SourceForge.net: ASuite

Have you attended any of the CII Technology Training Sessions? They’re available to faculty at http://ghost.rider.edu/insttech/about-the-cii/cii-sessions-fall-2006/ and include a session on USB keys where we talk about Portable Applications, Personal Encryption schemes, and give you your own USB key. One thing we haven’t talked about, but which is very interesting is the ability to use an application launcher to manage the portable applications you have on your USB key as though it were a mini start button just for those apps. The most popular by far is PStart, but I just read about this open source one called ASuite. If you are into the portable apps thing, you should see this.

SourceForge.net: ASuite
ASuite is an application launcher. It is designed to work with removable storage (uses relative paths) media like USB sticks, hard drives, iPods, etc.

Asus gets futuristic with modular PC - ZDNet UK News

This has got to be the coolest thing I’ve seen in a while.

Asus gets futuristic with modular PC - ZDNet UK News
Laptop manufacturer Asus has unveiled its vision of the future — a modular PC that stacks on a shelf

Laptop manufacturer Asus on Wednesday unveiled a blue-sky design for a modular PC that stacks on a shelf.

The separate modules would both communicate wirelessly and be powered wirelessly through inductive charging — something that isn’t feasible today.

A row of laptop modules on a gray shelf

A user would build their own PC by stacking individual modules — such as hard drive, battery and card reader — together. Full-size modules, approximately the size of a CD, would stack next to half-size modules.

iMedia Connection: Podcasting 101

This is a good overview on what’s needed to produce a good quality podcast, and so I figured I’d share it. It’s positively amazing what you can do with an open source audio editing application like audacity. Combined with a $100 mixer and a few $15 microphones, you can have a clean crisp mix with effects and fades and more.

iMedia Connection: Podcasting 101

Setting up a quick and cheap recording studio

At the barebones level a microphone attached to the soundcard of your computer will allow you to record audio. Using professional sound recording software can give you more options in creating a quality file. I recommend Audacity which stands out as being of good quality, available for both Mac and PC formats (and Linux) and free!

Audacity is a simple audio mixing programming that offers a handful of audio effects and multiple tracks. It’s worth checking out.

You may also need to invest in a quality microphone. Audio recording, like most multimedia projects, is generally a case of Garbage In/Garbage Out (GIGO). If you use sub par materials you will often get sub par results. For as little as $20 you can get your hands on a solid condenser microphone/headphone combination at RadioShack that will most certainly be better than the microphone shipped with your computer.

Because most podcasts are not professionally produced, basement offices and guest bedrooms are often the recording environment of choice. Ambient noise is always a problem but with consideration to time of day and use of noise canceling filters in the recording software you can bring the quality of the recording up.

I’ll also mention that coming up with an entertaining format for your show is a huge plus. While a monologue format will get your main points across having a standardized ’show’ format (think musical intros and information segments) will make broadcasts more appealing and easier to update.

USB flash drive - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

As a result of a request of a former employee and his subsequent departure, I have become the recent keeper of a 1GB USB Thumb Drive. Not having been very excited in the past in USB drives due to a real lack of usable space on these kinds of drives, I was happy to find that this was no longer an issue with the 1G USB drive.

So for the last few months, I have been using the drive pretty regularly to take things back and forth from home to work and back, and to use key applications like Portable Firefox, which runs from the drive, but does not need to be installed.

My other big use right now is sneakernetting movies and tv shows back and forth to watch during lunch. I can get hour long TiVo recordings down to about 700MB in Mpeg 2 format, or backed up DVDs into 800 MB MP4s, both of which fit nicely on the drive alongside some portable apps.

VLC++

At this point, I am totally obsessed with finding more portable apps to use with the drive, and today I hit the info_motherlode where you might expect I’d hit one: Wikipedia.

