Software Solutions

Access UH Care From Home or Your Phone

2016-12-10T22:21:00.003-05:00

Here's the best way to access UH Care from home or your phone:

Download the Virtual Desktop (VDI) client by clicking HERE > then click "Go to Downloads" next to whichever platform you're using - Windows, Mac, iOS, or Android > download and install.
Once it's all installed, you should see an icon on your computer called "VMWare." Open VMWare.
It'll ask you for some information:

Server: vdi.uhhospitals.org
Username/Password: the same ones you use to log into UH Care, Outlook, etc.

You're all set! BUT: Once you're logged in, the UH Care on the desktop won't work unless you use the remote UH Care icon. How to get this:

Go to the folder on your virtual desktop called "Shortcut Repository."
Find the icon "UH Care Inpatient Remote" > drag it to your desktop > rename it to "REMOTE UH Care" and use this icon to access UH Care whenever you remote in.

Note that this also allows you to access any file on your desktop at UH, on the S: drive or P: drive, Physician Portal, UpToDate, and any publications that you need to be on campus to access.

Optimize your ED Status Board in Allscripts UH Care

2016-10-19T09:53:00.003-04:00

Running just Pod A or Pod B in the emergency room? On the ED Status Board, you can filter to see only the rooms you care about and not get distracted by the rest of the ED. As follows: Right-click the column "Loc" > Filter Column > Select the rooms you want > OK. You can then save this particular configuration of rooms so that you it will be available next time you run that pod: click "User Filter Maintenance" > Save As > name your filter > OK.

Floating between pods and want to see only your own patients and those waiting to be seen? Right-click the column "Res" instead of "Loc" > Filter Column > select > in the drop-down menu select "equals" then select your name in the next menu > select "Or" > select "is empty."
[Excerpted from my previous post Allscripts UH Care Shortucts and Tips.]

Allscripts UH Care Prescription Writer Tips

2016-08-25T21:13:00.000-04:00

3 tips for expediting prescription writing in Allscripts UH Care:

Have common prescriptions you're always writing? Save it as a favorite so you never have to find and type it out again:

Finish writing your prescription, but don't yet click the submit button to print the script
Click the "Add to Favorites" button in the top right of Prescription Writer
Name the folder you want your Favorite to be in
Click "OK."
It will now appear in your Favorites section when you open Prescription Writer.

Tip 1. Add common prescriptions to your Favorites

Have enough Favorites that you'd rather see your Favorites list by default when you open Prescription Writer? In Prescription Writer, go to User Preferences > Display > select Favorites > OK.

Tip 2. See your prescription Favorites by default

Want to write a prescription for something that's not in the formulary (like lab tests, stool sample, or a humidifier)? Simply open Prescription Writer > type in what you want to order > type "1" in the prescription quantity box > Review and Submit. It'll print like any other prescription.

Tip 3. Write a prescription for something not in the formulary

UpToDate App on Your Device

2016-07-22T17:40:00.001-04:00

Did you know you can get UpToDate as an app on your phone? Yes, even off-campus! (Bonus: you can also get CME credits every time you look something up.) Here's how:

NOTE: If you're off-campus when setting this up, first log into MyApps or use the VDI (more on this in another post) and select "Internet Explorer" so that UpToDate will think you're on campus.

On an on-campus computer, go to UpToDate.
Click "Want the UpToDate mobile app? Register now."
Register for an account.
On your phone, go to your app store and download the app.
Log in to the app with the username and password created above, and you're good to go!

Note that if you're using the UpToDate app off-campus, you will be prompted in 90 days to log in to your UpToDate account from campus in order to be able to continue using the app. But no worries -- you can do this from off-campus too:

Just log into the VDI so that UpToDate will think you're on campus, select "Internet Explorer," and log into uptodate.com.

Save Ultrasound Images to your USB Flash Drive

2016-01-07T13:58:00.001-05:00

Click here or see the video below for a tutorial on how to save images from our SonoSite ultrasound machine to your USB flash drive.

Allscripts UH Care Shortucts and Tips

2015-07-27T00:03:00.001-04:00

To put it mildly, Allscripts could use some help in becoming a user-friendly electronic medical records system. Within its limitations, however, there are a number of shortcuts I've discovered over time, and tips you may find useful.

Order Entry:

You know that a certain order exists but you're not finding it? Type the % sign in front of your search term to find a phrase in any part of an order.

By default, when you search for an order, all orders are scrunched up. Drag the "Order" column over to the right for more space.

Want your order screen to show the order sets you use most frequently? Go to Preferences > Order Entry > Add New > select the set of order sets you use most frequently (e,g. .Order Sets > Adult > Emergency) > OK. That screen will be added to the list of order sets you can access > now select it from the list > Set as Default > Close. (If you use certain Documents frequently, you can figure out the same thing for documents under Preferences > Document Entry.)

Do you usually order the same set of things when someone comes in with chest pain, shortness of breath, or the like? You can set it so that next time you bring up an order set, the orders you commonly choose will already be checked off. Just open the order set and select your common orders, then check the box "Save Preferences" at the bottom of the order set.

Layout:

Mistakenly selected another patient and forgot how to get to the last patient you were researching? Click the Recently Viewed Patients button at the top right of Allscripts to see the last 5 patients you have selected.

Rotating between the emergency department and the floors? Click the User Preferences button to set which screen defaults to open when you start up Allscripts > General tab > select Emergency Care (for the ED Status Board) or Acute Care (for patient floor lists).

Running just Pod A or Pod B in the emergency room? On the ED Status Board, you can filter to see only the rooms you care about and not get distracted by the rest of the ED. As follows: Right-click the column "Loc" > Filter Column > Select the rooms you want > OK. You can then save this particular configuration of rooms so that you it will be available next time you run that pod: click "User Filter Maintenance" > Save As > name your filter > OK.

[Floating between pods? Right-click the column "Res" instead of "Loc" > Filter Column > select > in the drop-down menu select "equals" then select your name in the next menu > select "Or" > select "is empty."]

Do you waste time figuring out which button means what in the toolbars on top of the screen? Put text under each button by: Preferences > Toolbar > in Text Options select "Show Text Labels." In these preferences, you can also take out buttons that you never use (just select the button in the Selected Layout list and press the big minus sign).

Built-in shortcuts:

If you routinely write notes and always use certain terminology (e.g. physical exam): a reminder about Acronym expansion, which lets you insert a large amount of text that you normally use in certain situations. (Available by going to Preferences > Acronym expansion).

Ninja tricks:

When looking at what orders have been placed on a patient, do you usually like to look at only medications or labs ordered, only active orders, do you like the order tabs expanded or contracted, or the like? You can specify exactly how orders appear via Preferences > Order Review.
When ordering in Order Entry, instead of selecting the order and pressing "Add," double-click on an order directly to order it. This saves time.
When editing an order in Order Entry, instead of selecting the order and pressing "Edit," double-click on it directly to edit it. This saves time.
To minimize the need for mouse clicks when ordering: instead of pressing "Submit Order(s) for...," type Alt+U to submit your orders.

Get HMC E-mail in Your Personal E-mail Account

2014-05-18T12:00:00.000-04:00

There's nothing like the convenience of having all your e-mail come into one mailbox! Here's how you can (1) redirect all e-mails that come into your HMC account to your regular e-mail account and (2) forward all e-mails stored currently in your HMC account to your regular e-mail account. Caution: if you have confidential patient information in your HMC account, make sure to delete it or move it to a different folder before proceeding.

The following instructions will let you easily forward all mail in your inbox only. It will forward all mail currently in your HMC inbox -- so you will get a massive influx of e-mail to wherever you forward it -- and it will forward all future e-mails as long as your HMC account exists. There is only 1 way to do this, so make sure to follow the instructions exactly. You need to do this on an on-campus desktop computer, like in the library, or via the Remote Access Portal (log in and choose the "Desktop" option to get Outlook that way).

Go to work.psu.edu > click Login > log in to your PSU account > Change your e-mail forwarding address > in the "Forwarding address" box type the e-mail address where you want all your mail forwarded to (Gmail, Yahoo, whatever) > Change.
(Logged on to an on-campus desktop computer or the remote access portal): Open Outlook.
Click the Home tab > Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts > New Rule > Apply rule on messages I receive > Next > Next > Yes > check the box "forward it to people or public group."
Click the underlined "people or public group" in the Step 2 box at the bottom > in the "To" box, type your PSU e-mail address (e.g., abc123@psu.edu) -- NOT your Gmail, Yahoo, etc., address, and NOT your HMC address > OK > Next > Next > put a checkmark in the box "Run this rule now on messages already in "Inbox" > Finish.
You're done!

