Panasonic TC-P50X1 50″ 720p Plasma HDTV

Today I ordered a Panasonic TC-P50X1 720p 50“ Plasma HDTV from Dell.com.

It is a Consumer Reports Best Buy*, which is their highest recommendation. It has great reviews on Amazon.com. I’ve seen the 42” 720p version of this in person at CompUSA and I loved the picture. Granted, it was one of the few TVs at that store set with realistic picture settings. Most TVs there were set for very high saturation and general vividity.

I got this TV for $649.00 plus a 5% Bing.com cashback rebate, which I’m actually pretty confident I’ll get.

Last week I ordered a FiOS DVR, which also provides HDTV service. (They don’t have a DVR that doesn’t provide HDTV service.)

So far, I love having the DVR, as I was confident I would. Last night I watched TT Isle of Man 2009 highlights and Charlie Rose interviewing Warrant Buffett, all recorded on schedule by my FiOS DVR. It costs me $10/mo more than the $5.99/mo my old non-HD tuner was costing me. While I hate paying for cable boxes (I prefer analog to digital cable for this reason) and I’m not a big fan of TV programming in general, I am a believer in making the best of things, so I’ll use the DVR to get the programming i want (Charlie Rose, etc.) and will hopefully enjoy watching movies more with this big screen. It replaces our perhaps 25-inch Sony Trinitron CRT TV, which is working fine.

* Do not confuse Consumer Reports’ “Best Buy” recommendation with the retail store of the same name. One is a classification with a stellar pro-consumer reputation, the other is a retail store with an anti-customer reputation.

24 November 2009 update: I went through difficulty with Dell getting that TV ordered. They canceled the order three times and they never told me why, except that after the first order was placed, they were unable to reach me by phone. Totally weird. In the end, I just went in on a double order with a friend. The TVs arrived at the office today. Boy, those boxes are big.

28 November 2009 update: Here are some customer review links:

• Newegg.com
• Amazon.com

Ad hoc screenshot workflow: OS X, Sharpshooter and Dropbox

I frequently take screen shots of error messages, dialog boxes, informational messages, web page receipts and more. I use OS X’s built-in <Apple-Shift-4> to initiate it. I then choose the area I want to take a picture of. At this point, Sharpshooter intervenes and lets me rename the picture, send it to the trash or move it to a directory other than my user-defined screen shot output directory. I’ve been doing this since… well, my screen shots go back to 28 August 2007.

Enter Dropbox
The latest wrinkle is that I decided it would be convenient to have these screen shots available on any of the machines I use (or even via a web site, in a pinch) so I recently changed my default screen shot output directory to a directory under the control of Dropbox. Now my screenshots are available virtually anywhere for me.

Eucalyptus: Excellent iPhone iPod touch Project Gutenberg ebook reader

Some blog entry led me to this review of Eucalyptus by Things Made out of Other Things last night.

Eucalyptus is the best ebook reader for iPhone I’ve seen. Worth it for little more than the cost of a paperback (ten bucks). The pinching to zoom out is priceless and the comfort of the book management beats Kindle for iPhone hands down. The page turning beats Stanza. (And I don’t miss Stanza’s annoying, fake page turning sound.) And the book selection beats Classics, though I think Classics is still a pretty nice and unique offering.

The Eucalyptus developers got my ten bucks on the strength of the above review alone and I consider it money well spent. As implied above, I already use Kindle for iPhone, Stanza, Classics and, now, Eucalyptus.

Newsstand iPhone RSS/Feed Reader Review

Short version: Newsstand for iPhone and iPod touch is the best goddamned mobile newsreader I have ever laid hands or eyes on. It is the best money I’ve ever spent on iPhone software.

When NewsGator announced that their difficult-to-use web feed service was going down, I was inspired to move to Google Reader and find an iPhone client that would sync with Google Reader. I followed their instructions and moved my feeds with an OPML file.

But what client to buy? I posted about that on 7 August 2009.

I’ve used Newsstand probably every single day since I got it. The days I don’t use it are those rare days where I don’t touch my iPhone for anything. On average, I load Newsstand an estimated ten times on a weekday and less on each weekend day. When I first bought it, it had some forgivable and completely minor rough edges — but it still spanked the competition. And it didn’t yet sync with Google Reader — it just downloaded from it. Syncing hadn’t arrived yet.

