Google Reader – end of an era

Today is the last day of updates to shared items in Google Reader, as Google converts Google Reader to push eyeballs to Google Plus.

I’ve removed the shared items widget from this blog, though there are still a couple of links to my shared items archive at the bottom right. Not sure how long they will work.

I’m going to try switching over to Tumblr to store and publish the items I want to share from Google Reader. The link for that is http://iponderus.tumblr.com, and the RSS feed is http://iponderus.tumblr.com/rss . So ironically you can view the feed of my shared items from Google Reader in Google Reader, but it will be Tumblr powering it now.

I think the preferred method (at least the one Google would prefer) is that I “plus one” the items. However my Google Plus account is personal, so no one besides close friends and family would be able to see those, as best as I can tell. Good move Google. Oh well, progress is like this sometimes.

USB Video Cards – not so much

So I had a laptop in “the shop” here for troubleshooting. Wouldn’t boot. Turned out it was booting, just not showing video, not even POST and BIOS status.

Long story short, it’s an HP laptop that probably has the NVIDIA mobile video board problem. It’s so widespread I’m not even going to post a link, just google “nvidia video laptop”. It’s not the first time I’ve seen it either. However the latest (and not the only) settlement http://www.tomshardware.com/news/gpu-failure-g84-g86-settlement,11400.html  has closed, so there’s no recourse.

I was able to get it up, literally after a couple of evenings of dorking with it, by getting it into safe mode with an external monitor. From there I was able to drop the driver back to the Windows default VGA, and boot the laptop, still with the external monitor, at 640x480 (cue painful sigh).

I had a brainstorm. I would get one of those USB video cards I always see advertised, and bypass the internal soldered card! It would not be a mobile solution (as an external monitor would be required) but it would at least make the laptop usable (with a decent resolution and color depth).

So I ordered one from Amazon, for about $60. About the middle of the road in price and quality I’d say. Well to cut to the chase, what I found is that these devices, which depend on a technology called DisplayLink http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DisplayLink , need an actual working video adapter in the PC, in order to work. All they do is EXTEND so you can mirror or extend your desktop. So if your video card is missing, broken, or even just having driver issues, the USB card won’t work. Big bummer. Well, at least you don’t have to spend your money learning this lesson! And I can use the device, no worries about that.

Borrowing a Kindle Book from the Library

I finally got around to trying this myself, and it works pretty good.

The library site is nowhere near as good as Amazon’s for searching, browsing, or choosing books. But it works.

In fact you get thrown to Amazon’s site at least once during the “checkout” process (which requires no money of course).

But I can say I’ve tried it, and I can show others how to use it now.

I’d like to think I could buy less e-books, because I can get books from the library now on my Kindle, and I’m not particularly interested in reading things twice. But the website has to get better first, and I have some concerns around availability – from the little I could tell it looked like a lot of the books were out – supply exceeding demand at least during the honeymoon period here. Time will tell.

iOS5 tips – iCloud sync vs Google sync

One of my favorite topics is PIM (personal information management I think) – contacts and calendar basically. Sometimes email and notes and tasks are included. I struggle with remembering things and staying organized like many people, thus the interest.

I’ve written posts before on keeping iOS products in sync with desktop and web PIM tools, the challenges of cross-platform, etc. Challenges there had settled down lately with the maturity of Google’s products, and the ubiquity of Exchange sync.

Now iCloud comes roaring into town, packing heat and looking to have a showdown. This is actually my biggest “head-scratcher” with iOS5 right now. How do I either make them play nice, or choose between them? There’s still lots of “dorking” to be tried, but so far it looks like playing nice is not a realistic option.

I’m not alone in this conundrum. Here’s a small sampling of other people who are asking the same questions:

• http://iphonehelp.in/2011/10/14/icloud-doesnt-work-with-google-sync/
• http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/gmail/thread?tid=0610650f9bcb357f&hl=en
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/apple-iphone-ios-5-icloud-problems-decline-after-initial-stumbles/2011/10/14/gIQAxa2XkL_story.html
• http://www.ausbt.com.au/icloud-for-business-travellers-your-essential-guide
• http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/icloud-explained-things-to-consider-before-embracing-the-cloud/
• http://daggle.com/outlook-icloud-google-calendar-sync-2748
• http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-1168685.html
• http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-1247881.html
• http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-1181601.html

iOS5 tips – PC-free install apps

I figured out a workaround to having to reinstall apps from the “Purchased” list! As I mentioned in an earlier post,that is unworkable if you have more than a handful of apps.

It’s hoaky, but hey… here’s what you do – go into iTunes on the PC (I know,I know) and look at your app list there. Then you can more easily see what apps you need to install, and keep your place as you are working through them. When you see one you want, SEARCH for it in the App Store on the iPhone. Then you can use the multitasking to get back to the App Store and one click brings you back to Search for the next one.

iOS5 tips – Multiple IDs (part 2)

Finally some official guidance from Apple (or perhaps this was out there and none of my searches turned it up?)

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT4895

iOS5 tips – PC-free installing apps one at a time

I have to think that most folks who are going PC-free (not syncing to iTunes anymore) are also going clean install (versus upgrade). Me too.

Here is one gotcha to that scenario. That means all your apps (besides the default Apple ones) have to be downloaded and installed from the App Store. True you can get them from the “Purchased/Not on this iPhone” list. But guess what – they have to be picked and installed individually from that list, and the list tends to reset (put you at the top) in between each install.

