RHFtech Help Desk (and more)

by Philip Bloom

This is wonderful cinema.

Using the Internet is not just about download and upload speeds. Pingtest.net determines the quality of your Internet connection.

Streaming media, voice, video communications, and online gaming require more than just raw speed. Test your connection to get your rating.

Cablevision rents Scientific-Atlanta DVRs to their Optimum iO cable TV subscribers.

These DVRs have an awful user interface (UI) that make them painful to use. Finding a program to record is usually time-consuming and frustrating. After playing with one of these for a couple of months I went back to my TiVoHD and really appreciated how simple and elegant it is.

Cablevision recently fixed this issue by creating a web-based way for finding and selecting programs to record on iO DVRs. After you log in with your Optimum ID and password you navigate to the iO DVR link on the home page (pictured below).

This takes you to another web page that lets you control your DVR. If you have more than one you can select the one you want to program from the dropdown list on the upper right.

You can delete records, review and change scheduled recordings and select programs to record by using the three tabs at the top. Searching is easy and fast. I was able to find the next new, high-definition showing of NCIS in less than five seconds.

If you prefer to find programs to record by reviewing TV listings there is a tab for that too. Cablevision provides some pre-set filters (via buttons) that let you see only primetime shows, sports, movies, kids, and HD content. This makes it simple to find a movie to record.

I am impressed by how simple and well-implemented this website is. Props to Cablevision for fixing this user experience. I still prefer my TiVoHD. It does not require a computer to program it. But if I want to program my TiVo from a computer I can.

Electronic entertainment is changing rapidly. Whole house audio is no longer only for the very wealthy. I recently finished installing a 8 zone, Internet connected audio system that cost less than $30,000 for equipment, including 30+ in-ceiling speakers and multiple audio and video sources. Today video is delivered in many forms, over-the-air broadcast, cable or satellite subscription, optical discs (DVD and Blu-ray), and from the Internet.

There are many ways to configure equipment to view Internet video on your HDTV. My preferred method is to hook up a computer, a home theater PC (HTPC) AKA media center computer, because it offers the most choice and is less likely to be obsoleted by changes in technology. Setting up an HTPC is complex and requires attention to controls that many find daunting. An HTPC can be a high-end Windows PC, a Mac Mini, an inexpensive nettop PC or an older computer that uses a media center application. An old PC can run Windows XP or Linux. There are many other choices for Internet video: a TiVo, an Xbox, a SONY PlayStation PS3, which includes a Blu-ray player, or specialized devices with names like Apple TV, Vudu, the Popcorn Hour or Roku.

Roku sells 3 models, the SD, the HD and HD XR. I installed and tested an HD-XR in my home theater. The device is small, 5×5x1.75″, comes with basic cables for connecting it and a small, simple remote control. It has an Ethernet connector and built-in 802.11n WiFi. It costs $130 at Amazon. I provided my own HDMI cable connecting it to my audio/video receiver. This limited the cabling to one cable for both audio and video signals.

There is much to recommend about the HD-XR. It is easy to install. It took me about 15 minutes to wire and configure. Your time may vary. The remote control has few buttons and is easy to use. The on-screen display (OSD) is simple and easy to navigate. And the price is compelling.

The home page features the Roku channel store where you select which channels you want to make available to view or listen to. It features both free and paid Internet services. Featured paid services are Netflix, Amazon VOD, and MLB.com. Netflix and MLB are subscription services. Amazon VOD is a pay-as-you-go service. Free services include Revision 3, TWiT.tv, Blip.TV and others. The Pandora music service is also available. I do not subscribe to Netflix or care about baseball so I did not test those services. I tested Amazon and was generally pleased with the navigation and speed of delivery. Video and audio qualities were good.

The Roku’s simplicity can be a negative. The Roku provides no way to search for a title. Navigating through Amazon’s large catalog to find something to watch can take a lot of time and effort. The video channels are limited by whatever choices Roku management makes. This is not an Apple device so there is no iTunes store and it does not integrate with your iTunes music and video collection. The remote control adds to remote control clutter. I do not know if there is a way to program a universal remote to control the Roku.

