Blu-Ray Player Updates Equals Fail
Recently, I helped my mom setup a home entertainment system. She made a comment that she would never have been able to set it up herself. I realize there are companies out there she could’ve hired to do the work, but that’s not what got me thinking about writing this article.
What did was the fact that this happened right around the same time time Avatar was released, specifically the Blu-ray (BD) version.
What’s the connection? Shortly after getting Avatar from Best Buy, I received an email from them stating a firmware upgrade to my Blu-ray player may be necessary to watch the movie.
Sure enough, my Sharp BD-HP21 was one of many players needing an update. Articles here, here, and here summarize.
Luckily I found a forum thread which included a link to an available firmware upgrade from Sharp Canada, which went smoothly and all was well.
So back to my mom. I realize this seems relatively easy for some of us, but not someone like her. She wouldn’t search for an update, throw it on a flash drive, and upgrade her player.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the advantage of new features, and I actually appreciate that my Blu Ray player didn’t just become obsolete. And the picture quality is no doubt, outstanding.
But are these firmware updates too much for regular consumers? Could this be a reason that the Blu Ray format could fail? Or will internet-connected devices solve some of these issues? Or is physical media already dead, regardless?
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Microsoft Vista Restore Not Accepting Product Key
I recently had a client whose Toshiba A205 laptop had a hard drive failure. After replacing the hard drive and running a system restore from the DVDs, Windows Vista would not accept the system key, regardless if the laptop was hooked up to the internet or not. It just kept saying that the system key appeared to be invalid.
After doing some research, I found KB articles from Microsoft which talked about the need to have Service Pack 1 (SP1) installed in similar cases. Sure enough, once SP1 was installed and the system was rebooted, Windows accepted the system key and the system was validated.
I’m also guessing that this probably only applies to restore media that may have been issued prior to SP1. For example, I know that if you purchase replacement restore media from HP, they include many updates that have been released since the system was first released.
I’m hopeful that Microsoft has corrected this problem in Windows 7 so that a fresh install doesn’t require consumers to hire a computer technican to complete a system restore.
| Title | Votes | Rating | Review |
| NASCAR Shuts Down iPhone Application | 8 | 4.4 | -1.0 |
Acer Restore Type Mismatch Error
Recently I’ve been working on quite a few Acer desktop PCs with hard drive failures. The specific model, AM5641, has a quirk when it comes to the restore media working, in that unless the hard drive is partitioned as an NTFS volume, the restore process gives a ‘type mismatch’ error right after making a language selection.
To complete the restore process, I’ve been using Partition Commander, which is a great tool when it comes to quickly formatting and converting a volume to NTFS.
| Title | Votes | Rating | Review |
| NASCAR Shuts Down iPhone Application | 8 | 4.4 | -1.0 |
Misbehaving Computer Opportunity to Backup Data
When it comes to a misbehaving computer, take advantage of the moment and backup important data!
While there may be various reasons why a computer is misbehaving or acting funny, such as an infected computer or the start of a hard drive failure, I always tell clients that this is an opportune time to back up data if you don’t already have a process in place, especially before the situation gets worse.
I cannot tell you how many times I have had to replace a hard drive and the horror on a client’s face when they find out they have lost everything. I just can’t say it enough. Backup, backup, backup. And when I say backup, I’m mainly talking about all the content that did not come with your computer, such as pictures, music, video, and documents.
Personally, I try to use the 3-2-1 backup rule, which is basically keeping 3 copies of files on 2 different media types with 1 copy offsite. The offsite part of the rule used to be tricky, but online backups have made this much easier now.
In fact, I recently became a Carbonite customer, which is an online or ‘in the cloud’ solution. So far I’ve been extremely happy. I’m not trying to make this a Carbonite commercial. There are a few other solutions out there too, such as mozy, ibackup, and idrive. I mainly tried Carbonite because I hear them mentioned on many of the podcasts I listen to.
And if you’re not sure you need a backup solution, just think about what value you would put on your data. If you’re like me, I can’t when it comes to family videos and photographs.
So no matter what type of backup solution you decide to implement (external hard drive, flash drive, online, or a combination of all), don’t take the chance of losing data, especially when your computer starts giving signs that something is awry.
| Title | Votes | Rating | Review |
| NASCAR Shuts Down iPhone Application | 8 | 4.4 | -1.0 |
Conversations Used as Marketing
At the recent Bakersfield Business Referral Network meet up–there were discussions started regarding what marketing and tools other owners use to find new business and clients.
