I woke up just before 2:30 AM Central this morning (20 minutes before the alarm I had set). I was scheduled for a 6:30 AM flight out of Oklahoma City, which is about an hour and a half away. I traveled to Portland, Oregon for my best friend Bill's wedding. This is round 2 for him. I was best man the first time around and I'm best man this time, too.
We left the house around 3:30 AM. We stopped at Wal-Mart so I could get some luggage tags (I haven't flown in over 5 years and a couple of my bags had changed), we stopped at the gas station for a Coca Cola for the wife and were on our way.
We arrived at the airport a little after 5:00 AM and got into the terminal a few minutes later. There was a LONG line at the ticketing counter and they were making "final calls" for the 6:00 AM flights. I had checked in via the airline web site and pre-paid for my checked bag so all I really had to do was hand them my bag and head for the gate but I took my place in line.
In order to expedite, a gate agent came out and asked if there was anyone who had checked in and just needed to handle baggage. I stepped forward. As I was waiting for the agent to get my airport tag printed, a lady walked up to the counter and asked another agent about a 5:50 AM flight. The response was, "I'm sorry, ma'am, you have to be checked in at least 30 minutes prior to your flight [I didn't know that!]. You've missed it. Take a spot in line and we'll get you taken care of." D'oh!
The agent helping me finished up with my bag and I headed for security. There are two security 'portals' at Will Rogers airport. I had heard the other agent tell someone to go to the area at the opposite end of the terminal from where my gate was because the line was shorter because nobody was really heading that way. I stepped that direction, kissed my wife good-bye and went to stand in line.
I was through security in probably ten minutes. I cleared the metal detector without incident, nobody asked me any questions, and nobody asked to inspect my bags. I found an empty chair, put my shoes on, and walked to the other end of the terminal to my gate (it's not a huge terminal. the walk took me about 3 minutes). I stopped to grab a protein bar (hadn't eaten yet) and took the few extra steps to the actual gate.
When I arrived, people were standing around as if they were waiting their turn to board. I asked someone and, sure enough, they were already boarding and were on group 2. My boarding pass said group 1 so I basically walked straight onto the plane.
The flight was uneventful except for some noise at takeoff that made our jet sound like it had propellers. Not sure what it was all about but the pilot sitting next to me on the second leg (there were at least 3 in the cabin) didn't seemed concerned so I wasn't either.
We had a stop in Denver but I didn't have to change planes so I stayed put. After everyone else got off, I realized I was the only one from Oklahoma City that was continuing to Portland. Except for the crew, I had the plane all to myself for about 20 minutes. Kinda cool.
When we arrived in Portland, I got off the plane and headed to baggage claim and answered the call of nature at a nearby restroom. I came out of the restroom just in time to see my bag coming out of the hole in the wall. I walked right up, grabbed it, and went to the car rental counter.
The rental experience didn't go quite as planned. The agent was extremely friendly and efficient and the transaction was very smooth. It was all of the extras that got me.
First, I paid an extra $7 per day to go from a Nissan Versa to a Toyota Corolla. I wouldn't have minded the Versa (the wife drives one) but she sold me on cruise control. The wedding is at a vineyard about an hour out and I likes my cruise control.
The next extra was basic insurance. I explained that my auto insurance covered me for a rental and initially declined. The agent explained that Oregon is a loss-of-use state. What that means is that, should I be in an accident, I am responsible for the daily rental rate of the car until it is put back into service. If it takes 2 weeks to fix it, I'm on the hook for 2 weeks of rental. The basic insurance absolves me of that responsibility. I begrudgingly took it for a nominal charge of $19 per day.
Then there was the pre-paid fuel. I jumped on this straight away. It means I don't have to fill up the car before I return it (meaning I don't have to find a gas station before I return it). I can bring it in on fumes and just hand them the keys. I sorta planned on doing this anyway. It was something like $40. Yeah, they make money off of it but it saves me some hassle.
In the end, our $90 rental car for the entire four days got "rounded up" to $234. Then, because I used a debit card, they tack on a $200 deposit that is refunded within 24 hours of returning the car. Yeah, my debit card took a hit for $434 and I hadn't left the airport yet. C'est la vie.
I called Bill and arranged to meet him at a coffee shop not far from his house (about 30 minutes from the airport). He gave me the address and I gave the address to Alan, my GPS. When Alan told me I had reached my destination I thought he had steered me wrong. I called Bill and the conversation went something like this:
Me: I don't think I'm in the right place.
Bill: Where are you?
Me: I'm in an industrial park.
Bill: You're in the right place.
As it turns out, this place is a coffee roaster with the coffee shop attached. Hence, the industrial park. My problem was that they don't believe in signs around here that shout HERE WE ARE! I found it shortly after that and we had a very good and very pleasant lunch.
It is now 10:30 PM Portland time, which means I'm 2 hours shy of being up for 24 hours. I dozed a bit on the plane and managed to squeeze in a nap this afternoon but I'm still tired. It's off to sleepy-land for me.
Showing posts with label How Cool is That?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How Cool is That?. Show all posts
Friday, July 13, 2012
Saturday, November 19, 2011
Rule Of Acquisition Number 168,894*: Garage Sales Are Good
On almost any Saturday morning you can usually find me cruising by at least one or two garage sales. Hey, I gotta do something since they got rid of Saturday morning cartoons.
I tend to find the sales I want to check out by using iGarageSale or Garage Sale Rover on my iPhone. Both of these apps parse the Craigslist database and display pins on a map representing the sales near your current location. You can tap the pins and view the listing details.
Today, I found two. A garden variety garage sale and a pawn shop that was selling everything except guns and ammunition at 50% off Friday and Saturday to make room for a U-Haul center. I thought it was rather clever of them to advertise in the garage sale section of Craigslist.
After enjoying our traditional Saturday morning breakfast at Hardee's/Carl's Jr. we popped in at the first garage sale. Not much there, really, but I managed to snag a copy of the original Halo for the XBox. We gassed up my car then stopped by the pawn shop. Given their location, lack of inventory and minimal variety, it's no surprise they need to bring in another business type to stay afloat. We learned they will also be selling scooters and ATVs as well as used cars. They have the lot space for all of that but can you say, "all in?"
Anyway, the pawn shop sells DVDs for $2 each, making them $1 each on sale and I picked up The Man With One Red Shoe and 300. Not on the top of my must-have list but worth a buck to have them in my collection. I also spotted a copy of Left 4 Dead for the XBox 360. While I was meandering about looking at other things I didn't need or already owned, the wife asked me, "Did you see this?"
She handed me a white box. It was The Star Trek Original Motion Picture collection. It has the first 6 movies plus a bonus disk. It was still in its original shrink wrap with an $89.96 Wal-Mart sticker on it and a $60 pawn shop sticker on it. Today, it would be $30. Now, I've never been a big fan of the odd-numbered films so I took a look at the spines to remind me of the titles. They're in thin cases so I start squinting at The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search for... "Ooh! These are Blu-Rays! I want." So, that's another one of my Christmas presents I already know about.
The wife had mentioned during our morning planning session that she wanted to go to Tulsa to return some items to K-Mart and redeem her "Turkey Bucks," which garnered us an $11 coupon for a Butterball turkey. I had a small pile of items I had decluttered from my office, including an inkjet printer, a stereo received and a 6-disc CD changer I haven't used in six years, and decided it would be a good time to take them over to Goodwill. Finally, we wanted to swing by a Kohls to look at a waffle maker they had on sale - she's been into waffles lately for some reason.
We made the trek to Tulsa and got everything squared away at K-Mart and dropped off our items at Goodwill. As is our habit, we popped in to see if there were any goodies worth taking back with us. The wife picked up a blouse and I walked out with a Sister Hazel CD and the Barenaked Ladies greatest hits disc one.
The big score of the day, however, was at Kohls. Many years ago my wife gave me a nice leather wallet as a gift. It is a tri-fold wallet with an extra pocket in the back of the middle section of the cash area. Over the years I have found this space invaluable for storing FSA cards, corporate credit cards and other items I don't want to accidentally utilize.
About a year ago we noticed the wallet was starting to look a little past its prime. The black dye had faded from the corners-in so that the wallet now looks to be black with green highlights. I started looking for a replacement, even from the same company, but never found one that had anything like that extra convenience of that separate pocket.
It being (almost) holiday season, Kohls had their wallets prominently displayed. I started looking at them and, as usual, was getting disappointed with what I was finding. Around the back side of the display there were wallets from the company who made my wonderful extra-pocketed model. Wouldn't you know it, the very first one I picked up was exactly like the one I carry - extra pocket and all. Joy filled my heart and I was more than willing to pay the $20 to obtain this gem. I looked around a bit more and found one in a deep brown that eventually made it home with me.
Add another good Saturday to the list.
*Can anyone tell me where my Rule of Acquisition number comes from?
I tend to find the sales I want to check out by using iGarageSale or Garage Sale Rover on my iPhone. Both of these apps parse the Craigslist database and display pins on a map representing the sales near your current location. You can tap the pins and view the listing details.
Today, I found two. A garden variety garage sale and a pawn shop that was selling everything except guns and ammunition at 50% off Friday and Saturday to make room for a U-Haul center. I thought it was rather clever of them to advertise in the garage sale section of Craigslist.
After enjoying our traditional Saturday morning breakfast at Hardee's/Carl's Jr. we popped in at the first garage sale. Not much there, really, but I managed to snag a copy of the original Halo for the XBox. We gassed up my car then stopped by the pawn shop. Given their location, lack of inventory and minimal variety, it's no surprise they need to bring in another business type to stay afloat. We learned they will also be selling scooters and ATVs as well as used cars. They have the lot space for all of that but can you say, "all in?"
Anyway, the pawn shop sells DVDs for $2 each, making them $1 each on sale and I picked up The Man With One Red Shoe and 300. Not on the top of my must-have list but worth a buck to have them in my collection. I also spotted a copy of Left 4 Dead for the XBox 360. While I was meandering about looking at other things I didn't need or already owned, the wife asked me, "Did you see this?"
She handed me a white box. It was The Star Trek Original Motion Picture collection. It has the first 6 movies plus a bonus disk. It was still in its original shrink wrap with an $89.96 Wal-Mart sticker on it and a $60 pawn shop sticker on it. Today, it would be $30. Now, I've never been a big fan of the odd-numbered films so I took a look at the spines to remind me of the titles. They're in thin cases so I start squinting at The Motion Picture, The Wrath of Khan, The Search for... "Ooh! These are Blu-Rays! I want." So, that's another one of my Christmas presents I already know about.
The wife had mentioned during our morning planning session that she wanted to go to Tulsa to return some items to K-Mart and redeem her "Turkey Bucks," which garnered us an $11 coupon for a Butterball turkey. I had a small pile of items I had decluttered from my office, including an inkjet printer, a stereo received and a 6-disc CD changer I haven't used in six years, and decided it would be a good time to take them over to Goodwill. Finally, we wanted to swing by a Kohls to look at a waffle maker they had on sale - she's been into waffles lately for some reason.
We made the trek to Tulsa and got everything squared away at K-Mart and dropped off our items at Goodwill. As is our habit, we popped in to see if there were any goodies worth taking back with us. The wife picked up a blouse and I walked out with a Sister Hazel CD and the Barenaked Ladies greatest hits disc one.
The big score of the day, however, was at Kohls. Many years ago my wife gave me a nice leather wallet as a gift. It is a tri-fold wallet with an extra pocket in the back of the middle section of the cash area. Over the years I have found this space invaluable for storing FSA cards, corporate credit cards and other items I don't want to accidentally utilize.
About a year ago we noticed the wallet was starting to look a little past its prime. The black dye had faded from the corners-in so that the wallet now looks to be black with green highlights. I started looking for a replacement, even from the same company, but never found one that had anything like that extra convenience of that separate pocket.
It being (almost) holiday season, Kohls had their wallets prominently displayed. I started looking at them and, as usual, was getting disappointed with what I was finding. Around the back side of the display there were wallets from the company who made my wonderful extra-pocketed model. Wouldn't you know it, the very first one I picked up was exactly like the one I carry - extra pocket and all. Joy filled my heart and I was more than willing to pay the $20 to obtain this gem. I looked around a bit more and found one in a deep brown that eventually made it home with me.
Add another good Saturday to the list.
*Can anyone tell me where my Rule of Acquisition number comes from?
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Playing With My Apps
I just downloaded the DragonDictate app for my iPhone. I am giving it a test run to see how accurately it reproduces my words and how easy it is to take those words and copy them into something like a blog editor.
I am really enjoying my iPhone. I have loaded several free apps and apps that are on sale for free. Some of them I haven't even tried because I'll download three or four of the same category such as a weather app or a tip calculator and will try one or two of them and the other ones that I downloaded I don't use. At least not initially because I haven't had an opportunity to make use of them in the real world.
This post was written using DragonDictate.