Then a new version of Newsstand (2.0) came out which fixed perhaps every single rough edge and, gloriously, added Google Reader syncing. This new version fixed things I’d reported, things I’d seen but hadn’t reported, improved things I didn’t even consider could be improved and added wonderful new features. Some of the improvements include

• In-app email sending. No more need to close Newsstand to email a message to someone.
• Google Reader syncing (not just downloading of posts)
• Awesome GUI cleanup, including things I didn’t know could be spruced up
• Google Mobilizer support. Works but I have a problem with the links that makes it unsuitable for use by me. Logged with developer via email, no reply.
• Something changed about the web browser. Was there no integral web browser before? I just don’t recall.
• Messages are now starred, not flagged. And the stars behave as I’d expect, whereas flags didn’t.
• Delicious.com (del.icio.us) support is now folded into Newsstand, not an external Safari process. Awesome!

Now I’ve been using Newsstand version 2.0 (now 2.1) since August, so I don’t recall all the little details that were obvious to me when I had freshly moved from version 1.x to 2.0. So I hope the author forgives my surely incomplete list if he reads this.

The German developer mostly ignores my emails suggesting enhancements. But version 2.0 included so many of my requests, I can hardly complain. I have a few open (reported, largely without any reply) suggestions but they’re not a big deal. I will admit, however, that I when I get something which is as close to perfection as Newsstand 2.1 is, it pains me to see it linger at 99pct. Perhaps I’ll post these improvement suggestions in the future.

I presently follow 133 Google Reader feeds per the NetNewsWire OS X client that syncs with my Google Reader account and which I have used for actually reading feeds exactly twice. I currently have 10,000+ unread posts, according to Newsstand’s badge. I don’t even try to keep up with them all. Newsstand has been rock solid since I bought version 1.0. It opens very quickly and simply never dies. And, boy, it is fast.

The version 2.0 introduced a crash on adding a feed in a certain way. I believe a minor upgrade fixed that. I don’t recall if I had reported it.

There is no question that this is the best five dollars I’ve spent on iPhone software. I spent $80 on OmniFocus (mostly out of dislike of the competing products) and $20 on their iPhone client. And I hardly use either piece of software. But that five bucks I spent on Newsstand keeps on paying me back. Every single day.

If you want a feed reader for the iPhone or iPod touch, you can’t possibly go wrong with Newsstand from omz:software in Germany.

Visa Gift Cards

Short version: My advice is to stay away from these.

I got one from Verizon as a perk for signing up for a year of FiOS service (internet and cable TV, not phone).

I went to use it (twice in a row) at Sears a couple weekends ago. The first transaction (about $80 bucks) went fine. The second one was declined. My plan was to empty the remaining twenty-something dollars on the Visa gift card and pay the balance (a couple bucks) in cash. No such luck. Unlike a store-brand gift card, it was not possible for Sears to know what the balance available on the card was. That’s okay for a real Visa card as there is an expectation that the user track his finances and know what’s available on the card.

But in my view, it is a reasonable expectation for the user of one of a Visa gift card to want to empty it completely and without having to track its balance to do so.

At the register, I called the number on the card (888-397-0765) and found myself in an automated system. This system advised me to use the Visa card first (absolutely not second) in a multi-payment-source transaction and to tell the clerk the amount available on the card. This was easy for me because I had my receipt from the previous transaction minutes before. I certainly hope that if I’d waded deeper into their menus, I’d have found an option to get the card’s balance— I didn’t need to but it could be a real hassle for others if this isn’t possible.

These cards are not cash. My advice if you get one is to spend it fast. Just get it off your plate. For example, convert it into an iTunes Gift Card (or several) or some other thing that you’ll definitely use. I certainly wouldn’t suggest using it here and there for various transactions — for something with perhaps a $100 balance to begin with, it’s not worth tracking the balance.

The nice clerk at Sears told me to keep the card around in case I ever need a refund as Sears will only refund to that exact card. Yet another reason to avoid these deceptive little monsters.

Never forget: This this is not cash and it’s not a proper Visa check or credit card. What’s worse, it’s not even as convenient as a store-brand card, which is quite an indictment.

