I started out reading on my Windows Mobile device and continue to do so because the one thing I have with me all the time is my phone. The e-reader software that I used back then was Peanut Press, which was later bought buy Palm, and then bought again by Barnes & Noble.

Lately, I have been testing a free program called Freda, which uses the increasingly more common and popular ePUB format [wikipedia]. With all the e-reader and tablet talk these days, there are a lot more options for accessing ebooks and ebook libraries as well as new hardware form factors.

For now, I’ve settled on managing my ebooks locally (rather than in a proprietary marketplace). I have found a couple tools that help make this easier. The first is a desktop e-reader application called Stanza which can also do some basic format conversion. They have since been bought by Amazon (you see the M&A theme going on in this marketspace) and development seems to have stalled since the Big A have their own Kindle platform to promote.

The other application that I have been making good use out of is Calibre which is a library management application. The real power of Calibre is its ability to convert ebook formats intelligently with pretty good results. It is also able to sync and manage all your ebooks, but I haven’t really gotten into those functions yet.

I have had my Thinkpad T61 for over 2 years, and for the first year Windows Vista worked just fine. But in the last few months, I have been having annoying performance freezes. At first, I thought it was the battery going bad, then I tried changing the hard drive (thanks, Chik) which worked great for a while but then it started to hang again.

With all the hype about Windows 7, I was looking forward to making the switch. After running for a week now, everything is working great, even with the “unclean” install (more on that below). Almost all my applications installed without any problems, there were only a few that had to be run in “Compatibility” mode.

Here are some some lessons learned:

• “Clean Install” in Windows 7 does not include formatting the old partition [technet]. This was a bit of a shock when I found my original TEMP directory intact and after rooting around a bit found a folder called WINDOWS.OLD that kept the data from the previous install. Next time, choose “Custom Installation” and re-create the drive partition [engadget].
• Using Google Docs as an online notepad works great when re-installing systems. I could pull-up my documentation from any system without having to look for the actual file on disk. Gotta love the cloud.
• With more apps and files based off the web, there is less junk to install and backup/restore on a new system.
• Sometimes, Microsoft can still make good software .

And a list of leftovers:

• Videolan has a known driver bug in Windows 7 which causes pixelation (not limited to 64 bit installs). [Update 11/13/2009: VideoLan came out with fix in 1.0.3]
• Not sure if this is because of my “unclean install”, but folders and drives that I have renamed will revert after a restart. [Update 11/13/2009: I suspect this was SongBird over-aggressively managing external drive names and folders]
• Some programs with the option to launch at startup have to be manually added to the STARTUP folder.
• Old screensavers don’t seem to work properly.

Nowadays, we are used to hearing about security holes in software that could compromise our computer systems. Software companies are getting better at pushing updates, to the point where they are becoming more annoying than helpful. But for open source applications and smaller software companies, they tend to rely on “word of mouth” updates.

I came up with an effective solution to stay up to date without constantly being spammed with notifications. The website FileHippo keeps track of software that’s been updated and they also provide an application that will scan your computer, checking to see if you have the latest software versions. I tried that a couple of times but found it to be a hassle having to periodically run another application.

So instead, I realized that FileHippo has an RSS feed for updated applications and by subscribing to that feed, I know when different applications are updated and can apply them as needed. A side benefit is that I also learn about new applications which I may not have tried yet.

With the recent release of OpenOffice 3.0, I figured this would be a good time to review the different open source software applications that I have been using. This started primarily when I got my Thinkpad last year, and since then the applications have continued to improve in their feature sets, usability and design:

• Mozilla Firefox: now at version 3, this is proving to be the browser to beat, especially with all the extensions and soon to be offline and cloud syncing capabilities.

• VideoLAN: with a new version 0.9.4, this video player is more stable and now works better with subtitles.

• OpenOffice: as mentioned at the beginning of this post, this productivity suite is now at 3.0 with more than enough functionality to replace MS Office. And its included Draw program can replace Visio which isn’t even included in MS Office.

• Mozilla Songbird: I use this for listening to music and internet radio. It’s still in early beta, but already a pretty nice app.

• WordPress: strong blogging platform for greater control and customization. With automatic plugin upgrades working smoothly, the only piece left is automatic core upgrades so I don’t have to mess around with FTP.

• GIMP: editing pictures and images without having to payout for excessive, bulky, commercial apps.

• Synergy: desktop sharing with a single mouse and keyboard [previous post].

• Handbrake: converting DVDs to MPEG-4 files. Easy to use when it works.

• Scribus: I started using PageMaker back in the 90′s. Desktop publishing can be overkill for most projects, but this program has all the tools that I need when the occasion comes up.

• Filezilla: now that SmartFTP no longer has a trial version, had to find an alternative. Simple interface without the eye-candy, but it works.

• Freemind: haven’t been able to incorporate mind-mapping into my daily workflow, but when I need it, this app works just fine.

• Audacity: editing audio clips, works for trimming down ringtones.

• VirtualDub: cut and pasting video segments.

