Windows 2 Apples

In this episode, we examine our use of both Apple and Windows machines to produce an audio book and share our recent success in “rejuvenating” the hard drive in our HP tower using Steve Gibson’s SpinRite disk maintenance and recovery application.

In podcast episode 33, I mentioned one of the reasons we had taken time out from the Windows 2 Apples podcast was because we were developing audio books for clients. One of our authors, Lauren Kim Roche, is an established New Zealand writer with two best-selling books to her credit. Our work with Lauren in converting and distributing her books as audio books is an excellent example of how Apple and Microsoft computers may be used together to complete a complex project.

My collaboration with Lauren started one evening in a flurry of e-mails typed on my Mac. I had read her two autobiographical books Bent Not Broken and Life On The Line on successive trips to New Zealand in 2001 and 2002. I was convinced after hearing a BBC radio interview of Lauren she would do an excellent job of reading her books and converting them to audible format. When our agreement was finalized, Lauren was using a Vista laptop and I was encouraging her to download MixCraft 4 and purchase a USB microphone.

To my surprise the next e-mail from Lauren announced she had purchased a shiny new 24 inch Mac and had begun experimenting with GarageBand. With the addition of an external Logitech USB microphone Lauren was ready to begin dictating her first book Bent Not Broken. We spent the next week experimenting with different physical placements of the computer, microphone and GarageBand filters. She uploaded test files to her Mac account and I logged in using my Vista machine to download.

To improve the quality of the recordings Lauren cleverly created her own pop screen by leaning a piece of soft foam against the microphone. When she told me she had been using foam to cover the head of the microphone I assume she had wrapped it around the microphone but was impressed when I saw that she had simply laid it against the microphone creating a very effective screen.

I originally experimented with using GarageBand to edit her raw recordings but found it frustrating. GarageBand is a good tool for creating podcasts and recording multitrack music but because of the halfhearted implementation of the right mouse key and sluggish response to track edits, I turned to the PC and MixCraft 4. MixCraft is a far better tool for editing long voice recordings.

The quality of the microphone as well as the acoustics of the room yielded less than optimal sound. Initially, I attempted to use GarageBand filters to enhance audio but could never produce a file that took advantage of Lauren’s lovely voice and again turned to MixCraft 4. The MixCraft equalizer was easy to tweak and proved up to the challenge. We ended up with an excellent series of recordings that rival audio books produced by a large publishing houses. Lauren’s reading is compelling and equal to to professional voice over artists. You may listen to a sample of her recordings by visiting LaurenKimRoche.com.

Once the audio recordings were edited they were tagged using iTunes, uploaded to our web hosting server using FileZilla, the XML feed for paid podcast distribution created using the Mac only Feeder 1.5 and Lauren’s site created using the Mac only RapidWeaver.

This project made use of tools and features specific to each platform … resulting in a whole truly greater than the sum of its parts.

A few months ago our HP Pavilion Elite desktop computer began stalling when power was applied. It appeared to access the hard drive briefly and then just sat there stubbornly refusing to budge. Even though I had complete system, application and data backup on our HP MediaSmart server, I was over come with the sinking feeling I was on the verge of catastrophic hardware failure which would cost many days to recover from. Several years ago, I had purchased a copy of SpinRite, a hard drive maintenance and recovery program produced by Steve Gibson of Gibson Research Corporation.

Steve is cohost of Leo Laporte’s podcast Security Now. Shortly after purchasing SpinRite, I had an opportunity to use it in resurrecting the hard drive of one of my laptops. Since then, I have used it to rejuvenate another laptop that seem to have a mind of its own as to when it would actually power up and display the Windows welcome screen. My HP desktop was beginning to remind me of the earlier laptop issues and I pulled out my trusty copy of SpinRite, inserted it in the CD drive and powered up the HP. Approximately 12 hours later, I returned to view the screen announcing maintenance had been completed and no errors where found.

