No AT&T U-Verse for me. Staying with Time Warner Cable…for now
I nearly pulled the trigger to switch my TV and Internet to AT&T U-Verse, but after some research I found some show stoppers. Let’s start off with why I was even considering the switch. Two things really. Much faster Internet: 24 down and 2 up (was to be rolled out in a few months) and better features on DVR, including more storage. The show-sharing capabilities of the “Total House” feature seemed pretty cool too.
So why did I decide to stay? The biggest reason is that U-Verse limits the *entire* house to a maximum of only *two* HD streams, not matter how many boxes you have. Yup, you read that right. It’s a house limitation, not a box limitation. The fine print says, “Four channels can be recorded to the DVR or viewed simultaneously: up to two can be HD.” The way they word it, it almost seems like a good thing! 
Anyways, that is lame. I’ve got two dual-tuner HD DVRs now. I can be watching an HD football game and recording another HD football game on my TV, and Jac can be watching an HD channel on the other TV. Can’t do that with U-Verse. In fact, she could also be recording another HD show. And this can happen *every* Sunday during football season =), so it’s not a remote possibility.
The other issue may or may not be a problem. From what I read only one DVR actually records and the others can control or playback content on that DVR. So, some people have reported that you can only pause live TV on the TV with the DVR. According to the sales guy, our area will be getting only DVRs so each unit actually records. We shall see, since my neighbor is getting the service. In any event, although each may be a DVR, the entire house is still limited to 2 HD streams max. It has got to be a bandwidth issue.
In the future, they may increase the HD cap and I’ll revisit at that time. Until then, Time Warner still has my business, for better or worse. I am hoping, however, that this competition will force them to improve the DVR features, price, Internet speed, channels, etc. Competition is good!
FYI I’m still sticking with ViaTalk for my land line. You just can’t beat this service!
Map an FTP site to a drive letter
Mapping an FTP site to a drive letter is very handy. It saves you the lengthy process of saving a copy of the file somewhere, booting an FTP client, logging into a ftp site, navigating to the source file, navigating to the target folder, uploading the file, closing the client, and deleting the original file. Just save the file directly to the FTP-mapped drive and you’re done. Perfect for my blog post pics!
I’ve been using FTP Drive for a while, but iTunes doesn’t like it and spits out an annoying error every time I boot it. Netdrive is a newer product and it’s free for personal use! Documentation is sparce, but set up is not much different than any other FTP client. It supports passive mode, SSL, SFTP, etc. iTunes seems to like it so, so do I.
One trick I learned as that you can add a path to the end of the FTP URL, like ftp.mydomain.com/images and the folder will become the root of the mapped drive. Very nice!
Turning web pages into standalone desktop applications for better performance
It’s ironic. The promise of running full browser-based desktop-like applications has nearly been fulfilled using web technologies like AJAX, CSS, .NET, etc. However, it has led to some unintended consequences. Browsers were just not really designed to display and run all of the dynamic pages that are so common today. I would argue that much of the real-time dynamic web apps are based on hacks. The language and tools are just not very standard, robust, or well thought out. Web developers live in a world of incompatible browsers, unknown application environment, vague standards, poor memory management, extensions, etc.
Running a web app as a standalone desktop application doesn’t magically solve all of these issues, but it can help to provide a much nicer user experience. I find the apps are snappier and much more responsive. I’m experiencing that right now as I type this into my WordPress blog posting app. There is probably a lot less battling over application resources, including demands from extensions and I have tons of those. Hell, even tabs have added to the chaos. Running web applications, like gMail, Google Reader, or Facebook like they were standalone applications has some very compelling benefits and is drop-dead simple to do as you will soon see.
Tearing an application away from the browser UI lets it run as its own system process and moves much of the full browser’s overhead crap out of the way. I find that the single processes seem to manage memory better too. I often had Firefox bulging at its seams after keeping it running just overnight. Browser memory management is abysmal and I’m sure sloppy page coding doesn’t help (I’m as guilty as anyone. object=null anyone? . Plus, running a lot of extensions can exacerbate the problem. I suppose it’s not too surprising if you think about all of the junk that goes into a browser; the rendering of the page is almost secondary.
Besides the memory issues, I also found that the typing buffer would ebb and flow causing irritating pausing when I typed even just a few words. I found that this basically disappears when running the pages as desktop apps.
Both Firefox and Chrome have the ability to turn a web page into a standalone application. For Firefox, you need to add the Prism extension. After installing, navigate to the web page. From the Tools menu, choose Convert Website to Application.