USB flash drive -

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Keydrive applications

* USBApps - Listing of USB keydrive applications
* TinyApps - Tiny applications for your USB keydrive
* StandAlone - Stand alone applications for your USB keydrive
* airWRX - USB Keydrive application framework
* kikizas.net - Freeware programs to run from a USB stick
* Portable Freeware - The Portable Freeware Collection
* RUNT - ResNet Network Tester for USB Keydrives
* CryptoStick Software - Encryption, Private Internet Browsing, PestPatrol, all for your USB Device
* USB driver
* Dekart Private Disk - User-friendly disk encryption software for Windows XP/9x/2000 - AES 256 bit encryption
* Truecrypt - Free open-source disk encryption software for Windows XP/2000/2003

* Gaim - a multi-protocol instant messaging (IM) client for Linux, BSD, MacOS X, and Windows.
* Portable OpenOffice - A complete office suite for your USB pen drive
* Portable NVU - The Complete Web Authoring System
* Portable AbiWord - the popular word processor AbiWord optimized for USB pen drive use
* Portable Mozilla Stuff
o Portable Firefox - Web browser
o Portable Thunderbird - Email
o Portable Sunbird - Calendar application

[edit]

HOWTO pages

* Encrypted thumb drive and autoplay howto - Open source tools and a very clear walkthrough
* Combining encryption and mobility howto - A guide on using Portable Firefox, Thunderbird, Instant Messenger in a secure way

[edit]

GNU/Linux distributions for USB

* DamnSmallLinux (DSL), a small derivative of Knoppix, tailored to USB
* Knoppix USB Based.
* featherlinux - distribution specifically created for USB sticks
* Flash-Puppy a mature distro designed for keydrives
* Flonix: USB Keydrive Operating System
* Generic Howto on USB booting, incl. with using a floppy/CD for the initial boot if the BIOS does not support USB
* Installing Debian from a USB stick
* LiveDistro.org - Operating systems and HOWTOs for LiveUSBs

Frequently Answered Answers about the Optimus keyboard

The optimus keyboard has individual oled screens on each key. Why is this significant? Well, it’s not so much that you can change the little pictures on the keys, but that the changes are functional changes. For instance, as in the image below, you can set keys to launch applications, and the icons for those applications will be on those keys. You could change the keyboard to use international keyboard layouts, and those layouts would immediately show on the screens on the keys. This is a great tool for productivity, especially if you are a gamer.

Frequently Answered Answers about the Optimus keyboard

It’s in the initial stage of production.

We hope it will be released in 2006.

It will cost less than a good mobile phone.

It will be real.

It will be OS-independent (at least it’s going to be able to work in some default state with any OS).

It will support any language or layout.

Moscow is the capital of Russia.

Each key could be programmed to produce any sequence.

It will be an open-source keyboard, SDK will be available.

Some day it will be split (and made “ergonomic�).

It will most likely use the OLED technology (e-paper is sooo slow).

Our studio is located two blocks from the Kremlin.

It will feature a key-saver.

Keys could be animated when needed.

It has a numeric keypad because we love it.

There’s no snow in Moscow in summer.

It will be available worldwide (why not?)

OEM is possible (why not?)

ACE CAD Product DigiMemo A501

I had a colleague contact me about what I thought about the following digital notepad [not a tablet pc, but an actual paper notepad that captures your impression] device. My response follows the blurb.

ACE CAD Product DigiMemo A501
The DigiMemo A501 is a stand-alone device with storage capability that digitally captures and stores everything you write or draw with ink on ordinary paper, without the use of computer and special paper. Then you can easily view, edit, organize and share your handwritten notes in Windows.

I said in reply:

I’ve seen these things around, but have not felt strongly enough about the benefit of digitized notes to consider getting one.

I have not heard anything in the way of reviews, good or bad, but the epinions sites and other online reviews can sometimes be slanted to the negative.

This would be especially useful for someone in a vertical market, like a doctor or a surveyor or something. That is also the niche where the tablet PCs are taking hold. It’s funny - I actually had a domain named tabletcomputing.org before tablets were widely available, because I thought that it would revolutionize the way people interface with a computer, in a ‘more natural’ way. After I saw them close up when Microsoft made that first big push a few years ago, I was immediately turned off, and the worst part is that I can’t tell you why exactly, I was so turned off. I just didn’t like the reality of a concept I had invested in a great deal. You may feel the same way about this tablet.

I would say if you feel very strongly that this technology is ‘missing’ in your toolset, that you should consider it. If you feel that you like the portability, damage-proof nature, and no-fuss simplicity of a notepad, this is likely just going to gunk that up. Also, it goes without saying that it wouldn’t be supported by OIT, and so if something went wrong it would be between you and the reseller/vendor/manufacturer.

If you’d like to talk about it some more, give me a call.

NewsForge | Tips for buying a Linux-compatible laptop

This article is specifically targeted at Linux Users, but most of the concepts apply to all laptop buyers. This guy knows what he’s talking about.

