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Computer Archives

Presto -- HP Mailbox Printing System
December 3, 2007 | | TrackBacks

Presto.jpg
Imagine this. Someone you care about is not connected to the internet. Hard to imagine, but they’re still out there. It could be a parent or grandparent, a brother or sister, a favorite cousin, or even someone's sick child. You call this person every week or maybe even every day. You can’t see them in person as much as you’d like, and you know they’re lonely and feeling left out. You also own a digital camera, but they can’t or just don’t have the ability to have an internet connection or a computer to make messages and pictures easy to share.

Set up a Presto for them and they can receive a daily email from you to brighten their day, without an internet connection. Attach a picture of you waving hello, or of any important event they have to miss. Then when you call it makes talking about the day or event even more special.

For about $100 - $130 you can buy the Presto. It’s basically an easy-to-use printer that receives email up to five different times a day, at times that you control. You set up the account online, set the preferences, and set up payment for the service at a cost of only about $10 a month. Plug in the Presto, plug their phone line to it, and it’s ready to go. Paper and ink are included and can be monitored on-line. Both are easy to replace when needed. No need to worry about spam, either, since you have to specifically set people up to allow them to send to the account. Information cards are also provided that contain access numbers. Your loved one can hand them out to other friends/family members to set themselves up, so they don’t have to wait for you to do it for them.

Go to www.Presto.com and check it out. As a Hospice volunteer I made friends with a lovely lady whose husband had passed away while under Hospice care. Her grown children and grandchildren were connected to the internet, but this lady had no way to receive emails, and no way to set up an internet connection. I hooked her up with one of these and it’s been working great for three months. I’ve yet to have to change the ink. I was also able to set her up to receive ‘Newsstand’ items such as a weekly article from Andy Rooney and daily gossip article from Liz Smith.

Presto – it was just that easy.

Wireless Belk Flip KVM
July 23, 2007 | | TrackBacks

Wandering through Circuit City I found that the Flip now provides a wireless option! ($80) Read about my original Flip review and just imagine the control button now being a wireless button.. Im slowly getting rid of wires within my office.

HP Pavilion DV9500t
July 17, 2007 | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks

I've been a Dell loyalist since the start of time.. their products never seemed to die and customer support was always decent. I was in the market to purchase a new laptop and since all the shows I seem to watch lately have HP laptop commercials littered within them (and they look really good), I decided to go check out their laptop line just to see what's out there.


I honed in on the DV9000 series line, and went ahead building a custom high-grade entertainment laptop (aka the desktop killer) and ended up building up on the DV9500t model. Starting off with looks, they look pretty damn good. I really like the glossy black finish (the screen is glossy too) with a very nice script-like pattern that runs throughout the entire product. The dv9500t also offers few smaller changes, such as the addition of a fingerprint reader and a different Webcam from the other Pavilion models.


Here's a quick overview of what this beast looks like from the inside..


Price as reviewed/starting price$2,015/$1,199
Processor2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300
Memory2GB of 667MHz DDR2
Hard drive200GB at 5,400rpm
Graphics256MB Nvidia GeForce Go 8600M
ChipsetQuanta 30CB
Operating systemVista Home Premium
Dimensions (LWH)15.5x11x1.6 inches
Screen size (diagonal)17 inches
System weight/weight with AC adapter7.9/9 pounds


HP are doing something I havent seen the others (specially Dell) market is their laptop line of accessories.. reviewing their laptops they had an assortment of colors and skins that could be applied to the laptop to further personalize your machine. Very Apple of them to do that.


Like almost all desktop killers, the Pavilion dv9500t's keyboard is full size and includes a 10-key numeric keypad. The somewhat compact touch pad includes a scroll zone, and I can appreciate the touch pad on/off button, which is handy when you want to use an external mouse.


I'm still in the honeymoon period with this laptop, if I find anything I dont like.. believe me I'll come back and update this posting.. but for now I've been extremely impressed and I strongly suggest that HP be a candidate if you are in the market to buy a laptop.


Nintendo Wii
July 9, 2007 | | TrackBacks

I happened to hang out with a friend who just purchased a Nintendo Wii and hooked it up for me to take a look at... now how cool is this game console! It's got the sleek action look down but it is very white.. so it will stand out if you've got the standard black entertainment center.. (Im sure there are skins you can purchase to change its look) and I did notice that the games the console came with never really showed off any of its graphical processing power.. so digging up its specifications I did find that it is way behind its competitors (PS3, XBOX) when it comes to its polygon-pushing power.. this means that the games have to be dead on addictive and innovative to have me spend $399 for this device.


