Neutron :: Bomb

by John Calian | Link to this article
Topics: lenovo | Mac OSX | Macbook Pro | Quicksilver for Windows | Windows XP

New job = new Windows machine to work on. And a Blackberry.

I am now using a Lenovo X60. Its very small (great for travel), battery is looooooong life, works very well in conjunction with MS Office, and overall I like it. My BB is an old school 7xxx series model.

But...

I had been using a Macbook Pro for business (and personal) since the summer of 2006, added an iPhone to my mix in summer of 2007, and am deeply in love with those devices. My productivity is wicked efficient in terms of daily tasks, and as I re-introduced myself to a Windows machine, I was left feeling lonely without all the nice apps I had grown accustomed to on my Mac.

For the phone situation, I am currently using two devices. My employer does not yet support iPhone in the enterprise, so I have a hacked solution until this situation fixes itself (rumor has it that iPhone support is coming; fingers crossed.)

So, I am only using the BB for email. I have my contacts and calendar synced on the iPhone with my Outlook contacts and calendar. I achieved this by using Google Calendar/Sync, MobileMe, Funambol, iCal, AddressBook and Outlook. Yes, a bit messy, but it works perfectly! See my posts here on using Funambol to sync contacts, and here to sync calendars.

For the laptop situation, there were two key things I was missing:

1. Getting myself on the Inbox Zero system in Outlook
2. Finding a Quicksilver replacement for Windows

I have accomplished both items, and Im back on track with wicked fast productivity.

Inbox Zero system in Outlook
My modification of the systems looks like this: All email to my inbox. Upon receipt I do the following things:

1. Read
2. Delete OR send to Archive folder OR send to Active folder
   

Delete - never needs to be seen again. Very invigorating to use.
Archive folder - need a receipt for the important messages, and always need to have emails for referencing/remembering
Active folder - my To Do list. Hardest one to work with, so I keep it light. Alternative to this is to keep To Do emails in the inbox. I admit this happens more than I like

Steps to make this work:

1. Create Archived and Active sub folders under the main Inbox folder
2. Learn basic Outlook shortcuts (ctrl+D for delete, shift+ctrl+V for moving to another folder)
3. Add a macro to move items if step 2 is not enough for you (not enough for me). Go here for instructions: http://lifehacker.com/software/quicksilver/hack-attack-a-beginners-guide-to-quicksilver-247129.php#c9091738
   
4. Done.

Quicksilver like application for windows
Found a great post on this here: http://www.lifeclever.com/scott-hanselman-10-quicksilver-alternatives-for-windows/
I have done further research, and tested out the following applications:

1. Colibri (website) - launches only apps
   
2. FARR (website) - launches apps and documents
   
3. DOMercury (website)
   
4. Launchy (website)

My choice of Windows app that most mimics Quicksilver: Launchy

This program most matches Quicksilver IMHO.

None of them are spectacular the way QS is, but Launchy gets you close. It will catalog anything, but you have to tell it to.

Good luck.

by John Calian | Link to this article
Topics: iPhone | Mac OSX | TiVo | TiVo Decode | TiVoToGo

Finally got around to figuring out how to get my movies and television shows I record with my TiVo HD onto Mac, and then what to do with them once I had them.

Goal: download the content I want and convert to a format (MPEG) that was free and clear of any Digital Rights Management (DRM) and able to be played using Front Row in a high quality (the exact quality off the TiVo box)

Items you need first:

1. TiVo Decode (download)
2. FFmpefX (download)
   
3. Your TiVo Media Access Key (MAK) - get this by logging into My TiVo online
4. IP address (optional) of your TiVo box (get this by looking it up on the TiVo machine OR use your router browser admin to look it up)
   
5. Roxio Toast Titanium (optional) to download content from the TiVo and to convert to iPod/iPhone format and/or burn content to DVD
   
6. VLC (optional) for video playback on Mac
   

Transfer to your Mac

1. Use Roxio Toast Titanium, which includes TiVo Transfer (this is the offical way to do it, and the software has a nice queuing service
2. Otherwise, you can simply browse to your TiVo via a web browser. Simply type in:
   • https://
   • Once there, you will need login info
   • login: tivo
   • pwd: your MAK
   • click around to find your shows or movies, and download one by one

Easy way to watch and convert (does NOT achieve goal)

1. Use Roxio Toast Titanium.
2. Watch content with Roxio movie player on your Mac
3. Convert to iPod format to use on your iPod/iPhone/Front Row

Cons: low quality once converted. Front Row uses low quality iPod format. Cant watch highest quality (HQ) on Front Row. Cant use Quicktime for HQ.

Correct way (IMHO) - no paid software required

1. Use browser for downloading
   • See instructions above
     
2. Use Tivo Decoder to decode
   • Open Terminal (the Mac application)
   • TYPE : tivodecode -m ########## -o distraction.mpg distraction.tivo
     • ########## = your MAK
     • distraction.mpg = the new name of your file
     • distraction.tivo = current name of file with .tivo extension
       
   • In just a minute or two, you’ll have a free and clear MPEG-2 to play with. Enjoy!
3. Use FFMpeg to convert decoded files to nice MPEG-4 format for viewing in Quicktime at highest quality. Also covers Front Row, and you can of course create iPod/iPhone formats as well
   
   • See instructions at the FFmpegX website
4. You should now have videos you can enjoy anywhere
   

Email me if you have any questions.

by John Calian | Link to this article
Topics: Address Book | Contacts | Funambol | iPhone | Outlook

Dilemma: I have an iPhone, which I sync with my Macbook Pro and Address Book, that I need to also sync with my work contacts that rest on the exchange server of my company. I am NOT going to sync my iPhone full time with my new work PC running windows. I will keep it synced with personal MBP. But, I really need all the contacts from my new job on my phone.


So, how do you sync iPhone with both Address Book and Outlook (using Exchange)? And, more importantly, how do I do it with the least amount of manual processing?

Solution found, and in less than 10 minutes of searching Google.

1. Keep my existing setup on MBP/iPhone
   
2. Create a new contact group for company contacts in Address Book
   
3. Sign up for Funambol, my.funambol.com
4. Set up account at Funambol
   
5. Download Funambol Outlook plug in
6. Configure plug in to ONLY sync contacts (waiting on calendar support)
   
7. Sync Outlook to Funambol plug in (One Way)
   
8. Download and install Funambol iPhone app
9. Sync using Funambol app on iPhone
10. One way does not function, so I had to do a full sync. It took me 2 tries with over 700 contacts
    
11. Sync iPhone contacts to MBP (via USB or MobileMe)
12. Open Address Book on MBP
13. Add your new company contacts to new company group (I simply searched for domain name used in the email address of my company contacts)
14. Done.

My iPhone now has all my company contacts on the phone, and can sync new/edited contacts from Outlook at any time, with no manual processing

Email me if you have questions.

Overall, pretty slick.

Problems:
The current version of the the Funambol iPhone app 'should' allow you to sync one way, so that in theory you could : sync Outlook to Funambol server (one way), then sync Funambol server to iPhone (one way), then sync iPhone contacts normally and you are done.

But, the one way on the iPhone is broken... so, I had to sync all 700+ contacts from iPhone BACK to Funambol server BEFORE I could snag the Outlook contacts from Funambol. Oh well. Its all FREE!!!

And it served my needs, as my company contacts are on my iPhone without forcing my iPhone to sync with iTunes on my work PC. Im happy.

Now, waiting on Calendar syncing, that will be excellent as well.