Imagine how long that takes, waiting for each app to install, then coming back to the list and trying to find where you were. Many people have hundreds and hundreds of apps now. It’s a nightmare.

iOS5 tips – multiple Apple IDs

Here's a couple of clear explanations of some of the in and outs of multiple Apple accounts with iOS5:

• https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3102518?start=0&tstart=0
• http://appadvice.com/appnn/2011/10/how-to-use-icloud-in-a-family-setting-share-apps-but-not-contacts
• http://www.ifans.com/forums/showthread.php?t=344417

Clean install:

• http://www.mactrast.com/2011/10/ios-5-has-arrived-heres-how-to-update-your-idevice/

iOS5 tips – iCloud and @me.com mail

Ok as I install and configure and use iOS5, I plan to post any tips I figure out, here (in the blog), with a title that starts with “iOS5 tips”, and with a tag of iOS5. I’m not going to attempt to classify or organize them, I’m just going to plop them here.

Here’s two to get the ball rolling:

If the iCloud (@me.com) mail account is failing to send mail:

• Open the Settings app.
• Choose “iCloud” and then the email address next to “Account”.
• Scroll down to Advanced and choose the email address (yourid@me.com) next to “Mail”.
• Choose whatever is next to “SMTP” (for me it is “iCloud SMTP Server”).
• Choose “Add Server”. Put in “smtp.me.com” for the Host Name, the part before the @sign from your @me.com email address for the User Name, and your iCloud password for Password (even if the iCloud and @me.com account names are different, even if you never set up the email password).
• “Ok” your way out, open mail, delete the one that was failing, and create a new mail. If it doesn’t send again, try a full restart (by holding down the power button and the button on the bottom of the screen all the way until you see the apple signifying it is restarting. Try to send mail again.

Actually the second tip is embedded already in the first – but I’ll point it out again because it’s tricky. If you elect to go the multiple Apple accounts route ( a different account/email address for iTunes than for iCloud, and a non- @me.com email address for the iCloud account, and you want the iCloud mail – then you end up with a new @me.com email address that you are never required to set up a password for. Trust me on this, the password is the same as the one for your iCloud account, despite the fact that they are different email addresses. In fact I think you can use the @me.com email address to log in to iCloud too, which is weird because it doesn’t technically seem to be an Apple account.

Free and Easy screensharing and remoting

• http://www.teamviewer.com
• https://join.me/
• https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gbchcmhmhahfdphkhkmpfmihenigjmpp

There's been some progress with free, easy to use, relatively secure remoting (screenshare) programs since I last looked into the category. Here are three I am interested in. I'm currently using Teamviewer. Join.me comes from Logmein, and the Chrome plug-in is from Google.

John C. Dvorak calls Facebook "the next AOL"

John C. Dvorak calls Facebook "the next AOL".

This was on Leo LaPorte's Twit podcast #320 ("Sign Both Petitions"). - http://twit.tv/show/this-week-in-tech/320

The impression is that he is quoting a piece he wrote some time previously.

If you remember AOL in it's heyday then I don't need to say anything more. He nailed it.

Joby gorillamobile Ori for iPad2

I’ve been waiting impatiently for this one. The Ori iPad case has finally been updated for iPad 2 -

http://joby.com/gorillamobile/ori-2/video

This lightweight aluminum composite thing-a-ma-jig is a case and a stand. Not only do you get a really strong case, but the stand functionality is like nothing else I’ve seen – while other stands only seem to go halfway to being useful, this one gets the iPad where you want it, at angles that save your neck. And I think the price has dropped a little.

Harry Potter and Doctor Who walk into a bar

Today I’d like to take a break from the tech topics I usually discuss, and veer into literary territory. Harry Potter and Doctor Who have two interesting characteristics in common, and I’d like to present them as a shared compliment and criticism.

Let’s start with the compliment. I believe the authors of these two media properties owe their success almost solely to their understanding of a key concept. We identify with the underdog. We invest in that plucky fighter who never gives up, who the odds are always against, who is always one step away from certain defeat and death. There are all these micro-cliff-hangers throughout because of these overwhelming odds, that juice us on adrenaline and keep us hooked.  And then, wow if that guy (or girl) somehow snatches victory at the very last second despite everything, that makes us happy. 

And if that every-man, rag-tag, too small, no skills, picked-on, kicked around, out-numbered loser does end up losing in the end, well don’t think about writing a part 2. We feel betrayed. But even worse is a heroes’ hero, strong physique, flies, every bad guy is two steps behind him. We don’t invest in him because we don’t identify with him. There are no challenges so we get bored. The only reason comic book super-heroes have hung around is because they developed weaknesses.

Speaking of comic books, they also illustrate my second point, my criticism, as do Harry Potter and Doctor Who. As I mentioned above, we invest and identify with these plucky underdogs. Therefore the one thing you cannot do is betray us. Besides having them lose in the end, there are several other “writing devices” which constitute betrayal in my opinion, such as having the character die and then bringing them back to life, or having the character lose and then turning back time, or saying it was somebody’s dream, or events in an alternate universe. These are cheap cop-outs. We invest in those events as much as the characters, and snatching them back like an “indian giver” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_giver kills an amount of trust each time. Sure I get writing yourself into a hole, when you have to up the ante each time, but I expect better.

PS. No need to comment that Doctor Who is a TV show not a book. I meant literary in the sense that each episode is written down before it is directed .