Mindful Musings

One of those perfect quotes I always want to hang onto . .

“You and you alone are in charge of what happens in this story, all of us are challenged to use our talent and our intelligence to make the most of our experience.”

I caught on the ASUS Eee PC bug a few months ago and bought one for myself but it was annoying to have to carry the power adapter to work everyday because it reduced the portability of the device. However, I looked everywhere for a decent power adapter that would work on the Eee PC. It uses a very weird 9.5V 2.5A draw which is uncommon and not found in most universal adapters. Car adapters work and they are cheap but the amperage is hard to get in 12 v cigarette adapters for the home. Then one of the co-workers found AllElectronics.com and we found an adapter that works. It was $17 shipped and it works just fine on my EeePC. The model number is  PS-930 and you can buy it here. It is a 9V adapter wth a 3A draw and it performs wonderfully. Hope this helps someone.

Since the original site is gone and I would like to save the instructions for the future, here they are from the Wayback Machine.

The very cool Mike Matas posted instructions on how to make a ‘Life Poster’ but sadly some of us are still using PCs and can’t use his iPhoto wizardry. Well for those like me here are the instructions for creating a life poster using Photoshop…

Step one
Create a new folder on your drive and copy 98 images that you want to include in your life poster to that folder. Make sure that you are copying the images and not moving the images.

Step two
You are going to want all your photos in a 4:3 ratio so cropping will be necessary for any landscape photos before you put your poster together. This is simple to do in photoshop, simple open the file, select the cropping tool icon, enter the ration in the boxes provided under the tool bar then simple select the area of the photo that you want – the election box with hold the correct ratio for you.

Step three
Use the “Contact Sheet II” tool (File> Automation> Contact Sheet II) to apply the following properties:
Use: Folder
Browse: The folder you’ve created
Units: inches
Width: 19.5
Height: 30
Resolution: 200 pixels/inch
Mode: RGB
Flatten All Layers: Check
Place: eitherway, whatever feels lucky to you
Columns: 7
Rows: 14
Use Auto-Spacing: Check
Click OK.

Step four
Sit back and watch photoshop do it’s magic. This is an automated process so the action is going to be taking place on the screen and not in the background – each image will open, resize, copy into the poster document and be places. No doubt this will take up a lot of your computer’s mojo so best to just let it sit.

Step five
Now it is time to add the side margins… Image> Canvass Size
Change Width from 19.5 to 20 and hit ok – this will add a quarter of an inch margin to each side of the image.

Step six
All set to save (TIFF is always good) and either upload to the photo processing site or take it into Kinkos or such to be printed.

As some of you were aware, Jennifer was pregnant with our first child. Due to a sudden complication with her pregnancy brought on by a hidden weakness called an “incompetent cervix“, Jennifer had to deliver our baby at 21 weeks of gestation at an unexpected rest stop in Indianapolis.

Our baby passed away very quickly after the delivery in spite of all the medical attention that was available to her. She lived for 15 minutes and spent her last few breaths in Jennifers’ arms. She was absolutely beautiful and made me smile and cry at the same time. We baptized her Angel. She is the Angel of our eyes and our hearts.

I know she is happy in heaven. We will miss you our dear child. May the Lord bless you and may your soul rest in peace.

In nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.

Sprint Mobile Email was launched sometime back in November 2006 with a lot of pomp and show but is barely advertised on their website today. It seems to have lost some favor to the VersaMail application that comes bundled with the Treo 755p. However, I find Sprint Mobile Email is better for my purposes. Here is a smallish review of sorts and the strengths and weaknesses that I have found. I would also like to document tips and tricks and hacks for Sprint Mobile Email for posterity. So if you have any good tips for Sprint Mobile Email, please leave a comment here.

You can download Sprint Mobile Email (referred to henceforth as SME) from Sprint’s website under the “Digital Lounge” menu item on http://my.sprint.com after you have logged onto your Sprint account. This is only available if your phone is capable of running Sprint Mobile Email. It is a quick and dirty download and setting up of email accounts is swift. The default setup enables push for the accounts but not scheduled checking of emails. This was supposed to be, I assume, the BlackBerry killer application but the push setup is hit or miss. Frankly, I have yet to get it to work. So though it is a good idea, execution leaves more to be desired. I have GMail setup along with a work account and they both work under SME as expected.

PS: You need unlimited data and/or unlimited text messaging for SME to work. I would be afraid of the data charges if you did not.

Pros:

• Setting up of emails is a breeze.


• The application is stable. Large icons for finger clicking helps a lot.


• Lots of key mappings, including side button mapping for email.


• On demand checking of email is very simple from keyboard.


• Navigation within the app is intuitive and fast. Lots of features to purge attachments and such to reduce space usage.


• Separate emails for separate accounts. I hate mixing of emails.

Cons:

• Push does not work for me. Some people have said that it takes a while to sync. Mine did not sync, ever.


• No timed deletion of messages. I wish I could make the emails delete automatically after x days. I missed this in VersaMail as well.

Tips and tricks:

• Hold down the mail button on your Treo to receive mail or sync with the mail account being viewed.


