June 30, 2007

Vista Recovery Strategies

Information Week does some pretty good articles and this week they came out with Vista Recovery Strategies. It discusses the included backup tool but the thing that I found interesting is the Vista Relibility Monitor (on page 7). It also makes reference to something that I've used over and over when I ran into the SVCHOST.EXE problem (see this Windows Secrets story): the system recovery options presented when you boot from the Vista CD/DVD (starts on page 5).

Posted by tony at 07:21 AM | Comments (0)

June 14, 2007

Online password storage?

Saw a reference to PassPack today in today's (June 14, 2007) Chris Pirillo's Picks. Would I use that free service? Think about it ... you're giving the passwords to a free service ... does that make sense to you? Having run an Internet operation and seeing what can happen at various operations centers, I think I'll pass. I know, I'm probably in the minority here. I mean, it's soooo convenient, and they publish their privacy rules and practices and they swear that your data will always remain encrypted and and and. And that's all well and good until it's not. And then where are you?

I'm sure the service will flourish and go on to make its founders hundreds of millions of dollars and all of the passwords will remain safe and encrypted. Like the debit and credit card data at T J Maxx?

Posted by tony at 02:43 PM | Comments (0)

June 11, 2007

3G, EDGE, UMTS, HSDPA: what's it all mean?

You can always go to Wikipedia -- their UMTS article describes it pretty well and there's even a set of links on the right side of the page that will take you to other standards. Aside from that, here's an article from a completely different site that, while it talks about Cingular in particular, is still a fairly good intro to UMTS and HSDPA along with their speeds.

Posted by tony at 09:42 AM | Comments (0)

June 06, 2007

Help configuring your device for T-Mobile service

If you fill out this page (the official page) you'll be guided through the steps necessary to setup your device for web service, SMS/MMS and tethering (using your phone as a modem). Howard Forums has this page that describes the various proxies, APNs and port restrictions but the official page will also get you the information.

Posted by tony at 01:38 PM | Comments (0)

SMS Link for Outlook 2007

This is an intriguing concept. If you've got Outlook 2007 and the right wireless service provider (Verizon and Sprint/Nextel out here in California right now -- you can look up whether your providers handles this from this link), you can have Outlook send you text messages (SMS) with reminders of events, tasks and even important email.

Note that I said "Outlook", not your Exchange server. It appears that you need to leave Outlook up all the time to make this work. Oh, did I forget to say that you need a Windows Live id, too? From what I've read (SMS Link main page here and FAQ here), the trigger even occurs and Outlook connects to a service that Microsoft provides to send the SMS. You can also supposedly send arbitrary text messages from Outlook as well. Since my provider's not signed up yet, I can't test this out but if you can, please let me know how it works for you.

Posted by tony at 12:49 PM | Comments (0)

T-Mobile coverage check

Personal Coverage Check is one fine site for determining your T-Mobile coverage. The first time you go in, just check the box that says you're not a dealer/retailer ... unless, of course, you are :)

Posted by tony at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)

June 05, 2007

Mobile speed tests

DSLReports has been around for a long time and I always knew about their speed tests page but they also have a "mobile speed test" here. Another good site for mobile speed tests is SurrealNetworks -- scroll down and you'll find the bandwidth test link.

Posted by tony at 03:25 PM | Comments (0)

Live365 on your PocketPC/PDA/SmartPhone

I've been a Live365 listener/subscriber for a long time (favorite station right now is radio for musicheads) and I've been cobbling together ways to listen over my SmartPhone (that's which Microsoft's calling ALL PocketPC-based mobile phones nowadays). Well, they've finally come up with their own application that you can load and run on your phone and you can get it from Radio365Mobile.com. I'm downloading it now.

Update June 6, 2007: I tried it last night and it works pretty well. Works better if you have a fast cellular connection, lots of memory and a fast processor. On a 3G or enhanced EDGE AT&T Wireless connection with an 8525 (i.e. HTC TyTN/Hermes), it works really well. On my T-Mobile MDA with a slower EDGE connection, it still works but it's a bit more sluggish. Oh, sure, I got it to lock up my phone once or twice but it's Alpha software

Posted by tony at 02:33 PM | Comments (0)

June 04, 2007

New mantra: Notifications go in \WINDOWS, ringtones go in \WINDOWS\Rings

Just something that I forget and have to look up whenever I have a new notification sound or a new ringtone for my PocketPC.

Posted by tony at 11:28 AM | Comments (0)

June 01, 2007

Insure your electronics

Safeware.com insures laptops, desktops, PDAs and such. Don't know anything about their reliability as an insurer but I intend to find out. For me, insuring a new WM6 Smartphone is about $70 and comes with a zero dollar deductible. If they're worthwhile, it's a good investment for me.

Posted by tony at 02:59 PM | Comments (0)

Fix stuck pixels

Interesting article and video over here that can supposedly revive stuck pixels. Read the text on the page, though, because it apparently doesn't work all the time and sometimes it can actually increase the number of stuck pixels.

Posted by tony at 02:51 PM | Comments (0)