Techno Cop

Windows 7 Experience Index

In my previous blog I wrote about why I am now seriously considering switching back to windows after almost two years of quite satisfying and productive experience with Apple’s OS X (both Tiger and Leopard). The dilemma was primarily a consequence of my amazing experience with the beta version of Windows 7.

Ever since I downloaded the beta version, I have already installed W7 in 3 computers:

1. HP 2710P Tablet PC. 1.2 ghz Core two Duo with 2 gig RAM.
2. Netbook. Asus EEE 1000H with 1.6 intel Atom proc and 2 gig RAM.
3. Desktop. The most recent addition to THQ, a $500 powerhouse sporting a Quad Core 2.4 ghz proc (Q6600) with 4 gig RAM.

Here are the Windows Experience Indexes for each:

HP 2710P

Asus EEE 1000H

Quad Core 2.4 4 Gig RAM

I have already said that Windows 7 turned the the 2 year old HP 2710P into a productivity gem. I can now also say that the same is true with the Netbook which used to run OS X (hackintosh). The only issue I encountered when installing W7 in the netbook was with the wifi. I had to to actually look for the original installer from Asus and installed from the CD the Ralink WLAN driver.

As happy as I may be with my two laptops running W7, I am blown away by the speed I am currently experiencing with my new $500 desktop. You add to that an absolutely flawless install of W7 (all drivers and applications working) and I was thinking why I ever even left Windows in the first place (Answer- a five letter word that starts with a V). This desktop easily beats in every department my sub-$2000 Dream Desktop (circa 2005).

Having all these extremely impressive experiences with this new product from Redmond, these had me thinking as to what I am really looking for in a computer. When you remove the eye candies, form factors and Veblenesque, I am actually looking for only 3 things:

1. It must work like a slave. It sits when I tell it to sit, it works when I tell it to work.

2. It must work with all of my must have applications. Right now, I mean Office 2007, Mindmanager 8.0, TextAloud, Photoshop CS (?), and Firefox.

3. It must provide me with a reasonable degree of immunity to the prevailing threats out of the box.

Let me leave you with this question, how does your present OS measure up in these 3 departments? Please share with me your thoughts.

Windows 7 on the HP 2710p

At about the same time I was experiencing freezes on the HP2710P tablet pc with Vista Business, I decided to download the beta version of Windows 7 (build 7000). Let me say at the outset that the installation and the amazing experience I have had with Windows 7 had me seriously thinking if I should stay with Mac OS X. Of course, it is too early to say if I will do so, but one thing is for certain, switching back to Windows is now a possibility. Even with just the beta version (we all know that the final version will only be better), my experience has been superb to say the least. Most of the things that I like with theMac OS X, I can now see almost flawlessly implemented in Windows 7. W7 has practically turned the 2 year old HP2710P 1.2 ghz Core two Duo into a productivity gem.

The Install. After downloading the ISO image for the 32 bit version, I just followed the steps here in order to have a DVD disc of the beta OS. I then popped the DVD in an external DVD drive and after a restart, I just followed the onscreen instruction. It was defintely the best install experience of any windows OS. I was done in less than 30 minutes. All of the 2710Ps drivers seem to be built into the installer and everything from sound, wireless, and tablet functionality were all working fine. The only issue was with the fingerprint reader but it was handled very well by W7's ACTION CENTER (a notification appeared in the system tray).

Compatibility with my favorite applications. All of my must have applications are installed and are functioning without any issues. I have installed Office 2007, Mindmanager 8.0, Zoundry Raven, Sugarsync, Firefox 3.0.5, Photoshop CS3, and TextAloud. I also installed a trial version of Kaspsersky internet Security as it is one of the 3 being endorsed by W7's Action Center.

Tons of Keyboard shortcuts. One thing I love in the OS X is Quicksilver, a software that allows you to customize triggers to open a specific application or folder. The built-in W7 shortcuts coupled with Launchy is, IMHO, close enough to Quicksilver.

Attention Grabber no More. Using it for 2 days, I find that W7 allows me to work without any distractions which was common (read: everytime) in Vista. Applications would open in a snap, no slow downs, and except for those from Kaspersky, I hardly ever get any pop ups from the OS. However, I would need to give it more time before I say more.

Speed is awesome. At least when compared to Vista and XP. ZDNet actually made a comparison here.

Lots of Eyecandy. From Aero that is no longer a memory hog, to a powerful Windows Media Center, W7 simply has so much to offer in the geek department. Click here for more.

The experience thus far has been great that I also installed W7 in the netbook. I will write about that experience as soon as I finish installing my favorite applications.

Let me just end this blog with this statement for now:

As someone who performs almost every computing task on a Mac (for the past one and a half years) and tells anyone who will listen that the average consumer should be using a Mac instead of a Windows machine because of security and stability, I'm starting to prep myself for the single moment that I thought would never come: I'll be using a Windows 7 machine as my main computer and telling anyone who will listen that, believe it or not, using the latest Microsoft operating system is truly worth it - once again.