• Once you are viewing email for an account, click on the option button to get detailed preferences etc for the account including push setup and scheduled email checking. It took me a while to find this.


• Go back to the mail listing by clicking on the mail button anywhere in the app.


• The mail button, clicked once while in mail listing, allows you to switch between mail accounts.

I have gotten so used to SME that I actually use my phone to check email every morning without having to get on my computer. That is perfect for me. I am sure I am missing some quick tips and some cool feature or irritation but I will be sure to post them here. Do you like SME? Have you used it yet?

Google does not officially support the GMail app on the Treo 755p and once you visit http://gmail.com/app with your phone on Blazer, you will receive and error message saying “not compatible with Palm OS 5 devices”. That is all true but there is a quick way to get around the problem.

There are two simple steps.

1. Download JVM for Palm OS 5 from the following link (download to your desktop computer, install through HotSync) and install it on your Treo http://www.palm.com/us/support/jvm/


2. Once that is done, visit the following URI with Blazer on your Treo, download the jar file to your phone and it will ask to install it. You should to be all set. http://gmail.com/app/v1.0.0/en/gmail-g.jar

Caveats: BUGS! The touch screen does not work very well at all on the Treo 755p with the GMail app. I am hoping that will be solved soon but the application is very navigable with the keypad on the Treo and all functions are much easier than the web version.

Enjoy!

Thanks to a Google Groups post and the helpful people on there. If you know of any other methods of tweaks, please leave a comment.

New version 1.5 now available.

To give you a quick glance of what the review is going to be about, I know why they call it the CrackBerry now. After years of waiting for the “right moment”, I finally purchased my very own Treo 755p Smartphone this past week. Ever since that time, it has been a path to discovery.

Pros:

• The phone is small enough that I can easily put it in my pant pocket, cover and all and it still feels not quite heavy.


• The Palm software is easier to navigate and use and judging from my past experience with Windows Mobile, it has a lot less control and strangely, a lot less hassle.


• EVDO is fast and web browsing is a breeze. I even setup my Slingbox with the new client Palm client and it works, albeit choppily.


• It is easy to make a call, quality is loud and clear and the speakerphone is nice though I tend to not use it very often.


• Office document editing is painless and the documents are very easy to read in the format presented. I have yet to take documents back to my PC but opening them from GMail is a breeze.


• Texting is no longer a frustrating and painful experience. I can reply quickly within reason. The keyboard took me a couple of days of getting used to, but now it is more than functional.


• The screen is brightin sunlight and easy to read.


• Very interesting escalating ringtones.


• Email “push” or syncing works well, though not for me. I like GMail to be my respository and not my phone. I wish I could set my phone to delete emails that I have read after a certain period. If I could do that, I would probably use the email feature.


• Solid feel, fit and finish of the phone. Everything feels like it will hold together (knock on wood).

Cons:

• The GMail app does not work (yet). I might have a wordaround for this soon and I will post my methods.


• Battery life is enough to last one day, but not enough to last two.


• All cables are proprietary, so new chargers and new USB cables for both home and work.


• Adding a contact from the phone screen without dialing a call is a hassle.


• Speed dial setup was a learning curve.


• PCS Vision takes a bit of getting used to on this phone. I think of Vision as a modem service now and know that I have to wait for it to connect.


• JVM should come pre-installed.


• Phone security sould be much more configurable. An $8 program provides more security than the phone does. For an enterprise level phone, each application should be lockable.


• It should come with SOME sort of a case or holder.

Ever since I received my phone in the mail and activated it, I have been using it extensively. I have had it for a few days and I am really happy with it. I even surprised myself and started using the datebook feature. I had failed in the past with a PDA. I think the convenience of having it with me all the time helps a great deal. Overall, it was worth the price. I had seriously thought of getting the Sprint HTC Mogul and that would have also been a good choice (my co-worker Bradon bought one of those) but I am very happy with my Treo 755p. I need to resurrect some of the old code that I had written to work with Sprint. I might even resurrect my old picture blog and modify it to work with videos from Sprint.

PS: Absolutely AMAZING cases here.

We recently purchased an 07 Honda Odyssey and the transaction was smooth and mostly to my satisfaction. However, I saw this post on Slickdeals.net with information on how to negotiate a better deal on a car and I had to steal it for my own information and save the numbers and the ideas. Original was here.

