Dana's Mixed Bag

In 5…

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This cool cat is staying home, so she won’t be a part of the live blogging activity.a

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I’m off to Atlanta in the morning to take in Microsoft’s big Media Center press conference tonight. Tune in here around 6:30 for all of the updates!

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The Treo 650 by Palm has been around for a many years now, and has always had a quirky bluetooth profile. After about an hour of following Ford’s instructions and a little bit of research, we finally figured out how to connect a Treo 650 (Verizon) with the impressive 2009 Ford Explorer SYNC system.

For some reason the Treo doesn’t work out of the box with the SYNC system. We found that once the Treo is paired with another bluetooth device, however, it becomes smart enough to handle the Ford SYNC connection.

• Pair the Treo with a different bluetooth connection first. According to a poster on a message board, the Jabra headset, with its “0000” security code, with do just fine. We were able to break-in the Treo by connecting it to a 2005 Prius Bluetooth system (using code “1212”)
• Delete any previous instances of the Treo in the SYNC system, and delete any previous instances of the SYNC in the Treo’s bluetooth page.
• At this point the Treo will work as described in Ford’s instruction manual. After entering the six-digit code created by the Ford into the Treo, select “Car Kit”.

We were able to make calls and answer calls using the Ford’s interface. We did not, however, get a successful download of the Treo’s phone book. I didn’t have time to experiment, but it is likely that only the Treo Contacts that have a quick-dial assignment will be downloaded to the Ford. I assume that in order to download newly added quick-dial contacts to the Ford, one will have to re-pair the Treo and SYNC systems (simply delete the existing profiles of each other, and redo Step 3 above).

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Remember The Milk is a fantastic web-based ToDo list manager. Recently they offered a conduit from your Twitter account to your RTM Inbox. The only problem is that RTM only allows one Twitter account to be linked. By linking a dummy Twitter account to both a dummy email account and to all of your current Twitter accounts, you now can forward tweets to RTM regardless of the Twitter account you are using/

• Create dummy email account (on your own server or create a new gmail account). Set it to forward all mail to your normal email account
• Create a secret rtm-forwarding Twitter account using your new dummy email account.
  The name of this Twitter account should be short, sweet, and easy to remember (ie "rtmmm")
• Set this account to be private by selecting "Protect My Tweets" (Settings | Account)
• Set this account to only forward direct messages (Settings | Notices). Deselect new follower and inside scoop newsletter.
• Open each of your normal Twitter accounts and send requests to follow your rtm-forwarding Twitter account. (type “follow rtmmm”. You see the response is something like “OK, If rtmmm accepts you’re request…)
• Log in to your rtm-forwarding Twitter account and accept the follow requests from your normal Twitter accounts. Then, follow your normal Twitter accounts from the rtm-forwarding accounts.
• Change your dummy email account’s settings to forward all mail to your "secret RTM email address". (Open RTM and see Settings | Info | Inbox Email Address). It is not necessary to keep this account set to forward to your normal email address now.

Now from any of your twitter accounts you can forward tweets to Remember The Milk’s Inbox. Simply send a direct message from your Twitter client to your secret rtm account at Twitter. I use Twitteriffic on the iPhone, so when I see a Tweet that I want to send to my todo’s, I’ll hit "Retweet", put the cursor at the beginning of the person’s tweet, and type "d rtmmm". If I am at the Twitter webpage, I’ll copy the tweet and paste it into the tweet box, but put the "d rtmmm" before the text. (Sometimes a tweet will surpass the 140 character limit when it is formatted for forwarding, so some editing may need to be done)

The only real disadvantage is that you’ll have to type more than 3 characters to forward the tweet (which can be hell on a bad keyboard like the iPhone).

If you have any questions, feel free to ask me at danamccall on Twitter.

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It’s back to school time, and that means it is time for college students to think about their computer arrangements. I was playing with a MacBook Pro the other day and generally liked it, but was astonished at the price. After a some contemplation I concluded that there are far more powerful setups that can be attained for a fraction of the MacBook’s lofty price.