When watching some videos on Blip.tv the device had to pause while the video buffered. I do not know if this was due to Blip.tv or Optimum servers or was a local problem with my WiFi. This did not happen with other services so I think it is Blip’s issue.

I found setting up Pandora a bit frustrating. Pandora would not recognize my account for the first several attempts. Once it did everything worked fine. Issues like setting up Pandora might be off-putting if you are technology-challenged.

I recommend this Roku device if you want a simple, inexpensive method for connecting your HDTV to the Internet. I prefer the HTPC because it does not limit my choices of content where a dedicated, proprietary device like the Roku does.

Many people I know believe Apple makes the best computers and related hardware. They are surprised when I challenge their opinion. I think they formed these opinions based upon three sets of Apple products—iMacs, MacBook Pros, and iPhone/iPod Touch/iPod models. My opinion is based upon the complete Apple product line that incorporates products such as the Mac Pro, Xserve, Mac Mini, Apple TV, MacBook Air, AirPort hardware, storage products, and keyboard and mouse offerings.

I am agnostic when it comes to technology. I try to assess what I see and use on its face value. I am rarely swayed by flashy or shiny things. I try to judge on ease-of-use, how well the technology does what it purports to do, and the cost/value ratio.

Below are some quick thoughts that I hope amplify my position:

The iMac is the best all-in-one computer. There are Windows alternatives. None are as compelling.

MacBook Pros are very nice notebook computers. There are few comparable offerings in the Windows world. But there are many good Windows notebooks, often providing a better cost/value ratio than a MacBook Pro. This impression is due to Windows 7. Windows 7 changes the balance for the client operating system user interface/user experience (UI/UX), away from Apple’s OS X Leopard/Snow Leopard, to Microsoft. This happened once before when Microsoft released Windows 95 and leapfrogged the Apple UI/UX of the day.

The iPod Touch is in a category by itself. I have seen no other device that does as much as the Touch, does what it does as well as the Touch, or is priced as favorably.

The iPhone was in a category by itself but that is rapidly changing. The Motorola Droid offers many features that the iPhone does not and is quickly adding apps and functionality that leapfrog the iPhone/iTunes App store ecosystem. Peter Ha of Time Magazine recently named the Droid the best gadget for 2009. There are other new or soon-to-be-released smartphones that challenge the iPhone’s hegemony.

The Mac Pro is a beautiful tower computer. It is extravagantly over-priced. There are many Windows alternatives that provide comparable hardware at a fraction of the cost. The primary reason I see to buy the Mac Pro over a comparable Windows tower is because you want to use Final Cut Studio, Apple’s $1,000 video editing program, to edit lots of video recordings.

Xserve is an expensive, not-so-special, pizza-box-shaped server. Linux, Unix, and Windows servers generally provide better functionality and features at much lower cost.

The Mac Mini is useful but monitor, keyboard and mouse are extra. It is not always the best-in-breed for media center devices and it makes a mediocre desktop computer. (I suggest buying an iMac if you need a Mac desktop computer.)  Window nettop boxes are coming to market soon that challenge the Mac Mini. We need to wait until January 2010 to assess what is best-in-breed in this form factor.

The Mac Mini has a younger, smaller sibling, the Apple TV. TiVo is far superior as an easy-to-use media device. Xbox and the SONY PlayStation PS3 provide media center functionality and add game playing and an optical drive (Blu-ray for the PS3), both of which are missing from Apple TV. Roku, Vudu and Popcorn provide lower-cost media center functionality. The Roku box, which I will be reviewing next week, costs much less, provides a simpler interface and is easier to use than an Apple TV.

I often recommend Apple computers and other Apple hardware to my clients because the device(s) best meet the clients’ needs. I often recommend non-Apple products because they better meet that client’s needs. As I said above, I’m agnostic.

I could go on surveying Apple’s remaining hardware, such as Airport networking devices, keyboards and mice but I won’t. My point is that Apple makes some good hardware, in some instances such as the iPod Touch or the iMac the best, but not always the best and often not very good, like the MacBook Air or Apple TV.

