Auri's Blog

Are you looking for a great image editing program with some Photoshop-like features, but you don’t want to tip the budget scales? Sure, The GiMP is out there, but it’s hard to use in my humble opinion. My development team introduced me to a great FREE program, and I want to share it with you – PAINT.NET. In fact, even though I do have Photoshop, I use Paint.NET for quick tasks like cropping and blurring. It’s just crazy fast.

Some of its benefits:

• Simple, easy to use interface
• Tabbed document editing, so you can see all the open images at once
• Photoshop-like capabilities, like blur effects
• Doesn’t take half a minute to load like Photoshop
• Fast
• No spyware!

Feel like trying it out? Go to Download.com and get it free.

Another tip: The folks at CNet’s Download.com "certify" their downloads as spyware-free. If a program has been recommended to you, try finding it there first, if you want to make sure you’re getting something reasonably safe.

Best,

-Auri

Are you a Windows Media Center junkie? Do you want to work with those DVR-MS files it creates, but can’t find a tool to help you? Well, I hope this article answers your questions!

Using the free utility DVRMS Toolkit, you can:

• Convert DVR MS files to MPEG for moving to DVD.
• Convert DVR MS files to WMV for playback on your Zune or other WMV capable device.
• Remove all commercials from your shows.
• More!

To get DVRMSToolkit, go to its official Web site. Make sure you download the latest version that’s appropriate for your PC. For example, if you are running Windows Vista 64-bit, make sure you download version specifically marked x64. (Another tip: If you’re running 64-bit Vista, always try to get the 64-bit version of applications…)

Being a free tool written and designed by a developer, the interface for DVRMS Toolkit isn’t shiny and polished like Windows Live Movie Maker. So, a few pointers:

• The program to use after install is DVRMStoMPEGGUI.
• To set the Input file, which is the video you want to work with, simply double-click the white box next to Input File.
• To set the Output file, which is the video file DVR MS should create, simply double-click the white box next to Output File.
• Don’t mess with Process Priority.
• Make sure you set the Profile to the operation you want to perform.
• Keep Use Selected Profile checked.
• You likely won’t have to tinker with the Process Directory tab’s contents.
• You may randomly get messages saying DLLs aren’t registered. I’ve found it safe to ignore these messages.

A few tips about DVRMS files:

• Windows Movie Maker can also work with these files, so you can create videos directly from them.
• Converting files to MPEG makes them easier to work with in many video editing applications, since MPEG is a video standard.
• DVRMS files work a LOT better in Windows Vista’s Media Center than from Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE). If you’re having a lot of trouble with shows recorded using Windows XP MCE, consider upgrading that machine to Vista Home Premium or Vista Utimate.

A few more tips for Windows Media Center:

• Make sure you use the Windows Media Center instead of Windows XP Media Center Edition. It’s just plain better.
• If you’re looking for a very good over-the-air tuner, get the PC HD TV from Happaugue. It comes with a great antenna, but keep in mind that antenna has a huge magnet weighting it down!

I used this application extensively to create my Superbowl

DVDs. The commercial skip feature works like a champ!

Geeky Developer Note: If you’re a software developer, you can change the program to your liking, and it’s written in C#.

Enjoy!

Best,

-Auri

Sometimes you just want to work on your mobile device without having to hold it in your hand. Seriously, have you ever tried cleaning up programs on there? That stylus sure does get annoying. And, well, for software developers like me, we need to see the device on our computer desktop without having to glance at it all the time.

Luckily, there’s a free program out there that solves this problem. MyMobiler is a free, highly rated application for accessing your Windows Mobile device when it’s plugged into your computer via ActiveSync. It’ll show you the Mobile’s screen and can even magnify the screen for wary eyes.

To snag it, go to http://www.mymobiler.com/

Don’t click through your Start menu to find all those apps you’ve installed! Simply press the Start key and type the name of the app.

A few cool shortcuts, and I encourage you to try more:

• Start + "Windows Live" brings up all the Windows Live apps.

