Want to know my weather?

A new Davis Vantage Pro 2 (from Ambient Weather) is currently in my backyard. A Christmas present from my parents. It is currently unmounted, but still active. If you have any interest in seeing the weather in my backyard, here is the link:

http://www.weatherunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KFLLAKEW7

This is done using the Weather Link hardware for the weather station (again from Ambient Weather http://www.ambientweather.com, Virtual Weather Station Internet Edition and Weather Underground.

A mount is on the way. Once it is up, the readings should be more accurate.

02/14/2007 - the station is mounted (since January) readings should be more accurate.

More Customer Service Goodness

My father wanted me to plant him a bed of epidendrums for a Christmas present. There is a new line of epidendrums that has larger flowers and a nice variety of colors. I've bought them in the past at the Ft. Lauderdale Orchid Show from Cal Orchid (www.calorchid.com).

I shot them off an email and called them to place the order. The order arrived and the box was mangled (this was the week before Christmas and it was sent via FedEx). There were stakes poking out of the top of the box. The plants were nice, but close to half had damage from the box being man-handled.

I sent an email saying the plants had arrived and there was some damage. Within an hour (this was 12/22) I received a reply with an apology and an offer to send out some new plants. The plants arrived yesterday and the box was intact. The plants were all in excellent shape. Apparently Cal Orchid knows how to pack, but FedEx is not too good at handling boxes labeled "Fragile".

To me, they went out of their way to make up for something that was not their fault. This wasn't a large order by any means. In the future, I'll be sure to consider Cal Orchid when I need plants.

Customer Service

I recently installed Gyroq (www.gyronix.com) on my tablet. I ran into some issues with the creation of the icon in the system tray. I sent an email to support. Nick Dufill from Gyronix responded quickly with some information and a little while later with a link to an updated build. In addition to this, I see Nick is all over the GTD-Mind Manager list with responses and tips to people's issues. He definitely believes in his product and supports it.

I wanted to register a domain recently and went to Go Daddy. I entered the information, and paid for the registration. A friend went to check the domain and got an error. I checked and I had fat fingered the domain name. I went out and registered the correct domain. At this point I figured I was hosed. The friend suggested I call customer service and see what they could do. I spoke to a rep that was very helpful and reversed everything (even though I was the bozo) and refunded the money.

Two examples of people going out of their way to help others. This is good stuff.

T-Mobile Dash part 2

I spent some time hooking up the Active Sync.  Was really quite easy. 

At work, I have a Lotus Notes rule that forwards all appointments and meetings to my tablet email account.  This works well except for the reschedules and cancellations, they do not get forwarded. 

I have the Active Sync installed on the tablet.  First sync, everything went over to the phone.  Things looked good except there are some appointments that have some time zone strangeness.  I haven't found the pattern, but it was simple to go in and fix them.

When I installed AS, I got a pop up from the ON task bar icon.  I went into One Note and went to options, One Note Mobile and there is a button to install ONM.  Clicked the button and away we went.  I followed the instructions on the screen of the phone and there it was.

Looking at AS, I could see ONM, but not how to enable syncing.  I finally was able to get it to sync. 

I created a note with a picture on the phone, sync, and bam! it is on the tablet.  I added some ink and it is on the phone.  Wait, the ink does not appear as ink, but as icons.  Bummer, but nothing major.  I edit that and zap! it is over on the tablet with the changes.  If you change in both places before syncing, it will give an error and ask which you want to choose very nice.

Technorati tags: OneNote, T-Mobile Dash, TabletPC, Active Sync

Gyroq Invitations

I have invitations to Gyroq. If you are interested, clicke the link below:

Testing of Live Writer

I downloaded this quite some time ago.  I never did get around to using it.  It is installed on the new machine and this is a test post with a test picture.  

 Wait, it won't let me publish with the picture, I need to configure FTP.  Well, off to give that a try.

First Impressions of T-Mobile Dash

I picked up a Dash on Wednesday. I'm with Sprint with the contract until March, but wanted to check it out. If I liked it, I would keep it and move the family in March.

I like the size compared to some of the others I've looked at (6700 and Treos). It is not as fat, but still a little too wide for me.

The phone is nice, but the earpiece needs to be situated over the right spot on the ear or else the sound is muffled. The volume control is some strange slider dealy on the side that I can not get to work consistently.

I'm still wading through the Windows Mobile stuff. The phone seems responsive when using the WM stuff.

