My Digital Life

US DaylightSavings Time

As a result of the Daylight Savings Time (DST) change, I ended with 3 minor issues:

• I received a message yesterday on my Directv Tivo telling me that I should force a call to receive the updated software for DST (version 3.5b-01-1-011). I did and of course lost network connectivity to my Tivo, since they wipe out hacks on every upgrade. This means pulling out the drive, but I need to replace it (see my post) anyway so no big deal.
• My T-Mobile MDA needed a reboot to show the right time. I also had one appointment that off by one hour today. I will have to monitor the times of my appointments this week.
• I forgot to update my DFL-210 router, so its off by one hour. The configuration allows you to set the DST start and end dates.

The Windows XP and Vista clocks adjusted correctly. The atomic clock adjusted as expected without any updates required...

Managing your backups with Acronis True Image Home 10

Acronis True Image Home 10 works well with Windows Vista. It has a quota management system which allows you to specify the amount of space to use and the number of files you want keep. I run a daily incremental backup from my 160GB RAID 1 array to a 120GB USB drive. The USB drive tends to get filled up quickly, however I would like to keep 2 weeks worth of backups. In order to accomplish this I need to move backup files from the USB drive to another drive on my system. Acronis has a feature which allows the executions of commands in a .bat file before or after a backup.

I used the information in a post from Steve Bisel on the Acronis forum which was very useful as a basis for what I wanted to do.

I created a week - 1 directory on my other internal drive (E:) to move the current backup files from my USB drive (J:) to. Since I only want to perform this once a week, I need to create a task which will run once a week and perform a full backup. Before the full backup is run I will run a .bat file with commands to move the files. Here is the .bat file I ended up with:

@echo off
Rem Batch file for weekly Backup Mgt

Rem Delete the previous weeks backup

del /q "E:\Acronis backup\Week - 1\*.*"

Rem Move current week's backup to week -1

move /Y "J:\Acronis backup\MyBackup*" "E:\Acronis backup\week - 1\"

exit

I created two scheduled tasks. The first, a weekly full backup with the above commands in a .bat file created with notepad as the pre command making sure I checked the two boxes forcing completion before the backup starts and aborting the backup if the commands fail. The full backup runs on Friday. The second, a daily incremental which you have to setup to run as a weekly and check all of the days but Friday. This avoids running a full and an incremental on Fridays.

Make sure you test you .bat file before including it in your backup.

Try out Exchange 2007 without installing it

Here is a link to a Microsoft sponsored Hosted Exchange 2007 site where you can sign up for a free demo account.

You will be able to try:

• Outlook Web Access (OWA)
• Outlook Voice Access (Unified Messaging)
• Outlook 2007 (Outlook Anywhere, Autodiscover)
• Outlook 2007 (Outlook Anywhere, Manual Configuration)
• Outlook 2003 (RPC over HTTPS)
• Exchange ActiveSync (Windows Mobile Device / Pocket PC)
• Outlook Express (POP, IMAP, SMTP) or any other POP or IMAP client

The accounts are limited to 10MB of storage and there is a limit to 256KB message length (FAQ). This is however a great way to walk around the user features of Exchange 2007.

Thanks to Jason Langridge for the post.

Updating your Windows Mobile device for the new Daylight Saving Time

In less than a month the United States and most of Canada will begin observing Daylight Savings Time (DST) from the second Sunday in March (March 11th, 2007) until the first Sunday in November (November 4th, 2007). The European Union will continue to follow the Daylight Savings schedule it adopted in 1996 from the last Sunday in March (March 25th, 2007) to the last Sunday in October (October 28th, 2007) and no changes are required. Here is the link to Wikipedia diatribe on DST.

There are two major functions in the Microsoft Windows world that are affected; the clock and Outlook Calendar events. Microsoft has provided a comprehensive set of web pages with the required fixes here.

