Category: Technology

I Remember When…

Lorin Olsen


…remote control was either difficult or expensive.
You could choose the Microsoft approach.  You could use the RDP solution from any client.  But if you wanted to actually connect to a desktop, that system needed to be running a “professional” version of the OS.  That meant that you could have remote control from Microsoft if you paid them first.
But if you refused to pay the Microsoft tax, you could always pay Citirix for the right to use their remote control tool.  Yes, it worked well.  And it didn’t require a special version of the operating system.  Instead, you just paid a license to Citrix and you could help whoever you wanted to help.  But licensing was horribly complex.  You had to have a license for a certain number of supported desktops or every desktop had to have a license of its own.  So if you wanted to get help, you had to set stuff up BEFORE you had a problem.
Fortunately, you could always roll your own solution.  You could install a VNC client and server on the systems that you wanted to access remotely.  And if you wanted real security, you could always use an SSH client and server to make sure that your connection was encrypted.  It was so easy to do that… OK, it wasn’t that easy to do.  If you had an uber-geek for a spouse (or any teenage child could substitute), then you could brute force your way through the maze of complexity.
So the choice was simple: build a terribly complex solution or pay for someone else to do it for you.  Now you have another option: Chrome Remote Desktop.
Google is building the Chrome OS.  And they need to have a way to provide for remote desktop administration.   It has to be secure and it has to be simple to use.   So how do you do both?  You build a tool on top of other infrastructure that already exists.

  1. You need a rendering engine that can run anywhere.  So build it on your browser.
  2. You need a transport mechanism that is easily secured and can pass through almost any firewall.   So build it on secure HTTP (https/443).
  3. You need an extensible platform that can encode almost anything into an XML stream.  So use jabber (i.e., xmpp) as the transport and stream platform.
  4. Finally, you need a well known means of connecting users to each other.  So use GTalk as the central nexus for interconnecting people.

In the end, what you have is a secure infrastructure that can easily be implemented via Google accounts and extensions to the Chrome browser.
I’m still a little leery of anything that is so simple and easy to use.  But I think that this one may be a real winner.

DLNA Difficulties Defy Desires

Lorin Olsen

Over the past couple of days, I’d completed all the chores that needed to be done on this long weekend. So today was a free day. The weather was amazing today. But Cindy and I decided to take care of a few things: Cindy spent the day working on schoolwork while I worked on configuring the new TV to work with the rest of the household network.
My goal was simple: facilitate streaming movies from our media server to the new Samsung TV. I have ripped almost a hundred of our DVD’s into MP4 (i.e., .m4v) file formats. And I’ve used these files on other computers as well as mobile phones. So I assumed that this was going to be rather simple. But simple technology tasks often become very complicated – as was the case today.
The first step of the process was to set up a DLNA server. Since we have a Twonky server already built into our media server (i.e., a Western Digital NAS server), I figured that I would go ahead and use that platform first. But when I attempted to play a movie from the media server, the Samsung TV just displayed an “in progress” graphic. It took almost five minutes before it timed out with an error.
After playing with this for a while, I finally decided that the embedded Twonky server in my WD NAS might be outdated. So I decided to buy a copy of the software for my main system. After a failed transaction through Paypal, I was finally able to purchase and download a current version of Twonky server. After a few minutes of configuration, I was able to try streaming content once again. The results were identical. So I was now out a couple of sawbucks and I was no closer to a solution.
After tasting failure twice, it was time to do some research. First, I found out that I am not the only person who has had this problem. Second, I learned that many of the problems with streaming via Twonky were the result of multiple Twonky servers on the same network. While that didn’t make much sense, it was worth spending the time to reconfigure my systems. Of course, the result was some lost time and no substantial progress towards solving the problem. So it was three strikes – but I wasn’t out.
Next I was coming to the conclusion that the problem might lie with the new Samsung TV and not the streaming server. There are enough references to Samsung TV’s not support every MP4 container type. Indeed, some references even suggested that AVI files solved the problem for them. Of course, I’m not going to convert all of my AVI files on a whim. So I decided to pursue a different short-term course.
I saw quite a few derogatory references to Samsung’s DLNA implementation. So just in case it was the DLNA client built into the TV, I decided to copy one of the MP4 movies to a USB drive. I plugged the drive into the TV (after renaming the file from .m4v to .mp4). After finding out how to browse to a USB connected drive, I was able to successfully watch one of the movies that I couldn’t stream to the TV.
So now I’m left with a quadry: should I convert and/or rip my DVD’s again? I hardly think that this would be worth it. Since I really want this to work via DLNA, I’ll be entering a ticket with Samsung service concerning their DLNA server on the 6-series televisions.
[Note: If you’re wondering why the movie poster from Serenity is attached to this post, it’s because Serenity was the movie that I used to perform my various tests.]
 