Setting up email was a pain. It didn't like gmail, so I set up another address at earthlink. It is much easier to do on the web than it was on the phone. I finally gave up and noticed a use existing or import existing option on the phone. The email works nicely.

The keyboard isn't bad. I'm getting used to it with my fat fingers. I like the autosuggest feature on the phone.

I have until 11/7 to decide if I want to keep the phone. I like the idea of faves for the family. The reception has been decent where I live. I'm still undecided.

This week I'm hoping to get the active sync working with the Tablet. I hope it works with Outlook 2007. One thing of interest is OneNote Mobile. What I've read about it is very interesting (http://blogs.msdn.com/chris_pratley/archive/2005/11/21/494990.aspx). That coupled with GyroQ on the tablet, I may be getting close to a universal inbox.

Fred

Now this is cool

I copied and pasted some stuff into an Excel 2007 spreadsheet that I use to track registration codes. It was a different font, so I highlighted the sheet and started going down the font drop down. As I changed fonts on the drop down, the corresponding font on the spreadsheet changed. Very cool. If you are changing the font for just one cell, just that cell changes as you mouse over the font.

Circuit City and Motion Tablets

I've noticed over the past few months some use of tablets (Motion LS800) by Circuit City staff. Nothing real noticeable unless you look for that kind of stuff (I do).

Last week I was at the Circuit City near the Sawgrass Mills Mall (South Florida) and noticed a guy wandering around with a Motion Computing shirt on. There also seemed to be a lot more employees around than normal.

Looking closer, a bunch of the employees were carrying around the Motion tablets. Turns out there was a training class for the use of the tablets at the store. Employees from all over Florida were there to be trained on the use of the Motions.

I spoke to a couple of guys who were in the training and the seem to like the tablet. A couple were even playing with them while outside smoking.

This seems to be a perfect marketing opportunity for Circuit City and Motion. With the CC staff using the tablets, it will bound to spark some curiosity by customers. What better way to encourage sales than to have the tablets available for sale in the store?

When I mentioned this, they said the tablets may be for sale via the CC web site, but probably won't be in the store. This seems to be very short-sighted. People get tablets by playing with them, not viewing them on a web site. Even a demo model at each store would be preferable.

Come on Motion and Circuit City, take advantage of this and sell some tablets!

Vista Build 5472

Hardware - Acer TMC204 TMI 2 gig memory, 2.0 gHz

This is a new install on a new partition, no upgrade to XP.

The build installed nicely on the tablet with no issues. The time for install wasn't bad, about 30 minutes. After the install I noticed some activity where it was calculating hardware performance, that was new ( or I hadn't noticed it before).

Glass came up with no problems. It is nice, but I don't really see the value in it.

Beta 2 worked ok for me except for speed. because of that I removed it. I did an install of 5456, but had screen rotation problems. When I would rotate the screen, the screen would go black, I could see the mouse but nothing else. Re-booting would put the machine in the last screen orientation. I tried the nVidia drivers to solve this with no luck.

I was hoping this problem was fixed in 5472, but it doesn't seem to be. I need to experiment more to see if I can get it resolved. nVidia may have some updated drivers that I can install.

More to come.

The Acer after 3 or so months

I've had my Acer Tablet for a little over 3 months. Over all I am very pleased with the tablet. The performance under XP is nice, the fit and finish is nice and the battery life meets my needs.

I bumped the machine up to 2 gig. I also moved to a 120 gig 5400 RPM drive. I was unable to use the recovery disks on the new drive, so I imaged it using True Image from Acronis.

If there is a disc in the slot, picking the tablet up and moving it makes a grinding noise. Avoid doing this.

For the battery, using OneNote 2007 and no wireless, I typically get over 3 hours of time on the machine. This is with the 6 cell battery. I don't use the 3 cell enough to know the runtime, but it appears to be about 1.5 hours.

I've installed a few builds of Vista on the machine. Beta 2 I removed due to performance issues. I just put the latest build on the machine. I need to reinstall Office 2007 to get a feel for how this build will work. One problem I had with Beta 2 was the drivers and screen rotation. Rotating the screen from the control panel applet (I couldn't get the hardware buttons to work) would cause the screen to go blank with just a mouse cursor. The nVidia drivers only show primary landscape as the option. The Glass effects were set up during the install. Previous builds I had to monkey with it to get it to work properly.

It's a good tablet and I'm glad I bought it. For the 800 or so I saved from the Toshiba, I think it was a good investment.

Why don't I get it?

I grabbed a Frank Zappa live set from bit-torrent. While the sound quality wasn't great, the music didn't do anything for me. Being a music lover, I think Frank Zappa is someone that I should 'get'. I don't. I listened to him in my mis-spent youth, and I don't think I really got him then. The potty humor, yes, the music and the intracies of the music, no. No progress on that front. I'll give another listen and see if it comes to me. If not, oh well.

Nibs and Screen Protectors

Based on an entry by Tracey Hooten at the The Student Tablet PC site, I ordered some felt nibs for my stylus (I've been using a Cross Executive). The plastic nib seemed way to hard for my tastes. I also ordered a WriteShield screen protector.

The nib came in first. I placed it in the stylus and started writing. A very nice experience. Softer that the plastic nib and less noise. I usually use fountain pens (I am lucky in that Levenger is within 30 minutes of my house) so this was more to my liking than the hard plastic.

The WriteShield came in next. I procrastinated for a few days before installing it. The install was easier than I expected, but I still have lint/dust under the protector.

The writing experience is like using a number 2 pencil on paper. Same feel, same sound. I've been enjoying it very much.

More on the Acer TMC204TMI

I've had it almost two weeks now and I'm very pleased. Of course right after I bought it, there was a $200 or so price drop. Oh well, that always seems to happen with tech stuff.

Likes:

• I love the flip up to laptop, flip down to tablet. Not that the twist for tablet is bad, this is just a little easier. I am concerned about the screen being protected. Tom Bihn has some laptop cases for in a backpack that look fairly sturdy. I'll have to check them out. I also purchased the Acer Total Notebook Protection.
• The quality of the pen interaction. It seemed I was always fighting with the pen on the Averatec. Not so here. The bulk of my time has been in OneNote 2007, but the pen works nicely.
• The trackpoint. I am not a touchpad guy at all. This works nicely except for dragging something, I still don't have the hang of that. I didn't get it on the touchpad either.
• The angle of the screen in laptop mode. I was concerned about this but it works nicely.
• The lack of non-Acer crapware on the machine. There was a trial of Norton Anti-Virus but that was it.
• The fingerprint reader (when it works, about 50% of the time) is cool.
• Cross Executive Stylus (not included with the Acer). I'm a pen guy. I love fountain pens. This is much nicer than the included pen. The included pen works well, I have no complaints about it. It is miles beyond the cheesy one with the Averatec.
• Weight with the 3 cell battery. It is nice and light. Very usable. The 6 cell isn't bad, but I can feel the difference between the two.

Dislikes:

• There is so much Acer stuff installed on here ethis and ethat. I'm not sure what is necessary and what isn't.
• The drive partitioning. It came in 2 50 gig partitions and one little puker recovery partition. I had to convert everything to NTFS to be able to repartition. I'm still trying to figure out what I can do with the PQService partition.
• The 4200 RPM drive seems slow, I'm not sure how much a 5400 or 7200 will improve that.

Not so sure about yet:

• Battery life. I haven't really run the machine on battery enough to get a feel.

New Tablet (Acer TMC204TMI) has arrived.

The new tablet has arrived.

I spent most of yesterday evening going through the initial setup. Booting the machine begins a process of installing additional Acer utilities. This took about 30 minutes. The next step was to create an Acer recovery disk. 5 cds or 1 dvd. This was another 20 minutes.

I installed Norton SystemWorks 2006 Premier. Then ZoneAlarm Security. After that, the machine would not finish booting. Luckily GoBack was enabled with SystemWorks. I was able to go back to before the ZoneAlarm install and everything is fine (except no firewall).

I then went for the Microsoft update and the SystemWorks Live Update. This ran until I went to bed. In the morning the machine had rebooted and was waiting for me.

Ghost is running now to get a point in time backup. Then the app installs begin.

Initial impressions:

Screen angle - I was worried about the angle of the screen in laptop mode. It works fine, the viewing angle is good.

The weight - at first it seemed a little heavy with the 6 cell battery, but after walking with it to a meeting, the weight is good. I think the 3 cell will reduce that somewhat. It might be good to use when I'm in 1 or 2 meetings seperated by a few hours to hold down the weight.

Overall fit and finish - very nice, the screen slides nicely, no dead pixels.

Keyboard & Trackpoint - I was concerned about the lack of a wrist rest. So far, it doesn't seem to be a problem. I prefer a trackpoint device, but after trackpads for the last year or so, I'm having trouble adjusting.

Noise & Heat - This has been a big topic on the Toshiba forums with the M400. I can hear the fan, but it is not obnoxious. It is way quieter than my Averatec (a plane taking off is quieter than my Averatec). The heat is not noticable. I would often feel that the Averatec was way too hot.

Speed - it doesn't seem blinding fast, but it is not slow.

Inking - Excellent, way better than the Averatec. I would have brief periods when the ink gods would smile on me with the Averatec, but this experience is far superior.

Ports - There seem to be enough for my needs.

Other goodies - I haven't set up the fingerprint reader yet. Soon. The little scroll wheel dealy is odd, I'm not sure of the value in it.

Crapware (coined by Warner Crocker I believe)- none that I can see. There are some OEM versions of software on the machine (NTI DVD Creator and PowerDVD), but no obnoxious ads or anything else that I noticed.

Processes running - there are quite a few Acer utilities installed, I'm not sure what is running and what isn't. I haven't really dug down into this.

Software - both tablet experience packs are installed, nothing much else. They should at least throw in One Note.

Battery - I have no idea at this point. I'll try to report back with the 3 cell and the 6 cell. I'll have to fool with the power settings some too.

Next steps - start getting the apps on. I'm debating on Office 2007 vs. 2003. I ran 2007 on the Averatec and was generally pleased with it.

Overall Out of box experience - Very good. I'm very pleased with my purchase.

More to come.

New Tablet on the Way!

I should have a new Acer TMC204TMI today or tomorrow. Unfortunately, I won't be home to take a picture of the delivery man walking up the driveway with it (a la Rob Bushway).

It is time to send the Averatec off to have some maintenance done before determining it's final fate.

Steps to setting up the new tablet.

1. back up documents on old tablet to usb hd
2. back up downloads on old tablet to usb hd
3. run belarc advisor on old tablet, create pdf copy to usb hd
4. install Partition Magic on new tablet
5. repartition tablet (100 gig drive - 5 20 gig partitions, xp boot, office & documents, apps & utilities, development and reserved for Vista Beta Boot)
6. Install SystemWorks 2006 Premier
7. Install ZoneAlarm
8. Update SystemWorks on Web
9. Run Microsoft Update
10. Ghost the boot drive to have a point in time restore
11. Burn restore to dvd
12. Copy the documents and downloads to the new tablet from the usb drive
13. reset documents folder
14. start installing the apps - MS Office first so I can get to the spreadsheet with my registration codes

This should take me a good chunk of time.

Brando Workshop Case for Nano

I just received my Brando Workshop case for my Nano. Very cool, very solid. I love the Nano, but I'm worried about damaging it. The Nano seems fragile (because of the size) and the horror stories when it first came out have me worried.

The case is aluminum. Getting the Nano in was a tight fit, but it is in there securely. It won't fit in the Nano dock anymore, but I can live with that.

http://shop.brando.com.hk/bwmetalcase_details.php?i=52

Vista Build 5308

The build 5308 install went flawlessly on my desktop. The machine even picked up my Dell Widescreen monitor and set the resolution appropriately. Very cool.

This weekend I will try on the tablet (Averatec 3500). I don't have high hopes since I couldn't get it to install on any of the other builds.

I reformatted the previous build partition and installed to there. I now have (in my boot menu) Legacy Windows
Windows
Windows (previous vista install?)

I used to be able to go in system from the control panel and edit these. I don't see that option now. Anyone have any suggestions?

Well, I got through after banging on the refresh button

Vista Build 5308 is on the way to me. The download times look good. Install will be tomorrow night.

Has the new Vista build been posted? Microsoft connect is getting hammered, I can't get through. Bink.nu has a post saying it has been released. More to come.

It was not on MSDN a few minutes ago.

I'm considering a new tablet. The Averatec 3500 showed me I'll use the tablet features at a low entry price. I'm frustrated with the digitizer and having to futz with the stylus to get it to display properly.

Up for consideration - Acer C200 (TMC204TMi). Looks like it has what I need to get through the next two years at a decent price. It should run Vista (Glass I'm not so sure).

Toshiba M400 - this looks to be a keeper for the longer haul. Dual core processors, 2nd generation based on the M200 which seems to be a standard out there. Price is about 800 bucks more than the Acer.

What to do?

Stay posted.