shahine.com/omar/

Isn't it great when you blog about a problem and some one else does the work to create a solution? This is referred to as the Lazy Web and I love it.

Get your Windows Mobile DST fix here.

I just found out about a Media Center 2005 add-in that will play all iTunes content in the MCE UX. This seems like a better idea than buying an Apple TV just so I can watch my downloaded TV shows in my living room.

MCE Tunes seems perfect. Anyone using it? This could save me $270 (Apple TV = $300, MCE Tunes = $30).

After wiring my whole house with structured wiring a I learned a valuable lesson. Don't cheap out on stuff. Why? Cause when you realize that your screw on F Connectors on all your RG6 cable is leaking signal and you now have to retrofit all of them with proper compression F Connectors, it's a BIG PAIN IN THE ASS.

Buy a decent compression tool, stripper and do it right the first time. Stripping a Quad Shield Cable is actually not just a strip and crimp thing... you need to do a little work, pealing back the metal strands and all. Basically, read the instructions that come with the stripper/compressor (which I didn't do).

Bad

Good

Inspired by Steve I looked up my first Amazon.com order. It was for Medusa's Child by John Nance. I paid $16.77 on October 1, 1997 when I was still a senior in college. Wow, I can't believe Amazon.com has been in my life for almost 10 years.

Nowadays I order something from them like every other week. They are a great place to order Diapers from...

I downloaded and tried Jello.Dashboard for GTD the other day. In short, I don't like it. I think that it's a pretty incredible testament to what's possible with the Outlook Today page and how little anyone's ever used it. Just look at this sad little Today page.

Anyway, since I hadn't seen the Today page since 2001 or something I went looking at the source of the default today page. You can see the source by opening: res://C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\1033\OUTLWVW.DLL/outlook.htm in notepad. It's just HTML, CSS etc.

The guy hat wrote Jello gets some mad props for basically writing a Web 2.0 application inside of Outlook. That's right, it's good old JavaScript just using some special Active X Controls. Web 2.0 inside of Outlook?

Anyway, the thing I didn't like about Jello is that it uses this weird wacko way of identifying projects (any category that starts with "(@P):". Personally, I'd rather something that surrounds the category with brackets or something. The workflow is also a bit clunky.

But it got me thinking. It really would not be that hard to create a nice little task dashboard.... oh if I only had time and desire to mess around in JavaScript.

yay, SpeedFiler 1.1 is out... now with Ribbon support in Outlook 2007. The improvements and bug fixes are very welcome.

What do I use SpeedFiler for? Well I run it in addition to ClearContext. CC is great for filing messages to Topic folders, but I have a hotmail account in Outlook which CC does not work with (and I file messages in there all the time). Also, I can only run CC on one Outlook at a time cause CC doesn't have master/slave mode yet (it screws up Exchange cached mode if you run Outlook on multiple machines like I do).

I also use it to file and navigate to folders inside of Outlook using the Outlook Shortcut keys. For example type control-Y and then start typing the name of a folder and then enter... now you are in that folder. Save some screen real estate and turn off the left hand Navigation Pane.

For example, to get to the calendar (I can never remember control-2) type:

1. control-y
2. cal
3. enter

to move the selected messages type control-shift-v etc.

BTW, if you are interested you can use coupon code BLD743 to get $5 off the $24.95 purchase price, until Jan 27.

Thanks Itzy!

Greg has some great thoughts (as usual) on the Treo 750. I find it interesting that he actually likes the Pocket PC OS. Personally I find that the Smartphone OS is a bit less clunky, however, Palm does a nice job of working around the OS deficiencies (like writing their own SMS Chat application which is amazing). I wish Microsoft would just license that application and toss the SMS support in the OS.

However, Palm they blew it on the price. $400 for a device after a 2 year contract is absurd. Their unlocked Treo 680 costs that much. I'm not getting on on principle of that fact (and the fact that Cingular want's to stick it to me whenever I want to upgrade).

I'm sticking with the Blackjack, although I wish the Blackjack didn't have the world's lamest bluetooth implementation. It does tether very nicely to my laptop using Bluetooth and USB though for some sweet 3G surfing.