I removed the CD, shut down the HP and restarted with fingers crossed. Happily, it booted without error and has been booting ever since without pause. I see now that GRC is asking $89 US for version 6 of SpinRite, as Leo often reminds us, it’s not a trivial investment but an investment that will continue to pay off and more than earn its keep over time. Because SpinRite is a DOS based application, Apple drives may be recovered only if the drive is removed and attached to a PC capable of booting from the Free DOS based SpinRite CD or disk. Fingers crossed, and hoping I will never have to take that step.

The show notes for this episode had been dictated using MacSpeech Dictate, audio recorded using MixCraft 4, MP3 file tagged using JetAudio and transferred to our server using FileZilla, and podcast feed updated using Feeder 1.5.

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My introduction to Safari 4.0. Comments on the Acer One NetBook and Using FileZilla to share files between Windows and Apples.

I am normally not predisposed to defining anything as cool. I confess to uttering it twice in the last few months. The first time was when I installed Windows 7 and took a look at the new desktop and wallpaper options. I sat back and found myself simply uttering cool! For many years I ignored wallpaper and desktop image options preferring to use a solid background so that my icons would not be obscured. After shifting to Vista, I started to use wallpaper because the images shipped with Vista were appealing and less cluttered. Those included with Windows 7 have upped the ante considerably. They’re absolutely stunning.

The second time I uttered cool was when I opened Safari.  I had notice that Apple updated Safari but assumed it was the traditional bug fixes and a few enhancements here and there. I was surprised when I opened it and found that I was greeted with an Apple animation announcing Safari 4.0. I knew that Safari 4 had been in beta for some time but had avoided downloading.  I just don’t have the time to test beta applications.  I’ve made the exception with Windows 7 ,but, that’s a rare exception.  I was immediately impressed with the opening animation and sound but my jaw dropped and I unuttered cool several times as I saw my favorites displayed on a three dimensional convex wall.

I’ve tested Safari and it seems to be faster than IE 8 and even faster than the version of Safari 4 now running on my Apple.  For the first time I can enjoy using Safari without that ugly battleship gray frame.  Apple has finally adopted the Aero look of Vista.  Not only does Safari 4 seem to run faster on my Vista tower than on my Mac but it is far it more attractive …  a major shift from my experience in using Safari on Apple vs. Vista. Unfortunately,  Apple has not given the same Aero make over to the Windows release of iTunes and it retains the ugly, antiquated look I have grown so weary of. Hopefully,  the release of Safari 4 indicates Apple has finally decided to improve the performance and look of their applications when run on Windows machines.

In episode 33, I promised a review of the Acer one NetBook.  I purchased the NetBook because I was intrigued by all the press they have been receiving.  I wanted to find out for myself if I could use it as a replacement for a traditional laptop.  When I opened the box, I was impressed by the fit, finish and quality feel. I was also impressed with the short battery life and how easy my finger prints found their way on the shinny blue plastic enclosure. I don’t believe I ever logged more than two hours. I feel fortunate to get 1:45 minutes from a full charge. My NetBook uses the 3 cell battery. I highly recommend you opt for the 6 cell battery which reviewers suggest gives well over two hours of runtime.

The first two truly practical applications I installed were Skype and MixCraft 4.  Skype proved its worth on a trip to California where I found my cell phone useless. I could not reliably access my carrier.  I was able to log in to a Wireless Network and use an inexpensive headset connected directly to the Acer audio input and output jacks to make calls via my Skype Out account.  The audio quality was mediocre, as you would normally expect when connecting to built-in sound cards, but equal to most cell phone connections.

When I later experimented with MixCraft 4 to record podcasts, I used a Telex USB audio adapter and a higher quality headset.  I was impressed with the recording and the responsiveness of MixCraft 4 running on the NetBook.  Without reservation, I can recommend the Acer NetBook as an inexpensive platform for field recordings of music and speech.  The proviso, of course, is that if you plan to do any serious field recordings using battery power that you invest in the six cell battery option.

