Monthly Computer Chronicle
MCC
IN THIS ISSUE: NEWS AND VIEWS
NEWS AND VIEWS 1
By Chuck Hajdú
As we enter 2009 the magic word
TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT 2 seems to be: Change. Change in
OMNIPAGE PRO V.16 the year, change in the Presi-
dency, change in the financial mar-
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS OF 4 kets, change in the auto industry,
MULTIMEDIA etc.
LEXMARK X7675 6 I’m writing this in mid-December
and as of this date the changes the
PROFESSIONAL
soon-to-be-President-elect (he
won’t be President-elect until after
IROBOTLOOJ 7 investment portfolio? I’ve got a
the Electoral College meets in
January and actually elects him)
are making are invisible. We’re
BONETOWN 9 keeping the Secretary of Defense,
we’re keeping the whole Clinton
gang in power, keeping the bail-
NETBOOKS AND CLOUD 10 outs and changing nothing but who
lives in the White House.
COMPUTING
As I‘m writing this column an inter-
BOYNG VASE SPEAKER 14
esting thought came to mind. I’m
sure all of our readers have no-
ticed the same phenomenon that
15 I’ve observed, the precipitous drop
THE DEALS GUY
in the value of your investments.
Very few people had the fore-
thought to make their nest egg
stock market proof.
J A N UA R Y 2 0 0 9
For many years I’ve done some-
thing that I believe is very com-
mon. Every night I empty my
pocket change into a large con-
tainer in my home office. After a
few years there’s usually a couple
of hundred dollars in the container
and I can splurge on something
that I normally wouldn’t buy.
The question I have for my readers
is this: is the change in your spare
change jar worth more than your
hunch more than one person can
answer that with a resounding yes!
Hopefully, this is one area that will
change for the better in the next
year.
One of the things that has been
keeping us busy of late is our
preparation for CES 2009 in Vegas
the first week of January. Usually
by now we’re buried in invitations
for press events and evening par-
ties (oops, conferences). This year
things have been much slower
than in the past but we’ll still have
a full dance card. Our February
issue will be exclusively devoted to
our CES reports.
MCC
MC C JANUARY 2 0 0 9 P A GE 2

TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT
N UA N C E O M N I P A G E P R O F E S S I O N A L V E R S I O N 1 6

By Linda Webb cific areas on the image. (Zone types

include various column and table op-
Scanning paper information or acquir- tions, forms, spreadsheet, legal plead-
ing an image and performing optical ing, custom, and template.) Once
character recognition (OCR) has zoned, an editing dialog box opened to
come of age, allowing you to retain display items for potential correction,
much or all of the document's original along with suggestions that I could ac-
formatting, which can be faster than cept or ignore -- and also add to a dic-
retyping. tionary for later correction use.

Nuance OmniPage Pro 16 provides The software prompted me to save the

sophisticated software for converting
paper information or electronic im-
ages to usable files in applications
such as a word processor, spread-
sheet, HTML, and others. It has workflows and utili-
ties for scanning paper or electronic images, digitiz-
ing their contents, and saving the output for editing or
re-purposing.
In the software, you can select from three screen
views; Classic, Flexible (for adjusting the size of the
work panels); and Quick Convert for simple docu-
ment conversions.
results in a Windows folder, providing
over thirty file formats and several for-
matting levels and options. I had a bit
of review and correcting to do, but it
beat retyping a ten-page document hands down.
Your work can also be saved as a native .opd file for
re-use in OmniPage if desired.
Version 16 lets you easily work with and view multi-
ple open documents, a nice time saver. It also adds
seamless support for the new file formats found in
Microsoft Office 2007 including DOCX and XLSX,
and the new XPS “electronic paper” standard now
supported for document sharing and archiving within
Microsoft Windows.

