they have the same number of buttons, typing input for searches, etc., is much easier with the app than the remote.

Owning a Roku Streaming Stick

Installation is merely a starting point: once you’ve registered the device, you have access to thousands of channels from on-screen menus. You’ll find familiar names such as Pandora, Netflix and Hulu; not to mention several thousand specialty channels for almost any interest – technology, religion, conservative politics, ultra-conservative politics, ultra-right-wing politics… Most channels are free, though worth what you pay for them (or less), including especially wearisome candidates in the categories of weather and news. Pay channels like Hulu are one or two button-pushes away, and the remote includes four dedicated buttons for Netflix, Amazon Prime, MGo and Blockbuster. Users can also play their own content from a computer by using an app like Plex.

A Roku Streaming Stick is fairly inexpensive at a list cost of $49 and you can subscribe to a selection of pay services (Hulu Plus, Netflix, Amazon Prime) for less than $30 per month. As of this writing, live sports aren’t available unless you’re already a cable subscriber, and much of the most popular programming tends to be available only on a pay-per-view basis. Since I’m someone who doesn’t plan my life around sports and the latest movies, my Roku Streaming Stick is a perfect reason to cut the cord.

Comparing the Roku Streaming Stick and the Google Chromecast

Cost: A Chromecast wins, $35 to $49
Control: A Roku Streaming Stick wins for its remote and app, the Chromecast is controlled by whatever you’re displaying – YouTube, a Chrome tab, etc.
Content: A tie: Chromecast has apps specific to several favorite channels, and can cast any content at all from a tab on a Chrome browser. Roku has thousands of channels, but many of them are completely useless.
Quality: A slight edge to Roku. Assuming you have a fast enough broadband connection, the two are more or less equal in video and audio quality. My experience with Chromecast is that it’s slightly more likely to stall and require buffering, but it’s not that big a difference.
Extras: The Chromecast comes with a small HDMI "extension" for tight locations and places where the stick doesn't get the best signal. The Roku doesn't.

Share that Sound with a Friend with a Monster iSPlitter

2015-02-09T09:12:00.000-06:00

Monster iSplitter 1000 Y-Splitter

You’ve certainly seen advertisements of a couple of teenage girls sharing a single set of earbuds: head-to-head, each with a single bud in one ear, big grins on both faces. Yeah, right: that’s a commercial. In reality, that doesn’t work – you need two sets of earbuds. If you want decent sound, you probably need two sets of real earphones. It’s a no-brainer.

So how do you send a single feed from a tablet, MP3 player, smartphone, or other device to two sets of ears? Simple: a Monster iSplitter 1000. The lower-case i notwithstanding, it’s actually a pretty useful little device. I say “little” because it’s quite small, about the size of one of those iPod shuffles: 32mm x 47mm and 11mm thick, with a 10.5-cm “tail” that terminates in a standard 3.5mm jack. For you metricphobes, that means it’s 1-1/4 x 1-7/8 inches and 1/3” thick, with a 4-inch tail. It weighs about an ounce, if you care.

The iSplitter has two standard 3.5mm output jacks, which are controlled by individual volume-control sliders. The sliders go all the way from full mute to passing full volume of the input signal. This capability is handy in case two people are listening on headphones with different sensitivities or simply want to listen at different volumes.

The device is rugged, with a hard plastic (ABS) case and reinforcements on both ends of the “pigtail” cable. All connections are 24K gold-plated to reduce oxidation and keep connections sharp and crisp.

We use ours to run two sets of headphones off a single television or MP3 player in the exercise room. The splitter also works on other devices, such as smartphones and tablets or even the output jack of an airline seat. You can plug in any kind of headphones, from cheap-o earbuds to high-end noise-cancelling headphones (done both, works fine). The sliders work, though fine adjustment is a little tricky. There’s no reduction in signal quality from plugging in two sets of phones vs. one.

The one thing I find weird is that one output jack has an icon of a microphone and the other has the same icon with a slash – but there’s nothing about what this might mean in the documentation, either online or in the package. Otherwise, I'm all in favor of the Monster iSplitter (though it is a little pricey...)

Summary

PLUS: It works, and seems almost indestructible.
MINUS: It seems kind of expensive for something so simple.
What They're Saying: A Monster iSplitter is just what you need if you want to share music or movie audio from your mobile device.

What to Do When a Surveillance Camera is a Waste of Money

2015-01-11T11:35:00.000-06:00

Q-See QN6401X EasyView WiFi/IP Camera

You know us dog people: we’re nuts about our mutts. So like many of the fraternity, we've often wondered what it is the pups do when we’re not watching them. It would be interesting to know just which one dragged that pillow into the family room or whose paws made those drag marks in the carpet. That’s why we bought a cheap-o surveillance camera – not because we wanted to video the home invaders, because we wanted to spy on the dogs.

The operative word is “cheap-o” – that’s why we ended up with a Q-See QN6401X EasyView Wireless/IP Camera, which set us back the sum of (about) a seventy bucks. I am here to tell you, it was seventy bucks wasted.

What’s in the box

Camera on stand, mountable to wall with screws (not provided)
Power cord with AC adapter (apparently designed for a different plug, depending on the plug configuration/voltage at ship site)
5-foot Ethernet cable
User’s “manual”

Setup

This step, described in excruciating detail in the manual, is most readily accomplished with a camera-equipped mobile device. That’s 'cause you have to use the QR code on the back of the camera to register and install it. Apparently you can use a regular computer, too, though you have to type in a serial number and jump through other hoops that the mobile device would ease.

The setup process walks you through registering the device on your router (not much on using an Ethernet cable, though). It says jack shit about using the micro-SD card, though the camera (supposedly) can record to such a card.

Use

Q-See supplies apps for mobile devices that are supposed to allow you to manage the camera. Enormous amounts of energy are devoted to the sharing of the cameras, very little is applied to actually using the damned thing. The app is available from the app store for Android and from the holy Jobs-site for iOs. For those who still use clunky old computers, there’s a website so rudimentary it might have been designed by a fifth-grader who’s barely passing Coding I.

With the app, you can watch the camera live – that would be great for fratboys wanting to watch their brothers getting it on with chicks after the kegger, though the camera is pretty darned visible with all its red and blue lights. You can set it to motion-detect mode, which captures… motion within the 65-degree field of view.

Now I have to admit that it does a fair job of capturing black-and-white images when there’s motion – you can see the cat slinking through the family room in the middle of the night. A redeeming factor! Though not redeeming enough.

The app design is, frankly, utter crap. The only way to set the camera to “record” is with the app, and the only way to get it into record mode is to install the SD card while the camera is running (and half the time that doesn’t work). There’s no sensible path through the app, and half the time (at least) the option for recording isn’t available. You can’t set the camera to motion-detection or recording mode from the web version, so if you don’t have a mobile device at hand, those functions are useless. And the app has friggin’ advertisements embedded, including those obnoxious flashing ads (and worse yet, ads for “Frozen”).

On the other hand, you can share images: there are the requisite Facebook and email icons on the interface, plus a save button. You’d think, though, that the apps shared on Google play wouldn’t have a share button for Weibo.com, entirely in simplified Chinese characters.

