It was bound to happen. Parking my laptop on the island in the kitchen with two boys under five precariously drinking out of open cups as we wean them from the sippy is an accident waiting to happen. So it was quite a surprise when I found myself spilling my very own glass of water onto my ThinkPad’s keyboard!
The system shut down immediately, which I deemed either a very good sign or a very bad one. I leapt in to action and immediately unplugged the power and then yanked the battery. Ask anyone who makes toast whilst taking a bath–water and electricity don’t mix. When something like this happens I quickly watch my computer’s life flash before my eyes. When was the last backup? How quickly could I get up on a new computer? What data would be lost forever? Why am I such an idiot?
There are worse things to spill on your computer than water. Soda and juices contain sugars that can leave a nasty residue behind. If no electronic damage was done, water mostly just needs to be dried up and things should be just fine. Or so I consoled myself.
Perhaps a normal person would have simply used some paper towels, a hair dryer and some time, but I needed to disassemble the entire laptop. No stranger to a Phillips-head, soldering iron, and piles of scrapped electronics, I flipped the thirsty ThinkPad on its back and removed as many screws that I could find. Removing the keyboard, I saw that the main circuitry was mostly dry with only a bit of water near the edges. The keyboard took the brunt of the damage. After blotting up any water found, I did what any desperate person would do and proceeded to remove every key cap from the keyboard in an attempt to rid it from all water. Putting these keys back on proved to be the most challenging part of the repair.
Heat and moving air are the enemy of water, so I employed the wife’s hair dryer placed on “split ends” mode for a time that seemed ample. Not confident that I had done all I could, I attempted something I had only heard about and baked the keyboard at 100 degrees in the convection oven for about fifteen minutes. Like a freshly baked pie, I left the keyboard on the counter to cool and perhaps dehydrate as long as I could bear to wait.
Now feeling confident and calm, I waited until after dinner to attempt reassembly and testing. Everything went back together fairly simply except for the key caps which I left off until I could prove it a worthy project to continue. With everything secure, I place the battery back in, crossed my fingers, and powered on. Success! Everything started fine and my only real problem was trying to type a password on a keyboard without the keys. Through trial, error, and another computer as reference, I took my time leisurely replacing and confirming each key. Of course the first thing I did was a complete system backup, and then had a nice cold drink from the safe distance of the next room.
Moral and advice:
Back up your computer regularly. Use an external drive or online service. Why not do it daily.
Keep large quantities of fluids away from your computer.
If exposed to liquid, immediately remove all power and batteries from the computer.
Dry out the computer as best as you can–or dare. If you are not the adventurous type, bring the computer to a reputable repair shop and let them know what happened.
It is most likely that even if your computer was permanently damaged, the data on your drive may be unharmed or certainly recoverable.
Everyone knows you should backup your precious digital pictures after you transfer them to your computer, but what happens if there is a problem in the camera itself?
I still had pictures from the holidays I hadn’t downloaded, so I wasn’t surprised when I got a “memory card full” message. I wasn’t near my computer, so I began reviewing the pictures in the camera to see if there was anything I could delete. I have a 256MB compact flash card that can hold about 200 pictures on my Canon Elph S400, so I was surprised to only find about a dozen pictures from the current day. I didn’t panic, but waited to get back to my computer to investigate further.
First I reviewed my picture folders on my computer and network to make sure I hadn’t already downloaded the pictures and forgot, but alas they were not there. Connecting the camera to the computer didn’t reveal anything else. I was fearing that this year’s holiday pictures would be lost and was about to perform an “erase all data” command on the camera. I then began to search for “recovering pictures from digital camera” and found that this is not an uncommon problem. Memory cards can become corrupt and pictures irretrievable in traditional ways. The information is most likely still on the card, but some special utilities are needed.
