braintubes.com

iTunes Plus: DRM-Free, With New Pricing0
Joe M posted in music, opinion on January 7th, 2009

After spending almost a week restling with my friends two iPods, Apple announced today that changes will be made to the iTunes music store.

iTunes Plus will be offering releases from the four major labels and from thousands of Independent (Indie) labels.

The songs are offered DRM-Free, starting today.

DRM, Digital Rights Managment, is a strategy to which most of the MP3 users and movie fans have struggled to adjust.

Up until now, songs that you purchased through iTunes were downloaded and stored in your library in an encrypted file format.  It has been an effort to keep songs from being copied and used ‘illegally.’ This also slowed down or prevented users from having flexibility with the songs they purchased.

Simply put, it’s copy protection.

In the end, it’s the honest people that were inhibited the most.  The pirates quickly figured out ways around the protection.

Apple also announced a new pricing structure for iTunes music, which will be effective this April.  The new pricing structure will offer songs at $0.69, $0.99 and $1.29.

The price of each song will be chosen / set according to the price that the labels charge Apple.

For iPhone owners, songs will be available for download, directly over the 3G iPhone service.

This is good news.

Thank God for competition and the free market.

Hidden HP Printer Support In Ubuntu0
Joe M posted in Home Support, free stuff on January 6th, 2009

Doing some research for my parents, I came across something surprising.

When I set their machine up, I installed Ubuntu.

Since that time, I have upgraded the distribution a couple of times.

It has been putting along now for over a year, with few hitches.

I initially set up their HP Officejet 5750 with the regular CUPS driver.

It has been printing nicely, but during Christmas, my mom asked me to get the scanner portion working.

A few days later, I came across an interesting website.

As it turns out, HP produces a full driver suite that supports many distributions, both *.rpm and *.deb based.

There is a listing of supported devices on the website, but there are many multi-function printers that are supported.

Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) has the full packages pre-installed.

The basic drivers are there, but to get the pretty GUI screens for setup…  Go to…

System > Administration > Synaptic Package Manager

Search for hplip-gui in the search box at the top of the manager.

Find it in the listing, click on it, and mark it for installation.  It will ask for confirmation to install some other packages.  Click OK.

Once the install is complete, close Synaptic Package Manager.

To begin the setup, you simply open a console.

$> sudo hp-setup

The system will prompt you for the password, but that should get you started.

The first window you will see is…

Many of the printers are supported for faxing, printing and scanning.  Check the website for a listing of specific supported features for each specific printer.

Once the drivers are set up, you can use Xsane to scan your pictures and documents.

Go to Applications > Graphics > XSane Image Scanner.

Dealing With iPods and DRM0
Joe M posted in Howto, music on January 5th, 2009

I have had an iPod shuffle for a few years now.

It does the job for me, and I like the fact that it’s solid state. It has no moving parts and is a little more shock resistant than most of the other hard drive MP3 players, including some of the hard-drive -based iPods.

I was asked to help a friend transfer their songs from one iPod to another.

Remembering some of the hurdles I have had with iTunes in the past, I immediately went into panic mode.  I remember some vague issues when I got mine: Windows crashing, losing my library, and subsequently having to try and recover everything.

My memories had me trembling in terror.  DRM monsters were lurking under my bed while I slept.  They were infiltrating my dreams, while I was contemplating this arduous task.

My friend had two iPods. A 60GB 5th gen video, and he had just gotten a 32 GB Touch for Christmas.

He wants to keep both operational, and keep both sync’d with his current library.

After Googling and reading extensively, I found out the following:

1. You can sync up to five iPods to one iTunes library.

2. The sync works like this: iTunes >> iPod. You can’t copy songs back to the PC.

3. There is a singular iTunes library to iPod relationship. You can’t sync your iPod with multiple libraries.

There are probably some idiosyncratic loopholes in the process that will allow you to perform different functions, but keeping it simple seemed like a good move on my part.

There are ways in which you can connect multiple user accounts to one library. Being that my friend is not an IT guy; I decided to withhold the information and avoid having that discussion with him.

Things I did notice; I had to shut down several programs running in the system tray.  I had to pause some transfers that were problematic.

Without being able to pinpoint the actual issue, the software relationship between iTunes v.8 and Windows XP seem to have a couple of bugs. Several times, I received

“iTunes has encountered a problem and needs to shut down.”

This was accompanied by the regular “send info to” and “don’t send” info buttons to Microsoft.

I am not sure how that information actually gets collected at Microsoft.  My cynical imagination always make me think of an electronic garbage can to which the electronic message gets routed at the Redmond facility.

About the third time I got the message, I let the message just sit on the screen.  I watched the iTunes status keep copying files to the iPod in the background.

Subsequently, with the error message still on the screen, iTunes reached a ‘completed’ status and “OK to disconnect.”