To convert a file directly through the Windows Ex-

A typical process work-
flow follows three steps;
bringing paper or elec-
tronic pages into Omni-
Page, performing OCR,
and saving or exporting
files. Numerous editing
and other options are
available along the way.
To get started, I scanned
a paper copy of a lease.
OmniPage shaded the
document as it scanned
it. It then established
zones, meaning that it
Linda Webb, M.Ed. drew boxes around spe-
Emerging Technology Editor
plorer, a right mouse click launches a wizard to save
it in one of six application formats. After conversion
of a pleading to Word, the spell checker flagged fif-
teen possible issues for me to consider, although a
comparison with the paper source proved that none
were really errors. Some workflow processing (a se-
ries of saved steps and their settings for automated
execution) is also available through the wizards.
If you've ever wanted to capture text information
while on the go, OmniPage has the potential to de-
liver, given your image is higher quality and you un-
derstand how to use zones. With a little practice, you
can successfully recognize pictures of text from your
digital camera (4 megapixels or better) uploaded into
OmniPage. The software will make adjustments
automatically for imperfections (skewing, waves and
3-D perspective), then auto-zone the image and per-
form OCR. After fiddling a bit, I opted for manual
zoning on my picture of a laminated airline passenger
safety card, removing all but the one desired zone
(Continued on page 3)
MC C JANUARY 2 0 0 9
TECHNOLOGY SPOTLIGHT
(Continued from page 2)
with bulleted instructions. During conversion, the
OCR proofreader flagged six issues for correction.
Once saved to Word 2007 in text format in a single
file, Word's spell check found seven additional issues
for correction in a 241-word document. But given
that my camera supports only 3 megapixels, that the
card was laminated and therefore a bit glossy, and
that there was no easy way to photocopy the text at
the time I encountered it, OmniPage captured
enough of the content reliably to make the feature
worthwhile. I'd vote for future enhancements to this
feature.
Users in a law office environment will appreciate the
fact that OmniPage will recognize legal documents
by establishing zones around special formatting. I
scanned three pages of a federal pleading for a court
case in 2002, and the software correctly zoned the
case caption, parties to the case, line numbers, foot-
ers and page numbers. You can then convert as
zoned, or choose to remove the contents of zones
you don't need.
Also for the legal community, the software features
marking and redacting capabilities -- blacking out
confidential, sensitive or actionable information in a
document. Through the "Find, Replace, and Mark
Text" utility, OmniPage correctly applied strikeouts,
marked selected words for redaction, or blacked
them out completely in my test document.
The enhanced workflow assistant in the software
steps you through all of the manual screen options
P A GE 3
you use on a repetitive basis, and saves them to cre-
ate an automated set of tasks, not unlike how a
macro works in word processing. My test workflow to
recognize and correct a PDF file ran successfully, but
required some manual intervention on its first run.
With practice, you can probably eliminate most or all
of the human interventions.
The new File-It Assistant allows you to save and print
a barcode cover sheet that contains your instructions
about where and how to save documents. You then
assign a workflow that occurs when you press the
"Scan" button on your scanning device. A test bar
code generated effortlessly for me. And when I
placed the sheet of paper with the bar code at the
front of a scanning job, the software saved the results
correctly in the specified folder. If you're an imple-
menter in a document processing center, once your
barcode workflows are defined and pages printed,
you could virtually eliminate training for operators.
The form converter introduced in version 15 Profes-
sional has been enhanced to extract data from filled
forms. Upon repeated tries, however, I could not
make this option work, no matter whether I explicitly
followed the printed user guide, the How-To Guides,
or the slightly more detailed procedures in the soft-
ware Help files. (I even had a programmer colleague
try this; he encountered the same results that I did.) I
hope Nuance rethinks the instructions for the feature;
help desk support at a published per-call cost should
not be required for basic results.
New How-to-Guides in the software helped me get
started by providing descriptions of basic terminol-
ogy and product features. But the addition of multi-
media tutorials such as those in Nuance's Dragon
Naturally Speaking product could make even shorter
work of the learning curve. And consider the pocket-
sized user guide as a decent overview; it covers the
concepts and features at a basic level, but you'll need
to dig into the online Help files often for more detailed
procedures and additional technical information.
OmniPage Professional 16 comes bundled with Pa-
perPort 11, Nuance's robust desktop document man-
agement software that provides integration between
newly converted files and all other files and folders
on your desktop. PaperPort will open directly to the
folder you are saving to so you can see your con-
verted document as integrated with other documents.
(Continued on page 17)
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
MAPQUEST 4 MOBILE, AKVIS MAGNIFIER, VERBATIM LIGHTSCRIBE DISKS
By George Harding
MapQuest 4 Mobile
All recent cell phones contain a GPS (global-
positioning chip) which can be used in many ways.
One popular way is mapping your route from here to
there.
MapQuest 4 Mobile is a free (yes, really!)
application that works on many cell
phones, in particular, my Blackberry
Curve. You must use the cell phone’s
browser to get to the web page that has
the download link, then download and in-
stall on your phone.
Once installed, the application is ready
for action. There are several functions available. The
most useful is the mapping function. You choose to
start at your present position, enter the destination
address and get a map showing the beginning of the
route.
The screen on the Blackberry is one of the larger
ones for a cell phone, but it is still small, compared to
a desktop or laptop. Still, the map is quite readable.
You show only a small part of the route, but you can
pan and zoom to show more.
As an alternative to a map, you can choose to see
directions. These are turn-by-turn directions which
keep you on the chosen route. If you’re driving, it can
be hard to keep your eyes on the road and also
check the screen for the information you need to
keep on route.
P A GE 4
OF MULTIMEDIA
The map you use has not only your position, but
also street names. These are helpful to keep track
of your position as you proceed toward your destina-
tion.
There is also an aerial view of the area nearby, This
makes it easy to orient yourself.
You can use the search function to find a particular
business or restaurant. The search can be by name
(Tony’s Pizza, for example) or simply a category.
There is also the ability to place a quick call to a
business, so they’re ready when you get there!
If you needed more to convince you, there is also a
function to show traffic conditions. You can avoid
heavy traffic areas, construction and the like with
this feature.
And last, but not least, is the Find Me function. Here,
you select that function and your current position is
shown on a map. Helpful if you’re lost or disoriented.
What if you don’t have a Blackberry? M4M is avail-
able on 25 devices, over 8 carriers and in 2 coun-
tries! If you have a smart phone, it’s likely that you
can have M4M on your very own device. See www.
MapQuest.com/mq4m/phones for details.
And the best part is that the service is free. No initial
cost and no continuing cost. What a deal!
www.mapquest.com
Download at m.mq4m.com on your mobile’s
browser
(Continued on page 5)
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
(Continued from page 4)
Akvis Magnifier
This product purports to help you easily increase
resolution of various image types, such as jpg’s, gif’s
and so on. The resolution can be increased without
the loss of quality, according to the company.
I had a great deal of difficulty using the program at
first. While the controls are clearly labeled, I could not
see much (or any!) effect from using them on my test