Angels & Demons

Saw it last night. Disappointed.

Upgraded MacBook Pro Internal Hard Drive

I installed my new (320GB, 7200RPM) Hitachi 7K320 (0A57547) 2.5-inch hard drive in my MacBook Pro. Copied it from 120GB 5400RPM internal Fujitsu drive yesterday. Maybe didn’t SVN commit trivial changes after 6pm yesterday. No biggie. Here’s a review of the drive by Tomshardware. And here’s the NewEgg page, for user reviews and specs.

These install instructions worked great. I was referred to that page from this page, which I believe I found in a google search.

I got a little scare when the power button didn’t turn the MBP on at first. But pushing it a couple times or holding it a while or the combination of both handled this.

The install didn’t take more than thirty minutes.

I have 202GB fee now instead of 12GB. I can move my iTunes from my G-Drive Mini Triple 500GB onto the internal drive now. And perhaps even move my pictures there. But before I do, I have to make enough room on my backup drive for the extra data that’ll be on my system drive.

A note about my MacBookPro. I’ve been putting off this hard drive install as I wanted to get the top panel replaced on my MacBookPro first. The paint has been coming off under my left palm for some time now. But I called the Apple store the other day and they needed 24 hours to turn it around. And I don’t live near there so I couldn’t do it then.

I’m noting this in my blog, today, 9 April 2009, so there’s absolutely no question that this paint problem was not caused by the new hard drive. The hard drive came way after the paint problem.

ForkLift – Best Damned OS X FTP Client

Last night the Cyberduck FTP client gave me trouble for the last time. It frequently asks me to overwrite — and thus re-upload — files. And most of my FTP uploads are of large files (hundreds of megabytes.) I don’t know if the overwrite prompts are because the connection disappears momentarily or what. But they are annoying.

So today I decided to get another FTP client.

I started with this review to get a beginning list of contenders.

To cut to the chase, there was only one FTP client besides Cyberduck I really liked using: ForkLift. I bought it today. Once I’d seen the other clients and ensured SCP/SFTP was working for me with ForkLift, I didn’t hesitate to purchase it.

Here are my notes on the FTP clients I considered:
Forklift (on sale via MacUpdate Promo for $29.95. cf. $44.95)
http://binarynights.com/
Tried it today. Instantly loved it. Just loved it. SCP worked (SFTP). I was instantly hooked.
I like its interface more than Cyberduck, though I definitely appreciate Cyberduck’s price.
Cyberduck
http://cyberduck.ch/
Looks fine to me. But in actual use, sucks for me due to one big problem. Constant problems uploading large files to my client’s FTP site. Hassle. Might be a resume (interruption recovery) problem.

Would I go back to Cyberduck (free) if I didn’t have the upload problem? No, I wouldn’t. Because to me the $30 I paid for ForkLift is totally worth it to use the tool that I know is the most comfortable for me. But would I recommend Cyberduck to someone that wasn’t totally in love with ForkLift? Absolutely! Cyberduck is a terrific tool and it’s definitely my second choice among the OS X FTP clients I’ve tried.
Transmit
http://www.panic.com/transmit/
Tried it. Interface sucks. Windows are tiny and borders are damned thick. Not natural. By way of comparison, ForkLift was just fab from the get-go.
Interarchy
http://nolobe.com/interarchy/
Tried it today, 17 March 2009. I didn’t like using it. Not comfortable at all. I’ll pass.
Yummy
http://www.yummysoftware.com/
I just don’t like the look of it from the Flash screen shot.
Tried it. Didn’t like the interface. Thick borders, though not as thick as Transmit’s borders. Causes a mental disconnect for me.
Fetch
http://fetchsoftworks.com/
Looks ugly to me.
Not even going to try it.
Filezilla
http://filezilla-project.org/download.php
Not pleasant to use. To Windowsy. I use it in Windows on machines I don’t have Directory Opus on and it’s a worthy tool with a great price.

Why I Switched to OS X

I switched to OS X from Windows in late first quarter 2007. I sold my Dell 17“ single-core (Pentium M) notebook and bought a 15.4” 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro to replace it. I immediately started using it with Parallels Desktop 3 with XP Pro and XP Home virtual machines for work. My work requires Windows.

