iPod Touch Review

Rating: 4 WaterTowers

This Blog has moved.....please read this entry here.  

My wife was deciding on an iPod or an iPod Touch. Being selfish, and wanting to play with the iPod Touch so I could write about it here, I encouraged her to spend the big bucks on a 32 Gig iPod Touch. I won! Hmmmm, in 25 years I think that is a first.

The iPod Touch technology is beyond advanced. Great Job(s?) Apple. But, as good as the iPod Touch is, and as remarkable the technology is, there are some minor technical issues that need to be resolved before it is 5 WaterTower worthy.

Overview

Our iPod Touch was purchased to load and listen to Country Music. With almost 1000 CD's (yeah, we are obsessed) the technology of the iPod is perfect for us so we can bring almost our entire collection of music with us where ever we go. As an added benefit (at least according to me) is the ability to connect to the Internet via WiFi. But there is more. The iPod touch (see the picture below) offers a host of features including:



Mail, Weather, Calendar, Safari Web Browser, Clock, Contacts, Calculator, Notes, Stocks, Maps, Settings, YouTube, Music, Videos, Photos, and iTunes. You can also add stuff to the front screen for easy access. In this picuture, you can see that I had added my main web site and my Technical (you are here) and Book Review blogs.

Whew....

I will not talk about all of them here, but, suffice it to say everything works and mostly everything works superbly well.

Human Interface

The iPod Touch human interface is extremely intuitive. A novice user can easily come up to speed on the use of the iPod Touch, and just as quickly, become an expert user.

The main problem with the interface is the touch sensitivity. I am constantly entering areas by accident, and it is very frustrating. I looked for a sensitivity control but could not find one. Is there one?

Another problem is that the web pages I surf to are very dense. To expand the view you do an expanding thing with your thumb and forefinger (not easy to master by the way) but I invariably enter an area I do not want to enter. Arrrghhhh....

You can turn the iPod to either side for a wider view (this is super cool by the way) but you cannot turn it upside down. Watching videos in wide screen is great. The iPod allows you to access YeOldeTechy's YouTube videos easily (you mean there are other videos besides mine on YouTube?). And music videos can be watched sideways as well.

In short: If there is a sensitivity control, it needs to be easier to find, and if there is not a sensitivity control, there needs to be one.

WiFi Internet Connection

OK, this was the big one for me. How hard is it to connect to a WiFi Hot Spot or to my Wireless Router, or to Sylvan's wireless router? To find out, I fired up my wireless router in the house and then went to settings. I saw the wireless settings and dug into them a bit deeper to find the wireless signals available. I saw TracyCA (mine) and clicked on it to connect. After needing to put in a password (a very tough one by the way), I was connected and on the Internet.

Terrific!



From then on, when we turn on the iPod (and if the wireless is powered on) it automatically finds it and logs on. Easy as 3.14. I tried to get on at Barnes and Noble and was rewarded with the log in screen. not needing to spend $3.99 to get on for 2 hours, I got out of it, but, the task was complete....it found the AT&T Hot Spot at B&N easy as pie.

I then drove by Sylvan Learning in Tracy and sat out in the parking lot to see if I could get their WiFi. Yup....the signal was not the greatest (in the parking lot) but I was able to enter the password and get on the Internet. Great stuff. Note: I also saw at least 5 other wireless signals in that parking lot...I need to go back and see which are unprotected.

Needing to get our truck serviced at Tracy Toyota (owned by Keena Turner and Ronnie Lott (Hall of Famer) of the SF 49ers) I hopped on their free wireless connection with the iPod and surfed the Internet for a few seconds. Very cool.

Now when I am near Sylvan, or at home, or at Tracy Toyota, the iPod Touch finds it and logs us on....sweeet.

YeOldeTechy says: The iPod Touch is a very useful WiFi connection tool. In fact, I will use it rather than my laptop to check clients WiFi connectivity. It fires up in a few seconds versus several minutes, is easy to carry around versus hard to carry, and I know within seconds if I am connected.

I just have to take it away from Lori.