Support

Typical message from the website in fractured English

Here’s the kicker: there is no support. You have your manual, the writing of which was obviously outsourced to a native English speaker. There’s no help on the app, and only a FAQ for the website. The FAQ includes questions like “How to get WiFi list properly?” and “How to get back the password of my account?” – though no actual help, and no link to any help. This model does not appear at all in dialogs and pulldowns at the main Q-See support page.

Overall

In short, The Q-See QN6401X EasyView is useful only for live viewing. It’s not that hard to set up, but the viewer interface is utter garbage on a computer. It’s better on a mobile device, but not much.

As far as this reviewer is concerned, you're better off with any of these alternatives:

Mohu Curve: the Centerpiece of Our Cord-Cutting Stragegy

2015-01-04T10:15:00.000-06:00

Mohu Curve 30 and Mohu Curve 50

Apparently 2014 was the year for cutting the cord: it's the year streaming went…wait for it… mainstream. No longer was streaming just for early-adopting millennials who gave up or never even got a cable subscription, even their parents grandparents said “So long, sucker!” to Comcast and ATT, and bought Rokus and Apple TVs. I ought to know – I’m one of them.

Sick of inflated prices and even sicker of paying $120/month for 200 channels, 160 of which we never watched, we cut our cord last year. In place of cable, we bought several streaming devices (two from Roku, two Google Chromecasts) and some high-end antennas to pick up over-the-air broadcasts. Let’s look at one of those antennas.

Over-the-Air Broadcasts

If you’re planning to cut the cord, you’ll (probably) want to pick up over-the-air broadcasts from the big five networks (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, PBS), as well as ION and CW - it depends on where you live. Since everything’s digital now, with "second channels" in most places, the big five translate to at least ten channels. Not only that but you can pick up HD over the air for free, a "service" for which cable companies tack on an additional charge. The first step is to figure out how far it is from your home to the local broadcast towers. There are several websites that will do that such as antennaweb.com and antennapoint.com. Once you’ve determined the distance, it’s time to choose an antenna. A word of advice: round up to the more sensitive antenna if it’s “close.”

We’re about 22 miles from a cluster of antennas, for more than sixty stations. Since our televisions are all on the opposite side of the house and the antennas would be mounted no more than ten feet off the ground, we opted for amplified versions of the antennas.

These days every maker claims their antennas are powerful and can pull in HD signals for free: well, duh: of course they do. The differences are in how well they pull in the signals and what the antennas look like. A “rabbit ears” antenna like the one on your grandma’s television way back in ought-six looks ugly next to your 80-inch flat-screen, which is why modern antennas are either decorative or nearly invisible.

The Mohu Curve

photo: author

We picked a Mohu Curve 50. Mohu’s antennas are made with the technology the military uses in their mudflap antennas. They make paper-thin sheets imprinted with metal features to capture the signals. That’s their Mohu Leaf (we have a Leaf as well as a Curve). Mohu bends the sheet into a simple curve and mounts it in a plastic frame. The sheet is white on the front side and black on the back. The whole works, which is the size of a sheet of copier paper, is the Curve.

To connect to the TV, Mohu supplies a 16-foot white coaxial cable. For the Curve 50, they supply a small signal amplifier between the antenna and TV set. The amplifier needs power, which you can get via an outlet or from the television’s powered USB outlet. The Curve 30, which isn’t amplified, is has a claimed range of about 30 miles from the tower; while the Curve 50 is said to pick up signals from up to 50 miles away.

Setup is simple: you screw one end of the coax cable onto the antenna and the other end onto the amplifier. Then connect the amplifier to the television set and plug in the power cord. All that’s left is to find a good spot for the antenna – the part. Mohu’s documentation doesn’t talk about a preferred orientation. It looks like you’re supposed to aim the curved face at the tower(s), but in our experience it works better if the rear (the black side) faces the tower. With our antenna in this position, we pick up signals from a tower more than fifty miles away. Reception seems to be influenced by the position of the cable – I’m not sure why.

When you come down to it, our Mohu Curve performs as advertised, grabbing HD signals more than fifty miles away cluttering up the room with ugly rabbit ears.

Need a Wireless Adapter? Call for a Panda

2014-11-29T11:38:00.001-06:00

Panda 300Mbps Wireless-N USB Adapter

All good things - mediocre things, too - must come to an end, and that’s what happened to the old Belkin wireless adapter we’d had for five or six years. The house isn’t wired for Ethernet, and there I was, sitting at a bad-ass desktop machine: superfast (500-GB solid-state drive) and with memory out the wazoo, but no onboard wireless card. No problem: just buy a replacement…

I ended up with a Panda Adapter, which came from some little company in China (they all do – I looked). I wanted fast, and this is about what you get at a price point of around fifteen bucks. The listing at Amazon had a dozen different compatibilities listed, and the one I needed – Windows 7 – was in there. So I bit.

The little clamshell package showed up two days later (Thanks, Amazon Prime!). It included the wireless adapter, a printed user’s manual (about 4-point type) and a mini CD-ROM with the installer.

Specifications and Compatibilities

First, this thing is tiny; about the size of an ordinary thumb drive (and therefore, about the size of an ordinary thumb). I installed mine on Windows 7 Premium 64-bit. It’s said to be plug-and-play on Windows 8 and the most recent Mac OS. Other specs are:

Compatible with Windows operating systems back to XP (32- and 64-bit), Mac OS back to X, and a host of Unix flavors.
802.11n compliant, and backwards-compatible to any 2.4 GHz router running on 802.11 g
Maximum speed rating of 300 mbps
Supports WEP 64/128-bit, WPA, WPA2

Installation

This took maybe fifteen minutes, most of which was translating the users manual from Chinglish to English. There are no instructions for Win 7 except for a note to use the instructions for XP; that worked fine. Setup was no different from any other wireless connection.

A few people at Amazon say to only install the windows driver and not the utility, but installing both works just fine for me (the desktop is a Dell Precision 3610 workstation).

Connection Quality

The desktop sits at the far end of the house from the router, and the old Belkin rarely got more than 2-3 bars of 5 on signal strength. The Panda routinely gets 5 bars, even in the same spot. I like this – a lot.

I have the adapter plugged into a USB extension cable so I can get it higher in the room; this did not come with the adapter (I cannibalized it from the Belkin). Otherwise, I’d have it plugged into a USB port on the CPU.

Overall

I’m quite satisfied. Five stars!

Your Fan has a Remote? Whatever Gives You a Chill

2014-10-28T16:35:00.001-05:00

Seville Classics Ultra Slimline Tower Fan

Whether from old age or indignities suffered at the hands of movers, our old tower fan had begun rattling like a '77 Chevette accidentally fueled with diesel. We wanted our fan to be quiet, though, because we used it in the master bedroom to augment the A/C's somewhat anemic circulation at night. It wasn't, so “ new tower fan" went down on our shopping list.

We found this Seville Classics Ultra Slimline Tower Fan bundled in a twofer at our local Costco, packaged with a the sixteen-inch "personal" fan that the Ms keeps on the kitchen counter now. The big one includes a remote control (the necessary pair of AAA batteries included) that you can hook onto the rear of the unit for storage. Seville's package blurbs boast that their fan is "ultra-quiet" and features "ECO SPEED." The bit about quiet is important, and mostly true. The "ECO" business is the same sort of gimmick as "natural" supposedly meaning "coming from (somewhere) in nature"; hoping people will confuse it with “organic” (whatever that means).