Many people I know believe Apple makes the best computers and related hardware. They are surprised when I challenge their opinion. I think they formed these opinions based upon three sets of Apple products—iMacs, MacBook Pros, and iPhone/iPod Touch/iPod models. My opinion is based upon the complete Apple product line that incorporates products such as the Mac Pro, Xserve, Mac Mini, Apple TV, MacBook Air, AirPort hardware, storage products, and keyboard and mouse offerings.

I am agnostic when it comes to technology. I try to assess what I see and use on its face value. I am rarely swayed by flashy or shiny things. I try to judge on ease-of-use, how well the technology does what it purports to do, and the cost/value ratio.

Below are some quick thoughts that I hope amplify my position:

The iMac is the best all-in-one computer. There are Windows alternatives. None are as compelling.

MacBook Pros are very nice notebook computers. There are few comparable offerings in the Windows world. But there are many good Windows notebooks, often providing a better cost/value ratio than a MacBook Pro. This impression is due to Windows 7. Windows 7 changes the balance for the client operating system user interface/user experience (UI/UX), away from Apple’s OS X Leopard/Snow Leopard, to Microsoft. This happened once before when Microsoft released Windows 95 and leapfrogged the Apple UI/UX of the day.

The iPod Touch is in a category by itself. I have seen no other device that does as much as the Touch, does what it does as well as the Touch, or is priced as favorably.

The iPhone was in a category by itself but that is rapidly changing. The Motorola Droid offers many features that the iPhone does not and is quickly adding apps and functionality that leapfrog the iPhone/iTunes App store ecosystem. Peter Ha of Time Magazine recently named the Droid the best gadget for 2009. There are other new or soon-to-be-released smartphones that challenge the iPhone’s hegemony.

The Mac Pro is a beautiful tower computer. It is extravagantly over-priced. There are many Windows alternatives that provide comparable hardware at a fraction of the cost. The primary reason I see to buy the Mac Pro over a comparable Windows tower is because you want to use Final Cut Studio, Apple’s $1,000 video editing program, to edit lots of video recordings.

Xserve is an expensive, not-so-special, pizza-box-shaped server. Linux, Unix, and Windows servers generally provide better functionality and features at much lower cost.

The Mac Mini is useful but keyboard and mouse are extra. Window nettop boxes are coming to market soon that challenge the Mac Mini. We need to wait until January 2010 to assess what is best-in-breed in this form factor.

The Mac Mini has a younger, smaller sibling, the Apple TV. It is not always the best-in-breed for media center devices and it makes a mediocre desktop computer. (I suggest buying an iMac if you need a Mac desktop computer.) TiVo is far superior as an easy-to-use media device. Xbox and the SONY PlayStation PS3 provide media center functionality and add game playing and an optical drive (Blu-ray for the PS3), both of which are missing from Apple TV. Roku, Vudu and Popcorn provide lower-cost media center functionality. The Roku box, which I will be reviewing next week, costs much less, provides a simpler interface and is easier to use than an Apple TV.

I often recommend Apple computers and other Apple hardware to my clients because the device(s) best meet the clients’ needs. I often recommend non-Apple products because they better meet that client’s needs. As I said above, I’m agnostic.

I could go on surveying Apple’s remaining hardware, such as Airport networking devices, keyboards and mice but I won’t. My point is that Apple makes some good hardware, in some instances such as the iPod Touch or the iMac the best, but not always the best and often not very good, like the MacBook Air or Apple TV.

This is about Windows Explorer not Internet Explorer.

The new Windows Explorer in Windows 7 is one of my favorite things about Windows 7. Microsoft added some nice enhancements over the Vista version.  And Vista’s Windows Explorer was quite different, and better, than Windows Explorer in XP.

The two most obvious changes in Vista from XP were the changes to the left-side panel and the addition of the breadcrumb address bar. The breadcrumb address bar is a webpage-like navigation tool. It is a big improvement over the older XP address bar. The left side panel was changed in Vista into a combination of Favorites and directory trees for your computer and network. The Favorites area is shortcuts that you can easily add to using drag-and-drop. 

