rant: tmobile's lack of decent data networks, txt messaging fee increase

well.. i'm a phone geek or was a phone geek.  i've had a MDA, K800i, Z710, K750i, and play with Treo's/BBs/Qs at work.  however, my obsession for phones has faded dramatically. mainly due to the fact that the newer cool, european phones will not work w/Tmobiles upcoming UMTS/3G data networks (if they ever get rolled out) or they are only triband (900mhz not the 850mhz band we use here in the USA).

so after getting a bit disgusted w/Tmobile's lack of a vision or timeframe for upgrading to 3G networks, i decided to see when my contract would expire.  it seems i'm locked in till next Feb 2008 but really want to get to a month-to-month contract and have emailed their CS about this and of course have not been able to.

however, recently Tmobile is increasing the cost for txt messaging and also decreasing the cost of mms messages.  what does this mean? in actuality it means that you may be able to get out of your contract early since Tmobile in turn really has violated their Terms and Conditions of service. If you go to tmobile's website and to the "Terms and Conditions" section, under item #3, this rate increase does indeed constitute as a material change to the terms and thus allows a user (if they make a request within 14 days) to cancel their service w/o any ETF (early termination fees).

so i called tmobile's customer service, 4 times now.  each time i received a different reason on why I CANNOT do this.  one rep stated that i would have to wait till i received the changes to my service/terms and then call to cancel/change my contract to a month-to-month; however i emailed their customer support also and they said that i missed my opportunity back in Jan when they sent out the terms/change.  however, i did not receive this document and also this change does not take effect until June of this year and the actual paperwork will be sent to users this month (found on a website the actual message).  i resent an email to them to see what may happen. 

nonetheless this leads me to a very obvious rant; why the hell does the USA have two non-compatible cellular network types?? why can't we have GSM and that only??    i understand that competition for the most part is good for the consumer, but at times it really isn't.  if we had a single network type, all handhelds we buy in the USA would work with any carrier (yes, the carriers may lose money and prob the reason why there are two types  and w/CDMA you can't just popout your SIM card and use a second phone).

ok.. i'll step down now.. i'll post an update on what happens; i wonder if they knew that i worked for a law firm if that may help at all? hehe..

peace

PSP Lovin: getting my PlaystationOne games on my psp and PS3 thoughts

well, as many or most that read my blogs may notice is that well, i've swayed to the nintendo-side these days. my sleek black ds lite had replaced the psp on my morning commutes since its battery life is superior to the psp and the wii purchased on launch day.

however my ds lite has been sitting on my desk while my PSP steals the glory/spotlight again due to me updating the firmware w/Dark_AleX's 3.10 OE firmware and getting my old PSone games on it!!

recently, Sony has decided to dust off its PlaystationOne games library and in turn is releasing PSone games to play on the PSP (downloaded from your PS3). the funny thing is that a homebrew PSone emulator was released about two weeks prior to Sony's official emulator. like nintendo's virtual console, game selection is a bit small and limited. however, what if your like me and actually still have your PSone game discs; can i convert these games over?

the answer is YES! however it will require a few steps to do and also a custom firmware (Dark Alexa 3.10 OE-A' firmware). here's a VERY quick run-through on how to do this:

here's what applications/utilities you will need:

upgrading the htpc to vista, running origami pack on it...

well, i finally broke down and decided to upgrade my htpc in the living room to vista.  wasn't so sure on how it would go since my specs on my htpc are pretty sad (athlon 64 2.0ghz, 512mb ram (128mb used for onboard video), 100gb hd, no cd/dvd drive), but vista installed in under an hour and seems to run much better than xp did on my crappy little box.

after editing the origami pack last night so i could use it on my HP TC1100, decided i'd try it out on my htpc's vista since the interface seems to be a great fit for what i want to use my htpc for. i changed my resolution in vista to 800x600 so that the origami experience would be full screen, i noticed that when i switch my Olevia 237V Aspect to Full screen, text in vista looks wider due to the stretch (expected), however Origami's aspect ratio appears and looks normal, bonus!. 

