Virtualization and another Buzz

Virtualization is causing a buzz in Technology right now.
It has Microsoft's attention at the moment in the software world with Microsoft releasing the latest update to Virtual Server, Virtual Server 2005 R2 as a free download. Of course this has nothing to do with VMWare offering their VMware Server Beta for free. Then of course there is the buzz about virtualization in the hardware world with Xen for Linux and Intel's whatever...

Without going into too much detail virtualization refers to running more than one Client or Server Operating System at a time on a single hardware box. Of course there is more to it than that, with another flavor of virtualization being an implementation from Altiris that allows applications to run with controlled access to the underlying OS (Altiris SVS). What's great is that a lot of the software tools have free versions. VMwares Virtual Player is one of them.

Virtualization is something I work with almost every day, but another buzz is about something I only just heard about for the first time: Rails for Ruby.

Rails for Ruby, which is being hailed as a successor to Java as it is a whole lot faster to develop web-based database applications. The language itself, Ruby has been around since about 1993.
"Rails is a full-stack framework for developing database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Control pattern. From the Ajax in the view, to the request and response in the controller, to the domain model wrapping the database, Rails gives you a pure-Ruby development environment. To go live, all you need to add is a database and a web server." this is according to the official website RubyOnRails.org

Instant Rails for Ruby on Rails which includes everything needed to setup Rails for Ruby can be found here

AOL Music canceled

Well, I finally canceled my trial of AOL Music Service, before the 30 day trial period had ended of course. It was just that it was so difficult. First, because I wasn't sure that the Music Service was what AOL calls a "Premium Service", I got put through to the wrong department who put me through to Bangalore or somewhere similar. I was then advised to phone the number I had phoned. By the time I go through to the right human being it was hard to be civil.

Canceling Rhapsody was easier and they actually asked why. AOL it seems couldn't care.

U3 and PortableApps

That is U3 and not the famous U2.
Both U3 and PortableApps are methods of storing and running Applications from USB Flash Drives. U3 is a platform and a USB Flash Drive has to be a "U3 smart drive" to run U3 applications. PortableApps on the other hand will work on any USB Flash Drive. The other difference is that PortableApps features mainly Open Source (free) software, whereas U3 has some freeware but mainly commercial applications, like ThinkFree Office for U3 (I guess the "Free" of ThinkFree is Free of MS?) and WinRAR for U3.

My boss remarked that this was like the old days of DOS and floppy disks - remember when you could run a program from a floppy drive? In fact, right now flash drives of 512MB or less would be recognized as a floppy drive when it comes to booting from them.
There are a number of ways to make a USB Flash Drive bootable with everything from DOS to Windows versions to (of course) Linux. Unfortunately this will work only if your PC or Notebooks BIOS supports booting from a USB device, and this is limited to PCs from the last year or so. See Bootdisk.info for more information.

Successful Downgrade

This week I successfully downgraded from Graffiti 2 on my Tungsten T3 to Graffiti 1. Why would I do that you may ask? Well, I got tired of not being able to write the letter "x", no matter how hard I tried.

Admittedly, Graffiti 2 is a lot closer to normal handwriting, although each letter needs to be formed individually like in the first version of Graffiti. I was actually starting to get used to it, but then had to write something on a handheld which had version 1 on it. It reminded me of how quick easy those shortcut strokes are to write.

There are lots of articles on how to downgrade the web, like this one from Palm Infocenter.

As a comparison, the two versions of Graffiti look as follows:

Graffiti 1:


Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia has an excellent article on Graffiti and why Palm brought out version 2.

Graffiti 2:


The Palm site has an article on how Graffiti 2 is "intuitive and easier to learn".

Something cool on a warm night

No, I'm not referring to an ice cold Bud Light, but a Tech kind of cool: Specifically a network update of the Sony PSP firmware to version 2.70. The network update feature has been there since the PSP came out, but I've just never used it before. Of course it makes perfect sense to allow updating the operating system and other features of the console over a wireless connection, since the PSP has built-in Wi-Fi.