-Roo

A Very Samsung Summer

Lorin Olsen

It’s been a Samsung kind of month here at the castle. First it was the Galaxy Tab. Then we added a Samsung refrigerator. Finally, we ended up buying a second Samsung TV.
Why did we need another TV? Well, our second daughter has started a job in Chanute, Kansas as an assistant basketball coach. She is having a wonderful start to the new school year. But she is obviously moving out of our house and into her own apartment. That is great. We are so proud of her.
But there are two challenges (one practical and one emotional) that this transition brings. The practical challenge is that Dana needed a TV. Cindy and I had talked about putting an LED/LCD screen in our bedroom (to replace a seven-year old tube system). Since there needed to be a +1 purchase somewhere, we chose to give our daughter the older system so we could buy a new system.
The device we chose was a 40″ LED/LCD panel from Samsung. We already had a huge Samsung TV in our main living room. And we have loved that device. So buying another Samsung TV was a natural next step. And this time, I made sure that it would work with the DLNA infrastructure that is now throughout the house.
After getting the TV set up yesterday, I’ve been setting up a robust DLNA complex using Twonky Media. I have used Twonky in the past (with my Western Digital external hard drive). So I just bought and installed the full product on my media PC. Once I set the server up properly, I have been able to stream stuff stored anywhere in the house. And since I’ve stored all my favorite movies in digital form, it is stunningly simple to pull up any of my favorite movies either on the TV, the tablet or my mobile phone.
That took care of the first challenge. The second challenge won’t be as easy to address. Now that Dana is setting up her own apartment, she rightfully wants her own daughter to be with her. I love Dana’s sense of responsibility – and her devotion to Jayden. But it means that Jayden will no longer be living here with Cindy and I. So while we are proud of Dana, I am so terribly saddened that I won’t be seeing Jayden’s beautiful smile or hear her infectious laugh each and every day. I can only imagine the loneliness and loss that Dana felt while she was separated from her daughter for the past two years.
I don’t think that we can solve the second challenge by buying anything or by performing some kind of technical configuration. This one can only be solved with time and with the comforting knowledge that Jayden (and Dana) are starting off on a new and exciting journey – and we will always be along to help and to share in both the burdens and the joy.
-Roo

From Uber-Geek to…Corporate Wonk?

Lorin Olsen

It is always good to see when talent is rewarded. So many of us began our careers very humbly. I started my career by building my own PC. [When I started, you were forced to solder them yourself. And most folks were using CP/M (from Digital Research).] Still others gained their notoriety by being public hackers (some more ethical than others).
Recently, the term “hacker” has been blurred with the term “geek” (not to be confused with the term “nerd”). There have been some fabulous hackers who are very dedicated to the platforms that they “expanded” (through their often unauthorized projects). I still remember many of the Windows Mobile geeks based upon their work on various “kitchens” (i.e., the collection of tools they used to “cook” their products). While I don’t remember any of their real names, their pseudonyms are still memorable.
Many of the early mobile hackers moved on to work for carriers or for handset vendors. They moved from their hacker lifestyle into their corporate lifestyle as effortlessly as changing a suit of clothing. Basically, they morphed from pop stars (in small circles) to anonymous contributors in a much larger lake.
But it is far harder to make those kinds of transitions into anonymity these days. First, the exceptional hackers are elevated to an elite (and very public) status. Today, the application of cred points is done by a community in a social media setting (e.g., Twitter, Google+, etc). And it is also far more difficult to fade away from your past. Today, every word you speak is recorded, parsed, analyzed and used in your next job interview.
Nevertheless, it is still possible to make the jump into mainstream.
A few weeks ago, Samsung hired Steve Kondik (aka, cyanogen).  Now, Apple has hired Nicholas Allegra (aka, comex). While I am glad that big companies are looking beyond their own short-sighted misgivings to recognize real talent, I am even happier that exceptional talent will be put to exceptional use in the industry. Let’s welcome Steve and Nicholas to the next phase of their careers/lives.
-Roo