Parallels Desktop 3 has run fine for me since then. I’ve had the virtual machines go corrupt about three times but I always had backups. And no problems recently.

I recently jumped to VMware Fusion 2. So far, it’s been fine. I’m hoping it’ll give me better speed due to its dual-processor/core handling. I haven’t noticed a difference yet. But VMware Fusion 2 has been stable for the month or so I’ve been using it.

Now, why did I switch from Windows? The simpler answer is what kept me from switching sooner?

Reasons Not to Switch to OS X

1. I didn’t want to miss my Alt- keyboard shortcuts for menu items. OS X doesn’t do them this way. I got over this quickly once I moved to OS X.
2. I didn’t want to miss my second mouse button. I got used to this quickly.
3. Slightly different keyboard. I adjusted. It took about a week.
4. Directory Opus. Man, I still miss Directory Opus. It is the most wonderful thing about still using Windows. Path Finder, which I purchased immediately upon switching, doesn’t hold a candle to Directory Opus. In fact, I hardly use Path Finder.
5. Beyond Compare 2. I missed Beyond Compare 2 for a long time after switching and knowing there was nothing like it in OS X kept me from switching for a long time. Well, I found DeltaWalker from the gracious folks at Deltopia and my pain is gone.

Reasons to Switch to OS X

1. It’s really UNIX. Yum.
2. Trayless, slot-loading optical drive on their notebooks. Superficial? Maybe. But important to me.
3. Thin notebooks.
4. No damned paint to rub off on the notebooks like on my Dell. (It took me two years to prove this expectation wrong — my MBP paint is rubbing off now. But AppleCare should cover it.)
5. Borderless windows. Or single-pixel borders. Awesome.
6. I was bored of Windows. I wanted a new system to explore and discover.
7. Other reasons will come to me and I’ll add them here as they do.

VMware Fusion 2

There was a three-day MacUpdate Promo for Parallels Desktop 4 recently. That brought me back to the subject of whether I should upgrade from Parallels Desktop 3, which I use every single day. The upgrade options I would consider are VMware Fusion 2 and Parallels Desktop 4. Sun has some offering, but I’m not seriously considering it. Maybe next time I upgrade I’ll give it a try. I don’t mind paying a little money for a super user experience and blazing speed.

The reviews I read on Parallels Desktop this time, especially Amazon.com user reviews, turned me off of it. Their reports of problems with 4 but no problems with 3 really resonated with me, a happy Parallels Desktop 3 user myself.

So I bought VMware Fusion 2.0 from Amazon.com. There’s a rebate going but Amazon is not listed as a qualifying vendor. However, I priced all the qualifying vendors listed on VMware’s site. Every single one had the same price: $69. And VMware themselves were ten bucks more — for a download! I get a box from the other vendors but VMware had the gall to charge me more for less. So I LM for my VMware sales rep. No reply for days. I called back, talked to a guy who said he’s relay this to my sales rep. No one got back to me.

Screw it, I decided to buy from Amazon.com. Their price was lower than the other guys ($54 the day I bought) and there’s no bullshit and no shipping charges since I have Amazon Prime prepaid second-day shipping. Also, it’s easier to buy from Amazon than the other guys because Amazon’s purchase line is so good and I’m already set up for a quick purchase.

In the end, I calculated that buying from Amazon would cost me $12 more than buying from the guys with the rebate and including eight dollars shipping from one of those vendors. And no rebate hassle with Amazon — just a fair price today.

So I got my VMware box in the mail from Amazon and it had a blue sticker on the box that read, “$30 Crossgrade Rebate; Details Inside; Expires 6/30/09; ALA31045159”. That’s the best of both worlds! Thank you, Amazon! That means Amazon not only had the best purchase experience but also the lowest final price. Wow.

DeltaWalker Adds Word/Excel/PowerPoint/PDF file comparison support!

DeltaWalker 1.8.6, released this week, adds support for comparing Microsoft Office and PDF files. And it works fast. I’m totally satisfied with how Deltopia implemented this. I use DeltaWalker primarily in OS X and a little in Windows. DeltaWalker has helped me ween myself from Windows and do more work in my preferred environment, OS X. And Office file comparison support is yet another nail in Windows’ coffin for me.