Up until now I've done it in the "old-fashioned" way, downloading using my PC. I had forgotten about this feature until I was browsing the Sony Playstation website with my PSP (seemed a logical thing to do), and read up about the new features of the firmware upgrade and decided to apply it. Initially, before I even got the PSP, firmware upgrades were more for taking things away, locking down the PSP and making it more difficult to hack. In fact, the firmware version my Sony PSP came with (2.0 I think), is pretty much un-hackable. Version 1.5 was a favorite of the Homebrew crowd, they could add their own web browser and other software. Then games came out with firmware upgrades on the UMD (disk) - if you want to play the game you had to upgrade your firmware. Anyway, now Sony has been adding features: 2.0 had a Web Browser, 2.6 added support for RSS Feeds, and 2.7 adds support for Macromedia Flash (not a favorite of mine - those Flash ads bug me so much I've disabled them in Firefox, and unless the otherwise excellent Opera browser allows Flash to be disabled I'm not going to bother to use it). More importantly, this upgrade supports audio Podcasts (called something else - "Audio content" - of course), and the saving of multimedia content from the web browser to a Memory Stick. Video podcasts have been promised in a future update.

As an aside, CNET.com has the Sony PSP Rated as the most popular PVP (Personal Video Player). I've watched a movie on the Sony PSP, and the aspect ratio of its 4 inch screen is perfect widescreen movies. Of course a protective case like the Logitech PlayGear helps, as it can be flipped around to hold the PSP in the right position for movie watching. The stereo speakers are also adequate for the task.

Web on TV? No: TV on Web

After several attempts to get internet content on television, none with much success, now the big guns are trying to get Television content on the Internet. Like AOL

Online Music Services

I was going to do a review on the Online Music Services, including subscription music, "Music To Go" and straight download services. However someone has already done this:
Here's a blog, which reviews Music Subscription Services:
TechCrunch

PC Magazine also did a review "Subscriptions for a Song"

Still, here is my take on the services I've tried so far:
Rhapsody Online is one of the most expensive Online Services (for downloading Subscription Music). But they were offering a 30-day free trial. To use their service you have to download their software. Its actually quite easy to use, and I had no problems downloading Subscription tracks to a Sandisk Sansa as well as an iRiver H10. They have a wide selection of music, and when you view an artist they list other similar artists. This works quite well. Some groups and tracks are for purchase only.

Then I tried AOL Music Service. My initial impressions were not good, especially compared to Rhapsody. Although this is supposed to have a web-only interface, you still have to install the AOL Music Download Utility. The Web interface to AOL Music is pathetically slow, even on a broadband collection. otherwise, they have a fairly good selection of music, although you are left on your own regarding similar artists.

Frozen Mini

Last night my Apple iPod Mini starting giving trouble. At first I thought it was frozen, but the player can play songs using the wired remote. So it seemed that the click wheel wasn't working.
I scoured the web for solutions. After trying to to reset it according to instructions on the Apple support site, I did the next suggested solution: drained the battery and recharged it. The reset still didn't work. Then I tried restoring the iPod to factory settings. I can transfer songs to the player, and play them using the remote, but the clickwheel - probably the single best feature of the iPod - still doesn't work.
Of course it is no longer under warranty. The 30 day warranty ended over a month ago.

What really burns me is that I could have got a refurbished second generation iPod Mini (this one is a first generation - main difference being 2nd generation gets 18 hours battery life instead of 8) directly from Apple.com with a better warranty for less than I paid for this piece of crap...

Technology moves fast (sometimes)

One technology which is moving particularly fast - probably because there is so much consumer demand - is MP3 Players.
I guess I should have realized when I bought the SanDisk Sansa 240 1GB MP3 Player on special that there was a new one coming (I suspected that something was up).
Now I see that SanDisk has come out with the Sansa c100 and Sansa e100 series of MP3 Players. Instead of boring mono screens, these new ones come with full color screens, and the e100 series can play video.

According to CNET "The SanDisk Sansa e200 series combines copious features such as subscription compatibility, an FM tuner/recorder, voice recording, and photo and video playback into a compact and durable device. We like the tactile navigation wheel, as well as the well-designed software interface. The user-removable battery and the Micro SD slot are nice touches, and the device has decent sound quality, processor performance, and battery life."
and
From CNET's SanDisk Sansa e270 (6 GB) review:
"The SanDisk Sansa e200 series offers a boatload of features for a reasonable price, in a package that is much nicer than that of past SanDisk models. For those looking for a high-capacity, compact, skip-free MP3/WMA player, start with the e200 series."