Outlook calendar events are affected because they are based on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). This means that any calendar events you created prior to updating your systems for March 11th and later need to be adjusted with the correct offset from GMT. Outlook 2007 is not affected since it recognizes the new time offsets for DST.

In short before you update your Windows Mobile device, you need to make sure:

• If you sync your calendar with Windows XP, you need to update Windows XP with KB 931836 (you will get the update automatically if Automatic Updates is turned on) and run the Outlook Calendar update utility found in KB 931667 (this is not required for Outlook 2007).
• If you sync your calendar with Vista, no update is necessary, however if you are using Outlook 2003 on Vista you still need to run the Outlook Calendar update utility.
• If you sync your calendar with Exchange, you need to ensure the Exchange server you are using has been updated.

You can then update your Windows Mobile device directly using Pocket Explorer at http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/default.mspx.

Scroll down the page and click on Download the Daylight Saving Time 2007 update link and follow the instructions to download.

Check to Open file after download and click on Yes.

And Install on device. These are updates to the registry.

NBC News states that SPAM traffic doubled in '06

On Monday night the NBC nightly news had a piece on how SPAM traffic had doubled over the last year. Funny I had not noticed. I have been using the 4smartphone.com managed Exchange service for over a year now and I have been very pleased. Over the last year I have only experienced one major outage when one of their disk controllers failed and the systems did not rollover automatically. Other than that 4 hour outage it has been smooth selling. On the SPAM front; it has been almost non existent. They don't sell your email address and use a Barracuda front end system to filter out SPAM. The bottom line is that you get what you pay for. All of the free services don't have or use the level of SPAM filtering technology like those offered by Barracuda and other corporate level solutions. 4smartphone does charge for its service but that charge is very reasonable. For that you get world class SPAM filtering, a high availability system, and privacy. Email is important to me, and I am willing to pay a reasonable price for that piece of mind. You can check them at . I am an affiliate of 4Smartphone, however I would not use them or try promote them if I did not think the service was excellent.On Monday night the NBC nightly news had a piece on how SPAM traffic had doubled over the last year. Funny I had not noticed. I have been using the 4smartphone.com managed Exchange service for over a year now and I have been very pleased. Over the last year I have only experienced one major outage when one of their disk controllers failed and the systems did not rollover automatically. Other than that 4 hour outage it has been smooth selling. On the SPAM front; it has been almost non existent. They don't sell your email address and use a Barracuda front end system to filter out SPAM. The bottom line is that you get what you pay for. All of the free services don't have or use the level of SPAM filtering technology like those offered by Barracuda and other corporate level solutions. 4smartphone does charge for its service but that charge is very reasonable. For that you get world class SPAM filtering, a high availability system, and privacy. Email is important to me, and I am willing to pay a reasonable price for that piece of mind. You can check them out at 4smartphone.net. I am an affiliate of 4Smartphone, however I would not use them or promote them if I did not think the service was excellent.

The Vista pundits

With Vista's official launch less than 2 weeks away, the pundits are starting their diatribe why Vista is just OK. Today in the Wall Street Journal Walt Mossberg article titled "Vista: Worthy, Largely Unexciting" (subscription required) bemoaned the fact that Vista still needs anti virus software, however as much as he tried he had a harder time than usual making his point that Apple's OS X is better. I always find it interesting how Apple enthusiasts cling to a false sense of security. As Apple gets more popular, someone will spread some malicious code and unfortunately unprotected users will pay the price. Although Mr. Mossberg is still very much biased towards Apple and loves iPhoto (Mr. Mossberg; independent reviewers have found Adobe's Photoshop Elements 5.0 to be much better), he concedes that this is an excellent versin and the best Windows yet.