image.
I tried the Help file, which did. There is a tutorial on
using the controls, which allowed me to see how the
program worked on my test image.
You can dramatically increase the size of an image,
yet avoid the pixilation which would normally occur.
The program has two windows, Before and After,
which allow you to see the effects of the latest
change you made.
There is no easy way (that I found) to compare the
original image to the changed version, without again
opening the original image. There is also no easy
way (that I found) to undo the last set of changes. As
you make changes in your image, you can save each
step as an additional image.
You can increase size up to 30,000 pixels in either
direction. There are controls to Sharpen, Smooth and
do other changes which improve the appearance of
the resulting image. Changes can be made by either
changing an index number for the particular control,
or clicking on a slider for that control.
P A GE 5
OF MULTIMEDIA
There is a description window at the bottom right of
the screen that explains each control. If the explana-
tion is longer than can be displayed in the window,
there is the usual scroll bar available. Unfortunately,
the scroll bar cannot be reached, since the explana-
tion only appears when you hover over the control
itself.
This program can be a valuable addition to your im-
age processing capabilities. Akvis Magnifier can in-
crease resolution without distortion better than any
other program I’ve encountered.
Akvis Magnifier www.akvis.com
Price $129, either standalone or as plug-in
Ten day free trial available
Verbatim Color LightScribe Disks
Verbatim is trying a tried and true marketing
method, providing color choices for their DVD Light-
scribe disks.
You can buy just about anything in a choice of col-
ors, in contrast to the Ford Model T. Presumably,
color choices make one more interested in buying.
Lightscribe is a method of etching a label on the
non-data side of a DVD disk. It is coated with a re-
active dye that changes color when hit with the la-
ser’s beam. As the disk rotates, the beam forms a
monochromatic image, working from center to out-
side of the disk. The speed of etching depends on
how big the image is, among other things.
Verbatim’s colored disks join the color parade with
the standard gold and adding red, orange, yellow,
blue and green. Their packages of disks of 25 in-
clude 5 disks of each color.
You will need a DVD drive with Lightscribe capabil-
ity, the Lightscribe software (get it at www.
lightscribe.com) and some of the Verbatim disks.
Then you can make impressive labels for your
DVDs, with no printer and no sticky labels.
Verbatim LightScribe disks
Price $10 for 10 disks online at various outlets
www.verbatim.com
MCC
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
SOHO SOLUTIONS
X7675 PROFESSIONAL
By Chuck Hajdú
We have always been fans of All-In-One print-
ers, especially Lexmark’s excellent ink-jet
AIOs. The Lexmark X7675 Wireless All-In-
One with Fax is the newest in their line and
has every feature you could ask for.
Many people still have stand-alone fax ma-
chines, color printers, photo printers and scan-
ners cluttering up their desks and offices. Why
have four or more devices taking up valuable space
when you can have one device do all of those jobs?
And how about adding built-in wireless networking so
you can have multiple computers hooked up to that
one device! That’s exactly what the Lexmark X7675
has to offer. It’s the ideal solution for every SOHO
user.
What’s in the box:
• the Lexmark X7675 All-In-One
• one 44XL and one 43XL High-Yield cartridges
• Installation and User Guide CD-ROMs
• a Quick setup sheet
• Lexmark productivity software
• a USB cable for wireless installation
• power supply and phone cords
Setup:
Setup is a breeze, IF you follow the instructions!. The
Quick Setup sheet is clear and concise. The instruc-
tions have a warning before step one, find your wire-
less network settings before you begin. You’ll need to
know the name of your network and the type of secu-
rity and passwords you use.
Step one is: STOP! Do not attach anything to the
printer or plug anything into a wall outlet until you run
the installation CD!
Step two is insert the CD and “follow the steps”. Lex-
mark stresses the need to allow the software to do all
of the communicating during setup. We believed
them and followed their advice to the letter.
We popped the CD into a Gateway T-1628 laptop
computer using MSFT WinV 6.0.6001 and followed
the instructions as they came up. Every step is care-
fully detailed, including unpacking the AIO and throw-
ing away the tape holding things together.
P A GE 6
It’s necessary to connect the
printer to your computer to
get the setup done
even though
you’ll be using it
wirelessly later
on. Lexmark in-
cludes a USB ca-
ble so it was easy
to connect.
Once we had everything connected and the
wireless configured, we moved the printer across
the room and did some printing tests. We printed
black and white documents and documents with
color in them. We printed photos using photo paper
from the laptop and from an SD card inserted in the
built in card reader. Everything printed beautifully
with no problems of any kind encountered.
What did we like:
• the printer came with high-yield cartridges!
Many printers come with the lowest capacity, and
therefore the cheapest, cartridges possible so you
have to buy ink right away.
• the built-in 802.11b/g wireless connectivity
• the digital media card capability
• the excellent quality of photos using photo pa-
per
What didn’t we like:
• the size. It’s hard to make a printer with all of
the capabilities built into the X7675 very compact
and that’s why it’s the size it is. However, it’s still a
lot smaller than a computer printer, photo printer,
scanner and fax machine sitting side by side.
Specifications:
It would take several pages to list all of the specifi-
cations for the X7675. We suggest you go to the
Lexmark web site and read them there.
Recommendation:
The Lexmark X7675 is highly recommended. Not
just for someone looking for an AIO printer, but for
anyone looking for an outstanding inkjet printer.
MSRP is $199.99
www.lexmark.com
MCC
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
IROBOT LOOJ GUTTER CLEANING ROBOT
OVERCLOCKING YOUR RAIN GUTTERS
By Jan Fagerholm, Gizmo Guru
The Bullet Points: The iRobot Looj is a remote con-
trol gutter cleaning robot. It is battery powered, and
fits residential rain gutters at least 3.25” wide and at
least 2.25” vertical clearance of gutter straps. It trav-
els both forward and back and spins its auger in both
directions. The snap-off handle serves as the battery
powered remote control. Looj comes in 3 models: the
base model 120 ($99.99), the 130 ($129.99) which
adds a belt-worn holster to the model 120, and the
150 ($169.99) which adds the holster, a spare battery
and a spare auger to the model 120. The review unit
is the model 150.
What’s In The Box: (model 150) Looj robot with re-
movable remote control handle, two 7.2V NiMH bat-
tery packs for robot power, battery charger, two AAA
batteries for the remote unit, two removable augers,
whip antenna, belt holster, 24 page instruction man-
ual.
The Review: OK, I’m a gadget freak, but this sounds
over the top – a remote control rain gutter cleaner?
What’s next, a remote control kitty litter box cleaner?
Marketing people seem to think males will buy any-
thing that has a remote control. All right, I’ll bite. I’ve
seen stranger gimmicks.
Open the box, and a first look at the manual is a re-
minder of how hazardous household chores are, and
why they should be put off at all cost. The first pages
are Important Safety Instructions: wear safety gog-
gles while using, do not immerse in more than one
foot of water, keep body parts away from Looj while
operating, inspect your ladder before using it; you
know, the same instructions that come with your
toaster. After these admonitions, I’m thinking I should
forget about this household maintenance stuff and go
play a nice safe computer game where no one gets
hurt except the Internet.
The first step is to charge the batteries. Book says 15
hours each before use and to avoid more than 15
hours of charging. Examining the dinky charger brick
reveals that it is a simple AC adapter with no brains
to detect battery state, thus the warning about over-
charging. Now, for a company that was started by
two MIT robotisists, it seems to me that all that brain-
power could have come up with a smart charger of