i really don't know why MS didn't include the Origami experience interface into all Vistas since its a nice UI for HTPC setups or even car setups (given you got a touch screen).  who knows, maybe they will release an add-on for all Vistas to add keyboard navigation support within it (you need to use a mouse input to select menus, up/down/arrows won't do a thing which is a shame since i wanted to get down to being able to use just my remote w/o the keyboard).

here's a link to my youtube of origami and vista on my olevia 237v and vista htpc:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ocSuk4IBMCw

my HP TC1100, Vista and Origami experience pack

well, as w/the other cult believers in the HP TC1x00 tablet; i upgraded my OS to Vista for almost a month now and finally have gotten my performance/stability issues all worked out!  i decided to redo my setup (only the 6th os setup i've done on my baby.. hehe) and soley run Vista since i prefer its tablet features over XP.  so here's two more tips i've found and tried for my TC1100.

one thing i've always wanted to get working or try to get working was Microsoft's Origami experience pack for Vista.  This addon to Vista is mainly aimed at UMPC machines and in turn if you attempt to install it on a non-UMPC device w/Vista it will of course give us errors. 



After some digging, i ran across a nice article over at http://origamiproject.com/forums/thread/16181.aspx  on how to get it to work on a non-UMPC, so lets see if we can get it to work on our TC1100/TC1x00.

--Getting Origami Experience Pack to work on your TC1100/1000 (notes from http://origamiproject.com/ and http://www.umpcportal.com and of course my own experience).

First things first, you will need to download the Vista Origami Experience pack from microsoft.  Get it here:  http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=ac349e84-c109-4ae7-a973-411c1de2457f&DisplayLang=en

you will need to download it from a PC running a genuine copy of windows.

Next, you will need to get the SDK Installer (we will need to use ORCA to customize the MSI installer file so that it does not check for the screen resolution; the main problem/reason why the Origami pack does not install on non UMPCs is because the installer checks the devices screen size and if it sees anything over 7" it assumes the device is NOT a UMPC).  that can be found over here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=C2B1E300-F358-4523-B479-F53D234CDCCF&displaylang=en

This download is for the windows sdk for vista, again you will need to download from a genuine windows pc . run the setup.exe file you downloaded



when you get to the Installation Options, just uncheck everything except the Win32 Development Tools.



It will just download the setup files to this location: 

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SDKs\Windows\v6.0\Bin

browse to here and run the file called orca.exe, this installs our good ole MSI Editor that we will use to hack the origami msi to bypass the screen check! :)



after you install ORCA, open it up from your start menu.  Once you do, then click on File > Open.

Find the OrigamiExperiencePack.msi file we downloaded.

on the left side, scroll down and click on InstallExecuteSequence and then on the right side click on the LaunchConditions item and then hit the delete button and choose yes to the warning.



Next, we will want to click on the InstallUISequence option on the left and again click on the LaunchConditions option on the right  and hit the delete button and choose yes to the warning.



now just go to File > Save or click the save icon. 

Finally, run the origami msi file we just updated and choose your installation!



After it finishes you should now have some origami options in the start menu.



here are some screenshots of it on my tc1100.  



a note; the origami experience does not fill the full desktop if you run any resolution higher than 800x600; just drop down your rez to 800x600 to get the full effect. :)



--Divx playback in Media Player

this is a super easy one, just go and download the latest Divx build over at http://divx.com , when you go to install just install the Divx Decoder/Codec and you should be able to playback your divx files in Media Player.

 hopefully those tips will help out you other TC1100 lovers that want the origami experience. peace

rant: hd, cable companies, getting bent over

well, i've been meaning to get on my lil soapbox about this topic for some time.  my friend and i were discussing this just recently and realized just how badly we, the consumers, are getting screwed over in the HDTV content market (ie cable tv/sat tv). first, hdtv cable service requires a box.  i can no longer use my own PC (no DVR fee or crappy UI/box/limitations). cable companies are only allowing non-cable boxes to use cablecards for HD content.  however with cablecards tv tuners must now go through certification and in turn really doesn't allow us DIYers to build our own boxes, rather you'll have to spend a pretty penny on a Vista Premium pre-built system.

bad. horrible.  Ok, so it mainly affects us DIYers or BIYers.   however, most recently i've heard that Tivo Series 3 boxes may not work w/Comcast coming up soon too (supposed changes to their cable system requiring CableCard 2.0 vs 1.0; 2.0 = bi-directional, 1.0 = one-way).  