Tips:

To forward individual, non-inbox folders: Go to Rules > Manage Rules & Alerts. Then go to the rule you created for your inbox > Run Rules Now > there's an option "Run in folder" and you can "Browse" and choose a different folder to run this in.
After this is done and your messages finished, go back to the rule you made and I would change checking the box "forward it to people or public group" to instead "redirect it to people or public group" -- future e-mails will be cleaner that way.

Advanced Tip:

Now all your e-mails come to 1 inbox. To know which e-mails came to which address, you can create a filter to put a label on each e-mail sent, for instance, to your HMC account. In Gmail: go to Settings > Filters > Create a new filter > in the To box I typed "my HMC address OR Medical_Students_Class_2014" > Create filter with this search > check the "Apply the label" box > click the "Choose label" drop-down menu > New label > create a new label like "HMC" or something > Create filter. You can then archive all old messages with your "HMC" label to move them out of your Gmail inbox.

Super-advanced tips for Gmail users who want to figure the following things out themselves:

In Gmail, you can set it such that whenever you reply from Gmail to a message sent to your HMC account, it'll look like you replied directly from your HMC account rather than your Gmail account (though for many/most email users it'll say "sent by @gmail on behalf of @hmc" so it'll be noticeable to many that you're doing this).
In Gmail, you can also change your signature so that whenever you reply to/send from your HMC address using Gmail, the signature will look the same as the signature you would use if the e-mail were sent from Outlook itself.

UpToDate App on your Device

2014-05-08T22:28:00.000-04:00

Did you know you can now get UpToDate as an app on your phone? Yes, even off-campus! (Bonus: you can also get CME credits every time you look something up.) Here's how:

NOTE: If you're off-campus when setting this up, first log into the Remote Access Portal and select "Desktop" so that UpToDate will think you're on campus.

On a computer, go to the Harrell library web site and click on UpToDate.
Click "Register to Earn CE Credits" (for this to work, you have to click here even if you don't want CE credits).
Click "Accept" if you see that option, then click "Log Out."
Click "Login/Register."
Fill out the form to register as a new user > Submit Registration.
On your phone, go to uptodate.com/home/uptodate-mobile-access and download the app.
Log in to the app with the username and password created above, and you're good to go!

Note that if you're using the UpToDate app off-campus, you will be prompted in 30 days to log in to your UpToDate account from campus in order to be able to continue using the app. But no worries -- you can do this from off-campus too:

Just log into the Remote Access Portal and select "Desktop" so that UpToDate will think you're on campus.
Open Infonet > go to uptodate.com > "Login" > log in with your username and password, and you're good to go for another 30 days!

Get Microsoft Office at Home for Free

2013-11-04T14:39:00.002-05:00

Need to start something in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, OneNote, or Access but don't want to buy it? Well, as a member of Penn State, now you can eat your cake and have it too. These all work on both PC's and Macs!

Method 1: PSU WebApps
Penn State University offers Microsoft Office -- plus such programs as SAS, MATLAB, and SolidWorks -- free online. Choose your product at webapps.psu.edu, log in with your PSU login (the one you use for ANGEL/SOCRATES/ABLE), and you're good to go!

Tip: If you want to edit an already-existing file, click WebFiles on the main webapps.psu.edu page, and upload the file to the "PASS Personal (X)" folder. Then when you start up the online Word or whatever, go to Open Other Documents > Computer > Browse > Computer > double-click on the X: drive, and you'll see your file.

Method 2: HMC Remote Access Portal
Penn State Hershey has the Microsoft Office suite online. The Remote Access Portal has a feature that lets you pretend you're using a computer on campus. Once you're logged in to the Remote Access Portal at https://access.pennstatehershey.net (remember to use your HMC login, the one you use for e-mail), click on "Desktop." This will mimic an on-campus computer, and you can find the Microsoft Office programs by going to the Start button > All Programs >Microsoft Office.

Tip: You can also access PowerChart from off-campus this way, or access your M: drive folder.

Method 3: Trial Version
If you're ever out in the wild and really need the real thing right now, Microsoft offers a one-month trial of the entire Office suite, at office.microsoft.com.

Method 4: Google Docs
You can view and edit many of the Microsoft Office documents using Google's free alternatives to Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, at drive.google.com. They're not as fully-featured, and not 100% compatible, but it's a quick way to view or edit a document if you don't have Microsoft Office. There are tons of other web sites that let you gratuitously view and edit Microsoft Office documents.

Method 5: Free Desktop Alternatives
If you're looking for a free desktop-based program that you can download and use offline, there are a whole bunch of options here as well. The one I've heard the most about recently is LibreOffice, available at libreoffice.org. OpenOffice is another alternative. Again, no one can guarantee 100% compatibility with Microsoft Office, but these look and act quite like Microsoft Office and often do reproduce Microsoft documents identically.

Or pay for it:
If you just want to buy Microsoft Office, you can buy the student version from the Penn State computer store here for just $70! (The student version from Microsoft for $139: for PC | Mac.)

Other free stuff from Penn State:
While we're talking about free stuff through Penn State, might as well mention that you can get free antivirus software. Go to downloads.its.psu.edu > Virus Detection/Spyware Tools > Symantec Antivirus.

10+ Clinical Tips and PowerChart Tricks

2013-02-12T21:29:00.002-05:00

Here are 10+ software tips and tricks that have revolutionized my time in the hospital and clinic:

UPDATE 11/4/13: Managing a group of patients and want to know when one of them has a new result or note without having to refresh the screen like a maniac every second? This will make it a whole lot easier: After adding all of your patients into a Patient List, click the Customize Columns button () > select "New Results" in the Available Columns box > move it over to the Existing Columns box > save and close. Your patient list will now have a new "clipboard" column, as shown below -- upon refreshing your patient list, a clipboard will appear by any patient that has new results or notes.

To see these new results/notes, double-click on the clipboard itself; all new results since last time will be blue. When you're finished seeing the new results, click the eye button (). This will turn the new results dark, and also remove the clipboard from the patient list -- until the next update.

Ever try to find something in a chart without wading through document after document? I've found Chart Search useful to find keywords in past notes; just click "Chart Search" in the left menu. Special treat: You can also use this to find a range of lab values over the patient's history; for example, searching "creatinine" will give you a straight-up list of the patient's creatinine values over time!

Annoyed that you can't access any useful websites on the hospital computers when logged on as "medical"? Solution: Right-click on the Internet Explorer icon > Run as... > select "The following user:" > type in "hersheymed\yourusername" and your password > OK, and you're good to go! (This works on most computers, except those with a logon name beginning with "POC...."; it's more complicated on Windows 7 computers, see bottom.)

Walking away from your computer but want to protect your patients' confidentiality? Hit + L to lock your computer without logging off.

If you see the underline _ on a template in PowerChart, press F3 on your keyboard to jump to the next underline. [Thanks, Dr. S. Oser!] (Expert tip: Create your own autotext/templates with _ if you have a frequent note where you just want to change specific details between patients.)

UPDATE 3/3/13: There are a number of ways you can do Notes better. Have a certain type of note you always use? You can add it to your personal notes list. You can change what note automatically opens when you go to start a note.

When reading about a patient, do you always go straight to the H&P or Outpt Ltr? You can set these notes to be automatically expanded when you go the notes section so you don't have to hunt for them. Go to Notes > Documents > Options and check out all the options you have.

If you're in a certain view in PowerChart that you want to see across a number of patients on your patient list, instead of opening each patient separately and navigating to that view, open the first patient in the desired view and open each subsequent patient in your list by clicking on the right and left arrow buttons in the toolbar.

To insert standard values like labs, or a standard note template, into your PowerChart note, select Insert Template on the taskbar and choose from there. (To get the note templates that all physicians see, instead of just the med student ones, right-click on the drop-down menu where you choose a note template, and select "Complete.") [Thanks, Dr. S. Oser!]

The boxes for labs, vital signs, medications, past history, and notes are arranged inefficiently in the Ambulatory, ED, ICU, and Inpatient Views. I became a lot more efficient in clinic by just rearranging these boxes to put what I really wanted to see up top. To do this, click the drop-down button toward the top right of each of these View screens > Enable Drag and Drop > click on a box you want to move and drop it where you like. I would disable drag-and-drop when you're done.

It's annoying to go to a doctor's clinic schedule and have the screen all scrunched up. To expand it, go to Schedule > Preferences > Day View tab > check "Expand to fill screen." You can also change what columns appear!

In the Diagnosis and the Orders windows, you can type in only a few letters and still get what you're looking for; e.g., typing "ho" will get you all the possible "hypo-" diagnoses. [Thanks, Dr. S. Oser!]