Although it has been a long time since Windows XP was released, the press is sounding like a broken record about having to buy new hardware for Vista. The thing they forget is that Moore's Law is a big reason Microsoft became so successful. As software becomes more complex, you need better hardware design to run it on. There is no need to cry about it, it has been a fact of life since the Eniac. Vista is no different, it's advances in graphics and security require more powerful hardware than was needed to run XP. The basic hardware design required for running XP is six years old, it is silly to think that Vista would use the same design. We heard the same thing back when XP was released, how individuals needed to buy new machines and that would make XP a bust. Well XP has been the most successful operating system ever. It is clear that individuals did not switch over night, but over time. The same will be true with Vista. As individuals and companies replace machines they will move to Vista.

The OS architecture in the bowels of Vista is very different than XP. It secures and segregates hardware and applications and will only allow well behaved applications and drivers to run. The big innovation is graphics and they are now handled by the graphics card General Processing Unit (GPU) in the way sophisticated games have done for a long time now. To take advantage of all the changes has necessitated a change in hardware design. Given my experience at this point, unless you are a techi, I would not upgrade an XP machine to Vista. Yes the upgrade works, but sorting out which vendors have well behaved applications and drivers is a pain. Buying a new system is simpler since all preloaded applications and drivers should work out of the box. I also found that the file structure is different enough that the upgrade process forces you to reorganize some of your files. One example is shared music and pictures are now under a folder called public rather than XP's shared documents.

Windows Media Center 2005 to Windows Vista Ultimate RTM upgrade

Upgrading from Windows XP Media Center Edition to Windows Vista Ultimate has not been a piece of cake. Back in October I validated my hardware, added memory to 2.5GB and replaced my ATI AIW 9800 128MB graphics card with an ATI X1600 512MB card. I ran Vista as VPC image and things seemed ok. Last weekend I decided it I would use the Vista upgrade process to upgrade my system. I used the Vista upgrade advisor and produced what looked like a very useful report. It is a useful report, pointing out potential applications incompatibilities and suggesting some un-installs.

As suggested, I un-installed Nero 6 and McAfee.

The report provided the following potential incompatibilities:

• ATI Catalyst control center
• SQL Server 2005
• VS 2005
• MS VPC
• SmartFTP
• Windows Messenger 5.1

I knew I could download a Vista compatible ATI driver and the SP2 CTP of SQL Server 2005 should resolve some of the issues, enough for me to run MS Small Business accounting. The rest of the software I could deal on as needed basis.

The upgrade took about 4 hours. I could not find a version McAfee for Vista, so I decided to install Windows Live OneCare beta. What the heck it was a Microsoft product and should integrate nicely. I was wrong and spent 8 hours figuring what I had done wrong. I primarily use the system as a workgroup server for our household's files. I use advanced file sharing setting specific users as owner of shared directories. In the security restructuring, Vista changes all of the attributes and I was no longer able to access the old file shares. Vista is implements a Public folder which is supposed to be used for sharing. I also had problems with firewalls, Vista has its own very sophisticated firewall, OneCare also has a firewall which seems less sophisticated, however they conflict with each other. In the end this is what I had to do.

• Reset all the user security attributes on the file shares I want to use and propagate down the file structure using the advanced security functions in the shares properties.
• Reset the workgroup name to my workgroup's name. All workstation need to match. In a workgroup, user names and passwords on different machines must also match to access the shares.
• I ended up using the OneCare firewall and turned off the Vista firewall, it was easier to configure. However, using OneCare creates security violations in the Vista Security Center. OneCare's status is green. How can this be? Aren't both of these Microsoft products? Let's hope they get it fixed by the 30th or this will frustrate many users.

Right now my system is working ok, but I have some driver and application issues.

• MS Small Business Accounting. I have updated SQL Server with the SP2 CTP, but I still need perform some security setting adjustment to make it work. Its works if I run as administrator.
• Blue screen at shutdown which seems to be linked to the Intel modem driver, no obvious solution.
• Nuance Paperport 11 does not work consistently for multi page scans. I need to contact Nuance.

On the positive side, after running the auto config Slingplayer, it is working very well. A Sling gadget would be great.

