MKTG 301 Presentation w/ Video Preparation

These are the steps I need to take with Darren's presentations:

1. Create PDF Notes for the presentation
   
2. Copy the PPT to Parallels
3. Put PPT into a new directory
4. Put Notes PDF into the new directory
   
5. Duplicate title slide 4 times
6. Paste "Presentation Instructions" on each of the four new slides
7. Import video through Adobe Presenter using High Quality (700 kbps)
   
8. Adobe Presenter: Slide Manager:
1. Presented By: None
2. Navigation Name: [name for each slide]
3. Advance by User: Yes
9. Adobe Presenter: Presentation Settings
1. Choose the charcoal-colored theme
2. Deselect Auto play
3. Duration: 0.0 sec.
4. Attach handouts
5. Include Slide Numbers in Outline
   
10. Publish
11. Check which images didn't survive
12. Save as picture... for each image
13. Re-publish presentation
    

Sharing Data between Windows and OSX Leopard

VNC Servers and Clients

This particular post is primarily focussed on Windows options, however I can't help but mention Mac ones as well since there will almost always be a Mac involved in the equation if I have anything to say about it.

Windows

• Tight VNC - free; other software allows one to broadcast their screen to a network of computers
• RealVNC - free and paid options available for premium-level support
• UltraVNC - free with lots of plug-in options available

Mac

• just use Screen Sharing
• useful hints for using Screen Sharing

Mac's Rule the Day (yet again)

Well, maybe it should be... Vista blows yet another day!

I hope I don't get fired for this, but apparently there's a VPN problem here at PSU that relates to 64-bit systems:

Currently, there is no Cisco VPN client (a type of software that creates a secure connection over the Internet) available for these 64-bit operating systems.

All I can say is, glad I have a Mac.

Smartpens

It's been a while, but I've got a cool one to pick up on: smartpen technology.

One of the most common are the Fly Fusion pens, but I wanted to start off with the Pulse by Livescribe. Very cool. I'm jazzed that it'll record audio sync'd with your notes. That'll be useful for meetings. They say we'll be able to print our own sheets of paper as well, but that's not going to be available until the end of 2008. It doesn't do text capture yet, but again that's something that's supposedly coming by the end of the year. Big downsides for me are that it won't run on a Mac, even when using Parallels. I'll have to whip up a Windows partition now. The 2GB version also goes for $200. Ouch. I'm also concerned about the battery in these things. I hope we can at least send them back to the company if we need to get a new battery.

How Mac & PC can Share an iTunes Network Library

I thought I had started another post on this... I'm trying to find a way to share one iTunes 7.5 library, stored on a network drive, between my 10.5 Mac and her XP-PC. I want both of us to be able to play, add, and trash songs and video - it doesn't have to be simultaneously.

When you start up iTunes on a PC holding the "Shift" button down, it will ask you if you want to "Choose a Library..." or to create a new one. When you choose a library, the app looks for an ".itl" file. When I navigated to the network drive, it listed all of the directories, but no library file was apparent.

My Mac generated iTunes library file has no extension on it. Just for kicks, I added an ".itl" extension to the Mac file and it asked me if I really wanted to do it. I said yes and then I tried launching iTunes on the PC again.

This time it loaded the library up with out a problem. Then, iTunes began updating the library since I had just installed the newest version of 7.5 on the PC.

Now, my fear is that I won't be able to access the library file on the Mac. It's just a waiting game now.

UPDATE: It seems to work fine. I might not have even needed to add the ".itl" extension, but it doesn't seem to negatively effect the Mac version.

Garmin GPSMAP 60CSx

When I returned to America, I took the opportunity to buy an all-round GPS that would serve me equally well in the car as out and about. It wasn't that difficult of a decision. The 60CSx is one of the highest rated devices out there.

I bought an auto kit and a 2GB MicroSD card to go along with my hand held. The auto kit is essential for in-the-car use. It wasn't cheap, but worth every penny so far. I loaded the MapSource software into my Bootcamp partition and every thing is working out great.

I had troubles uploading the maps to the 2GB card initially, but it worked the second time around. I was a little worried there since it took about 3 hours the first time.

I love how I can create new waypoints, etc. on my computer or the 60CSx and sync them later. It's much more flexible than just a built-in system. The integration with GoogleEarth is fantastic. I've used the system to find wilderness POI's using the satellite imagery.

Unfortunately, I can't search for POI's by name and location on the road. If its not within a couple of miles here in the city, I have to know the address or approximate location and then search from there. That can make a huge difference. Last night, we were looking for a Thai restaurant, Kung Fu and if I didn't know the street, I wouldn't have found it. Thankfully that's not much of a problem because you can usually get an address or a general location. Still, it would be nice to have that extended search option.

I wish I could get a larger 4GB card and load up a full complement of topo maps as well, but that also makes map management difficult since map types can't be layered. Perhaps having two 2GB cards with different map sets is the best way for now, but it would be great to have other options like loading two cards and specifying which card you want to use.

No regrets here. A larger screen and something a little more compact would be great, but I'm not expecting perfection.