I often find I’m using the Acer essentially as a video enabled MP3 player and PDF reader.  Frequently, I take it to bed with me to watch video podcasts preferring it over the dinky small screen on my iPod, Zune or Creative Labs players.  Given the low cost high performance and quality I can envision many uses for net books beyond those traditionally assigned to laptops.  Over time I have stopped using my more cumbersome and of course heavier and hotter 15 ½ inch Acer vista laptop in favor of the NetBook.

Given my positive experience with Windows 7, I have been tempted to install the beta release on my NetBook but so far have resisted the Sirens call.  I think I’ll wait until Windows 7 is released to the public and for reviews of NetBooks running the new OS.   Given my expectations and requirements, I don’t envision going back to a traditional laptop any time soon and certainly would never consider purchasing the significantly more expensive Apple laptop.  For the time being, my NetBook has become my portable computing device of choice.

In episode 33, I mentioned using low cost web servers to share files between Windows and Apple machines.  Before going any further, I need to admonish my listeners to review the user agreement they may have with their web hosting service before using it to backup files.  Many hosting services strictly prohibit using their service for offline backup .  There are many dedicated backup services specifically designed to provide offline storage of files and data.  However, most web hosting user agreements will allow the storage of files such as MP3s, videos and photos used in the creation and maintenance of web sites.

Given,  the hit and miss performance of my Apple (thanks to Leopard)  in connecting to our in-house network we have begun bypassing the HP Home Media Server when sharing Website files with our Mac. We’ve experimented with a number of commercial FTP applications including Fetch for the Mac and recently settled on using the excellent free open source FileZilla to upload and manage files on our web hosting server.  Because FileZilla is an open source project, applications with the same look and feel are available for the Windows, Apple and Linux platforms.  I find it more robust and intuitive than commercial standalone applications such as Fetch.

FileZilla is easy to setup and supports drag and drop on both Vista and Mac OS X machines.  Once our podcast MP3s, videos and show notes are uploaded using standard FTP protocol, I can easily access them using the excellent Mac only xml editor, Feeder 1.5,  to create and manage the feeds used in syndicating podcasts.

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We apologize to our faithful subscribers for the long hiatus between episodes.  In our defense we have been productive during our absence … focusing on producing podcast for clients and moving into full fledged production and publication of audio as well as printed books.  We have been fortunate to sign three excellent published authors one of whom has produced an exceptional reading of her autobiography “Bent Not Broken”.

Please see our iNetSynch.com website for links to additional podcasts and audio books.  We believe that you’ll find Lauren Kim Roche’s  reading of  Bent Not Broken an inspirational adventure.

Much has happened since we last produced this podcast.  We have acquired and have begun using Leopard as well as iWork 09  and experimented with the new release of GarageBand and iMovie 09.  Microsoft has issued two public beta releases of Windows 7 and we have installed both on two PC’s with impressive results.

We attempted to upgrade our Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking speech to text software and ended up sending version 10 back after wasting almost two days trying to work around an issue with the C library used by Dragon Naturally Speaking version 9.5.  I think it’s safe to say that this was one of the worst experiences I’ve had in trying to upgrade software over the 30 plus years I’ve been working with computers.

We have repeatedly returned to the MacSpeech Dictate software hoping that minor updates issued by the company would make it usable. It remains a disappointment and we continue to rely on the free Vista Speech Recognition software for most of our dictation requirements. MacSpeech Dictate software has improved since its initial release, but, I still can’t withstand the trauma of watching my text disappear or become scrambled especially after spending 30 or 40 minutes dictating.  I will address MacSpeech in more detail in future podcasts … assuming I’m able to acquire the latest upgrade.  That in itself is an interesting story one I will wait to tell when my frustration level has ratcheted down.

In previous podcasts,  I have attempted to estimate the percentage time spent on my Mac as opposed to my PC and in most instances the outcome was lopsided and favored one system or the other.  As I look back over the last few months of work, I can honestly state that I use each machine approximately the same amount of time each day.  My Macintosh is used primarily to maintain websites and the PC to edit audio files and dictate documents.