personally, i think that the direction in which cable companies are going in regards to HD and CableCard standards is very stupid and unfair to us consumers.  they basically have taken all control out of the consumers hands and now are forcing us to USE their crap DVR boxes.

i would not have any issues w/using a cable companies HD DVR box if it was competant and could atleast try to compete w/TiVo and PC DVR boxes.  comcast is atleast trying to correct this by sending down TiVo software to their Motorola DVR boxes ( http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6405204.html ), however it is still only in beta/testing (even though it was promised to be deployed by end of 2006) and should be piloted by spring 2007.  yet, this still leaves us DIYers out in teh dust and stuck w/a cable company HD DVR (yes, we can do digital and normal cable but we want HD!).

so, what would make me happy?  someone to release an HD TV Tuner that doesn't require me to purchase an overpriced PC or atleast up the anty in the cable box market.   nonetheless, once you go HD you can't go back (hardware purchased, quality of content, etc) so i can complain as much as i want and yet i will still pay for my HD DVR box (well, atleast this year). pllus, how many people do you know  that have the know-how, setup, and time to build their own HD HTPC? i think i know of two other people; so cable companies really are not going to be losing a slew of money since the DIYers are a VAST minority of the consumers.  and one more thing, why the hell isn't there more HDTV content? btw, satellite is out of the question for me since DirecTV quality is basically not up to par to cable (i've heard they actually remove frames sending it down, notice how they no longer say its teh 'best quality' programming anymore?? hehe or so i've heard)

i already miss the good ole days of analog cable and tv tuners. i remember when i built my own HTPC box and didn't have to pay $15 a month for my guide/dvr... ahh.. the memories... hehe..Â

hd/memory upgrade, hp soft grip case, and dual booting my tc1100

so yea... me and my dang upgrades.. hehe. anywho.. got a hold of a nice ole wd 80gb hd and threw it in my tc1100. i had a heck of a time getting a few of the screws loose on the hd cage, i swear they painted the screws so it made it hard to get off. arg! after using my 'macgyver'-like skills, i got the cage off and on my new 80gb.



after getting that in, i upgraded my memory to 1.5gb total. i haven't seen much of a boost yet in vista but xp tablet did seem to run quicker.

after creating my partitions, then decided to use my good ole Ghost boot cd and just reimage the drive since i have my already configured XP Tablet Ed 2005 from my image i made (i love disk images, makes life so much easier! hehe) and thought i'd dual boot xp tablet 2005 and vista. makes it easier for when i need pure stability and all of my devices working.  somehow by messing w/my mbr and bootsector, each OS shows up as the C: partition in each's respective OS, crazy eh?

i tell ya.. i'm in love w/my tablet so far.  here's a quick size comparison w/a cd and the latter my Compaq N800c laptop (almost looks like the n800c is about to eat my tc1100)..





i also got my HP Soft Grip case too. i haven't really used it much since i prefer keeping the keyboard on (i still type a ton faster than writing, i like the ability to be able to scribble mind maps and diagrams w/it).  it goes on easy, you have to cut the pc/sd card slot area (very easy, just use a utility knife, i left one end on so its like the other covers). here are a few pics of it.





next up... getting quicklook to work (didn't work w/any of my 1gb sd cards) in XP and Vista. i'm hoping that if i sync my outlook data in xp (when i can see my sd) and then boot to vista and power down and try running quicklook it will read the sd card (on a bios level it sees the stick). or i hope. :)

peace

me and multi-pc outlook 2007

i've used outlook for my emails since outlook 97, however if there has been one thing i've never really been able to conquer in outlook is the ability to use a centralized PST mailbox file that all of my pc's and user accounts on pcs can use.  i know that this would not be a problem if i were to run my own Exchange server but to me that is overkill for a simple task that should have been made easier.  however, i finally sat down this last weekend and did some thinking and tinkering and think i finally got it work.  i also realized that i could have done this prob w/XP and 2000 but had given up for awhile on it (since i had to learn more about networking stuff and sharing ; man, i know a ton about sharing media files in Vista and Media Center).

so here's my situation:

i have two computers that i want to share my Outlook PST file to, however on each of those pc's (my main htpc and tablet) i am also dual booting XP and Vista (so my htpc has vista and xp sp2, while my tablet has xp tablet ed 2005 and vista).  I have all OS's running Office 2007 and in turn Outlook 2007.  My current pst mailbox files is about 300mb in size and is located on my main PC.  My tablet connects via 802.11g to my network.

finally, what i want to be able to do is to use my Outlook pst file on both my tablet and main pc and the most recently updated copy would then be sync.  also, i would want to be able to have access to it on my tablet before i leave in the mornings and use it offline and then sync back so at night i could read my emails on my main pc in front of the 24" beauty.. (i have NO regrets on my Dell 24" monitor purchse 1 1/2 ago; the most rewarding upgrade of mine ever besides my si and lcd hdtv).  oh yea, there must be security so that only authorized accounts on my main pc can access the files (since it is my personal emails!).  so, lets explain how i did this using just basic Network shared folder and the Sync center / offline files option in Windows. 

making life easy: custom live boot cds for ghosting, cleaning pc

so, as many of you may notice, i change the OS on my system or clean install it quite often.  most of the times, i prefer to do my system rebuilds manually (backup files, format patitions, reinstall from cds/dvds, reload all applications); however there are times when i just want to get my system back up and running.   to make my life easier, i've created my own custom ghost boot cds from bart's preinstalled environment utility (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#download/).  His utility basically allows one to make their own 'live' cd (fully bootable cd that contains its own os, in this case a basic/slim version of windows xp).  most people i know do not have a clue on how to create or even use such a disk so today i'll explain the following:

-what is a live/pe boot cd
-what or how to use one
-how do you create one
What is a live/pe boot cd?

a live/pe boot cd is basically a cd that contains a super slim OS on the disk itself. usually these type of cds have utilities to allow a user to view files on the pc they are booting the cd on or to fix the pc.  the requirements for making a boot cd via bart's utility requires his download and your Windows XP install cd copied to your harddrive.   a live/pe boot cd will also contain generic drivers to allow you to use the most basic of your devices such as keyboard, mouse, usb harddrives, and some basic networking (this isn't guaranteed since there are a ton of network adapters out there and bart's utility only handles a select few chipsets such as realtek, intel, etc).  i mainly use my live cd to recover files from a pc that won't boot (os corrupted/infected) and then copy them to my usb harddrive or to make images of a harddrive with. 

Why or what do you use one for?

you can use a live/pe cd to backup files from you pc (if you can't boot to it or your xp installation gets corrupted), run adaware/spyware checks on it, make a ghost image of your harddrive, boot a computer that has no OS on it, etc.  however i will be focusing more on using it to make a ghost image of your harddrive. if you wanted to, you could setup a pc at home so that there is no OS on it however it could be used via a live cd (you could setup the live cd to have firefox and nero and even bittorrent).  might not run that fast or look nice but secure and does the trick.

Making your own boot cd

Requirements
-Bart's PE Builder  (http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#download/)
-copy of your windows xp installation disk on your harddrive (just copy the whole disk to a new folder called 'C:\XPinstall')
-Adaware installed on your pc and definitions updated (recommended)
-Ghost 8.0 installed on your pc (yes, it does require you to have a real copy installed to pull the files for the plugin)

1.  Download bart's utility and install it.  Remember where you install it too, default location is to the C:\ drive, not the program files folder like most applications.  I installed mine to a seperate partition (i've built several live cds in the past and really hate it when i redo my system and my bart setup is not).

2. Open up PE Builder, it will ask you if you want to search for XP install files, choose no.  We will set this up manually (faster).  At the top, click the browse button by Source and choose the folder we copied the entire XP install cd contents to (ie C:\XPinstall )



3.  Now, click on the Plugin button at bottom.  We will go in and see what we need to do to get Ghost8 and Adaware working. 



if you select the plugin, and hit the Help button, it will tell us what we need to do to get Ghost and Adaware to work on our boot cd.

for adaware, we will need to do the following:

 -Install Adaware on your PC. Update your definitions (that way the cd will have the latest). 