I am really enjoying my iPhone. I have loaded several free apps and apps that are on sale for free. Some of them I haven't even tried because I'll download three or four of the same category such as a weather app or a tip calculator and will try one or two of them and the other ones that I downloaded I don't use. At least not initially because I haven't had an opportunity to make use of them in the real world.
This post was written using DragonDictate.
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Drinking The Kool-Aid
I went ahead and pulled the trigger this afternoon and bought an iPhone. Right deal, right time.
I realize that the iPhone 4 is coming out in about 10 days and it's the new shiny but I talked with some people at the AT&T store and decided to go with the 3GS. Here's why:
Right now AT&T is selling the 16Gb 3GS for $149* and the 32GB 3GS for $199*. These are closeout prices. The new $99* 3GS will be 8GB. When the iPhone 4 hits stores, the 32GB will go back up to $299* (yeah, sure it will).
The iPhone 4 has three things I can see being important to me.
The only kicker is that, since it is at a closeout price, I don't get the 30-day trial period. I'm stuck with it now whether I like it or not.
----------------------------------------------------
* With new 2-year agreement
I realize that the iPhone 4 is coming out in about 10 days and it's the new shiny but I talked with some people at the AT&T store and decided to go with the 3GS. Here's why:
Right now AT&T is selling the 16Gb 3GS for $149* and the 32GB 3GS for $199*. These are closeout prices. The new $99* 3GS will be 8GB. When the iPhone 4 hits stores, the 32GB will go back up to $299* (yeah, sure it will).
The iPhone 4 has three things I can see being important to me.
- The high-resolution screen. I'm sure it's mighty sweet but I don't watch a lot of videos and, frankly, I'm okay with the current screen.
- Extended battery life. I know 4 people who use their iPhones in the exact same environment I will be using it. I've never heard them complain. Again, nice but I can get by with the current offering.
- Front-facing camera. Oh, I could have fun with this but it's just not a deal-breaker.
The only kicker is that, since it is at a closeout price, I don't get the 30-day trial period. I'm stuck with it now whether I like it or not.
----------------------------------------------------
* With new 2-year agreement
Saturday, January 09, 2010
Great Day
I spent the day in Tulsa with a couple of friends from high school, one of whom I haven't seen in 20 years or so. At times it felt just like it was 20 years ago... except that we were talking about spouses, children and which body parts hurt.
We talked a lot about what was at the time and what has happened in the mean time. We reminded each other of things we'd forgotten and we told each other secrets we'd kept to ourselves. And we told each other, "I love you."
On my way home, for the first time in my life*, I saw a "shooting star." I saw a point of light come into view and thought it was an airplane (it was that bright). I realized it was moving too fast then saw it fizzle out as quickly as it had appeared. It was a beautiful ending to a wonderful day.
----------------------------------
* I have watched meteor showers before but it just isn't the same thing.
We talked a lot about what was at the time and what has happened in the mean time. We reminded each other of things we'd forgotten and we told each other secrets we'd kept to ourselves. And we told each other, "I love you."
On my way home, for the first time in my life*, I saw a "shooting star." I saw a point of light come into view and thought it was an airplane (it was that bright). I realized it was moving too fast then saw it fizzle out as quickly as it had appeared. It was a beautiful ending to a wonderful day.
----------------------------------
* I have watched meteor showers before but it just isn't the same thing.
Monday, January 04, 2010
BlueAnt Is Now On My Top 10 Companies List
The last time I went to the First Saturday sale I lost the best Bluetooth headset I've ever had. It was a Blueant Z9. I initially didn't like it because it wasn't comfortable (I only got the large earpiece with it) but I ended up with a compatible earpiece that allowed me to wear it for up to a couple of hours if necessary.
Based on the quality of the Z9 (it sounded great on both ends), I started searching for a replacement and on December 14, purchased a Blueant Q1 off eBay. Nine days later, I almost lost it, too. Luckily I realized it was gone while we were still out and about and was able to backtrack and find it. After that point, I started carrying it in my pocket... bad idea. The following day, the earpiece snapped and part of it came off.
I figured the circumstances wouldn't be covered under warranty so I attempted to fix it myself using super glue. I managed to stick it back on very nicely but after that, it sounded like s#!t. It was bad enough that I simply couldn't understand what people were saying to me.
I figured I had nothing to lose so I contacted BeluAnt customer service. I told them exactly what happened (broke while carrying in my pocket and I tried to fix it) and asked if a replacement was possible. To my surprise, I received a request for a copy of my receipt a couple of days later. I sent it to them and this afternoon I received the RMA and instructions for the return.
They didn't have to do that. Many companies these days would say I mishandled the product by carrying it in my pocket then by attempting to fix it myself and tell me it just wasn't covered. BlueAnt is now on my top ten list of companies I will go out of my way to do business with (GoDaddy is another) and I will recommend their products to anyone.
Based on the quality of the Z9 (it sounded great on both ends), I started searching for a replacement and on December 14, purchased a Blueant Q1 off eBay. Nine days later, I almost lost it, too. Luckily I realized it was gone while we were still out and about and was able to backtrack and find it. After that point, I started carrying it in my pocket... bad idea. The following day, the earpiece snapped and part of it came off.
I figured the circumstances wouldn't be covered under warranty so I attempted to fix it myself using super glue. I managed to stick it back on very nicely but after that, it sounded like s#!t. It was bad enough that I simply couldn't understand what people were saying to me.
I figured I had nothing to lose so I contacted BeluAnt customer service. I told them exactly what happened (broke while carrying in my pocket and I tried to fix it) and asked if a replacement was possible. To my surprise, I received a request for a copy of my receipt a couple of days later. I sent it to them and this afternoon I received the RMA and instructions for the return.
They didn't have to do that. Many companies these days would say I mishandled the product by carrying it in my pocket then by attempting to fix it myself and tell me it just wasn't covered. BlueAnt is now on my top ten list of companies I will go out of my way to do business with (GoDaddy is another) and I will recommend their products to anyone.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Zune HD Review
[AUTHORS NOTE: This is a tremendously long and in-depth review. I have tried to highlight what I feel are important and key phrases as well as break the review up into sections. Your comments are most appreciated.]
I received a 16GB Zune HD in the mail about a week ago. It was sent to me as a gift/compensation for creating a new opening for the Geek News Central Podcast. My first impression was that it was thin, light and sleek. I was excited for two reasons. First, it had enough capacity to carry as much content as I had put on my salvaged iPod (that's another story). Second, it is a Zune. I have really enjoyed the experience of my Zune 4Gig (which I coincidentally received from the same source) but I needed something with more space.
After turning it on, I quickly realized that some of the other reviews I read were accurate: The Zune HD is not a direct competitor to the iPod Touch. The Zune HD is a completely different experience. The only things the two devices have in common are that they both play digital media and they both have a touch screen interface.
If you want to read more of my first impressions, check out this post.
This will be an in-depth explanation and review of the major functions of the device. Scroll down to the summary section if you want to skip all the details.
Zune Desktop Software 4.0
Let's start this review with the Zune 4.0 desktop software. The Zune software has much the same look and feel as previous versions but there are two new features/functions that I really like.
First is the mini player. I don't generally use the Zune software for media playback and I don't generally play music directly from my computer but the mini player makes the playback experience much more unobtrusive. It's a bit like a mini Zune HD screen and allows you to shuffle all of your music or play Smart DJ playlists or pinned items. The Now Playing screen echoes the device display as well.
The Smart DJ feature is also a plus. It is much like the iTunes Genius Playlist feature that I like very much. Unlike the Genius, however, the Smart DJ is not configurable. You cannot specify how many songs or what length of time you want to fill the list and you cannot specify whether to pull only from your list or from the marketplace as well (it appears to pull only from your list). Plus, in examining the lists I just created to test it, I am not sure of its accuracy in selecting similar songs to the "key" song.
The second new feature I really like is the Mini-Player toolbar mode. I keep the Zune software open and running all the time so that podcasts are updated on a regular basis. I have a bargain-basement DSL connection so downloads aren't exactly speedy. Previous versions of the software would minimize to the taskbar as would any other program so I would constantly have this 2" wide tab on the left side of my taskbar that said "Zune." Now when you minimize the Zune software it becomes an additional toolbar with simple playback controls. Clicking on the Zune icon restores the software window. The best part of this is that the toolbar is positionable. It now sits unobtrusively on the right side of my taskbar and actually serves a purpose in that mode.
-- The Basics --
Physical Characteristics and Buttons
The Zune HD is 52.7 mm wide x 102.1 mm high x 8.9 mm thick and weighs a svelt 2.6 oz (74 grams). I measured it against my HTC Fuze/Touch Pro and it is approximately the same height and width.
On the top of the device is an on/off button. When pressed, it puts the device into a standby mode or simply turns off the screen if you are playing music. Pressing it again wakes it up. When it wakes up it displays a graphic/photo that you "push" up to the top of the screen to be able to interact with the device. This is designed to prevent accidental activation of any of the functions (more on that later). If you hold down the button for 3-4 seconds, the graphic covers the top half of the screen. If you "pull" it down to the bottom, the device turns off.
On the left side of the device at the top is the media button. The sole purpose of this button is to bring up the media controls of play/pause, prev/next and volume up/down. The only useful scenario for this is that it will bring up the controls over the standby graphic and you can operate them without having to "unlock" the device. On the bottom left side is a cryptic engraving that reads, "Hello from Seattle."
The bottom contains the standard Zune docking connector and what I have always thought was an oddly placed headphone jack. Placing the headphone jack at the top just seems more practical to me. There are no buttons or additional engravings on the right side.
The front face of the device is the 3.3" 480 x 272 OLED display with 16:9 aspect ratio. The screen is touch-sensitive and is the same technology (capacitive if I'm right) as the iPhone/iPod touch, meaning that you cannot use a stylus or gloves. And if the difficulties I have with my left thumb are any indication, callouses may interfere with functionality as well. Just below the screen is the home button which toggles between the main menu and the quick links (more on that later as well).
The Zune HD is light, compact and slim. The back is made of black (on the stock 16GB model) brushed aluminum. Combined with a beveled design (it slopes off to the sides), it gives it a very stylish look and keeps it from being a total fingerprint magnet.
The buttons are well placed and push easily. Because they are all flush, with the exception of the home button which is only slightly raised, it is difficult to push the accidentally. The screen is crisp, clear and bright. It literally wowed me when I first turned on the device (and that was just looking at the menu). It is very responsive to touch although, as mentioned, it seems to have difficulty with callouses. The only drawback, and I don't know how you would avoid this on a touch interface, is that it collects fingerprints that are problematic to photo and video viewing.
Setup and Sync
Most of the functions of the device do not work until you synchronize with the Zune software for the first time. There is a demo video loaded that you can play but that's about it. Loading the driver took a protracted amount of time under Windows Vista Ultimate and the first thing it wanted to do was update the software to version 4.1 before it would do anything else. Seriously? It sounds like someone didn't get their code changes in on time when the final version was rubber-stamped. Other than that, synchronization and interaction with the Zune software is similar to other Zune models.
Audio/Video Support
The Zune HD supports WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless, AAC-LC, mp4, m4a & m4b w/o FairPlay DRM, and MP3 audio formats. Image support is limited to JPG and it supports WMV, MP4, M4V, H.264, DVR-MS video formats.
-- Zune Device Firmware --
Main Menu
When you first turn on the device, the initial home menu shows selections for Music, Videos, Pictures, Radio, Marketplace, Social and "More." Looking at this I immediately noticed that Podcasts was not among the selections. Once I loaded a podcast onto the device it thankfully appeared.
If the device is in standby or the screen has turned off, the device displays a default or user-selectable picture that you have to slide up to get to the menu. This supposedly stops accidental control activations but the way the hardware buttons are designed they are not easy to accidentally actuate so the picture seems to be more eye candy than anything else. This is further reinforced by the fact that the menu sits atop a black screen instead of a background graphic. Of course, the first thing I did was create a custom graphic supporting my college Alma Mater.
Pushing the home button on the main screen toggles between the menu and the quick links. You can also slide your finger left or right as appropriate. The quick links are a set of graphical shortcuts that include the item that is currently playing or paused, Pins (favorites), History (recently accessed), and New (recently added). I have found that they actually come in handy.
One thing they seem to have regressed in the software is that the clock and battery status are not persistently visible and this is not configurable. The way the navigation works, you touch a top portion of the screen that shows an enlarged portion of the menu choice or graphic you selected to move backward through the system. As such I can understand why these items are not visible everywhere but why can't they be shown at the top of the main menu? Plus, the only place the clock shows up is over the "standby" graphic. Why bother?
Music
Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the touch interface. It has certain shortcomings that, to me, make the device more complicated to operate. I was honestly contemplating selling the Zune HD on eBay and buying a 120GB 2nd gen. Zune until I discovered two very cool features just last night.
When you are browsing your music collection by artist you are taken to a screen that lists all the albums you have for that artist on the device. You also have an option of viewing the marketplace discography at the bottom of the list. The discography list appears whether or not tracks are available for purchase (i.e. The Beatles) and it doesn't always get the tracks right. While I was writing this, for instance, I brought up the track list (requires wifi connection) for "The Best of 38 Special" and they're all Christmas Songs. Presumably, you can purchase the tracks right from the device itself. If the tracks are not available for purchase, the titles are grayed out and it says "This item is not available at Zune Marketplace" above the list.