P A GE 7
The pristine iRobot Looj: tidy before its toil
the type that comes with your average battery pow-
ered can opener instead of making me watch the
battery for 15 hours. Well, at least this gives me
plenty of time to install the two AAA batteries in the
detachable handle, which serves as the remote con-
trol, then straighten the whip antenna, which re-
ceives radio instructions from the remote, or maybe
from my wireless router, I’m not sure. I take advan-
tage of the spare time to study the remote, which
contains buttons and sliders for power on/off, move-
ment forward and aft, and the spin direction of the
auger. LEDs on the remote and the Looj itself indi-
cate various states of battery condition and com-
mand transmission.
The auger contains three components to deal with
gutter effluvia ominously named “sweepers”,
“disrupters”, and “ejectors”. With names like these,
the leaves don’t stand a chance. With the auger at-
tached to its snout, the Looj looks like something
sent down by space aliens back in the ‘fifties to de-
stroy Earth. Maybe I should forget about cleaning
the gutters in case activating this thing brings down
the invasion fleet.
OK, I can’t get out of this chore any longer, so I in-
sert one of the battery packs into its waterproof
compartment, attach the handle, put on the holster,
and insert the Looj, western gunfighter style. It’s
heavy – it does not wield nimbly like a light saber.
(Continued on page 8)
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
IROBOT
(Continued from page 7)
After properly inspecting the ladder (as the book re-
quires) I begin my ascent. The reason for the holster
becomes apparent: hand-holding this thing while
climbing the ladder might lead to inadvertent contact
of the human with the ground. Arriving at the top, I
don my crash helmet (okay, just safety goggles), sin-
gle handedly lift the Looj from its holster and insert it
into the gutter. A squeeze of the trigger and the han-
dle slides off, leaving the remote control in my hand.
Looj in working position - the journey begins
Looj power switch on. Remote power switch on. Two
green lights. checklist complete. Slide the movement
switch in the forward direction. Hey, look at it move!
But the auger is throwing the trash in the direction of
the roof and under the tiles. It’s not supposed to fill
the attic with leaves. A flick of the Auger Spin Direc-
tion switch corrects that.
The Looj moves briskly at about a foot a second. The
pace is zippy enough to keep you from getting too
bored while standing at the top of the ladder. The au-
ger, spinning at 500 RPM, gleefully slings stuff over
the side of the gutter, creating a dense shower of dirt
and debris that flutters to the ground below. I clearly
should have posted warning signs for passing pedes-
trians. The Looj, undaunted, continues its work eject-
ing clutter from the gutter; it even sounds happy with
its work. It’s not too long, though, before Looj’s ram-
bunctiousness gets it into trouble: when thrashing
over a small dried branch, it manages to turn itself on
its side, tracks spinning uselessly in the air. Some
experimentation with the auger’s and the Looj’s direc-
tion controls brings it upright again, thus avoiding the
onerous task of climbing down and moving the ladder
P A GE 8
LOOJ
to retrieve it. When Looj reaches the end of the gut-
ter, a flip of the direction switch brings it trundling
back to the starting point, doing a little extra clean-
ing along the way.
Full fury felt - note clean gutter behind Looj on left
The book says that a battery pack is worth 150 feet
of gutter, both forward and back. In this first run, that
worked for gutters on both sides of the test house
with power to spare. The Looj looked like an aban-
doned earth mover when it was done, but the Looj is
waterproof, so a good hosing brought back its day-
glo green sheen.
Mission accomplished, the battery was removed,
recharged (the book says to do this before storage),
and all placed back in its box awaiting another sea-
son of falling leaves. Maybe these maintenance
chores can be domesticated by technology after all.
Gutter clutter tamed, I headed for the Internet to see
if iRobot makes that ‘bot to clean kitty litter boxes. .
Product Information:
iRobot Looj 150
Web price $169.95
iRobot Corp.
8 Crosby Drive
Bedford, MA 01730
Phone: 781.430.3000
www.irobot.com
MCC
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
BONETOWN
By Chuck Hajdú
Each month we receive press releases from every
aspect of the electronics industry. Hardware, soft-
ware, services, financials, anything and everything
you can imagine.
This month we received a press release that tweaked
our interest more than most. D-Dub Software of Albu-
querque, NM sent out a blurb announcing that
“BoneTown Video Game Creates New Industry”.
Wow! How impressive, a new industry. What’s this all
about?
Here’s what the new industry is according to the re-
lease: The Adult Video Game Industry is an answer
to worldwide video game ratings boards, whose rat-
ing systems have banned adult games from the
market. It is also a response to the maturing video
game world, whose average consumer is now 33
years old but is still forced to play games aimed at
someone much younger.
I see, it’s a way of getting around the Entertainment
Software Ratings Board (ESRB) video game ratings
system by creating a new distribution model. Makes
sense to me. Why submit your work to a ratings
board that you know will cut you out of your intended
market. Look at the video market, for many, many
years DVDs have been sold in their “unrated” ver-
sions after their run in theaters is over. The vast ma-
jority of buyers always choose the unrated DVD over
the politically correct version that was shown in
movie houses.
Since PC games aren’t watched in movie houses
then why are there such restrictions on them? I know
why, because parents don’t monitor their children’s
computer use and they need some quasi-government
agency to do their job for them. If parents did their job
then there would be no need for rating boards.
We love companies that look for new ways to de-
velop markets for their intellectual property. We con-
tacted their PR rep and requested a review copy.
We received a download link and registration code
promptly and downloaded the software right away.
It’s been some time since I personally reviewed any
game software so I made a few installation mistakes
that experienced gamers wouldn’t have made.
P A GE 9
I know the first thing that all of our game reviewers
do is to look at the system requirements before they
try to install a game. Since the PC I normally test
software on is adequate for everything I test I as-
sumed it would be OK for this review. Boy, was I
wrong!
After I downloaded the self-expanding .EXE file and
ran the extraction, a very long process that re-
minded of the good old days of DOS, I ran the in-
stall. Before the install was completed I was in-
formed that my video card didn’t support Pixel-
Shader 2.0. Oh well, I’ll try another PC. Again, I got
the same message. Finally, I checked the Bone-
Town web site for system requirements and found
out what I needed for video resources. I should have
done that in the first place!
Problem number two popped up, I had used up both
of my registrations! Kudos to D-Dub, they allow you
to load the software on two computers. Only I had
used mine up. A couple of emails to D-Dub and we
got everything straightened out and they gave me a
new code. Memo to self: check the system require-
ments in the future!!
I finally got BoneTown running and started playing
the game. Warning: this isn’t just sexually explicit,
it’s everything explicit! Here’s how they describe it:
In BoneTown we live by the Three F’s, F***ing, fight-
ing, and getting f***ed up. Restraint is not a word
often used here, and you leave your inhibitions all
over the first chick you bone. In BoneTown, Sex on
the Beach is more than just a drink, it’s what you’re
about to do with that blonde in the short skirt, and all
night drug binges, bar brawls, and partying until you
drop are a way of life. So kick back, hang out, and
enjoy, because this here’s BoneTown, and we ain’t
following no laws.
Unfortunately, I’m not much a gamer and always got
beat up in the fights. Fortunately, I still was re-
warded with sex and I appreciate that!
Recommendation: if you enjoy gaming and sex (and
what male over 21 doesn’t) then give BoneTown a
try.
MSRP is $49.99 in a box or $39.99 as a download
www.bonetown.com
MCC
MC C JANUARY 2 0 0 9 P A GE 1 0