The Sansa e200 series starts with a 2GB capacity and goes all the way up to a 6 GB capacity, 2GB more than any iPod Nano at present.

The SanDisk Sansa m240:


The SanDisk Sansa e200:


Everyone say Ooooh!

Mobile Internet Part IV

(I use Roman numerals because they seem fairly well understood in the U.S., probably due to the Super Bowl)
Once again I tried using the wireless Internet on my Tungsten T3 with the CPU at full speed (400MHz). I may have been expecting too much, but eBay was extremely sluggish in loading. Only got past the login screen, and page just loaded too slowly, even with "Load Images" turned off. I tried again, and the T3 did a fatal reset, which messed up the Virtual Graffiti area. Is it due to a better Operating System (Linux) that the 200MHz Sharp Zaurus can browse not just eBay, but another page at the same time? Or is it the Opera Browser? There are rumors that Palm is working on Linux-based operating system for their handhelds - see this article at PalmInfoCenter

Apple boots Microsoft

Apple Unveils Software to boot into Windows XP, according to this article in My Way News. But that's what Microsoft has been wanting to do to Apple for ages!

How?

No, me not speak with forked tongue. In my previous blog entry I mentioned starting to cut the umbilical cord with the Treo. I didn't mention how. Well, I've started using the Motorola V600 as a cellphone now, leaving the Treo at home. Instead of the Treo I use a Tungsten T3 for handheld computer functions.

The Tungsten T3 is quite an awesome handheld. The Virtual Graffiti area is better than that of the Sony NX60 and the landscape mode really handy. The 400 MHz processor makes response times snappy, and the Treo 600 is slow in comparison.


T3 closed


T3 open (in Portrait Mode)


T3 in Landscape Mode

Untitled?

This blog entry was originally entitled: "Treos, T3s and the Dark Side", but it was just taking me too long to finish, and I just wasn't getting to the Dark Side. So I decided to post it in sections, not quite episodes, but smaller chunks.

This week I started to cut the umbilical cord with the Treo. It only has one or two programs that are not on the Tungsten T3, but I had to do it sometime. The biggest move of course will be getting the Tungsten T3 to HotSync with my main Desktop. I have to totally uninstall the Treo Palm Desktop, and then install the T3 Palm Desktop from scratch, and install the programs that need to synchronize with the T3. This is a multi-step process, as I need to have a running Treo Desktop on another machine (or partition) first.

Hold on, why am I moving off of the Treo?...

I sit corrected

In a previous post which mentioned subscription music and "Music To Go", I implied that subscription music and "Music To Go" were one and the same thing.

They are not. The Music Subscription Services offer "To Go" as an option - usually a more expensive one, which means that downloaded music can be transferred to a compatible device. Otherwise the music can only be played on one or more PCs.

Dell captures aliens!

Oh no, got that wrong, it should read - "Dell buys Alienware" - according to this article from My Way News

Sidetracked but successful

To back-track for a moment, before I started looking at the iPod Mini, I was sidetracked by a non-iPod Flash memory based player - a Sandisk Sansa - on sale at a local store. Cheaper than a 1 GB iPod Shuffle, it has a display, as well as an FM Radio. (No iPod that I know of has an FM Radio - although FM is not really a factor for me, as I am unable to listen to commercial radio because of the commercials). The 1GB Sandisk Sansa had fairly good reviews online, so I got it. It isn't as sleek as the iPod Nano, but it is small and light and has a readable mono display. The controls are quite simple too figure out. Downloading songs didn't require any special software either. The problem is, it didn't take me long to fill up 1GB with songs. This was especially true since the Sansa supports subscription music or "Music To Go", and I started a free trial of one of the subscription services.

What's subscription music or "Music To Go"? Basically, for a monthly fee you can download as much music as your portable device can handle. Then, as long as you keep on paying the monthly fee you can listen to the music. The players use Digital Rights Management (DRM) to disable playing of the songs if you don't synchronize with the music service as a paid up subscriber. The songs also cannot be burned to CD and cannot be played on devices (including computers) which are not "Authorized" by the subscription service. So, of course I filled up the player with songs I liked but don't have on CD, and albums I'm considering buying as well as music from artists I haven't yet heard.
CNET has a whole article about it here.