But wait. There's more. Much more. When identifiable and available, the Zune HD downloads additional information about the artists. You will notice that there is a picture of the artist as a background behind the album/song list (it also appears whenever a track by that artist is currently playing). You will also notice that there are additional choices along the top after albums and songs.
You are first presented with pictures of the artist. If there is more than one, they appear in a two-column grid. The pictures are viewable full-size in the picture viewer by tapping them. It would be nice if you could add your own to your device or even select which picture to use as the background for the Now Playing view but that is not an available feature (it has been requested in the forums).
After the pictures is the biographical information. This is the really cool part. It gives you background and in-depth information about the band. The entry for .38 Special, for instance, is eight screens long. They're also very well written. They read like a VH-1 Behind The Music voice-over. Here's an example:
The last of the artist information screens is titled "Related." This screen lists bands with similarities to the selected artist in, perhaps, a "you might also like" fashion. You have to wonder about some of the selections, though. For .38 Special, for instance, Night Ranger is listed among Charlie Daniels and The Marshall Tucker Band.
These same screens can also be accessed by tapping the artist name in the Now Playing view.
The second "Oh, I'm keeping this!" feature is being able to create playlists on the device. If you hold your finger on an artist, song or album, you are offered a choice of adding it to the Now Playing list. You can also click the + symbol wherever it appears at the top of a list to add all the items from the list. You can then just play your ad-hoc playlist or, if you open the Now Playing list from the playlist view, you can save it as a permanent playlist. This is something the iPod has been able to do for a while. I am glad to finally see it in the Zune.
The Now Playing (playback) window is fairly standard but with a few nice touches. At the top left is a "back" button and on the right is the battery icon and play/pause status indicator. the screen lists the artist and album then the album art. One change from previous versions is that if you do not have album art you get a black square rather than your background image. Immediately below the album art is the time status display then the song title.
Below the song title is a list of the next 3 songs coming up in the playlist. At the very bottom are buttons to toggle shuffle and repeat as well as the favorite status. Even though I still think the favorite marker is too limited, the position of this button allows me to easily mark bad tracks during playback. As a background, where available, is a picture of the band. This stays onscreen as the player goes into a screen saver mode slowly scrolling the artist, song title and other information across the screen in varying sizes of type in various directions. It looks very similar to the funky playback mode the desktop software switches to. The only drawback is that the device stays on and constantly shows the screen saver if the device is plugged in. This includes when it is drawing power from the car kit and the screen saver can be distracting while driving.
To change tracks, you either swipe the album art to the left for next or right for previous or you can bring up the player controls by pressing the media button or tapping the Now Playing screen. The player controls also have a big play/pause button in the center. You can either bring up the controls and tap the button or a quick double-tap on the Now Playing screen will pause or resume playback. Finally, the player controls include volume control. You can either tap/hold the + or - buttons or swipe your finger up or down.
One thing I would change is to add hardware volume buttons. Changing the volume means a series of 3 to 5 gestures. At its most complicated, you have to wake up the device by pushing the power button, swipe off the lock screen, tap to bring up the volume controls (assuming you start in the Now Playing screen), then adjust. In the car, this is overly complicated and distracting. You can also use the media button which will bring up the player controls over the lock screen. Even then, it's a push then a tap or swipe. Hardware volume controls would take out the extra steps (handy if you were blasting through a stereo and forgot to turn it down before plugging in the headphones).
To make the experience more personal, the ability to customize the screen saver would go a long way. Imagine being able to choose which information the screen saver does or doesn't show. Better yet, imagine being able to run a screen saver that has nothing to do with the music being played (Flying Toasters, anyone?). Maybe there will be an app for that. I would also like to see a simplified Now Playing view that shows artist, title, larger album art and the playback timers.
Video Player
The video player is fairly straightforward. Choose your video and it starts playing in landscape mode. You might want to wipe down the screen first. The fingerprints left by all that tapping and swiping tend to obscure the view.
There is one cryptic control for the video. In the upper-right corner is a circle with four arrowheads pointing outward. If you tap it, the arrowheads point inward and the image stretches to fill the screen. Why not just stretch the image to fit and maintain the aspect ratio? Maybe it's just cryptic to me because everything I've transferred to the player so far is in widescreen (16:9) format.
Photo Viewer
Also fairly straightforward. Turn the device to portrait or landscape mode and the accelerometer quickly and smoothly changes the orientation of the image and zooms appropriately.
Speaking of zooming, the photo viewer (and the web browser) include multitouch zooming capabilities. Place two fingers on the screen and move them apart and you zoom in toward the point where your fingers first touched. Squeeze them together and you zoom back out.
There is also a slideshow mode but the timing and transitions are not configurable.
Radio
The HD designation on the Zune HD signifies not only its ability to play 720P HD video (HD dock sold seperately) but also its ability to receive HD radio signals. I am about 60 miles away from any of the stations in my area transmitting HD streams and have had difficulty picking them up. I did finally manage to pick one up by using a set of headphones with a long cable. Unfortunately, the cable had to be stretched out and I wasn't able to listen and watch the display as the HD signal appeared and disappeared.
Also presumably because of my distance from the signal, I originally thought the Zune HD was incapable of receiving RDS (Radio Data Stream) information. This seems to have been in error since, during my HD reception experiment, I was able to pick up station identification (at least) from several of the stations.
Marketplace
Using the marketplace to purchase content from your device requires a WiFi connection. The on-screen keyboard can be a bit clunky so it's nice that the software pops up suggestions as you type. One question, though. What's with the picture of the random rapper dude as the background image for the marketplace? (edit: looks like it changes. it is currently showing me Mariah Carey)
Social
The one other person I know and have contact with that also owns a Zune I am sure does not use this feature. I am also not active in the online experience. I have therefore never used this function. Now that I have two Zunes I do plan to check out the content transfer feature at some point.
Podcasts
This item does not appear on the main menu until and unless you have podcast content loaded on the device. Subscriptions and settings are mostly controlled via the desktop software. I have seen some comments in other reviews and forum posts that podcasts do not automatically sync with the device via wireless. This has not been my experience. The podcast synchronization via wireless works just like it did with my 4gig. Maybe those that have been having difficulty with it have not set up the wireless sync in the desktop software or have not made the initial transfer of the podcast to the device. I don't know but it works just fine and dandy for me.
Internet
It goes (almost) without saying that the internet function requires a WiFi connection. One of the cool things about the wireless radio is that it is only active when you need it. It can be disabled in the settings but it will turn itself on and off.
The browser is very simple. On the bottom are buttons to go to the previous page, open favorites, and view the address bar. There is also a built-in search function (via Microsoft bing, of course). There is no refresh function. There is no flash (sorry, no YouTube) or any of the other add-ons so the experience is limited. The feature is obviously designed to be utilitarian but I'm okay with that.
The web browser responds to the accelerometer to view the pages in portrait or landscape mode. You can double-tap the screen to zoom in on the page or you can use multitouch gestures.
When you bring up the address bar or search or you enter an input field on a page, the virtual keyboard comes up. I'm really terrible and slow at typing on it and I often make mistypes (E and R in particular) but it gets the job done. One nice touch is the addition of a ".com" button when you're in the address bar. Unfortunately, if you turn the device to landscape mode, the keyboard doesn't get any bigger (you might want to address that, Microsoft). Two things I would add are an exit button, although that may have been omitted to avoid accidental activation, and a password bank.
By the way, any music or radio station you happen to be listening to continues to play while you are using the browser.
Apps
The currently available applications are very few (only 9 total at present) and very simple (but they're all free at the moment). I find the weather app and the calculator particularly useful. They add some nice additional functionality to the device. The other seven are games like chess, sudoku and goo splat, whatever that is. New apps are added via the desktop software or the Marketplace link in the main menu. I eagerly await additional applications. It will be cool to see what people do with this device.
Settings
-- Wireless: Similar to previous models. A nice (and necessary) addition is the ability to connect to wireless networks directly from the device. The sync option includes entries for channels and Zune cards (must be related to social functions). It also shows you the MAC address of the device.
-- Display: Allows you to adjust settings for video output, the timeout for going into low-power, screen brightness, tilt on/off and screensaver settings (always, never, only when powered).
-- Music: Includes a worthless EQ setting. Maybe if I always listened to the same kind of music all the time but while it may shape the sound nicely for the current song it invariably distorts the next. The other setting is Artists which includes settings for song and album or album only. I have no clue what this changes. This entire menu option might as well not even be there.
-- Radio: Allows you to set your region for HD radio reception.
-- Clock: 12/24 hour toggle and set time. You cannot view the clock except on the lock screen. What good is it, then? Let's make it visible in other areas. Is there a technical reason it can't sync to the PC clock?
-- Screen Lock: Reset the lock image to the default and enable the PIN to unlock. It should also include a function to select the lock image and disable the lock screen altogether.
-- Internet: Delete history, Cookies on/off, Script on/off. Pretty simple.
-- About: Allows you to view storage numbers and reset the accelerometer. All the other stuff is readme quality.
-- Conclusions / Summary --
To me, any media player is pretty much as good as the next. If all I want to do is listen to music in random order while I drive, an iPod shuffle will work. What makes the Zune HD stand out are the extras that make it go beyond being a simple media player. The desktop software, although not outstanding, also adds value to all of the Zune models.
I'm not a big fan of the touch interface but it is starting to grow on me. In a geeky sort of way it is just plain fun to slide things around on the screen. A sort-of symbiosis between man and machine.
Where the Zune, all of the models, falls short is in accessories. Microsoft started off at a disadvantage to the iPod in this arena and has continued to fall behind the curve. I can walk into almost any store that sells any sort of electronics and find a variety of cases, cables, docks, speakers, portable radios, and portable video systems for the iPod. In the same stores I am lucky to find even the limited selection of overpriced Microsoft-branded accessories and I am usually shocked if I find a single third-party speaker dock for the Zune. Maybe their rarity accounts for their pricing? I managed to find a bargain on a v2 A/V dock pack while I was still using my 4gig Zune. Can you believe that the original MSRP on a set of cables, an IR remote and a docking base was $79.99? Microsoft needs to stop being so proud of their branded accessories and open up the market for third-party accessories.
Right now I own the v2 A/V dock and a v2 car kit with the FM transmitter. The A/V dock is partially compatible with the Zune HD. It powers it and allows it to sync wirelessly. The only functions that work on the remote are play/pause and prev/next. I can accept that because of the differences in the interface. At least it allows me to play content through my stereo. I don't know about video output since I'm pretty sure I never connected that cable in the first place.
The car kit works just like it did with the 4gig. Pretty much all it does is provide power and a line-level out to the FM transmitter so that's not a surprise. I have seen the new premium car kit and think it's a nice update. I would NEVER pay $80 for it but it has some nice features.
In the interim between outgrowing my 4gig Zune and getting the Zune HD, I rescued a 30gig 5th gen iPod video* (I replaced the hard drive) so I now have some experience with the competition. I think the iPod has a serious basic design flaw. When you transfer media to it, the device (or iTunes) changes the file name and places it in a random folder. What this does is open wide the possibility of duplicating media files. Not just duplicating titles, I mean truly transferring the exact same file to the device multiple times. That's just a waste. You can manage your media in a way to minimize this possibility but why should you have to? The Zune wins hands-down in my book for that reason alone every time. That's not to say I'm ready to give up the capacity available in my iPod nor the ability to dock it to my clock radio (see previous accessories rant).
Overall, I like the Zune HD. There are some tweaks and improvements I mentioned above and we might see several of them in subsequent software updates. There are a couple of improvements I did not mention above that I would like to see.
First and foremost, add a bluetooth option or, to keep the same price point, create a bluetooth add-on. The dongle/plugin would need to have A2DP and AVRCP capabilities as well as power pass-through capabilities. This would allow me to operate my Zune HD completely wirelessly via my Motorola stereo bluetooth headset or any of several automotive add-ons (thus making it safer to operate in the car!!).
Make the media button multi-functional. A single press brings up the media controls but subsequent presses could change the display, bring up ID3 tag information or any of a variety of other things. the middle button on an iPod can do it, why can't this?
So there you have my long-winded tour, commentary and review of the Zune HD. Hello? Please wake up.
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*I was originally trolling eBay for an 80 or 120 gig Zune. The only way I could afford it would be to fix a broken unit. The iPods are cheaper to obtain and, through some internet research, I found out that they are much much easier to repair. I therefore purchased and rescued my iPod.
I received a 16GB Zune HD in the mail about a week ago. It was sent to me as a gift/compensation for creating a new opening for the Geek News Central Podcast. My first impression was that it was thin, light and sleek. I was excited for two reasons. First, it had enough capacity to carry as much content as I had put on my salvaged iPod (that's another story). Second, it is a Zune. I have really enjoyed the experience of my Zune 4Gig (which I coincidentally received from the same source) but I needed something with more space.