Me and My Tablet

Lorin Olsen

It’s been twenty-one days since I bought my Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 device. And in that time, the tab and I have been through a lot. We’ve had to replace the Zagg screen protector twice. We’ve shared a firmware upgrade (courtesy of the talented Samsung support team). We’ve even solved a DHCP problem with a Belkin router at my office. Throughout that time, we’ve shared many apps (free and paid). All in all, we are becoming quite a couple.
After suffering a lot of anxiety about how we would relate to each other should we take “the ultimate step” in our relationship, we finally set aside any emotional baggage and cemented our relationship. Last night, I rooted my best tablet. By taking this ultimate step in commitment, we are reluctantly saying “goodbye” to direct support from Samsung. But I have high hopes that Steve Kondik (CyanogenMod creator who just joined Samsung) may help to create a new relationship between Samsung, its products and its customers.
-Roo

Bouncing Between Various Quanta of Activity

Lorin Olsen


It has been an amazingly hectic week.  And today has epitomized the chaos that I’ve felt.  This week has seen a lot:

  • We got back from vacation (which was really just a long weekend).  But we have been struggling to re-integrate into our normal routines.
  • The man who enticed me to leave my previous job has left our company.  I am quite disappointed.  But God has already quieted my heart.  And He is teaching me how I can transform a disappointment into a blessing – and a ministry.
  • I’ve decided to step back into the management pool.  So I’ve submitted my name for consideration by the company’s leadership team.  I have been heart warmed to learn that my application was not summarily dismissed!  😉
  • Our dishwasher decided to develop a weak bladder: when we turned it on, it leaked everywhere.  At eight years, it was time to buy a new unit.  So we went and bought an updated dishwasher (Bosch) with a stainless steel finish.  Our black appliances are starting to look a little dated.
  • After getting a new dishwasher, we also realized that it was time to update the refrigerator.  While we liked the looks of a matching Bosch unit, we decided upon a Samsung stainless steel unit because it had better reviews on Consumer Reports.  It also had some features that my wife really wanted.  So Samsung got the nod.
  • We cleaned out the garage to get things ready for appliance delivery.  Actually, we’ve re-arranged some stuff while sorting some other stuff into the trash.  We now have room for the old refrigerator in the garage.  I am voting for a beer and wine fridge; Cindy is considering my suggestion!

With these things as a back drop, today has been chaotic and wonderful.

  • We’ve worked to get the old fridge ready for replacement.  We still have to move the final stuff into coolers.  But we will be ready for the arrival of the new refrigerator.
  • I’ve updated my resume so that I can get it submitted to the leadership team.  I’m really hoping that they have the same opinion of my capabilities that I have.
  • We’ve gotten all the dishes done.  Normally, this is simple.  But it’s been years since I washed a lot of dishes by hand.  We did mostof them earlier in the week.  But we now have to keep up with them throughout the day.
  • My son left a boatload of laundry for us to do for him.  Apparently, he’s been stacking the clothes in his room waiting for someone to do them.  Gosh, are all nineteen-year old men this naive?  And are all middle-aged parents this accommodating?
  • After many hours of sorting and shuffling leftover laundry, we’ve finally gotten around to doing the week’s laundry.  Phew.  I never thought I’d make it to this point today!

With a lot of tasks finally moving through the pipeline, I’ve finally gotten a chance to address a couple of tech challenges.

  • I’ve copied all of the photos from Meredith’s wedding onto our media server.
  • I’ve updated Cindy’s phone so that she can access the media server from where she travels.  The latest firmware build for the storage server is quite good.  Western Digital provides a redirect service so that I can get to my photos (and music and movies) from the public Internet.  This is very cool.  But it reminds me that security is an everyday consideration these days.
  • I’ve updated my router firmware to enable uPNP sharing.  This will certainly help our mobile experience.  But I am a little leery about this change.  I’ll have to research a little more to see if I’ve opened myself up to exploitation.
  • I’ve flashed my phone with the latest CyanogenMod firmware.

I think I’m finally able to breathe a little sigh of relief – but not for long.  Once the refrigerator is delivered, Cindy and I will have a lot of work to do.  But now that most of the prep work is done, this part should be fun.  But I do think that pizza will be in order!

-Roo

I've Upped the Ante – My Increasing Android Investment

Lorin Olsen

image

Android has been my smartphone OS for almost a year.  And it has served me quite well.  But it has its limitations on a smartphone.  The limitations are many.  And some of them are even noteworthy.  But my biggest challenge with my smartphone is that it is a wholly inadequate platform for writing notes and blogging. 

