Hmmcast #130 mp4

When we bought our Gateway Vista machine in February the out of the box Windows Vista Experience Index was 2.6. Since buying Shadowrun and Halo 2 for Vista we have successfully increased it from 2.6 to 4.7 by making the following changes (spending around $250 extra):

- 2 GB DDR2 RAM. Since there were only two slots with 512MB each, I had to buy two 1 GB RAM sticks which cost $140 USD
- new graphics card. This had the biggest impact on performance. Started first with an ATI 256 MB RAM card ($133) and then found the nVidia GE Force 8500 GT selling for less $$$ and with 512 MB RAM. Yesterday, took the 256 MB RAM graphics card back.

Speaking of Vista, we bought our son an HP computer over Christmas that came with a free upgrade to Vista Home Premium (”Express”). We were supposed to receive that upgrade within 6-8 weeks of Vista launch. It arrived today, June 11, about two weeks shy of being four months since Vista was launched. The packing list shows the order date as May 18 at 06:32:29. The following is what the CD looks like:

Note that it’s marked: Windows Vista Home Premium Express Upgrade. I’m curious about the ‘Express’ part. Does that mean it just updates to Home Premium faster or does it mean it’s a handicapped version of Vista Home Premium? Anybody know? I did a small bit of Googling on the term and saw a FAQ for Gateway that said it differed from Windows Anytime Upgrade.

I asked my son, age 17 and an avid World of Warcraft gamer (he’s got a level 70 tank), what he thought about upgrading to Vista on his computer. He has seen first-hand what has gone into getting our newer Vista machine more game-worthy and has also seen upgrades from Windows machines take longer than expected before. “Think for the time being,” he said, “I’ll pass.”

Important note to Bloglines RSS readers regarding weekday Hmmcasts
If you are checking out the Hmmcast in Bloglines the enclosure won’t play directly, this is a confirmed issue (thanks Kent) currently without an in post workaround. Unfortunately the Bloglines RSS Reader strips out embedded Google Videos and doesn’t play mp4 enclosures. It does play mp3 enclosures without problems. I saw that some (not all) YouTube video embeds show up and I’ve checked against RSS feeds from other publishers with video enclosures and have experienced similar problems so the problem is not isolated to our RSS feed. I’m still gathering information on the issue and researching what other publishers are doing about it.

Solutions: if you click on the mp4 link it will play in your browser if you have the Quicktime plugin (free) activated. Otherwise you can use the download link and use any player that supports MPEG video files.

Hmmcast #129 mp4

Tonight for those who purchased the Ozzy Osbourne Black Rain CD you can redeem your tickets at livenation.com/ozzfest. The rest can start redeeming on June 12th.

Hmmcast #128 mp4

Hmmcast #127 mp4

Kevin Mitnick.

I’m sure many Hmm readers have heard that name. Mitnick was a well known bad guy hacker who did a couple years in the pen. An article in the June 2007 issue of Playboy describes the mistake he made that got him caught. When he got out he turned author and whitehat security consultant. He’s a new man, or so that’s what we are supposed to believe.

A few days ago I was listening on the radio to a commercial about a product that Mitnick endorsed which would make your experience banking online more secure. It’s a “hardened solution” according to Mitnick since it doesn’t just rely on software. The product sounded worth closer investigation (hey, maybe Google is right to be doing radio advertising, it still works). The product name?

ID Vault.

The radio ad mentioned it was available at Best Buy stores everywhere. I stopped by our local Best Buy and they didn’t have any in stock but there were 19 in the warehouse. The manager told me he was ordering some right away and would be stocking them near the laptop display.

Went back home and searched the Best Buy website. The Federal Way store had two copies. I called and asked if they’d hold one since it was a 30 minute drive. I was told they don’t do that. Oh well, didn’t hurt to ask. We arrived at the store 35 minutes later and both copies were still there at the price of $49.99.

Got home and installed ID Vault. I had the understanding — wrong, it would seem — that ID Vault worked with Firefox. Not for me. The ID Vault FAQ says it does but I never received any of the ID Vault prompts when I visited and tried to login to any sites with Firefox and the instruction manual only mentions Internet Explorer.

Not only a Windows-only deal, but Internet Explorer only too? I tried firing up Internet Explorer once ID Vault was installed and it crashed right away. I uninstalled ID Vault and Internet Explorer loaded right away without incident.

Argh.

Before uninstalling I checked the ID Vault database to see if Sharebuilder was one of the brokerages it worked with? Nope. T. Rowe Price was listed however. The Credit Union we use was listed. ID Vault was noticeably slow retrieving the site information.

The way ID Vault promises to secure you is by requesting a pin number to transmit your username/password. The information is stored on the ID Vault USB key. So when you want to visit one of the secure websites you just click on it and it looks for the ID Vault USB key. When you enter in your site username and password you don’t use the keyboard which would prevent a keylogger from seeing it. The methodology used already doesn’t have me typing out the passwords (I generate them using eWallet which has 256-bit encryption and then copy/paste to the sites), so the ID Vault was just adding another largely unnecessary layer of security. Plus, it doesn’t stop any hacker that has already gotten the username/password from using any computer.