*UPDATE 2/21/13: I figured out how to do it on Windows 7, though convoluted, if you're desperate: Start > Run > type in: runas /user:hersheymed\yourusername "C:/Program Files/Internet Explorer/iexplore.exe" > OK > type in your password and hit Enter.

Have a favorite shortcut that's revolutionized how you use PowerChart? Please share it in the comments!

How to Access PowerChart and Remote Access Portal from Your Phone

2012-07-08T14:12:00.000-04:00

PowerChart
You can access PowerChart on your mobile device, but PowerChart is so behind-the-times that if said device is smaller than a tablet it's a little more complicated because it's unnavigable. On a tablet it's pretty awesome, though! First I'll run through the setup, then I'll show you what to do to make it readable on a phone.

Download and install Citrix Receiver from your tablet's app store.
In the Citrix Receiver app, choose "Add Account" or "Set up my enterprise apps."
Server: https://hrshpa.cernerworks.com/iConnect/config.xml
User Name: yourepass@hersheymed.net
Password: yourpassword
Domain: hersheymed
Description: PowerChart (or whatever you want)
Add.

And that's it! To use PowerChart in the future, launch the Citrix Receiver app, select "hrshpa.cernerworks.com," then select "PowerChart" and proceed to sign in as you would on the regular, desktop PowerChart. (Tip: You'll have to open your onscreen keyboard yourself.)

If you're stuck with a phone, here's what you can do to make it marginally functional: once you're in Citrix Receiver (before starting PowerChart), go to the Settings tab > Display Options > Session Resolution > Large. Tip: Judicious toggling between Panning Mode and Scrolling Mode will make things even easier, though there is a bit of a learning curve; e.g., to view lab results you can pan over to the menu to hit "Results," then pan over to actually see the results, then switch to Scrolling Mode to scroll through the results.

Remote Access Portal
The new Remote Access Portal gives you access from anywhere to Infonet, OASIS, documents you've stored on your M drive, and a number of other applications. Here's how to get it:

In the Citrix Receiver app, choose "Add Account."
Server: https://access.pennstatehershey.net
User Name: yourepass
Domain: hersheymed
Description: Remote Access Portal (or whatever you want)
Add.

Note: Even if you see the Connected icon when you enter Remote Access Portal, PowerChart won't work that way. Also, remember that whenever you change your ePass password, you'll have to change your password in these apps as well!

To access your M drive (on desktop or mobile), click "Desktop" in the new Remote Access Portal.

To access PowerChart or Remote Access Portal from your computer, see the "Powerchart and Connected access" section of How to Access GE Medical Imaging and Powerchart from Your Computer.

How to Access GE Medical Imaging and PowerChart from your computer

2012-06-28T17:44:00.000-04:00

GE Medical Imaging/Centricity will work only in Internet Explorer (there might be a way from Chrome, using the IE Tab extension, whose use I detail here, but I don't want to check right now). Note: This GE thing will work for your personal computer on-campus only. (The PowerChart thing works anywhere.)

If you have Internet Explorer ANY VERSION:

Make sure you use the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer. To find it in Windows 7: hit the Windows button (bottom-left of the screen) > type "Internet Explorer" > you should see 2 versions of Internet Explorer come up -- one that says "64-bit" and one that doesn't say anything; use the one that doesn't say anything.
Tools (if you don't see Tools in the menu bar, press Alt+T) > Internet Options > Security > Trusted Sites > Sites > type in *.hersheymed.net (with asterisk) > uncheck Require server verification for all sites in this zone > Add > Close > put the slider from Medium to Low > OK.
Download and install "Software for Remote GE Imaging" from hmc.psu.edu/ive. When it asks you for a server, just ignore it and hit Install.
Close and reopen Internet Explorer (32-bit).
Once you access the above web sites for GE Imaging, run and install everything they ask you to run. Things may take time to install or load, screens may black out for half a minute; be patient!

If you have Internet Explorer 9, ALSO DO:

Tools > Compatibility View Settings > type in hersheymed.net > Add > Close.

PowerChart and Connected access:

You will need to use the 32-bit version of Internet Explorer for PowerChart too to work correctly.
Tools > Pop-up Blocker > Pop-up Blocker Settings > type in access.pennstatehershey.net > Add > Close.
Do Step 2 above but in addition to *.hersheymed.net, also add: https://access.pennstatehershey.net and https://hrshpa.cernerworks.com.

Links:
New Remote Access Portal, for access to GE Medical Imaging, PowerChart, Infonet, etc.: access.pennstatehershey.net
Direct link to GE Medical Imaging (if you're on campus only): medicalimaging.hersheymed.net
Direct link to PowerChart from anywhere: https://hrshpa.cernerworks.com/

To access PowerChart or Remote Access Portal from your mobile device, see How to Access PowerChart and Remote Access Portal from Your Phone.

Accessing Subscription Journals Off-Campus

2011-12-31T23:07:00.003-05:00

So you're on an away rotation, and you need access to a journal article that requires a subscription. You can access Harrison's, Dynamed, and the like off-campus by using the links on the library web site and signing in with your ePass. But some services are only accessible from campus itself. This includes UpToDate (though the library is working to remove this problem with UpToDate in the near future) and almost any journal article to which you need a subscription. You can also access any pages on the school's Infonet using this method.

Here's how you can access them pretty easily through the school's Remote Access Portal.
UPDATE 10/28/12: This article is now completely revamped to work with the new remote access portal, accessible at access.pennstatehershey.net.

Log in to the Remote Access Portal, here.
Sign in with your ePass. Install whatever it wants you to install along the way.
Click the Infonet icon. When Infonet appears:
a) For services like UpToDate: get the URL (web address) of the service from the George Harrell library web site. Type the URL into the address bar.

b) For pages you can only access on-campus, get the URL of the page and type it into the address bar.

c) For journal articles: type "http://medjournal.hmc.psu.edu:2048/login?url=http://" (without the quotes) into the "Browse" box and add the URL of the article ("www." etc.) to the end of this.^*

Hit "Enter." Assuming Penn State Hershey subscribes to the service or journal, this should take you straight to the site you wanted just as if you were on campus. (If this doesn't work, double-check to make sure that you included all of the "http://"'s and also that there are no double "http://http://"'s.)

* I got this "medjournal.hmc.psu.edu:2048/login?url=http://" by copying the source links of the services off the library web site. For all I know they may in the future change the port from 2048 to another number.
Note: You can also access Connected, PowerChart, etc., remotely at https://hrshpa.cernerworks.com.

Alternatively, once you log into the Remote Access Portal, you can just click the Desktop icon and access anything that way: it brings up the desktop that you would see if you logged onto a school computer, so it pretends you're on a school computer and lets you use stuff from the school. Works on Macs, too. Potential uses I can think of: you're on an away rotation and want to check PowerChart but the computer at the rotation doesn't let you in; you want to use Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, etc.; you have a Mac and want to double-speed a Mediasite lecture from 1st or 2nd year.

Summary - how to access:

Harrison's, Dynamed, etc.: straight from library web site
UpToDate, Infonet pages, and subscription journal articles: Remote Access Portal, per instructions above
Connected, PowerChart: https://hrshpa.cernerworks.com/

Speeding up Mediasite in Firefox and Chrome (PC-only)

2011-11-28T11:42:00.003-05:00

SEE THE NEXT ARTICLE FOR SPEEDING UP ON MACS

So I've shown how to speed up Mediasite on a PC or Mac by opening each lecture in VLC Player. But if you have a PC and don't want to use Internet Explorer, it's much easier to speed up Mediasite in either Firefox or Chrome without doing anything fancy. I'll show you how. (Note: this will work to make Firefox and Chrome act like Internet Explorer for Mediasite; it won't work to speed up more than 2x speed.)

Firefox: just download the Windows Media Player Firefox plugin and vwalla, you're done! Period.

Chrome: Install the IE Tab extension that allows you to temporarily allow Chrome to run off like Internet Explorer. After installing, make sure to set this to automatically turn on only when you're using Mediasite: Go to IE Tab's options by right-clicking the IE Tab icon in the toolbar () > Options > Type http://mededmultimedia.hmc.psu.edu/* into the Auto URLs box (make sure to include the asterisk) > Add. And that's it!

For Macs: the only way to do it is using my previous article for Macs or installing Windows on your Mac.

How to Double-Speed Mediasite on a Mac -- or Sedecuple-Speed on a PC!

2011-11-21T00:13:00.023-05:00

Oh, man. It's finally here. Double-speeding Mediasite on a Mac. Favorite professor pathologically slow? I'll also show you how to multi-speed on a PC, using a similar method.