Once it was complete, I clicked “don’t send.”

iTunes closed.

I checked the iPod. The transfer worked, in spite of the error.

My recommendation is going to be for him to wait for an iTunes update, rather than un-installing and re-installing iTunes and the other Apple software.

I had to jump through a couple of hoops on this little assistive task, but I did learn a couple of things.

This time, I may declare the battle with the DRM monsters a draw, and I may sleep once again.

Even though it can be ‘a pain,’ I think the exercise is a good one to help keep you on your IT toes.

I was lucky in this instance, because the Touch was new, and blank.  Should my friend have wanted to preserve the songs on it in addition to the library sync, that would have been another issue and hurdle, altogether.

The regular iPod interface is cool. There is no other interface quite like it… except for another iPod.

The Touch… is really cool, too. That is only the second time that I have gotten a chance to play around with one.

I would love to have one, but I don’t know if I could ever give myself permission to spend that much money on something, just for the cool factor.

A Symphony Of Windows Startups0
Joe M posted in Musing on January 4th, 2009

Opera, A Great Browser Alternative0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on January 3rd, 2009

It’s good to have more than one alternative.

The more choices you have, the easier it is to troubleshoot when something goes wrong.

Using Firefox over the past few days, I have noticed certain flash video sites seem to freeze.

I installed Opera, another web browser, some time ago; but have not used it as much.

Firefox is a great browser, but there are times in which it leaves a little bit to be desired.

Quite a few people have it installed, these days.

Just out of curiosity, I opened Opera, after not using it for so long, and found that it readily played my flash video sites without a hitch.

The interface is attractive, and fairly intuitive.

Firefox has extensions and plug-ins, and users can program them and share them.

Opera has similar offerings, called widgets. I did notice that there are not quite as many, but still most of the same functions are there.

The webpage for setting up and installing the widgets is pretty sweet.  There is a launch button, that pops the widget up and asks you if you want to keep the widget.

That’s easier than installing some extensions in Firefox.

Opera is fully customizable, just like Firefox.  There are some mouse gesture functions that are built-in.  It can be executed from a command line with several options for command line switches.

If you want to surf the internet without a mouse, Opera is up to the task.

In using Opera, I have not seen any lockups or slow-downs.

It’s good to have an alternative browser available, in case I need it.

Opera is freely available for download and use here.

You can browse and explore the widgets here.

Opera is available for Windows, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Linux and Solaris… not to mention several mobile platforms.

Interesting Quandary For Microsoft 30GB Zunes0
Joe M posted in opinion on January 2nd, 2009

Yesterday, 30 GB Zunes everywhere became non-responsive for a day.

It’s an interesting issue.

It turns out, the problem was due to a bug in the code for the way in which the internal clock for the Zune handles a leap year.

Check out “The Day The Zunes Stood Still.”

The bug did not affect any of the other Zune models, only the 30 GB model.

Microsoft reported that the problem can be fixed by letting the battery drain, completely, then docking and recharging. This will reset the internal clock.

Makes you wonder, why only the 30 GB model?

The answer to that, I am not sure.

It does bring up interesting questions, though.

If Microsoft created the code, the OS, and the player hardware; why did this problem occur?

My opinion is, that it brings to the forefront the importance of community.

Who is Microsoft’s community?

The Microsoft community is businesses, end users and developers. That includes developers at Microsoft and third parties; and anyone else that could potentially contribute to Microsoft’s success.

The best products for the Windows platform, in my opinion, are those products that are created by third parties.

I am not sure what it is, but there seems to be a hidden strength in the other companies that develop and apply their expertise to applications on the Windows platform.

Microsoft did something wonderful by recognizing the ideas and efforts by SysInternals, and bought the company.

I think this is a good thing, provided that the efforts by SysInternals are not squandered or subsequently and indirectly impacted by the acquisition.

Without being an expert on development, versioning techniques or code; my knee-jerk reaction is that being on the outside in that arena offers those third parties some sort of an advantage.

Somehow, I think the concept of meritocracy comes into play.

The Open Source and Linux developers figured that out, a long time ago. I think that Apple and Linux have a such a connection to their respective communities.

In the end, I have to applaud Microsoft for diving into the MP3 player market. I think it was a bold move.

I have my ‘regular guy’ criticisms of both the Zune and the iPod, just like anyone else, but I have to give credit where credit is due.

This was only a minor issue, and I doubt that it would keep any of the owners from buying another 30 GB Zune, if they got a second chance.

In my opinion, I do think that Microsoft could gain a great deal more from their community. It will also involve communication and feedback.

Happy New Year From Braintubes.com!0
Joe M posted in Uncategorized on January 1st, 2009

Not a long post this evening, but I did want to take time out to thank the readers and participants.

2008 has been a good year, and I have enjoyed the work that I have done on braintubes.

Thank you for the feedback that I have received.

