So I have been sitting down having a solid think about where I want all of my blogs to go forward now that I have been blogging for a little over twelve months.

I have decided that I want to keep GeekyHabitat very much tech related, however I will not be posting regularly to this blog. I am going to keep it as more of a place that I can put things as an archive that people can find by searching.

In short, I will only be posting here when I really have something to post, so I won’t be updating this on anything close to a regular schedule.

Keep an eye out in the near future though as I will be putting up some more details of the plugins I have recently developed fo Wordpress, among other things.

So, just thought I would fill you all in on that one.

Stuart

So I purchased myself a Tivo from Harvey Norman around 3 weeks ago as it has just been released in Australia. I was very excited to get it up and running and start watching my favourite shows when I wanted to. However I have found that there have been numerous critical issues with the Tivo since I started using it. These include Tivo audio levels fluctuating on standard definition channels (does not seem to affect high definition channels), shows not being recorded on the Tivo due to incorrect schedules/shows running overtime (which in turn effects Tivo Suggestions and makes them useless as they rarely record the whole show) and shows not being picked up correctly when scheduled as a season pass.

In regards to the Audio issue, I contacted Tivo support Australia, who (in two ‘one liner’ emails) said that it was a broadcasting issue (first email) and that the broadcaster had been notified (second email). I have since had an extended discussion with Peter from Channel 10 technical support, and he informed me that he had asked the entire support team and nobody had even heard of this being an issue.

So I thought I would post the “request for support” that I sent to Tivo to request assistance and feedback with some of these critical flaws. I also thought it would be good to get some feedback from other Tivo users in Australia and see if other people are finding this to be an issue and see if we can get ourselves heard somewhat.

So if you have a Tivo, what are your thoughts and experiences, have you been having the same issues, if so to what degree. Also so that we are actually constructive here, what do you think could be done to fix it, what are some of your ideas? I had one possible thought… The Tivo online scheduler checks in for updates to shows you have scheduled online every 15 minutes, if a function could be added to also check for updated real-time scheduling every 15 minutes then this problem could be alleviated, permitting of course that they had someone there to update this information in real time. Thoughts?

My Open Letter:

To whom it may concern,

I purchased the Tivo recently after seeing an advertisement on Channel 7 which stated “Never miss a thing again” as one of the main selling points.

However I have been finding that on many broadcasts (and *especially* in the case of Channel 7s own broadcasts) partial and full recordings are being missed(the incorrect show being recorded either in partial or in full) because previous shows are running far over the allotted time.

Case and point would be The Amazing Race (Wed 13/8th at 2AM Channel 7 Standard Definition). The show before this (the Olympics) ran 38 minutes over its allotted time. As a note I have scheduled all my Channel 7 recordings with an additional half hour and I *still* missed the end of this episode.

While I am aware that things like the Olympics and live broadcasts will go over schedule by their very nature this is not the only occurrence that I have experienced, it was just the icing on the cake. Other times that this has been most apparent (and a regular occurrence) would be when I have scheduled “Seconds from Disaster” and “Air Crash Investigations” although they have not been running for the last week due to the Olympics prior to this they had. Although I have not kept specific records on average these shows were starting well over 15-20 minutes later than the scheduled time (which is why I started putting a 30 minute addition on).

I am finding that the Tivo is not living up to Channel 7s advertising due to scheduling issues on all Australian channels and feel that Tivo is being misrepresented in its abilities and that Channel 7 itself needs to lead the pack in resolving this issue if it cannot be resolved by a technical means.

I would like to hear what is being done to rectify this as clearly it is an issue that *must* be resolved in order for the Tivo to function correctly and as it has been originally advertised.

To summarise the main points:
1. Scheduled recordings are being missed either in full or parts thereof due to broadcasting times not being adhered to and no automatic functionality for Tivo to compensate for this.
2. Available recording time on the Tivo is being vastly limited due to the required addition of immense amounts of padding to each episode.
3. Tivo Suggestions are only being half recorded due to them not beginning or ending at their scheduled times hence rendering the Tivo Suggestions useless.
4. Schedules are overlapping often due to the requirement of putting such large amounts of additional padding on scheduled recordings.