Controls

Besides having a four speed-motor, the fan’s timer can be set for up to 7-1/2 hours in increments of a half hour. Naturally, it will oscillate through five different arc widths and it can also be run on either of two variable patterns: "sleeping wind," reduces fan speed speed by one step every half hour, "natural wind," follows a changes wind speed according to a pseudo-random pattern. The patterns vary a bit depending on the fan speed.

Assembly

The fan is partially assembled in the box; requiring just a Phillips screwdriver for attaching base to tower. Including the base and control panel, the fan stands 40 inches tall, including 27” that’s vented. The column is 6-1/2” in diameter and stands on a round base a foot in diameter. Power is delivered through a a 6-foot cord routed through the base.

We run ours eight or more hours a night during A/C season (about nine months a year) and it’s as quiet as when we bought it more than three years ago. Having adjustable oscillation means that we aren’t cooling the the closet or the dresser; just letting it swing back and forth over the bed. Even on its low setting (as opposed to "ECO") setting, the Seville pushes plenty of air; enough that there’s a significant breeze ten feet away, even on LOW, and does so quietly. The control panel has a cluster of faint green LEDs, which are almost the only way to tell that it's on.

I like this fan because it's quiet and the settings give me lots of options. Even if I only run it on "LOW" with the swing turned on, it's good to know there are additional choices. The included remote manages all functions including oscillation, though it is basically never used. Considering that the bundle of two fans cost just a couple of dollars more than the fan it replaced, it's proven to be a pretty good deal.

Summary

Plus: quiet, timer, multiple speeds and ranges of oscillation ranges

Minus: different "wind" options are silly, a tad top-heavy, who needs a remote?

What They're Saying: Our old fan now blows hot air around in the garage now that we have a Seville Classic Ultra Slimline Tower Fan.

Are You Ready to Cut the Cable? Entering the World of Streaming

2014-09-23T21:19:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you, but one of the most irritating things about cable television is the "package." When we signed up for AT&T's U-verse service, we had to sign up for their U200 package to get the channels we wanted - SyFy, to be exact. We never signed up for HD, never watched anything on demand, and never added premium channels like Showtime and HBO. Yet after five years, our cable bill - not including internet - had crept up to well over $100 per month. Even more irritating, we were getting 300-plus channels, of which we never watched 275 and only glanced at 10 others a couple of times a year. Small wonder I'm in favor of a la carte pricing, since I got tired of subsidizing dozens of religious channels, fifteen flavors of ESPN, the golf channel, and the like.

So we cut the cable three months ago: it's as simple as that - and you can cut the cable (or shoot down the satellite) yourself. It will require a little upfront investment, and probably requires rethinking the way you watch television as well, but I think it's worth it to never have to interface with the u-verse telephone support app again!

Are You a Candidate for Cable-Cutting?

The way I see it, the people who are least likely to cut the cable are big-time sports fans and people addicted to shows on the premium networks. Anyone else can probably adjust, but a lot of real-time sports programming just isn't available to stream.

The First Step: Getting Over-the-Air Signals

If you live in or near a metropolitan area, you can pick up broadcast television signals at your house. To find out your options, visit TV Fool or Antennaweb. Based on your address, these services list the available channels and suggest the type of antenna you'll need. You can get a digital indoor antenna, boost the signal with an amplifier, or go whole-hog with an outdoor antenna. In our case, we were supposedly within range of an ordinary antenna, but needed an amplified version because the broadcast signals have to penetrate several interior walls to reach the antennas. We often get better reception of a CBS station 60 miles northwest of us than of the station 21 miles to the southeast. The two antennas we chose are the Mohu Leaf and the Mohu Curve.

Broadcasting is no longer the big 3 or 4; in the digital era channels broadcast secondary and even tertiary channels of reruns, movies, or even other networks. In all, we have access to more than 60 over-the-air channels, including shopping, a slew of religious programming and perhaps a dozen channels broadcasting in Spanish or other languages. The lineup includes My20, MeTV, ION, KUBE, and the CW in addition to ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC and PBS.

The Second Step: Streaming Media

We had one Smart TV, but it's not as smart as a streaming media device, so we opted for of the devices already on the market. Mostly on the basis of easy availability, we picked a Roku 2 and a Google Chromecast (bestBuy sells 'em, both were on sale and we had gift cards). Roku is an aggregator that lets you choose from a wealth of "channels," from the familiar Netflix and Hulu to all kinds of weird independents - hundreds of them. The Roku 2 has an advantge over some of the other devices - it supports connection with component cables, for your older model televisions or a box that has only one HDMI - reserved for a DVD player. A Roku 2 (or 3) comes with a remote, but it's surprisingly crude. You can also use an app on a phone or tablet for a remote. Expect to pay $50-60 for a Roku 2, the middle of the company's line.

A Chromecast is a different animal: you run an app on your phone or tablet or open a tab on a chrome browser and "cast" to the dongle plugged into an HDMI port. There are a couple hundred apps that cast directly to Chromecast, though nowhere near as many as there are Roku channels. You can run them off a mobile device or a Chrome browser. Since the Chromecast doesn't have a remote, you need to keep the device nearby for rewinding, pausing, and such.

Both devices provide HD-quality video and sound, subject to your network speed and quality. The different channels allow you to watch new or old shows to your heart's content, whenever and for however long you want. Subscriptions to many channels are free, though you'll end up paying by the movie and/or TV episode on many of them. We went with subscriptions to Netflix and Hulu plus for about nine bucks a month, plus an Amazon prime subscription for $99/year (Prime gets you other perks as well).

Our cost for cutting the cable was $120 for antennas, $50 for the Roku 2 and $70 for a pair of Chromecasts; a total of $240. Our streaming services run $18/month plus $99 for a year of Amazon prime. In the first year, we'll have spent $314 instead of $1320 for 12 months of cable. Maybe we can afford a new Smart TV after all?

The Upside of Cable-Cutting

With streaming video, you aren't shackled to a cable company. You pay for only what you want, and get access to content unavailable to cable subscribers - Netflix series like "oHouse of Cards," or Amazon's "Orphan Black") - that you can watch whenever you want, binge-watching even. If you're close enough to the towers and have a suitable antenna, you'll get HD free instead of paying the cable company. You can also find episodes of favorite shows from the past (like "Leverage," "Firefly" or "The Glades"?) or start at the beginning on a series you stumbled over in its second or third season.

The Downside of Cable-Cutting

You don't have immediate access to shows you like. Most network apps require you to log in with a cable provider to see current episodes of shows like "The Bridge," "Covert Affairs" or "The Walking Dead." Buying them at $1.99 per episode pretty much defeats the purpose of cutting the cable, after all. Fortunately, lots of series are free once the next season starts, so patience may be its own reward. If you opt for a streaming device or two, youll start getting a pile of remotes, and all those devices come with power cords. Oh, and there's no channel guide like with cable or satellite; so bookmark a website like www.tvguide.com to see what's playing tonight.

That's our experience with cutting the cable. It's something that may not work for you, especially if you're heavily into premium channels or sports programming, since you'll end up "nickel-and-dimed" to the tune of hundreds per month for on-demand purchases of your favorite content. Those channels don't offer their own subscriptions, so users have to log in through a provider - a cable company.