ID Vault would be better if it offered some sort of number challenge that could only be generated from the USB key like the PayPal security key. I wanted to like and use ID Vault but in its current condition I would have been better donating the 50 bones to charity. You can save $20 if you order ID Vault through their website but that’s your call. I hope Mitnick was paid well to pitch this because anything he endorses going forward will meet with much greater skepticism from this consumer. Uninstalled. Grade: F.

Update July 5, 2007 7:01pm PST: Greg Greg Marek, Vice President of Marketing for Guard ID Systems, Inc. stopped by in the comment section below to point out that the version of the software that came with my purchased version of ID Vault probably wasn’t the new beta version that supports Firefox 2.0 due to manufacturing to retail lag time. I’ve asked him to continue the dialog and address if the Firefox version is the same as ID Vault or if there are any differences (I.E less functionality). Also asked him if T. Rowe Price is now supported as it wasn’t a month ago and he made it sound as it was easy to get support for that included by just asking them to do so. Consider this my blog post my formal request, Greg.

Hmmcast #126 mp4

Video: Just Ask3D

I was excited by the name of the new Ask.com search engine. I’ve owned stock in Ask.com since before they were bought by Barry Diller and banished the butler. Must say the changes made since the acquisition have left me feeling more and more remorseful for buying the stock. Particularly the part where I was left holding EXPEdia stock in the spinoff. There has yet to be one travel sites I’ve liked, what about you?

But this morning I was hopeful when I saw the news that the all new Ask3D had arrived with grand promises that they were a “truly new way to search.”

And then it was downhill from there. Again. The 3D in the title is merely a marketing gimmick:

No, you don’t need red and blue glasses to see it. 3D stands for the three dimensions of searching - query expression, investigating results, and digging deeply into content. You used to have to visit three different pages or websites to see and search through each dimension.

I was hoping for something like a cross between a virtual world and Google quality results. Alas nothing remotely close. Boo, hiss! Bring back the butler, at least he wasn’t such a tease.

Hmmcast #125 mp4

Had some trouble getting today’s Hmmcast uploaded to Google Video so went with YouTube instead.

A week ago the first game — Shadowrun — that allows Windows Vista players to compete directly against or play with those on the Xbox 360. On launch day I was unable to buy it anywhere locally. The next day, we bought one of the last couple copies at Gamestop. I didn’t see the Vista version of Shadowrun until yesterday at the Fred Meyer in Lacey.

Shaky Shadowrun launch supply?
We’re used to shipping shortages and problems with game systems, but the games themselves are usually in plentiful supply. The stores in this area if they got any Shadowrun copies were picked clean.

I don’t know who to blame this one on, but it’s not just our area according to a post in the official Shadowrun forums:

My “town,” is roughly 40k in size…and the “town,” across the river is roughly 90k in size. I called both “towns,” and the shipping has been messed up in both…

If a game like Shadowrun is in short supply then heaven help gamers on September 25 when Halo 3 arrives. Maybe the Halo 2 launch day record isn’t in danger after all.

Steep Windows Vista system requirements
The Gateway Vista machine we bought earlier this year came with 1GB of DDR2 and an Intel Extreme graphics card. I needed to upgrade to a graphics car with 256MB RAM ($133 USD). On the Shadowrun box it says 2GB of RAM is needed but I found it ran fine with 1GB. No annoying error messages either.

I found a number of Shadowrun players excited to be playing with someone on Vista. Our son who has been playing the Xbox 360 version a lot over the last week tells me there aren’t that many Vista players. He thinks the graphics look pretty good even though I didn’t have it running with max graphics on the Vista machine.

For whatever reason when I plugged in the Xbox 360 controllers Vista wouldn’t recognize them (none of the five Xbox 360 controllers we have) so I also needed to go back to the store and buy the wireless Xbox controller with USB adapter for Windows Vista ($59.99). We can plug in Xbox 360 controllers on Windows XP problem.

Bottom line: even if you just bought your Vista machine, unless it’s a higher end machine ready for gaming, be prepared to pay at least a couple hundred dollars to play Shadowrun. The cost of the Vista Shadowrun ($49.99) was $10 less than the Xbox 360 game ($59.99) for our purchase. Maybe they expected most people would have to throw down more bones for the Vista experience. Hopefully now we’re ready for more games like this as they become available.

Hmmcast #124 mp4

If you ever come out to the Seattle area then be sure to take a lunch detour south to Tacoma, WA try out MSM Deli (I keep wanting to mistitle it MSN deli, but that must just be Microsoft on the brain). These are the best sandwiches I’ve tried in the area. Highly recommended. They like it at Yelp too:

“The decor is a little dive-y, a mix between a deli and a discheveled 7-11 … ( I found this added an unassuming charm to the place)”

An accurate description.

Hmmcast #123 mp4

What board games do you own? I looked through a list of ours today and was surprised at what I ’saw’.

Hmmcast #122 mp4

In my post this morning I said this would be a vacation day for the Hmmcast, but the video of the clear day and mountain was just too hard to ignore sharing. My digital camera footage doesn’t do the mountain and view justice. How serene. Looks like Sterling woke up to a cooker of a morning across the pond. We might be in your neck of the woods later today after the doctor’s appointment, mon. And check your email, I sent you something I think you might be able to use.

Hmmcast #121 mp4

I’ll never look at a spatula and spices around the barbecue the same way again.