I found many utilities that claim to assist with the problem, and I have found one that worked for me and I can now recommend. PhotoRescue installs on your PC or Mac and can scan your camera or memory card reader for files that can be recovered. If found, small thumbnail images are even created so you can see what is being recovered and selectively restore them. This is a nice feature of the free evaluation. Before purchasing, you can actually see if the program will be able to restore your missing photos, but you need to pay $29 for a life-time license with one year of free updates. It’s certainly worth the price if you only use it one time for those “priceless” pictures.
One thing to consider with almost all of these utilities, is that they rely on being able to scan your camera as a drive letter. Using my Canon camera with Windows XP, it appears as a device that I can open and browse using Windows Explorer, but does not mount as a named drive letter (i.e. G:). In order for me to accomplish the scan and recovery, I had to use a card reader that I already had. If you have many devices with different format memory cards, I highly recommend a mutli-format card reader. For around $20, you can easily use all of your memory cards by plugging this device into a USB slot. I use a Sandisk ImageMate like this one.
Hopefully you will never need to use PhotoRescue, but it’s good to know about if you ever find yourself in trouble.
I have had many Palm handheld devices. Models m100, i705, Treo 270, Treo 600, and now the Treo 680 smartphone. There are so many things that I use it for, but here is a list of the 10 things I use my Treo 680 for everyday.
1. Alarm Clock Programed for each weekday, I am awakened by my Treo 680 using mobileClock (previously named Bob’s Alarm). A quick tap of the screen offers a snooze, or pressing an application button shuts it off. Multiple alarm programs, a timer and a stopwatch are other cool features of mobileClock.
2. Weather I have programed a Quick Key, so that holding the W button fires up the browser and takes me to my town’s weather report at Weather Underground Mobile. A good time to check if I need to wear a sweater or bring an umbrella.
3. News While waiting for the train, I use the ubiquitous Internet connection to browse Yahoo! Mobile News to keep on top of any latest news.
4. E-mail When not at a computer, I use SnapperMail to check my many personal email accounts with the double-pressing of the email button.
5. Calendar The built-in calendar keeps me on time for appointments and provides ample warning for family and friend’s birthdays.
6. Instant Messaging
Texting is a popular phone-to-phone function, but many people are still using AIM, MSN messenger, Yahoo Messenger, and ICQ. I can connect and use all of these with one application. I had used VeriChat for years but now I use Mundu IM.
7. Checkbook Keeping track of personal finances is very important to me, so I always have my virtual checkbook available in my phone using SplashMoney. Each ATM withdrawal or online check written is recorded in the register so I always know exactly how much money I have (or don’t have).
8. Phone Of course it’s a telephone. Integrated with the address book, speakerphone, bluetooth, etc.
9. Passwords Instead of using sticky notes, I use Yaps to securely manage all of my personal and business user accounts and passwords.
10. Games Sudoku puzzles for numbers and Crosswords for words, I play during down time, or to unwind before bed.
I am continually amazed that people still watch the evening news to get the weather report. And the games the news team play with the audience — “Tomorrow, it may snow or hail fireballs. Find out after the break!” It’s as though you are held hostage just to find out if you should wear a jacket or not. I recognize that for some, it may simply be a ritual or habit. Some may even find the “weather guy” entertaining.
My weather needs are very basic. I adopted them from a comedian, although I forget which one: I stick my head out of the window. If it comes back wet –it’s raining. If it doesn’t come back –it’s very, very windy. On the occasion when I do want to know the weather, I hold down ‘W’ on my cell phone and I access my region’s mobile page from the Weather Underground complete with 5-day forecast.
With all of the near real-time information available to us, it seems strange to rely on the evening news. I don’t ever watch television news. The “all news” stations have too much pressure to make news so everything becomes an “alert”, or the same stories are continually repeated ad nausem. Even in the car, I can no longer listen to 1010Wins, where if you “give us twenty-two minutes, we’ll give you the world.” To me it seems more like “give us twenty-two minues, we’ll give you four minutes of the same stories we gave you twenty-two minutes ago, a minute of traffic for everywhere except where you are, and 17 minutes of commercials.”