UPDATE 12/19/07: One of the things I mentioned earlier about searching for POI's... I found a very easy way to look for POI's outside of the 2 mile radius, without going to a different area with the pointer first:

If you want to find an "Old Navy" and there isn't one listed under "Shopping"... Hit the Menu button and select "Find the nearest containing..." (or something to that effect) and then type in "Old Navy" and it should begin to show you nearby stores in red in the search window.

I have City Navigator and Topo maps and two 2GB cards. I found that I could easily store all of my city maps (about 309 of them), but could only store a small amount of the topo maps (way less than 2gb worth). I realized that the limiting factor isn't the storage space... it's the NUMBER of maps (2025 is the max number of map sets). I can only store part (a pretty sizable chunk) of the US, but not the entire country. Kind of a bummer. I hope they offer a flash-firmware upgrade someday, but I'm not holding my breath. The 60CSx is probably limited by the amount of onboard memory to index all of the maps. Oh well.

Garmin for Mac?

Looks like Garmin is fooling around with a utility that only handles transferring maps from your PC to your Mac so that you can use your Mac to transfer maps to your GPS. I'm handling the process using Bootcamp. But for folks without a Windows license and wanting to go through the "hassle" of setting up Bootcamp just for Garmin, then this might be a good way to go.

Looks like the process requires software in Windows and (of course) Mac to complete the process:

Windows MapConverter

Mac MapInstall

My real question is whether or not it is possible to share maps from one unlocked MapSource set of maps to two or more Garmin units (i.e. Map60CSx and a nüvi 350).

Bootcamp and Parallels updating session

I don't know why I waited to update Parallels until now. I was running Build 3214 until yesterday evening and I just upgraded to Build 5582 - which is most noticeably the newest (I believe) version of Parallels 3.0. I backed up my 3214 version of course, but everything is running smoothly so far.

I was also still running Bootcamp 1.2 Beta even though I have the 1.3 Beta. I had to change my computer's date to install the update and run the driver burner application. I'll update my Bootcamp partition later. I still like Bootcamp because it allocates all resources to Windows apps which is useful when I'm playing around with digital video, Flash or Captivate projects. And until recently, it was the only way to run iSight - which I use for my online conferencing for EVO.

I was surprised that there didn't seem to be an easy way to install the iSight drivers. The folks on the Parallels forum kept saying to install the Bootcamp drivers, but I didn't want to install all of them, just the ones for the webcam. I copied three files out of my Bootcamp 1.2 partition and was able to manually install the drivers. I've uploaded the drivers for everyone to use:

http://www.mediafire.com/?5uyztqv9rbm

These drivers aren't based on the newest 1.3 Beta, but they worked just fine with Windows XP.

Future network setup

Once we get jobs and find a place to settle down, I'll finally get to set up our network. It'll take a while to get "everyone" together, but I'll have to think of how I'll assign everything.

1. PowerMac G4 w/ 10.3? - I dunno if I'll even be able to take this one back. Mom-folks have been using it for sometime now and they might be reluctant to letting it go, but I could persuade Dad to getting them a new iMac of their very own. Unfortunately I don't really remember what it's got under-the-hood. I'd like to incorporate it into a file server with a bunch of HD's in it. It'd be nice to get over a tetrabyte of storage finally.
   
2. PowerBook G4 w/ 10.4 Server - I'll probably keep this one running as the main server until I can figure out what to do with the PowerMac G4. Eventually this might just function as a backup mail server.
   
3. iMac w/ 10.4 & Windows XP - We haven't even bought this computer yet. It'll be Hyunjoo's main computer, running both OS's. We'll probably use it for watching videos directly and hopefully I'll be able to load up some cool games on it.
   
4. MacBook w/ 10.4 & Windows XP - something that I'll probably use as my main computer and something to play movies for Movie Night.
   
5. Compaq Armada M300 w/ Windows XP - I'll probably turn this in to a guest computer or an emailing station.
   
6. Linksys - I'll keep this router to handle our Ethernet and wireless networking.
   

Using VLC for DVD Screen Captures

To disable graphics hardware acceleration globally for all applications in Windows XP or Windows 2000, Select
Control Panel - Display - Properties - Settings - Advanced - Troubleshooting and slide the Hardware Acceleration slider from Full to None.

And for Macs...

The Network

We're starting to get quite a collection. I've been trying to keep track of it all, so here's a run-down of the hardware

• MacBook
• Partition 1 - Intel OSX Tiger
• Partition 2 - Boot Camp - Windows XP
• PowerBook
• PPC OSX Tiger Server
• External 250 GB
• Personal Files
• Mac installers
  
• iTunes & iPhoto libraries
• Bittorrents
  
• Armada
• Windows XP
• External 65 GB
• Windows installers
• Cued videos
  
• Peripherals
• Canon i70 portable inkjet printer
  
• Epson flatbed scanner
• iPod FW 3G 40 GB - 2 partitions
  
• TechTools Protogo Universal profile
  
• TechTool
• DiskRescue II
  
• DiskStudio
• DiskWarrior
• iDefrag
• External 120 GB
• clone of 250 GB HD sans Bittorrent documents
  