There was some great brainstorming going on, but not nearly enough time to discuss the massive changes and shifts happening on the Internet. Thus, the reason I was inspired to share some ideas about what I see coming.
How do you deal with Content Overload?
Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out how to deal with personal content overload. I searched for similar articles and found a couple here and here. And while tools to make it easier is one solution, I’m coming to the realization that it’s more of a discipline issue more than anything.
What I mean is that while I find myself using iPhone applications such as Tweetie and FaceBook to quickly upload some content, that doesn’t work when taking pictures with my SLR, shooting video with the Vado, or recording audio with my iRiver.
So until I have a device that has both quality and the ability to instantly upload to the cloud in an easy way, I’m going to have to focus of making myself process the content.
And one thing I have realized when it comes to processing content, is the longer I wait to deal with it, the less chance this task has of being completed.
In other words, for me, what I’ve found that works best is to transfer and upload the content as soon as possible afterwards. If I wait longer than 2-3 weeks I usually won’t deal with it.
For example, WordCamp San Francisco was almost 3 weeks ago as of this writing, so unless I process the audio and video I captured this coming weekend, more than likely it will never get done.
I guess this is not much different from other tasks in life–but it just seems like with so many devices and content becoming part of our daily lives, it makes it seem so overwhelming sometimes. So how do you deal with content overload?
Restoring vs. Cleaning Computer after Infected by Virus
I’ve noticed for quite some time that many of the local Bakersfield computer techs (and I’m sure elsewhere) have been pushing to ‘clean’ Windows-based computers of viruses. What I find interesting is few technicians focus on restoring a computer back to its original state.
In my opinion and experience, cleaning a computer should be the last option, while restoring a computer should be the first option. Hopefully this article will give you some insight and advice as to the differences. Read more
Open Letter to FOX, Rupert Murdoch, and Fringe Producers
Dear FOX Broadcasting Company, Rupert Murdoch, and producers of Fringe:
I’m wondering if you’ve ever heard of DVRs? You know, the device that nearly 1/3 of people are now using to record content and watch at their leisure?
Nonprofit Agencies can Learn from Tech Startup Challenges
I attended a United Way grant workshop this morning, and as is the case for many nonprofit agencies, most will be dealing with reduced budgets this year, and more than likely for future years.
Not only was there talk of agencies running leaner and meaner, but two other points that were mentioned were in regard to collaboration, and the need for agencies to be able to show measurable outcomes.
And while both of these ideas are not new concepts, in either the private or nonprofit world, the discussion reminded me of a recent email article Jason Calacanis wrote in regard to what to do if your startup is about to fail.
Believe me, I’m not hoping any nonprofits or other agencies fail, but I think Jason’s thoughts can be translated to almost any situation, good or bad.
In fact, many of Jason’s recent articles have inspired me to push even harder during these difficult times in both my day job and ‘second life’ IT business.
If your nonprofit or other agency is also dealing with budget challenges, I would recommend reading a reprint of his article (and any others you can find).
They may be geared toward the private tech sector, but there is lot’s of good advice that can be used by all, regardless of what you do. If you too are inspired by his thoughts and writings, you can sign up for future articles here.
Future Volume of In-House PC Warranty Repair
Recently, some in-house warranty customers have been asking me if the economy has reduced volume. Right off the bat, I realized that in the majority of these calls this does not currently affect me because in terms of the computers I usually work on, I’m somewhat living in the past.
In other words, when it comes to making a claim on an extended warranty, in most cases, one year has already passed, otherwise the service claim would be made with the manufacturer.
Secondly, I think you can just add-in the factor that computer faliures are going to be rare during the first few years of a computer if it’s maintained correctly.
So what’s interesting to me is what is going to happen in the next 2-3 years–will volume drop off? If people are even buying computers as of this writing (I don’t know one way or the other), are they skipping on the extended warranty?
Or is it the other way around? Maybe this is the time to invest the additional cost for some assurance that in the future, especially if parts and/or labor costs rise, it will be taken care of.
Or perhaps this is a benefit to non-warranty work, in that in this future timeframe customers will have to make a decision similar to that of a used car. Spend some money to fix their exising unit, or invest in a new one.
I’m sure warranty companies will know during these trying times what future trends may hold, but I doubt if this will trickle down to field technicians as to what kind of volume to expect.
| Title | Votes | Rating | Review |
| NASCAR Shuts Down iPhone Application | 8 | 4.4 | -1.0 |