BTW, the difference between the Pocket PC and Smartphone formfactors dates back to when there was a Pocket PC OS and no phone support. Microsoft basically went on a parallel track... they developed the Smartphone OS for traditional mobiles like the Motorola MPX-200. This was released as Smartphone 2002. At the same time they added Phone support (by way of applications, drivers and dlls) to the Pocket PC OS. Windows Mobile 5 was the first attempt to unify some of the differences between the OSes. However, at it's core, Pocket PC is a stylus driven OS where Smartphone is a numeric keypad driven phone that uses T9.

Therein lies the problem. Once Keyboards became popular (thanks to RIM), neither device was a perfect fit. They both have problems with keyboards. Pocket PC OS is not 100% navigable with a keyboard. There are still modal dialogs, weird notification balloons and other random things that make using a stylus of a finger necessary. Smartphone on the other hand doesn't have copy and paste support... cause it was never meant to have a keyboard. Some other weird things... Pocket PC Resolutions go like this: 240 x 240, or 320 x 240 and so on. If you want a square screen you are stuck with 240 x 240. Smartphone OSes can support QVGA: 320 x 240 and smaller. It cannot do 320 x 320 either. Contrast to Palm OS devices which are 320 x 320.

Anyway, this should get better over time, but it's a bit sordid today because of the past, and keyboards. I think that Microsoft never believed in the mobile keyboard's success early on... kinda like Bluetooth. As a result the experiences using both leaves a lot of room for improvement.

Why am I writing this post? I wish I didn't have to. I spent a few days trying to figure out why PDFs were not being indexed on Vista, and why none of my TIFF files that were created with Microsoft Office Document Imaging (and have embedded OCR text) were showing up in search results. This was happening on Vista and on XP with Office 2007 and Windows Desktop Search.

After a bit of digging around, and a couple of emails I got the answer.

Vista and Windows Desktop Search 3 (which share the same technology) do not support IFilters that only implement IPersistFile. In order for the contents of files to be indexed the IFilter must support IPersistStream.

If you want an IFilter for PDF files then you should download Adobe Acrobat Reader 8 for Vista (only the Vista version has the IFilter). The previous IFilter does not work. While you are at it, read this post for instructions on how to make your own very well behaved Adobe Reader Installer.

If you want an IFilter for your TIFF or MDI files then you are out of luck for now.

I would like to add that Microsoft Office Document Imaging is one of the best values in the Office Suite. It's completely ignored, and not installed by default on Office 2007 any longer. If you do install it you can use it with any TWAIN compatible scanner to scan all your legacy paper. The text in that paper is OCR'ed (text is recognized) and you can save as a TIFF file which can be viewed on almost any computer. That text can also be indexed and searched on your computer. This is a handy way to find that receipt for your TV from 2 years ago etc. You can also create these files from any application that can print. I've been using this for years to save any web receipts that I need.

My Dad has been really family tree software since he got his first Mac. The transition to Windows was hard because his trusted Reunion Program didn't exist on Windows. Since then he has been using some crappy $20 program that looks like a DOS app.

Anyway, Geni looks amazing. I just tried it and it's cool. I like that all the family members can collaborate together to help the tree grow. I hope they add export and print functionality.

[Source: lifehacker]

Since I am out of the office for the longest stretch of my career, I had to think about how to deal with all the email that would be delivered to my exchange mailbox.

You see the problem is that I really don't want or need to be reading any work email while I am gone. However, since Exchange manages part of my life, I do want and need access to my calendar, tasks, notes and contacts. In fact, I've found that being away from the office actually increased my dependency and usage of tasks in Outlook/Smartphone. I do need to launch and use Outlook without seeing 3000 unread items in my Inbox.

I'm also realistic about the fact that there is some work email that I do want to read. It's not work related, but from people that will be emailing my work email address. This includes co-workers that are also friends.