Web Browsing

OK, this is another area where a bit of work is needed. The Safari web browser does not see some images. For example, when I go to Google Analytics to see how many people have visited my sites the image that is the monthly view of visitors does not load.

Also, my Yahoo homepage is very small and 99% of the time when I go to expand the view, I end up clicking on some random link. In addition to sensitivity, how about a ZOOM / UNZOOM button? That would be cool.



I added moving GIF's to my web site...with the iPod Touch they are static.

Bookmarking, going back to the previous page, etc etc are difficult. In short, Safari can be cleaned up a bit.

YeOldeTechy says: This is not the tool I will use to surf the web.

Notes and the Keypad

Adding Notes via the keypad is easy. The keypad looks small and you would think that there would be many mistakes as you are typing. You would be wrong. I have easily become accustomed to the keypad and rarely make a keyboard mistake that I would not have made normally. Very cool.



Replying to email is the hardest thing about the iPod Touch...I simply cannot do it as it is waaaay to difficult. Soooo, I read an email, then reply using Notes. From within Notes you can easily send an email to whoever you want, and then that person is stored for easy access the next time.

Listening to and Finding Music

This part of the iPod Touch gets 5 WaterTowers. The music capacity and quality (we did purchase some Bose headphones...remember we are music buffs) is beyond great. We can listen to all our favorites in high quality stereo, and since we have an iPod thingy in the car...we can listen there too!.

Finding the music while the iPod is turned sideways is super great. You can flip thru the CD covers until you either accidentally enter one (did I mention that they need a sensitivity control?) or find the CD you want to listen to.

Who do I put up on this blog? We have so many favorites: George Strait is King, Mark Chesnutt is great (especially in concert), Aaron Tippin, Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, Kenny Chesney, Gary Allan.....all terrific. But...there is one....we belonged to his Fan Club since he started. We have met him many times, he has seen Kristen grow from a baby in his arms to a young adult of 16 almost 17...I will put his CD in this blog....if he sees this, he will know he has no equal in our hearts.



Tracy Byrd

Summary

I've said this before: Apple is not afraid to push the state-of-the-art. Invented here must be their slogan. Kudos to them. Keep up the good work.

The iPod is a terrific device. It may need a few touch ups and may need a sensitivity control (did I mention that already?), but, overall, it is wonderful. Period.

Clusty.com: Another Search Engine Option

A few weeks ago I posted a Blog entry on a new search engine gathering a lot of excitement: Cuil.

Today a friend commented on that Blog saying that she uses Clusty.com as a search engine.

I had never heard of it, but, at first look it looks interesting. Let's give it a whirl.

To compare Clusty directly with Google and Cuil, I ran a search on "Pendragon Raven Rise Book Review". It found me, but, I landed on Page 7 of the search Number 69. And it was only on my Main Web Site, I have looked a few pages further and still have not seen the TracyReaderDad Blog entry.

(click the pic for a better view)



YeOldeTechy says: My personal favorite (since it finds the Blog entry on the first page) is Google, next is Clusty because at least it found me, and last is Cuil.


What is Clusty and What Makes it Different?

I looked at the "About" link on Clusty and found this explanation:


"Clusty got its start in Pittsburgh, PA in 2004 when the search software company Vivísimo decided to take its award-winning search technology to the web.

Vivísimo was founded in 2000 by three Carnegie Mellon University scientists who decided to tackle the problem of information overload in web search. Rather than focusing just on search engine result ranking, we realized that grouping results into topics, or "clustering," made for better search and discovery. As search became a necessity for web users, Vivísimo developed a service robust enough to handle the variety of information the everyday web user was after. The result was Clusty: an innovative way to get more out of every search."

OK, cool....lets see how the "clustering" helps.

Clusty Search

Since I am still (yikes...we need to turn this economy around...CHANGE is the operative word) a starving Blogger, I need a job. So I did a search on "Videoconferencing jobs".

As you can see, the "cluster" on the left did a fair job of categorizing various jobs that are available. I am an Engineer, but, in retirement would love to get back to my roots as a technician, I now have at least three "clusters" to seach. Note the link to Steve Jobs...he is a terrific innovator, but, I'm not sure I need to look in that cluster.