Okay, so 1 GB wasn't enough, so I begun looking at higher capacity MP3 Players, and that led me to the 4 GB iPod Mini. I made the mistake of buying a refurbished one from eBay. If I'd shopped around more I would have found a refurbished one on Apple.com for cheaper. Oh well..

Oh, and how is the iPod? I had to read the manual to learn how to use the controls, but once I got them they were intuitively easy. The sound seems better than the Sansa. Best of all I discovered that the accessories for the iPod Mini are deeply discounted since it has been discontinued, so I was able to get an FM transmitter (iTrip) for less than $10. Now I can listen to the iPod in the car or on my home audio system.

The Search narrows

One thing that bothered me when I read reviews of the iPod Nano was that because this is a product which was only released in September of last year, there would be no bargain prices for it yet.
What set me thinking was this "quibble" from Consumer Reports:
"A 2-gigabyte (500-song) Nano costs $200, which bought you a 4-GB iPod Mini before it was discontinued. There's a 4-GB Nano for $250, which used to buy you a 6-GB iPod Mini."

It got me thinking whether the iPod Mini was still available. It is!

CNET Review of iPod Mini

MP3 Player Hunt Continued

Back issues of PC Magazine and an odd copy of Handheld Computing magazine helped clear up a misconception I had about the iPod Shuffle: from the name I wondered if it could only play in "shuffle" or random mode. This isn't the case. I looked at the low-priced 512 MB shuffle first, but discovered that it could only hold about 100 to 120 songs, depending on format. The 1 GB Shuffle was sold out wherever it was on special. One thing that put me off was a reviewer who recommended the iPod Shuffle as a second MP3 Player for those who already have a larger hard drive-based player. The Shuffle has no display to tell you what song you're listening to. After much thought, I decided I could not do without this feature so I could at least see what song, or Podcast or whatever was that I was listening to - and be able to find a song. This was especially so since most non-Apple MP3 players in this price range have this display.

Sticking with the iPods, the cheapest model with a display was the iPod Nano. This iPod has excellent reviews, and a price to go with it. For $140 and upwards for the 1GB iPod Nano you are really paying a premium.



So, there is a tiny color (176-by-132-pixel 1.5-inch) screen, on which you can view photos or album art. If I really want to view photos I'd use the 480-by-320-pixel 4.3 inch screen on my Tapwave Zodiac.

Apart from there being MP3 players from other manufacturers with larger capacity and more features, what finally put me off the Nano altogether were reports that the device scratches easily ("Although the device is durable, it scratches easily; blemishes show up more drastically on the black version" - excerpt from CNET.com review). I didn't want to pay so much to have to baby an MP3 Player.

And yet the coolness factor of the iPod is so strong.

Oh, what to do...

MP3 Player Hunt

Okay, so I knew very little about the latest MP3 Players, but I wanted to get one (for why see Got an MP3 Player?). I had last looked at MP3 players in early 2003, before deciding to buy the Sony Clie NX60. Of course, things have changed a lot since then.

There seem to be two types of MP3 Players: Flash-based Players and Hard Drive-based Players. According to wikipedia there are three types, but I'm not counting MP3 CD Players.

There are also iPods and Everything else, or Anything But iPod.

My criteria was for a small player, definitely smaller than any of my handhelds or even my Sony Net MD Walkman MZ-NF520D.

Since I had recently seen one on special, I first looked at the iPod Shuffle.



(to be continued...)

Mobile Internet Part III

In a previous blog Mobile Internet II I said that the Dell Axim X30 with built-in Wireless "worked like a dream" at a hotel hotspot.
Okay, well that hotspot did not have encryption, and at home I have encrypted wireless. The Dell Axim runs like a dog on my home Wi-Fi (and I don't mean a greyhound!). Possibly I'm not using the correct wireless client - there are several available on the Axim. Anyway, the only site I can get onto is Yahoo.

My Linux-based Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 with a Compact Flash Wi-Fi card has no problems with this encrypted wireless network, and puts the Dell to shame. I was planning to sell the Zaurus, but not any more.

Just for interest, here is a picture of the Treo 600 next to the Sharp Zaurus (the Zaurus is closed, it is even longer with the keyboard opened).