After turning it on, I quickly realized that some of the other reviews I read were accurate: The Zune HD is not a direct competitor to the iPod Touch. The Zune HD is a completely different experience. The only things the two devices have in common are that they both play digital media and they both have a touch screen interface.
If you want to read more of my first impressions, check out this post.
This will be an in-depth explanation and review of the major functions of the device. Scroll down to the summary section if you want to skip all the details.
Zune Desktop Software 4.0
Let's start this review with the Zune 4.0 desktop software. The Zune software has much the same look and feel as previous versions but there are two new features/functions that I really like.
First is the mini player. I don't generally use the Zune software for media playback and I don't generally play music directly from my computer but the mini player makes the playback experience much more unobtrusive. It's a bit like a mini Zune HD screen and allows you to shuffle all of your music or play Smart DJ playlists or pinned items. The Now Playing screen echoes the device display as well.
The Smart DJ feature is also a plus. It is much like the iTunes Genius Playlist feature that I like very much. Unlike the Genius, however, the Smart DJ is not configurable. You cannot specify how many songs or what length of time you want to fill the list and you cannot specify whether to pull only from your list or from the marketplace as well (it appears to pull only from your list). Plus, in examining the lists I just created to test it, I am not sure of its accuracy in selecting similar songs to the "key" song.
The second new feature I really like is the Mini-Player toolbar mode. I keep the Zune software open and running all the time so that podcasts are updated on a regular basis. I have a bargain-basement DSL connection so downloads aren't exactly speedy. Previous versions of the software would minimize to the taskbar as would any other program so I would constantly have this 2" wide tab on the left side of my taskbar that said "Zune." Now when you minimize the Zune software it becomes an additional toolbar with simple playback controls. Clicking on the Zune icon restores the software window. The best part of this is that the toolbar is positionable. It now sits unobtrusively on the right side of my taskbar and actually serves a purpose in that mode.
-- The Basics --
Physical Characteristics and Buttons
The Zune HD is 52.7 mm wide x 102.1 mm high x 8.9 mm thick and weighs a svelt 2.6 oz (74 grams). I measured it against my HTC Fuze/Touch Pro and it is approximately the same height and width.
On the top of the device is an on/off button. When pressed, it puts the device into a standby mode or simply turns off the screen if you are playing music. Pressing it again wakes it up. When it wakes up it displays a graphic/photo that you "push" up to the top of the screen to be able to interact with the device. This is designed to prevent accidental activation of any of the functions (more on that later). If you hold down the button for 3-4 seconds, the graphic covers the top half of the screen. If you "pull" it down to the bottom, the device turns off.
On the left side of the device at the top is the media button. The sole purpose of this button is to bring up the media controls of play/pause, prev/next and volume up/down. The only useful scenario for this is that it will bring up the controls over the standby graphic and you can operate them without having to "unlock" the device. On the bottom left side is a cryptic engraving that reads, "Hello from Seattle."
The bottom contains the standard Zune docking connector and what I have always thought was an oddly placed headphone jack. Placing the headphone jack at the top just seems more practical to me. There are no buttons or additional engravings on the right side.
The front face of the device is the 3.3" 480 x 272 OLED display with 16:9 aspect ratio. The screen is touch-sensitive and is the same technology (capacitive if I'm right) as the iPhone/iPod touch, meaning that you cannot use a stylus or gloves. And if the difficulties I have with my left thumb are any indication, callouses may interfere with functionality as well. Just below the screen is the home button which toggles between the main menu and the quick links (more on that later as well).
The Zune HD is light, compact and slim. The back is made of black (on the stock 16GB model) brushed aluminum. Combined with a beveled design (it slopes off to the sides), it gives it a very stylish look and keeps it from being a total fingerprint magnet.
The buttons are well placed and push easily. Because they are all flush, with the exception of the home button which is only slightly raised, it is difficult to push the accidentally. The screen is crisp, clear and bright. It literally wowed me when I first turned on the device (and that was just looking at the menu). It is very responsive to touch although, as mentioned, it seems to have difficulty with callouses. The only drawback, and I don't know how you would avoid this on a touch interface, is that it collects fingerprints that are problematic to photo and video viewing.
Setup and Sync
Most of the functions of the device do not work until you synchronize with the Zune software for the first time. There is a demo video loaded that you can play but that's about it. Loading the driver took a protracted amount of time under Windows Vista Ultimate and the first thing it wanted to do was update the software to version 4.1 before it would do anything else. Seriously? It sounds like someone didn't get their code changes in on time when the final version was rubber-stamped. Other than that, synchronization and interaction with the Zune software is similar to other Zune models.
Audio/Video Support
The Zune HD supports WMA, WMA Pro, WMA Lossless, AAC-LC, mp4, m4a & m4b w/o FairPlay DRM, and MP3 audio formats. Image support is limited to JPG and it supports WMV, MP4, M4V, H.264, DVR-MS video formats.
-- Zune Device Firmware --
Main Menu
When you first turn on the device, the initial home menu shows selections for Music, Videos, Pictures, Radio, Marketplace, Social and "More." Looking at this I immediately noticed that Podcasts was not among the selections. Once I loaded a podcast onto the device it thankfully appeared.
If the device is in standby or the screen has turned off, the device displays a default or user-selectable picture that you have to slide up to get to the menu. This supposedly stops accidental control activations but the way the hardware buttons are designed they are not easy to accidentally actuate so the picture seems to be more eye candy than anything else. This is further reinforced by the fact that the menu sits atop a black screen instead of a background graphic. Of course, the first thing I did was create a custom graphic supporting my college Alma Mater.
Pushing the home button on the main screen toggles between the menu and the quick links. You can also slide your finger left or right as appropriate. The quick links are a set of graphical shortcuts that include the item that is currently playing or paused, Pins (favorites), History (recently accessed), and New (recently added). I have found that they actually come in handy.
One thing they seem to have regressed in the software is that the clock and battery status are not persistently visible and this is not configurable. The way the navigation works, you touch a top portion of the screen that shows an enlarged portion of the menu choice or graphic you selected to move backward through the system. As such I can understand why these items are not visible everywhere but why can't they be shown at the top of the main menu? Plus, the only place the clock shows up is over the "standby" graphic. Why bother?
Music
Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of the touch interface. It has certain shortcomings that, to me, make the device more complicated to operate. I was honestly contemplating selling the Zune HD on eBay and buying a 120GB 2nd gen. Zune until I discovered two very cool features just last night.
When you are browsing your music collection by artist you are taken to a screen that lists all the albums you have for that artist on the device. You also have an option of viewing the marketplace discography at the bottom of the list. The discography list appears whether or not tracks are available for purchase (i.e. The Beatles) and it doesn't always get the tracks right. While I was writing this, for instance, I brought up the track list (requires wifi connection) for "The Best of 38 Special" and they're all Christmas Songs. Presumably, you can purchase the tracks right from the device itself. If the tracks are not available for purchase, the titles are grayed out and it says "This item is not available at Zune Marketplace" above the list.
But wait. There's more. Much more. When identifiable and available, the Zune HD downloads additional information about the artists. You will notice that there is a picture of the artist as a background behind the album/song list (it also appears whenever a track by that artist is currently playing). You will also notice that there are additional choices along the top after albums and songs.
You are first presented with pictures of the artist. If there is more than one, they appear in a two-column grid. The pictures are viewable full-size in the picture viewer by tapping them. It would be nice if you could add your own to your device or even select which picture to use as the background for the Now Playing view but that is not an available feature (it has been requested in the forums).
After the pictures is the biographical information. This is the really cool part. It gives you background and in-depth information about the band. The entry for .38 Special, for instance, is eight screens long. They're also very well written. They read like a VH-1 Behind The Music voice-over. Here's an example:
Initially, /38 Special were one of the many Southern rock bands in the vein of the Allman Brothers and Lynyrd Skynyrd; in fact, the band was led by Donnie Van Zant, the brother of Skynyrd's leader, Ronnie Van Zant.I did not know that.
The last of the artist information screens is titled "Related." This screen lists bands with similarities to the selected artist in, perhaps, a "you might also like" fashion. You have to wonder about some of the selections, though. For .38 Special, for instance, Night Ranger is listed among Charlie Daniels and The Marshall Tucker Band.
These same screens can also be accessed by tapping the artist name in the Now Playing view.
The second "Oh, I'm keeping this!" feature is being able to create playlists on the device. If you hold your finger on an artist, song or album, you are offered a choice of adding it to the Now Playing list. You can also click the + symbol wherever it appears at the top of a list to add all the items from the list. You can then just play your ad-hoc playlist or, if you open the Now Playing list from the playlist view, you can save it as a permanent playlist. This is something the iPod has been able to do for a while. I am glad to finally see it in the Zune.
The Now Playing (playback) window is fairly standard but with a few nice touches. At the top left is a "back" button and on the right is the battery icon and play/pause status indicator. the screen lists the artist and album then the album art. One change from previous versions is that if you do not have album art you get a black square rather than your background image. Immediately below the album art is the time status display then the song title.
Below the song title is a list of the next 3 songs coming up in the playlist. At the very bottom are buttons to toggle shuffle and repeat as well as the favorite status. Even though I still think the favorite marker is too limited, the position of this button allows me to easily mark bad tracks during playback. As a background, where available, is a picture of the band. This stays onscreen as the player goes into a screen saver mode slowly scrolling the artist, song title and other information across the screen in varying sizes of type in various directions. It looks very similar to the funky playback mode the desktop software switches to. The only drawback is that the device stays on and constantly shows the screen saver if the device is plugged in. This includes when it is drawing power from the car kit and the screen saver can be distracting while driving.
To change tracks, you either swipe the album art to the left for next or right for previous or you can bring up the player controls by pressing the media button or tapping the Now Playing screen. The player controls also have a big play/pause button in the center. You can either bring up the controls and tap the button or a quick double-tap on the Now Playing screen will pause or resume playback. Finally, the player controls include volume control. You can either tap/hold the + or - buttons or swipe your finger up or down.
One thing I would change is to add hardware volume buttons. Changing the volume means a series of 3 to 5 gestures. At its most complicated, you have to wake up the device by pushing the power button, swipe off the lock screen, tap to bring up the volume controls (assuming you start in the Now Playing screen), then adjust. In the car, this is overly complicated and distracting. You can also use the media button which will bring up the player controls over the lock screen. Even then, it's a push then a tap or swipe. Hardware volume controls would take out the extra steps (handy if you were blasting through a stereo and forgot to turn it down before plugging in the headphones).
To make the experience more personal, the ability to customize the screen saver would go a long way. Imagine being able to choose which information the screen saver does or doesn't show. Better yet, imagine being able to run a screen saver that has nothing to do with the music being played (Flying Toasters, anyone?). Maybe there will be an app for that. I would also like to see a simplified Now Playing view that shows artist, title, larger album art and the playback timers.
Video Player
The video player is fairly straightforward. Choose your video and it starts playing in landscape mode. You might want to wipe down the screen first. The fingerprints left by all that tapping and swiping tend to obscure the view.
There is one cryptic control for the video. In the upper-right corner is a circle with four arrowheads pointing outward. If you tap it, the arrowheads point inward and the image stretches to fill the screen. Why not just stretch the image to fit and maintain the aspect ratio? Maybe it's just cryptic to me because everything I've transferred to the player so far is in widescreen (16:9) format.
Photo Viewer
Also fairly straightforward. Turn the device to portrait or landscape mode and the accelerometer quickly and smoothly changes the orientation of the image and zooms appropriately.
Speaking of zooming, the photo viewer (and the web browser) include multitouch zooming capabilities. Place two fingers on the screen and move them apart and you zoom in toward the point where your fingers first touched. Squeeze them together and you zoom back out.
There is also a slideshow mode but the timing and transitions are not configurable.
Radio
The HD designation on the Zune HD signifies not only its ability to play 720P HD video (HD dock sold seperately) but also its ability to receive HD radio signals. I am about 60 miles away from any of the stations in my area transmitting HD streams and have had difficulty picking them up. I did finally manage to pick one up by using a set of headphones with a long cable. Unfortunately, the cable had to be stretched out and I wasn't able to listen and watch the display as the HD signal appeared and disappeared.
Also presumably because of my distance from the signal, I originally thought the Zune HD was incapable of receiving RDS (Radio Data Stream) information. This seems to have been in error since, during my HD reception experiment, I was able to pick up station identification (at least) from several of the stations.
Marketplace
Using the marketplace to purchase content from your device requires a WiFi connection. The on-screen keyboard can be a bit clunky so it's nice that the software pops up suggestions as you type. One question, though. What's with the picture of the random rapper dude as the background image for the marketplace? (edit: looks like it changes. it is currently showing me Mariah Carey)
Social
The one other person I know and have contact with that also owns a Zune I am sure does not use this feature. I am also not active in the online experience. I have therefore never used this function. Now that I have two Zunes I do plan to check out the content transfer feature at some point.