Apparently his Wii came with a Wii Sports gme which simply was a choice between Bowling, Boxing, Golf and one other game we didnt bother playing with.. it was a great way to get newbies brought upto speed on how to use their innovative Wiimotes which are the primary controllers. A sensor bar is required to be placed, typically above the television, for it correctly sense your every wii-action. I was very skeptical when the wiimote was safety strapped to my wrist (apparently these things have flown out of peoples hands in the excitement of gameplay) and I started off with the boxing game..


I was breathing hard by the 4th round! This console is actually making my physically interact with it to play! I ended up getting knocked out but thats alright cause we quickly decided to check out the bowling game next... apparently even in Wiiland I still have spin action that foils my game.. how interesting that it was able to actuallly pick up speed and spin.. during the final golf game ,which I ended up liking the most, I actually thoroughly enjoyed standing infront of the television and driving away for a 300 yard stroke! Even though i did terrible with all the games, the interactivity the Wii requires is like no other console out there. I found it particularly amusing how between games there were 'safety' instructions and 'take a rest between gaming sessions'.. can't fault them on trying to keep their users alive.


The console does have internet enablement, comes with the Opera browser and the ability to message wiifriends.. I would not be surprised to see them at some point in the future try and link up all their devices (DS, DSLite, Wii) to allow for interaction between them.. Nintendo have managed to capture addiction and innovation in a box ... it's called the Wii!

Linksys WRT350N Wireless-N Gigabit Router with Storage Link
June 27, 2007 | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks

Im trying to convert all internet/network capable devices (computers, laptops, security cameras, printers, etc) be using wireless.. I've managed to do that to all except for two key servers which I require major bandwidth from so I stick to the wired gigabit network connection. I was extremely fond of the WRT350N Wireless-N with Storage Link Gigabit Router from Linksys until a week ago (which is 2 months since I installed it) when all of sudden I noticed my wireless machines were acting slow on the network and then the next day they all together stopped being able to go out on the net period. I verified on my wired servers and I was extremly upset to see them too affected. I immediately jumped to a false conclusio that my ISP provider was messing up (tsk on me) and totally skipped the router.. specially since I could connect to the other computers within my network. Apparently after trouble-shooting it was indeed my router that was at fault.. I went through the admin interface (it has a webserver running on it) and tried to troubleshoot and was unable to get it working.. I could see it getting an IP connection from my ISP.. but I simply couldnt figure out why it wasnt passing traffic back n forth between the outside world and my network.

I rarely do this but I ended up calling the linkSys customer support line.. the auto discovery Easylink Connect software they ask you to download and hope that fixes things didnt do anything except inform me of the issue I already knew -- ' Unable to connect to the Internet ' .. I called the support line again.. and they had me walk-through a really tedious path of making sure my cablemodem was working (sure - i can agree with that step) but then walking me through resetting my MAC address, resetting the router to default settings, turning things off for minutes and then back on.. ultimately they were able to get my router back up and working..

Unfortunately the incident returned the very next day.. exact same issues.. I called Linksys and notified that this was unacceptable.. they've got a replacement on the way.. I really had high hopes for this device.. extended signal transmission -- upto 4 times the distance as wireless G.. if others out there have had better luck.. please let me know.. and when my replacement arrives.. if it survives.. I'll do another follow up review and let you know how it functions when its 100% operational.

Rocketfish Twister Wireless Laser Notebook Mouse
May 30, 2007 | | TrackBacks

When it comes to laptops, people either love the touchpad or they buy a portable mouse and regardless everyone hates the pointing stick / eraser-head / whatever mischevious nickname people have giving this ugly mouse pointer. Which one do i prefer? Well it depends, I use multiple laptops for different purposes, and some of them have a mouse and others dont. My work laptop is the one i use a regular mouse with and with my personal laptop I'm just fine using the touchpad. Why the difference? When it comes to work I want that fine-grain sensitivity that only a mouse can provide, its awkward how some touchpads can sense the capacitance of a finger and act upon them or.. and this is my favourite one.. when your finger is either too cold how it simply doesnt get registered by the touchpad.

Rocketfish have created a pretty nifty portable wireless laser notebook mouse called the twister. I'd like to emphasize the portable aspect because it is a bit smaller than the regular mouse and has a USB receiver stored inside the mouse with which you simply plug into the laptop and yer good to use the mouse! The mouse does require a couple of batteries but it is a pretty light device.