So what I did was this:

1. Remove myself from every non critical distribution list. I noted the lists that I unsubscribed from in a new task that I created called "DLs to rejoin". It has a due date of the day after I return to work.
2. I made sure that every rule that processes mail has "Stop processing more rules". This ensures that when the rule moves a message to a folder, no other rule can operate on that message.
3. I created a "Hold" folder in my inbox. I then created a rule, that I placed at the very bottom of the server side rules that moves every message that has not previously been moved by a rule, and where I am not in the To line, to the "Hold" folder.
4. I changed Outlook to show me Outlook Today when I launch it. Outlook today is really old, lame and crusty though. It used to be the default in Outlook XP I think but since then they've made "Inbox" the default. I'm thinking of switching to something like Jello.GTD for my home page or creating my own.

That's it. Since leaving work I've received about 20 messages in my "Inbox". The rest have been filtered away.

In fact, I had an "aha" moment when I did this. There is so much less junk in my Inbox now, that I feel myself less anxious. I can actually budget an hour or so a day to go into my "Hold" folder and really quickly delete threads and other non relevant emails in one sitting. Previously this is something I would do all day long... which would result in my sitting and staring at my inbox some times and feeling like I would never get through my email. With this new system I can actually get to zero messages every day.

The reality of Microsoft is that email is like a fire hose and your inbox is like a small bucket that can't hold all the water. The hardest part about GTD for me has been just the energy required with staying on top of email. The problem with email is that the majority of it is not actionable and gets deleted, but as humans we are weak and the sensation that you are "buried" all the time by a constant stream of this stuff gets unbearable. Personally I'm not strong enough to really allocate some time a day to do this and I end up doing it all day long... from my desk, for my smartphone and from the web.

This Hold folder idea simply turns the firehose into a garden hose, and redirects the rest of the water to a really big holding area that you can visit on your own time... hopefully after the water has settled a little bit and the amount of energy you spend processing isn't repetitive.

Like Jeff, I am seriously thinking of giving Comcast the boot. I need to add up all the season passes I would need to get and see what the damage will be.

Of course, I canceled HBO a long time ago and watch all their stuff a few years later on DVD from Netflix. I just pretend it's not on (like Rome). Now if Apple could score HBO we'd be in business.

Oh, and I already have an Antenna so I get CBS, NBC, Fox and ABC in Hi-Def over the air (which my Media Center records just fine). I may need to invest in a better Antenna though as the one I have in my garage can be flaky at times.

This of course will save me a bunch of money as I won't need to get a Vista Media Center with Cable Card cause I won't have Cable .

The only hole in this system is that I do on occasion like to watch the news (not the craptastic local news though).

Finally! I've been eyeing this guy since it was announced.

This is a cool wireless headset for your PC. It shares a resemblance to the XBOX 360 Headset.

I want this because Bluetooth on XP AND Vista is a sorry sorry affair. 5 years later and you STILL can't pair a bluetooth Headset with Vista. Go figure.

Anyway, this guy doesn't use bluetooth, and should work well with any PC without all the evil that bluetooth entails anyway.

You can pre-order it from Amazon.com.

case-mate iPod Shuffle Case. Just cute. Trina got 2 for free and she gave me one! I mean gave Sarah one . Looks like they don't even have them for sale yet.

Crumpler 5 Million Dollar Home - sweet case for your DSLR and 2 lenses. I've been looking for a messenger style bag to carry my D70 in for a long time and this looks purfect. To bad Timbuk2 doesn't make one and to bad they didn't seem to be at Macworld. Just ordered the Crumpler in black.

IntelliScanner mini. Kinda like the idea of scanning in all the wine I own to catalog it all and remember what I've purchased and consumed. the OCD in me wants to scan all the contents of my fridge and pantry. Torres, you listening?

harman/kardon drive + play 2. This looks like the ultimate car addon for those of us with cars that don't have built in iPod kits or bluetooth. Basically you wire this puppy in and then you can control and listen to your Zune/iPod while it it stashed away in a glove compartment. You can also take advantage of your cell phone's bluetooth features somehow. Out later this year.

Arctic Butterfly - a super duper brush to get the dust off the CCD on your DSLR. If you own a DSLR you will get dust on your CCD. Getting it off often involves some tricky acrobatics with a duster or a CCD swipe that can potentially damage your CCD. There is also the option to send it to the manufacturer but that's a pain. This device avoids all that and appears to be safe on your CCD.