UPDATE 12/24/12: In the new version of Mediasite, which lets you speed only 1x, 1.5x, and 2x, hit Ctrl+Z to get the variable speeds of 1-1.2-1.4-1.6-1.8-2x. This works in all browsers and OS's.
UPDATE 2/13/12: Apparently, though good in theory, this article doesn't work in VLC; it works only in Windows Media Player on PC's. After much research and experimentation, I must retract my claim about this working on Macs. Sorry, everybody. The ultimate solution? Get your school's IT department to upgrade to the new version of Mediasite, which supports double-speeding natively on Macs.

Click for instructions on Mac or PC: Mac | PC.

For Macs:

Log in to Mediasite. Open the lecture you want to listen to.
Right-click on the small white part of the screen that has the name of the lecture.
Click View Source.
Search for the link that says "playbackticket" and click it.
Search for text containing "mms" and copy all the text that's part of the "mms" link (from "http" to the second ".edu").
Open VLC Player. If you don't have VLC, download it for free (this is a media player, like Windows Media Player or iTunes, but with tons more features).
Go to Tools > Preferences > All (bottom left) > Input/Codecs > Access Modules > MMS. In the "Caching value in ms" box type 900000. [Note: After proceeding with the directions below and waiting 15 minutes, you should be able to watch the whole lecture uninterruptedly at 2x speed (beyond 2x speed you'll need to type in higher numbers to the Caching).]
In VLC, go to Media > Open Network Stream (or Ctrl+N), then Paste the stuff you highlighted and copied above.
Click Play. The lecture should start streaming in 15 minutes.
To speed up the lecture, go to Playback > Faster. Alternatively, as circled in black in the last picture of this article, depending on your version you should be able to click on the box at the bottom of VLC that says "1.00x" and ratchet it up to 4x speed, which hopefully is way more than enough; then, at least in some versions, you can click on the right-double-arrow to speed up all the way to 31.25x speed.

(I've created this Google Doc shared securely only with people with a Google account who are students in my class only, in case people want to post the URL here to so not everyone has to go search for it. I'm not a Mac, though, so other people will have to take on this responsibility.)

For PC's:

Log in to Mediasite. Open the lecture you want to listen to.
Right-click on the small, inset screen on the right. [Here's where Mac's run into trouble; see my work-around below.]
Select Properties > highlight all the text in the Location field, starting with "http://." (Each lecture has its own unique Location.)
Right click on the highlighted text > select Copy.
Open VLC Player. If you don't have VLC, download it for free (this is a media player, like Windows Media Player or iTunes, but with tons more features). Note: You can also proceed with Windows Media Player, but I'm going to talk about VLC here; go to the end of step 9 for how to do this in Windows Media Player.
Go to Tools > Preferences > All (bottom left) > Input/Codecs > Access Modules > MMS. In the "Caching value in ms" box type 900000. [Note: After proceeding with the directions below and waiting 15 minutes, you should be able to watch the whole lecture uninterruptedly at 2x speed (beyond 2x speed you'll need to type in higher numbers to the Caching).]
In VLC, go to Media > Open Network Stream (or Ctrl+N), then Paste the stuff you highlighted from Mediasite.
Click Play. The lecture should start streaming in 15 minutes.
To speed up the lecture, go to Playback > Faster. Alternatively, as circled in black in the picture below, depending on your version you should be able to click on the box at the bottom of VLC that says "1.00x" and ratchet it up to 4x speed, which hopefully is way more than enough; then, at least in some versions, you can click on the right-double-arrow to speed up all the way to 31.25x speed. (Windows Media Player will get you up to 16x (sedecuple) speed: File > Open URL > Paste the Location in here. Then View > Enhancements > Play Speed Settings; uncheck "Snap slider to common speeds" if you want to go between 2x and 4x but beware that for some reason sound quality degrades in Windows Media Player if you don't snap.)

Hello, Penn State!

2011-11-21T00:05:00.000-05:00

Until now this blog was focused on personal technology solutions for students at my undergrad, Queens College CUNY, and for the general public. I will continue to post articles for the general public, but I will also have a section meant to make life easier for students at Penn State Hershey College of Medicine. I will also use this space to post the solutions to some of the questions I, as IT Chair, am asked most frequently. Enjoy!

How to SPEED UP your Computer - the updated guide

2011-09-15T19:30:00.010-04:00

"My computer's too slow, guess it's time to get a new one!" That's probably the tech complaint I get most often... but that's completely unnecessary! Here I’m going to focus on various things you can do to get your PC to cut processing and start-up time, so you can get to what you want to do faster. A note of caution: any advice in this piece can lead to your computer malfunctioning, so be careful and make sure you know exactly what you’re doing! Google a program or service before removing it, to make sure you don’t really need it.

UPDATED 6/14/14

First of all, I would run Windows Update, to make sure your computer has all the most up-to-date security stuff; this secures your computer and keeps everything up-to-date. Find Windows Update by pressing the Windows button on your keyboard and typing "update" [in Windows XP: go to windowsupdate.microsoft.com], then install all essential hardware and software fixes. Then — just as a security precaution, lest you end up changing or removing something that you shouldn’t have — I would create a system restore point (by pressing Windows keyboard button and typing "restore" [in Windows XP: go to “Start” > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore]); if you realize by the end of this article that you’ve done something you shouldn’t have, you can come back here and have a chance at restoring your computer to its pre-article serenity.

The major reason your computer slows down is that all the stuff you install over time leaves traces on your computer that your computer searches for when starting up. So another thing to do is delete all extra stuff installed on your computer that’s just taking up space. Download the free version of Revo Uninstaller, a program that fully removes all traces of an application; once this is done installing, run it and double-click the programs you'll never use again. (Make sure you’re not uninstalling any crucial stuff that you just aren’t aware you need, but which you really may need.)

One way to prevent certain programs that you don’t necessarily need from initializing at startup. Revo Unistaller is also invaluable for this: run Revo Uninstaller, go to Tools > Autorun Manager to see even more things that run automatically at start-up. Un-check the boxes next to things you know you don't need!

Now run Disk Cleanup. Press Windows keyboard button and type "cleanup" [in Windows XP: click “Start” > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup]. Your computer stores a lot of stuff that you don’t need, like temporary files which are useless pretty quickly. You can check any of the boxes and press “OK” to clear out such things as Temporary Internet Files, old and compressed files and the like.

Now run your Anti-Virus program. (You have one, right? If you don’t — a good, free alternative is AVG or Avast. CAUTION, though, that most antivirus programs themselves slow down your computer a lot by scanning everything that happens and constantly checking for updates, so either uninstall it after running it this time (not recommended) or change how often the antivirus program checks for updates and how often it scans your computer, in the program's settings.

Finally, defragment your hard-disk. Go to “Start” > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter, and click “Defragment.”

And there you go. Hopefully (hopefully) your PC now runs a bit faster than it used to.

Some more complicated options:

Alright. Now we’re getting into big-league stuff, so stop if you're feeling scared! Press keyboard Windows button and type "services" [in Windows XP: go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services]. Basically, when your computer starts up, it automatically starts a lot of other things for you, as well. Many of those things you never actually use (for example, a lot of stuff is meant for networking within an office setting), which means that all that time you wait for your computer to boot up is just wasted. In Services, you can disable those things. Go down the list of services. Double-click on the things you want to change; in the “Startup Type” box, you can disable them. A useful feature here is the “Dependencies” tab, which lets you know what other services (which you might need) are dependent on the service you’re about to disable. CAUTION: Obviously, if you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t touch anything! Why? Because you may be disabling important stuff, and you’re liable to simply disable your computer altogether. It’s quite difficult to determine which services you actually need.

If you've done all this and your computer's still sluggish, you can still get your computer running like the day it was born! Reinstalling Windows will accomplish this, though you'll often need the Reinstallation DVD you hopefully got when you bought your computer. First back up all your necessary files to an external hard drive or an online backup site like Syncplicity (if you've got tons and tons of gigabytes of files, external hard drive is your best bet). Then reinstall Windows; here's a good guide to reinstalling Windows XP, if that's what you've got; if you have a newer version of Windows, google "reinstall windows 8" or whatever you have.

Syncplicity v. Dropbox

2010-05-18T13:15:00.008-04:00

A long while ago I reported on Syncplicity, a program that allows you to sync your files online and to another computer. I chose this program over its major rival, Dropbox, for a number of reasons; since I first began using Syncplicity two years ago, however, I have read of many people who use and highly recommend Dropbox, and I've wondered how so many people could be so blind to the virtues of the former.

Having run out of my free storage space with Syncplicity, I began using Dropbox in tandem, to sync some less-necessary files, and have been using it extensively for about a month now. My conclusion: Dropbox has quite an array of useful features that Syncplicity lacks, but Syncplicity is still a superior concept and can't be beaten.