Podcasts
This item does not appear on the main menu until and unless you have podcast content loaded on the device. Subscriptions and settings are mostly controlled via the desktop software. I have seen some comments in other reviews and forum posts that podcasts do not automatically sync with the device via wireless. This has not been my experience. The podcast synchronization via wireless works just like it did with my 4gig. Maybe those that have been having difficulty with it have not set up the wireless sync in the desktop software or have not made the initial transfer of the podcast to the device. I don't know but it works just fine and dandy for me.
Internet
It goes (almost) without saying that the internet function requires a WiFi connection. One of the cool things about the wireless radio is that it is only active when you need it. It can be disabled in the settings but it will turn itself on and off.
The browser is very simple. On the bottom are buttons to go to the previous page, open favorites, and view the address bar. There is also a built-in search function (via Microsoft bing, of course). There is no refresh function. There is no flash (sorry, no YouTube) or any of the other add-ons so the experience is limited. The feature is obviously designed to be utilitarian but I'm okay with that.
The web browser responds to the accelerometer to view the pages in portrait or landscape mode. You can double-tap the screen to zoom in on the page or you can use multitouch gestures.
When you bring up the address bar or search or you enter an input field on a page, the virtual keyboard comes up. I'm really terrible and slow at typing on it and I often make mistypes (E and R in particular) but it gets the job done. One nice touch is the addition of a ".com" button when you're in the address bar. Unfortunately, if you turn the device to landscape mode, the keyboard doesn't get any bigger (you might want to address that, Microsoft). Two things I would add are an exit button, although that may have been omitted to avoid accidental activation, and a password bank.
By the way, any music or radio station you happen to be listening to continues to play while you are using the browser.
Apps
The currently available applications are very few (only 9 total at present) and very simple (but they're all free at the moment). I find the weather app and the calculator particularly useful. They add some nice additional functionality to the device. The other seven are games like chess, sudoku and goo splat, whatever that is. New apps are added via the desktop software or the Marketplace link in the main menu. I eagerly await additional applications. It will be cool to see what people do with this device.
Settings
-- Wireless: Similar to previous models. A nice (and necessary) addition is the ability to connect to wireless networks directly from the device. The sync option includes entries for channels and Zune cards (must be related to social functions). It also shows you the MAC address of the device.
-- Display: Allows you to adjust settings for video output, the timeout for going into low-power, screen brightness, tilt on/off and screensaver settings (always, never, only when powered).
-- Music: Includes a worthless EQ setting. Maybe if I always listened to the same kind of music all the time but while it may shape the sound nicely for the current song it invariably distorts the next. The other setting is Artists which includes settings for song and album or album only. I have no clue what this changes. This entire menu option might as well not even be there.
-- Radio: Allows you to set your region for HD radio reception.
-- Clock: 12/24 hour toggle and set time. You cannot view the clock except on the lock screen. What good is it, then? Let's make it visible in other areas. Is there a technical reason it can't sync to the PC clock?
-- Screen Lock: Reset the lock image to the default and enable the PIN to unlock. It should also include a function to select the lock image and disable the lock screen altogether.
-- Internet: Delete history, Cookies on/off, Script on/off. Pretty simple.
-- About: Allows you to view storage numbers and reset the accelerometer. All the other stuff is readme quality.
-- Conclusions / Summary --
To me, any media player is pretty much as good as the next. If all I want to do is listen to music in random order while I drive, an iPod shuffle will work. What makes the Zune HD stand out are the extras that make it go beyond being a simple media player. The desktop software, although not outstanding, also adds value to all of the Zune models.
I'm not a big fan of the touch interface but it is starting to grow on me. In a geeky sort of way it is just plain fun to slide things around on the screen. A sort-of symbiosis between man and machine.
Where the Zune, all of the models, falls short is in accessories. Microsoft started off at a disadvantage to the iPod in this arena and has continued to fall behind the curve. I can walk into almost any store that sells any sort of electronics and find a variety of cases, cables, docks, speakers, portable radios, and portable video systems for the iPod. In the same stores I am lucky to find even the limited selection of overpriced Microsoft-branded accessories and I am usually shocked if I find a single third-party speaker dock for the Zune. Maybe their rarity accounts for their pricing? I managed to find a bargain on a v2 A/V dock pack while I was still using my 4gig Zune. Can you believe that the original MSRP on a set of cables, an IR remote and a docking base was $79.99? Microsoft needs to stop being so proud of their branded accessories and open up the market for third-party accessories.
Right now I own the v2 A/V dock and a v2 car kit with the FM transmitter. The A/V dock is partially compatible with the Zune HD. It powers it and allows it to sync wirelessly. The only functions that work on the remote are play/pause and prev/next. I can accept that because of the differences in the interface. At least it allows me to play content through my stereo. I don't know about video output since I'm pretty sure I never connected that cable in the first place.
The car kit works just like it did with the 4gig. Pretty much all it does is provide power and a line-level out to the FM transmitter so that's not a surprise. I have seen the new premium car kit and think it's a nice update. I would NEVER pay $80 for it but it has some nice features.
In the interim between outgrowing my 4gig Zune and getting the Zune HD, I rescued a 30gig 5th gen iPod video* (I replaced the hard drive) so I now have some experience with the competition. I think the iPod has a serious basic design flaw. When you transfer media to it, the device (or iTunes) changes the file name and places it in a random folder. What this does is open wide the possibility of duplicating media files. Not just duplicating titles, I mean truly transferring the exact same file to the device multiple times. That's just a waste. You can manage your media in a way to minimize this possibility but why should you have to? The Zune wins hands-down in my book for that reason alone every time. That's not to say I'm ready to give up the capacity available in my iPod nor the ability to dock it to my clock radio (see previous accessories rant).
Overall, I like the Zune HD. There are some tweaks and improvements I mentioned above and we might see several of them in subsequent software updates. There are a couple of improvements I did not mention above that I would like to see.
First and foremost, add a bluetooth option or, to keep the same price point, create a bluetooth add-on. The dongle/plugin would need to have A2DP and AVRCP capabilities as well as power pass-through capabilities. This would allow me to operate my Zune HD completely wirelessly via my Motorola stereo bluetooth headset or any of several automotive add-ons (thus making it safer to operate in the car!!).
Make the media button multi-functional. A single press brings up the media controls but subsequent presses could change the display, bring up ID3 tag information or any of a variety of other things. the middle button on an iPod can do it, why can't this?
So there you have my long-winded tour, commentary and review of the Zune HD. Hello? Please wake up.
-----------------------------------------
*I was originally trolling eBay for an 80 or 120 gig Zune. The only way I could afford it would be to fix a broken unit. The iPods are cheaper to obtain and, through some internet research, I found out that they are much much easier to repair. I therefore purchased and rescued my iPod.
Sunday, October 04, 2009
Nice Saturday If You Can Get It
Y'all know that one of the things I love to do on a Saturday is go to garage sales. It started as a way to make some money re-selling stuff on eBay and it just kinda stuck. I don't do the eBay thing so much anymore (hardly at all - too much effort, not enough payoff) but I still like to find bargains.
Another of my hobbies is candle making. I do it mostly around the holidays because I find it relaxing and handmade candles make wonderful gifts. When I saw an ad in the Friday paper for a garage sale that included candle making supplies, I made sure it would be my first stop even though it was about 5 or 6 miles outside of town.
I arrived right about 8:00am when the ad said they would be starting. I am quite often an early-bird but didn't want to drag my butt out of bed quite so hastily. I walked up and the lady told me that two older ladies who always show up to her garage sales very early (they had been there at about 7:10am) had all but cleaned her out. Although she still had a respectable amount of items left, I panicked. Older ladies who frequent garage sales tend to be the arts & crafts types. I feared the candle making supplies were already gone so I immediately inquired about them.
My fears subsided as she gestured to them and said, "They're right over here." She then proceeded to show me all of the items included. There was a nice stainless steel double-boiler that is about the size of the two I already have if you combined them and there was a pouring pitcher. I've never purchased one of those because they are a simple aluminum pitcher that is way overpriced ($16-$20) just because it says it is for candle making.
She pointed out a box of wax with the better part of 20lbs still in it, two large fragrance oil bottles, a couple of medium-sized bottles of fragrance and there were some "sampler" sized fragrance oils as well. I could clearly see the two 4" x 4.5" and the two 4" x 6.5" seamless aluminum round candle molds. Also included was a spool of wicking, several other small bits of wicking, and misc. equipment such as wick holders (for centering the wick), wooden spoons, a glass measuring cup, etc.
I started adding up the value in my head. First, double boilers are not cheap and they're not particularly easy to find in stores. The first one I got was at a garage sale for $0.10 (a lucky lucky find). It is aluminum and holds about a pound of wax. The next one I got was about the same size (also aluminum but Teflon-coated) but I had to buy the chocolate-making kit it was contained in (I gave the molds to a friend who made chocolate) and that cost me around $15. The molds are about $15 each at Hobby Lobby, 20lbs of wax will set you back about $25, the large scents are $20 each and aren't available locally... I figured there was at least $150 to $200 worth of equipment and supplies.
As she finished showing me what she had and before I could ask, she said, "and I'd take, for the whole thing..." The word "twenty" came out of her mouth. I said "Sold!" and as she unnecessarily continued trying to convince me of the value by saying the molds were worth at least that much I had a $20 bill outstretched in my hand before she finished the sentence. This was a big time score. I hadn't lucked into anything like that since July of 2007 while I was in Boise when I would have liked to clean them out (they had a bunch of stuff) but didn't have the financial resources.
As if that wasn't enough, while I was driving to the next garage sale heading East on highway 51, I saw a deer bounding across the road well in front of me. I watched where he went and as I passed the clump of trees, I saw that he had a companion with him (or she with her - neither had antlers). Then as I was driving down 26th street near the house, I passed another deer by the side of the road so closely I felt I could reach out and touch it. This one, too, had a companion. Yesterday certainly was a lucky Saturday.
Another of my hobbies is candle making. I do it mostly around the holidays because I find it relaxing and handmade candles make wonderful gifts. When I saw an ad in the Friday paper for a garage sale that included candle making supplies, I made sure it would be my first stop even though it was about 5 or 6 miles outside of town.
I arrived right about 8:00am when the ad said they would be starting. I am quite often an early-bird but didn't want to drag my butt out of bed quite so hastily. I walked up and the lady told me that two older ladies who always show up to her garage sales very early (they had been there at about 7:10am) had all but cleaned her out. Although she still had a respectable amount of items left, I panicked. Older ladies who frequent garage sales tend to be the arts & crafts types. I feared the candle making supplies were already gone so I immediately inquired about them.
My fears subsided as she gestured to them and said, "They're right over here." She then proceeded to show me all of the items included. There was a nice stainless steel double-boiler that is about the size of the two I already have if you combined them and there was a pouring pitcher. I've never purchased one of those because they are a simple aluminum pitcher that is way overpriced ($16-$20) just because it says it is for candle making.
She pointed out a box of wax with the better part of 20lbs still in it, two large fragrance oil bottles, a couple of medium-sized bottles of fragrance and there were some "sampler" sized fragrance oils as well. I could clearly see the two 4" x 4.5" and the two 4" x 6.5" seamless aluminum round candle molds. Also included was a spool of wicking, several other small bits of wicking, and misc. equipment such as wick holders (for centering the wick), wooden spoons, a glass measuring cup, etc.
I started adding up the value in my head. First, double boilers are not cheap and they're not particularly easy to find in stores. The first one I got was at a garage sale for $0.10 (a lucky lucky find). It is aluminum and holds about a pound of wax. The next one I got was about the same size (also aluminum but Teflon-coated) but I had to buy the chocolate-making kit it was contained in (I gave the molds to a friend who made chocolate) and that cost me around $15. The molds are about $15 each at Hobby Lobby, 20lbs of wax will set you back about $25, the large scents are $20 each and aren't available locally... I figured there was at least $150 to $200 worth of equipment and supplies.
As she finished showing me what she had and before I could ask, she said, "and I'd take, for the whole thing..." The word "twenty" came out of her mouth. I said "Sold!" and as she unnecessarily continued trying to convince me of the value by saying the molds were worth at least that much I had a $20 bill outstretched in my hand before she finished the sentence. This was a big time score. I hadn't lucked into anything like that since July of 2007 while I was in Boise when I would have liked to clean them out (they had a bunch of stuff) but didn't have the financial resources.
As if that wasn't enough, while I was driving to the next garage sale heading East on highway 51, I saw a deer bounding across the road well in front of me. I watched where he went and as I passed the clump of trees, I saw that he had a companion with him (or she with her - neither had antlers). Then as I was driving down 26th street near the house, I passed another deer by the side of the road so closely I felt I could reach out and touch it. This one, too, had a companion. Yesterday certainly was a lucky Saturday.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Unexpected Gifts
There is a store here in Stillwater called Wall's Bargain Center that sells closeout merchandise at discount prices. It's a little like Big Lots but they tend to buy stock from stores that are closing, going out of business, had fires, etc. more than "the manufacturer changed the box design" type stuff.