The tail end of the mouse even allows for a bend to make the mouse fit comfortably in your palm and then you can straighten it out to be more accomodating when packing it away. Well thought out, and you've got to lose the wireless aspect of it. Plugging it into my XP-based laptop showed no problems when it came to plug-n-play and I was using it immediately without any problems.

It did take me 5 minutes to realize that it does have a center sliding pad which acts as the scrolling wheel and there's a third button on the side of the compact mouse to which you can assign another function (i.e. shutdown the current application).

If you are looking for a decent mouse which has the basic functionality and perhaps a couple of additional features (i.e wireless, sliding scroll pad and a third side button) AND most importantly compact then this is the device for you! If you suffer from any form of carpel tunnel or even sore-wrist type action then this is not for you, the ergonomics of this mouse are for the non-IT addicts.

Gmail
March 8, 2007 | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks

I got my hotmail email account with everyone else back in the 90s and only in the past 3 years or so moved over to Gmail, Google's email service. I'm not sure how much good stuff I can say about this.

  • 2.8 GB of storage. For those that don't know, that's a lot. In fact, I have barely scratched the surface on my account. No more complaints from friends that they can't send me messages because my account is full.
  • Ability to search your email including options like "From: Melissa Subject: cell number"
  • Conversation style viewing of messages. In other words, if you and another person exchange emails back and forth 15 times, it only shows once on your screen, not 15 times.
  • Ability to automatically store messages from certain people to certain folders (called labels)
  • Google Talk IM service is built into the webmail screen and it emails the person the message if they are no longer online
  • Ability to start typing email addresses or contact names and it automatically pops up matches and you just have to hit your enter key for it to fill it all in.
  • Automatically stores message as drafts if it takes you to long to think of what you're typing
  • Gmail notifier is a tool that is displayed in your taskbar and lights up when it recognizes new emails. No more checking emails 800 times a day.
  • And my favorite new feature is Gmail is now a POP3 service and I can check up to 5 other accounts within one login AND when I compose a message, I can pick which from address I want to send the email with. LOVE. IT.

    • There are more features which I haven't even tapped into like Gmail mobile and Gmail for your domain. The good news is the product is constantly changing and it's not just fluff of making the screen look prettier, it is genuine user friendly features that make email a fast, reliable and sometimes even fun service. And as of this month, registration does not require an invitation from anyone, so have at it!

    Windows Live Messenger v8.1
    March 7, 2007 | | Comments (3) | TrackBacks

    I've had it installed for a week now.. and Im ready to share my thoughts..

    I like the look and feel, its got the updated skin and has retained the same feel so I'm not having to spend precious time figuring out where things went.. of course if you update your messenger from an ancient version then what I just said doesnt apply and its your own fault for not keeping up! haha..

    I do love the 'sharing folders' feature that will finally allow people to share files without worrying about firewall issues! Naturally I expect the mean spirited grandfathers at RIAA to formulate some kind of lawsuit to stop such a feature because it could become another avenue for mp3 sharing..

    Live Spaces, Live Search, Live Toolbar, Rhapsody??? Funny how one can learn about all kinds of new services Microsoft is pumping out under their 'Live' flagship all through this 'little' tool.. I dont think I'll be using them but I'm starting to think that 'messenger' might need to be renamed 'portal' and messaging contacts is just a part of what this new application can do.

    I decided to test the application by tryin my unique logic on it.. and was surprised. Heres why, I saw the 'Find a contact or number..' textbox at the top and decided to punch in a friends phone number and hit enter. The search result suggested that I could call the number.. I clicked on that suggestion and up popped the Live Call application... apparently Microsoft has partnered up with Verizon and now do VOIP (charges apply). Very cool but Im fine with just texting people on their mobile devices if I really need to get a hold of them, which this can do also.

    A worrying concern is that with all this activity going on (graphical ticker at the bottom of the messenger of latest videos - video carousel/etc).. I cant help but think that from a bandwidth perspective this 'little' application is taking up a larger chunk of traffic than one would expect. I luckily have broadband service but that doesnt mean I want my rich client showing me things I dont want and use my bandwidth/cpu processing also.. so Im gonna go de-activate such things (video carousel) immediately.