Both programs start you off with 2 GB of free space and free syncing between 2 computers. Syncplicity will give you 1 GB more space for each person, up to 3 people, who accepts an invitation from you to use Syncplicity (I have 8 GB because I got in while they were still in beta) -- for a total of 5 GB, while Dropbox will give you 250 MB more for each person, up to 24 people, who accepts an invitation from you to use Dropbox -- for a total of 8 GB. Unless you know 24 people who are going to sign up for and actually download Dropbox (to get more space on Dropbox, they need to actually download the program, whereas for Syncplicity they just need to open an account), Syncplicity is easier. They both offer paid plans (Syncplicity 50 GB for $15/mth; Dropbox 50 GB for $10/mth or 100 GB for $20/mth; with each plan having different numbers of computers that can be synced).

They both automatically back up and sync any file saved to folders that you've designated. Both also let you access your files from any computer, online; both store revisions of your files, so you can restore to an earlier version; and both let you share a file or an entire folder via a URL -- so goodbye online file-sharing sites.

The major difference between the two -- the reason I love Syncplicity and can't believe anyone can love Dropbox more -- is the ability to sync ANY folder on your computer; Dropbox lets you sync only ONE folder (and any folders therein), so it forces you to rearrange all of your files, music, pictures, to be in only one folder, or just not to sync all of your files. Maybe it doesn't seem such a big deal, but it really is. Other differences:

Dropbox pros (things Syncplicity doesn't have): Share a folder from the online browser (though not directly from the file on your own, and sharing files is a little convoluted; Syncplicity lets you do it only from your own computer [UPDATE: Now supported by Syncplicity too.]). Move files between folders from within the online browser. Search through your files online. Easier to restore deleted/early versions of files. I also found that Dropbox finds your modified files faster -- though duh, they're all in one folder, no need to search far -- and syncs them faster, which is nice. More operating systems supported (Syncplicity's Mac version is in beta); also, it looks like Dropbox now sync with major mobile phones.

Syncplicity pros (things Dropbox doesn't have): Sync any folder! Sync even when file is open (so if you crash in the middle, you can restore up to the last time you saved your file)! These are major features, and I think they overwhelm the Dropbox's nice points. Share a folder from your computer (no-hassle; Dropbox lets you do it only online). You can also sync with your Google Docs account.

Dropbox's main problem can be overcome by Dropbox Folder Sync, an outside program that lets you select any folder for syncing (basically, I think, putting the original folder into your Dropbox folder and creating a simulation of that folder in its original location... so it's really been moved into your Dropbox folder and if you delete it from there, you delete it from the original location as well). This program wasn't created by Dropbox itself, though, so be careful.

NOTE: Click here to sign up for Dropbox and get an extra 250 MB (I'll get extra too).

9 Questions for Dr. Robert Engel: New Dean of Mathematics and Natural Sciences

2009-11-06T12:51:00.018-05:00

I know this is not technology... I've decided to take a break from that, and interview the new Dean of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, who was also my two-semester Organic Chemistry professor. The published article was substantially cut, and I post this here because many people are interested in the entire 40-minute interview.

Professor Robert Engel is the newly-appointed dean of the Queens College department of mathematics and natural sciences (DMNS), which oversees the departments of biology, chemistry, computer science, nutrition, math, physics, psychology, and earth sciences. Entering his 42nd year at Queens College, he is a highly revered professor of organic chemistry, and has served as both dean of graduate studies and chair of chemistry. Dr. Engel spoke with me about his new role, his work, and bygone days. The interview follows.

(photo courtesy of Keldy Ortiz, Knight News photographer)

…
I’m the interim dean — I agreed to do one year starting July 1st, and I go through June 30th next year; they better have somebody appointed through the regular line by then, because I want to spend more time with my students.

What’s your role as dean of DMNS?
It’s to organize and make sure everything is happening as it’s supposed to be in the division — that includes review of faculty, appointments, personnel matters, reviewing new hires, startup funds for new hires, where the new hires go, budget matters. Budgets come in here, we distribute it. Keep the chairs working in the right direction, make sure they’re reasonably happy and that nothing goes wrong for the college. One of the things that I wanted to do — and I told the chairs; the chairs did not scream at this — was I wanted to get a higher profile for the division as a division of math and sciences. And we’re working on that: we do some things… we formulated a divisional curriculum so that each department knows what is happening with the other department, so that you suddenly don’t get surprised that you have to give a course in your department that you didn’t know about because of a requirement in another department, or another department removed a requirement and you’re suddenly left with a course that doesn’t register anymore and you’ve committed everything to it. And to make sure that we all get a reasonable science education — that includes people in music or sociology so that they find out what science really is as part of their liberal arts education.

Read more »

A Tale of Six MP3 Players

2009-03-29T21:16:00.005-04:00

David Tawil, a Queens College freshman and possible psychology major, has a 32-GB iPod Touch, which he uses mainly to listen to lectures, audio books, and TV episodes. When asked to describe his ideal MP3 player, he responded that anything with lots of space, the ability to play videos, good battery power, and ease of compatibility with his Mac, would do. The one thing he’s missing? More space. “IPod peripherals are not important to me, but they’re an added plus if they came with my iPod,” he said.

In fact, the most pervasive MP3 player brand on campus among students is probably the iPod. Eleanor Feldman, a senior and neuroscience major, got her 20-GB iPod in high school as a gift from her parents, and she too is completely satisfied — it still works fine. Her ideal player is one that doesn’t freeze: “My brother and sister have Zunes,” she said. “My iPod lasted longer, and my sister went through like two Zunes.”

This blog is supposed to be about software, but everyone these days has an MP3 player, and I’ve been searching for the one that would work best for students. In other words: something relatively inexpensive, easy to use, and portable; and that can double as a hard drive (to carry documents from home to school) and record lectures. Most people think “iPod” when they hear “MP3 player,” but the iPod was neither the first nor the only MP3 player around, and countless companies have their own competing (or noncompeting) devices. Furthermore, the iPod doesn’t have native recording capability (you can buy an extension, however, such as the Micromemo by Xtreme; or purchase the SpeakEasy iPhone/Touch app plus a microphone) — something I view as practical and perhaps essential for a student wanting to record lectures. In a recent Cell Biology lecture, I counted 12 recording devices lining the front desk of the room — significantly, not one was an iPod.

I began by contacting quite a few companies, requesting specific appropriate players for review; and I ended up with a few — though not necessarily the ones I wanted (due mainly to expense). Though these were beyond the scope of my review, I’ve decided to include them nevertheless. I compared them by the format in which they recorded audio (.mp3, .wav, etc.), the quality of recording (how many kilobytes recorded per second of sound), FM radio reception, and method of connecting to the computer (direct connection, extraneous cables needed, special cables needed). This last is significant, because who wants to carry around extra cables? Some actually have a USB connector built in to the player and concealed by a cap, which is so much more efficient and usable than having to worry about cables.

I also factored in weight and dimensions (the heavier and bigger the player, the more intrusive), storage capacity, ability to connect automatically to an online music store, and ability to play such audio file formats as .mp3, .wav, and .wma (standard formats). Another thing people might not think about: the speed of fast-forwarding or rewinding audio. I’ve been 45 minutes into the middle of listening to a lecture when I mistakenly pressed the “Next” button, causing the player to skip to the next track and forcing me to painstakingly stick my finger on the fast-forward button for minutes on end in order to get back to where I was. Additionally, some of these players (mostly the higher-end ones) featured full-color screens and video and picture playback, memory-card expansion (the ability to stick in a microSD card and expand the amount stored on the player), and Bluetooth connectivity. I then compared the players in terms of my actual experience with recording quality, which analysis appears below. Check out the chart below for further, detailed specs on each player.

**Clockwise, from top left: Creative ZEN, the Centon, Philips GoGear, Sansa Express, Samsung YP-P2, Ativa AT-MP200 (see html tags for image adaptation sources)**

The Centon, the first MP3 player I’ve ever had and the one I still mainly use, is light, has a built-in USB connection, and doubles as a hard drive. Its width is about the same as a standard USB drive, but bulkier depth-wise due to its battery, and when plugged into the computer, takes up the space of an additional adjacent USB port. It has one large center button (for on/off, play/pause), a toggle track/fast-forward button, dedicated volume buttons, and the standard hold button (which locks the keys so it won’t turn on if it accidentally hits something in your bag or pocket). The interface is pretty self-explanatory, but a definite downside is the slow fast-forwarding time. Perhaps a minus for some, this is powered by one AAA battery, as opposed to the more widespread method of charging by plugging into a computer. The newest Centon holds 2 GB of data; others using the newest version of this player, though, have reported occasional trouble turning on the device, the screen sometimes blanking and not proceeding to start up. I use the Centon mainly to store files and record lectures, though, and the battery lasts pretty well for those. The downside to plug-in charging is that you’re stuck if you run out of juice and you’re away from a computer; the downside to battery is that you have to keep refilling, it costs more, and you’re stuck if your battery runs out. The one upside to batteries, though, is that as long as you have batteries that work, you don’t have to worry about your player prematurely dying on you.