I think the Internet is the perfect medium for news and weather. You can get it when you want it, there is lots of it, and it can easily be updated. Don’t even get me started with newspapers. The information is out-of-date the minute it hits the reformation of shredded tree carcasses. Perhaps recognizing this trend, the New York Times recently raised the price of its printed newspaper, but changed its online edition to allow more free access.
Much of this boils down to format preference and the technology gap. For those who are connected with computers, laptops, and handhelds, the Internet is never out of reach and tends to be the first reach for information. Traditionally, television ruled the living room, radio ruled the car, and printed material ruled everywhere else–including the bathroom. But even that is changing. (see picture below)
There is still something very tactile about a book, magazine, or even a work document. I must admit I don’t like reading eBooks and still like to print out long documents rather than read them on the screen. I’m sure that the youngsters might also consider this practice archaic as they read their “books” on their cell phones–if they still read books that is.
Flash drives have replaced the floppy and the CD for portable storage. Their physical size continues to get smaller and the capacity increases offering the ability to store so much information in a convenient to carry package. Here are a few tips to help keep you and your information safe.
1. Create a text file named “IF FOUND”
Put an If found.txt file in the root folder of the drive. In it simply type your name, email address, and phone number. If the information you store on it is important enough, you may wish to offer a reward. I have a couple of drives that I found but had no way to identify the owner.
2. Start with at least two folders: Business and Personal
I only want to keep track of one of these drives, so I mix business with personal. By organizing your files in this basic manner, you can avoid some embarrassment. Loading a presentation from your drive being projected to an auditorium full of people, no one wants to see picture previews of your drunk friends at the beach or your musical favorite: “I like big butts.mp3.”
3. Password Protect Personal Files
I would be very cautious about what type of files you store on your flash drive since it can be so easily lost or stolen, but there are times when it is not avoidable. There might be a good reason you need to transport a PDF of your tax return on your drive and you will be sure to delete it right after you are done, but most likely you will forget it was ever there. Most applications have the ability to password protect files in a fairly secure way, and it will at least deter the casual finder from accessing your personal information.
You could also set the folder or files to “Hidden” which will also keep them out of view from the average person, but “security by obscurity” is not a good model.
Some USB drives have some built-in security measures, password protection, and encryption which can also have some impact on flexibility, but would certainly be worth it based upon the sensitivity of your data. Be careful.
4. Supervised Visits
If someone needs to use your drive to copy a file to or fro, make sure you are looking over their shoulder. Just as people will look through your medicine cabinet when using your bathroom, expect people to nose through your files and help themselves to a copy of anything interesting. (”Got any naked pictures of your wife? You want some?”)
5. Backup Your Files
Make sure you have a current copy of the files on your USB drive somewhere else. If you tend to work directly on the files on the drive, you are flirting with disaster. There is no file recovery from a device you no longer have.
With two little kids, we don’t go out to the movies much. It seems we don’t even get to watch TV that much either. Our TiVo has helped manage our TV watching, but even with the “Silver” cable package, there are very few good movies available to watch–unless you like “Mindhunters” as it has been on at least eight times a day for the last few months.
Like many people, we grew tired of the back and forth transporting of movies to the video store, and although I always thought NetFlix was a good idea, I never brought myself around to joining.
Amazon has partnered with TiVo to offer a pretty good service called “Amazon Unbox.” Quite simply, you buy, or rent, videos at Amazon.com, and instead of waiting for a DVD, you can download the movie to your computer or directly to your TiVo DVR, and you can start watching almost as soon as you start the download.
I rented “Borat,” (I like) placing the order at work, and the movie was fully downloaded when I got home. It’s kind of like on-demand NetFlix.
When you buy a movie (around $14.99), you own it and can watch it as much as you like. Even if you remove it from your TiVo (presumably for space issues), you can re-download it from your Amazon library. If you rent a movie (around $3.99) as I did, you have thirty days to start watching it before it is removed. After you start watching, you can watch it as much as you like within 24 hours. After that, it is deleted.