Overall? we're pleased - though we miss some programs we were watching before we cut the cable, we'll be able to pick them up in a few months right where we let off - and that's good enough for us.

SanDisk Cruzer Edge: A Flimsy Design Belies Decent Specifications

2014-07-10T18:48:00.000-05:00

SanDisk Cruzer Edge

As someone who's famous for finding lost objects, I know that a portable technology has spread to the masses when I find one in the street out walking, or cycling. First CD? Lafayette, Louisiana, 1992. First cell phone? Tyler, Texas, 1995. And first flash drive: Urbana, Illinois, 2005.

It's most unlikely that my first was a gigabyte drive; it was probably a 128- or 256-megabyte device -- those were the days when 250-GB hard drives were considered huge. We've come a long way: a quick search of my desk and laptop bag turned up six flash drives, ranging from 1 to 32 gigabytes. My most recent acquisition is a brand new 8GB SanDisk Cruzer Edge I picked up for maybe five bucks. I'm not sure, though, that it was worth the fin.

The Cruzer comes in a monster blister pack to make it harder to steal. Unfortunately, it's also harder to feel. Once I pried it loose, I found that that the edge is a super lightweight two-tone all-plastic case. It's less than 2" long and ¾" wide weighing in at some 5g (1/6 ounce). The business end slides out of the case for insertion into a USB port. Unlike beefier USB drives, the male end is just an open plastic "tray" exposing the four metal contacts. If you're not careful, plugging it into the port slides the works back into the case. There's a little hole at one end of the body, probably so you can carry it on a keychain. The drive looks and feels like it could be broken by a strong sneeze.

For inexpensive flash memory, the Edge has pretty fast read-write speed. I couldn't find official numbers from SanDisk, but according to a freeware utility (CheckFlash), the 8GB version has a write speed of 12.5 - 12.9 MBps and a read speed of 23.4 - 23.8 MBps on a USB 2.0 port under Windows 7. That compares favorably to my older and/or cheaper drives (writing to freebies from trade shows crawls along at less than 4 MBps). High-end, more expensive drives have faster read speeds of over 30 MBps and write speeds of as much as 20 MBps (other capacities of the Edge, in particular the 4GB size, are said to have much slower write speed). The Edge is compatible with USB 2.0 and backwards compatible to USB 1, but is not USB 3.0-compliant. The Edge is available in 2-, 4-, 8-, 16- and 32-GB capacity and a variety of colors.

Like all flash drives, the nominal 8 GB size is in reality 8 billion bytes (about 7.5 gigabytes). Perhaps half a megabyte is taken up by files associated with SanDisk's offer of a free, password-protected "vault" with their SecureAccess software and a couple of gigs of free cloud storage space with a service called YuuWaa. The encrypted vault file can only be accessed from CPUs containing a downloaded executable; registration is required for both the vault and the backup.

Technically, the Cruzer Edge is a moderately fast flash drive in a reasonably-priced package, considering its capacity. Physically, however, it's a flimsy design that is rather inconvenient to plug and unplug because of its all-plastic case and slider design. No way I'd try to keep this thing on a keychain, handy little hole or not.

You'll Still Hate Filing Taxes, But at Least It's Easier with TurboTax Deluxe (2009)

2010-02-16T11:36:00.000-06:00

Another year is past, and once again it’s time for the annual hair-reduction program known as filling out your taxes, forking over too much money to the IRS, etc. But here I sit, armed with a copy of TurboTax Deluxe Federal + E-File (2009), a pile of W-2s and 10-whatevers, spreadhseets deductions, and the bar of soap I'll probably need for washing out my mouth: I'm good go.

With the exception of the year I used H & R Block On-Line to file, I’ve been using TurboTax since the mid-nineties. Sometimes it’s Deluxe, sometimes Basic, sometimes Federal + State, sometimes Federal only. I’ve e-filed for about ten years. Except for the Cdilla licensing fiasco in 2002, I’ve never had a serious problem with the software (though it isn’t idiot-proof). Here’s this year’s story

I installed from CD-ROM, though a download is available (as is an almost identical on-line version). Installation took just a few minutes. I then had to update (the CDs are distributed before the year's tax code is finished). That took a couple of minutes over broadband. Once done, I went straight into filling out the forms. Here’s how that goes…

Entering income and deductions is either through a “Let us Guide You” process (suggested for newbies) or by “exploring” the process (for experienced users). Either way follows the same steps one would take if filling out the forms on paper:

Personal information: TurboTax automatically copies personal information from last year’s return if it’s on the current computer; you can also enter by hand or correct anything that’s changed from last year.

Income: You can hand-enter W-2 information, and (for some employers) you’ve been able to download W-2 information via the web for the past few years. I’ve never downloaded, myself. You can also download (if available) or hand-enter interest and dividend income, investment income, and the like – a total of nine different income sources.

While in this process, you can divert to filling out profit or loss from a business (IRS Schedule C) sheet(s). Note that self-employment taxes are automatically figured in this section. If you don’t take some of the more common business deductions (health insurance, mileage) the program “nudges” you to take a look at the topic -- it’s part of the Maximize Your Deduction process.

Deductions: Step-by-step, progress through common and few uncommon deductions. Where there are subsidiary calculations (e.g., maximum deductions for home equity loans), rules and limits are built into the process. Deductions include the usual biggies – house, medical, charitable – and also everything that’s subject to the two-percent limitation (casualty and loss, business expenses). For charitable deductions, you can download your information directly from Intuit’s free on-line utility ItsDeductible (TurboTax Deluxe and higher only; not available for Basic). For all deductions (for income and expenses as well), you can import directly from Intuit’s Quicken product (assuming you’ve good records for the tax year).

There are a total of ten different deductions/credits sections. Once again, when you’ve completed the section you get a programmatic nudge to look at any common deductions you haven’t claimed, sort of just in case.

When Income and Deductions sections are complete, the program runs a check on the input -- here’s where the “not idiot-proof” part comes in. If you fail to fill in a necessary blank, you’ll be prompted to correct it: so far, so good. The idiot-proofing part? for 2009, there’s a tax credit for housing people displaced by natural disasters. As a test, I input information for a hypothetical person displaced by 2008’s Hurricane Ike from Galveston, TX – including name/SSN, address, and number of days. In the check, I was warned that the displaced person’s home address had to be in part of the country flooded in summer 2009. I plugged in Indiana instead of Texas, and it went through – even though there’s no Galveston, IN, and if there were its zip code would start with 4 instead of 7. I’m betting that a lot of the errors “not caught” by TurboTax are of this sort…

State Tax: According to TurboTax, “Lucky [me] – [my] state does not have a personal income tax…” for those of you who live in states that have personal income taxes, well, let me just say it ain’t all it’s cracked up to be…

Wrap-up: Next is an automatic step in which TurboTax analyzes the return. The program guarantees you’ll pay the minimum tax. The return is also guaranteed 100% accurate or Intuit will pay any penalty and interest – a final check for errors and missing information is run at this time (still not idiot-proof, though). And last, the return is analyzed for “audit risk” based on known IRS flags (home office, schedule C, high charitable deductions, etc.).

Print and File: You can e-file up to five returns for free (a limit set by the IRS, not intuit). You can also print and snail mail. Either way, you can save a pdf copy to your computer as desired. Per the IRS regulations, you need to supply identifying information: the PIN(s) you used for last year’e e-file or the AGI (adjusted gross income) from last year’s return. When that’s over, you’re done.