The Sansa Express is a similar player, with a built-in USB connection, though slimmer (and sleeker) since it charges directly from the computer. The Express doesn’t completely double as a hard drive, though, as it doesn’t let you play files on a computer directly from the device; rather, it first downloads the file to your computer and then plays it. It has a large center button surrounded by four others — play/pause, forwards, backwards, and mini-menu; a menu button, volume buttons, and hold. It also features a two-color screen (no big deal) and a microSD expansion slot.

The Ativa AT-MP200 is the last of the oh-so-portable MP3 players, with the built-in USB and drawing its charge from the computer. At 8/10 of an ounce, it’s the lightest and smallest one I’ve seen, and still holds up to 2 GB of data. It doubles as a hard drive and can record its FM radio. In my tests, however, it didn’t hold a long charge — after charging and then being on the shelf for a week, it completely conked out (something which seems likely to be a problem with the Ativa), despite sporting a lithium-ion battery. Its USB cap is almost maddeningly difficult to remove, and its center button is unstable, revolving too easily around its 360-degree axis and leading to many wrong selections (like up instead of to the side). It has pretty standard navigation and interface besides, with the standard requirement of holding down the center button to get to the main menu. However, there is no manual hold/lock button, so there’s always the possibility of it turning on by itself or of mistakenly skipping to the next track if you brush against the button. It also has the slowest fast-forward time of all (seven minutes just to get an hour in to a lecture), so this little player pretty much gets thumbs down.

The next three players are higher-end, and might not fit your budget. The Samsung YP-P2 is a 4-GB, touch screen, audio-visual device that can connect to the Rhapsody music service and, as all the rest of the players in this article, can record audio. It too charges plugged in, and can show photos and video in really stunning color. The touch screen works pretty well (including similar picture zooming, swiping between music pieces, and scroll-down effects popularized by the iPhone), though not as versatile as the iPhone, and has dedicated side play/pause and volume buttons, which work even if you’re doing something else like using the organizer or viewing photos. It sometimes feels like it has too many options, however, and might be a little overwhelming for starters. For once, this player’s scanning is fast and efficient: it took only 5 seconds to scan through an entire hour of lecture. One problem I encountered with the interface was that there is no dedicated menu button, so you have to keep pressing the on-screen back button in order to get to the main menu. It has an organizer, including an alarm clock, calculator, and calendar, FM recording, and Bluetooth pairing. This is also the only player I reviewed that records in .mp3 format (the rest use only .wav).

The Creative Zen too supports video, pictures, an online music store (from Soundbuzz.com), and recording. It charges plugged in, has an SD expansion slot, and gives immediate playback of audio files on your computer via its own media browser. The interface was initially confusing — starting from “How in the world do I turn this thing on?” — never a good sign. This should get better as you use it, though. There are nine possible buttons to push, which didn’t always perform as I thought they should. For instance, I thought the left button would bring me back in the menu hierarchy, but instead I had to use the dedicated back-arrow button. Also: I start recording by pressing the center button, right? No, you have to press the funny-looking top-right button, and then center, to do this (to stop, you have to repeat these actions). There was also no dedicated home button — something you’d think they would have with a total of nine buttons! The center button frequently didn’t respond, requiring more than ordinary force (faulty design?). It has an organizer, though tasks, events, and the like can be created only if you’re connected to the computer — you can’t create your own on the fly. Nifty features include a dedicated button to return to the now-playing playlist (though this doesn’t return to the song you were playing, but restarts the playlist) and a “purchase this” song option for every song, which supposedly syncs to the Internet when you next connect to your computer (if for some reason you don’t already “own” the song). A very pretty player, the Zen nevertheless could use some internal design work.

A possible middle ground between expense and glitz is the Philips GoGear. Also with a wide color screen, the GoGear sports a pretty intuitive interface. It charges via USB connection, can connect to the Rhapsody music store, has seven buttons (options, go back, the four directions, and a center play/pause/select) plus side volume adjustment, and has Bluetooth connectivity. Standout features include the ability to limit the volume of your music (so you won’t accidentally kill your ears in noisy environment), and the ability to change your sound track in middle of viewing a slideshow of your pictures without leaving the slideshow. It also comes with high-quality headphones, a protective pouch, and a feature called FullSound, which the company claims lets you experience your music with greater quality. A minus was that after a while the center button would express a crunching feeling and sound, leading to questions regarding the cheapness of the material or design.

I next evaluated the players in terms of recording quality. For this part I clustered the players together on a table, and recorded various types of sound: first speaking while sitting right in front of the recorders, second speaking while standing about 15 feet across the room from them; third from the same distance, but singing at a range of pitches (which I shall refer to here as “music”). I then took the players and recorded a chemistry lecture from the fourth row up in lecture-room 101 of QC’s Remsen Hall. To analyze the clips, I played them back to myself at high volume, exhaustively, on my computer, taking notes on the variations between the various players and environments. (I obtained the Philips GoGear too late and so was not able to evaluate it in comparison with more than one other player.) See below for this analysis.

One of the biggest problems with the Centon and Ativa was their levels of background noise, which reduced the quality of the recordings — they’re still usable, and they still work quite well, but they don’t provide the ultimate best in quality. The Samsung also had a problem with background noise, but it was lower than those of the Centon and Ativa. Then, in terms of increasingly better background noise, approximately, came the GoGear (also, of generally average volume); followed by the Sansa and then the Creative, which had the least.

The Samsung generally imparted a deeper tone to the recordings, and in the lecture hall sounded most serene; in my speech from across the room, however, while the volume was pretty loud, its background hiss became considerably more noticeable (and annoying) as well. The Creative consistently seemed to exaggerate the higher frequencies, which isn’t the most pleasant to the ears; though it was the easiest to hear in the lecture hall. It was also the clearest across-the-room recording. The Sansa was consistently the faintest recording, and the hardest to hear from across the room. As mentioned previously, the Centon and Ativa had the most background noise and therefore produced the harshest, lowest-quality lecture recording in the lecture hall — though the Centon was also, significantly, consistently the loudest.

	file record format	record quality	cost	weight / dimensions	capacity	FM	music store	color screen	screen size (diagonal)	file play formats	fast forward speed (per 1 hour)	other
Centon	wav, act	32K, 8K	$15	1.5 oz / 3.6 x 1.25 in	2 GB	yes	no	no	1.4 x 0.3 in (1.3 in)	mp3, wav	5.5 min	direct USB; AAA battery
Sansa Express	wav	89K	$50	1.0 oz / 3 x .9 in	1 GB	yes	yes	no	0.9 x 0.4 in (1 in)	mp3, wma	3.25 min	direct USB; charges plugged in
Ativa AT-MP200	wav	32K, 192K	$50	0.8 oz / 3 x 1 in	2 GB	yes	no	no	1.1 x 0.13 in (1.1 in)	mp3, wma, wav	7 min	direct USB; charges plugged in
Philips GoGear	wav	32K	$70	2.65 oz / 4.1 x 2.2 in	4 GB	yes	Rhapsody	yes	2.25 x 1.75 in (2.9 in)	mp3, wma, aac	7 min	Bluetooth, videos
Creative ZEN	wav	64K	$100	2.3 oz / 3.25 x 2.2 in	4 GB	yes	Creative MediaSource by Soundbuzz.com	yes	1.5 x 2 in (2.5 in)	mp3, wma, aac, wav	13 sec	charges plugged in; video, photos
Samsung YP-P2	mp3	128K	$180	2.8 oz / 3.8 x 2.1 in	4 GB	yes	BestBuy DigitalMusicStore by Rhapsody	yes	2.5 x 1.5 in (3 in)	mp3, wma	5 sec	charges plugged in; touch screen; video, photos, Bluetooth

PAYOLA NOTE: I received the Samsung, Creative, Philips, and Sansa players under trial from the companies themselves, and was allowed to keep the Creative and Sansa.

More Free Software Programs

2009-01-11T15:45:00.016-05:00

Last year I introduced a number of free, downloadable software programs that have the potential to greatly increase your productivity. I’ve since discovered a number of others which have been of tremendous utility to me.