I believe DeltaWalker is the best overall OS X file/folder comparison tool available — it just doesn’t seem to be the best-known yet. Now that DeltaWalker can compare Office files and PDFs, I hope its notoriety will start to catch up with its exceptional feature set and quality.

Just before I purchased DeltaWalker, the developers told me to expect Word/Excel comparison support soon. That was an important feature for me. Deltopia delivered on their promise. In fact, DeltaWalker’s support for Microsoft Office files is far superior to that of BeyondCompare 2.0 — BeyondCompare 2.0 relies upon a VBA macro to extract the text from Word and Excel files for comparison, which wasn’t especially fast nor reliable for me.

But DeltaWalker’s support for Office files has been super fast and bulletproof. And DeltaWalker’s Office and PDF support is part of the core product, not just a third-party extension like it is with BeyondCompare 2.0. And BeyondCompare 2.0 requires a separate download to get its doc/xls comparison support, which wouldn’t bee a big deal if it had proven reliable for me.

Do I Have to Own Microsoft Office? Nope.
Another benefit of DeltaWalker’s more dedicated approach to Office file comparison support is that it doesn’t require the user to have Microsoft Office installed on the machine. Which is awesome for users of alternative word processors, such as OpenOffice.org. Whatever word processor or spreadsheet software you use, as long as you save the files in xls/xlsx or doc/docx format, DeltaWalker supports them. This shows some serious professionalism on Deltopia’s part. A kind of caring for real end users that you usually see more of from open source developers and less from commercial operations.

PowerPoint Postscript
I didn’t focus on PowerPoint support in this article because I don’t use it. But it is supported by DeltaWalker 1.8.6 — quite comprehensively, I’m sure.

iPod touch

I’ve been easing into the idea of getting an iPod touch for the following main uses

– Portable calendar (read/write)
– Portable address book (read/write)
– Portable email
– Portable web browsing. In house and on trips away from home, etc.
– Music playing (not very important to me since I have two iPods already)

Better for me than one of Nokia’s n700- or n800-series devices.

And I just hate to use my Treo for address lookups and calendaring. The screen is just too small. And no wifi. Thanks for nothing, Palm. I’m very disappointed with Treos’ historic lack of wifi.

It’s important to me that it have great syncing with my OS X iCal and Address Book apps, which I fully expect to be the case.

My wife supported me when I mentioned it today and pushed me to get one. She actually pushed me to get the 32GB version so I don’t need to upgrade later, but the difference in price (8GB $230, 16GB $299, 32GB $399) was too much for me. I wanted to keep the price around two hundred bucks. A shopping site search had a legitimate seller with an unexpectedly low price: PCConnection had the iPod touch 8GB 2nd Gen (the latest) for $189.99! Wow! I bought one immediately.

The Official List of OS X File/Folder Comparison Software

Since July 2007, when I switched from Windows to Mac (OS X) I’ve been looking for something to replace one of my favorite Windows tools, BeyondCompare 2.x. I use BC for work and to keep directories synchronized for myself. It wasn’t until MacUpdate Promo (daily OS X deals site) DeltaWare on 21 Nov 08 that I found out about it. I guess I should have looked harder. To help others like me and keep them from wasting months or years of their lives without a file/folder comparison tool, I decided to make a list of all the tools out there. If I missed one, please let me know and I’ll gladly update my list.

This list documents my own experiences and opinions. They’re not necessarily the experiences or opinions of anyone else.

I’m not including terminal-based tools like diff.

[] Eventually I may make this into a matrix.

#1 DeltaWalker <br>Highly Recommended!