I got word from one of the students at work that Wall's had recently acquired a large batch of inventory from a Best Buy that had experienced an extreme heat incident with rapid incandescent oxidation and gaseous residue followed by liquid deterrent application (a fire). Said student had picked up a new Dell computer and a flat screen monitor for under $500. It wasn't a fantastic discount but it was a good price nonetheless.
I decided Friday night that I wanted to go see what they had and just how good the discounts might be. I entered the section where they had concentrated the stock and began todrool look around. I saw many shiny things and lots of blinking black boxes but they were all beyond my price range. Wall's was only offering a 25% discount (which ain't bad, really) but was using the original Best Buy pricing as a baseline which is inflated anyway (i.e. a weather radio you can buy @ WM for $29.99 marked at $39.99). Many of the objects were originally over $200 so I stuck my hands in my pockets and continued to drool profusely "window shop."
The wife, who has been wanting a digital SLR for a couple of years now, wandered over to the display case filled with cameras and camcorders. She had spied some Canon Digital Rebel models but even with the discount they would end up over $500 (except for one but we ruled it out since it didn't have a box). As I was scanning the various camcorders available I saw a Sony Digital Alpha tucked unobtrusively in the back of the case. If you didn't know what it was, it would be easy to overlook. Heck, I knew what it was and almost overlooked it myself.
It was a Sony Alpha DSLR-230L with an 18-55mm zoom lens. The price written on the side was $549.99. With discount and after tax, we figured it would cost about $450.00. The wife asked to see it and looked at the specs on the side of the box. She took the body out of the package to see how it felt and to examine all the buttons and ports. She was suitably enamoured with it and we considered buying it since her birthday is a week from Tuesday. In the end, we decided to sleep on it. First, we didn't know much about the camera itself (the best I could come up with via my smartphone was that it was released last May). Second, we didn't know where the money was going to come from. We could fudge $450 but it wouldn't be a wise thing to do.
After dinner, we both retired to our respective computers and began researching the Alpha 230. The first thing I figured out was that current selling price is $499.99 (via Best Buy, Amazon and Sony). The wife read the reviews on Amazon and felt the camera would be a good fit for her. At that point, I put into action a plan I had hatched on the way home from the store.
First, I called my mother. I explained the situation to her and asked if she would be willing to contribute $100 (or more if she wanted to) toward the Wife's birthday gift. She thought that was a splendid idea. [Side note: Mom informed me that my brother had won $2,200 at the riverboat casino... on a penny slot machine. Of course, he was playing a dollar a spin (the bonus came up all wild). I never win that much because I never risk that much.]
Next, I called her mother. I again explained the situation and she agreed to contribute $150 to the cause. We were now going to be responsible for less than half the cost of the camera (an amount we could justify without too much guilt) and had current cash on hand to float what was being covered by The Moms. Because of the nature of the business and there being only one on hand, I told the wife about the contributions, said "happy birthday" and we agreed to go to the store as they opened on Saturday to give the camera a final inspection and purchase it if it passed muster.
We got to the store and went straight to the display case with the cameras. The same lady who had helped us at closing time on Friday was in the general vicinity and came around to greet us, "You came back for the Sony, didn't you?"
The wife opened the box and removed all of the contents to take inventory. Everything was present except for the battery which we quickly located as being installed in the camera. We agreed to purchase it and the attendant filled out some paperwork for the 30-day store return warranty. We then found a suitable bag (that we later discovered was too small for more than one reason) and checked out. The camera came out to $449 and some change. With the bag, we walked out about $468.00 lighter and one camera heavier than when we walked in.
But wait, there's more.
The wife charged the battery and fiddled with the camera some to get a feel for it. I had been wanting to go to the fair in Oklahoma City all day so I struck out on my own. After visiting the ATM and grabbing a bottle of water at the gas station it was almost 3pm. I was driving toward the highway when a prominently displayed garage sale sign caught my eye. The street it pointed to only has 3 or 4 houses so if it was still going on it would be obvious. although it had been picked over quite well, they were still open for business so I dropped by.
There really wasn't much left. What they had most of was bundles and pieces of fabric they had bought for their sewing business but ended up with too much inventory and not enough time. I wandered into the garage itself and spied upon a box for a Minolta Maxxum film camera. The Sony takes the same lens mount as the Minolta. The kit had a 35-80mm zoom lens with it. It was a cheap lens. It even felt cheap. Almost every bit of it was plastic except for the optics. But it was a different lens than the one that came with the camera.
"How much?" I asked. "We were asking $40 but we're trying to get everything gone so we're doing half price. $20"
I texted the wife: Do you want a 35-80mm Maxxum kit lens for $20?
Without hesitation, the answer came back a simple "yes." I bought it but it meant that the camera bag which barely fit the camera if she took the lens off was no longer suitable.
So, in the span of a day, we had managed to get the wife a new camera with a kit lens, a bag that was now too small, and a second lens for a very reasonable price. It was a happy early birthday for her.
I got word from one of the students at work that Wall's had recently acquired a large batch of inventory from a Best Buy that had experienced an extreme heat incident with rapid incandescent oxidation and gaseous residue followed by liquid deterrent application (a fire). Said student had picked up a new Dell computer and a flat screen monitor for under $500. It wasn't a fantastic discount but it was a good price nonetheless.
I decided Friday night that I wanted to go see what they had and just how good the discounts might be. I entered the section where they had concentrated the stock and began to
The wife, who has been wanting a digital SLR for a couple of years now, wandered over to the display case filled with cameras and camcorders. She had spied some Canon Digital Rebel models but even with the discount they would end up over $500 (except for one but we ruled it out since it didn't have a box). As I was scanning the various camcorders available I saw a Sony Digital Alpha tucked unobtrusively in the back of the case. If you didn't know what it was, it would be easy to overlook. Heck, I knew what it was and almost overlooked it myself.
It was a Sony Alpha DSLR-230L with an 18-55mm zoom lens. The price written on the side was $549.99. With discount and after tax, we figured it would cost about $450.00. The wife asked to see it and looked at the specs on the side of the box. She took the body out of the package to see how it felt and to examine all the buttons and ports. She was suitably enamoured with it and we considered buying it since her birthday is a week from Tuesday. In the end, we decided to sleep on it. First, we didn't know much about the camera itself (the best I could come up with via my smartphone was that it was released last May). Second, we didn't know where the money was going to come from. We could fudge $450 but it wouldn't be a wise thing to do.
After dinner, we both retired to our respective computers and began researching the Alpha 230. The first thing I figured out was that current selling price is $499.99 (via Best Buy, Amazon and Sony). The wife read the reviews on Amazon and felt the camera would be a good fit for her. At that point, I put into action a plan I had hatched on the way home from the store.
First, I called my mother. I explained the situation to her and asked if she would be willing to contribute $100 (or more if she wanted to) toward the Wife's birthday gift. She thought that was a splendid idea. [Side note: Mom informed me that my brother had won $2,200 at the riverboat casino... on a penny slot machine. Of course, he was playing a dollar a spin (the bonus came up all wild). I never win that much because I never risk that much.]
Next, I called her mother. I again explained the situation and she agreed to contribute $150 to the cause. We were now going to be responsible for less than half the cost of the camera (an amount we could justify without too much guilt) and had current cash on hand to float what was being covered by The Moms. Because of the nature of the business and there being only one on hand, I told the wife about the contributions, said "happy birthday" and we agreed to go to the store as they opened on Saturday to give the camera a final inspection and purchase it if it passed muster.
We got to the store and went straight to the display case with the cameras. The same lady who had helped us at closing time on Friday was in the general vicinity and came around to greet us, "You came back for the Sony, didn't you?"
The wife opened the box and removed all of the contents to take inventory. Everything was present except for the battery which we quickly located as being installed in the camera. We agreed to purchase it and the attendant filled out some paperwork for the 30-day store return warranty. We then found a suitable bag (that we later discovered was too small for more than one reason) and checked out. The camera came out to $449 and some change. With the bag, we walked out about $468.00 lighter and one camera heavier than when we walked in.
But wait, there's more.
The wife charged the battery and fiddled with the camera some to get a feel for it. I had been wanting to go to the fair in Oklahoma City all day so I struck out on my own. After visiting the ATM and grabbing a bottle of water at the gas station it was almost 3pm. I was driving toward the highway when a prominently displayed garage sale sign caught my eye. The street it pointed to only has 3 or 4 houses so if it was still going on it would be obvious. although it had been picked over quite well, they were still open for business so I dropped by.
There really wasn't much left. What they had most of was bundles and pieces of fabric they had bought for their sewing business but ended up with too much inventory and not enough time. I wandered into the garage itself and spied upon a box for a Minolta Maxxum film camera. The Sony takes the same lens mount as the Minolta. The kit had a 35-80mm zoom lens with it. It was a cheap lens. It even felt cheap. Almost every bit of it was plastic except for the optics. But it was a different lens than the one that came with the camera.
"How much?" I asked. "We were asking $40 but we're trying to get everything gone so we're doing half price. $20"
I texted the wife: Do you want a 35-80mm Maxxum kit lens for $20?
Without hesitation, the answer came back a simple "yes." I bought it but it meant that the camera bag which barely fit the camera if she took the lens off was no longer suitable.
So, in the span of a day, we had managed to get the wife a new camera with a kit lens, a bag that was now too small, and a second lens for a very reasonable price. It was a happy early birthday for her.
Friday, August 28, 2009
Big Ol' Grin On My Face
My favorite podcast, Geek News Central, recently hit show 500. As a celebration of that milestone, the host, Todd Cochrane asked for a new intro. The previous intro was produced by a member of the 'ohana' (Hawaiian word meaning family) but had been in use for about 300 shows. It was time to freshen things up a bit.
As an incentive to get our creative juices flowing, and because it is an as yet unreleased shiny gadget, Todd offered a brand new Zune HD to whoever created the new intro.
Guess who will be getting a brand new Zune HD. If you want to hear the winning entry, it can be listened to here. Frankly, now that it's had some time to sit, I think it's a little long (it's almost a minute) but Todd liked it.
:::: G R I N ::::
As an incentive to get our creative juices flowing, and because it is an as yet unreleased shiny gadget, Todd offered a brand new Zune HD to whoever created the new intro.
Guess who will be getting a brand new Zune HD. If you want to hear the winning entry, it can be listened to here. Frankly, now that it's had some time to sit, I think it's a little long (it's almost a minute) but Todd liked it.
:::: G R I N ::::
Sunday, August 16, 2009
The Best Web Hosting Company EVER!
I have been fiddling around the web for several years now. I started with free services like Geocities and others who's names are lost to obscurity. In order to spread my wings and have more space, I finally moved to paid services.
The first service I used, MidPhase, was $7.95 per month, which was about the going rate for budget web hosting. They were okay but I signed up for an extended contract (buy 12 months, get 3 free) which, in the end, they didn't honor.
My next host was Siteflip. This was bargain-basement shared web hosting. $4.00 a month and, according to the reviews, you got what you paid for. They gave you space but the support was almost non-existent. I didn't much care since I hadn't had much interaction with MidPhase and I was getting a serious upgrade on disk space. Of course, it didn't help that I had to go through a special link to get that price.
When renewal time came around, I was heavily into listening to the Geek News Central Podcast, which is sponsored by GoDaddy.com. Not being entirely comfortable with the lack of support and shady side-deal style of SiteFlip, I checked out GoDaddy. For $4.99/month I could get 5GB of space (which turned into 10GB by the time I signed up) and have up to 10 MySQL databases and unlimited subdomains (subdomain.domain.com). Why some sites charge extra for subdomains, I'll never know. It's simply a pointer that exists in a single file on the server that tells Apache (the web server software) that when someone gets to the site using subdomain.domain.com, direct them to a particular folder. Anyway, I signed up and used the special savings code from Geek News Central (todd20) and saved 20% on my order which brought it down to... $4.00/month.
When I first logged in, I didn't know what to do. As far as control of my account I was at least a level higher than any other service had let me operate. Once I figured out that I had control over any and all domains I may set up through GoDaddy instead of having individual accounts for each, I was impressed.
GoDaddy has an excellent knowledge base to begin with but I have had a couple of occasions where I've needed to contact support. They have been prompt with their responses and, more importantly, they actually answered the questions that I asked.
One of the nice features of GoDaddy is the one-click install of applications such as Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Coppermine Photo Gallery, SilverStripe and a host of other, mostly free, applications. You click the install link, answer a few simple questions (i.e. where do you want to install, password for the database, etc.), then sit back and let the servers handle it automagically. If an update is available, you can click an update link and the server will let you know when it is complete. You literally don't even have to think about it.
Now here's why GoDaddy will forevermore have my web hosting business.
One of the applications I have installed, SilverStripe, that runs my wav archive had an update available about a month ago. I clicked the update link and the update failed. With another click, I rolled it back and tried again. It failed again with some sort of internal server error so I rolled it back and left it for another day.