NETBOOKS AND CLOUD COMPUTING

WORK AND PL AY WITHOUT BOUNDARIE S

By Andy Marken It’s “in.” So much more today than Chris Anderson’s
Long Tail or Geoffrey Moore’s Chasm.

MBA’s like the Hype Cycle because it lets them figure

out what new idea they’re going to “develop” to make
their gazillion dollars. VCs (also MBAs) use the cycle
because it tells them where they should be throwing
their investors’ dollars. Media folks like it because it
gives them a hook for stories on what’s hot, what’s
not and why companies fall on their faces.

But wait…we forgot one ingredient? The consumer!

Fortunately the CEA (Consumer Electronics Associa-

Hammer Repair – Netbooks and cloud computing are tion) tracks that sort of thing and people simply do
great for certain times, certain activities and they will be not overthrow known stuff for new stuff as quickly as
used by lots of people – young and old – who just want to we would like!
stay in touch. But when it comes to working with important
information/material nothing beats a higher performance,
higher capacity, heavier notebook. Source – Universal
Pictures

“Let's look at this thing from a... um, from a standpoint

of status. What do we got on the spacecraft that's
good?” – Gene Kranz, Apollo 13 (1995)

Want to be really hip? Mention Gartner’s newly

minted Hype Cycle.

Figure 2 - Consumers vs Anticipation – All of today’s

consumer technologies that are taken for granted took
time – more than manufacturers would like – to go from
early adopters to late majorities to laggards. The only tech-
nology that has come close to meeting the hype anticipa-
tion was DVD. You probably won’t see that rapid accep-
tance again in your lifetime. Source -- CEA

Take cloud computing for example:

