Archive for September, 2005
September 30th, 2005 by Matt
After getting off to a good start in writing about my experience with my nice Toshiba M200 Tablet PC, I haven’t posted anything about it for a while. I actually haven’t posted much of anything for the past few months. It’s certainly not because I haven’t found the tablet useful – it’s revolutionized the way I think about using a computer. I will attempt to elaborate on some of my experiences and be more consistent in blogging about the tablet in the near future.
September 30th, 2005 by Matt
After my troubles upgrading to iTunes 5.0, I was a bit reluctant to respond to the dialog box that popped up earlier this week when I started up iTunes. When asked if I would like to upgrade to the newest version of iTunes that is now available, I quickly clicked No. Later in the week, when I had a little time and was feeling daring, I decided to try it.
I downloaded the iTunes 5.0.1 installer, threw caution to the wind, and tried it again. The installation process proceeded without a hitch, until I saw this:
Oh no, I thought, here we go again. I decided to grab screen shots of everything I was about to do, so I started up the Snipping Tool (from the Experience Pack for Tablet PC) and grabbed this image. After I had saved the picture and chosen a name, I was just about to click OK and begin another adventure, when the dialog box went away and I received a message that installation had completed successfully.
Wow, what a strange installation experience. An error message appears, then after about 2 minutes it goes away and everything seems fine. iTunes started right up and is working just fine.
September 21st, 2005 by Matt
For an interesting way to track the latest hurricane, the Houston Chronicle has set-up an RSS feed for Hurricane Rita information:
http://feeds.chron.com/houstonchronicle/rita
The current tracking data shows Rita is on its way to make a direct hit on southeast Texas:
Some of my wife’s family lives in Houston and is preparing to evacuate now. I’m hearing that the expected commute time right now for the drive from Houston to Dallas is 33 hours – this is about 250 miles and typically takes about 4 hours.
September 21st, 2005 by Matt
Legos were probably my favorite “toy” when I was young. I could go and spend hours on the floor just creating things – airplanes, cars, buildings were my favorites. One of the joys of being a parent, now, is that we have Legos in our house again, and I get to play with them. I still love putting things together and transforming an idea or a picture into a real physical creation.
I saw this article in Fast Company today about how the Lego company is offering a new on-line customization service for the latest generation of Lego builders. You can go to the Lego web site and design your own lego creation, then order a custom set that contains all the pieces required to build what you just designed. Wow, if I only had this when I was a kid!
Here are a couple of example designs that some people have created. You can find these and more on the on-line Gallery on the web site.
Now, what’s also interesting about this Lego initiative is how it helps make a very traditional non-electronic toy – which, by not having flashing lights, music or clothes makes it easy for today’s kids to overlook – very relevant to kids (and parents) who spend so much time on-line. I think it’s genius, not just for the company’s health (they lost $310M last year on revenues of $1.1B) but for the creative health of kids. Despite just being a lot of fun, Legos also stimulate creativity and problem-solving, can foster a sense of accomplishment, and can be an excellent way for kids or parents and their kids to spend time together “connecting” with each other.
Legos will definitely continue to have a place in our home!
September 19th, 2005 by Matt
Since I’ve been using a Tablet PC for the past couple of months, I’ve become quite dependent upon using ink in various applications. The Tablet PC has become an integral part of the way I work, think, plan and communicate. In my opinion, the Tablet PC helps take the computer to the next level of usefulness and value.
I’ve been using Yahoo Messenger right from the beginning, and it was my only IM client I used until about a year and a half ago. That’s when I started working with a group of people that used MSN Messenger primarily. After using MSN Messenger for a while, I began to enjoy the cleaner user interface and easy file transfer capabilities it offered. Before I started using my Tablet PC, I noticed the support for ink in the latest version of MSN Messenger. I was intrigued by this, but found no use for it without a tablet.
Then, there were several outbreaks of viruses and malware that were being spread via MSN Messenger, and our company’s IS team made the decision to block all MSN Messenger traffic in and through our network. We’ve been unable to use MSN Messenger for several months now, so I’ve once again come to rely on Yahoo Messenger.
However, YM does not support ink, and I can’t find any information about whether they’re even considering it as a feature. In fact, I can’t even find a clear way to submit feedback or request a feature for Yahoo Messenger.
Ink would be such a great way to use IM – if only we could. Yahoo, please add ink support for YM. Does anyone else know any info about whether this is even on the roadmap for Yahoo? Feel free to leave comments if you have any info – or better yet, send me an IM! 
September 18th, 2005 by Matt
I don’t actually have an iPod – YET, though I am accepting donations – but I have come to be a big user of iTunes. On my home computer I have ripped my entire CD collection to my computer using iTunes. I now have my complete music library on my PC, along with a few other songs that I have purchased from iTunes Music Store. As countless others have also discovered, iTunes is more than just an enabler for the iPod; it’s quite an amazing application on its own.
And, with support for podcasts in version 4.9, released a couple of months ago, it has become even more useful. On my work computer – my Toshiba M200 Tablet PC – I have set-up iTunes to pull the three or four podcasts that I listen to (among them: The Tablet PC Show, The Personal Productivity Show).
Last week, when I opened up iTunes on my Tablet PC to download the latest Tablet PC Show, a little dialog box popped up and informed me that a new version of iTunes was available, version 5.0, and would I like to download and install it. Well, I thought this would be fantastic. I couldn’t wait to see what Apple had cooked up now for this great app, and as a major release (5.0), not just a dot release. I clicked OK to get the new version, and that was almost the last time I was able to do anything with iTunes…
Continue reading ‘iTunes 5.0 Installation Troubles’