I am still enamored with the Apple based RapidWeaver web creation and management software. Despite my best efforts I have not found any equivalent package on the PC side of things. The last experiment was with WebPlus2 by Serif . It has many attractive features but the webs created using available templates are uninspired and it requires considerable more effort and expertise than RapidWeaver.

MixCraft 4  is still by far the superior audio edit software and only still available for the Windows PC platform.  I can’t imagine or rather I can imagine trying to edit complex audio files such as a audio book chapters on my Mac using GarageBand, but I rather not.  Just for kicks I did try to return to GarageBand to edit Lauren’s superb reading of Bent Not Broken and found it too painful to spend more than a few wasted hours on that experiment.

In this podcast, I would like to briefly address my impressions of Leopard and the Windows 7 Beta.  Of the two it’s easy to proclaim Windows 7 beta as the more impressive update.  To tell the truth, I noticed essentially no enhancement in feature set or performance when Leopard was installed and only installed it so that I could take advantage of the new iWork and iLife 09 applications.  The Leopard experience highlights a significant difference between Apple and Microsoft . Microsoft rarely requires customers upgrade the operating system in order to use a new release of major Microsoft software suite such as Office but Apple seems to depend on the revenue generated by tying the adoption of iWork and iLife upgrades to an OS upgrade.

One rather unsettling change in my Mac since shifting to Leopard has been a less reliable connection between my Mac and PC network via the shared Linksys router. In past, my Mac would always find and list my PC and HP MediaSmart Server under Shared Places. I could immediately access public files on my PC and shared folder on the Server. Now I have to reboot the Mac or toggle my router on and off several times before the Mac joins my network. What a waste of time and unnecessary anxiety.  When I revert back to the Tiger OS image on my external firewire dive the issue goes away. If I were not dependent on Leopard to run the now upgraded RapidWeaver, I would gladly reinstall Tiger.

Windows 7 on the other hand has allowed me to give new life to my old Sony multimedia tower PC.  I had  been using it with the original XP Home Media center software to provide streaming video and audio to my  flat screen television.  It worked reasonably well however the XP Media center software is simply not as capable as that shipped with Vista and it seemed to get slower and slower each passing day.

I was amazed at how quickly I was able to install the initial public beta release of Windows 7 and impressed with the enhanced speed and utility offered by windows seven.  It was also reassuring to see that even though I had selected the clean install my original data files had been retained in their original directories.  Since then I have installed the release candidate windows seven beta and continue to be pleased but was disappointed that I was unable to get my Belkin USB Wireless adapter to work with this version of Windows 7.  I’ve not yet determined why the original vista drivers that work so well with the first Windows 7 beta are unable to recognize the Belkin interface under the RC release of Win 7.  After several days of downloading drivers and considerable frustration, I drove to my local Best Buy and picked up a Linksys USB adapter and am happily back on line again.

Recently, a relative complained that her ancient Vista Home edition computer was too slow and inefficient to use inspiring her to look at new vista machines.  She was choking a bit on the idea of having to shell out the cash for a new system. I suggested she backup her data and try a clean install of Windows 7. In our last conversation she was exceptionally happy with the increased performance as well as the high end features such as Aero not part of her original configuration … and the cost, as in free, was a much appreciated bonus. Her son plans to upgrade his aging XP machine when Windows 7 is officially released. For the first time I can remember, Microsoft has developed a major upgrade to the Windows OS that requires fewer resources to run and does not force customers to upgrade their hardware.

I suspect this will be plus for Microsoft and a negative for the likes of HP and Acer. I  had considered purchasing a new small foot print PC to use as our home media center but saw no reason to make the purchase after installing Windows 7 on the Sony tower. It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the market place, especially in this age of recession and record unemployment.

In our next podcast we will review an Acorn based Acer NetBook and share a few tips on how to use a low cost webhosting service to backup and share files between Apple and Windows machines.

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The last few weeks have been nothing if not eventful.