A dialog will appear where you can set a few options. The Show navigation bar option will display a toolbar with the basic navigation buttons, plus display the URL. The Show status messages and progress option puts a progress bar at the bottom. The Enable navigation keys option allows keyboard shortcuts for page navigation. The Display in the notification area option just puts an icon in the system tray.
For the most part, I only find the Enable navigation keys option mandatory; the other options just add clutter. When navigation keys are enabled, you can use Alt+Left/Right arrow to navigate backward/forward. Most browsers have a ton of keyboard shortcuts (e.g., Firefox and Chrome). F5 to reload is a good shortcut to remember.
I like to save the shortcut to the Quick Launch Bar, but you can also save to your Desktop and/or Start Menu.
For Chrome, first navigate to the desired page. To the right of the address box there is an icon that looks like a page with a down arrow next to it. Click it and choose Create Application Shortcuts. A dialog will appear where you can set where you want the shortcut placed.
That’s it! As simple as it can get. Of course, you will end up with a lot more items on your taskbar, but you’ll have fewer browser tabs. You also get much more screen real estate since the UI window is barebones and doesn’t have all the clutter of the standard browser. You might miss some of your extensions though, like Flashblock and Adblock. Oh well, ya can’t have everything!
Note that links that open in new windows will open normally in the matching browser (i.e., Firefox or Chrome).
No sign of anything similar for IE, Safari, or Opera, but Mac users should be able to find Prism for Mac.
NOTE: What’s kinda interesting is that you can figure out which pages are the true memory hogs since each runs as a single process. Let the apps run overnight and open up Windows Task Manager to see the real pigs. You’ll need to kill the process and see which window goes away, cuz the process (image) names will all be the same for the same browser engine.
The worst offender? gMail. Note that the increase was pretty small, less than 10MB. A relatively distant second was Facebook. Google Reader was actually pretty good, surprisingly. Full Firefox running without any pages open had the biggest increase. No doubt owing to it’s infamous memory leaks and one or more of my extensions. I’ve heard that Forecastfox is notorious, but hell, that’s why I’ve got 4GB in this baby, right?
Sources:
“Turning Web Apps into Desktop Programs”, MaximumPC, September 2009
“Prism or Chrome?”, http://www.xul.fr/mozilla/prism-or-chrome.html
Portable WiFi hotspot on Verizon
I’ve been waiting for the release of this and curious to see the plan rates. $60 for 5GB/mo seems pretty steep, but I guess it’s the first of its kinda and no competition except for cell phone modems and that’s not really exactly the same.
From the press release:
Take Your Wi-Fi Hotspot on the Road With the New Verizon Wireless MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot From Novatel Wireless
–The World’s Smallest Mobile Wi-Fi Hotspot Turns Wi-Fi-enabled Devices into Mobile Internet Tools
BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and SAN DIEGO, May 7, 2009 /PRNewswire via COMTEX News Network/ — Verizon Wireless will introduce the highly-anticipated MiFi 2200 Intelligent Mobile Hotspot on May 17. Developed by Novatel Wireless (Nasdaq: NVTL), the MiFi 2200 lets customers create a personal Wi-Fi cloud capable of sharing the reliability and high-speed Internet connectivity of the Verizon Wireless 3G Mobile Broadband network with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices such as notebooks, netbooks, cameras, gaming devices or portable media/MP3 players.
The MiFi 2200 is small enough to fit in a pocket, measuring 3.5″ x 2.3″ x 0.4″ and weighing 2.05 ounces. It combines a variety of features into its streamlined form factor, including integrated internal CDMA and Wi-Fi antennas, advanced security and authentication technologies. When one device is connected through Wi-Fi, the MiFi 2200’s rechargeable battery provides up to four hours of active use and 40 hours of standby time on a single charge.
“The MiFi 2200 gives more than 86 million customers access to the nation’s largest and most reliable 3G network,” said Mike Lanman, vice president and chief marketing officer for Verizon Wireless. “With projected growth rates of over 30 percent for Wi-Fi mobile phones, MiFi will be of great benefit to both business customers and consumers. It gives customers the flexibility to transform their Wi-Fi-enabled consumer electronics into Mobile Broadband devices and to choose how and when they need to be connected at a price point that will match most budgets.”
“The MiFi 2200 offers unprecedented possibilities for students, mobile workers and families to all stay connected while on the go,” said Peter Leparulo, chairman and chief executive officer, Novatel Wireless. “We are very pleased to work closely with Verizon Wireless to deliver the most advanced connectivity solutions possible to our combined customers.”
