Barb's Connected World

Acer refuses to provide a 64 bit winphlash. I finally figured out a quick and easy solution (not wanting to buy a USB floppy). Acer adamantly refuses to acknowledge that 64 bit users want to update their BIOS. And the Ferrari 4000 doesn't support booting from a USB flash key.

So I figured it out. Ingredients, hardware, and instructions:

Hardware

1. Acer Ferrari 4000

2. USB Flash Drive

3. Vista 32 bit DVD

Instructions

1. download the BIOS from ftp://ftp.support.acer-euro.com/notebook/ferrari_4000/vista/BIOS/ 

2. Unzip to root of USB flash drive (mine was formatted as FAT32)

3. Unplug the USB flash drive and power down.

4. Insert the 32 bit Vista DVD and boot from it (you are not actually going to end up installing it or doing anything, this just gets you to the 32 bit WinPE environment)

5. Click through until you get to the screen with the activate online checkbox and uncheck it.

6. Connect the USB flash key to the computer

7. Press Shift-F10 to open a command prompt

8. Change to the correct drive for the USB flash drive

9. type winphlash and press enter

10. browse to the correct wph file and go for it!

11. after the flash is complete, before letting the machine restart, EJECT the DVD. (remember, nothing was installed and nothing really happened except you had access to a 32 bit WinPE environment which you needed to flash the BIOS).

Microsoft has published my column on Vista computers and devices that all work together transparently on my home network.

Gianfranco Lanci, you're an uninformed CEO if you don't know that the disappointment is in YOUR company's lack of driver support, unintelligible support and download site. How can you state:

"While the industry had waited for years for Vista, the software was not really ready when it was launched to great pomp at the start of this year" when your company has done so little itself?

Don't blame Microsoft. You've had more than enough time to join the party.

Yes, my Ferrari 5000 runs like a dream under x64 Ultimate, but my Ferrari 4000 is still missing updated drivers for the pccard controller and media reader/card slot. Yeah, the 3 year old ones from XP x64 still work, sorta, almost.

The word "schmuck" comes to mind.

I was intrigued and dazzled by the surface computing technology used in the Minority Report movie where objects and images could be moved around on screens using finger tips to drag them around.

Turns out this was not entirely fiction. Microsoft has unveiled a technology called Surface Computing that has many of the same features. MSNBC is running a really good piece on this new technology.

Pop Mechanics got an up close and personal view. Here's their video:

Look for this at T-Mobile stores, Harrah's in Vegas and Sheraton (Starwood) Hotels. It's a mere $10,000 per unit, but when the price comes down, I know what my next living room coffee table will be.

Some of you may remember that back in December 2006, Microsoft and AMD shipped me a Velocity Micro Cinemagix Pro Cinema Entertainment System.

This AMD Athlon X2 system with an ATI x1950 dual DVI card, 2 gigs RAM and huge hard drive was a wonder. Microsoft installed Windows Vista x64 Ultimate and Office 2007 and I was in, well, computer heaven. It was exactly the box I'd spec out myself. Perfect in every way. And certainly the fastest computer I'd ever had in my home.

It was perfect then, but today it is more than perfect. It returned last week after visiting the Velocity Micro factory where it received a BIOS upgrade and a tune up. Why send it back for a BIOS upgrade? The only thing missing was Digital Cable Tuner compatibility (to use CableCARD technology to view and record high definition TV). That feature was not available at the time I received this computer, but IT IS NOW.

To use CableCARD technology with Windows Media Center in Windows Vista, you need five pieces:

1. A machine with a certified (by CableLABS) DCT BIOS
2. A video card with HDCP compliance
3. A monitor or TV that is HDCP compliant
4. A Digital Cable Tuner (formerly called OCUR device)/DCT (or two if you want to watch and record at the same time)
5. A CableCARD from your local cable company.

Velocity Micro is offering this amazing machine with either an internal or external DCT. (You can add a second tuner as well).

I've got two external DCT's attached to this machine and I'm in, well, high definition TV heaven.

If you've been waiting for the ability to watch and record high def TV on a kick-ass machine, run, don't walk to Velocity Micro and customize one of these. Even if you aren't into high def, this is one great computer.

Just received an email from Chris Morley at Velocity Micro that they are shipping these awesome machines at last!

I'm still enamored of the custom box I received and think it's an awesome Media Center box not to mention a screamer of a Vista machine.

If you've been waiting for the ability to use a cable card and get high def in the US via Media Center, it's finally here.

Here's the computer I have here.

Microsoft has released a Photoshop CS2/3 beta plugin for a file format that they are hoping will replace jpeg.

There is native support in the Vista shell and Windows Photo Gallery to display WDP format (but sadly, none in Windows Media Center).

I actually have been testing the plugin with Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0. Using the default setting of .9 lossy, the file size is about half of saving to a non compressed jpg. Hit the slider and go up to 1.0 on this new format and the size is bigger.  The plugin allows files to be saved as WDP or HDP. HDP is not working for me in the Windows Shell or Photo Gallery (x64 Vista). The files save, but no file association is created. I can open them in PSE 5.0, however.

Screen capture below shows support in PSE 5.0, Windows Photo Gallery, and the explorer shell.

About a year ago, I used a beta of Excel 2007 to save a bunch of worksheets in Excel 2003 format to avoid compatibility issues. Never gave it a thought in spite of some warnings later on about not being able to open in later versions of Excel 2007.

This morning, I tried to open several of these in RTM version of Excel 2007. Got a nastigram display box that these xls files were incompatible and I needed to install the beta version of Excel 2007. WTF?

I have Excel 2003 on my corporate laptop. Took a USB flash drive with the files in question over to that laptop. Absolutely no complaints from Excel 2003 and they opened just fine. I resaved them in Excel 2003 and replaced the ones that wouldn't open. Mission accomplished.

Excel 2007 is pretty dumb if you ask me.

I’ve been struggling with whether or not to post the link to the information that enables you to add WPA to a Microsoft MN-740 game adapter by turning it into an unsupportable quasi D-Link DGL-3420.

As a Microsoft MVP I pursued every channel available to me for an extended period to attempt to convince MS to do the work (or contract it out) to upgrade this device to WPA-PSK. It would not have taken a huge amount of work or effort.

As a near militant proponent of WPA to replace laughable WEP encryption, I’ve decided to post the link to the information.

Here are the disclaimers:

1. I don’t condone this hack

2. You will void your warranty

3. Microsoft won’t support you

4. I won’t support you

5. You could brick your device and have to throw it out (if you do, buy the real D-Link DGL-3420, it’s awesome)

6. Reverse engineering is illegal according to many EULA’s

7. It may not work

8. Anything else I can’t think of at the moment

9. I’m not taking responsibility

If you read this far, here’s the link http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,13360873