Not only have both Microsoft and Apple released new MP3 players, Microsoft launched the first two commercials in a long series said to have cost Microsoft $300,000,000 and the U.S. financial infrastructure seems to be crumbling before our eyes. On a personal side, I was a bit surprised to see the relatively steep drop in the New Zealand Kiwi as a result of the defaults in the U.S. banking system. I have a long running love affair with New Zealand, finding it a bona fide heaven on earth. I watch their economy and subscribe to Saturday Morning, a podcast re-airing of the wonderful Radio New Zealand interviews by radio and TV host Kim Hill.

As is usually the case Microsoft’s announcement of the third generation Zune was over shadowed by both traditional and internet press coverage of the introduction of the new Apple iPod Nano players zooming by (pun intended) with a longer and even thinner package, audio record, text to speech options as well as even more enclosure colors. Apple continues to offer one of the best players for accessing and remotely enjoying podcasts. Some would argue music as well. However, I find it a bit peculiar that so many people continue to purchase music that can only be played on Apple sanctioned devices. Apple claims it will not embrace subscription music services such as Rhapsody or Napster because consumers want to own their music and not rent it. However, tying your music to a specific technology does not have the appearance or feel of ownership to this blogger.

Recently, my generation five 30 gig iPod stopped synching with many of my favorite video podcasts. I noted others in Apple forums complained of the same problem at approximately the same time. Thankfully, the latest iTune version 8 update seems to have fixed this as well as the dreaded blue screen of death reported by many Windows users trying to activate their iPhones via iTunes. During the iPod down time I reverted back to using my now ancient Zen Vision M 30 gig player which converts both audio and video podcasts to AVI files before transferring to the player and not only was I able to again watch my favorite video podcasts on the beautiful, albeit smaller Zen screen, I was also reintroduced to the fabulous sound so characteristic of Creative Lab products. I still prefer to use my iPod when accessing podcasts but almost never use it to listen to music because of the noticeably inferior audio.

There was much speculation Apple would finally embrace a subscription model however Apple continues to require customers purchase most media protected by the proprietary Apple digital rights encryption. True, Apple offers a very limited library of music free of DRM and many pundits seem to feel that music industry movers and shakers prefer it remain this way.

The most common rationale for this assumption is the music industry is focused on working with competitors such as Microsoft to throttle Apple’s dominance in media distribution.Microsoft has released new Zune players with enhanced storage capacity and new colors as well as support for audible books and enhanced WiFi connectivity. Microsoft took advantage of WiFi and built-in FM tuner to add an innovative feature, not found in other players. The so called “Buy from FM” feature allows the listener to download music heard on selected FM radio stations. Microsoft is trying take advantage of the excellent built in FM tuner to promote its service by syncing this option with special encoded data found in many FM radio streams.

I personally wonder how many people actually listen to radio and in particularly how many of those in the age group targeted by Microsoft use FM Radio to shape their personal preferences for music. I long ago stopped using radio for anything but to access talk stations and find I am spoiled by the ability to create my own MP3 playlists. I simply don’t trust the judgment of the radio station managers or DJs to deliver content I would enjoy. Perhaps I am wrong in my assumptions and this option will prove to be a draw for the Zune.

I do love the ability to use my Ibiza MP3 player to snag songs as they are streamed from my Rhapsody account via WiFi. If I hear a song I enjoy, I simply hold my finger down on the touch pad and select the download option. As long as I maintain my Rhapsody account the song is available to me regardless of whether I am connected to my Rhapsody account. True, I rent the music but much of the pop music that grabs my attention today will have little appeal to me 6 months from now. Those songs I want to keep can often be purchased as DRM free MP3 files from Rhapsody or other vendors such as Amazon.

Microsoft unveiled its first salvo against the very successful Apple advertising campaign with the now infamous Seinfeld / Gates shoe store fiasco. I personally found it very difficult to sit through the entire commercial. It just seems obvious to me Microsoft has little understanding of how to market its products to the masses. The second commercial in the series was as equally disturbing in that it seemed embarrassingly out of touch with the consumers Microsoft needs target.