Platforms: OS X, Windows, Linux
UI: Java/Eclipse SWT, so it uses native OS X controls in OS X, making for a natural look and feel for any OS X user. Even supports Default Folder X since it uses native controls.
Pros: Comfortable, full-featured, easy to use and learn, easy on the eyes, affordable, multiple platforms, three-way comparison/merge
Support: World class support. Fast, professional, smart, friendly.
Cons: None.
Price: $39.95 for Personal edition
Stars: ***** (five of five)

Araxis Merge

Platforms: OS X, Windows (Java)
UI: Probably SWT
Pros: Full-featured, multiple platforms
Cons: Expensive, less comfortable to use (subjective) and harder on the eyes than DeltaWalker, three-way comparison/merge. Expensive. Did I mention expensive?
Support: No experience with their support
Price: $129 for Standard Edition
Stars: *** (three of five)

Guiffy

Summary: I don’t know why someone would choose this over DeltaWalker.
Platforms: OS X, Windows, Linux, Java native
Pros: I haven’t evaluated it as its interface was not appealing to me. Multiple platforms.
Cons: Interface not appealing to me, expensive.
Support: No experience with their support
Price: $66
Stars: Insufficient data

DiffMerge

Summary: Free, underfeatured, lacks polish. Okay if you’re on a serious budget and don’t mind a more Linux look than OS X. Not for someone who wants the best tools and attractive user interfaces.

Changes

Summary: Not yet worth its low price.
Platform: OS X
UI: Native
Pros: Low price. But same price as DeltaWalker Personal without DeltaWalker’s awesomeness.
Cons: Folder interface turned me off and was hard to use. Top bar was instantly uncomfortable. Folder comparison interface turned me off immediately and this never wore off.
Support: No experience with their support
Price: $39.95
Stars: ** (two of five)

FileMerge

Summary: Weak, underfeatured, no folder comparison support, free. You get what you pay for. Comes with OS X.
Stars: * (one of five)

Compare Folders (added to this list 15 September 2009)

Summary: Haven’t tested it. Saw it mentioned by a MacUpdate Promo commenter today, 15 September 2009.
Platform: OS X
UI: Native
Pros: No data
Cons: No data
Support: No data
Price: $24.95
Stars: No data

DeltaWalker: Affordable and comfortable OS X file and folder comparison! Finally!

Today’s MacUpdate Promo — DeltaWalker — is a breath of fresh air! A reasonable and comfortable replacement for BeyondCompare for OS X, without the exorbitant price of Araxis Merge that kept me from even bothering to review it when I first found it some time ago. I didn’t evaluate it until today — and that was just to compare with DeltaWalker so I was making the most informed decision (to buy DeltaWalker) possible.

So now I’ve evaluated DeltaWalker, Araxis Merge, FileMerge, Changes and DiffMerge. I’ve never evaluated Guiffy as it just never looked appealing interface-wise.

I’m a longtime and heavy user of BeyondCompare 2.x in Windows. For me, BeyondCompare is the gold standard of file/folder comparison apps but it is Windows-only and I only use Windows for work — and, even then, only when I must. Like when I need BeyondCompare.

My Needs
Folder comparison is a must. File comparison is also a must. I’m particular about having a certain feature set and DeltaWalker fit the bill so I bought it via this promo today.

Great Support
I got a prompt response from Deltopia support today asking about Word doc comparison support (Araxis Merge has a filter that strips the text out of Word docs so they can be compared.) Deltopia support told me they’ve already started on Word and PDF comparison support and that they’ll definitely have it out by the end of this year (2008). That broke the approximate tie (ignoring price momentarily) between DeltaWalker and Araxis Merge.

Deltopia support has been consistently prompt, professional and even friendly. And it seems from all the reviews I’ve read, my experience is the norm. As a support professional I can comfortably say that Deltopia provides world class support. The kind of support you’d put up with merely passable software for — but with these guys, you don’t have to make that compromise.

User Interface Comfort
Although Araxis Merge uses native OS X controls and DeltaWalker is apparently a Java app or uses some other toolkit I’m not familiar with (the controls and icons didn’t ring a bell), I was surprised that I found DeltaWalker instantly and consistently more comfortable than Araxis Merge.
So in the end it came down to more than just Araxis’ huge price vs. the more reasonable DeltaWalker Personal price: I actually was more comfortable inside DeltaWalker.

The Other Tools
The other tools I’ve evaluated didn’t come close to the top two, DeltaWalker and Araxis Merge. And DeltaWalker gets my money, without hesitation.

Fanboy? Nope, Just Lucky
If this review seems over the top, please give my other reviews a read. I know when I’ve found a gem — and Deltopia gets it all right: Features, interface, documentation and support/service.