Therefore I feel that the Tivo is severely crippled in how it is operating for me. When shows are recorded I have been exceptionally happy with the quality and convenience of the Tivo however with the three issues listed above I feel that the device is not operating within the original conditions that it was sold. I have also spoken to numerous other Tivo users who have raised similar concerns regarding the Tivo and whom would like to see a resolution to these issues.

I request a formal response to this grievance as soon as possible and am most happy to assist in working towards a solution (including trials and testing of any new software where possible) to benefit other Tivo users around Australia.

I look forward to hearing your response.

Regards
Stuart Ryan

In regards to the “never miss a thing again” see the Tivo Channel 7 Ad on YouTube and go to around 17 seconds into it.

Upgrading an Installation of OpenX is quite an easy task to do. However I wanted to put together something with a few more details of the way to FTP files for installing and upgrading OpenX. So I thought that I would put this mini tutorial together to outline the upgrade process and some things to be aware of.

Upgrading OpenX 2.4 to 2.6

For this tutorial I will be using the FileZilla free FTP client, if you would like to follow along I would recommend this as a great FREE FTP client.

Step 1 - Backup your installation:

If there is one thing I can recommend to you before doing an upgrade of any software, web based package etc it is to BACKUP BACKUP BACKUP. Too often I have seen (and have myself as well) upgraded a web based software package and something goes wrong. If you do not have a backup then you are out of luck.

How you back up vastly depends on who you are hosting with and what control panel software (if any) you have. If in doubt please contact your web hosting company and request they perform a backup for you.

Step 2 - BACKUP YOUR INSTALLATION:

No.. really I cannot emphasise enough how much you should backup prior to upgrading so I wanted to put this as two steps for effect. Once you have backed up, move onto step 3.

Step 3 - Download the latest installation:

Head on over to http://www.openx.org/download and get the latest download, if you are uploading via FTP (as most people will) I recommend you download the ZIP version. Unzip the download to a local directory on your computer.

Step 4 - Connect via FTP and rename old folder:

1) Connect via FTP to your site and browse to one directory *above* your OpenX installation directory. For example OpenX was installed in “yourhomedir/public_html/openx” then browse to “yourhomedir/public_html”. For the purposes of this tutorial my OpenX installation directory is “openxupgrade”
2) Rename your OpenX directory on your webserver to “openxupgrade_bak” (or similar).

Step 5 - Upload new files:

1) Create a directory on your webserver which has the same name as the original directory you renamed in Step 4. For example I would create a directory “openx” so I would then have two directories in “public_html” which would be “openx” (currently empty) and “openx_bak” (old installation).
2) Upload the files that you unzipped in Step 3 to the new folder you just created.

Step 6 - Import old configuration:

1) In your FTP client browse to your old OpenX installation folder and then to the “var” directory.
2) Download any files that have “.conf.php” at the end, usually there will be a default.conf.php and yourdomain.com.conf.php, download both.
3) Re-upload these files into the new OpenX installation directory in the same location.

Step 7 - Run Upgrade Wizard:

Browse to http://www.yourdomain.com/openx/www/admin/install.php. You will see the below welcome screen click “Continue”.

Step 8 - Accept Terms and Conditions:

If you accept the terms and conditions click “I agree”.

Step 3 - System Check - Failed:

In this step you will get file permission errors. Follow the graphical instructions to change the permissions via FTP, repeat this for each directory/file listed. Then click “Retry”

Step 3 - System Check - Succeeded:

Click “Continue” to proceed.

Step 3 - Log in as Admin:

In order to upgrade the system you must log in with the administrator account, enter your login details then click “Continue”.

Step 3 - Database Settings:

It is possible you will now get a message regarding Timezone differences, if you need previous statistics to be accurate you will have to fix the data manually, this will not be covered here. Click “Continue”.

Step 3 - Database Upgrade Completed:

Click “Continue”.

Step 3 - Configuration Checklist:

Accept the defaults and click “Continue”.

Step 3 - Upgrade Completed:

In this step ensure that there are no errors. You will see in the below image that we have some issues. If you have SSH Access to your server change directory to the OpenX installation directory and run the commands listed in the RED section to set the correct permissions otherwise you will need to set these permissions through your FTP client. You should then see the second image.   Then click “Continue”

So firstly, I have been aware for some time that visitors using Internet Explorer 7 have issues when viewing my blogs. The issues that have arisen are mainly that some images display slightly out of alignment. Due to this, and due to the fact that in a week or so I will be releasing the massive OpenX tutorial (read more about that below) I decided that it was time to get this fixed.

As I have no idea on how to do this myself (believe me I have tried), I decided to post a request for assistance on RentACoder. In short RentACoder is a secure environment for anyone from Joe Average to a large organisation to connect with programmers from around the world. I am pleased to say I now have a gentleman from the US working on the issue as I write this (ok… ok he is probably in bed now, but you know what I mean). So I hope this will be all resolved in the next few days. So if you are a fellow blogger and need some help getting some things worked out on your site I would really recommend a look, so far I could not be happier.

Onto the changes on Entrecard, as most of my reader base will know Entrecard recently partnered with SezWho. SezWho provides services for people to vote on comments and posts on blogs (and other services such as forums as well). For the full details please see this post on the Entrecard blog.

This was one of the main reasons I decided to get the Internet Explorer images issue fixed up, because it is also affecting the voting stars, so please bare with me while I get this fixed up.

Finally, the much awaited (and anticipated) OpenX tutorial is nearing completion. For those of you that don’t know I have been writing a tutorial on installing, configuring and using OpenX, the open source advertising management solution. I even had a staff member from OpenX comment on one of my previous posts (which I thought was really cool). I have worked on this solidly for pretty much the whole weekend. I have completed parts one through three and estimate that there will be a total of six parts.

So if you have one or more blogs or websites keep an eye out on in the coming weeks for this full blown tutorial.

I would love to hear your thoughts on any of the site news, and especially the new Entrecard and SezWho partnership.

Stuart

So… keep an eye out and I will keep you posted.

Stuart

We all know I am a geek, my family, my friends and my lovely girlfriend. Because I am a geek, I am rather obsessed with backing up my files from my computers, as the last thing I want is to loose any of my data.

Due to this I have my data backed up in 4 locations, two onsite and two offsite locations (see I told you, I am obsessed). Well you can imagine my delight when I discovered that some of my data had gone missing recently. Namely this was the first two and half years of my university studies, yes that is right… TWO AND A HALF YEARS.

Sadly I have lost pretty much all of the course material for these subjects as I kept it all electronically. *LUCKY* for me I usually email myself most major assignments so I still have copies of these in yet *another* location elsewhere (which does still exist). This just means I now have to go in search of getting all the course materials from the lecturers again.

Anyhoo I just wanted to heed a warning to you all, that no amount of backups will suffice when it comes to human error for example in my case, I deleted a file and did not discover this until all backups had been overwritten. Or to get around this you must keep regular backups that are not ever overwritten (LOL can’t see this happening).

/cries and heads off to see what else he can find in scattered locations.

***SIDE NOTES*** Sorry that I have not been around lately, work has been busy as all heck. I know I still have a couple of tutorials up my sleeve and don’t worry I have not forgotten. I will try to do these as soon as I possibly can.

Stuart

I have been using Firefox almost exclusively since version 1, (with the only exception being sites that I cannot use it for as they specifically require Internet Explorer).

Anyhoo this year the crazy team at Mozilla (the makers of Firefox) have decided to shoot for a world record attempt of most software downloaded in 24 hours. So when their software is released on the 17 of June 2008 (US Time) for 24 hours people around the world are shooting to set the first world record of its kind.

So if you have been looking for a better web browser, a more secure web browser, or just think it is time for a change then take the plunge and give the new Firefox 3 a whirl. To get all the details you can click on the image below to get taken to the Firefox 3 World Record Attempt Page.

I have long needed a smaller and lighter solution than my Dell D620 for the commute to work and university. I recently purchased the HP2133 MiniNote (over the Asus’ EEEPC or another Ultra Portable PCs) as it seemed like a well-rounded machine and has been heavily targeted towards the university education sector. The specific model I am reviewing is the KZ960PA, which comes with:

• 1GB of RAM
• 1.6gHz VIA C7 CPU
• 120GB SATA hard drive
• Internal Bluetooth
• Internal webcam
• A 3 cell battery
• 2 USB ports*
• Gigabit Ethernet*
• Broadcom wireless card*
• Express card slot*
• Internal SD card reader*
• VGA output*
• Microphone input and a headphone output*

*(default across all models)

Initial Set Up

The MiniNote comes pre-loaded with Microsoft Windows Vista Basic edition. Unfortunately, the performance while booting the MiniNote with Vista was less than acceptable as the initial boot took well over 30 minutes to complete the setup and subsequent reboots ran well into the multiple minute mark. For this reason, as well as personal preference, I downgraded the operating system to Microsoft Windows XP Professional edition.

At this time some models are only shipping with 1GB of RAM. Due to various factors I decided to increase this to 2GB. Upon contacting HP to find out the cost of their RAM upgrade I was shocked to find that it was in excess of $500AUD (which is only a few hundred less than the cost of the laptop itself). Instead I headed down to my local computer store, purchased some RAM for $59AUD and then installed it myself. This was extremely easy to do for those familiar with the inside of a desktop or laptop (see the link in the resources section for further details).

Keyboard and Mouse

The keyboard on the MiniNote is quite large at 92% of the standard full size laptop keyboard, and touch typing was fairly easy after a couple of days of use. To keep the same perspective as the widescreen LCD the touchpad is wider than on most laptops and while this took a little time to get used to, it was a welcome addition to the MiniNote.

My only gripe with the touchpad is that while using the manufacturer’s driver the top 10% of the touchpad becomes unresponsive to vertical movement which I found extremely frustrating. To get around this I chose not to install the manufacturer’s driver and have just stuck with the Windows XP default driver. Finally there is a small button just above the touchpad to disable it, if you are going to do a lot of note taking this can be VERY handy.

 

Onboard Ports

On the left hand side of the MiniNote is the VGA output, a USB port and the microphone input and headphone output. On the right hand side you will find a Kensington hole for securing the laptop to a desk, the power input, a gigabit Ethernet port, one USB port, an Express Card slot and underneath that an SD Card Reader.

One point to note is that when an SD card is inserted it sticks out a few millimetres rather than sitting flush with the unit, so it is best not to store an SD card in the machine all the time. However considering the MiniNote has 120GB of hard disk storage, the need for additional permanent storage should not be an issue.

 

Graphics

The MiniNote has an 8.1 inch WXGA screen with a native resolution of 1280×768. I have found this can make things look somewhat small, though Windows XP and most applications have settings to increase the font and icon size to increase readability. The clarity of the screen is outstanding except when viewed in direct sunlight. The picture is sharp and crisp and makes for very easy viewing.

As the MiniNote has a larger screen resolution than the (original) EEEPC, websites can be viewed as they would be on any desktop rather than having to scroll left and right to see them which is a vast improvement.

I must point out that the internal graphics card does come with one major annoyance. By default if the MiniNote has 1GB of RAM the graphics card takes 128MB of shared memory under Microsoft Windows, once a 2GB stick of RAM is installed it takes a total of 256MB shared memory. For Windows XP this is overkill and causes less RAM to be available for other applications. At this time the BIOS does not allow for this default behaviour to be modified.

Multimedia

Initially I experienced issues with watching video and listening to audio in Windows XP but am pleased to say I have since found that there are workarounds available (see links in the resources section). Once I had fixed these issues I tested the video playback using DivX to encode a full copy of one of my favourite DVDs Oceans 11. The total size of the encoded file was 1.5GB and with fullscreen playback, both audio and video were flawless.

Office Tasks

Taking notes and running Microsoft Office 2007 was a breeze and I highly recommend Microsoft OneNote for all those students looking at the MiniNote. I attended several meetings and used Microsoft OneNote to take comprehensive minutes and Microsoft Word to write and edit documents. I could not find failings with the performance or usability for day-to-day office tasks.

Battery Time

Battery time is where I really feel that the MiniNote falls behind. With the standard 3 cell HP battery (some models come with a 6 cell battery as standard) the total running time is only 1 hour and 40 minutes when using wireless and with the screen brightness set to medium. I have found that this only *just* gets me through most meetings and would not provide sufficient power to get through a 2 hour lecture.

I have tried many tweaks to squeeze more time out of the MiniNote with little success. If the wireless is disabled along with all non-essential software and services, I can get a little over 2 hours out of the 3 cell battery. Although this is just enough for a lecture I would be happy to see HP release future versions that are more power-economical and last longer on a single charge.

Spare Parts

At the time of writing, HP did not have many spare parts available for the MiniNote. This currently includes spare batteries so those looking to purchase a 6 cell spare battery will have to put that idea on hold for a month or two. No-one at HP sales or support seems to know when they will be coming out (and most of their support people know little about the MiniNote) and this is something to keep an eye out for if you are looking to get the MiniNote as soon as possible.

Other Thoughts

The MiniNote is composed of an aluminium case over a magnesium-alloy chassis, has a very solid build and seems to be very sturdy. This is a welcome change to the plastic feel of the EEEPC, though this does add to the weight of the MiniNote.

Finally the performance of the device for most situations was acceptable. Once Windows XP was installed the system booted quickly and applications loaded with minimal delay. The only time I noticed considerable performance degradation was when I attempted to multitask between Firefox, Thunderbird, OneNote and Microsoft Word so if you keep the open applications to a minimum you should be fine.

Pros:

• Light and mobile
• Sleek look and sturdy design.
• Brilliant screen quality - clear, bright, and crisp 8.1 inch WXGA screen
• Gigabit Ethernet as a standard
• Inbuilt Wireless, Bluetooth and Webcam
• Near-full-size QWERTY keyboard (92% of full size)
• Excellent for office tasks when using Windows XP/Office 2007
• Excellent for Web Browsing
• Now has full driver support for Microsoft Windows XP, Microsoft Windows Vista
• Has an Express Card Slot, not available on many Ultra Portables
• Internal SD card reader
• Hard drive and RAM are user-upgradable (for those of you that are geeks and wish to do so)
• Good Audio and Video playback

Cons:

• Battery time for the 3 cell is often less than 1 hour 45 minutes
• Internal Graphics Card takes up a LOT of additional shared memory (see above for details)
• Unit is slightly heavier than other Ultra Portables
• Manufacturer’s touchpad driver could use some tweaking
• Spare parts such as batteries are not *yet* available.

Summary:

Overall I have to say that I am extremely happy with my HP 2133 MiniNote. If you are looking for something to use for taking notes, surfing the web, checking your email and other day-to-day office and study tasks the MiniNote is a brilliant buy. The only major downside that I could fault the machine on is the short battery time, however if you get a 6 cell model then this should become less of an issue.

I would highly recommend the MiniNote to university students for taking notes during lectures and tutorials as well to the business market for meetings. While the MiniNote is not primarily a multimedia machine, you could also use it for watching the occasional movie and listening to music. As a final note please feel free to post a comment here asking any questions and I will try to answer them as best as possible.

Resources:

• HP2133 Guide.com
• HP2133 Guide Forums
• HP2133 Gude - How to upgrade the RAM in the MiniNote
• HP2133 Guide - How to Install Windows XP on the MiniNote
• HP2133 Guide - MiniNote Drivers (including Audio Fix)
• MiniNote User
• MiniNote User Forums
• HP Official Site - Drivers for the MiniNote

• Wordpress installation & configuration (including plugins)
• Blogs and Blogging
• Web hosting (finding a decent host, configuring your site CPANEL and WHM advanced config and support)
• Desktop support (Windows XP, Office 2000 +)
• SQL and oracle pl/sql
• MySQL programming
• VMWare Workstation and VMWare Server Installation, Configuration and Use
• Linux server administration
• Linux Installation and Configuration
• Setting up a Subversion Server
• Other database programming
• Networking
• Installing other web packages (such as joomla, mambo and other php apps)
• C programming (some basic stuff I did in uni)

For a full and up to date list you can see the knowledgebase article here. If you have a question on any topic above or another topic that you would like to see if I can help out with just cruise on over to http://support.geekyhabitat.com and drop me a support ticket and I will see what I can do.

Stuart

So last days to have your say, what video tutorial do you want to see me put together first?