Book signing at the Blue Heron Bookstore!

Hi everyone!

I just wanted to let you know that I will be doing a book signing this weekend on Saturday, 08/04/07 at The Blue Heron Bookstore. I'll be there from 1:00pm until 2:30pm and would love to see all of you there.

The Blue Heron Bookstore is located in Peninsula, next to the Winking Lizard. Here’s the address (click on the address for a map to open in a new window):

1593 Main Street
Peninsula, OH 44264
(330) 657-2575

I have a feeling we’ll probably end up next door at the Winking Lizard afterward for anyone interested.

It would be great to see you there!

-- Jim

Windows Vista - To upgrade or buy new??

It seems like I've been asked quite a bit by friends and family whether or not they can upgrade their computer to Windows Vista or if they need to buy a whole new computer.

Well, here's the scoop... unfortunately, if you have a computer that's more than a couple years old, an upgrade to Windows Vista is probably not going to perform as great as you'd like. Windows Vista is a hog - granted, it offers some excellent benefits, particularly for security - but it's still a hog. If you take a look at the System Requirements for Windows Vista, you'll quickly see that with the exception of the Home Basic edition (which I have a hard time recommending to anyone), Windows Vista recommends 1 Gigabyte (GB) of RAM (memory).

I'll be honest - it's taken everything I have to be able to convince friends and family to get their Windows XP computers up past 512 Megabyte (MB) of RAM to 1 GB. And when Microsoft makes a recommendation on requirements, such as memory or hard drive, you quickly learn while in the field to double it or you're going to run into problems. With that in mind, you basically want to plan on about 2 GB of RAM for your PC. If you right-click on "My Computer" and select "Properties," you should see the amount of RAM installed in your computer. Chances are it's probably around 512 MB (or less) on an older computer - particularly on computers running a version of Windows prior to Windows XP.

RAM is one of the biggest performance makers or breakers. If you don't have at least 1 GB of RAM (and again, I recommend 2 GB), Windows Vista will most likely run like a dog. Mind you this is just one point, but a very important one. Kingston is reputable manufacturer of inexpensive RAM. Head on over to Kingston's website (http://www.kingston.com/) and do a search for memory (RAM) for your computer. Take a look at the price of RAM to get your computer up to 1 GB or 2 GB and see how much it would run you. It's likely going to cost you a pretty decent penny. Now keep in mind that you can get a basic computer from Best Buy or Circuit City for maybe $500 (with Windows Vista already included in the price!).

Then look at the cost of the operating system upgrade - Windows Vista Home Premium will run you about $150. A lot of numbers being thrown around here!!! But basically, if a RAM upgrade runs you $150, for example, and the Windows upgrade costs you another $150 - that's $300 right there... for an old(er) computer! And that's only looking at the computer memory. There's still plenty of other factors that can come into play - CPU speed, hard drive capacity, etc.

In my book, Just the Computer Essentials, I talk about some of the other things you also need to take into consideration. For instance, just going back to our RAM example - let's say you have 512 MB of RAM in your computer and you determine you want another 1 GB of RAM in your computer to be ready for Windows Vista (to have 1.5 GB of RAM). You order the RAM and then when you go to put it in, you find out that your computer actually has two 256 MB sticks of RAM (2 x 256 = 512 MB). That's a surprise - no empty RAM slots! Now what? You can take out the one stick and have put in the 1 GB stick (which now only brings you to 1.25 GB). Well, not great, but we'll deal with it. Now what about other possible problems? Maybe the memory has to be installed in pairs - two identical sticks of memory. Or maybe the computer only supports a total of 1 GB of RAM. These are some of the possible problems you have to think about if you're considering upgrading.

As you can probably guess, in most cases, I'm an advocate of either sticking with where you're at or buying a new computer. Windows XP is an excellent operating system - anything less and you're probably ready for a new computer anyway. Now, let's say you got a new computer a lot more recently and think it would really be worth your while to investigate upgrading. In that case, Microsoft has already thought of you! Take a look at the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor. If you download and run this tool on your computer, it will take a look at what you have and then present a report showing you the things that need to be done (if any) to make sure your computer is ready to be upgraded. An invaluable tool if you want to see what needs to be done to make your computer Vista-ready.

So, just to recap - in almost all cases, if you're ready for Windows Vista, you'll probably want to look at a new computer. The exception would be if you have a computer that you just got probably in the past year. Hopefully, this helps you get ready for Windows Vista!