    This 'little' application has a 61MB memory footprint and takes up 28MB disk space. I can see why products such as Trillian and Jabber are becoming popular, but for those who have mainly Microsoft (and now Yahoo! - yes you can message them directly too now) buddies.. this is the tool of choice.

    Note: To utilize all the cool functionality, it does require that the person you are messaging with to have the same version (or really close) of the messenger too.

    Belkin Flip
    February 15, 2007 | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks

    It's a KVM switch that allows users to share a monitor, keyboard, mouse, audio and one USB device between two computers easily. It also features a small remote that can switch between two computers, pretty standard stuff and it looks like the designers were thinking iPOD like when they built this thing. My old belkin (late '90s purchase) sucks.. the second machine shows up with ghosting issues.. so I'm not sure why I purchased another Belkin product... maybe cause it was only $40. I like the fact that you can share speakers between the two machines and for the extreme KVM'ers you can get a wireless remote so that you can setup a nice fully automated data-center.

    Microsoft Vista
    February 1, 2007 | | TrackBacks

    This should be of no surprise to anyone... yes I just got Vista (Ultimate - $399) and have it installed on one of my machines.. thanks to having enough iron in my computer I can enjoy the functionality.. I enjoy Aero ( the new 'glass').. I love the sidebar feature, IE 7 rocks (tabbed browsing with thumbnails of all tabs), the Photo Gallery is very nice allowing me to ditch Adobe Photo Album, and I can now ditch Nero thanks to Windows DVD Maker.. Ultimate apparently comes with a poker game (whatever) and the ability to have yer background be a looped video (whatever).. the look and feel is very TIGHT..
    I will be conducting my own tests (speed of file transfer, video/audio conversion, searching for content within files, usability amongst different members of my family and my own private brutual assault practices) so I will keep you updated.. but for now there have been no glitches and Im just spending my time clicking all over the place to get myself re-oriented with where things are.
    For folks whom are having a hard time figuring out which edition ya want. Microsoft did a good job of providing just that.. a comparison listing on their website. 90% of civilization is prob good with the Home Premium edition - $159 (comes with Windows Movie Maker/etc bundled for your media/entertainment needs).
    I do think Microsoft is takin some great steps towards the right path with this new release, even with how they are now kosher with letting you download the product (elite rulz!) instead of buying it off the shelf (newbie).. just make sure yer completely aware of the logistics to handle the download (the sucker comes on a DVD or 5 CDs)..
    Now be aware that you definitely want to do a clean installation cause upgrading is a great way to confuse everything.. granted your applications/personal data would still be installed/available.. but all the junk from years past would be too.. so do yer computer a favor and backup your personal data, install Ultimate from scratch and re-install your apps. Dont blame Microsoft for your lousy installation / configuration practices!
    Microsoft seems to push 'Easier.. Safer.. More Entertaining.. Better Connected' down yer throat.. jury is out on safer.. but i think the others definitely are delivered.. Say 'hello' to the new O/S that will rule for the next 10 years.. Im gonna go pull out Ethereal and see what kinda activity is exactly being sent out from my new Ultimate box.. figure out this 'Big Brother' nonsense.

    Paws & Claws Pet Vet by ValuSoft
    January 29, 2007 | | Comments (53) | TrackBacks

    We were initially planning on purchasing the Sims 2 for our 9 year old daughter, but when I saw how there were teenagers making out on the cover of that game.. I dropped that request. (update: apparently there's another kid-friendly version of the Sims which doesnt have any kissing going on) She received this game from her Nana, and initially I figured it'd be just a regular '2 hour and done with' kinda game . I was wrong! This thing actually teaches business-sense to kids! Pet Vet does a great job of making the player very aware of their state of finances and how a business' reputation can effect their popularity, and ultimately their income. I know of some real companies whom would benefit by having their employees play this game and realize that point. Back to the game.. it's simple, straight to the point, allows for a wealthy number of opportunities and options which I can see keeping my lil girl busy for at least a couple of months. Software requirements: Direct X, Windows XP/2000 and a decent amount of RAM and disk space and you'll be just fine.