Windows 7 adds Libraries and Homegroup to the Vista-style left side panel. It also adds the Arrange by: feature to the Libraries view.  The View option—icons, lists, details, etc.— is now an icon called More options and is located on the right side of the Windows Explorer toolbar next to the Preview Pane   icon, which is a toggle switch for Preview pane on or off.

The Library Arrange by: choices vary with the type of library.

Documents	Music	Pictures	Videos

If you spend a few minutes playing with and learning about Windows 7 Windows Explorer you are likely to see what a nice utility it has become.

We were having a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner that couldn’t be beat. Our guests mentioned that the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in NYC had a great Tim Burton show. They remarked on his wonderful drawings and figures. I mentioned that Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas was one of my favorite movies. They said they had never seen it. I volunteered that I had the DVD and we could watch it after dinner.

I searched for the DVD while everyone else ate dessert. I could not find it. I checked the spreadsheet that I used to maintain my catalog when I bought optical media—CDs and DVDs. It turned out that although we had owned the VHS tape of The Nightmare Before Christmas, I never bought the DVD version. I had confused the soundtrack CD, which I have, with the DVD.

I thought, “No problem. We will rent it from Amazon Video on Demand and I will play it for the family and guests on the home theater PC (HTPC) hooked up to the home theater system.” Unfortunately, The Nightmare Before Christmas is a Disney title and not available either to rent or buy as a download from Amazon.

My next step was to start iTunes on my main computer and see if the iTunes Store had it. The iTunes store does not rent movies. They sell them. The Nightmare Before Christmas was available for $14.99 plus tax. I thought it’s a holiday. We have guests. Why not?

Why not is because I forgot what a torture it is using iTunes and the iTunes store. I turned on the HTPC and started iTunes. As always, there was a newer version of iTunes that they wanted me to download. I had version 7 installed but iTunes 9.02 or something like that is the current version. So I thought why not update?

Why not is because it took me 20 minutes to download the 90MB file. Why not is because it took another 20 minutes to install iTunes and all the attendant crap software that Apple shoves down the Internet pipes with it. I was reasonably patient.

So after 40 minutes I finally got to launch iTunes. But lo, I couldn’t order the movie yet because iTunes had to update the iTunes library first! That took another 15 minutes. After that it wanted to update the album artwork. I had enough (I thought) and cancelled that activity, because I could.

So now iTunes was running. I went to the iTunes store and searched for the “nightmare before” and found music and the movie. I went to purchase the movie.

I could not. iTunes was not authorized on this computer and I had reached my 5 computer iTunes authorization limit. Damn Apple! I turned on my 15” Apple MacBook Pro and deauthorized it. I then went back to the HTPC and authorized it.

Now I was ready to purchase the movie. NOT! The American Express card number registered with the iTunes store was out-of-date. So I had to go get my card and update the information.

Finally, I was downloading the movie and I thought, “We’ll be watching this soon.” I was wrong. It took Apple 35 minutes to download a 898MB file. Unlike Amazon, Apple requires that the whole file be downloaded before you can begin watching and their servers run at a small fraction of the speed of Amazon’s. Amazon would have been done in a third of the time or less.

So over 2 hours later and after a lot of technology induced anger and frustration we finally got to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas. Of course Apple had just treated me to their technological version of a nightmare before Christmas.

So I am sending a big bah humbug to Apple and hoping Santa puts coal in Steve Job’s Christmas stocking.

The Windows key is a special key that appears on a Windows keyboard. It has the Microsoft flag logo on it and may also have the word Start. A variation of it exists for the Mac keyboard. Here it is known as the Command key or the Apple key and sports a Saint John’s Arms symbol . Do you know what these keys do and when to use them?

Some of us are accomplished typists and use the standard keys without looking or thinking about them. Others cannot type and instead hunt and peck. Most of us are somewhere in between. You are probably familiar with the Control (AKA Ctrl or ctrl) and Alternate (AKA Alt, alt or option) keys and may know how and when to use them. The Escape key (AKA Esc or esc) sits on the upper left of the keyboard. Pressing Esc often terminates a running process or closes a window. Windows keyboards also have a Property key, located to the right of the Space bar, which when pressed usually calls up a context menu, performing a function similar to a right mouse button click.