Yesterday, I tried the update one more time and one more time it failed. I decided to contact support and see if they had any idea why this was (not) occurring. I didn't expect a response until sometime Monday.
Later yesterday afternoon, I received an email stating that my issue would require additional review and was being escalated to the Advanced Support Team. I figured a front-line soldier looked at it and, not having access to the proper resources, bumped it up the chain. No biggie. The site was up and running and I could be patient until I got another email on Monday either asking for more detail or telling me what was happening.
About 30 minutes ago, my phone rang. It was a support representative from GoDaddy. He wanted permission to have them try the upgrade on their side so they could see if they could get it to work or trace it and find out where the hiccup was.
I never expected to have my issue about installation of a third-party product update even examined over a weekend much less have someone call me personally on a Sunday evening.
Friends, if you are in need of web hosting, I can unequivocolly and without a moments hesitation strongly recommend GoDaddy. Plus, I know some codes (like the todd20 one I used for hosting) that can save you money and let you help keep the lights on at my favorite podcast. Just send me an email and I'll share them with you.
The first service I used, MidPhase, was $7.95 per month, which was about the going rate for budget web hosting. They were okay but I signed up for an extended contract (buy 12 months, get 3 free) which, in the end, they didn't honor.
My next host was Siteflip. This was bargain-basement shared web hosting. $4.00 a month and, according to the reviews, you got what you paid for. They gave you space but the support was almost non-existent. I didn't much care since I hadn't had much interaction with MidPhase and I was getting a serious upgrade on disk space. Of course, it didn't help that I had to go through a special link to get that price.
When renewal time came around, I was heavily into listening to the Geek News Central Podcast, which is sponsored by GoDaddy.com. Not being entirely comfortable with the lack of support and shady side-deal style of SiteFlip, I checked out GoDaddy. For $4.99/month I could get 5GB of space (which turned into 10GB by the time I signed up) and have up to 10 MySQL databases and unlimited subdomains (subdomain.domain.com). Why some sites charge extra for subdomains, I'll never know. It's simply a pointer that exists in a single file on the server that tells Apache (the web server software) that when someone gets to the site using subdomain.domain.com, direct them to a particular folder. Anyway, I signed up and used the special savings code from Geek News Central (todd20) and saved 20% on my order which brought it down to... $4.00/month.
When I first logged in, I didn't know what to do. As far as control of my account I was at least a level higher than any other service had let me operate. Once I figured out that I had control over any and all domains I may set up through GoDaddy instead of having individual accounts for each, I was impressed.
GoDaddy has an excellent knowledge base to begin with but I have had a couple of occasions where I've needed to contact support. They have been prompt with their responses and, more importantly, they actually answered the questions that I asked.
One of the nice features of GoDaddy is the one-click install of applications such as Joomla, Drupal, WordPress, Coppermine Photo Gallery, SilverStripe and a host of other, mostly free, applications. You click the install link, answer a few simple questions (i.e. where do you want to install, password for the database, etc.), then sit back and let the servers handle it automagically. If an update is available, you can click an update link and the server will let you know when it is complete. You literally don't even have to think about it.
Now here's why GoDaddy will forevermore have my web hosting business.
One of the applications I have installed, SilverStripe, that runs my wav archive had an update available about a month ago. I clicked the update link and the update failed. With another click, I rolled it back and tried again. It failed again with some sort of internal server error so I rolled it back and left it for another day.
Yesterday, I tried the update one more time and one more time it failed. I decided to contact support and see if they had any idea why this was (not) occurring. I didn't expect a response until sometime Monday.
Later yesterday afternoon, I received an email stating that my issue would require additional review and was being escalated to the Advanced Support Team. I figured a front-line soldier looked at it and, not having access to the proper resources, bumped it up the chain. No biggie. The site was up and running and I could be patient until I got another email on Monday either asking for more detail or telling me what was happening.
About 30 minutes ago, my phone rang. It was a support representative from GoDaddy. He wanted permission to have them try the upgrade on their side so they could see if they could get it to work or trace it and find out where the hiccup was.
I never expected to have my issue about installation of a third-party product update even examined over a weekend much less have someone call me personally on a Sunday evening.
Friends, if you are in need of web hosting, I can unequivocolly and without a moments hesitation strongly recommend GoDaddy. Plus, I know some codes (like the todd20 one I used for hosting) that can save you money and let you help keep the lights on at my favorite podcast. Just send me an email and I'll share them with you.
Wednesday, August 05, 2009
There's A Rining In My Ears
I just signed up with Google voice and actually impressed the wife when I used her cell phone and made my cell phone and the house phone ring at the same time. Those of you that know my wife know that technology does not generally impress her. I will have to fiddle with GVoice over the next few days and figure out what else I can do with it.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
Expo Memories
Trek Expo 2009 has wrapped up. Overall, I had a good time but the atmosphere was much different this year. I don't know if it was me, the economy, the guest list, the not-so-rushed attitude, or what but there wasn't as much of a spark of excitement as in past years.
Speaking of guests... Chase Masterson, a regular attendee (she must have family in the area or something), was lovely in form and voice as usual.
Leonard Nimoy started out interesting but we bailed on his talk. We were in the cheap seats and the acoustics of the room, combined with the tonal quality of his voice, made it very difficult to understand what he was saying (we weren't the only ones).
The one I really wanted to see was Corin Nemec from Stargate SG-1. He was one of only four guests I hadn't seen before. He was well spoken but needs to work on his timing. His stories, while interesting, tended to grab attention early then fade out instead of having a punch. He's very nice, though and I think he's losing his hair (he was never without a hat all weekend).
Of unexpected interest was Phil Morris. He has done a lot of voice work, he played Jackie Chiles in Seinfeld, a Jem-Hadar and a Klingon on Deep Space 9, and most recently The Martian Manhunter on Smallville. Two bits of trivia: He is the son of Greg Morris who was on the original Mission: Impossible. When it was remade later during a writer's strike, he was cast as the same character his father played. Also, he got his start in television and in the Star Trek universe in the original series as one of the children in the eposide Miri. He has some great stories.
Garret Wang was entertaining as usual. Here, he is doing his "Power of DeLanciiiiiiiie!!" schtick. He brings a lot of energy to a convention.
For the second time, I had the opportunity to see Avery Brooks. He is a very interesting person with very zen-like insights and mindset. It makes for interesting Q&A because half of the time when he's finished giving his answer, your mind has followed his etherial rhetoric and you have forgotten what the original question was.
Cirroc Lofton, who played Jake Cisco on DS9, was scheduled such that he and Avery spent an hour sharing the stage. At one point, they were talking about an eposide in which Tony Todd had guest-starred and called him up to the stage. Made for a nice photo-op.
Monday, May 18, 2009
I Should Have Played The Powerball
There's been a lot going on lately that I have wanted to tell you about or comment about but I just haven't been able to make the time to get the posts written. Then, when I do have time, I generally can't recall exactly what I was going to write about which is why I posted my last post.
One of the things I was going to write about was this weekend. The post would have been written in future tense but since the weekend is now over it will be written in past tense.
The middle nephew graduated from High School this weekend. Sunday, to be exact. We drove up to Kansas City, then up to Linneus, MO (about 2 hrs NE of KC) for the doings. There are 4 or 5 small towns (populations 200 to 500) in the county and I'm pretty sure it's a consolidated school. Even at that, there were only 18 people in his graduating class.
Side note: When we left for KC on Saturday, we had been on I-35 for 15 to 20 minutes and saw the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV1). We were heading North, it was heading South.
The small number of graduating seniors in his class doesn't in any way diminish the fact that M was 3rd in his class. The valedictorian and salutatorian were both major overachievers (that's not a bad thing). We are very proud of all of my brother's kids. Given the cards that life has dealt them, any or all of them could have easily written off their education and underachieved but none of them did. E graduated, went into the Army reserves and is now working on a college degree. N graduated with his HS diploma and Associates degree on the same day through a special academy in Missouri. M just graduated 3rd in his class with scholarships to pursue his chosen career of Funeral Director/Mortician (at least he'll never have a lack of clientele). B is a basketball star set to graduate next year and will probably end up with some sort of scholarships himself. Q is coming into his own and is shaping up to be just as smart and active as his brothers. I am proud of all of them... yeah, I know I already said that but I figure it's worth repeating.
Now, to explain the title.
When I got to KC on Saturday, I had an email from Sprite Backup. Sprite Backup is a backup program for windows Mobile devices. My phone came with a lite version pre-installed which has saved my bacon more than once. Anyway, they were running a contest to give away a copy of the latest version so I entered... and promptly forgot I even entered until I got the email this weekend. I didn't win the software but I did win 3rd prize which was an 8GB MicroSD card. Not too shabby.
But wait, there's MORE!
In mid-to-late-April, Pantech, AT&T and 26 blog sites started a contest to give away 26 Pantech Matrix Pro phones, each with a $100 AT&T gift card for activation or accessories or whatever. The contest rules were decided by the individual sites. Some of them asked for essays about anything from the best ways to using cloud computing to why do you need this phone. The ones I entered (about 15 of them) required entries about the contest on personal blogs, comments posted to the contest announcement or tweets about the site and the contest.
When I got home this evening, I had received a private message from the site administrator of GearLive saying that I had won their contest! I am so excited! I've just been getting stuff left and right this weekend... which now explains the title.
One of the things I was going to write about was this weekend. The post would have been written in future tense but since the weekend is now over it will be written in past tense.
The middle nephew graduated from High School this weekend. Sunday, to be exact. We drove up to Kansas City, then up to Linneus, MO (about 2 hrs NE of KC) for the doings. There are 4 or 5 small towns (populations 200 to 500) in the county and I'm pretty sure it's a consolidated school. Even at that, there were only 18 people in his graduating class.
Side note: When we left for KC on Saturday, we had been on I-35 for 15 to 20 minutes and saw the Tornado Intercept Vehicle (TIV1). We were heading North, it was heading South.
The small number of graduating seniors in his class doesn't in any way diminish the fact that M was 3rd in his class. The valedictorian and salutatorian were both major overachievers (that's not a bad thing). We are very proud of all of my brother's kids. Given the cards that life has dealt them, any or all of them could have easily written off their education and underachieved but none of them did. E graduated, went into the Army reserves and is now working on a college degree. N graduated with his HS diploma and Associates degree on the same day through a special academy in Missouri. M just graduated 3rd in his class with scholarships to pursue his chosen career of Funeral Director/Mortician (at least he'll never have a lack of clientele). B is a basketball star set to graduate next year and will probably end up with some sort of scholarships himself. Q is coming into his own and is shaping up to be just as smart and active as his brothers. I am proud of all of them... yeah, I know I already said that but I figure it's worth repeating.
Now, to explain the title.
When I got to KC on Saturday, I had an email from Sprite Backup. Sprite Backup is a backup program for windows Mobile devices. My phone came with a lite version pre-installed which has saved my bacon more than once. Anyway, they were running a contest to give away a copy of the latest version so I entered... and promptly forgot I even entered until I got the email this weekend. I didn't win the software but I did win 3rd prize which was an 8GB MicroSD card. Not too shabby.
But wait, there's MORE!
In mid-to-late-April, Pantech, AT&T and 26 blog sites started a contest to give away 26 Pantech Matrix Pro phones, each with a $100 AT&T gift card for activation or accessories or whatever. The contest rules were decided by the individual sites. Some of them asked for essays about anything from the best ways to using cloud computing to why do you need this phone. The ones I entered (about 15 of them) required entries about the contest on personal blogs, comments posted to the contest announcement or tweets about the site and the contest.
When I got home this evening, I had received a private message from the site administrator of GearLive saying that I had won their contest! I am so excited! I've just been getting stuff left and right this weekend... which now explains the title.
Saturday, May 09, 2009
FINALLY!
When I came home with the Wii, the wife was none too happy. See, her mother had thought that we were both interested in having one for the health benefits. She had it wrong. I wanted a Wii, the wife specifically didn't want one. Whoops. I thought she'd expressed an interest as well.
For years I have wished the wife was into video games so we could play things like Starcraft or other multiplayer games together. She won't go near them. She doesn't mind certain types of games. She bought a Nintendo DS and Brain Age just to play Brain Age. Since then, she's gotten Big Brain Academy, Brain Age 2, and Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? See a pattern? No aiming or button trickery involved.
The day I hooked up the Wii, I prompted her to give it a try. I was feeling guilty because it was purchased as a birthday present for me and an anniversary present for us. If she wasn't going to ever use it, that meant it was a really expensive gift for me and she got gipped. She refused. And it was one of those refusals where husbands can tell that "no" means "Not a chance in hell I'm letting you off the hook that easy."
As the week has progressed, I noticed her warming up to the idea. On Monday, my birthday, she gave me some cash to go buy some games so I wouldn't be stuck with just Wii Fit and Wii Sports. When we went shopping, she was taking an interest in the games and what was available. I only bought one (the jury is still out on whether or not I like it) so I still had some money left.