The MacBook family offers screen sizes of 13”, 15” and 17”. The base prices for these units start at $1,200, $1,700, and $2,500. Unfortunately all these customers have is…a laptop. It is sad to see what people are missing by spending this much.

While college is a very mobile environment, it also is one that requires much efficiency and organization. Imagine being able to take all of your notes in class while you record the lecture, and have those notes and the recording tied in real time together. Using OneNote, the student can! Unable to fully recall the discussion when a cryptic diagram was drawn? Simply hit the musical note next to the diagram and that segment of the lecture immediately plays back.

When the student returns to his or her desk in the dorm room, they will want a clean, neat full desktop setup, so a 22 or 24” monitor is needed. For an extra $75 or so the laptop can be used as a DVR, so there goes the need to buy a full-fledged TV.

One of the most powerful tools a student can buy, however, is a Fujitsu ScanSnap scanner. Instead of lugging around notebooks and syllabi, the efficient student uses this football-sized scanner to scan all notes and all syllabi. This way all notes are neatly organized, portable, and sharable on the network.

Theft is rampant on college campuses, so an external hard drive is needed at the desk for nightly archiving of notes and media.

$1,200

Here’s is an option in the $1,200 range worth considering:

plus $250 Samsung 233SW 23” Widescreen Monitor (If one were to get a little 13” MacBook, they would certainly need a large monitor at their desktop, so the monitor’s price is pulled out of the comparison.)

Now we have a powerful system. A fantastic laptop serves as the core. One can quickly scan all documents and enter notes directly into the computer, and archive all of this data. For leisure periods, the laptop can be used as a DVR.

I would mount the hard disk drive enclosure under the desk (out of sight), and buy an extra AC adaptor that stays installed in the desk setup for an almost “docking station” setup.

$2,500

In the $2,500 market? Then we really have some flexibility. Consider a scenario that has the 23” monitor and backup system mentioned above, as well as the scanner. At the core, though, we use a Lenovo tablet PC. This allows the student to take notes directly on the screen in One Note while recording lectures instead of using the Pegasus pen.

plus $250 Samsung 233SW 23” Widescreen Monitor

It appears that we have an extra $400. Instead of shipping it off to Steve Jobs, perhaps we could consider something more interesting. Let’s remove the portable HDD and put that $100 and the $400 towards a dorm room server. Something like a Windows Home Server or a stand-alone PC that runs Windows Media Center would be a fantastic solution. A media center PC in the room would always be available to record shows, and could act as a archival center for the documents on the laptop.

Another option is to take that $400 and conservatively invest it so there is seed money for the next computer the student will need (probably in two years). Imagine how out of date that 4 year old MacBook pro will seem compared to a fairly new computer in 2013.

The MacBook Pro is a nice computer, for sure. However its staggering price seems to be luring students away from a far more powerful armamentarium. It is leaving students with a tool that allows them to get on the internet and write documents. The MacBooks are only the seed to a fully integrated system. For that price, wouldn’t you rather just take the fully integrated system and be done with it?

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The new, Third Generation Prius recently hit dealer lots, and Toyota has redefined their premium packages. As before each level builds upon the lower level one, meaning that it includes all of the lower level features. The new package scheme also adds navigation and solar roof to each of the non-basic tiers. To illustrate how all of the packages relate, someone at Fred Anderson Toyota put a chart together, which I have recreated here.

Additionally the new series of Prius comes with a revamped color scheme, too. The big change is the inability to get a bisque interior with black paint. Instead, customers can now get the bisque interior with the blue paint, unlike before. An combo chart showing the availability is found below, too.

Here is a look at the exterior/interior color combinations (photos of the colors are on Toyota’s website).