-- Jim
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

The Big Decision: An iPod or "The Other Guy" MP3 Player

I discussed in my last blog entry some of the different decisions that need to be made when converting your music to digital such as MP3 files (see Converting a music CD collection to digital MP3 files). Now I want to talk about another topic you may want to be thinking about - what kind of portable music player to get.

MP3 files have been around for years, but portable music players had their real take off when Apple introduced the infamous iPod. Since the time the iPod showed up, they have ruled the market. Apple is known for making products that are in a word... cool. They not only look cool, but they seem to always be designed exceptionally well. The iPod is no exception - it's simple, yet effective. It works on both Macs and PCs and it integrates seamlessly with Apple's iTunes software. But, it's not the only game in town.

When I decided to get my first portable music player, I had a number of things that I wanted to keep in mind - value for the money spent, available features, and music management.

Now, before we get rolling, just know that I'm not here to tell you that you don't want an iPod. In fact, I've recommended them to many friends and family members for one big reason - simplicity. Of all the music players I've seen, the iPod along with iTunes has got to be the least complicated to set up and use. And if you're not the most "technically gifted" (how's that for politically correct?!), this may just be the player you want to get. The iPod usually lives up to its reputation and they have a strong following of satisfied customers.


Value for the Money Spent / Available Features

So, why not get an iPod? Well, the biggest reason is price. The iPod is generally going to be one of the most expensive portable music players out there when comparing storage and features.

One such feature not currently available on an iPod, but found on many other portable music players is an FM radio. If this is a big deal to you, then the iPod, might not be the right device for you.

Here are just some of the features available with different music players:

• Capacity
• Flash-based models currently offer up to 8 GB of storage (roughly 4000 songs depending on the quality of the music files) and use solid state memory. This type is usually more resilient to problems, but cannot offer as high a capacity as hard drive players
• Hard drive players can offer much larger capacities, but are mechanical and are more prone to suffer from problems because of it. These players are usually larger in their physical size as well.
• File formats supported - Almost all portable music players support MP3 files, but keep an eye out for some of the other formats in case your music files are in a different format such as WMA, AAC, WAV, etc.
• Photo management
• Wireless capabilities to share music files with other device users
• Microsoft Outlook synchronization capabilities
• Cell phone capabilities
• FM radio
• Satellite radio
• Voice recorder

It's up to you to decide which of these features would be important to you - it's like car shopping - different models have different advantages and disadvantages. Of course, how can we forget about Apple's new iPhone - again it definitely has the "cool" factor to it, but you'll have to decide if the cost is worth it to you. And word has it they are looking to make a smaller, less expensive model to be released later this year (http://blogs.pcworld.com/staffblog/archives/004855.html).

I should probably also mention that Microsoft's Zune player is worth a look as well (http://www.zune.net/). Price-wise it is usually around the same as the iPod and offers some interesting features such as wireless sharing of music with other Zune users.


Music Management

For me, music management was very important in my decision. In my last blog entry (Converting a music CD collection to digital MP3 files), I talked about converting around 735 CDs worth of my music to MP3 files. Music management becomes important because not all management software works with all devices. For instance, iTunes only works with the iPod music player. Additionally, very few software applications can be used to synchronize your music with iPod players. On the other side of things, certain management software will only support PlaysForSure devices.

I needed to have software that did what I wanted it to do and would still work with whatever portable music player I decided to get. I think iTunes is fantastic as music management software and helped me to rip all my music to digital files using Variable Bit Rate (VBR) encoding (again, see Converting a music CD collection to digital MP3 files), but you can only use it to sync to an iPod.

When Microsoft released Windows Vista, it came with a new completely-revamped version of Windows Media Player. Version 11, also available for download for Windows XP SP2 (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/player/11/default.aspx), was a much needed overhaul and was very well designed. I think this is actually one of the best music management software applications on the market right now. And it's compatible with all PlaysForSure devices - so if you go to the store and find the MP3 player you like, if it has the PlaysForSure logo on it, it should work with Windows Media Player 11 right out of the box.

Here's just a couple other music management programs out there:

• Yahoo! Music Jukebox
• Media Monkey

Additionally, most portable music players offer their own music management software that you can (or may be required) to use.

Wrap Up

After contemplating some of the different options I've talked about, in the summer of 2006, I decided on an 8 GB Creative ZEN MicroPhoto Player (http://www.creative.com/). This was the largest non-mechanical capacity available. It doesn't hold all my music at once, but I can shuffle playlists of the music I like. It provides the ability to listen to music files and view pictures. It also has an FM radio and a voice recorder built in. In addition, it provided the ability to synchronize my Microsoft Outlook data - calendar, address book, and tasks (this one was a real bonus for me!). It also provides a standard replaceable lithium battery. If the battery dies, no problem. On an iPod, if the battery dies, the unit needs to be replaced - not very convenient.