To keep this Blog short, lets take a peek at the first cluster "Video, Conferencing".

I clicked on the first entry assuming that one would be the most relevant....how interesting it is labeled "Gov't Jobs". Maybe the one I retired from is there?

Nope, but, this looks interesting.

I need experience in running a network operation control center and experience in:

"Extron, Crestron, AMX, Barco, Christie, Clarity, Mitsubishi,Jupiter, Peavey, Biamp, NEC, Sharp, Sony Broadcast and Presentation, Middle Atlantic, Shure, Draper, Stewart, Da-Lite, Autopatch, RGB Spectrum, Tandberg, Polycom, Ross, Grass Valley, among others."

I'll shoot off a resume!

And they are in Texas...country music is the king there and the King of Country lives in Texas....give it to me Strait!

Summary

OK, I have added Clusty as a search engine option in Firefox. I will use it along with Google in my searches. I like it. But so far, Google wins my heart.

FYI...I did a search on "Clusty image". The result is the lead picture on the Blog. Cool.

Watching the Olympics on NBC.com

Rating: 5 WaterTowers

OK..this is COOL

I went to the nbc.com web site and signed up (all you need is your Zip code and browser...yes, Firefox works). Remember I have a Toshiba Laptop running Windows XP. Nothing fancy, nothing out of the ordinary.

NBC is streaming live video using Microsoft Silverlight.

Yikes! I never heard of Silverlight but here is a blurb at the front of their web site:

Light Up the Web
Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform, and cross-device plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.

Hmmmm, ok....great marketing, but.....does it work?

Yup...and YeOldeTechy says: This is super cool.

Cross browser....great thinking Microsoft! About time...errr, did I say that?

Anyway.....here is what you have to do:

1. Go to www.nbc.com
2. On the right (top corner) there is a sign up for streaming video...enter your Zip code.
3. Follow the procedures to download and use the Microsoft Silverlight.
4. Wade thru the menus and options to find what you want to watch.

I watched some LIVE (well maybe not really live, but.....) tennis and now have Yacht Racing (if you consider a one person surfboard thingy a Yacht) on.....WOW.

The control panel (below) lets you watch one of 4 live events. Apparently, as I watch this, there is only one event live. I will check later to see if the 4 events pop up. (NOTE: there are smaller windows on the left set of windows labeled 2, 3, and 4 that you can click...those fill in the empty slots so you can switch between them easily.....this is great).

Also, you get the video without commentary (a good thing sometimes) or you can select commentary. I tried it and have yet to hear commentary...I'll keep trying.







Go U.S.A.

Gotta love the Internet.....streaming video ROCKS.

If you like this, check out VUDU....THAT is streaming video at it's BEST.

Linksys Wireless Router Installation and Review

Rating: 4 WaterTowers


This past week I purchased and installed a Linksys Wireless Router for a client. But before I installed the system at their location, I tried it at home to make sure it worked. It did.

Product

Linksys Wireless Router WRT54G2 comes in a sleek package looking more like a flying saucer than a wireless router. The router no longer has the dual antennas as they are now embedded in the unit. Hmmmm, I wonder how far this will reach? (NOTE: It works well, final installation at Sylvan Learning in Tracy, CA is in the very back and wireless is available in my car in the parking lot).

In the box, Linksys has provided the unit itself, a power supply, and a short length of cat 5 or 6 wire (I can't tell which) with RJ-45 plugs on each end (in other words....a standard RJ-45 cable).

Also included was a set-up disc and a booklet explaining some of the details of the unit and a bit of networking theory.

Home Network

Here is a picture of my normal home network where I will install the Linksys router for testing.

I was one of the first DSL customers in Tracy and have received solid service with only the very occasional outage which is magically fixed sometime over night. Having worked for a telephone company, I know how magic is related to "Ooops, the switch had some bad code entered". (Click the pictures for high res view)






Installation

When I got home from Best Buy, I opened the box, connected the Linksys to my wall outlet and to my hub / switch and tried to connect.