Filling in this year’s forms took me perhaps three hours, because I wasn’t current with either Quicken or ItsDeductible, which would be a lot quicker (I've already set up my 2010 ItsDeductible file - it's free, why not?). If you can’t finish it all in one sitting, by the way, you can set a flag and return to your stopping point. You can also set flags throughout for information you want to re-visit.

Once you’ve entered your income and withholding information, the program tracks the current status of your tax bill – a green number for a refund and a red number for a tax bill. This lets you do things like test the potential change in your tax bill from funding an IRA (which you can still do up until midnight on April 15th).

An aside: One thing most people don’t know is that if you’re nostalgic for the smeary newsprint versions of forms, you can change the interface to let you fill in facsimiles of those forms. Kind of defeats the purpose, if you ask me.

When it comes to help: TurboTax has taken several approaches over the years. At one time, the Deluxe version had cute videos as part of the help, but they’ve been jettisoned in favor of a “Live Community” that (supposedly) is there to answer your questions. That’s the only free option for help with tax questions. Of course there are many in-context links (“explain this” and “see more information”) to On-Demand Tax Guidance throughout the interface, which includes glossary entries.

For another $30 (for the first 20 minutes) you can get “one-on-one answers”” from a “tax expert.” For a one-time fee of $40, your return will be reviewed by an “pro.” And for another $40, you can buy an AuditDefense insurance policy. As in past years, I remain unimpressed by the quality of the help in the “free” forums. I’ve seeded the forums with questions to which I already know the answer in the past and gotten bogus information. I would not depend on this “help” for complex situations – I’m more inclined to call the IRS to ask whether I can charge off my Netflix fees against the income I make from movie reviews (IRS tells me that if I think I can support the deduction in an audit, it’s my call…) For my money, this “forum” approach is a profoundly negative outgrowth of social networking. I’d hate to need help and depend on those people…

Will I Buy TurboTax Again Next Year? Almost certainly. Using the software makes completing and filing my return almost foolproof, even though I’ve been known to add two and two to get fifty-four. I can also use the software later in the year to get a feeling for how shifting income and deductions will change my tax liability next year, though of course impending tax law changes can make this a guessing game. Now whether you should buy the product is another question. Here are some things to continue (points I make every year):

• Shelling out the MSRP $49.99 is a waste of money if your tax situation is dirt-simple. If you have a few deductions to apply, TurboTax Basic would be better, but if you don't itemize it makes no sense. You can use the free on-line Federal version. Besides, if you can't fill out a 1040A or a 1040EZ without this kind of help, you probably can't install and run the software, either.
• TurboTax Deluxe can be indispensable if you have complex income and deductions, including entries for self-employment or farming/ranching. If you have lots of income from investments or you're a slumlord with a bunch of rental properties, you may want to step up to the Business or Premier edition (n additional $20 or so). Trust me: they’ll nag you to upgrade if they think you need a more powerful version.
• You can easily save the software's cost by finding a single missed deduction - especially with the "Maximize Your Deductions" process.

I've used both Basic and Deluxe, and I’ve found that either one is worth having on my side.

Closing Recommendation: In truth, I don't know what I'd do without Turbo Tax - and it's a good bet that I'll buy it again next year. Highly recommended. Happy Tax Day!

Need to Be in Two Places at Once? Use GoToMeeting!

2010-02-11T14:36:00.000-06:00

I've got an hour-long meeting at my Houston office in a couple of minutes with a couple of users from The Netherlands and the product manager from Canada. We'll demonstrate features of the software, conduct a little one-on-one training, and follow up on some support questions - and not one of us ever has to leave his desk: we're doing a GoToMeeting.

You've never used GoToMeeting? It's a simple concept, really; sort of an on-line conference calls with streaming video. People sitting at computer screens (Mac or Windows) anywhere in the world all see the same screen and hear the same audio simultaneously. We use it for sales presentations, software demos, light training, and employee meetings. We display PowerPoint presentations, videos, or show live demonstrations of our proprietary software: no matter what software is showing, the screen contents are the same for everyone who's watching.

We have a corporate license for GoToMeeting, which allows up to twenty-five connections to a meeting - since any participant can be routed through a projector, way more than twenty-five people can be watching at any time. Corporate also licenses any of several "organizers," who can initiate a meeting. Smaller shops can buy an individual license, which allows up to fifteen participants but has a single organizer license. Citrix also licenses GoToWebinar for up to 1000 participants (way beyond our needs). Here's how things work:

Using GoToMeeting as an Organizer: Before a meeting can take place, the software must be downloaded from the Citrix website and the license registered. Organizer licenses are tied to specific email and password pairs. Once registered, you can create a meeting on the fly - you'll be prompted for the emails of attendees to join immediately - or schedule meetings in advance. Either way, invitees receive email notification of your meeting. For scheduled meetings, GoToMeeting's invitation converts the meeting time to local time (where local is defined by the receiving computer's operating system). Outlook users find the meeting added to their calendar automatically, including a copy of the unique URL assigned to the meeting.

At the scheduled time, participants - including organizer - join by clicking on the "Join my meeting" link. This fires off a browser session that connects to the Citrix server. Those on the same network need only click the link; for security purposes others have to enter a nine-digit access code. The audio portion can be carried as a VOIP signal, or attendees may dial in on a telephone; dialing in requires users to enter a PIN (shown in the invitation) for security. Dial-up service includes the ability to mute and un-mute. For small meetings, you can also just call the other attendee(s) directly.

Using GoToMeeting as an Attendee: The first time you join a GoToMeeting, you must install a small executable program - this is normal (WebEx requires a download, too). Then click on the link in the invitation or paste it into the internet browser address bar. You can either call the phone number (long-distance charges apply) or use a headset and microphone for the VOIP option. Then, sit back and "attend."

Useful Features:
• Any member of the audience can become the presenter, at which time his or her screen becomes visible to all attendees. The organizer controls which audience member is presenter.
• Regardless of who is presenting, any member may take control of the presenter's screen and cursor. This allows one person to run programs on another's desktop while everyone else watches. Any attendee can have control of the screen that's currently active. The organizer controls this function as well.
• Each participant has mute and volume controls for the audio, and can switch between phone and VOIP as needed.
• The interface includes a chat mode so attendees can type questions for the organizer or for the entire audience.
• Whoever is presenting can designate what view is broadcast such as a blank desktop, the entire desktop, or a specific application. This is great for invisibly taking notes or answering chats while others are watching your screen.
• The audio and video can be recorded (audio can be recorded only when using the designated telephone lines and/or VOIP); the chat log as well

Costs: Individual GoToMeeting license fees are month-to-month basis or annual. Corporate license pricing is dependent on the number of seats used. There are no additional charges for meetings and no restrictions: as long as the license is current, meetings may be of any duration. The audio is included free, although normal phone charges - including long distance - apply if not using VOIP. There is not currently a toll-free option.