Why is that?  That’s easy.  Since voice recognition and voice transcription are still in their infancy, it is very hard to work with text documentation.  First, the soft keyboard is difficult – especially for someone with big hands.  And even with my Droid 2, the keyboard is just not suited for touch typing.  So while I can surf the web and I can take photos, I can’t use a smartphone to really spend any time blogging and/or recording my thoughts.  But that is not a fault with Android.  It is just an example of needing the right tool for the job.  Yes, I stumbled my way through some updates.  But it was always cumbersome.

But that changed this afternoon.  As a part of my fiftieth birthday celebration, I am now the proud owner of an Android tablet.  My wife and I picked up a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 today.  And I really love the device – and the Honeycomb platform.  The list of my likes is rather large.  And even though I am tremendously happy thus far, there are a few things that are quite annoying about the platform. 

Nevertheless, I think I may wait on posting a full review of the platform.  After all, an entirely new computing domain should warrant a few days use before I pontificate on the subject.  For now, I’ll settle for an overview.  One sentence summary: the Android tablet environment fills a needed gap in my computing spectrum.  

Where is that gap?  It’s the space where I need media and mobility. It’s where I still need some real computing – but I can’t carry a big laptop.  It is a place where I can stuff tablet and keyboard into a back pack or a bike pannier – and still be confident that I can do a complete job.  Bottom line: This is my new mobility space. 

And I want that space to be open – not constrained.  I want to connect to wireless networks with ease.  And I want to use the device to access my other devices while I am away from them.  And I want to install the things that I want to install – not just what someone else thinks that I need.  I don’t want someone else’s handcuffs.  And if I am handcuffed, I’ll pick the lock to free my hands.

Innovation is about taking existing pieces and building a whole new thing.  So my new tablet is the melding of technologies that I have used before into a package that is compelling.  At the same time, I want to have access to the computer.  Think of it this way.  I want a car.  But I hate the fact that some dealer has me over a barrel because he has the only computer that can read the sensors and program the electronics.  Some folks may be satisfied with that situation.  I am not.  Consequently, I have an Android tablet. 

-Roo

I’ve Upped the Ante – My Increasing Android Investment

Lorin Olsen

image

Android has been my smartphone OS for almost a year.  And it has served me quite well.  But it has its limitations on a smartphone.  The limitations are many.  And some of them are even noteworthy.  But my biggest challenge with my smartphone is that it is a wholly inadequate platform for writing notes and blogging. 

Why is that?  That’s easy.  Since voice recognition and voice transcription are still in their infancy, it is very hard to work with text documentation.  First, the soft keyboard is difficult – especially for someone with big hands.  And even with my Droid 2, the keyboard is just not suited for touch typing.  So while I can surf the web and I can take photos, I can’t use a smartphone to really spend any time blogging and/or recording my thoughts.  But that is not a fault with Android.  It is just an example of needing the right tool for the job.  Yes, I stumbled my way through some updates.  But it was always cumbersome.

But that changed this afternoon.  As a part of my fiftieth birthday celebration, I am now the proud owner of an Android tablet.  My wife and I picked up a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 today.  And I really love the device – and the Honeycomb platform.  The list of my likes is rather large.  And even though I am tremendously happy thus far, there are a few things that are quite annoying about the platform. 

Nevertheless, I think I may wait on posting a full review of the platform.  After all, an entirely new computing domain should warrant a few days use before I pontificate on the subject.  For now, I’ll settle for an overview.  One sentence summary: the Android tablet environment fills a needed gap in my computing spectrum.  

Where is that gap?  It’s the space where I need media and mobility. It’s where I still need some real computing – but I can’t carry a big laptop.  It is a place where I can stuff tablet and keyboard into a back pack or a bike pannier – and still be confident that I can do a complete job.  Bottom line: This is my new mobility space. 

And I want that space to be open – not constrained.  I want to connect to wireless networks with ease.  And I want to use the device to access my other devices while I am away from them.  And I want to install the things that I want to install – not just what someone else thinks that I need.  I don’t want someone else’s handcuffs.  And if I am handcuffed, I’ll pick the lock to free my hands.

Innovation is about taking existing pieces and building a whole new thing.  So my new tablet is the melding of technologies that I have used before into a package that is compelling.  At the same time, I want to have access to the computer.  Think of it this way.  I want a car.  But I hate the fact that some dealer has me over a barrel because he has the only computer that can read the sensors and program the electronics.  Some folks may be satisfied with that situation.  I am not.  Consequently, I have an Android tablet. 