The video quality was very good, probably equivalent to the “best” resolution on TiVo, and overall, the viewing was a good experience. I can’t be sure, but it didn’t seem that there were any DVD extras available, which is one of my favorite things about DVDs.
The ease of use and integrating digital media into the living room makes this service a potential hit. The Apple TV is attempting to do this, but it seems a little like trying to shoehorn iTunes from your computer to your television.
If you have a TiVo, I would recommend giving Amazon Unbox a try.
Like most people that have one–I love TiVo. It’s hard to imagine watching television without one. Record the shows you want, watch them anytime, fast-forward through commercials. Sure it is mostly like a VCR of old, but it is so easy to incorporate into your life: ease of programming, season passes, no tapes, etc. A 1-hour show like American Idol can be watched easily in less than 30 minutes. See my review of TiVo from last year.
Since we had not be living in our house for the past 9 months, TiVo was packed away in the basement. Without TiVo, I watched very little television during that period and found I really didn’t miss it that much. But now that we have moved back in, a priority was to setup the TiVo. It was great in the first few days as we were without cable and Internet–all of the shows that had been recorded (mostly kid shows) were still there and watchable. My trouble started once the cable and network were back up and I needed to connect back to TiVo’s home base.
Since the TiVo had been dormant for so long, it had some catching up to do. There was a system update, and of course I needed to load the channel programming information. Things seemed to be fine, but I noticed that the programming was incomplete as it had been failing. In retrospect, perhaps the TiVo’s hard drive (80-hour series 2) was full and didn’t have any room to process these updates.
After reading about this problem (error S03) and possible solutions at a popular TiVo forum, I decided to try a fix by using a special remote-control button combination at TiVo start-up sometimes referred to as a “kick start.” After trying this, I got the expected “Green Screen of Death” (GSOD), and after waiting the suggested 3 hours, the unit restarted. However, the GSOD returned again and then continued in an unexpected endless loop of green screens and restarts.
Green Screen of Death
There is not much to a TiVo. It is basically a hard drive with media software, and everything I read seemed to indicate some kind of hard drive failure. I really wasn’t too concerned for any of the content I had on the drive, I just wanted a working TiVo.
There were a few options:
Buy a new generation TiVo
Buy a refurbished similar TiVo
Buy a preconfigured replacement hard drive
Buy a TiVo software program and configure a new hard drive
My TiVo was over 2 years old and out of warranty. I had purchased the lifetime service from TiVo which seems is no longer available. If I got a new TiVo, I would have to change my service plan to a much more expensive, non-lifetime plan. It seems having a lifetime plan is very valuable now, but not if your unit is not working.
I decided to give TiVo service a call to see what my options were. I spoke to a very helpful technician who indicated that the “green screen is very bad,” confirming my conclusion. He told me about choices 1 and 2. The new generation TiVo was quite expensive (HD, dual-tuner), and the new service “special” was also costly. This option seemed to add up to about $1,000. Very steep.
Option 2 was to send my TiVo back and get a similar refurbished model. For $149 I would be back to normal. Seemed like a safe option.
However, I did some research, and option 3 and 4 seemed viable. A replacement hard drive kit seemed the easiest. A new hard drive comes with TiVo software installed. You simply open your unit and replace it using the included torx wrenches. Simple for anyone who has every worked inside of a computer. For $139 I could get a 173 hour hard drive. $10 less than a refurb, and pver double the capacity! Sounded very good. I asked the TiVo technician about this option trying to understand the “official” position on this 3rd-party solution. After being placed on hold, presumably to ask others what was supposed to be said, the tech and I concluded that it was certainly worth a try. I had nothing to lose, for if it didn’t work, I could always send the TiVo, with the original drive, back for a refurbished unit.
I considered the $20 solution of downloading software, making a boot-able CD, plugging in a new hard drive into a PC, booting from the CD, and transferring the software, but it seemed like too much work and had potential for mistakes. If I was in a more daring mood, I might try it.