It’s hot.
It’s not.
Figure 1 - Ups, Downs of Hype – Technologies follow a It’s here.
fairly predictable cycle from new idea to rousing interest to It’s coming.
early acceptance to valleys of interest failure to widespread Depends!
acceptance. It takes a tremendous amount of energy and
effort to move technologies along the path to the point that It’s not one solution fits all even though we’re trying
it becomes widely accepted and commoditized. Source --
Gartner (Continued on page 11)
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
NETBOOKS AND
(Continued from page 10)
our darndest to make everyone fit into the cloud. First
there is corporate and consumer. Then there is
boomer and Gen X, Gen Y.
Business Clouds
It’s true that today’s workforce is mobile and needs to
be connected anywhere, anytime. The C-level and IT
folks are trying to make us as productive as possible.
The line between our personal and professional lives
have become so cloudy it is sometimes tough to fig-
ure out when your working day starts/begins and
when your family/personal lifestyle takes over.
We operate in a 24/7 economy. We’ve moved from a
command and control hierarchy to a connect and col-
laborate global village business model. It’s a para-
digm ready made for cloud computing.
But we agree with Gene Kranz…“I don't care about
what anything was DESIGNED to do, I care about
what it CAN do.”
Cloud computing will take a llllloooonnngggg time to
“arrive!” There are “little” things P/L folks worry about
like security…compliance…availability… data integ-
rity…where the data is located.
True you already do a lot on Web 2.0 in the cloud.
You’ve got a Gmail and Yahoo Mail account. Yes you
got photos on Flickr. Yep you put how-to videos on
YouTube. Sure you take part in communities, forums,
discussion groups, more.
P A GE 1 1
CLOUD COMPUTING
Figure 3 - You’re Already There – Working in the cloud
isn’t a dramatic leap for most people. We already use
YouTube, MySpace, Flickr and other online sites and ac-
tivities. Teens and Tweens spend considerable time in the
cloud working, communicating, entertaining. The new in-
gredient is a netbook slimmed down to leverage these
activities. Source – Pew Interactive
But do you want to put your private business data
up there?
If you work in Germany do you think officials want
you storing your business data in Canada…the
US…Mexico…?
You’re a DOD contractor. Think they would be
happy to find you stored your documents, data in
Shanghai…New Delhi…?
As Pete Conrad said, “Jim, you think it's too late for
him to abort?”
It’s still a work in progress…helluva work in pro-
gress.
There are some very reputable providers – IBM,
ATT, HP, Amazon, SalesForce, Sun, Google – and
a lot of dogs n cats.
Some things make sense. Some don’t.
If it’s non-mission-critical data or applications and
it’s compromised or goes offline…no big deal.
If it’s central or core to your business think it’s good
for your career path to put it out there?
Business/Personal Cloud
We understand the power, reach, potential and
benefits of the Internet. We understand a lot of its
strengths and its weaknesses.
There’s nothing magic or ethereal about the Inter-
net. It exists because of an awful lot of private com-
panies.
Then came the applications companies followed by
the Black Hatters and Doom 9ers.
We’ve got a couple of different email addresses be-
yond our business one…just don’t know what they
are because we never use them.
(Continued on page 12)
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
NETBOOKS AND
(Continued from page 11)
When we’re away from the office we want our con-
tent, our data, our information, our storage, our solu-
tions.
Figure 4 - Relinquishing Value – While you do a lot in the
cloud, how much of your content are you willing to turn over
and make broadly available to almost anyone with creative
zeal in the cloud? Losing some school papers may not
cause much concern. But losing personal/family photos,
videos, private data that you don’t want to lose or don’t
want widely distributed is a greater concern. That stuff
needs to stay “at home.” Source – Pew Interactive
We need that stuff available 99.99% of the time.
When we need to access that information or do that
work we don’t want to wonder out loud as Jack Swa-
gert did…“Ken, there's an awful lot of condensation
on these panels. What's the story of them shorting
out?”
SalesForce had a significant outage a few years ago.
Amazon’s S3 service had its outage. So did Gmail.
Let’s not even talk about Apple’s MobileMe!
If you’re working in the cloud and it fails there’s no
one to call. You don’t say as Swigert did, “So long,
Earth. Catch you on the flip side.”
Especially if you’re tracking your stock portfolio and
need to do some trades!
Sorry…we’ll stick with our cellphone and our note-
book.
P A GE 1 2
CLOUD COMPUTING
Younger Crowd
But cloud computing for the consumer has gotten so
much hype that system manufacturers have jumped
on board to rake in huge sales.
Figure 5 - Computing Delta – While the worldwide po-
tential for netbooks is overshadowed by notebook sales, it
certainly hasn’t stopped every computer ODM and OEM
to announce their flavor of the cloud-enabled computer.
Unplug the netbook from the Internet and you’ve got a
nice light scratchpad. Source -- Intel
While analysts are forecasting great things for net-
books in a few years, Acer is more modest in their
projections – 10 million this year and 30 million next
year. That made Asus, Lenovo, HP, Dell, you name
it salivate so they’re all rolling out super solutions
with long battery life, little internal storage and light
weight.
It may have slipped past your radar but Asus may
have the best relationship approach. They signed a
deal with DoCoMo (one of Japan’s leading mobile
telco providers) to sell bundles to consumers.
After all look at what you do online
(Continued on page 13)
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
NETBOOKS AND CLOUD COMPUTING
(Continued from page 12)
Figure 6 - So Much Connectivity – Teens and Tweens
almost literally live on line. They send/receive messages,
exchange photos/music/videos, share documents and work
collaboratively. For them being connected and working/
playing in the cloud is almost the natural order of life.
Source – Pew Interactive
All of that stuff is “meant” to give folks more time
online and rack up more minute sales for mobile tel-
cos.
It’s what Gen Xers, Gen Yers do so well!
Ask our son about the security issues and he just
gives us this blank stare…“So?”
It’s just not a big issue with people who were raised
on the Internet.
Storage Clouds
Ask him if he’s worried about storing stuff in the cloud
because there are times it can look less than
friendly?
Figure 7 - The Real Cloud – We’re not really certain why
when people refer to cloud computing they show images of
nice fluffy things. Sure cloud computing can be as friendly
as the clouds you see up above you. But they can also hide
a universe of evil. There’s a ying and yang you need to
watch close. Source – NASA
Again…“So?”
He’s got photos, videos, music, stuff everywhere in
the cloud because, well because the “free” service is
there. It’s his. It’s there. It’s available.
P A GE 1 3
Wrong!
Actually he’s not really a bad kid because no one
reads the user agreements. Facebook, Flickr,
Google, YouTube, Linkup, all of the Web 2.0 cloud
sites use very similar legal scapegoat word-
age…“XYZ may delete or remove (without notice)
any stuff at its sole discretion, for any reason or no
reason.”
We don’t want to go looking for something and have
Dr. Chuck say, “Flight, we just lost Lovell!”
We may use their storage from time to time but we’ll
be darned if it will be our main or our archive stor-
age…that will be at the office and at home! When
we want our data, our content, our stuff…we want it!
Netbooks look like nice toys. When they’re up and
running and everything is connected they are cool.
When the stars aren’t in alignment they’re cute boat
anchors!
We’ll stick with “some” cloud computing.
Figure 8 - Gentle
Breezes – There’s a time to
work in the clouds and there
are times to have your feet
(and information) firmly
planted on terra firma. After
all, the fastest way to get
from point A to point B is
often through the atmos-
phere. But if someone
seeds the clouds with bad
stuff, it’s time to bring your
content home. Source – NY
Times
But we’ll do it with a notebook so we can play DVDs,
power game, edit photos/videos, work on ppts, write
articles, do stuff we actually get paid for anywhere/
anytime.
Last think we want to hear is Ken Mattingly telling
us, “Umm... We'll just have to take that one at a
time, Jack.’
MCC
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
BOYNG VASE SPEAKER
WHY SETTLE FOR BOXES?
by Jan Fagerholm, SoundByter
The Bullet Points: The Boynq Vase Speaker is a
stylish computer speaker system for use where
there is limited space. It is plug and play (no soft-
ware drivers), and powered by the computer's
USB port (no external power adapter). Output is
3Watts RMS, it has acoustical enhancements, fea-
tures surround sound and has volume, bass and
treble controls. It is cylindrical, 7.5” tall and 3”
wide.
What's In The Box: Vase speaker, 10-page
multilingual instruction manual.
The Review: All right, the name of this speaker sys-
tem ought to tell you a lot about the product even be-
fore you open the box. This is a question of style
more than substance. If your lifestyle includes limited
living space, a laptop rather than a desktop computer
(you're in the majority these days), and you don't par-
ticularly like hardware that looks so much like – hard-
ware, the Boynq Vase may be just what you are look-
ing for.
Sound systems for computers are pretty plebian
these days, so part of the Vase's thrust is toward
market differentiation. Thus, there are “pour femme”
and “pour homme” versions. (For you philistines,
that's “for women” and “for men”.) There's no techni-
cal difference between the product lines; just the
color selections. The unit reviewed here is “pour
homme”, and no, that does not mean that it makes
more bass than “pour femme”.
I'm a techie, so of course there's going to be some
technical evaluation. Despite marketspeak about
such technical achievements as full range driver and
acoustical enhancement, the Vase makes creditable
treble clarity but not much bass. This is to be ex-
pected from a device that uses only 3 watts of
power – it takes power to make bass, and you cannot
get much power from the 500 milliamps of current
available from USB ports. The decision to not have
an external power supply or batteries was, I'm sure,
to contribute to the device's convenience, but the
price paid is low volume and not much bass re-
sponse.
The sound quality is similar to other portable com-
P A GE 1 4
puter sound devices such as the Logitech mm28
portable speaker system and the Saitek My Spkr
A-100. While both of these systems produce
slightly more volume than the Boynq Vase, they do
not produce any more bass and both have the dis-
advantage of requiring batteries, which the Boynq
Vase does not.
The volume, treble and bass controls produce no-
ticeable changes in the volume and sound qual-
ity, though, frankly, I wound up setting the bass
and treble at maximum settings to get what I
think is the best sound quality. There is not
much stereo separation, and the Surround
Sound feature simply doesn't surround. The
domed cap doubles as a power switch, pressing it to
toggle the power on and off. There's no doubt
about the power on state, as there is a prominent
yellow light that come from the top aperture to let
you know the power is on (and to enhance the de-
vice's visual coolness).
In summary, the simplicity of the device is its great-
est appeal, right up there with its cool looks. It has