There are a few additional items that were only cleared up once I visited the dealer and got my hands on one of the new cars:

• Only models with a Navigation Package have the interactive screen on the dashboard. Non-nav systems have a traditional radio in that space. Because of this, Toyota has moved the hybrid system data display (mpg, power source, etc) to a low-consumption LED next to the speedometer.
• There are two cupholders. One is under the flap just down the slope from the gear selector. The other is canceled in the sliding armrest. Driving with the sliding armrest open is not irritating.
• There are three power settings: an economy mode, a performance mode, and an all-electric mode.
• Because not all models have a display, Toyota moved the Climate Controls to a traditional cluster below the radio. Also because of display absence, only the Nav Package models have the rear backup camera. Presumably Toyota feels the display is an energy drain.
• The driver’s seat now has vertical movement, and the steering wheel how has full telescopic and tilt movements.
• The Bluetooth connection now accepts music players in addition to cell phones.
• It is unclear, but it appears that Package V has more to it than just wheels and headlights. Apparently Dynamic Cruise Control, Pre-Collission System, Lane Keep Assist, and Intelligent Parking Assist are only available at the Package 5 level. Based on the info on the last page of the Prius brochure, it appears that this set of performance options actually replaces the Solar Roof Package option that is in the far right, upper box in the above chart.
• Another possible error in the chart pertains to SAT radio. According to the brochure, it appears that only Package III and up is wired for SAT radio, and does not include the receiver itself. More research is needed here.

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As you may know, AddThis is a great way to add a social networking link to the end of each of your blog posts. There are many ways to implement AddThis for WordPress, but the published means only use the four stock button styles. Those styles are alright, but they feature del.icio.us, Digg, and Microsoft Live icons. It is 2009! Get with the program and update those icons, man!

In order to implement a custom AddThis button for a stand alone WordPress installation, one must download the AddThis plugin for WordPress, upload it to the plugins folder, and activate the plugin from WordPress’ dashboard..

You should see AddThis as an item in the Settings section in the left sidebar of the Dashboard. Select AddThis, and select “Use dropdown menu" and “Show on homepage”. Once you hit “Save Changes”, you should see an "AddThis” button appended to each of your posts. The order of sites shown in the pop-up hover window is determined by what is written in the “Drop-down options” entry in the AddThis Settings window. These must be in all lowercaps, and separated by commas. I set mine to “twitter, favorites, facebook, email, digg, friendfeed, delicious, myspace, stumbleupon, reddit, more” and have been happy. The stuff for common people shows in the left column while the geeky links are in the right.

So far we only have a stock button, though. Go make a 16-pixel tall button in your favorite graphics program, and save it as a .gif file. Then you’ll have to alter the addthis_social_widget.php file (which is found in your wp-content/plugins/addthis directory). Open the file (I had to download it and open it in Wordpad to edit it).

Find the “$addthis_styles” line, which is very close to the top of the file. The items in the group of lines following determine what options are offered in the “Button style” pull-down box in the AddThis Settings window. As the helpful comment says, you can add your own style by copying their sample line and editing the graphic location. You’ll also want to specify the width and height of your .gif file (so the browser doesn’t stretch it when rendering). Mine reads:

                      ‘plus’ => array(‘img’=>’sm-plus.gif’, ‘w’=>16,
‘h’=>16),

                      ‘customGGR’ => array
(‘img’=>’http://www.gogoraleigh.com/wp-content/themes/df_
3col_theme/images/share_button2.gif’, ‘w’=>125, ‘h’=>16)

                      /* Add your own style here, like this:
                        , ‘custom’ => array
(‘img’=>’http://example.com/button.gif’, ‘w’=>16, ‘h’=>16) */
                    );

Be careful that the syntax is consistent with the default entries (commas, apostrophes, etc). My graphic is 125 wide and 16 high, and lives at gogoraleigh in the images directory. You’ll need to upload your graphics file to the location you’ve specified, and you’ll need to replace your old addthis_social_widget.php file with the one that includes the new call for your custom button.

Return to the AddThis Settings page in the WordPress dashboard and refresh the page. The Button style pull-down should now include the custom button you’ve added. Select it, hit “Save Changes”, and refresh your view of your site. You should now see your AddThis graphic at the end of each post.

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