My Experience: My GoToMeeting experience has been very positive. The executable is small and downloads quickly, since the bulk of the processing is handled by the Citrix servers. You are at the mercy of the available bandwidth; so heavy traffic on your network can degrade the signal quality and very long-distance meetings (I've been on meetings to Asia and Africa) can sometimes be slow - especially if the presentation is very graphically intensive. In my meetings I've found that using a headset and microphone for the audio is vastly preferable to a telephone, especially a speakerphone (even full duplex); the invitations suggest this option. A USB headset seems to give much better results than a headset using pin plugs; not sure why. I've attended meetings from my office and from client offices, from my home, and even from hotel rooms: anywhere there's a broadband connection can become a remote office!

I've been on dozens, perhaps hundreds of GoToMeetings and have yet to see one fail: I'm sold. Though a web conference of this sort will never replace face to face meetings, there is no doubt that the technology has made long-distance collaboration much easier even while it's reduced the need for expensive travel.

In fact, about the only thing I don't like about GoToMeeting is how slowly I accrue frequent-flyer mileage these days

Cobra XRS 9960G: Excessive False Alarms and Incomplete Hazard Database Reduce its Value

2009-10-14T18:42:00.000-05:00

The industry calls radar detectors "safety devices," which you might charitably call a polite fiction. Sure, some of the umpteen bands these devices can receive will warn of oncoming emergency vehicles, railroad crossings, and construction zones - assuming someone pays for the transmitter (with tax money? in a red state? bwa-ha-ha-haaaa). In truth, in a decade of owning detectors with this capability, only two BestBuys and a Home Depot have ever warned me of oncoming trains. No, the reason for owning a radar detectors is to avoid traffic tickets, which even the manufacturers admit: "You should take appropriate action immediately whenever an Instant-On alert is given"; or, in other words, "Slow down: there's a cop with a radar gun ahead." Honesty: always the best policy.

Years ago, I had a six-band radar detector; then came nine- and twelve-band models. Now I'm up to fifteen bands: four different radar bands, both passive and instant-on; three detector-detector signals; six LIDAR (sometimes known as "laser") detectors; and two flavors of safety-signal detection. The XRS9960G is really a Cobra XRS9955 with a GPS tacked on to track location and speed. The GPS comes with a lifetime (its life, not yours) subscription to AURA, a database of speed traps, red-light cameras, and other "wallet hazards'" That last, I suspect, is why Cobra wanted people in Houston - home to fifty red-light cameras - to test the product. Oh, and you can also store hundreds of "personal locations" (high-accident intersections, speed traps, ex-girlfriends' apartments, pole-dancing schools...)

Like other radar detectors, the XRS9960G juts back from the windshield on a suction-cup-mounted bracket (or mounts with Velcro®). The awkward, front-heavy shape created by an oversized screen is worsened by the GPS unit plugged into the left-hand side, which also conflicts with the power cord. There are five top-mounted buttons: a City/Highway switch, mute button, and dimmer switch are joined by a mount release and a menu button. The four switches are overloaded: in menu mode, they scroll among choices or toggle settings on/off; in regular mode pressing the mute button when there isn't an active alarm cycles though the screens (speed, lat-long, compass, etc.). Progamming is easy, with on-screen menus and voice prompts/confirmations. Figuring out what everything means requires study of the user's manual. That's because of all the bands...

Da bandsssss: You got your different flavors of radar (X, K, Ka, and Ku) plus instant-on detection of radar guns ("POP" alerts). Since X (and, for that matter, K) signals are nearly ubiquitous in urban areas (X is used for automatic doors), "city" mode can be programmed to ignore X or X and K. You get three different radar-detector detector bands (VG-2, Spectre I, and Spectre IV), and can program VG-2 for visual display only (a blessing, since the audio is extremely irritating). You get six different LIDARs (LTI 20-20, Ultra Lyte, Pro laser, Pro Laser III, Speedlaser, and Stalker), all detectable over a full 360° if the detector is properly mounted. For the final two bands there's Strobe Alert (emergency vehicles) and Safety Alert (road hazards).

Can you shut that thing up? Yes: besides being able to disable any alert in the menus, there's (of course) a volume control disk on the left side. The mute button immediately silences any alert, and most alerts also AutoMute after a few seconds. Users can program full muting of all alerts when the engine RPMs fall below a set point, the "IntelliMute" function.

Anything else? Sure: the XRS9955 has a built-in magnetic compass, which is overridden by the XRS9960G's GPS: once it's locked in sufficient satellites, the GPS supplies an eight-point compass display. It also supports speed display and lets you program an alert for when you exceed a set speed. There's also a voltmeter with on-screen display and a shutoff function if battery output drops below 11.9v.

What's all that technology like on the road? Glad you asked: living with the thing is like spending time with a particularly obnoxious mockingbird. It can emit a near-constant stream of chirps, squawks, screeches, sirens, beeps, boops, and buzzes. K and/or Ka band radar signals leak constantly from the cruisers of at least one of the four local police forces (Harris County Constables); so whenever a patrol car is anywhere nearby, the K or Ka signal warbles constantly. That AutoMute function sort of works - it mutes the alarm but if there's a "burp" in the signal it comes back on full volume. On the other hand, County Sheriff cruisers don't seem to put out any kind of signal at all (nor does the DHS car I see cruising Eldridge...)

It's good that you can disable X and VG-2 alerts, since (as far as I know) about the only place they're still used by police is in places like Bugtussle and East Podunk. I gather they got tired of false positives from automatic door openers and microwave towers. I can't speak to the LIDAR alerts; I've only heard that alarm once (and it was on a different Cobra, years ago). As for the others...

POP (instant-on radar) alerts are ubiquitous, especially when driving the toll roads - it's almost as if the EZTag sensors are tripping them. Since POP signals are from hand-held radar guns, they have a limited range; however, I have yet to see a cruiser anywhere around when I heard a POP alert. I also get frequent Spectre I false alarms: the radar-detector detector signal also shows up without an obvious police presence.

I'm especially disappointed by the GPS. It gets speed, direction, and location right - I fed googlemaps the lat-long coordinates it records for my house and came up within thirty feet or so. The "user-defined locations" work - I'll never drive past my driveway or the entrance to the parking garage at work again. However, even though I've twice updated the GPS from the AURA database, the detector fails to alert me that I am at an intersection with red-light cameras. I already know where they are; HPD not only published a map of the sites, but they also post signs at the intersection warning people that there are cameras (in case you miss the half-dozen cameras mounted on the light standards). I tried at several intersections; came home and updated the database again; and then tried two of them again the next day. Nope: not a single chirp.

Don't get me wrong: I have nothing against radar detectors; having owned several over the years. I still use them on road trips (when I can find them buried in the electronics collection). I'm not particularly impressed by this one, however, because of:

• faulty AutoMute system that fails to suppress signals from one minute to the next
• excessive false POP alerts warning of instant-on radar
• excessive false positives for Spectre radar-detector detector signals
• an inaccurate or incomplete AURA database that lacks publicly-available red-light camera locations
• design flaw that kinks the power cable when the GPS unit is installed

The XRS9960G has many attractive features like colorful display, but this is a device that is supposed to protect the public, or at least the public's wallets. Excessive false alarms (remember the little boy who cried "Wolf!") and a $140 (list) GPS unit that doesn't know where red-light cameras pretty much negate that core function.