• Start + "Word" brings up Microsoft Word.

If you simply hit the Enter/Return key when the item comes up at the top of the list, it will launch the application. How cool is that? Keyboard jockeys rejoice!

Nowadays, most people keep only digital versions of their files on their computer. Whether it be a laptop or a desktop, it doesn’t matter – having only one copy of important data on only one drive is just asking for disaster.

As hard drives get larger, and you store more data, the risk inherent in loss increases greatly. Do you really want to lose all your photos and music? Do you want to lose all those financial worksheets, tax return documents, resumes?

There is no excuse these days not to back up. Every computer you buy in the store comes with some sort of CD burning program. Many thumb drives and external hard drives come with backup software. Windows Vista Home Edition and beyond come with Windows Backup And Restore Center.

To Access Windows Backup and Restore Center, simply press the Start key and type Backup. The first option will be Windows Backup and Restore Center. How easy was that?

Just tell it what to back up and you’re done. Presto.

Create a Backup Schedule

Backing up is like working out – you need to make it part of your routine and stick to it.

For important documents, such as basically everything inside your Documents folder in Vista, or the non-media folders inside My Documents in Windows XP, back those up at least once per month, and ideally once per week or even more often. I’ll cover backing up music, photos, and video later in this article.

One aspect of Windows Live One Care I really liked was it glowed yellow for "caution" when you hadn’t backed up your files in a specified amount of time.

If You Have Many Computers

Now, that’s for one computer. What do you do if you have many computers across your home? Microsoft has the answer here – Windows Home Server. Just plug a $475 Windows Home Server into your network and "join’ your computers to the server. Every night between 1 and 3 am your computers will back themselves up, automatically. If one fails, simply stick a CD in the drive and the computer will be restored over the network. No fuss. Wow, how cool is that?

(Personally, I have more than the 10 computers Windows Home Server allows, so I bought another one… <grin>)

What About My Music, Photos, and Video?

These three media types tend to take up the most space on your hard drive. True, it’s hard to back up hundreds of gigabytes of media. If it’s to CD, DVD, or even BluRay discs, it takes a LOT of discs, and it’s time consuming. Fortunately, for most of us, each item in our collections doesn’t change all that often – the collection just grows.

Understandably, there’s no reason to back up the media collection every day or week, as you should be for your regular documents. I suggest you archive your music collection to an external hard drive once per month. Oftentimes it’s easy to get that music back if it’s from CD.

There is a gotcha here… the media that you purchase from online services may require you to re-purchase the items if you lose them. It’s important that purchased media be backed up on a regular basis. Just make it part of your routine.

There’s more to share…

I’d like to continue this article a bit more… if you have suggestions on topics I should cover, please let me know.

Best,

-Auri

Do you need someone to look at your computer and help you troubleshoot an issue? Well, sheesh, how do you do that? Well, Microsoft has made this pretty easy:

1. Get Windows Live Messenger (http://get.live.com)
2. IM your friend.
3. From the Actions menu click Actions, then Request Remote Assistance.

   

4. Let your friend control your computer and figure out the problem.
5. Buy your friend dinner.

Enjoy!

Best,

-Auri

So, you need to check if that file is on your home computer, but you’re at work. Boy, it sure stinks that you’d have to buy software for such remote access. The free stuff has a lot of issues getting through firewalls.

Or does it?

Welcome to Windows Live Mesh. Enjoy free remote access to all the computers in your mesh, and synchronize files across all of them. Start a document at home, save it to a Mesh folder, just like any regular Windows folder, and access the document when you get to the office. How cool is that? No need for a thumb drive! Best part – it’s free!

Get it now at www.mesh.com.

P.S. It runs on Macs, too, although the remote desktop isn’t offered for the Mac. If a Cupertino computer is part of your lifestyle, you don’t have to worry about file accessibility. Thanks, Redmond, that’s cool. You get five gigabytes of free storage as well.

(Hopefully cloud-based file sync will be coming soon… ping!)