At this point I can't recommend upgrading, I think you are better off buying a new machine with Vista pre-loaded. The advantage is that you do not have to deal with driver issues, although older applications may still have issues,

I will keep this post updated with findings and fixes.

Slingbox Pro

As I mentioned yesterday I received a Slingbox Pro for Christmas. The Slingbox is essentially a "black box" (it's really red) which allows you to stream video content from a cable, Standard (SD), or High Definition (HD) source to a PC, MAC or Windows Mobile device. The Slingbox Pro is the latest iteration of the Slingbox which now comes in three flavors; the Slingbox Tuner, the Slingbox AV and the Slingbox Pro. The Slingbox Pro integrates the features of the Slingbox Tuner and AV with support for up to four inputs types. I selected the Slingbox Pro since it has a component HD input for my pending HDTV upgrade project.

The Slingbox is one of the those great ideas like the DVR that is hard to explain to a non technology oriented individual, like why Finally, the DVR is getting some traction, hopefully the Slingbox will not go the way of the Turtle Beach Audiotron. The Audiotron released in 2001 was a Windows CE 3.x based streaming HiFi quality audio streamer which allowed for the playing of .wma music files from a PC and Internet radio stations through one's stereo system. You could select content via the front panel, a PC or PocketPC web browser. It was an extremely well built device, fairly easy to configure, won many awards and was ahead of its time. Unfortunately Turtle Beach never sold enough devices to continue development and the iPod came along. Just think if they had integrated a portable player with the Audiotron...

Let's hope the Slingbox fate is different, it is also a very well engineered product and setup was pretty much a breeze.

1. You plug in the video devices you want to stream, currently I attached my Tivo's SD composit video and audio out.
2. You plug in the Infrared extender so you can remote control you device.
3. You plug in an LAN cable, WIFI or PowerLine adapter. I used a LAN cable connection to a hub.
4. You plug in the AC adapter.
5. The unit is now ready to be configured. The configuration is performed by installing the Slingplayer you download from http:www.slingmedia.com/support (the installation CD will point you to this site). The installation will find the Slingbox and walk you through the simple configuration process and update the firmware if necessary. The configuration process allows you to select and test different remote controls, by manufacturer, to ensure it sends the right commands to the DVR, cable box, or remotely controllable device. The only advanced configuration feature involves accessing the Slingbox from the Internet. This requires port forwarding (port 5001) to be enabled on your router and the setting of a static IP address. It looks like the configuration wizard can automatically configure most routers but my D-Link DFL210 was not one of them. Since I had previously enabled port forwarding for another device which I documented here, I simply created two new rules for the Slingbox and port 5001. On the Internet you have two options to locate your Slingbox, the first is to use Slingmedia's locator service (this is the default) and the other is to enter your router's external IP address or DNS domain name. Using your IP or domain name probably provides slightly faster connection times. Since my Internet provider Comcast uses dynamic IP addresses, I use a DNS domain name registered with dynamic DNS services from dyndns.com.

Once you have completed the configuration, a profile is created. Every subsequent installation of Slingplayer displays the list of Slingboxes on your network by profile name. You select the Slingbox you want to connect to and like magic you are connected. If you have password enabled the Slingbox (you should), you must enter the password to connect. You can set an option the remember the password for every connection. I downloaded the 30 day trial version of the Windows Mobile 5.0 for Pocket PC Slingplayer for my T-Mobile MDA. I used the ActiveSync setup and the installation process was painless (I installed Slingplayer on my storage card). The quality of the video on my network (WIFI) goes from excellent using my Media Center PC to very good on my Lenovo X41 tablet to good on my T-Mobile MDA. The Slingplayer has options you can tweak for network and video performance but I found the default settings to work fine. I have not tested from an Internet connected PC yet, I am curious to see the video quality with Comcast's limited upload speed of 384Kbps, I have tested my T-Mobile MDA on the Edge network and it works fine, it is a little jerky but definitely viewable (dslreports speed of 90Kbps), however not perfect. I really like the landscape viewing mode. I will probably end up purchasing the Windows Mobile Slingplayer.