The Alt and Ctrl keys appear on all computer keyboards. They commonly appear twice, on the left and right sides of the Space bar. They perform similar functions in Windows and Mac OSX operating systems, providing additional functionality when pressed simultaneously with other keys. For example, Ctrl+C in Windows copies highlighted content into a system buffer, while Ctrl+V pastes it. Ctrl+P calls the printer dialog in many applications. (Mac users replace the Ctrl key with the Command key to activate these features, e.g., Cmd+P calls the print dialog on a Mac.)

My first memory of using the Ctrl key was on a time-sharing system in the early 1970s. The terminals I worked on used paper rather than a monitor to display input and output. We loaded these terminals with continuous fan-folded paper that came in cartons. We would rip the top off the carton and then load the beginning of the paper into the terminal. We used a lot of paper. Sometimes we needed to kill instructions to the computer, perhaps we had typed in a wrong number or the paper was jammed. Ctrl+C would send a stop instruction across the telephone lines to the computer. A few years later when I began using WordStar on a PC Ctrl+C became copy and the kill function had become the unwieldy Ctrl+Alt+Delete. The Mac equivalent is the Command+Option+Esc shortcut.

The Windows key has many shortcuts. I frequently use Windows+E, which launches a Windows Explorer window, Windows+R, which launches a Run… dialog, and Windows+F, which launches a Find or Search dialog. A relatively complete list is located at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_key#Shortcuts. Windows key uses differ between Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7 operating systems. Windows 7 introduced many new Windows key shortcuts.

The Mac Command key is different that the Windows key. It is used more like the Windows Ctrl. Thus, Cmd+C is copy and Cmd+V is paste. My favorite use is Cmd+Space to call up Spotlight, the OS X search utility. A comprehensive list of Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts can be found at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1343.

I find the Windows and Property keys to be quite useful. They add consistent functionality across Windows versions and applications. The Mac Cmd key seems less well implemented, perhaps because I have used Windows for 24 years but Mac OS X for less than five years. Its function varies by application. The consequent lack of consistency makes it less useful and forces me to use the mouse rather the keyboard.

I have a client, a radiologist, who needs a new home computer. Since he uses this computer when he is on-call it must meet minimum requirements for the medical imaging software and display the images in high resolution on a large monitor so that he can properly read the images.

He sent me his specifications and asked for my thoughts. Here they are:

The nicest reasonably priced, large monitor is bundled with the new 27" iMac. One of these with a 2.8GHz i7 CPU and 8GB of memory (which I believe is more than adequate) costs $2,399 plus tax at Apple. Adding a second Apple display, a 24" Cinema Display costs $899 + tax. Not certain you need the 2nd monitor as a 27" primary monitor is quite large. Also the second monitor does not have to be an Apple.

Firefox is available for all major operating systems, Windows, Mac and Linux. So if Safari doesn’t cut the mustard, I would expect that Firefox will work. As always, better to test this on a existing Mac, before buying, rather than assume.

We can run XP, Vista, Windows 7 (32-or 64-bit) on a Mac either under the built-in Boot Camp utility (which I do not like because it means rebooting the machine to switch operating system) or in a virtual machine (VM) using VMware Fusion, Parallels Desktop, or VirtualBox. I prefer VMware Fusion over Parallels or VirtualBox. This would entail buying the VM software and a Windows OS and license, and installing the VM manager and then the operating system.

This might be the best of all worlds, great display, good hardware, and your choice of OS depending upon what you want to do. Please note that you will have to maintain two computers, the physical Mac and the virtual Windows, so updates, patches, and backups are times two.

Let me know if you have other questions or would like to discuss this. If you want to go with a desktop computer, and not an all-in-one like the iMac, we could consider the Mac Pro (which gets pricey very fast) or a higher-end Windows 7 64-bit machine with XP Mode. The Windows machine would probably cost $1,000 to $2,000 less than the Mac Pro (depending upon configuration). The advantage of a desktop is that is more serviceable and upgradeable. An iMac is more like a notebook in its construction and consequently harder to service and limited in upgrades, i.e. the video and sound cards/chips are fixed with whatever comes with the computer. Memory and hard drives can be upgraded.