Shure's new line of headphones. Lots of usability improvements. The new line includes the SE210, SE310, SE420 and SE530/SE540PTH. The last one are basically the headphones I own (E500PTH) that come with new ear foam inserts that they gave me some of in the booth. The 500 series are just incredible. I've never heard base on headphones like this. It sounds like you are in a room with really great speakers. They are absurdly expensive for earphones though and I would not have purchased them had I not gotten them for 50% off.

Belkin CushTop. Pillow for your hot laptop.

If you're at Macworld tomorrow, you'll see me and my daughter roaming around in a red bugaboo stroller . I'm looking forward to checking out the show and to having Sarah witness her first ever Macworld! Hopefully she will cooperate and I'll quickly find a good restroom in Moscone for diaper changes.

As I was falling asleep last night I was thinking to myself, Why Cingular? Why did Apple announce a phone and strap themselves to the carrier like every other Mobile Device Maker (Palm, Microsoft, etc).

You see, a couple of months ago I was asked by a co-worker what I thought of the possibility of the iPhone. I responded that I thought it was real, that is was going to be amazing, groundbreaking, and that I think Apple would break free from the handcuffs that the Carriers have on every technology company... perhaps by launching their own phone brand like Virgin.

You see, by partnering with Cingular, Apple is now subject to a few very annoying things:

• They cannot release the device before Cingular can field test the device. This can take anywhere from 3 - 6 months. If Apple is releasing the phone in June, they better hope Cingular fast tracks this testing. If they do a rush job it's possible that coverage and radio reliability sucks in some places.
• They cannot release the device before Cingular gets its say. That ultimately means installing a bunch of craplets on the device and generally messing up the phone in some way.
• They will require customers to sign a 2 year contract to buy the device. They do this because they are subsidizing the device. You think the price that Steve Jobs put up on that screen at Macworld is how much Apple can afford to sell it to you? Nope, it costs more than that, which is why Cingular is happy to absorb some of that cost to lock you into their network for 2 years.
• You want a new iPhone when the next one is announced at Macworld 2008, or when the battery dies? Well you are screwed. You have to now pay an out of contract price (which is likely $200 more than the prices Steve quoted). This is because Cingular hasn't finished eating the cost of subsidizing the phone for you, and the next time they do this they want you for another 2 years. Cingular typically allows you to purchase a new phone and the discounted price 18 months after the start of your contract.
• You want that new software update with all the bug fixes that Apple has been working on? Sure, just plug in your iPhone and iTunes will take care of..... NOPE.... wrong again. The carrier (Cingular) needs to test this out, and they need to make sure it's field test etc.

Anyway, you get the picture right? This is the reality that everyone else faces (like Microsoft Phone Makers, RIM, Palm). Is Apple going to be allowed to "break" these rules? Well if they do, Cingular better think about extending that courtesy to, um, the rest of us. I sure would like it if Microsoft could update my Samsung BlackJack with bug fixes.

Now, what I thought would happen is that Apple would give the carriers the boot, and go it alone... selling an unlocked device themselves that customers could then go and plop in a SIM card from T-Mobile or Cingular (sorry Sprint/Verizon customers, you don't have this luxury... carrier still owns you) thereby circumventing all the nasties that us geeks hate about carriers. It's not clear that Apple can just drop in a software update direct to you.

But instead they got Cingular up on stage... I'm not sure why but I think Cingular gets more out of this relationship than Apple... thanks to Number Portability etc Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint are probably not happy. Cingular is likely to get a wave of switchers when the iPhone is in stores.

Of course people that don't use Cingular, or don't want to use Cingular are going to bitch endlessly to Apple... but Cingular won't care. They'll be selling you some overpriced data plan with a 2 year contract.

2 years is a long time to own a lifestyle device like the iPhone assuming it lasts that long before it's stolen, broken, can't hold a charge or you see the next version and want that.

Update: PC Mag tells us what Cingular gets in this deal.