-Roo

Welcome Back My Friends…

Lorin Olsen


…to the show that never ends.
Last weekend was exciting – and frustrating.  Seven days ago, I decided that I needed to switch to a different ROM on my phone.  I loved Liberty GB.  But about a month ago, it lost all of its momentum.  Daily builds had dried up.  And there was no sustainable roadmap for future development.
But the CyanogenMod distribution was thriving.  Nightly builds were flourishing.  And this ROM was even pushing boundaries by adopting cutting edge features from many sources – including the carriers.  CM7 was headed towards Android 2.3.5 (which was delivered this past week).  And CM& has included the T-Mobile Theme Chooser.  This mod was smoking.
So last weekend, I took the plunge…
…and landed in a dry lake bed.
I really didn’t want to wipe my phone to bare metal.  I had read quite a bit that seemed to indicate that I would need to wipe the cache, data and even system files on my phone.  Since I had never wiped the system files and used SBF to rebuild my base system, I was nervous.  Then I read a whole lot of posts that said that if I was on a Gingerbread build (of Liberty), I could just wipe cache and data and then install.  So that’s what I did.  And that’s when I landed in the dry lake bed.
The result of this approach was a fully bricked phone.  In fact, I’ve never torched a system quite as successfully as I had torched my phone.  There was absolutely nothing left on my phone.  So I had to learn about SBF and then do it for myself.  Fortunately, the process is simple.  All you have to do is get the right software on your desktop, connect your phone via USB and then use the bootloader to re-deploy the basic image (that originally came from your carrier).
Once I flashed the phone, I was tempted to just stay put.  That temptation lasted thirty minutes before I flashed the base CyanogenMod system.
And what a wonderful change this has been.
I love this ROM.  It is fast.  It is stable.  Most importantly, it is actively developed.  In the past seven days, I’ve loaded six nightly builds.  The only reason that there weren’t seven nightlies is because one of the nightlies included a whole new Android build (i.e., 2.3.5).  So there was no new build on July 26.  I guess it took an extra day to put together such a big change.
It is even more exciting to see that CM7 is the productof a lot of code branches assembled together.  I am so impressed with the T-Mobile theme chooser.

Is it the best such tool?  Probably not.  But it was developed within a massive company.  Nevertheless, it was released as open source.  So the CM folks pulled it into their ROM distribution.  This is one of the greatest things about open source development.  You are able to pick and  choose the things you want to assemble together.  I suspect that this theme chooser will now find its way into almost every Android distribution.
Vive le difference.
-Roo

Using Android to Remotely Control Media Playback

Lorin Olsen


It’s interesting to see how mobile devices can be used for the oddest little tasks.  My Android phone can do a lot.  It can run all sorts of network apps.  And the latest app I’ve picked up is a remote control tool for the VideoLAN VLC media player.
When you think about it, there isn’t a lot of “never been done before” tools in this kind of application.  But the folks at VideoLAN have really assembled an innovative package.
An http server is installed on the machine that you want to control. The server accepts incoming web connections and processes these requests as control strings to manage the operation of a VLC media player on the target computer.  The server provides content listing and content playback controls via http packets.
A TCP/IP control program on your phone communicates with the web server on your computer.  The mobile control program has a nice little GUI that displays the content and allows you to manage the server.

The PC-based server can either send the content to a display attached to your system or the server can stream the ontent to your phone.  And I was incredibly surprised at the picture quality when it was streamed to the phone.  I wish I could share a picture with you, but ShootMe didn’t get any good screen captures of the Android-based VLC player.  I’ll have to try and get these at a later time. But trust me when I say that the streaming quality is good.
So what did this experiment prove?
First, the open nature of the platform breeds this kind of innovative tinkering.  People can fiddle and tweak things as much as they like.  And you don’t have to go through the app police to get a permit in order to test, to distribute and to operate apps.
Second, the size of the Android developer community is huge.  The sheer enormity of the developer base is leading to some very cool innovations.
Finally, it’s great to have lots of choices.  But it can get crowded in any given application category.    There needs to be a good method for recommendations and curation.  The Amazon philosophy of 4/5 star customer ratings is an excellent way to weed through enormous piles of similarly featured tools.
Is this tool cool?  It most certainly is cool.  Is it an essential tool for home media center management?  It most assuredly is not essential.  But sometimes cool is enough – at least for tonight.
 
-Roo