In 2009, my aspirations are to change the format and theme. I also aspire to have some other people as guest writers in the coming year, and offer a wider range of topics.

Since I am such a GEEK, Braintubes will still be tech-centric, but I want to widen the range of topics to include more than just technology.

If you think you might be up to making a contribution through writing, please drop me a line, admin@braintubes.com.

Please feel free to comment, critique or offer any suggestions on how I might improve the website.

Happy New Year, 2009!

EOY G1G1 & DTV0
Joe M posted in free stuff, products on December 31st, 2008

Tomorrow is December 31.

The last day of 2008.

The OLPC XO G1G1 program ends for 2008.  Tomorrow is the last day to place your order, if you want to participate in the program.

(I have had a blast with mine, and it’s a great way to lend a helping hand to a child in a foreign land.  Don’t forget the $200 tax write-off.  A child will be appreciative, perhaps, even your own!)

If you want to get a coupon for $40 off on a Digital TV converter, tomorrow is the last day.

The boxes run between $50 and $80.

You can receive up to two coupons per household.

If you want a coupon, be sure to visit www.dtv2009.gov.

My IT Predictions For 20090
Joe M posted in Musing, opinion on December 30th, 2008

I am sure everyone will weigh in on this…

But I have to put my 2 cents worth in for my predictions in Information Technology in 2009.

What exactly will happen?

Let me begin by saying, I am not a psychic.

My only qualification to make these predictions is…

I have been around IT for a few years now.  In my opinion everything happens in cycles.

The following is my observation of the current cycle in Information Technology.

So, with all of the qualifiers out of the way, let’s get to it.

1. Security - With the economy in a decline and people losing their jobs, the hard truth is… we can expect more malware, more viruses, more phishing and more exploits; even some new ones.  As economies suffer, the crime rate goes up.  The difference is, now the crimes can be perpetrated from a remote location. This will be one area in IT (in the business sector) that will grow in 2009.  Companies will be more security conscious than ever before, and will make room in their budget for IT security professionals. Wide Area, anti-virus, anti-malware, Routing and Encryption will all be areas to watch.

2. Windows Re-acceptance - Don’t expect the business world to begin upgrades in 2009, but if Windows 7 pans out, you can expect the business world to make plans to upgrade in 2010.  How will Windows 7 sell in the private sector?  That will depend on the pricing structure that Microsoft sets up.  I don’t expect many people beyond Hardcore Windows Geeks and new machine buyers to be running W7, unless Microsoft makes it a real bargain.

3. Hardware Procurement Decline - In the business and private sector, people will be looking for ways to stretch their hardware over 2009.  With that said, I believe that better deals on hardware will be offered late third quarter and last quarter 2009, to stimulate consumer spending.

4. Free Software Acceptance - More people in the private sector will be looking for corners to cut during 2009.  I expect the use of free Windows software to rise in 2009.  What will be interesting is the profit model for free software, and how it evolves.  Will it be ad-supported?

5. Failure for Linux Support - I expect some strides to be made in Linux support in 2009, but not to the point that Linux will be gaining a major market share.  As in previous years, it will be more profitable for OEMs to produce Windows drivers and software, which help them to realize a profit faster.  Companies will not be taking fewer risks in 2009, so don’t expect daring or bold moves for Linux on the business desktop any time soon.

I do expect the private sector to have a few more Linux-curious, and a few more that will try it in 2009.  Will it replace their Windows desktop?  Probably not.  The people that try it, will try it dual boot; but use Windows as their primary desktop.

If I had to sum 2009 up in one word for the business sector?

Conservatism.

The word for 2009 for the private sector?

Frugality.

These may seem like ’safe’ predictions.

In all actuality, I hope that some of them are wrong!

Utilizing The XO With My Recent Time Off0
Joe M posted in free stuff on December 29th, 2008

Having had a little time off during the holidays, I pulled out my OLPC XO laptop.

I updated the OS on it, and have carried it with me, during my visits to friends and family.

The biggest activity that I have been using it for is reading.

Opening a PDF file, and flipping the screen around, I have used it more for an eBook reader than anything else.

I have had it for almost a year, now.

I have to say, I have gotten my money’s worth out of it.

The items I have read, as of late?

Being a science fiction fan, I have been familiarizing myself with the works of Cory Doctorow.

Cory is one of the writers and founders of boingboing.net.

From humor to oddities, to politics (which I avoid like the plague), you can find a broad spectrum of items on boingboing.

As for the books by Cory — I read Little Brother and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom.

These activities have dominated my use of the XO, during my time off.

In both, you will come across some different ideas, as well as some background info and some howtos.

Both were intriguing books, but I found Little Brother to be the one for which I had more of a preference.

You can also buy Little Brother and Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom in print version from Amazon.

I am constantly in search of new reading materials, and will share more of my findings in future posts.