• TrueCrypt: file encryption, not difficult to use, but adds just a little bit more hassle which keeps it from being a daily necessity.

To try:

• Linux (Ubuntu): one excuse to try out a netbook. If I can ditch Windows all together, wouldn’t that be a neat trick. Unfortunately, device drivers will always be a challenge until hardware makers see the profitability.

• Electric Sheep: networked screensaver, just because they can.

• SugarCRM: possible sales tool to use at work.

• Rockbox: alternative multimedia player operating system for different hardware.

I have been using Firefox for a while now and whereas version 2 has been good, it has been plagued with a memory leak that gets so bloated that I have to re-start the browser every couple of hours. So when they announced Firefox 3, I kept wanting to try it out but decided to hold off on the beta builds until they were more stable. Well, they finally came out with the first Release Candidate version, and I decided it’s time to take the plunge.

Lifehacker has a helpful article (as is often the case) on getting Firefox 3 up and running. The most useful tip is getting old extensions to work with the Nightly Tester Tools extension.

Unfortunately, not all was well with the upgrade. After installing Firefox 3 and the Nightly Tester Tools extension to force extension compatibility, Firefox kept crashing on startup. So I had to start it in Safe Mode and disable all the extensions. I then tested them one by one to find out which one really wasn’t compatible. Here’s the good news, the extensions that worked:

• Adblock Plus
• All-in-One Gestures
• coComment (not working completely, does not collect comments)
• Diigo Toolbar
• Email This!
• Google Gears [updated]
• Google Toolbar for Firefox [updated 6/17/2008]
• Grab and Drag
• Greasemonkey
• IE View Lite
• Image Zoom
• Nightly Tester Tools
• Tab Mix Plus (after installing developer build)

And here were the ones that didn’t:

• del.icio.us Complete
• Google Browser Sync (discontinued via Lifehacker)
  

Firefox 3 does seem to be more stable and the memory leak seems to be better contained. With the previous version, the site that caused the worst runaway memory leaks was Google Sites, so I’m leaving it open to see how well Firefox 3 copes with it. Regardless, it looks like the general direction is positive. Now if Google would just show Firefox 3 some love, all would be good.

Update: After trying to use the del.icio.us Complete extension, realized it didn’t work and it looks like this extension is no longer being developed. Had to switch to del.icio.us official Firefox extension.

Update: When trying to install Firefox 3 rc3 on my Thinkpad with Vista, ran into this Windowblinds bug. Upgrading to the latest version of Windowblinds 6.1 build 97 eliminated the problem.

I’ve been waiting a while to get a next-generation camcorder and finally decided to pull the trigger on the Canon HG10. Essentially, what I was looking for was a hard-drive based device that would record in high-definition (HD). The hard-drive based feature solves the hassle of transferring videos to a non-linear format (from tape to file) by eliminating the tape. And the Canon does both with a 40GB hard-drive and takes advantage of the latest high quality video format, namely AVCHD.

Hardware wise, everything works quite well. The camcorder itself is small enough to hold with one hand, but one thing that I realized is that a stand comes in handy, especially when making use of the 10x zoom. I decided to go with a monopod since it gives me the versatility of moving around and settled on a basic model, ProMaster 1700 Monopod.

I also found a great minimalistic strap which is length-adjustable, OP/TECH Mini Loop QD Strap.

On the software side, it’s disappointing that Windows Vista does not natively support AVCHD. But fortunately, I still have a registered copy of Pinnacle Studio 11, which does support AVCHD and also works quite well in Windows Vista. With Studio, I am able to edit and convert the video files to more common HD video formats.

For video sharing, I can use my original workflow and upload the processed videos to Vimeo. What is great is that Vimeo came out with support for HD video, so the videos that I share from the Canon HG10 are at a much higher resolution and the proper widescreen aspect ratio. The one limitation is that when you embed the Vimeo videos, they revert to a lower resolution, but that’s not that big a deal since you can always go to the Vimeo site to view the HD versions.

You can go to my Vimeo video page to see some recent videos:
Vimeo/emmfan.

Update: I actually finished this review back in December, but just around the time that I was going to publish, the camera’s zoom function stopped working. I took it into Canon’s repair center just before Christmas, and they finally fixed it a month later. It would seem that the camera is rather fragile, at least this particular unit. So we’ll see how it holds up after the repair.

I can’t even remember when I first started to save and preserve my internet bookmarks from version to version, computer to computer, and even in the switch from Internet Explorer to Firefox (I’m sure it didn’t go all the way back to my Netscape browsing days). Well, last week, I finally went through my old bookmarks that have been stagnating in my Firefox browser ignored and unused.

I used to spend a lot of time organizing and maintaining them, but in the last few years, I’ve slowly moved away from using them, having found more effective solutions online. Hence the title of this post, which is in reference to an increasingly popular concept, cloud computing. This is the notion that instead of storing information, in this example bookmarks, locally on my computer, I save them on the web, or “in the clouds”.