I ordered the replacement drive from weaKnees.com which seems to be the preferred supplier by my research. I used UPS ground shipping, and in less than 1 week, got my new drive. In the box: drive, instructions, 2 torx wrenches.
My 3-year old helped me unscrew the case. A few more screws to free the ailing hard drive. Unplug power cable and ribbon cable. Reverse operation using new drive. Done.
I reconnected the TiVo to the television and started it up. After a few minutes, a setup screen appeared as if the TiVo was brand new. Success!
The serial number of the TiVo is not part of the hard drive, so my lifetime service is still valid and I did not need to go through a reactivation of the unit. It’s as if nothing had happened, except now I have a higher capacity TiVo with a brand new hard drive.
If you have an broken TiVo and you have lifetime service, you should consider having it fixed, and I can highly recommend a replacement drive from weaKnees.
A cell phone caught fire in the pants pocket of a California man burning him and causing damage to the hotel room where he was staying. The brand of phone was not mentioned, but I don’t expect it to be any of the top brands as the man was wearing “nylon and polyester clothes” and staying in a residential hotel where the furniture consists of a “plastic chair.”
Here is a cool item I just discovered. Part game, part experiment, part cult, is Line Rider. The object is simple enough: draw lines for your digital sledder to ride. Some basic physics are programmed into the environment, so your lines must keep him moving and prevent him from crashing or falling into the abyss of infinity.
It’s probably best understood by watching what some have already done…
Casual games are generally defined as simple to play games that are engaging with no long-term commitment. The classics solitaire and minesweeper are popular examples. Start playing — have some fun — play again — repeat until your eyes are bleeding, fingers are sore, or you just cannot avoid doing what you are supposed to be doing any longer.
I have written about the excellent games at PopCap in the past and still enjoy their offerings. I even broke down and purchased Feeding Frenzy 2 after the demo expired because my 3-year old son also got addicted to the fish-eat-fish antics and excellent graphics. He has my genes, so his interest in computers and gaming are to be expected.
My current obsession is both seasonally appropriate and unexpected. In Rudolf’s Revenge, the object is simple: You start by having Rudolf mule-kick Santa at a strategic angle into the air. Elves in trees have candy canes that you use to give Santa a ”boost” higher through the forest trees collecting presents along the way. Sometime you can really launch Saint Nick like a rocket, and I seem more interested in how high I can get him than the presents or actual score. The upward trend doesn’t last forever though, and if you can’t keep propelling him upward, gravity begins to bring Santa back to Earth. Even though he collects presents along the way, once he bounces on his head on the ground, the game is over, so the trick is to use the elves to snag him and attempt to send him skyward once again.
The whole process probably should last only a few minutes. The flaw with this game however, is when you start to get good the game lasts a long time. Perhaps another flaw is that the game doesn’t get any less fun. The last time I played (which I may vow to be the last time), I bounced Santa Claus around for over an hour, where I found myself tensing while falling and holding my breath when speeding upward. I amassed a score of over 2 millions points (2,443,261), and achieved a maximum height of 8,597.6 meters.
If you enjoy casual and addicting games, I recommend Rudolf’s Revenge, but remember: you have been warned.
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I have had many Palm handheld devices. Models m100, i705, Treo 270, Treo 600, and now the Treo 680 smartphone. There are so many things that I use it for, but here is a list of the 10 things I use my Treo 680 for everyday.
Put an If found.txt file in the root folder of the drive. In it simply type your name, email address, and phone number. If the information you store on it is important enough, you may wish to offer a reward. I have a couple of drives that I found but had no way to identify the owner.
I would be very cautious about what type of files you store on your flash drive since it can be so easily lost or stolen, but there are times when it is not avoidable. There might be a good reason you need to transport a PDF of your tax return on your drive and you will be sure to delete it right after you are done, but most likely you will forget it was ever there. Most applications have the ability to password protect files in a fairly secure way, and it will at least deter the casual finder from accessing your personal information.