Recently, many of my friends have been considering adding a netbook to their stack of portable computers. Their reasons:

• Small
• Great Battery Life
• Does just what I need on the go

Those of us who are early adopters know better than to get the first generation of any product genre. Remember MP3 players? Mmm… that Diamond Rio sure was nice, if you liked listening to 12 songs! Those BluRay players were cool, until you realized resuming a movie from where you left off was a nightmare. And what about disc playback being a crapshot?

A Trend Emerges: Given two years, we see a lot of great products build on their "promising" technologies. The iPod made a huge difference in market acceptance for digital music players, and costs for portable hard drives and flash media came down as the product gained popularity. The BluRay players of today are finally coming down in price, but the media has yet to become affordable. However, the media affordability issue has spawned a renewed interest in movie download services. Give it another year – about the time the HD optical format war ended – and the two year mark will prove once again that the technology will likely be ready for mass consumer adoption in one form or another.

The same, too, goes for netbooks. Right now they’re inexpensive, but that’s it. Battery life sucks, unless you pay more money. Processors are dogged slow. Screen resolution isn’t on par with consumer expectations. Yet, Intel is making strides on the processor front, and Via continues to innovate. Apple has patents pending on ARM processor designs. Interesting! Give it another 18 months and let’s see what happens when we hit the two year mark. Sony’s P series netbooks already show promise, but at a higher price than most consumers will accept…

So, in 18 months time, we should have:

• The third or fourth generation of Intel’s Atom processors, and competitor’s processors
• Windows 7, with its svelte streamlining for mobile devices, maybe even SP1
• Probably more Windows Live services geared towards Netbooks and Mobile devices. Live Mesh 2.0, anyone?
• Better battery technologies for longer battery life and less battery weight. Look at Toshiba instant charge batteries and Maxell fuel cells.
• Higher resolution, lower power, thinner LED displays

What do you think? I’d love your comments…

I just want to throw this out there – WHY can’t a BluRay Disc Pause Properly? It runs more like a computer application instead of a movie.

On my laptop’s BD player, my Samsung player, and my Sony player, if you lose power you can’t just "start back up" where you left off. No, the entire menu system has to load, then you have to select the scene that was closest to where you left off, if you even know…

HD DVD had no problem with resuming play. Why can’t a bunch of CE companies get simple playback right? 30+ seconds just to start a movie unless you have a PS3 or PC, and those are now more than twice as expensive as a cheap BD player.

BD is an IP camel. It’s designed by a committee saying "let’s stick every piece of bloated IP in here just so we have something to compete with and who cares about the customer… they’ll buy it." Yeah, BD looks better than any streaming video out there, but the usability – not functionality – pales in comparison to DVD, which starts up instantly, and works flawlessly.

Hey, don’t give me a "it’s still a young technology" line – this is an evolutionary technology, not revolutionary. It’s simply the result of a lack of proper human interface engineering.

Will it ever be fixed? Yes. As CE manufacturers improve the software with patches to get around this stuff, and as much more powerful processors become cost effective to include, then sheer processor speed will help solve the problem. This is evident in the PS3 working like a champ – 8 processor cores and never sleeping during playback – and my dual 2.5 GHz core laptop, except for when it comes back from sleep. However, for the majority of consumers searching for a high definition video delivery format to adopt, stuck with the $200 BD players instead of the $399+ PS3, they’re still the victim of this poor planning – the "lipstick on a pig approach" for now.

Well, I couldn’t login to do time tracking, invoicing, nada today… I would get server errors from every Intuit service I use. Intuit’s Web site wouldn’t help – it had nothing about an outage. Finally, after fidgeting with their URLs, I found the following message:

We’re sorry. We are currently experiencing network difficulties and working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. For help with your product, please call 888-222-1276 and reference case number 054-884-29244. You might experience longer than normal wait times.

So, if you’re unable to hit time tracker, invoicing, or what have you, and are getting Service Unavailable messages, try the above number…

Someone should tell Intuit to post a big, obvious message on their home page, instead of burying everything and frustrating customers.