Please note: the people at Cobra provided a free Cobra XRS9960G Radar Detector in return for my honest opinion. Well, they asked for it...

westcoastpower.net - Satisfactory (Mostly)

2009-10-04T08:20:00.001-05:00

westcoastpower.net

Remember Saturday Night Live skits about the tape store at the mall – it only sold one thing: Scotch Tape®. Well, I’ve found a similar vendor on-line that sells only one product: laptop power. It’s West Coast Power, operating from a website called WestCoastPower.net.

Merchandise: The only things this niche business sells are laptop batteries and AC adapters. Their battery selection covers the ten most popular brands (Acer, Apple, Asus, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, H-P, IBM, Sony, and Toshiba), and they stock adapters for the same brands. I needed a replacement battery for a Dell, since mine had a bad cell and died completely.

Payment: West Coast Power accepts payment using the big four cards (VISA, MC, Amex, Discover), check, or PayPal. Ordering uses the shopping cart model under https security encryption. The site is a Yahoo merchant, using their secure servers and privacy policy. I haven’t seen many vendors lately who still accept checks – I assume (but did not verify) that merchandise will ship after the check has cleared the bank.

Shipping: The site operates out of Vancouver, BC, and Seattle, WA; for non-duty shipping to both countries. Expedited and overseas shipping are available, for a fee. As of this writing , 2-day ground shipping is free for orders over $25 within either country – since everything they sell costs more than that, shipping is effectively free. My order was shipped the following day (I ordered on the web after business hours) and arrived at my home two days later via USPS Priority mail, in perfect condition. West Coast Power sent a confirmation e-mail plus a shipping notice with the tracking number.

Navigation: The site’s pretty simple: you either search by battery number or laptop model number. For my Inspiron battery, the number stamped on the old battery is RN873. Searching on the part number returned the 6- and 9-cell batteries; searching on the laptop model number returns batteries and adapter (and a couple of Compaq batteries). Their “drill-down” capability - choose laptop battery, click on brand name, etc.- is incomplete, so you’ll need to use a search box. I found my battery in just a couple of minutes, including cross-checking the model-number search results with the battery part number results.

Warranty: West Coast Power has a thirty-day satisfaction guarantee, though you’ll have to pay to ship unsatisfactory merchandise back. All merchandise has a one-year warranty.

Prices: The battery I ordered sold for about 40% of the cost of a direct order from Dell. I could have ordered the heavy-duty 9-cell battery instead, and still paid less than half of list. Price-wise, a clear winner.

Merchandise: According to West Coast Power, all batteries and adapters are made to OEM (original equipment manufacturer’s) specifications. That’s code for “Made in China.” The battery I received is the same size and shape as the one it replaces, fitting perfectly in its slot. The battery ships with instructions on calibrating the laptop’s battery meter; simply cycle the battery a couple of times. I’m not certain that the battery capacity is the same as my previous battery – the discharge seems to be much more rapid; less than two hours as compared to over three for the old battery even after a year of use. I probably should have gotten the heavy-duty version.

I was able to find a battery listed for my six-year-old Sony VAIO laptop as well, so they stock at least some older batteries.

Overall: A simple website where it’s easy to find a replacement battery, even for aging laptops. Prices and warranty are good, and shipping can’t be beat unless the company pays you for the privilege of shipping to you. Return policy and payment options are also standard or better, since they accept both checks and PayPal as well as credit cards. On the downside, the batteries sold at West Coast Power may have lower capacity than your OEM battery – one more example of getting what you pay for.

Laser Optics and Nano Receiver: Logitech V450 Nano

2009-09-21T18:50:00.001-05:00

One of the things that came along with my new job was an older laptop (it might more accurately be described as a "boat anchor"), and along with it came a ginormous "portable" wireless mouse. The thing comprised mouse and receiver, both about the size and shape of a VW Beetle (the old style). Luckily, before I had to tote laptop and gigantic rodent appendage across ten time zones, the mouse stopped working (well, it might have had a le-e-e-tle help there...) In its stead, I talked the office manager into ordering an eensy-beensy cordless laser mouse, the Logitech V450 Nano to be exact, based on my positive previous experience with a pair of Logitech V220s.

Here are some basic specs for the V450 Nano:

•      The mouse operates on two AA batteries that are - get this! - included.
•      It's plug-n-play under Windows XP or Vista (32- or 64-bit) or Mac OS X 10.39 and later. You may be able to get drivers for Windows 2000 and older, but check with Logitech before buying. Ditto for Linux.
•      It requires a USB port for the receiver.
•      The mouse is about 4" x 2½" x 1½", slightly larger that the V220
•      It's ergonomically shaped to fit in the palm of the hand, and can be used either right- or left-handed, with a soft rubber grip notched on either side for the thumb
•      It's beyond optical, it's a laser optical mouse, with higher precision and finer resolution than "ordinary" optical mice
•      A 2.4GHz wireless signal is highly reliable: I've never experienced a dropout or delay, even from across the room

Like its little brother, the V450 is a two-button mouse with a scroll wheel that can be programmed to act as a third button (for Linux fans, among others). You have to download Logitech's SetPoint program and drivers from the corporate website to do so, however - and to enable other mouse features as well. It operates like a standard "dumb" mouse with the default Windows mouse driver.

So why do they call it Nano? Hold onto your hat: the 2.4GHz wireless receiver for this baby is MINUSCULE! It's a tiny (about ½" x ¼" x ¼") plastic blob sitting atop a USB plug. It's so small that they call it a "plug-and-forget" Nano Receiver. It's no longer necessary to unplug the receiver from your laptop and stow it in the mouse like you do with a V220 or V320; just leave it plugged in and go. If you absolutely insist on storing it, the Nano Receiver tucks into a special slot in the battery compartment (and turns the mouse off at the same time). Or you can leave it plugged in and turn the mouse off with a bottom-mounted switch - your call.

A small green LED lets you know the power's on, turning red when the battery's low. According to Logitech, battery life is 12 months. My V220 specs out at 6 months, and regularly beats that mark.

Special programming features: If you download SetPoint, the V450 has additional functions. By default, the wheel's programmed to scroll the current window right-left with a wheel "tilt." If you press and hold the wheel, you get software zoom to enlarge/reduce the current window. Both actions - tilt or press - can be re-assigned to several other functions, one of which is volume control for the speakers.

Living with the V450:

Installation is dirt-simple: it's plug-n-play. No software's included in the packaging; Logitech supplies no drivers for pre-XP or -OS X operating systems. My laptop still runs XP, and the mouse worked immediately upon installation.
Download: The download software (Logitech's SetPoint software) is HUGE; it compresses to a 60 MB self-extracting file! It includes the Yahoo toolbar, which can be rejected at install, but has no other switches. Installing the software creates a desktop icon and a tray icon, both of which pull up a rather crude GUI that duplicates mouse controls normally found in the control panel - handedness (right vs. left), the number of lines scrolled per spin of the wheel, and cursor sensitivity and speed. It also controls programming of the special wheel functions, so you can't get around downloading it if you want those functions.
Physical stuff: The receiver only projects about 0.25" out from the USB port so you really can plug it in and forget (though probably not so much if it's on the back).
Range: It's a minimum of ten or twelve feet from the receiver, at least with fresh batteries. I definitely find that useful for presentations.
Surface Sensitivity: It's worked fine on a plain countertop, rubber mousepad, magazine surface, newspaper, cloth, and wooden desk without any tracking problems.
Portability: It's quite compact, though it still weighs about the same as a conventional corded mouse (a few ounces).
Buttons: Many add-on mice come with extra buttons under the thumb and ring finger for additional controls; if you're used to them, you'll not find them here. If you're not, you probably won't care.