Then browse to the adaware program files folder on your PC (ie C:\Program Files\Lavasoft\Adaware) and copy the adaware.exe and defs.ref file to bart's plugin folder for adaware (located where we installed bart's preinstalled utility \ plugin \ adawarese \ files \ )



We will do the same thing w/the ghost files too.  Again, you have to have Ghost 8.0 installed onto your pc to get the appropriate files.



For Ghost, we will need to copy ALL of the files in the C:\Program Files\Symantec\Ghost folder to bart's plugin folder for ghost8.

Finally, after we have the files for adaware and ghost8 moved into bart's plugin folders, we will need to enable the option in PE Builder utility.  Go back to the plugins screen (if its not still up) and click Adaware and then the enable button and do the same for Ghost8.  Also enable any other plugins you may want (ie network support) on the disk.

4.  Back at the main PE Builder screen, if you want to copy additional files to the boot cd make a folder and put the files you want copied in there and then click on the browse button under Custom:

These files/applications may not be runnable but can be copied to the computer you are booting w/the boot cd we are making.

Finally, choose how you want to output the boot cd (to an image file for later burning or to a cd/dvd) and then hit Build.  it will go through its steps and once your done, you should have a fully bootable ghost/adaware boot cd!  now you can create an image of your harddrive and make restoring your system a cinch!  this cd will support usb drives so you can connect a nice external usb drive to burn the image too (most of my hd images are about 6gbs in size).

(output screen)



TIPS:
-always run a defrag on your pc's harddrive prior to making an image
-there are more plugins such as a bittorrent and firefox browser one, just head to bart's site ( http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/#download/ )
-if you can't boot to the cd, be sure to check your BIOS settings and that CD-ROM is listed as the first boot device (prob will be under Boot Options/Order)
-if you have your pc's harddrive broken up into several partitions, you can make an image of a partition and save the image to a different partition on the same harddrive. (ie C: = xp install, D: = folders partition; i could make a partition of C: and have ghost save it to my D: )
-to edit the background photo for your cd, go to Bart's PE Builder utility folder (where we installed it) and replace the bartpe.bmp w/your own 800x600 bmp file.  just rename to be bartpe.bmp (file is a bmp, 16bit)
-for more network adapter support you can check over here for additional drivers or info on making your own: http://www.nu2.nu/pebuilder/drivers/

Vista Business Ed and my HP TC1100

update: well, after being able to use my sd card fine for a day, i've mysteriously lost it in vista??? wtf? i did update my wifi and got 802.11g working finally.. :) but i wonder if that messed up or if i just got lucky and seeing/writing to the sd was a fluke? drivers show as installed.. more investigating indeed.. 

well, as previously blogged, i received my latest gadget/toy last week and only two nights ago clean installed Vista Business Ed on my pc.   many people have had some problems getting the Q Menu and tablet pc buttons to work by just upgrading from XP to Vista so i decided to go the clean way.  here are a few tips on geting ALL hardware to install/detect/work.  again, my HP TC1100 specs are as follows: Pentium M 1ghz, 1gb ram, 60gb hd, bluetooth, wifi b, sd card, external hp multibay w/cdrw-dvd combo drive. 

after the intial vista install, the only network adapters that were installed automatically was my LAN connection.  so i had to just plug in my TC1100 to my network and i was off and connected.  i then proceeded to run Windows Update to get all of the latest updates and to see if i'd get my wireless drivers, however my adapter was not available. 

now that we have vista all up and ready, lets install those other unknown devices (bt, tablet pc buttons, sd card, wireless, brightness control, q menu).  these were not found by me originally rather are like most of my things; a guide from info i've found on the web and personal experience.

here's a link to HP's driver download page for the  TC1100:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?&lang=en&cc=us&pnameOID=376812&taskId=135&prodTypeId=321957&prodSeriesId=376810&lang=en&cc=us

i used the Tablet PC Ed. drivers for Vista and did the hardware buttons/q menu last.  Basically to get the other devices to work, you will need to download the drivers from HP, then right-click on each .exe installer and go to Properties > Compatibility.  Then check the box to make it compatible for XP SP2/2000.  Now run the installer, it should go through and may complete w/o a comfirmation window (happened on a few of the drivers for me at least, fluke?). finally, i would go to Start Menu > Control Panel > Device Manager.  Then right click on the uninstalled devices > update driver software.   then choose "Browse my computer for the driver software".  Now click on the browse button and navigate to C:\SWSetup and click OK.  Also be sure to check the "Include subfolders".  This makes installing the drivers a cinch since all of the drivers we installed previously reside under the C:\SWSetup folder (HP's default unzipping folder for updates/softpaqs) 

i also used the tablet ed video drivers (seems to allow you to do the brightness control and rotation w/o probs, however nview desktop manager bsod my vista when i tried it) from HP.