The MiFi 2200 will be available online and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers can select from various price plans:
– $39.99 monthly access for 250 MB monthly allowance and 10 cents per megabyte overage
– $59.99 monthly access for 5 GB monthly allowance and 5 cents per
megabyte overage
Customers can also use the MiFi 2200 with Verizon Wireless’ Mobile Broadband DayPass for $15 for 24-hour access when the device is purchased at full retail price without a monthly service plan.
Trillian Astra beta multi-protocol IM client
For years, I used Trillian Pro (TPro) exclusively to chat with all of my ICQ, AIM, MSN, and gTalk friends. I liked it cuz I could not only handle all of IM needs in once place, but it saved conversations, which is nice when you need to refer back to something. It would also monitor my gmail and yahoo webmail accounts. However, TPro would often grab up a boatload of RAM and I migrated over to the web-based Meebo.com client several months ago.
The folks at Cerulean Studios have been working on the next generation of Trillian called Astra for years. So long, in fact, I thought it would never come out and I had given up. Well, it finally is in beta and I installed it today. I’m thrilled to report that so far it works as well as TPro and is occupying a paltry 14k of RAM.
I won’t even attempt to cover all of it’s features and benefits, go over here for that. Some neat new Astra features that TPro didn’t have include support for Facebook including chat, and Twitter.
It feels like more of a TPro version 4 than an entirely new app. It has a spiffier look, but functionally it’s very similar to TPro. It still has the same confusing options and preferences that always seemed to be scattered all over the UI. Fortunately, you don’t have to mess with settings too much, but on the plus side it is very configurable.
Fixing the memory issue alone is enough for me to return to Trillian and I’m happy to be back. Web clients are nice, but there’s nothing like a good desktop app. It installed right over my TPro and retained all of the existing accounts and settings. I believe after 30 days I’m going to have to pony up $10 to upgrade. It’s $25 for new users. Worth it IMHO.
Multi-protocol IM web client with Facebook support
I had been using Trillian to IM all my friends from ICQ, AIM, MSN, Yahoo, and gTalk; however, I switched to the web-based Meebo.com awhile back. Anyways, after being a little frustrated with the feature-lacking Facebook chat feature I just discovered that they added Facebook support to Meebo!
It’s very basic as well, but you can see a list of FB online friends and determine at a glance when they come off from being idle. The input area is nicer as well and each post shows a time which is nice. Check it out. Meebo is a free service.
Load Facebook into Firefox sidebar
Saw this idea while googling for a Facebook Firefox extension. Just make the iPhone version of Facebook load up into the Firefox sidebar! Easy as pie. Just bookmark the URL http://iphone.facebook.com and enable the “Load this bookmark in the sidebar” option at the bottom of the Firefox bookmark dialog. No extension needed. Suhweet!
Speed up FTP transfer by disabling SPI on your router
My VOIP phone service ViaTalk recommended I disable SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) on my router for better performance.
I did a little research and it appears that the primary purpose for this is to prevent DoS attacks which seems like overkill on a home router. Anyways, disabling didn’t seem to improve my VOIP service, but I was uploading a file today and was getting a significant upload speed improvement, maybe 20+%. Downloads seem faster as well. Nice!
Of course, if that is all this option is designed to do, it seems kind of stupid to have it on by default in a home-level router.
Note: On my DLink DIR-655 the option is under Firewall Settings on the Advanced tab.
UPDATE:
I should mention it speeds up downloads as well. A friend of mine who lives in Chicago was already getting an astounding 29,877 kbps down and 4655 kbps up. He switched SPI off and it increased to 32, 185 kbps down and 8,328 kbps up!
Make gMail your default Windows email client
I don’t run into it alot, but everyonce in a while I’d like to click on an email link to send an email. You know, something like doug@notmail.com. Well, unfortunately, I use gMail which is a web-based email client. Since you can’t set a web-based email service as the default Windows email client, Outlook will execute and the email will get sent from there. (My default Windows email client is Outlook, but I don’t use it very often. ) To circumvent this, I’ll cut and paste the email address into gMail.
Affixa has a nice little app that runs in your system tray that allows you to set your default Windows email client to a web-based email service like gMail. It even supports custom Google Docs domains.
If you enable the “I’m happy to let Affixa log into gMail for me” option and enter your mail login info, you should also enable the “Launch GMail after creating a draft message” option. If you don’t, Affixa creates a draft email that you have to dig up and edit.