I find it very distressing that Microsoft management has taken this approach to their much touted and much needed retort to the Apple advertising campaign. Microsoft should have reached out to some of the youths producing the often very clever YouTube Apple / vista commercial parodies. Even better, Microsoft could have initiated an online contest offering wealth, notoriety and fame to those producing the best amateur video response to the Apple commercials.

I believe this would have garnered a tremendous amount of free press coverage and encouraged the target audience for Microsoft to focus on features and services offered by Microsoft that actually address their needs. I have seen many such videos posted on YouTube that are exceptionally clever, some bordering on professional in quality and which always seemed to get an impressive number of hits from viewers.

On well, I’m sure Seinfeld at least is laughing (all the way to the bank).

Produced using M-Audio Interface, MixCraft 4, Vista Speech, Pages, iTunes, and Hp MediaSmart Server

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We start this posting with an update to my issues with Microsoft Windows Media Center. After considerable time trouble shooting I decided make adjustments in Windows Media Center performance settings. Unfortunately, Windows Media Center software doesn’t have setting options allowing the user to correct for differences in Internet access and streaming media performance. Changes must be made in the Windows Media Player which apparently provides the engine used by Media Center to access Internet content and render streaming video.

I am using Media Player 11 in which Microsoft has decided to hide performance options in a drop down list under the Now-Playing button. After many years of training customers to look for these kinds of settings under the file or help menu options, the Windows Media Center team decided to change the rules as well as well as eliminating the traditional help menu option. Eventually, I found the and performance options panel where I changed the default setting for connection speed from “detect connection speed” to “choose connection speed” and selected DSL/cable at 768 Kbps even though my DSL connection typically logs in at a download speed of at least 4 MB. I also checked the “drop frames to keep audio and video synchronized option” box.

After making these changes I was able to log on and access MSN streaming media including music concerts without the frequent appearance of the dreaded blue circle of frustration appearing in the center of my screen. I’m still confused as to why these changes were needed given performance benchmarks for my DSL Service showed no change between the earlier posting when I was so impressed with Windows Media Center and my later posting lamenting the loss of usable access to MSN video content. Obviously, the auto detect code is unable to automatically make the necessary adjustments in real world internet through put.

Since making these adjustments I have added Comcast cable and have been able to reset media center settings to automatic detection and remove the check next to the drop frames option. I wonder how many casual users would be willing to dig this deep to get Media Center to work as promised. I suspect that most would simply give up on the software.

As usual, I am dictating the notes for this podcast using the free Vista speech to text software rather than Nuance Dragon Naturally Speaking. As mentioned in the past, all though the Nuance product is more accurate but Vista speech to text technology is much more intuitive to use and far superior when modifying or correcting text. Recently, Nuance introduced an upgrade from 9.5 to Version 10. Anxious to see how far speech to text technology has moved I ordered the upgrade.

Unfortunately, all attempted installs failed displaying a warning message suggesting “applications have a reboot waiting” and then prompting you to close the install and re-boot. I did this perhaps three times before checking the Nuance site where I found a tech note suggesting this was a fairly common problem and that users should disable automatic Windows updates and re-boot! Disabling automatic Windows updates is not recommended by Microsoft. I have to wonder how many frustrated Nuance customers are now running systems with automatic update disabled.

The Nuance tech note advises that if this fails, which of course it did for me and I suspect many others, that you should also run msconfig and disable all start up programs. If this step fails Nuance goes on to recommend you download a zipped file from which you must extract an executable that will supposedly disable the Nuance installs insistence on “checking for a required restart”. This was too much sugar for the nickel and I wasn’t willing to continue to jump through any more hoops in order to install an upgrade.

To top off my frustration the Plantronic headset shipped with my order could not be used to produce accurate speech to text translations running either Dragon 9.5 or Vista speech. I have shipped both the install disk and headset back to Nuance with a request for refund. Until Nuance is able to ship the upgrade with a working and relatively painless install, I recommend that those using nuance 9.5 skip version 10.

Produced using M-Audio interface, MixCraft 4, Vista Speech Technology, HP Media Smart Server, iTunes and Pages.

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