I found a great deal on it at Circuit City for only around $169 and I've been extremely happy with it. Not only does it do everything it promises, but I was able to get a small set of TravelSound speakers for it from Creative and now I can bring it along for cookouts, camping, and other get togethers.

Eventually, I'll be looking for a replacement player and by then I have a feeling that most of the rules will have changed. But either way, it pays to do your research before jumping into something like this.

I've also been happily using Windows Media Player 11 as my music management software and everything is working harmoniously (pun intended!).

Thanks for sticking around - don't forget to take a look at my book Just the Computer Essentials for an easy to understand guide to buying and maintaining a new computer... with the Windows Vista operating system becoming the standard on new PCs, this is the book you need!!

-- Jim
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

Converting a music CD collection to digital MP3 files

About a year or so ago, I decided that it was time to move my collection of music CDs to digital files. Over the years I gained quite a collection (735 CDs). Having that many CDs makes it difficult to rotate them out and listen to what you want to while driving as much as you'd want to. I've also moved a few times with them and that isn't very fun to do either.

Now, with the popularity of MP3 players, digital music files have provided a lot of new possibilities and opportunities. I spent a good amount of time investigating some of the different choices because having to convert over 700 CDs was not something I wanted to do more than once. So now I'll share with you some of what I learned, both from research and experience...

Storage

The first thing I wanted to do was decide where I was going to store the files. With the cost of external USB hard drives as inexpensive as as it is lately, I decided to go with that option. Now, how big does the hard drive have to be? I could have waited until I converted everything to find out, but I decided to go a different approach.

I decided that I would go with a simplistic method which may not work in all cases, but gave me a rough estimate, which is all I was looking for. I converted a few CDs to MP3 files at a higher quality bit rate (we'll talk about that later) just to see how big the files would be. Most of the song files were about 7 to 10 Megabytes (MB) each. Here's where the real rough estimate comes into play. I decided to ballpark high that each song would be about 10 MB and a generally high estimate of 15 songs on each CD. So let's do the math:

735 CDs x 15 songs x 10 MB = 110,250 MB

Now, we divide our answer by 1,024 (the number of Megabytes in 1 Gigabyte):

110, 250 MB / 1,024 = 107.67 GB

So my rough estimate was that I would need an external drive that with a capacity of at least 108 Gigabytes (GB) to hold all my music. Of course, keep in mind that you always want to allow room for growth as well, so shoot higher.

I did a little shopping and came across the Western Digital My Book™ Essential Edition 250GB External Hard Drive. I found it at Circuit City for about $120 (remember that was also over a year ago at the time from before this posting). I ordered two of them. Why two? Because my plan is to get rid of most of my CDs and I'd be a little nervous about having everything on one hard drive. Hard drives do go bad and I'd hate to lose all my hard work and music because of it. So, after all is said and done, I copied everything from the one hard drive to another. I keep the one hard drive at my house and the other at my parents' house. That way, if a fire would happen or some other disaster, I wouldn't lose both hard drives.

As a side note, as the price goes down, I will likely be getting external hard drives with the option to setup RAID-1 or RAID-5 as replacements for the ones I have. RAID is a whole topic in itself, but it provides some additional protection and I would feel even safer having that. You can read more about RAID if you're interested at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID.

Music Format

Alright, so now I have the drives and need to figure out what format to save the music into. You hear the phrase "MP3 player" all the time and may have just assumed that all digital music is in the MP3 format. You might be surprised to know that there are several formats out there. A few of the most common are MP3, AAC, and WMA. And with each format, there are different levels of quality you can choose from. This is usually known as the bit rate and the higher the bit rate, the higher the quality, but also the bigger the actual file is. So a slightly lower bit rate file might be a little less on the quality side (assuming you can hear the difference), but it will give you more room on your MP3 player to store more songs.

There's a number of sites out there that can help you compare the formats (go to Google and search for "mp3 aac wma" without the quotes for a few), but here's some info you will want to know:

• MP3 is a universally accepted format and probably the most popular. However, many record companies tend to frown on it because MP3's don't support Digital Rights Management (DRM) which provides the ability to say how the songs are used (like that the song can be played only on X number of devices, X number of times, etc.).
• AAC is used widely by Apple and is the default format in iTunes when buying and downloading songs or saving out songs from your CDs. It does support DRM.
• WMA is the format Microsoft created. It provides a lot of enticing options for quality and offers DRM, but it is currently not supported on iPods.