Here’s a list of web applications that I use in place of my old bookmarks folders and some descriptions of how I use them:

• del.icio.us: any interesting sites that I want to ‘bookmark’ go into this account, which I also publish as an RSS feed.
• Bloglines: RSS feed reader to keep up with news items published from websites that I follow.
• Google Maps: geographical tagging of locations which I frequent or would like to check out.
• Google Docs: organized notes of topics that I have researched online
• Google Web History: using the Google Toolbar I have an online accessible record of my browsing history which is also searchable in case I want to find a site that I visited before but forgot to record.
• Remember the Milk: task list of things to do, websites to visit, topics to research, etc.
• diigo: in conjunction with a Firefox add-on, I can annotate and highlight web documents.
• Amazon Wishlist: for products that I am interested in or want to keep track of.
• Review sites: keep track of those items which I have tried or would like to try.
  • Yelp: restaurants and stores
  • Flixster: movies
  • Goodreads: books

By definition, these applications are accessible from any computer or device that can go online. But that is also one of their downsides, since for the most part they cannot be accessed offline. That is until offline solutions like Google Gears are more widely implemented.

Another interesting thing that I noticed as I was putting together this post was that these web applications are more than just a repository for what I used to use as ‘bookmarks’. They provide a richer experience and collection of all the things that I do both online AND offline. I guess I should re-word the title, but ‘Stuff in the Clouds’ just didn’t sound right.

It’s been nearly five months since I last made any significant programming and design changes to philomyth.us. As before, there were some security and programming upgrades for the underlying wordpress site software. And also, since toying with Facebook, I found some features that I could share across platforms.

I also took the opportunity to overhaul the theme design since I never could get the previous theme to work properly in Internet Explorer [get firefox] and the previous theme was also somewhat cumbersome so that I couldn’t easily make changes without having to re-learn the entire setup. I ended up choosing a theme called Cleaker 2.1, which after some customizations and modifications, I am very happy with.

Lastly, I updated the plugins (or add-ons), “out with the old in with the new”. Here’s a list of the plugins that I am running currently:

• A Different Monthly Archive Script: posting calendar
• Akismet: comment spam
• Brian’s Latest Comments: comment listing
• flickrRSS: flickr photostream
• Samsarin PHP Widget: php coded widgets
• SparkStats: posting graph
• SRG Clean Archives: post archives
• Subscribe2: email subscriptions
• Subscribe To Comments: comment notification
• Time Zone: daylight savings time adjustment
• Ultimate Tag Warrior: post tags
• Wordbook: facebook crossposting
• WordPress.com Stats: site traffic
• WordPress Database Backup: automatic backups
• WordPress PDA: mobile-friendly site
• WP AJAX Edit Comments: comment editing

As I mentioned earlier, I replaced a couple of plugins with ones that could be shared with Facebook:

• Now Reading -> GoodReads
• Movie Ratings -> Flixster

With any major site revisions, if you see anything that isn’t working quite right, please let me know in the comments.

After 4 years with my Dell Latitude D600 (b-school was on Dell contract during my enrollment ), I have returned to the Thinkpad fold. Previous to the Dell, I had the Thinkpad A21p (thanks to Justin for hooking me up back then), which was a beautiful machine. The best review comment was “If Darth Vader had a laptop, this is what he would get.” Now, after some build and shipping fiascos, I finally have my Thinkpad T61 [review].

It didn’t take long for me to get used to Vista, the latest version of Windows (not much different, prettier). And since I have moved more web-based with my applications and storage, setting up was mostly just installing Firefox + plugins and opening my personalized Google page (I can’t bring myself to call it iGoogle, just sounds too Apple-ish).

As for the applications that I do need to install locally, I am trying out more open-source and / or free apps to save some money and see how they hold-up to their commercial competitors. Here’s a list of finds that I have installed:

• Firefox: browser
• Open Office: office productivity
• Avast: antivirus (thanks Elijah for the recommendation)
• uTorrent: downloads
• 7-zip: file compression
• VideoLAN: multimedia
• Synergy: desktop workspace sharing (deserves a post of its own)

For some Thinkpad link love and resources:

• Thinkpad Support Community
• Lenovo Blogs
• ThinkWiki (for when I am ready to make the switch to Linux)

For most software or web links, I usually save them in my del.icio.us bookmarks which are listed in the main sidebar. But this one totally stood out for me this past week.

In the process of setting up my new Thinkpad (more in a later post), I found this great open-source software which:

…lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware.

Everytime I see the cursor move from one monitor to the next, it gives me goosebumps, and the novelty still hasn’t wore off. One thing I noticed in showing this feature off to some friends is that guys definitely appreciate it more whereas most women just go, “Isn’t it supposed to do that.” It may be that men tend to be more aware of the limitations of equipment; whereas, women just use them regardless of the limitations. (and as we are learning in our church small group, “not wrong, just different”.)

The software was quite easy to setup, even though the documentation is pretty sparse. Engadget has a tutorial from a couple of years ago for an older version, but it is still somewhat helpful in figuring the settings out. If you have any questions as to how to set it up, just drop me a line and I’ll be more than happy to walk you through it.