finally, i installed the q menu software first, then tablet pc buttons (via device manager, manually after running the .exe from HPs site), and then re-installed q menu; rebooting after each install (3 reboots).   after your finall reboot, go to the Tablet PC Settings and you should have a buttons tab.  go ahead and setup your Q Menu link to be to the qmenu.exe in program files (by default vista will launch your homepage).  i setup like to setup my start menu button for when i hold the Q Menu button. very handy!

also, you can add shortcut to the Mobility Center in Q Menu by going to Q Menu settings, click the Add button, then Display Name: Mobility Center, File Name: mblctr.exe  . 

as for the SD Card reader, my experience was weird.... i tried to install it manually like the other drivers but was not able to get it to consistently show/detect it.  so i then went to windows update and downloaded the suggested driver update.  that has seemed to fix my problem, nice having that 1GB SD to backup docs to.

on the downside, here are a few issues i've been experiencing and plan to tackle tonight:

-my HP WLAN driver does not connect to 802.11g speeds, only b speeds (may be a prob w/my setup on my router since i had to underclock it to get my Wii and DS to work properly and its SO OLD.. ) NOTE! went to windows update and installed the HP WLAN update and i believe that seemed to resolve my wireless connecting issues. :)

-standby issues; i am not able to use the pen or keyboard after waking from standby.  i plan to create a new pagefile to see if this resolves the problem and mess w/my power setups and see if i can figure that out.  if not, i may end up doing a full clean install of Vista again.

i'll post more updates as i go... :)

my new (but used) geek toy! HP TC1100 tablet pc

well.. by now, you probably know that i'm a gadget whore.. i admit it. i've owned a ton of random gadgets/toys/useful technology.

however through all of them, i've always had a fascination w/tablets. dating back to the Apple Newton. hell, i almost picked up one last year but decided not too since the specs are so, so below what i want.  so one night i was on the web surfing around ebay and ces 2007 highlights and ran across the origami pc's. hmm. umpc are starting to begin manufacturing/development and tablets have been around now for a while. so i did my research and decided that an HP TC1100 was the best bet for my money and needs.  went online and got one on ebay gently used for around $550 (not bad eh? the 1ghz, 512mb, 60gb hd, wifi/irda/bt).  decided to try to perhaps load vista on it too and take it for a spin for a week. if not, i can go back to the ghost image i made of the harddrive before doing anything (had a fresh reload of the OS via the restore cds from HP, figure it lets me get it back to original factory state if needed or wanted).  plus, i may even go back and redo the OS to a dual boot config (30 gigs per partition for each os should be good, not going to be doing any major photoshop or video editing, just using OneNote and surfing and maybe some music). 

some geek porn..

 



i've used my HP TC1100 w/Windows XP Tablet Ed 2005 for the past week and am getting more and more comfortable w/it each day.  my main issues was that i didn't have a screen protector and in turn am a bit.. cautious to use the pen w/it since i am so against scratching screens.  however, i got my new screen protector in today and have a very nice case made for the TC1100 coming later this week (i will prob post pics/review of it).