Fast forward to tonight. We went to Wal-Mart on advice of a friend who said they often have a selection of Wii games for $10. I bought Monster 4x4 and Rayman Raving Rabbids (you can throw COWS!). Neither is on the $10 rack but Rayman came highly recommended and Monster 4x4 came with a steering wheel. Later, we went to the other WM in town and looked to see what their $10 selection was. As we were wandering around, the wife asked me, "aren't those games you just bought multi player?"
"Yes, I believe they are."
"Why don't we get an extra controller so we can play together because I don't think I would play by myself."
We came home and played Monster 4x4 a while (she actually started to get the hang of it... and I was getting worse for some reason) and we just finished our third game of Wii Bowling.
Thanks, mom-in-law, we finally got her hooked.
For years I have wished the wife was into video games so we could play things like Starcraft or other multiplayer games together. She won't go near them. She doesn't mind certain types of games. She bought a Nintendo DS and Brain Age just to play Brain Age. Since then, she's gotten Big Brain Academy, Brain Age 2, and Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader? See a pattern? No aiming or button trickery involved.
The day I hooked up the Wii, I prompted her to give it a try. I was feeling guilty because it was purchased as a birthday present for me and an anniversary present for us. If she wasn't going to ever use it, that meant it was a really expensive gift for me and she got gipped. She refused. And it was one of those refusals where husbands can tell that "no" means "Not a chance in hell I'm letting you off the hook that easy."
As the week has progressed, I noticed her warming up to the idea. On Monday, my birthday, she gave me some cash to go buy some games so I wouldn't be stuck with just Wii Fit and Wii Sports. When we went shopping, she was taking an interest in the games and what was available. I only bought one (the jury is still out on whether or not I like it) so I still had some money left.
Fast forward to tonight. We went to Wal-Mart on advice of a friend who said they often have a selection of Wii games for $10. I bought Monster 4x4 and Rayman Raving Rabbids (you can throw COWS!). Neither is on the $10 rack but Rayman came highly recommended and Monster 4x4 came with a steering wheel. Later, we went to the other WM in town and looked to see what their $10 selection was. As we were wandering around, the wife asked me, "aren't those games you just bought multi player?"
"Yes, I believe they are."
"Why don't we get an extra controller so we can play together because I don't think I would play by myself."
We came home and played Monster 4x4 a while (she actually started to get the hang of it... and I was getting worse for some reason) and we just finished our third game of Wii Bowling.
Thanks, mom-in-law, we finally got her hooked.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Wii... Wheeeee!
I have always wanted a game console. Doesn't matter which one - Pong, 2600, NES, PS2, X-Box, PS3 - although I never wanted a Colecovision (never could get the hang of that disc) but I digress. Of the most recent consoles, I want an X-Box 360 so I can play Halo, I want(ed) a PS3 because it could play Blu-Ray, and I want a Wii for Wii Fit and the balance board.
Regarding the Wii, I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago just in casual conversation. I mentioned a couple of friends that have this same setup and really like it.
Guess what I got for my birthday (which is tomorrow)?
It's kind-of a cool little console. Wireless gyroscopic controller, built-in WiFi, backwards compatible with Game Cube, can interface with the DS... I really want to commit to using the Wii Fit because I really need to get in better shape somehow. I won't let this console sit idle like the PS2 in my office that I only acquired about a year ago and technically belongs to a friend.
Regarding the Wii, I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago just in casual conversation. I mentioned a couple of friends that have this same setup and really like it.
Guess what I got for my birthday (which is tomorrow)?
It's kind-of a cool little console. Wireless gyroscopic controller, built-in WiFi, backwards compatible with Game Cube, can interface with the DS... I really want to commit to using the Wii Fit because I really need to get in better shape somehow. I won't let this console sit idle like the PS2 in my office that I only acquired about a year ago and technically belongs to a friend.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Thursday, April 02, 2009
What I Learned Today
I needed to reboot my primary computer this evening. When I did, I noticed, for the first time, that the motherboard reported 'MCH is operating in single channel mode.' That's not exactly it because it included something else that clued me in that it was talking about my system RAM.
My system currently has 2 gigabytes of DDR2 (DDR = Dual Data Rate) RAM. The whole thing about modern RAM is that it can operate in dual channel mode (basically, the computer talks to two different memory modules simultaneously). Apparently, mine wasn't doing that.
I quickly googled 'MCH single channel' and discovered that the RAM modules have to be on different channels. So, I shut down my computer, moved one of the modules over one slot so that they were now in slots 1 and 3 instead of 1 and 2 and fired her back up. Guess what, the MCH was now in dual channel interlace mode.
What did I gain from that? Apparently not much. At least not that I've noticed yet. My boot time still sucks. But it's sucking in dual channel mode now.
My system currently has 2 gigabytes of DDR2 (DDR = Dual Data Rate) RAM. The whole thing about modern RAM is that it can operate in dual channel mode (basically, the computer talks to two different memory modules simultaneously). Apparently, mine wasn't doing that.
I quickly googled 'MCH single channel' and discovered that the RAM modules have to be on different channels. So, I shut down my computer, moved one of the modules over one slot so that they were now in slots 1 and 3 instead of 1 and 2 and fired her back up. Guess what, the MCH was now in dual channel interlace mode.
What did I gain from that? Apparently not much. At least not that I've noticed yet. My boot time still sucks. But it's sucking in dual channel mode now.
Monday, February 16, 2009
HTC Announces The Touch Pro 2
My AT&T Fuze is based on the HTC Touch Pro and HTC just announced the HTC Touch Pro 2.
Ain't she purdy?
I like the more rounded design. The D-Pad needed to go and I never cared for the faceted back. It still has the horizontal slide-out keyboard but they brought back the screen tilt feature. The TP2 is a little thinner (17.25 mm/0.68" vs 18.05 mm/0.71") but a little bit longer and wider (116 x 59.2 mm/4.57 x 2.33" vs 102 x 51 mm/4.02 x 2.01") to accomodate the 3.6" 400 x 800 screen (the Fuze is 2.8" with 480 x 640). They seem to have left the camera alone.
From the pics this is a sleek looking phone. The shiny has worn off my Fuze so I'm not entirely enamoured with it any more. She does have her flaws and, honestly, the horizontal slide-out keyboard can be inconvenient at times (but it's much much better than a "soft" keyboard on the screen).
I probably won't be getting a Touch Pro 2 since I'm not anywhere near wealthy and my upgrade date is more than a year out. But this encourages me for what might be available when that day rolls around. Of course, that doesn't mean I'll have enough reason to justify the expense but I can dream.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Small Victories
When I got home from work this evening, there was an envelope sitting on my side of the bed. I asked my wife, who was sitting on her side of the bed working on her laptop, "What's this?"
In a thoroughly confused voice she replied, "It's a check."
Oddly enough, getting a check in the mail lately has not been good news. A particular group managed to screw up some insurance coverage I had and sent our premiums back. (long story that's not worth telling) So I carefully peered into the envelope thinking to myself, "what now?" As I slid the paper out, I read the word "Google" on the top and, for a brief instant, became extremely confused as to why Google would be sending me a check. When I actually looked at the amount of the check it hit me as to what it was and I just had to laugh.
In October of 2004, I signed up for Google AdWords. You know those relatively unobtrusive and easily ignorable "ads by Google" ad banners you see spread around on quite a few web pages? Those are Google AdWords. The site creator chooses to put those on his/her page and each time you or someone else clicks on one of those ads, he/she gets a credit. If enough clicks happen in a specified period of time during which there have been a particular number of impressions (displays of ads), those credits translate into real money. The month after your account credit reaches $100.00 or more, Google cuts you a check. Unless you have an imensely popular page, the credits don't rack up very quickly but they do add up. I got my first Google AdWords check today! To understand why I started laughing when I realized what the check was, I refer you back to the first sentence of this paragraph that mentions that I signed up for AdWords four years and three months ago!
Now, I told you that story to tell you this one.
If you've been following along, you know I am migrating my sound archive to a different management system. The sound archive has been the only one of my sites that has contained the AdWords banners. I have been debating whether or not to place them on the new site and receipt of the check closed the deal.
Not knowing enough about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) or the CMS (Content Management System) I'm using and how it is structured, I knew that placing those banners where I wanted them to be on a page would be a challenge. Think of it this way. If you've been to the site, there is a menu that appears on the left side of pretty much everything but the home page and a few select others. Ihave had no idea what piece of the puzzle told it to be on the left and allow the page content to be just to the right of it.
You see, the only web technology I really ever learned was HTML. Programming and scripting languages are much like spoken languages in that, once you learn one, you can use it to relate to the others. In other words, if you know what the 'print' command does in language A, you know it's very similar to the 'write' command in language B which is similar to the 'echo' command in language C, etc. HTML is pretty specific about page layout. You [can] basically tell an element (text, picture, whatever) exactly where it is going to be on the page and how it should relate to the elements around it. When you're using CSS, you tell your HTML code to go ask the style sheet how things should look, where they should be placed, and how they should relate to the elements around it.
With that in mind, I went trudging through the CSS looking for the part that said 'the menu goes on the left, give a little bit of space, then put the page content to the right of it.' I couldn't find it. In HTML, you might use a table to accomplish this so I was looking for something similar. Finding the section that specified how the menu should look/act was easy enough but it didn't contain any code I could recognize for positioning.
After a couple hours of pulling my hair out (and those of you who know me are aware that I ain't got all that much left), it finally clicked. When it did, I began to understand how the CSS and the HTML related to each other. I built a little piece of code to to tell the provided AdWords script how it should display then told the core page types to utilize it. After a bit of fiddling with positioning in the layout and positioning of the command within the page, I had it right where I wanted it! Since I understood how it worked now, I made a coule of other minor changes to the layout while I was at it.
I'm not ashamed to say I'm proud of myself. I've been able to build this CMS from the ground up (you have to) and have managed to get it acting the way I want it to. And, given historical data, I should be receiving another $100 check in April of 2013.
In a thoroughly confused voice she replied, "It's a check."
Oddly enough, getting a check in the mail lately has not been good news. A particular group managed to screw up some insurance coverage I had and sent our premiums back. (long story that's not worth telling) So I carefully peered into the envelope thinking to myself, "what now?" As I slid the paper out, I read the word "Google" on the top and, for a brief instant, became extremely confused as to why Google would be sending me a check. When I actually looked at the amount of the check it hit me as to what it was and I just had to laugh.
In October of 2004, I signed up for Google AdWords. You know those relatively unobtrusive and easily ignorable "ads by Google" ad banners you see spread around on quite a few web pages? Those are Google AdWords. The site creator chooses to put those on his/her page and each time you or someone else clicks on one of those ads, he/she gets a credit. If enough clicks happen in a specified period of time during which there have been a particular number of impressions (displays of ads), those credits translate into real money. The month after your account credit reaches $100.00 or more, Google cuts you a check. Unless you have an imensely popular page, the credits don't rack up very quickly but they do add up. I got my first Google AdWords check today! To understand why I started laughing when I realized what the check was, I refer you back to the first sentence of this paragraph that mentions that I signed up for AdWords four years and three months ago!
Now, I told you that story to tell you this one.
If you've been following along, you know I am migrating my sound archive to a different management system. The sound archive has been the only one of my sites that has contained the AdWords banners. I have been debating whether or not to place them on the new site and receipt of the check closed the deal.
Not knowing enough about CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) or the CMS (Content Management System) I'm using and how it is structured, I knew that placing those banners where I wanted them to be on a page would be a challenge. Think of it this way. If you've been to the site, there is a menu that appears on the left side of pretty much everything but the home page and a few select others. I
You see, the only web technology I really ever learned was HTML. Programming and scripting languages are much like spoken languages in that, once you learn one, you can use it to relate to the others. In other words, if you know what the 'print' command does in language A, you know it's very similar to the 'write' command in language B which is similar to the 'echo' command in language C, etc. HTML is pretty specific about page layout. You [can] basically tell an element (text, picture, whatever) exactly where it is going to be on the page and how it should relate to the elements around it. When you're using CSS, you tell your HTML code to go ask the style sheet how things should look, where they should be placed, and how they should relate to the elements around it.
With that in mind, I went trudging through the CSS looking for the part that said 'the menu goes on the left, give a little bit of space, then put the page content to the right of it.' I couldn't find it. In HTML, you might use a table to accomplish this so I was looking for something similar. Finding the section that specified how the menu should look/act was easy enough but it didn't contain any code I could recognize for positioning.
After a couple hours of pulling my hair out (and those of you who know me are aware that I ain't got all that much left), it finally clicked. When it did, I began to understand how the CSS and the HTML related to each other. I built a little piece of code to to tell the provided AdWords script how it should display then told the core page types to utilize it. After a bit of fiddling with positioning in the layout and positioning of the command within the page, I had it right where I wanted it! Since I understood how it worked now, I made a coule of other minor changes to the layout while I was at it.
I'm not ashamed to say I'm proud of myself. I've been able to build this CMS from the ground up (you have to) and have managed to get it acting the way I want it to. And, given historical data, I should be receiving another $100 check in April of 2013.
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