Now apparently the main purpose of Affixa and the reason for its name, I’m assuming, is a feature where you can accumulate files into a “basket” and email the basket of files in one operation. You can save and load baskets, if needed. Basically, its the shopping cart metaphor.
I suppose this could be handy under the right circumstances. Normally, if I were sending an email with a bunch of attachments, it can be a pain to set the email and then hunt down all the desired files. Using Affixa, I can accumulate the files beforehand and then email in a simple operation.
The best part is the free version is pretty useful and ad-free. Check it out.
Jaiku goes open source. No more active development by Google
According to this post by Google, they are no longer going to actively develop Jaiku and will release the engine as an open-source project.
As we mentioned last April, we are in the process of porting Jaiku over to Google App Engine. After the migration is complete, we will release the new open source Jaiku Engine project on Google Code under the Apache License. While Google will no longer actively develop the Jaiku codebase, the service itself will live on thanks to a dedicated and passionate volunteer team of Googlers.
Well, I guess it could be worse. I still like Jaiku. Hopefully, this won’t affect TwitKu.com
Disabling Forecastbar Enhanced Firefox extension fixed memory leak
I’ve always had a severe memory leak issue with Firefox. FF will slowly grab more and more memory often hitting 1/2 GB with only 3-4 tabs open.
I use a ton of extensions and I read a couple sites where they listed off a bunch that were known to contribute to memory leaks. For whatever reason I zeroed in on Forecastbar Enhanced as a likely suspect. Well, low and behold, it seems to have fixed a major contributor to my problem. There are probably others and I’m disabling the ones that I can live without.
I’m sort of suspecting that it could be a combination of extensions because I use Forecastbar at work and it doesn’t eat away memory like at home. Oh well, I guess ya can’t argue with success.
Open Google Chrome links in Firefox…kinda
I like opening Gmail and Google Reader in Google Chrome (GC) because it seems to manage memory much nicer. Leaving those sites open in Firefox often results in hundreds of megabytes of RAM used. The problem is I’d like to open GC links in Firefox. I’ve got too many FF extensions that make life so much easier.
Right now I’m using the Open in Google Chrome FF extension so that these two sites open up GC. However, if I click a link on either, those obviously will continue to open up in GC. Note that the extension doesn’t open the link in a FF tab, but rather it runs the full GC app. Too bad someone doesn’t make a FF extension like IE Tab.
Anyways, I’ve discovered a workaround that sort of allows you to open a GC link in FF. First, you have to have both running. Then, drag the link to the Windows taskbar over the Firefox task and continue to hold your mouse button down. The Firefox window will come to the front and you just drop the link in the address bar.Note how the cursor changes as you move over FF.
I was hoping I could drop it over the task, but that doesn’t work. Note that you can drop the link over the browser window, but it replaces the existing URL. (Note that I have FF set to up new pages in a new tab.)
Save Firefox bookmarks to proper folder with Add Bookmark Here extension
Whenever I used to save bookmarks, I always had to first look at my bookmark hierarchy and figure out the best place to put the bookmark. Then, I could go ahead and save the bookmark. I stumbled onto this cool extension called Add Bookmark Here. It adds a menu item to the top of the normal Bookmarks menu or submenu that lets you add the current page to the folder being displayed in the Bookmarks menu. What a time saver!
While I’m on the subject of bookmarking, I’ve given up on Google bookmarks. I just never liked the lack of true support for hierarchy. Sure the extensions like Google Bookmark Button allow it, but it’s essentially a hack. The Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer extension is way better and you can bring your bookmarks up on the Internet if you need access to them remotely, like on your phone. Love it! Note that it’s even useful if you aren’t syncing bookmarks between multiple computers due to the Internet access. HIGHLY recommended.
About
· Quote of the moment: “The difference between fiction and reality? Fiction has to make sense.” — Tom Clancy
· job: CFO at an oil and gas inspection services company
· inaformerlife: musician, tech writer, 3D modeler/animator
· loves: my wife and 16-year old daughter
· interests: iPod Touch 2G, N95, Motion Computing LE1700 slate PC, subscription music, podcasts, vDrums, gadgets, web dev, VB6, my 350Z, World Champion Lakers, getting a deal online, finding the perfect app
· new_toys: 32GB iPod Touch 2nd gen, Samsung LN52A650 52″ LCD HDTV
· other: i’m a recovering domain-aholic…
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