The only issue I have found so far is a pause that occurs every time I send a remote control command. I will keep this post updated with my findings, but so far this is a great device and I can now watch my DVR live TV and recorded content anywhere in my home and while traveling. Pretty cool...

The week of January 1st in My Digital Life

Updated 1/2/07 to fix PocketBreeze beta link.

A brand new year and it looks like I have lined myself up for a bunch of projects:

• I have finally decided to take the plunge into HDTV with a purchase of a Sony KDL-46XB2 46" LCD television. Even though the unit is on back order, the end of year specials were too good to pass up, I have waited a long time for LCD technology to come of age and pricing to be fairly reasonable, although I have to say that the price was still hard to swallow. This is the most by far that I have ever spent on any piece of audio/video gear or computer gear. This television will replace my 17 year old 32" XBR which is tube based and has been great, I hope I am satisfied with the quality of the LCD picture, with HD I think I should be. Moving to HD involves a slew of other decisions for my setup; such as staying with Directv or going with Comcast. Unfortunately Verizon FIOS is not yet an option down my street. Then there is the remote control issue, I have built an infrared network to all my components and generate IR signals with a HomeVision controller. I never bought a multifunction remote, I just use my Sony T-60 Directv DVR remote and generate the appropriate IR signals for all my A/V components with the Homevision controller. It has worked pretty well although it was not perfect, which begs the question on whether I should go with a multi function remote like the Logitech Harmony series. Lots of questions to be answered and much more blogging on the subject...
• I received a Slingbox Pro for Christmas. It was fairly painless to install and configure. So far I am quite impressed and will write up my experience.
• I decided to upgrade my CD based MKIII GPS navigation computer in my BMW to a newer faster MKIV DVD navigation computer. The BMW I-Bus infrastructure has been great, it has allowed me to add iPod integration with steering wheel controls/song display and Bluetooth for my phone. The GPS upgrade will be a simple plug and play. BMW has been ahead of the game when it comes to in car electronics integration, the fact that I can upgrade my 2002 to current technology, that is just becoming available on other cars, has allowed me to continue getting value out of a great vehicle.
• Phatware released Phatpad 4.0 on December 19th, I will be upgrading my PhatPad 3.0 this week. It looks like they made a lot of enhancement for Tablet use.

Reviews I am working on:

• I need to finish a review of the latest version of the Bluetooth Hands Free extension by Jetware Mobile which works well with my BMW Bluetooth ULF module.
• I will be reviewing the new sunnysoft Backup Manager, I have been using Sprite Backup 5.1, it will be interesting to see how sunnysoft stacks up.
• Spectec is about to release an SDIO GPS receiver with an additional slot which I will be reviewing.
• SBSH Mobile Software is about to release a new version of Pocket Breeze. A public beta of version 5.2 is available here. I will be installing this week.

Office 2007 - Business Contact Manager 2007 for Outlook 2007

Business Contact Manager 2007 (BCM) was finally released on the MSDN subscriber download site this week. As a consultant I have been missing it for the last 3 or so weeks after the release of Office 2007 which did not include of BCM. The only issue I had with the installation was that I needed to un-install the Office Small Business Connectivity components.

An error message with a good explanation. I am assuming these components were installed with Office Small Business Accounting 2006 (SBA). As a consultant BCM provides great integration with SBA to track your billable time which then feeds into the creation of invoices. You can use this feature with calendar appointments. BCM also allows you to create projects and associated tasks which can feed into SBA's time entry feature. The integration is excellent for any small business interested in keeping track of employee time against both billable and non-billable projects and tasks.

BCM adds additional buttons (circled in red) to manage time from Outlook 2007.