    Second Life
    November 30, 2006 | | TrackBacks

    I'd preface this by saying 'geeks only read on' but its become so popular it's becoming mainstream! All should check out 'Second Life'.. an online 3-d virtual world made up of people playing, conducting business and communicating.. seriously. One can buy virtual land, and setup storefronts and practically live out their life in a virtual environment.. talk about Snow Crash comin true!. I've been a member for a cpl months now, doin the freebie thing but its time to upgrade! There are membership levels in a tiered format.. and its funny.. i just heard that due to Second Life not having an enforcement/policing features.. people have joined and started doing online crimes! There's a townhall meeting Im late for where we're discussing how we plan to eradicate it.. see me on SL! Note: Certain stores are setting up stores in this world.. Reebok, Wells Fargo, Dell.. yah.. legit corporations are in on it too. Infact they held the X-Men premiere party on Second Life.. where have you been?! One more thing.. a second life realtor just closed a deal for $1million due to a virtual housing boom that took place over this summer.

    Sony Vegas 7 / Sound Forge 8
    November 29, 2006 | | TrackBacks

    Wow! Now I'm a novice when it comes to video editing, and I am a believer that software should play a heavy role in making life easier. I completely understand how pros require all the levers and dongles to adjust but Im all for shortcuts and 'auto' features. I played with all the major video editors and was extremely impressed by the Sony line of products. Vegas ($425) came across as the one with the most pro look and smoothest learning curve for beginners. Couple it with Sound Forge ($210) which is apparently the sound editor.. you've got a wicked setup to create Star Wars.. ok maybe not that good but imagine the possibilites.

    Epson PictureMate Deluxe Viewer Edition Personal Photo Lab Printer
    October 30, 2006 | | TrackBacks

    This weekend I had the opportunity to test out this printer in preparation for an event where many pictures were going to be printed in on-the-spot, quick, polariod type fashion.  I was really impressed with the quality of the photo.  In fact, I would have chosen it over pictures I have gotten printed from snapfish.com in the past.  It took 75 seconds to print one picture, just like it advertised which is only 10 seconds longer than the competitor printer is supposed to.  It comes with options to edit the picture before printing and optional borders can be added.  The only downside I saw was a picture can only be cropped down to 1/3 the picture size and in situations like ours when you don't have the luxury to edit them on a computer, it would be nice to crop it to any size you want.  I'm not sure if it solves the ultimate digital printing dilemma--is it cheaper to print at home or in a lab. It would take awhile to get over the $150 initial investment and $29 ink cartridge/paper combo pack every 100 pictures.  But if you are planning to print several hundreds or even thousands of pictures during it's lifetime, I'm guessing the cost would work itself out and the quality definitely meets or exceeds any lab printing I've seen.

    HP PSC 1510 All-in-One (It’s a printer)
    September 25, 2006 | | TrackBacks

    HP%20PSC%201510%20All-in-One.jpgChallenge 1) Print letters 2) Scan family photos 3) Print quality photos from digital. Special challenge:  print and bind nine copies, two-sided, of an approx. 120 page story containing mostly text but also color pictures.   Kinko’s?  BRRRAAAAPPP.  Wrong answer.  About $200.00/copy.   Answer…HP’s All-in-One.   $99.00 at HP  – I bought mine at Target for about that (Amazon as low as $54.50).  To be honest, I compared them and couldn’t decide between Lexmark, HP, etc. so I made my decision based on the reasonable price of the ink cartridges AND – here was the clincher – I only had to remember three numbers.  92 Black, 93 Tri-Color and 99 Photo.  Scanning – great.  Printing photos – I forgot to put in 99 and ended up with great photos with only the 93!  Printed and bound story - some trial and error Embarassed , and don’t try more than 30 or so pages at a time, but 16 copies later the recipient is thrilled!  Kinko’s = $3,200.00.  Me = printer + binder & supplies + 1 black per copy (that’s about 120 pgs per cartridge, average) and two tri-colors + paper = (let’s round up to) $550.00.  Slower, but I still win.

    DeskJet 3920 Printer by Hewlett Packard.
    September 18, 2006 | | Comments (2) | TrackBacks

    As with most HP printers, the setup and installation was simple enough and I was able to print a test page within a few minutes. Even though the HP Deskjet 3920 was marketed to me as a great solution for people running small businesses, I found it more suitable for home users. While the price is very reasonable at around $59.99, the cost of replacing the ink cartridges (black & tri-color) can get steep, running from $10 each and upwards. I’ve been using it every now and then to print letters, stories, and the like, but cringe every time anything color intensive is required. Careful monitoring of the ink levels and disciplined printing habits can prolong the life of the cartridges, but for those who’ll be printing regularly it’ll definitely be bulk purchases from your local or internet supplier.

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    This page contains an archive of all entries posted to We Called It! in the Computer category. They are listed from oldest to newest.

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