Is it really Ergonomic? Well, that might depend: the V450 is less "chunky" than the V220, as it's the same height with a slightly larger footprint. It's still rather small for a large hand, however. If portability isn't your driving need, I'd suggest a larger wireless (or even corded) mouse like the two-bugs model that died to get me this one.

Overall: A nice little mouse with few shortcomings. Logitech sells nicer mice, but they cost more than this one's $50 price tag. I'd recommend the V450 for medium to heavy use, though not for cursor-intensive pastimes like CAD or gaming; and I especially recommend it for travelling, where its light weight and plug-and-forget Nano Receiver will be a blessing. Oh - and replacement receivers are available from Logitech for a mere ten bucks, so you can literally forget the receiver as well!

AT&T U-Verse: “U” Stands for Underwhelming

2009-08-30T16:45:00.002-05:00

If you haven’t already been exposed to the hype, it’ll come soon – “Highest…!” “Newest…!” “Change the Way…” “Fastest…!” They’re talking about AT&T U-verse, marketing it as the greatest innovation since sliced bread. But is the hype true? Around my house, the jury’s still out…

What it is: it’s bundling, pure and simple. AT&T brings signal to your house from the pole – the same signal that Comcast or Time-Warner would bring you - except that they use FiOs (fiber optics) instead of copper cable. The AT&T difference is that everything funnels through a “residential gateway.” That means high-speed internet, residential telephone (VOIP), and cable television - Internet-protocol television (IPTV), to be precise. It all comes in through a single device, which is both a wireless router and has an Ethernet connection to the main television controller. All other televisions in the house have their own control box; and the main one has a built-in DVR (optional). If you can connect a computer to the residential gateway via Ethernet, you have a cabled connection; otherwise internet traffic is via wireless.

Telephone: We didn’t get telephone service, so I have no opinion.

Television service claims: U-Verse offers five 100% digital service levels plus an HD option. You don’t get premium channels (e.g., Showtime, HBO) until the second-highest level; the lowest level is “basic cable” – local broadcast stations, ESPN, CNN, and a few others. You, of course, get every shopping channel known to humanity, however. There’s also a “U-Family” package that must’ve been designed in Colorado Springs.At the highest level, you can see anything you ever wanted to – at least anything available on channels regulated by the FCC.

You can, of course, get Movies on Demand and Pay-Per-View. I’ve not bothered with either, but the services seem fairly straightforward.

A major selling point of U-verse television is that the DVR can record up to four programs simultaneously, and playback can be watched on any television set in the house.

Television service observations: In keeping with AT&T’s nickel-and-dime mentality, every additional television control box after the first costs extra. HD costs extra. If you get the bottom-level cable packages (U-family or U-100), the DVR costs extra.

Both claims about using the DVR are true. You can record multiple programs simultaneously; you can play back on any TV in the house. You can even watch to a certain point on one television and pick up where you left off on a second. If you’re watching the same recording on two different televisions, though, there’s an annoying skip. Oddly, if viewers of two televisions happen to be watching the same channel simultaneously, the signals are curiously out of sync – no idea why.

Video signals are clear and clean, though there’s inordinate noise on the audio channel, with constant background noise that’s annoying at low volume. We didn’t spring for the HD package – why pay an extra ten bucks for something we can’t use? Each control box (required, unlike conventional cable that works on cable-ready televisions without a controller) has its own remote – they’re all alike, so I advise labeling them.

Uverse also has a couple of v-e-e-e-r-y s-l-o-o-o-o-o-w services that are supposed to be real whiz-bangs. There's internet yellow pages (pretty useless, IYAM), and on-line picture storage and on-screen viewing (haven't tried it - why bother when there's flickr and picasa, huh?). Oh, and the world's lamest local weather service, "weather on demand" - it takes five minutes to boot up and when you get it, the video may be as much as 24 hours out of date. Where I live, the "local radar" is on a six-hundred-mile scan, so it's completely useless. AT&T refuses to buy "Local on the 8s" from The Weather Channel, instead saddling their subscibers with their home-grown crapola.

Internet service claims: there are billboards all over town claiming the “fastest internet service in Houston.” The fine print, however, reveals that only one level of service – the new Max 18, at 18 mbps downloads and 1.5 mbps uploads – is that fast. The base level is a mere 1.5 mbps downloads, 1 mbps uploads; everything else costs extra.

All the usual goodies apply to AT&T-Yahoo: up to 10 email accounts, online webmail (if you call Yahoo webmail), included McAfee security suite. You can have a "personal homepage" for each account as well.

Internet service observations: We ordered the second tier service – “Elite” – which has advertised downloads up to 3 mbps and uploads of 1 mbps. Several bandwidth tests yield results in the neighborhood of 2.8 mbps downloads, 0.94 mbps uploads. It’s in the ballpark. Wonder if they’ll accept checks for 94% of the subscription fee, though? It’s DSL, so expect the slowdowns typical of the service when neighborhood traffic is high.

The free McAfee Security Suite includes virus protection, firewall, and something called SiteAdvisor, which appears to be moderately useful. The "personal homepage" is nothing but "MyYahoo.com," and isn't even a homepage - it's a portal page.

Overall service observations: You get what you’re paying for, though you’re paying for a lot: our bill for second-tier television and internet service plus two additional controllers is about $80/month plus taxes – somewhat less than what we paid for expanded digital program plus broadband to Comcast in Illinois.

The intangibles that make so much difference:

The free installation took five hours. No one ever mentioned that you don’t get a separate modem, so any computer that doesn’t have a wireless card has to be wired directly into a port on the “residential gateway.” In our case, a little tough since the desktop computer in the office is on the opposite side of the house.

The installer left no documentation except directions for the remotes. We have no channel list¹, no features list, no instructions for the DVR. We received no instructions about setting up wireless – not even the WPA key!² What’s worse, after six hours on the phone with AT&T “support” – I use the term loosely – I found no one who’d send me hardcopies. They all told me to go to the website and view the PDFs.

The controllers randomly go tits-up every few days: it took an hour of surfing the website to find out how to reset them.

On-line support is lousy. Need I say more?

The remotes are ill-designed, not to mention resetting themselves every couple of days so that they don’t communicate with both television and controller.

Telephone support is worse than lousy: I get about a 10% success with telephone support. At least half the time, telephone support sends me to the wrong support team (they seem to think U-verse is Dish television). When you do get support, either phone or on-line chat, the representatives rarely know the answers to questions more technical than "how do I reset my email password?"

The bottom line: AT&T U-Verse is little different from any other cable/internet service. You’ve got relatively dependable television service and reasonably dependable internet service; backed up by on-line and telephone support that will consistently frustrate you. No way I’d switch from another cable company – you’re not getting anything special enough to go through the hassle.

¹ After two months, a single channel list (quite badly formatted, IYAM) arrived in a monthly “U-Guide” magazine, which is little more than a thinly-disguised advertisement for PPV and MoD services.

² The WPA key is printed on a label near the base of the “residential gateway.” So is the password for the modem (the modem’s IP address is 192.168.1.254, in case no one told you – which wouldn’t surprise me at all)