No such luck. Hey....I have to try the easy way...ya know?!

I had to run the installation disc which I popped into my DELL computer, connected the Linksys to the DELL and to the hub / switch as shown in the following diagram:



After following the VERY easy directions on the Linksys, I fired up my Toshiba Laptop in wireless mode (802.11G) and was rewarded with the following wireless connection information and a very good connection to the Internet.



Security

Since Sylvan Learning in Tracy had a vulnerable wireless connection before YeOldeTechy came along, I decided to give them a highly secure connection. This is especially good for them to have since they now have wireless access extending out into the parking lot.

I selected WPA/WPA2 and gave them a really hard password consisting of letters, numbers and symbols.

The first time logging on to the wireless you need to put in an extremely difficult password or key...but, after that, your computer automatically connects. Very cool.

If I were to keep the Linksys at home (I have an old version that is solid as a rock) my network configuration would look like this:



If you were connecting this as a router (which I did at Sylvan) there is one trick I learned after paying $29.99 for help from the Linksys Service people (long story but the old Sylvan router was going bad and I reset it and then needed help getting it configured...).

Here is the trick: Your service may require a MAC address in the router. There is a Mac Clone capability in the Linksys on this page (note the address is 192.168.1.1 from your browser, IE or Firefox both work):



Simply find the MAC address of one of your computers and enter that number in the clone address space. Instantly....and losing $29.99 for this simple trick....the Internet comes back to life! Arrrghhh.....but, maybe this blog can save you money.

Summary

I have lived with a Linksys Wireless router for several years now and have been a very happy customer. It has been solid and the wireless capability allows me to sit in the back yard and even do videoconferencing from there if I so desire.

Embed Video on a Blog

It is actually very easy to embed a video on a blog. On YouTube, there is an easy way to grab a bit of code called: embed. Hmmmm, words that say what they mean.

In a Blog, such as this one, you have to go into the "Edit HTML" mode and paste the embed code there.

Easy as 1, 2, 3....copy the embed code, enter HTML Mode, paste the code.

I have used several sources for embedded video's on this Blog. The one from ABC News came without an end embed, so I had to add it, and it worked great. YouTube always works great, and here is a new, very up-to-date, timely (and censored) video from Funny or Die web site.

Very cool, errrr, hot (in Paris's words, not mine).

See more funny videos at Funny or Die

Seriously great idea Paris, but, hey, you gotta be 35 to run for Prez!

I can run a little over 1.5 times! Hmmmmm, maybe I should....then everyone would be Telecommuting!

Telecommuting and the Segway

OK...we have all heard and seen T. Boone Picken's and Al Gore's plans for saving the environment. Great plans... (Political comment to Congress and the Prez: Spend the money on the future of renewable energy sources).

Today, I saw an article that stated that telecommuting is just as bad as commuting since you will still start up your car to run errands, go to lunch, etc. Interesting and, even though I don't agree, the writer of that article has some valid points. Cold starts are the worst. Soooo....if you stay home to telecommute, you will need to avoid starting your car totally to make a dent in saving the environment (note, however, that you will still save money, time, gas, increase productivity, reduce stress, and realize all the other benefits of telecommuting).

Telecommute! But to help the transition from your car...I have a plan.

YeOldeTechy's Plan to Save the Environment

OK, here is the plan. Use this with T. Boone's and Al's plans to help them succeed. Hey...I make nearly as much money as them.....yeah right.

1. Telecommute...and while you are home do not start your car.
2. Instead of using your car around town use a small electric car or a Segway.
3. If you don't want to buy a Segway or small electric car.... walk or ride your bike.

Easy as 1, 2, 3

This graphic shows the emissions saved using a Segway.



It is good for the environment, if you run around town or work at your local TeleWork Center you can get there at 12.5 MPH and you don't have to strain yourself by walking or riding a bike (even though the exercise is good for you!).

The perfect transition between car and walking or biking. Just like T. Boone's transition to renewable energy by taking advantage of natural gas.

Get on the bandwagon....or rather, Segway. Telecommute!

Meet the inventor