only a single USB cord that carries both the power
and audio to the device. No drivers – plug it in to a
USB port and it plays. I'm surprised that Boynq did-
n't provide an alternate input jack for MP3 players,
but part of its simplicity seems to be that it is not in-
tended and a universal sound solution but is clearly
targeted at laptops. Along those lines, its shape and
size limit its portability, so it will likely remain at your
laptop's working station at work or home. At its
price, you may decide to get a Boynq Vase for each
location. It's an improvement over any laptop's built-
in speakers, and improves its audio experience. If
you are seeking a simple solution to improving you
laptop's sound and not expecting home theater qual-
ity, you may like the Boynq Vase as a solution.
Boynq Vase Speaker System
MSRP $39.95
Innovative Office Products
Donklaan 52
2254 AD, Voorschoten
the Netherlands
+31 71 4080 960
www.boynq.com
MCC
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
THE DEALS GUY
by Bob (The Cheapskate) Click,
Greater Orlando Computer Users Group
My wife drives a 2003 GMC Sonoma pickup and
while I could write a book about its shortcomings, she
loves it. We bought an extended warranty on it, but
for only five years or 50,000 miles because we didn’t
think we would own it more than five years. We no-
ticed oil leaks on the garage floor and took it to the
dealer for diagnosis. The five-year warranty recently
ended, but the truck only has 60,000 easy miles on it.
The service advisor told us it had three leaks and ex-
plained that one was an oil pan leak, another is oil
leaking from the timing chain cover and the other was
the rear transmission seal leaking.
I was surprised about so many leaks, but asked the
price of repairs. He said that the oil pan could not be
removed because of the front end cross member be-
ing too close so they must pull the engine for those
repairs. The total bill for all the leaks would be a bit
over $1,700. I was astounded because I felt that
60,000 miles was premature for so many oil leaks.
I called GMC Customer Service, who has not been
much help in the past with another ongoing problem,
and explained the situation and disappointment with
the reliability of the vehicle. The customer rep said he
would take it up with the Zone Manager and get back
with me. The dealership advisor said not to expect
much these days. A few days later, the zone man-
ager said they would be happy to help me and said
they would pay for the gaskets and give me a 10%
discount on the repair cost. I was stunned and told
them where they could shove that help and that they
had insulted my intelligence. After all, the gaskets
would probably cost $20 and most dealerships give
senior citizens a 10% discount, so there was no help
there and they said OK, sorry, goodbye. I would have
been happy with 50% or something like that. No won-
der GM is going bankrupt with
that kind of product reliability and
customer relations attitude.
My son used my GM discount to
purchase a GMC Sierra pickup
and has had his share of war-
ranty problems with it. First was
a problem with the brake rotors,
which the dealer would not re-
place when they became warped
at 2,500 miles. They resurfaced
Bob Click
them and the problem came
The Deals Guy
P A GE 1 5
back. Later, when the vehicle was just out of war-
ranty, the diesel engine’s injector pump went out.
Customer Service said they would repair it at no
cost, but it took two weeks to get the parts and they
would not pay for the rental vehicle (interestingly, a
Toyota pickup) which had always been customary.
There were other problems. The first GMC pickup
before he purchased his present one had transmis-
sion problems that they couldn’t seem to repair and
he had an attorney force GM to refund his money
under the Lemon Law. This will be his last GMC,
just like us, or probably even a GM product, for that
matter, and that’s where my pension comes from.
*New Product From Diskeeper
Ms. Teal Thompson, Director of Public Relations,
sent me the specifications and pricing (below) for
Diskeeper 2009 (just released). Diskeeper has al-
ways been a superb product.
“New Features List:
“Improved Trialware: Trialware will now take an
analysis of the volume(s) “before” and “after” initial
installation. A comparison report is then generated,
demonstrating improve conditions.
“Improved InvisiTasking: The new, more assertive
InvisiTasking can now operate in competitive envi-
ronments, in conjunction with other always-on/idle-
time tasks that run at lowest priority while still guar-
anteeing completely invisible, zero-overhead, opera-
tions.
“IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6): Diskeeper 2009
now fully supports communication, such as remote
management on native IPv6 networks.
“Improved Free Space Consolidation: About 90% of
the available free space will now be grouped into
less than a dozen free space segments. This will
increase file write performance.
(Continued on page 16)
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
THE DEALS GUY
(Continued from page 15)
“About InvisiTasking
“Instead of the operating system scheduler allocating
the entire computer system to each process, one at a
time, InvisiTasking empowers the system to allocate
resources (CPU, memory, disk, and network) allow-
ing overlapping usage of separate resources, not just
reducing system overhead, but eliminating it alto-
gether.
“InvisiTasking is what makes Diskeeper defrag in real
time with zero overhead. Systems simply run fast,
operate at peak and are reliable, constantly. The
drives are always optimally maintained.
“Diskeeper 2009 includes the new InvisiTasking 2.0!
New functionality in InvisiTasking will allow it to be
more assertive, while still guaranteeing completely
invisible, zero-overhead, operations.” (Check their
Web site for further information.)
“Diskeeper 2009 with HyperFast™ SSD optimization:
“The new Diskeeper 2009 is now available as a bun-
dle with the new HyperFast SSD optimization prod-
uct.
“HyperFast™: Solid State drives (SSDs) promise us-
ers a faster and better experience than conventional
hard disk drives (HDD). However, Microsoft® Win-
dows® is not optimized for NAND Flash as a princi-
pal storage device, such as with SSDs. The result is
that, over time, customers of systems with SSDs will
experience a very noticeable and dramatic deteriora-
tion (up to 80%), to the degree that their computers
operate much slower than they would with a hard
disk. The new HyperFast feature bundled with
Diskeeper 2009 is specifically designed to eliminate
performance degradation, and restore performance
to like-new conditions.”
P A GE 1 6
Special pricing only applies on multiple purchases.
Diskeeper 2009 Home:
ESD $29.95
2-pack $44.95
3-pack $54.95
5-pack $89.95
Diskeeper 2009 Professional:
ESD $59.95
2-pack $89.95
3-pack $149.95
5-pack $269.75
Order through their online store at <http://www.
diskeeper.com/purchase/purchase.aspx>.
*Want A DVD Creator? DealsGuy Note: I have not
actually tried this product.
ZC Software has released ZC DVD Creator Plati-
num V. 6.2.2, a new version of ZC DVD creator
software that converts almost any video source to
burn on a DVD directly without having to store it on
a hard drive. ZC DVD Creator Platinum lets users
customize their menu templates to match the user's
style, giving the movie a polished look. The software
will edit, author and burn all DVD formats ever
known. With ZC DVD Creator Platinum, it is possible
to easily create personal DVDs.
ZC DVD Creator Platinum supports all known video
source formats, such as AVI, DIVX, XVID, RM,
RMVB, MPEG, MPG, VCD, SVCD, WMV, ASF,
ASX, SWF, MOV/DAT, FLV (Flash Video), 3GP
(3gpp, 3gp, 3gp2), MP4 (mp4, mpeg4), Nullsoft
Video (NSV) ,AVS, Decrypted DVD File (VOB),
MKV, DV video, mts, and m2ts. Also, the user has
new menu template themes that can easily custom-
ize the new Hollywood-style DVD menus. It’s possi-
ble to trim and split-cut the videos, specify the DVD
background Music and Images, edit the DVD Menu
short description and playback preview the video
file.
The video encoder guarantees the best DVD picture
quality within one hour. If Nero is installed, the soft-
ware automatically selects Nero as the default burn-
ing engine. ZC DVD Creator Platinum supports wide
screens (16:9) as well as the usual TV screens
(4:3). It also supports both NTSC and PAL TV sys-
tems. The advanced Dolby Digital audio will
strengthen the movie with theater quality sound. The
(Continued on page 17)
M C C J A N U A RY 2 0 0 9
DEALS GUY
(Continued from page 16)
software includes automatic matching of a broad
range of DVD-R/RW and DVD+R/RW burners. The
user can burn a DVD Movie image file placed on a
hard disc to a DVD Disk directly without storing
them on a hard disc.
ZC DVD Creator Platinum has a friendly and easy to
use interface that allows the user to create a DVD
movie just by one click. The new version of ZC DVD
Creator Platinum has an upgraded video clip edit
feature.
Pricing and Availability
ZC DVD Creator Platinum is compatible with all ver-
sions of Windows. Ordering the software on a CD-
ROM is $15 USD extra for shipping.
Special offers are:
- ZC DVD Creator Platinum and ZC Video Converter
at $60 USD;
- ZC DVD Creator Platinum and QR Photo DVD
Slideshow at $60 USD;
- ZC DVD Ripper and ZC Video Converter at $65
USD;
By purchasing ZC DVD Creator Platinum the user
gets lifetime FREE Technical Support and FREE
upgrades. For firsthand appraisal, a free trial version
is available. The user has a 30-day money back
guarantee.
Product page: <http://www.videoxdvd.com/product.
htm>
Download link: <http://www.videoxdvd.com/
download.htm>
Company web-site: <http://www.videoxdvd.com>
That's it for this month. I’ll have some more new
product announcements on my Web site that didn’t
offer discounts. Meet me here again next month if
your editor permits. This column is written to make
user group members aware of special offers or free-
bies I have found or arranged, and my comments
should not be interpreted to encourage, or discour-
age, the purchase of any products, no matter how
enthused I might sound. Bob (The Cheapskate)
Click <bobclick at bellsouth dot net>. Visit my Web
site at <http://www.dealsguy.com>
MCC
MCC
P A GE 1 7
OMNIPAGE PRO
(Continued from page 3)
Nuance's claims of accuracy and speed are basi-
cally beauty in the eye of the beholder. Absent the
presence of timed "before and after" types of tests, if
you find that the software features and functionality
meet your needs, then it's probably not productive to
be concerned with the statistics unless you're in a
high-volume production shop.
During this review, I encountered challenges with
registration information, apparently due to docking
station fingerprint issues using the product on a lap-
top, though Nuance provided patient support. And
while using the software, the Help files locked up
after repeated use; the "Repair" option could not
correct the problem, forcing an uninstall and reinstall
of the software.
It's clear that the product generally does a good job
recognizing text and images. It provides a host of
processing options, and can save significant
amounts of time that would be spent re-creating in-
formation electronically. If you work in an organiza-
tion with a formal document processing operation
and want to take advantage of workflows or ad-
vanced processing, consider having available IT
support or access to a third party OmniPage con-
sultant. If you run a small business or are a home
user with a limited budget, for best results, plan to
spend time and practice getting your hands around
the software.
MSRP is $499.99 for both physical shipment and
download or $199.99 for an upgrade
www.nuance.com.
MCC
MC C JANUARY 2 0 0 9 P A GE 1 8