UPDATE: I have now installed W7 in two other computers here.

Macbook with 4g RAM Upgraded to 10.5.6

I deliberately held-off updating the Macbook Alum's software to the latest version OS X, 10.5.6, due to the reported issues with laptops with 4 gig of RAM.Five days ago, after cloning the Mac HD onto an external drive using Superduper, I decided that it is time to try the update. I was brazen enough knowing fully well that I could easily rollback to the old software (via Superduper) in the event that I experience similar troubles.

Well, it has been almost a week and the Alum is still running flawlessly with the software update installed. For those of you who have been holding off the upgrade, below are the specs of identical 2gig RAM sticks that Apple installed in mine:

2 GB
Type: DDR3
Speed: 1067 MHz
Status: OK
Manufacturer: 0x0198
Part Number: 0x393930353432382D3030312E4230304C4600
Serial Number: 0x710E550B

If you have a new Macbook Alum 2.4 ghz with 4gig of RAM with the above specs, I believe it is safe for you to do the update and not worry about the common problems experienced by some.If you happen to be using RAM from a 3rd party, I suggest that you first clone your Mac HD, like I did using Superduper, that way, and should you experience any freezing problems, you can always revert back to your original HD state.

BTW, since the new macbooks do not come with firewire, to make a USB external drive bootable, you must first partition it using your Macbook's Disk utility prior to using that with Superduper.I partitioned mine as Mac OS Extended (Journaled).

Netbooks- My Most Popular Posts for 2008

I recently reviewed my blog stats and determined the following to be the Top 5 most popular posts here in TechnoCop for 2008:

• How to Sync Outlook across multiple computers please note that this was updated here.
• Netbook OSX
• Netbook OSX Redux
• Netbook Bags
• Skype and the Nokia N95

With three of the posts being netbook related, this only proves to show that 2008 (especially the second half) was the year of the netbook. I am predicting that this is only going to get better for the Netbook in 2009. I believe that the attraction for the netbook centers on three of its key features: 1. Its lightweight and small footprint;2. Decent processing power and battery life; and 3. Its low price point.

In my organization alone, a good number of our power users are now carrying a netbook, though mostly in XP. However a considerable number are installing OSX simply because of the latter's unobtrusive behavior. All it takes for them to install OS X is to point them towards the right direction (read: who can do the install for them). This is by no means intended as a Windows bashing. I still use a tablet PC with XP Tablet PC. Even this blog was written using a PC software (virtual XP under Parallels) which I am presently trying out - Zoundry Raven blogging client. Need I remind you that I was once a Windows only fanatic until I tried OSX in early 2007 after being fed up with Vista? Even my favorite mobile technology blogger, James Kendrick of JKONTHERUN, has decided to stick to a single OS to make things more simple - Apple's OS X.

I find that OS X rarely grabs my attention when I am trying to work which is not what I experience with Windows. Don't get me wrong, Windows is a fine OS and works well and I am not saying OS X is better or that Windows is not good. I am just saying that for the way I work, OS X stays out of my way better than Windows.

I second that, Sir James.

My 2008 data tends to show the growing interest of netizens in anything netbook, first, and the OS X, second. It is just too bad that the DNA of the people at Cupertino would not allow them to produce laptop's at the netbook's popular price point and configuration.

Finally, allow me to answer the question I posed to myself in a previous blog, "what happens to my netbook with OSX now that I have a new Macbook Aluminum?"

Had I not sold the old and reliable black Macbook that in turn gave me the additional funds to afford a new unibody Aluminum, I was more than happy with the Netbook. But lugging daily the ALUM in the very same bags that I used to carry the Netbook, I find that the bulk and the weight of the Alum is not too bad after all. You add to that the tremendous speed of the 2.4 ghz 4g RAM ALUM, for me, it was like bringing with me everyday the all too powerful and dependable MacPro desktop sitting at the THQ. And so, on the 1st working day of 2009, I will make a co-worker jump up and down with joy.

From the very words of Sir James, "See Yah!"

How To Digitize a Book

I have been converting PDF files, notes, web clippings and anything text to MP3 files so I could bring them with me and listen while on the fly. Recently, I have a couple of books that I simply could not finish due mainly to their being rich in content. Instead of buying an audiobook version of books that I already have, there must be a way to convert these books to MP3’s. Last Jan 31, I decided to do just that and converted a book accordingly. For this project, I had to use the following:

1. Exacto Knife
2. Optional Rototrim cutter.
3. Fujitsu Scansnap S510M scanner with bundled Abbyy Finereader OCR software
4. TextAloud text to speech conversion software.