OneNote 2007 runs VERY well on it. i just received my 512mb memory (prev only had the base 512 + 256) and did notice a nice little boost in performance.  At first i didn't think mine had the bluetooth radio however after reinstalling drivers from HP my BT started working!   DVD playback is pretty decent on it (for only being a 1Ghz Pentium M, it seems to hold its own vs most of may pals bigger 1.6ghz+  celerons.  pretty quick considering the specs.

some people have complained about the base/keyboard being too cramped and i can see how that could be an issue, but for me that is not since again i am gifted w/a gadget/pda/tablet users anatomy (small hands/fingers, just overall small.. hehe) 

last night, i felt very ambitous and ended up creating a full Ghost image of my current XP Tablet Ed setup (fully setup w/all of my apps installed and drivers updated, gotta love those Bart Live Boot Disks).   i figure worst case scenario i can reload my Ghost image and not have to reload all of my settings/applications/updates.  i use Bart's Mod Boot site a ton and if you ever work on people's pcs, a custom XP Live boot cd is invaluable to retreive data or clean virus or spyware.  here's a link: http://www.nu2.nu/bootablecd/

anywho, after making my full disk image i then decided to do a full clean install of Vista trial (since i am not sure if i want to purchas another key for my tablet).  install went fine and only took about an 1 1/2 hours. 

initially, i was missing drivers for: wireless drivers, tablet pc buttons, sd card reader, digitizer, graphics

windows update did find a few of them (sd card reader but failed to install it) but i decided to use HP's latest XP drivers for Vista.  I had to then extract the files to the usual HP location (C:\swsetup) and then in Vista manually installed the drivers by opening up Device Manager.  This worked great and installed all of my drivers! i even got the Q Menu working too (had to right click on the HP ServicePack and change the run for XP compatibility) to change my brightness and rotation.

so far things sem to be running fine; however i did freeze coming out of standby twice so i may need to revisit my event log to see what is cuasing that (most likely the Q Menu). 

also, it is amazing to see the cult following of this device.  i still do not understand why HP would kill such an attractive and successful Tablet lineup.  this tablet seems to perform just as good as most newer sub $600 laptops minus the uber geekiness of a tablet. 

so who knows, next up; automated home controller?? we'll see.

ebay and youtube vids = great combo and IE7 gripes (whats w/the crappy big monitor support??)

well, i've decided that i'm sick of my current phone (z710i w/w710i firmware) and have thus posted it on ebay..

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ih=010&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&viewitem=&item=200073947881&rd=1&rd=1

feel free to bid, knowing its from a great seller, me! hehe... anywho.. thus my quest for my next geek toy. i've been getting more and more curious about the older tablet pc systems, one thats been high in my ebay/online deal search is HP's TX1100.. its a converitable tablet interface, however the tablet itself can be detached and taken and be used as a tablet only (no kb).. so far i've seen some decent deals in the sub $600 range (my sweet spot for toys!), but hope to score one on ebay for a bit cheaper.. we'll see..

however since i was going to sell my phone, i decided what better way for potential buyers to see how the product performs than by embedding some vids of the phone's menu's in action. i know as a phone whore, i love seeing a phone's UI in motion is important to me.. UI is a main decider in my choosing a phone..   so i changed my auction selling form to be HTML and then embedded my youtube vids of the flash menus into the auction. it turned out pretty neat. we'll see if it helps sell my phone or not.. get some youtube hits atleast! haha..

 and finally.. IE7.... whats up w/the crappy formatting for my 24" widescreen running 1920x1200?? why can't pages be centered when in windowed mode??? why can't the page/tables stretch to my 1920px horizontal??? come on!!!! seriously why aren't big monitors taken into account w/xp/vista/ie7??  thats MS's goal or so it seems is to integrate pc and tv and living room, we need some better visibility and text displaying technologies before they'll gain anymore ground.. 

hell if vista is a prob w/my 24" widescreen, image my probs w/my 37" lcd hdtv in my living room? i guess we'll see oncei upgrade my living room pc..

 i'll step off my soapbox now.. peace

windvd and vista vs me, round 2: me!

well, i was hoping to finally get my windvd8 working on vista, however i was having a heck of a time w/windvd8 installing.   i kept getting an annoying you need the DirectX Runtime Feb2006.  at first i was afraid of installing the update since i feared it may ruin my vista and its directx10, however after some reading/searching i decided to go ahead.  it turns out the package only updates missing/needed components and leaves newer ones intact. so thus far good to go.

finally got the latest windvd8 trial installed, my build was the vista patched one so now i can finally watch dvds on my vista install again.   i was going to try to use just media player for dvds but the performance was horrible.  windvd8's latest patch/build seems to fix the lag i was seeing in media player and w/my older windvd8 installer.

another note, photoshop cs2 has been running pretty smoothly for me thus far.  i only had one lockup but that was during install.  i've noticed if you get errors when installing xp apps, do the right click on the .exe and choose properties and then go to the Compatibility tab and put a check in the Run for Windows XP SP2.  seems to resolve install problems. 

now if only i had drivers for my ATI HDTV Wonder.  i wonder if i had vista ultimate if i would? i did see a great deal on the Vista Ultimate Ed for only $199 over at http://newegg.com  , i'm pretty tempted to get it for when the cable card tuners start coming out. hmmm...