Monthly Computer Chronicle MCC

Editorial offices and testing lab:
Editor - Charles Hajdú ChuckHajdu@MCCPubs.net
3907 Rhonda Court Emerging Technology - Linda Webb LWebb@MCCPubs.net
Clarksville, TN 37040-7507 Contributing Editor - Megan Ehrhard MeganEhrhard@aol.com
Contributing Editor - Bayle Emlein BEmlein@MCCPubs.net
Contact us at: Technical Editor - Tim Ehrhard TEhrhard@MCCPubs.net
Columnist - Bob Click bobclick@bellsouth.net
Phone & fax: (270) 423-3161 Columnist - Jan Fagerholm jan-f@pacbell.net
Columnist - George Harding GHarding@MCCPubs.net
Email: MCCEditor@aol.com
Columnist - Diana Meade DMeade@MCCPubs.net
http://bellsouthpwp.net/h/a/hajduc/ Columnist - Kate Meade KMeade@MCCPubs.net
Columnist - Lee Schwab LSchwab@MCCPubs.net
Columnist - B. T. Woody BTWoody@MCCPubs.net

DISCLAIMERS:
The opinions expressed in
this newsletter are those
of the individual authors
and not necessarily those
of the editors or publisher,
any municipal, county or
state governing body, the
Congress, Senate or
Executive Branch of the
U.S. Government,
the Government of
Hungary,
the United Nations or
the United Federation of
Planets.

I call that bold talk from a

four-eyed fat man.

LS/MFT