Launchy is possibly the greatest productivity-enhancing program I’ve seen, and I think a must-have for everyone. It indexes whatever you want on your computer, and launches programs and files with only a few keystrokes. For example, it searches your computer for installed programs, or documents, or utilities (whatever you set it to search for). Then, whenever you want to launch a program, or open a file, you type a preset combination of keys (Alt + spacebar is the default) and begin typing in the name of the program or file. Launchy will display the closest match; simply press Enter to open the program or file.

You don’t have to spell the whole name, or even the beginning of the name. Launchy will remember which programs/files you last launched, and will put them higher on its list for next launch. You can use Launchy to easily open Web pages — it indexes your Web favorites. It can work as a command line (for those who know what that is). It also works as a calculator (it automatically calculates any numbers you input).

**This is Launchy (actual size). Here I typed in “pai” to open Paint**

Launchy is great as a quick-search function, too. Say you frequently use certain online services (Google, Thesaurus.com, Amazon.com, Wikipedia, the weather). Launchy lets you type part of the name of the service, then tab (on your keyboard), then type in the search term and press Enter, and Launchy will open the exact page for that term. For example, instead of opening up a browser, going to wikipedia.org, and typing in your search term, you can just launch Launchy, type “w” (or the like), Tab, and type in your search term. Voila — literally five seconds.

A further bonus is Launchy’s customization. For instance, I’m taking a chemistry class and have needed recently to look up molecular structures. So I configured Launchy to search the Web site of a chemical supplier; in five seconds I can now quickly be on any molecule’s page.

Launchy is simple to use, and it runs in the background and doesn’t hog your resources (like, say, Google Desktop’s search indexing). In the short time I’ve been using Launchy, it’s made my computer experience so much easier.

Stickies is one of many small programs that keep notes or to-do lists on your desktop, for quick viewing and editing. Pretty much a self-explanatory program, it nevertheless does more than just that, offering different ways to format your text and the look of the sticky notes, alarms, keyboard shortcuts, and synchronization with your e-mail or PDA.

Syncplicity is a backup and file-synchronization program. It automatically backs up online your folders and files (the free version has a 5-to-8 GB maximum size limit) and syncs them to both your online account and with any other computer that you’ve linked to your account. Any time you create or save a new file, that new file will be synced.

If you’re working on a synced file from your synced computer, it gets uploaded to your account and downloaded to all associated computers as soon as it’s saved. If you need to work on a file from a non-synced computer (say, a computer in a Queens College lab), simply sign in to your Syncplicity account and download the file. If you begin or access a file on a non-synced computer, simply upload it back to your online Syncplicity account and it will be there when you get home. As soon as you turn on a synced computer, Syncplicity immediately detects and syncs all unsynced files. It even syncs your Web favorites.

Move the file to a different synced folder? No problem; it’ll immediately be recognized there. Need a previous version of a file? Right-click the file (online) and click “Show revisions.” Need to share a certain file? Syncplicity will easily generate a link for it from your computer, which can be used by anybody (even if that person does not have a Syncplicity account). You can even share a folder so that a friend can always access its contents (say you’re collaborating on a big project); when either of you makes a change, the file will be immediately updated on both computers.

Syncplicity syncs a file as soon as it’s saved, even if you’re still working on it. Even if you’re in middle of working on a document and your computer crashes, the file as it was last saved will be there online and on your other computers.

The Syncplicity interface is very intuitive and simple to use, and best of all you never have to worry about your computer crashing and losing all of your files, photos, or music. Syncplicity works in the background; you need never be aware of its existence once it’s all set up. Think about it… as long as you have Internet access, Syncplicity obviates your need to e-mail files to yourself or even for a USB drive.

There are quite a few similar backup and synchronization programs, but this is the one I use; perhaps I’ll review others in a separate article. Meanwhile, get synced up!

Some Useful Online Tools and Services

2009-01-08T12:44:00.000-05:00

The Internet is full of tools and services geared toward specialized tasks. Frequently, two or more Web sites offer quite similar services. Here are a few random services that you may find useful.

At Jotti’s Malware Scan, you can upload any file and have it scanned for viruses by 20 different reputable and ubiquitous antivirus programs, among them Avast, AVG, Kaspersky, and NOD32. No need to download all of these antivirus programs and scan it yourself. No need to worry that your particular antivirus program is faulty or just unaware of a certain virus. A note of caution: some perfectly clean files may be flagged as viruses by certain of these scans, so in general go by “majority rules.”

GrandCentral is a unique service that gives you a unique telephone number to which you can link all of your phones. Afraid of leaving your desk/house/cell phone and missing a call? If you so desire, when anyone calls this number, all of your phones — at your office, at home, your cell — will ring simultaneously, and you can pick up from any of them. GrandCentral has tons of features beyond this.

For example, you can set different numbers to ring some phones but not others. You can switch phones in the middle of a call (say you’re leaving your house and want to continue talking on your cell), without the caller’s knowledge, by pressing * (star). You can listen in to a message being left for you, and pick up in the middle. You can set different responses or voicemails for different callers (say, an unrelenting busy signal, straight to voicemail, or out-of-service message for that annoying person; or a special greeting or ringback tone for that special someone). There’s even visual voicemail (so you can read your voicemail).

All in all, a great service, if you’re willing to start giving people a new number. The one issue is that this service is currently in a private beta, meaning that you can go request an invitation, but won’t be able to use it until you either receive the invitation from them or GrandCentral leaves beta.

K7 Unified Messaging gives you a free fax and voicemail number. Need to receive faxes but don’t have a landline or a fax machine? Have them sent to your personal K7 number, and you’ll get them in your e-mail inbox; a fax will arrive as an image, and a voicemail as a sound file. You can even sign in to your K7 account and view all faxes and voicemails there. You can also personalize your voicemail greeting. Unfortunately: you can’t send faxes from this number (K7 recommends faxaway.com, which charges a small fee), the number has a Seattle area code, and your account will be deleted if not used for 30 days.

ShieldsUP! is one of a suite of GRC’s free security offerings. ShieldsUP! probes the security of your Internet connection with a number of tests. It scans your system to test for open ports — ways that hackers can get into and establish control over your computer — and shows you any open ports as well as associated risks. It endeavors (harmlessly) to attack your computer in the ways that hackers might, and alerts you to any vulnerability, including the ease of obtaining basic information about your computer.

FreeConferenceCall.com serves exactly as indicated by its name: it lets you make free conference calls. For absolutely no cost, you get a dedicated number and access code, 24/7 access, call recording, up to six hours per call, and up to 96 other callers — no gimmicks, and you never need to place a prior reservation.

Then there are the small tasks, which may be hosted by a number of Web sites. For example, forgot how many feet in a mile, radians in a degree, Fahrenheit degrees in Celsius? Head to OnlineConversion.com. Need to write “hello” in Greek, “Shalom” in Arabic, “Olympics” in Chinese? Try Webnary — or, actually, Google Translate — you can decide which is more accurate. Need to impersonate someone else or record a digital message? Give Digital Future a try; you type in text and download a sound file of that text spoken by a wide variety of voices.

There are lots of useful, free online services. Welcome to a world of possibilities.

Online File Sharing

2009-01-07T12:21:00.001-05:00

Two articles ago I discussed various Web sites where you can store large amounts of files for free. This article deals with sites that let you upload one or more files, and then quickly share those files with a friend. You will typically use these services to share large files; obviously, sending a file by e-mail works just fine for smaller loads.

Most of the Web sites mentioned in my previous article also offer file sharing; this article will explore services that are exclusively or mainly built around sharing. In fact, for a robust file-storage and -sharing service, you may want to go back to that article and try out some of the services mentioned there. As with my last article, you can get more by paying a little for these services; this article, however, will deal with those that won’t cost you a penny.

Furthermore, everything I say here relates to only those parts of those services that do not require signing up — for those people who just have an occasional file that they need to send. Signing up with/paying for these services (both of which are possible with all of these services) typically gives you more file capabilities and options. These include sending more and larger files, storing files on the service’s server, an address book, resumable downloads, tracking, and rights management.

All of these services work by uploading your file, linking it to a very specific URL (Internet address) typically comprised of a random, unguessable combination of characters, and then sending that URL via e-mail to your friend to download the file off of the Internet. No more need to worry about your or your friend’s e-mail provider stalling or not being willing to deal with that 800-pound presentation, sound track, or movie clip.

Drop.io is perhaps the most versatile online file-sharing service, with the ability to name your own URL. This URL then creates a Web page, into which you can upload material from the Internet or via an e-mail, send a text message notice, fax a document, or record a message via telephone call. You can also set the file to expire automatically, the maximum time limit being one entire year from last access. Need a business model to mass-distribute files? Drop.io now has a payment option (which works via Amazon.com). You can also upload an unlimited number of files, up to 100 MB.