NewsForge | Tips for buying a Linux-compatible laptop
But if you’re going to buy a new laptop, the next step is to prevent yourself from over-buying. When I started looking at new computers, I immediately gravitated toward expensive, high-powered AMD64-based systems, because that’s what I use at work. High-powered systems are nice to have, but they’re painful to buy, with prices ranging from $1,200 to $3,000. I thought this was reasonable at first because I hadn’t shopped for a laptop computer in almost five years. Today you have far more manufacturers and CPU choices. You can buy a more than competent laptop for less than $1,000 and get the same amount of work done as you would with a system that costs twice as much (assuming normal desktop-related work tasks, not gaming or scientific visualization).

iriver - Ultra Portable Players

iriver - Ultra Portable Players

I recently gave a presentation on Blogs and Wikis and used an iRiver voice recorder to record the presentation. I told people about it briefly in the presentation, if for no other reason to let them know they would remain anonymous in any use of the audio. I got an email from one of the participants asking about it, and here was my response:

What I used is not a microphone [by itself] but rather a multi function digital audio device.

I use an 256 MB iRiver audio device.

It records your voice through a built in Microphone.

It allows for listening to and recording digitally tuned radio broadcasts.

It allows for recording external audio sources via line in.

You can then transfer the audio files from the device to your computer for editing, email, web sites, uploading to Blackboard, etc.

It is a highly recommended and fabulous device, but it does not function as an external microphone for a laptop.

You can find the details about the device at http://www.iriveramerica.com/prod/ultra/

You can get it, like I did, at Circuit City.

I have one of the 700 series devices.

I hope this helps, and I hope you get the iRiver device.

John LeMasney.

On buying a laptop.

I often get asked how to buy a great laptop. After I say get an Apple, and the person tells me all the reasons why that won’t work, and I explain that it doesn’t matter, and they say, well, what’s a nice windows laptop, and then I sigh a little, and then we talk about what makes for a good laptop universally speaking, at least for the next ten days or so, when things get faster and cheaper.

Upon being asked about this topic in an email today, I decided to share my answer with this blog.

This kind of topic really requires an interactive discussion because there are so many variables. I would prefer to discuss the topic with you over the phone, if only to get a better feel for your needs.

However, here are some guidelines:

Get as much hard drive space, processor speed, and ram as you can afford.

Hard drive should have 80 Gigabytes or more.

Processor should be 1.5 Gigahertz or more. Much more.

You should have 1 Gigabyte of RAM, but less is okay. The more the better.

Your screen size will likely be determined by the amount of weight you’re willing to cart around. 3-5 pounds is a heavy laptop. 1-2 pounds is ultra light. Some laptops are as many as 7-9 pounds. You can get a 15 inch, rather than a 12 inch screen, but it will add extra weight to your laptop. 17 inch laptop screens are typically overkill for the average user, but are great for photo and video applications.

The discounted Dell specials at Rider’s academic discount page often limit your choices.

You want wireless, definitely. You will want something that is compatible with the 802.11b wireless standard, since that is what we use at Rider. Most wireless setups in new laptops will work with this standard, also known as ‘wi-fi’

You may need to purchase an external cdrom drive, since smaller laptops often do not have the extra space for a built in drive. If you get an external drive, you might as well go all the way and get a DVD+/-RW burner, since that will give you a lot more flexibility. If you go this route, you will want either USB2 or Firewire [aka ieee 1394 or iLink] on your laptop, and the drive should have USB2 or firewire [aka ieee1394 or iLink] as well.

My suggestion? Get a 12 inch iBook from Apple. You may spend a little more, but the investment is a good one, and it will have all of the features you want.

Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006

All I can say is… wow.

Apple to Use Intel Microprocessors Beginning in 2006

WWDC 2005, SAN FRANCISCO—June 6, 2005—At its Worldwide Developer Conference today, Apple® announced plans to deliver models of its Macintosh® computers using Intel® microprocessors by this time next year, and to transition all of its Macs to using Intel microprocessors by the end of 2007. Apple previewed a version of its critically acclaimed operating system, Mac OS® X Tiger, running on an Intel-based Mac® to the over 3,800 developers attending CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote address. Apple also announced the availability of a Developer Transition Kit, consisting of an Intel-based Mac development system along with preview versions of Apple’s software, which will allow developers to prepare versions of their applications which will run on both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs.