So last week we served up some sites and programs you could use to watch television programming on your computer or mobile device.  While some people have certainly embraced the glory of streaming internet television, some people still prefer getting their fix from the 60″ flatscreen holding court in their living room. But what if you could get all that lovely internet TV on your actual TV?  Without the pesky bother of paying for cable?  Well, look no farther.  Here are a handful of options you can use to accomplish just that feat.

Just connect them!

Lots of newer televisions and computers come with the inputs for proper connection built right in: VGA, DVI, S-Video, HDMI… with a paltry $30 investment in a nice long cable, you can connect your computer directly to your television and treat it like an extra-large display. Newer operating systems (Tiger through Snow Leopard for Mac, and Windows 7 for PC) even have custom interfaces like Front Row and Media Center for watching videos. Some even support the use of remote control devices.  If your hardware is new enough, this might be the cheapest and simplest option. A tip: take photos of the ports on your television and computer, take them in to your local electronics store, and make sure you walk out with the proper adapters for your system. And keep in mind, that may have to include audio cables.

Game Systems

If you enjoy video games as well as videos, you might have a streaming option available to you already. Most of the newest major gaming consoles have some option for streaming video through their internet connection to your television.  The Nintendo Wii has a Netflix “channel,” so you can enjoy all the titles available to Watch Instantly. The Sony PlayStation 3 also has the Netflix option, with other portals to MLB.tv, Hulu+, and additional Sony content. Microsoft’s Xbox 360 has Netflix, ESPN3, and Zune content portals, and will soon feature Hulu+ as well.  You should note, however, that in addition to the cost of the console, Xbox requires you to pay for a yearly Xbox Live membership in order to access any of its online features.  And of course, Netflix and Hulu+ are only available to users who have paid for a membership.  While using your gaming console (either with an online account for video streaming or the system’s built-in browser on a site like YouTube) to watch video can be easy, it’s not particularly cost-effective unless you already own the system or will use it just as much for gaming as watching.

Magic Boxes

If you’re not much of a gamer, but connecting your TV directly to your computer is impractical, one of the “magic box” systems might be perfect for you. The two most popular are the Roku player and AppleTV. The boxes are separate components, like a cable box or DVD player, that you connect to your TV and an internet source (both have the option to connect via ethernet or wirelessly.  They stream content from either your PC or the internet through a series of “channels.” AppleTV, of course, gives you full access to the downloads and rentals available on the iTunes Store, as well as YouTube.  Roku has access to Hulu+ and Amazon Connect. Both boxes support Netflix Watch instantly.  The AppleTV has MLB.tv, while Roku has the UFC and NHL.  Both boxes have NBA GameTime. Just like the gaming consoles, subscription fees apply for all streaming content, but since these boxes are single purpose, the hardware is cheaper (AppleTV is $99, Roku runs $60-$100).

Boxee

As the name implies, Boxee could technically qualify as a “magic box,” since you can buy the system from them directly on their website for $199.  However, anyone with a spare computer and a little technical know-how can make their own Boxee. The software, which actually does the heavy lifting in a Boxee system, is free. What it provides is a streamlined, easy-to-use interface for navigating different “channels” of content, from Netflix to YouTube to your computer’s hard drive. It has an excellent search function that lets you search for specific content across all channels, and even a Watch Later feature that lets you save programming to a list so you don’t have to search for it again. Boxee is also the most social of the streaming options, since it links your activity to your login and lets you share it with friends in the form of recommendations. If you have a spare computer that will successfully connect (à la the first section) to your television and feel comfortable following the instructions on their website, creating your own Boxee is the least expensive way to get a great user interface for watching internet TV on your TV.  If you choose the DIY-route, you’re only paying for cables and content subscriptions and rentals.

So those are the methods we’ve come across to watch streaming online content on your TV.  What have you guys been using to do the job?

Image courtesy of netflix.com

And it’s also time for spring cleaning!  Happily, the Lower East Side Ecology Center is making the disposal of your broken and outdated electronics really easy for you–they’re hosting a baker’s dozen of e-waste recycling events through May 22 at various locations in all five boroughs.  And since New York state just passed a law making it illegal to throw away these old electronics starting in 2015, recycling your e-waste is a good habit to get into.

Here are a few tips to consider when preparing your electronics for recycling:

• Make sure you wipe any hard drives. And that means zeroing them out. Instructions for Mac are here.  For Windows machines, Gizmodo has written a very thorough set of instructions.  We personally really like Darik’s Boot and Nuke, which will work on any brand of hard drive. You can also contact your favorite IT professional so they can do it for you (wink wink, nudge nudge).
• Bring hardware only. Old household batteries, CDs, DVDs, zip drives, VHS and cassette tapes have to go somewhere else.  Check out the NYC Department of Sanitation or GreenDisk for details.
• Electronics yes, appliances no. Keep those old refrigerators, air conditioners, and microwaves at home.

Also give some thought to how you’re going to get it there:  ZipCar members who show their card to the info table at the event get a $15 driving credit. If you’re not a member yet but thought about getting a new account to use a ZipCar to transport your stuff, you can use the promo code “EWASTE” for a $25 discount on the application and $60 of free driving.

If you’ve got some old e-junk lying around, you really should take advantage of this event. You get a clutter-free home or office, some extra mileage you can use on a fun springtime outing, and that beautiful and elusive feeling of self-satisfaction that can only come from doing something good for the environment.  What’s not to love?

LES Ecology Center via Makezine

Dear Rovio,

I really wanted to love you, I did.  Your wifi enabled webcam, your omni-directional steering, your programmable web interface.  You were going to be my little remote sentry to keep an eye on my lair and keep me company on a long winter’s night.  Alas, it just wasn’t meant to be…

(hit “read more” for the rest of the story)

I bought my Rovio back in March when two of my favorite sites, Hackaday and Woot teamed up to show me a little of the awesomeness that you can do with the little robotic Rovio from Wowwee.  There was even a 50% off deal on woot that day for Roborealm, a really powerful realtime video processing software designed to let you quickly set up Rovio to drive and avoid obstacles while moving.  It even has preconfigured controls for the Rovio drive system!

Just check out this list of yummy bullet pointed goodness:

• Easily control Rovio remotely 24/7 from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Use any web-enabled device: PC or Mac, cell phone, smartphone, PDA or even your video game console.
• Rovio detects your computer settings and guides you through the setup process.
• Its head-mounted moveable camera and wide range of vision enable you to see and hear exactly what Rovio sees and hears, on your screen.
• Set waypoints so that Rovio can navigate itself around your home, without having to control each step yourself!*
• At the click of a button, send Rovio back to the charging dock using its self-docking capabilities – even when you are not at home!*
• Guide Rovio through dimly lit locations with the aid of its built-in LED headlight.
• Rechargeable NiMH battery included
• 1 x Charging dock with built-in TrueTrack Beacon
• 3 x Omni-directional wheels
• 1 x Head-mounted VGA camera
• LED illumination
• 1 x Speaker and 1 x microphone for 2-way audio
• USB connectivity
• Wi-Fi connectivity (802.11b and 802.11g)

The problems start soon after I opened the package, charged the Rovio overnight and started to play.

Using a web browser I drove the Rovio off it’s charging station, looked around my office a little steering left and right, panned the camera up and down and then, nothing.

The Rovio shut down.

Thinking maybe I bumped it off it’s charger before I went to bed I carefully placed it so I was sure the contacts were in the right place, the lights came back on and I left it for another day to charge up fully so I could start to play.

The next day, same thing.

Hey, these things happen.  I’ve received many parts DOA before, no biggie.  I called Wowwee, the manufacturer and get the standard “Our normal phone hours are 9am to 5 pm est, all of our lines are busy.  Leave a message and we’ll get back to you” except I’m calling at 11am and it’s not a holiday.  I leave a message and wait.

Not hearing back, the next day I go to their website and fill out an online ticket, and wait.

And wait.

Over the next week I called (during normal business hours) no less than 20 times and never got a person on the phone nor did I ever get a call back.

I did some online research and found out many, many people were having this problem, especially the other people that bought them from woot.  At least I’m not alone. (yay?)

After several days I finally get someone to return an email and they say they’re going to send me a new battery (great!).  A week later I follow up (again) and they say it’s slated for shipment the following day.

Over a week later I get a package from Wowwee and it’s….a replacement wall adapter, not a new battery.  I try it anyway and of course the Rovio still doesn’t hold a charge so I write back (having long since given up trying to call them).

After another week and a half I get a reply that they’re going to ship out a battery and that it will take four (4?!) weeks to arrive.  Ok, I’ll wait.  I *really* want to play with my no-that-new-anymore toy so I’ll stick it out.

Guess what?  It’s four weeks later, no battery, no response via email and of course no one is answering their phones (still).

I really wanted to love this toy, it has so many features and so much possibility however the company behind it and many other products couldn’t care less about the end user and will do anything they can to make you go away.

In short, if you want to take your chance and buy one just pretend that the company that made it went out of business.  If you’re OK with receiving absolutely no support what-so-ever from the manufacturer then you can try your luck and hope you won’t get a lemon.  As for me Wowwee won’t be seeing a dime from me for a long time.

Getting back to the heart of the matter: what is bad about the Droid and what is bad about the iPhone. You may be asking yourself why just the bad stuff? I think if you want fanboys to fawn over either device you have a lot of sites extolling their values all over the internet. So lets start.

iPhone: No removable battery Battery life Closed source architecture No tethering * Single carrier Lack of Google Voice

Now let me explain these a bit. The battery life and no removable battery go hand in hand. The battery life takes a huge hit mostly because the phone is constantly trying to find towers and set itself to the proper reception. I alleviated my problems with a mophie juice pack, but I am also a phone abuser. I do not like the fact that the iPhone’s graphical OS is not open source. While tethering is something that the iPhone actually does and AT&T is keeping it from us, I think that Apple should strong arm AT&T a bit more over this one, which runs into the single carrier issue. If they had more carriers perhaps a lot of these issues would be alleviated. The last complaint is just a small problem that opened a very large wound. I like Google Voice, should I have to jailbreak my phone to get it? No, did I? Yes.

Now on to the Droid.

Droid: Keyboard keys are way too close No search in emails Zooming into a web pages feels laggy The home screen has only 3 screens for Apps The home screen feels laggy when sliding The volume up/down rocker Visual voicemail Screen accuracy App quality

Let me expound on the Droid flaws. I loved my 8700c Blackberry, the keys were very comfortable. I wish all keyboards were like that, I have however learned to love virtual keyboards. Searching in emails, I didn’t realize how important this was until I needed it. The iPhone has it, the Droid needs it! I really don’t like the web browser on the Droid. When zoomed in it seems off in terms of how it pans left/right/up/down. The same goes for the home screen, it is sluggish panning left to right and vice versa. Now for the volume key, I don’t like having ringtones going off and my phone is always set to vibrate. However, it can easily be taken off of vibrate and turned on just by putting it in my pocket. There really needs to be a lock button for the ringer. Visual Voicemail is an App that Verizon has made on the Droid. Listening to a voicemail comes through the speaker, this is plain stupid. The accuracy of where your finger is on the screen can also use some improvement, it is not bad, but it is no iPhone. Which brings me to the last complaint. There are Apps out on the Droid that crash and are very broken, it’s a minefield.

I have to say, while the Droid has some growing up to do, I do really like it. Is it a iPhone killer? No, but I don’t mind using it as a replacement.

I had left it in my bag on a motorcycle ride through NJ and when I took it out to take a quick picture I realized that something in my bag had cracked the screen and make it totally unusable.

I didn’t want to throw away a perfectly good $400 camera, but without the screen modern point-and-shoots are very difficult to use (can’t set the flash, view pictures, zoom level, etc).  Luckily a couple internet searches led me to the Canon customer support line 800-652-2666.  When I called them they were actually really helpful.  I told them what camera I had and what I needed and they found the right screen for me with no hassle.  Best of all the replacement was only around $35 shipped!

Watch the video below for a quick run through on how to replace a screen.  Let us know if you want to see anything else worked on or questions answered in a video with the contact page or just leave a comment below.  I promise I’ll frame the shot better next time!

Not sure what a RAM slot is?  Unclear what a USB port looks like? Sonic840 on deviantart.com put together an incredible collection of images of everything from RAM slots to CPU sockets to power supply cables.

I’ve already printed out a copy and stuck it on my wall over my workbench, I might have to order a full sized print from the creator.

Click here for a full sized version.

http://sonic840.deviantart.com/art/Computer-hardware-poster-1-7-111402099

found via gizmodo

Fragmentation deals with hard drives, more specifically the filesystem on hard drives. Almost all  filesystems fragment, but some are better than others. But what exactly is fragmentation?  Hard drives are composed of platters of magnetic media ( think of an old LP record) The files take up a block of space , if there is free space on the drive , the block are contiguous with each other. Perhaps a visual explanation would help here. And this is a basic explanation of the internals of a file system.

Imagine that we have 4 files, I will label them 1 through 4, 0 will be free space.

blank space 00000000000000000000000000000000000000000

allocated files 111111112222222222223334444444400000000000

As you can see some of the files are bigger than others ( more numbers), and you can also see that they are back to back, but lets say that you no longer need file #3 and delete it. It will now look like this :

allocated files 111111112222222222220004444444400000000000

The file #3 is now gone* , but there is a hole in the file system. Next time you write a file, lets call call it file 5 it will start from the first free spot on the system and continue to the next free spot and the next. So it will now look like this :

allocated files   111111112222222222225554444444455555000000

Now when the hard drive tries to read the file off the disk( let us say #5 ), it will start at 5, then skip over the 4th file and continue reading the file. This is a very basic explanation ,  but this is something on most filesystem happens all the time. Computers create alot of temporary files , which get deleted al the time. You can imagine that this can heavily fragment your system. These days the filesystems are alot better than than before, and they try to minimize the fragmentation of the filesystem, but it still does happen.

The reason that this is bad is because it causes the moving heads ( the part of the hard drive that actually reads the data, again think of your pickup head on a turntable) to have to move back and forth across the hard drive to find your files. The less fragmentation the drive has, the faster the data will be read and the less the drive will thrash about.

There are programs to get your file system back in tip top shape, and they really don’t need to be run more than once a month. Depending on the OS, I have a few links below that will help.

Windows – NTFS, fat, fat32 Windows comes with a built in defragmentation tool which is decent. ( right click my computer , goto tools, defragment) Windows filesystems fragment really easily, you can use the built in one or : http://www.diskeeper.com/

OSX – HFS and HFS Plus filesystem try to keep fragmentation low, but when it happens you can use:

http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php

Linux – ext2,3 filesystem manage fragmentation really well, but when they do become fragmented you can use : e2defrag , shake for ext3. In linux you will most likely never need these.

In closing, let me say that this is a basic run down of how fragmentation and defragmentation of drives and file systems.

* There is alot more that goes on when you delete a file, but that is for another article.

This is where 3rd party vendors come in. While there is a plethora of battery products out there for the iphone, the best I have found is Mophie. I ordered the Juice pack air and I love it. Yes, it makes the phone heavier, but it doubles the battery life of the phone. On a busy day I need it. There have been a a few heavy use days when i actually had to recharge both phone and battery. Which bring me to my next topic.

The battery pack doubles as a protective case, it also uses the new European charging standard for phone plugs (micro usb)*.  The case acts as a passthrough and you can sync your phone to Itunes with no problem. It also has a small recessed switch at the bottom. The Iphone actually uses more power when it charges, so leaving it on all the time would drain the battery. When it is fully charged , the battery pack will start vibrating alerting you to shut it off.

I really love my phone, and I love my battery pack. I would recommend it to anyone. For 70$ , it’s a steal.

* American phones will get no such love, standards? Who needs them. Maybe when we finally switch to the metric system.

-Raz