FileDropper seems to offer the best options if you’re sending only one file, with the greatest file-size limit — 5 gigabytes. It lets you send only one file at a time, though, which is quite limiting, and files expire from FileDropper’s servers 30 days after last access.

Notable about these two, as well as MediaFire, is the simplicity of their interfaces, and that you’re not required to enter any e-mail address, which is great if you’re concerned about giving a Web service your personal address. If you want to be able to send the e-mail notification to your friend directly from the Web site, don’t use FileDropper.

MediaFire has the same file-size limit, and files expire after 30 days of no use. Each file is assigned a separate URL. YouSendIt seems the one with the least options, allowing only one file at a time and expiring after seven days.

DriveHQ and MegaUpload made this list only because of their large file-size capabilities; for file-sending purposes, however, they are rather substandard. DriveHQ is notable for its 1-GB-maximum file-size limit and no expiration; nevertheless, once you use this once, you’re forced to sign up if you want to continue using DriveHQ. MegaUpload (and RapidShare) are terrible because they make you sit through an advertisement for their services before you can download (or upload) the file. If you want to send only one file, though, and it’s a pretty large file (up to 1.024 gigabytes) and you don’t mind the download wait and ad, MegaUpload might be for you.

Once more, signing up for these services opens up more possibilities. Also, check out my previous article for more services. If you’re looking for quick, easy file-sharing, though, this article is for you.

Free Online Storage Solutions

2009-01-05T12:27:00.012-05:00

Afraid of a hard drive failure, you’re looking for an easy way to backup your files. Or, you’ve got large files, which are just taking up too much space on your computer. It would be nice if there were a way to store them all online, accessible from any computer.

Fortunately, there are a large number of Web services that offer free file storage. I will compare a few of them here. Three important specs are the storage limit, the maximum file size that can be uploaded, the maximum file size that can be downloaded, and the monthly download size limit. For example, a free service might allow you to store 25 GB of files (which is huge), but allow you to upload files only as large as 5 GB, download files only as large as 10 MB, and have a monthly download-size limit of 1 GB; notice that the large amount of storage you have is basically useless, as you would have no way of retrieving the majority of those files on demand (short of shelling out cash). I found this out the hard way.

Other useful features include upload managers, virtual drives, and sharing. Upload managers typically let you upload multiple files at once with resumable uploads (should something go wrong halfway through the upload, it will pause and allow you to continue where you left off). Virtual drives put a hard drive icon on your computer; to store files online, simply drag and drop the file onto the icon. The sharing feature assigns a Web address for your file; send the address to friends, and they can immediately download it off the Internet.

Microsoft, AOL, and Yahoo each have their own file storage options: Windows Live SkyDrive, Xdrive, and Yahoo! Briefcase, respectively. Maximum storage is 5 GB, 5 GB, and 30 MB respectively; the good point of SkyDrive and Xdrive is that there seems to be no upload or download size or time limits within the maximum storage size, as I was able to upload and download large files upon trial; Briefcase, however, comes in last with a 5-MB upload limit.

MegaUpload is pretty good, with the largest maximum storage limit around (50 GB) and an upload manager; the maximum file size, though, is 500 MB. MediaMax served as the prototype for my above uselessness example, though it still has good specs: a 25-GB storage limit, a maximum file size of 10 MB, and a 1-GB monthly download limit. DriveHQ has a storage and max-size limit of 1 GB. Other services with comparable storage limits that you might want to look at include Box, DropSend, and FilesAnywhere.

Lastly, there are the generic free e-mail servers, like Gmail (max. storage: ~6.5 MB), Yahoo! (max. storage: unlimited), or Hotmail (max. storage: 5 GB); just send yourself a file as an attachment. There is even a program for Gmail — GMail Drive — that creates a virtual drive on your computer. Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail work fine for smaller file sizes; the problem arises with their attachment size-limits (20 MB, 10 MB, and 10 MB, respectively) — you won’t be able to store a very large file with any of these.

How to SPEED UP your Computer

2009-01-01T12:30:00.005-05:00

Welcome back to my column, everyone. This time I’m going to focus on various things you can do to get your PC to cut processing and booting time, so you can get to what you want to do faster. A note of caution: any advice in this piece can lead to your computer malfunctioning, so be careful and make sure you know exactly what you’re doing! Google a program or service before removing it, to make sure you don’t really need it.

First of all, I would run Automatic Updates, to make sure your computer has all the most up-to-date security stuff; this secures your computer and keeps everything up-to-date. Do this by going to windowsupdate.microsoft.com and installing all essential hardware and software fixes. Then — just as a security precaution, lest you end up changing or removing something that you shouldn’t have — I would create a system restore point (by going to “Start” > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > System Restore); if you realize by the end of this article that you’ve done something you shouldn’t have, you can come back here and restore your computer to its pre-article serenity.

One way to prevent certain programs that you don’t necessarily need from initializing at startup, is to go to Start > All Programs > Startup. Any program listed here will automatically initialize at startup; right-click and delete those you don’t need. Second, you can generally individually disable programs (especially those showing up in your taskbar, at the bottom right of the screen) won’t start up, in the individual options or preferences for each program.

One thing you can do is go to Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs. You should delete all extra stuff installed on your computer that’s just taking up space. When you’re done with that, on the left of the same Add or Remove Programs box, there should be a button called Add/Remove Windows Components. Here you can remove stuff installed by Microsoft that you’ll never need (by un-checking the adjacent box). Caution: Make sure you’re not uninstalling any crucial stuff that you just aren’t aware you need, but which you really may need.

Click “Start” > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup. Your computer stores a lot of stuff that you don’t need, like temporary files which are useless pretty quickly. You can check any of the boxes and press “OK” to clear out such things as Temporary Internet Files, old and compressed files and the like. Note: Temporary Internet Files stores components of many of the Web sites you’ve visited, so that they can accessed quickly when you revisit them, but I would go ahead anyhow and clear this out now (especially if you’ve never before done this or plan never to do so again), simply because you’ve probably accessed so many Web sites to which you’ll never return, and these will just slow your computer down. You can also limit the amount of space allotted to Temporary Internet Files by going to Internet Explorer, clicking on Tools > Internet Options, clicking on Settings under “Browsing History,” and then decreasing the number in the box (typically set at 250 MB, I believe).

Now we’re getting into big-league stuff. Go to Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. Basically, when your computer starts up, it automatically starts a lot of other things for you, as well. Many of those things you never actually use (for example, a lot of stuff is meant for networking within an office setting), which means that all that time you wait for your computer to boot up is just wasted. In Services, you can disable those things. Go down the list of services. Double-click on the things you want to change; in the “Startup Type” box, you can disable them. A useful feature here is the “Dependencies” tab, which lets you know what other services (which you might need) are dependent on the service you’re about to disable. CAUTION: Obviously, if you don’t know what you’re doing, don’t touch anything! Why? Because you may be disabling important stuff, and you’re liable to simply disable your computer altogether. It’s quite difficult to determine which services you actually need. If you’re really interested, you can check out this article from TechRepublic.com, which goes through the most common running Services.

At this point I might restart my computer, since all the stuff you’ve uninstalled doesn’t necessarily totally delete itself until your computer is shut down.

Now run your Anti-Virus program. (You have one, right? If you don’t — just a public service announcement: you can actually get Symantec AntiVirus free for one year, being a CUNY student. Just log in to your CUNY Portal account, click on the button on the left that says “CUNY e-Mall,” click on “Software Center,” click on “Software” at the top left of the page, select “Symantec Antivirus for Windows” — or Mac, as it may be — Add to Cart, and then download.) This is important, as there may be viruses slowing down your computer. Then, I would suggest running Ad-Aware (a free piece of software which I mentioned in a previous article, and which you can download here). This program detects more spyware and malware living on your computer than did even my anti-virus program. If you don't have access to an antivirus program, a good, free alternative is AVG; caution, though, that antivirus programs can also slow down your computer by scanning everything that happens and constantly checking for updates, so you should change these in the program's settings.

Finally, defragment your hard-disk. Go to “Start” > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter, and click “Defragment.”

Windows Defender is another program you can get — it’s standard on all Windows Vista computers, but you can download it for free on an XP as well. Search for it on Microsoft’s Web site. Make sure to disable it, though, once you use it to scan your computer, because it takes up way too much of your computer’s memory. Yet another application you already have on your computer is Error-checking, which you can find by right-clicking the name of your hard drive (usually C:) in My Computer > Properties > Tools and clicking Check Now. It attempts to identify and repair/delete corrupted locations on your hard disk.

And there you go. Hopefully (hopefully) your PC now runs a bit faster than it used to.