 UPDATE: got my ATI HDTV wonder going finally, had to use my older WinXP drivers and had to install them manually by browsing and then selecting them from the list of Sound Video and Game Controllers.  Then used the ATI DTV Wonder Analog AV Capture Device driver and voila! i see it now, the last device i have to get going is my Creative Live! Cam Video IM Pro.Â

wii news channel is live!

well, woke up and went to the living room to see a nice suprise! my wii was glowing, so i powered it on and saw the message on the boards that it was live.  so i updated my wii and got a taste of the news channel.

very nicely done! see my youtube video of it over here of it in action:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceyLU3PRR7E

peace! give my video a moment or two to load. i'll embed once its live.

vista business ed notes and using...

well, so i've prob ran the last 4 versions of the vista betas and finally this weekend got Vista Business Ed RTM up and going on my main pc.  my initial impressions of vista were luke warm due to the super long install times of the betas. i was anxious to see how the final release of vista and its aero style would run or crash. this is my first real attempt at using vista as my main os, but i have my xp prof sp2 still dual booted and setup just in case.

i'm only on day 3 of running vista and so far things have been so, so.  basically reminds me of when XP first came out.  silly cd/dvd burning software crashing the os, features from the prev OS that seemed to be left out, horrible vista compatible driver support, and the newb-ness of the OS itself.

so here are a few things i've noted about Vista thus far and think may help other virgin Vista users out.

1. older Nero 7 versions will crash Vista.  there is a video encoder in the installation that makes vista crash over and over again.  however, there is an alternative solution.  a few geeks have made a custom installation, micro and lite nero 7, that will work with vista.  i'm using the Nero 7 Lite and it lets me do everything i did w/the full version (never/hated the stupid showtime player, always took over all of my video/audio extensions).  check that out over here: http://www.updatepack.nl/ 

2. ATI video drivers DO NOT allow fullscreen overlays like in prev versions.  this was a biggie for me since i use my dual monitor setup mainly for movie/video watching and i always have my ati settings setup to have fullscreen overlay video on my secondary when i have video going in the primary.  very nice for movies while surfing, etc. we can only wait til Ati updates/adds this feature back to their drivers or someone hacks the current one.  i've heard you can use older RC1 betas but i'm a bit skeptical on using even older ati drivers.

3.  Where's the My Pictures slideshow screensaver??? seriously, i loved that screensaver!!  it worked w/multi-monitor setup (pics would alternate between my two monitors) and let me use my monitors/pc as a digital photo frames in my room (have a hotkey setup to turn on my screensaver, i love you ultramon!). i found a MUCH better alternative.  Google's Picasa has a screensaver function.  once you activate in Picasa, it will add a screensaver into windows display properties > screensaver area.  Choose it and click on the settings button and then choose which folders you want (you can do multiple folders, folders in picasa (starred/tagged) or even from picasa webalbums).  Jackpot and another point for Picasa! get it over here:  http://picasa.google.com/

so for the time being, i'm still using my XP  setup for movie watching at night and my vista setup during the day.  so it seems i'll prob be dual booting for some time to come. anywho thats about all for now, more to come (hopefully cablecard tv tuners and vista ultimate!).  oh yea, here's my latest desktop, vista styled.. :P  (doh, wp won't let me upload... so.. coming soon? hehe)

wiimote skins.. in the flesh

well, as born-again nintendo boy, i had to go out and get some wiimote skins from http://decalgirl.com just cuz.. i figure i've skinned my psp, ds, and why not my wii?  plus, i get to brag about my nearly complete wii setup with 4 wii-motes!  just am 2 nunchuks and a classic controller from my full wii setup! hehe.





wii!