Looking at the different options, I decided that I wanted to use the MP3 format. I'm not a fan of DRM - if I own music, I don't want someone telling me where I can use it. I also want something that is the norm, so I know it will be supported for years down the line.

Ripping Software and Quality

The process of taking a CD and pulling the songs off into a digital music format is called ripping. There are tons of different software programs out there that will help you to rip your CDs. I use a PC running the Windows operating system and need software for that. I looked around at plenty of programs and decided that iTunes offered me the most bang for my buck - the buck being nothing - iTunes is a free download from apple (http://www.itunes.com/).

I don't have an iPod, but you don't need one to use iTunes to manage your music. Although iTunes has a default format of AAC, you can change it to be MP3, which is what I needed. It also offers something important that I wanted... VBR (we'll come back to VBR shortly).

The idea behind MP3 files and other similar formats is that they are compressed - sounds that are out of the range of what humans can hear are eliminated which saves on space. Next, there is something called bit rate. The bit rate is the number of Kilobytes that may be used in each second of audio. The higher the bit rate, the higher the quality - and the larger the file becomes. The bit rate can be from 24 kbps up to 320 kbps, but generally the most common seems to be 128 kbps.

I wasn't happy with the idea of giving up my CDs and having just average quality music files - it just didn't sit real well with me. But I also didn't want unnecessarily large MP3 files either. Now back to VBR... Variable Bit Rate (VBR) is very interesting and a smart technology. I decided to rip my CDs at a 192 kbps bit rate. Using VBR, instead of the encoder going through and ripping the whole song at 192 kbps, it will realize that some parts of the song don't need that high of a bit rate (like silence of a song or parts where there might only be a couple instruments playing).

So by setting iTunes to encode at 192 kbps VBR, it will then rip at the necessary bit rate with a maximum of the 192 kbps bit rate... this gives me the best of both worlds. I get the ripped songs at a higher bit rate and if they don't need to be that high, they get a lower bit rate to save space.

In my next blog I discuss the MP3 player decision and the software used to manage all the music. Check out The Big Decision: An iPod or "The Other Guy" MP3 Player.

-- Jim
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

Speed up folder browsing in Windows Vista

Hi everyone! I thought I'd throw out a quick post to help some of you out that may be new to Windows Vista. Microsoft added a pretty cool feature to Vista called thumbnails. You may have noticed that unlike previous versions of Windows, when you open up a folder (such as in Windows Explorer), automatic thumbnails get created. The idea is that Vista takes a quick snapshot of what the document/image has in the file and then makes that its icon. Here's a few examples...

As you can see, the picture icon can be pretty handy - particularly if you're looking to quickly find a certain photo in a folder full of pictures. But what about the other ones - not necessarily that useful.

The problem is that when you open up a folder filled with files, Windows Vista goes to work on identifying each file type and if it's one that it can make a thumbnail for, it goes to work in the background silently opening each file, creating and saving a thumbnail for it, and marking it for that file. Now, if you have a lot of files, this can take some time to do (and processor, memory, etc.). Maybe you noticed that green bar slowly inching across the address bar from the left to the right when you open a folder... that's Vista at work trying to make your life easier.

If you like it, at least now you know what it's doing. If you don't like it and wish it would just open the folder quickly and be done with it, you've come to the right place! Here's how to quickly shut that off:

1. Click on the "Start" button, and in the search box, type in "Windows Explorer" (without the quotes) and then press enter.


2. When Windows Explorer opens, click on the "Organize" menu item/button and select "Folder and Search Options."


3. On the "Folder Options" window that comes up, click on the "View" tab.


4. Check the box that says "Always show icons, never thumbnails."


5. Click OK and close that instance of "Windows Explorer" - your done!

Not too difficult, was it?! Keep in mind that this will also save you some hard drive space. Remember that each file will have it's own mini picture created for it... that can add up on a computer with a smaller hard drive.

Unfortunately, this is an all or nothing deal - you can't decide which file types you want the thumbnails created for. And remember, if you decide you liked it better with the thumbnails, you can always go back in uncheck the box for "Always show icons, never thumbnails" and the next time you go into a folder, it will go back to the way it was.

Now, quit messing around on your computer and go have some fun!!!

-- Jim
http://www.booksbyjim.com/

Check out my book written for the everyday user...

Just the Computer Essentials - A Plain-English, No-Nonsense Guide to Buying and Maintaining a PC Running the Windows Vista™ Operating System for Your Home or Home Office