The total process took me around 3 hours with most of it involving the careful cutting of the book one page at a time. Here is the step by step:

1. Cut each page. Using the exacto knife, just cut each page as uniformly as you can. In my case, I did not bother insuring that every page was of uniform size. After cutting every page, I then used the Rototrim to insure that every page is of uniform size. If you do not have a Rototrim, you just have to be careful during the cutting process to insure that every page is cut uniformly. I did a final check to insure that all pages are uniform in size and are in their correct order. This process took about 1 and a half hours to complete.
2. Scan Pages to searchable PDF. I put the S510M through its paces. I set the Scansnap software to scan in duplex mode and scanning to searchable PDF (the s510M uses the AbbyFinereader OCR software that came bundled). I then scanned 50 pages at a time which is the maximum the sheet feeder could accommodate. I was extremely amazed at how accurate the scans were. I managed to scan all 257 pages of the book without a single error. Yes, The S510M with Abbyy Finereader can do an amazing job in this department. This process took only 30 minutes to complete.
3. Remove page numbers and headers. I opened the searchable PDF file using Adobe Acrobat Professional 8.0 which again came bundled with the S510M. I selected all the text and pasted them in my favorite text editor -Textedit. In Textedit, I removed every header and page number that appeared on each page, I then saved the edited file.I left the Chapter numbers alone, which will come useful in the next step. Another 30 minutes.
4. Convert text to speech. With the text file from #3 above open, I fired-up TextAloud. I then selected every chapter in the text file and dumped each one in TextAloud for conversion. I bought two optional voices for TextAloud _ Kate and Paul. For this audiobook, I chose Paul. It took me another 45 minutes to complete this process.
5. Bind the original pages of the book (optional). 15 minutes using a desktop binding machine.

In about 3 hours from start to finish, I was done with the project with all 13 chapters of the book stored in my iPhone. Each chapter averaged about 5mb once converted to mp3.

Now, I checked Amazon and determined that I have had the book since October but have not gotten to finish reading it for more than 2 months. With the mp3 of the book inside the iPhone, I am now on my second reading.

Do you have any book worth digitizing?

My 2009 Digital Arsenal

Although I often refer to my collection above as my digital arsenal (since most of the items are in digital camouflage), this blog however is about the digital gadgets that I have used in 2008. You can scroll down this page to see what I am really talking about.

It’s a new year and I have reflected on all the gadgets that I have used during 2008. A lot more gadgets passed through my hands in 2008, but I have only written reviews on those that I have found to work best for me. I’d like to share some of my favorites with you. These are the gadgets that I have used and will continue to use in 2009:

• Nokia E71. One of the longest staying cellphones in the TechnoCop HQ (THQ). I just love its full qwerty keyboard in such a slim package.
• Iphone 3G in a Moleskine. It is one of the best selling phones in 2008. I only use it for voice calls and mostly for listening to music &audiobooks, and also for reading-ebooks.
• XMINI Capsule Speakers. Gotta love the powerful sound from such a tiny device.
• Canon g10 14.7MP DigiCam. This is what I use mostly for the pictures that you see here.
• netbook OS X. It is simply the favored gadget at my workplace.
• Macbook Alum 2.4 ghz 4 g RAM. The latest addition to THQ. This thing is fast and quite portable when compared to the old Macbooks.
• HP2710P Tablet PC. My primary gadget for notetaking and brainstorming in the office. The last remaining PC in THQ.
• Tumi Expandable Computer Briefcase. It fits all of my laptops.
• Waterfield bag for the Macbook and the HP2710P. When I extremely have to travel light.
• Samsonite PRO DLX Backpack. My everyday bag for the ALUM with all my daily gadgets.
• Capturx Digital pen. It has effectively become my Tablet PC replacement.
• Instant Power cellphone charger. The 'PowerCartridge' is a zinc-air battery which connects to your cellphone via a 'SmartCord' connector. The battery will charge your cellphone 3 times and is perfect for vacation, travel and emergency, or anywhere there is no power source available.
• Battery Geek power supply for the Macbook. It gives me additional 2-3 hours of computer time when on the road.
• Kensington SlimBlade Presenter Mouse. The most versatile presenter/mouse I have ever used. It hardly occupies space in any of my bags.
• Fujitsu Scansnap S510M. This scanner works like a miracle in OS X. I will blog about how fast I digitized an entire book with it.
• My DIY Computer Desk. My desk is tethered to the MacPro, scanner, and the Canon iP90v portable printer. For someone who works as hard as I do, I deserve some luxury.

The above may seem like a wish list from Amazon, but they have collectively made 2008 an extremely productive year for me. With all these gadgets working flawlessly as they have in 2008, I think 2009 will be the year where I will be less distracted by new gadgets. Needless to say, I have all that I need for much of my anticipated activities for this new year. Also, the ‘wallet’ will have a lot to be thankful for. So, Bring them on….

Happy 2009 from TechnoCop