• External 80 GB USB
• iTunes & iPhoto backup libraries
• essential documents backups
• LaCie RAID 1 external enclosure (wishlist)
• for secure storage of personal documents and media files; I'm tired about worrying whether my drives will fry in the heat, I'm only buying HD enclosures with built-in fans (and FireWire/USB connectivity) from now on
• UPS (wishlist)
• for the eventual PowerMac-fileserver
  
• PowerMac (TBA)
• eventual server with external 250 and 120 HD's installed
• upgrade with hardware RAID 1
• Acard AEC-6880M

Updating the iTunes library

Hyunjoo and I are doing the big clean, in part for our departure this summer. We just started going through our CD's and have plans to give a lot of them away.

1. I went through and removed all the duplicates
2. imported Hyunjoo's library
3. began ripping the last of our CD's that we didn't already have in iTunes
4. I'll have to next make a back-up of all our music, and other files for that matter, just in case something happens in transit from Japan

I had some initial problems with step two. Hyunjoo had 750 songs to add, but iTunes was only adding 260 of them. I soon realized that iTunes was automatically ignoring songs it already had in the library. After that step I finally deleted her library and we only have our one consolidated library from here on out.

Bootcamp, again

One of the first things I did when I got my MacBook last year was to install Bootcamp and test out my new "Winbox". It worked great, but I have to admit that after I tried out Parallels, I got lazy and stopped using Bootcamp.

Parallels made the most sense for using Windows MS Office, MS Messenger, and various other Windows-only software packages. It ran relatively fast and was easy to boot. I was a full Parallels convert.

Previous to Parallels I was basically using Bootcamp to run a StarWars RPG. It was a great game, but after I finished it I didn't really have an interest in running through the whole story again. I don't often play games and when I play them I rarely "complete" them. I most often play RPG's and Gran Turismo.

So, I basically stopped using Bootcamp. I even went through the process of removing the Bootcamp partition. That was a pain in the ass of its own magnitude - for reasons I've forgotten. Of course once I ditched the partition, I realized that I wanted to run Bootcamp again.

This time I want to try and get RealFlight up and running. I don't have an RC controller yet, but perhaps if I buy a cheap 4-channel model I can practice before I get a real plane. I can sort of test the waters and see if it's something I wanna try out.

I still have to check whether the GMA950 video chipset in the MacBook can handle the graphics. I'm holding my breath.

Private eyes, please!

I had to find a way to hide my tracks since my the computer on my desk faces the entire office, I need to have a way to keep what I'm doing private. It's not that I shouldn't be doing certain things at work. I'm not looking at porn or surfing the internet all day long, it's just that I need some privacy at times. For instance, I was reading about the shootings at Virginia Tech this morning before school and my boss came by and read what I was looking at over my shoulder and made a comment about it. I didn't make me feel very comfortable. I know in America things are different. Bosses can literally log all activities, no problem.

Installing the color network printer

This is how I installed the printer for KTC's English office on Sheryl's laptop.

1. create a printing port (Printers and Faxes > Files > Server Properties > Ports tab > Add Port... Standard TCP/IP port)
   
2. install the printer via "install local printer attached to this computer"
3. Have disk... navigate to the KTC Teachers folder on "shared" and look for the printer's file (L:\8. KTC Teachers\Software and Drivers\Color Printer Driver cx8800\english\Disk1)
   
4. select the CX8800 profile
   

Been gone, but busy...

Well, I'm back to bloggin. Since my last post I've:

1. Converted my G4 laptop into a server running Mac OS X Server Tiger
2. Installed two moodles - one running on Tiger client and the other on the new server
3. Switched to Parallels for running Windows XP on my MacBook
4. Changed the network entirely utilizing my new server's capabilities
5. Wiped and reinstalled HJ's laptop with an English version of Windows XP instead of her original Windows 2000 Korean version
   

Windows OS registration numbers

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml
Microsoft Windows XP
FWJ87-4QBRX-9Y9BH-8H76W-BVYTD

http://www.winxpfix.com/page15.htm
http://opensourcerules.info/oem_key.html
http://opensourcerules.info/cdkey.html
http://opensourcerules.info/programs/XPKey.exe

A new addition to the family...

I guess it's time to announce that a couple days ago, Hyunjoo bought me a brand new MacBook! I went the the 2.0 GHz chip in white. I'm really looking forward to installing Win XP using boot camp. I'm stuffing my portable USB drive with software so that I can get her up and running while I'm in Maui. I still have to remember that I have a wedding to attend to, so I can't get totally distracted with my new toy. That's what staying up late is all about!

New Mac's

I have to say that as jazzed as I am about the new Intel Mac's, I'm not psyched about having to get all new "Universal" software. I'm confident that all the major software manufactures will be quick to offer new versions. Heck some Windows app designers might figure out an easy way to port PC apps to the Mac (not that we need their software)... I'm still not happy about a new upgrade.

In the end, it's for the best and ultimately it was necessary. I just wonder how slow apps will be running on Rosetta.