 What I am telling you is based on 7 years in the business and personal purchases.————————————————Formula—————————————————————-
MSRP = Sticker(includes Dest. Charge)
Invoice = Can be found on Edmunds.com(include options) or kbb.com
Rebates = Vary by local dealership
Holdback (dealer’s profit) = see below portion to calculate holdback
Estimate True invoice = Invoice – Rebates – Holdback
tax = ?% x True Invoice
Tags = whatever your states charges (typically $100 – $400)
Low ball offer = True Invoice + tax + tags – $2,000
Target Price = [ (MSRP – Rebate – Low ball offer) ] / 2 + low ball offer (this is basically the formula I use)
TRY TO GET YOUR PRICE AS CLOSE TO THE TARGET PRICE AS POSSIBLE!————————————————————————————————————————————-
The car business is hurting right now. Dealers are happy with their “holdback”. Its the salesman that are starving. STOP NEGOTIATING WITH THE SALESMAN! Its a fact that the average car salesman only sales 8-10 cars per month. Its also a fact that a “flat”, the money a salesman is going to make on a new car sales with no profit(invoice) is $50-$100. So do the math thats only $800-$1000 in commission per month. Thats why dealer are always hiring salesman. Its also why salesman are constantly getting fired.
GET THE SALESMAN ON YOUR SIDE! Tell him up front he’s not gonna make any money on you, this will be an invoice deal. Tell him you’ll slip him a $100 after the deal if you get your price. So when he goes up to the “salesdesk”, he’s fighting for you. When the salesman comes back to you with numbers on the paper, they call it an “A” sheet. Cross it out with a big “X”, flip it over right your number on the back, next to it write “T/T out the door”, then underline it. The first number you write should be at least $2000k below invoice. His manager will either send someone over or come his self. This is a good sign it shows that you werent talking to a “closer”. He might even write a note, asking where r you getting your numbers. If this happends, write “I was thinking the same thing about you numbers”.
Typically his second number will be $2000 above invoice. If it is, you write,” Split the difference, with T/T, out the door” They usually will jump at it.

Tips:

DONT BE SCARED TO WALK AWAY.
CONFIDENCE IS KEY.
DONT DRIVE THE VEHICLE FROM THE DEALER YOU ARE BUYING FROM.
DONT DISCUSS CREDIT, FINANCE, INTEREST RATE, ETC BEFORE YOU GET INVOICE PRICING.
(THESE ARE BUYING SIGNALS, THEY WILL SMELL IT LIKE BLOOD TO A SHARK)

DONT LISTEN TO YOUR FRIENDS. EVERYBODY CLAIMS THE GOT A GOOD PRICE. MOST DONT KNOW WHAT INVOICE IS.
DONT ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS DURING NEGOTIATING FOR INVOICE.
(YOU MAY GIVE AWAY A BUYING SIGNAL WITHOUT KNOWING)

SHOPPING DURING THE LATTER PART OF THE MONTH CAN WORK TO YOUR ADAVNTAGE.
(DEALERS HAVE A PROJECTED SALES IN UNITS THEY NEED TO MEET, SO DO BANKS. THEY TYPICALLY WILL WORK BETTER DEALS AT THIS TIME TO MAKE THEIR MONTH)

IF YOU SUBMIT YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS TO A DEALERS WEBSITE LET THEM KNOW “NOT TO CALL YOU, NOT TO NEGOTIATE, YOU WILL ONLY ACCEPT INVOICE W/TAX&TAGS, IF THEY DO CALL YOU, YOU WILL NOT DEAL WITH THEIR DEALERSHIP, IF THE EMAIL YOU ANYTHING OTHER THAN INVOICE, YOU WILL NOT DEAL WITH THEIR DEALERSHIP” THIS IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE WAY TO NEGOTIATE, AS OPPOSE TO IN PERSON.

THEY KNOW IF YOU NEGOTIATING THIS WAY YOU ARE A SERIOUS BUYER.

THEY WANT YOU IN THE DEALERSHIP SO THEY PLAY THE “GAME” WITH YOU. ITS SET UP TO WORK AGAINST YOU. LIKE A CASINO THE HOUSE ALWAYS WINS.

MOST DEALERS HAVE THE “NEGOTIATING” TABLES IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DEALERSHIP OR OPEN OFFICES.
(THIS CREATES A “BUYING FRENZY”)

IT HELPS TO HAVE YOUR FINANCING ALREADY DONE BEFORE YOU SHOP FOR THE CAR.—————————————————————————————————————————————————Calculate Holdback

If a holdback is calculated from the:

Total MSRP: consumers must include the MSRP price of all options before figuring the holdback.
Base MSRP: consumers must figure the holdback before adding desired options.
Total Invoice: consumers must include the invoice price of all options before figuring the holdback.
Base Invoice: consumers must figure the holdback before adding desired options.

Acura 3% of the Base MSRP
Audi No holdback
BMW No holdback
Buick 3% of the Total MSRP
Cadillac 3% of the Total MSRP
Chevrolet 3% of the Total MSRP
Chrysler 3% of the Total MSRP
Dodge 3% of the Total MSRP
Ford 3% of the Total MSRP
GMC 3% of the Total MSRP
Honda 3% of the Base MSRP
HUMMER 3% of the Total MSRP
Hyundai 2% of the Total Invoice
Infiniti 1% of the Base MSRP
Isuzu 3% of the Total MSRP
Jaguar No Holdback
Jeep 3% of the Total MSRP
Kia 3% of the Base Invoice
Land Rover No Holdback
Lexus 2% of the Base MSRP
Lincoln 2% of the Total MSRP
Mazda 2% of the Base MSRP
Mercedes-Benz 3% of the Total MSRP
Mercury 3% of the Total MSRP
MINI No Holdback
Mitsubishi 2% of the Base MSRP
Nissan 2% of the Total Invoice
Pontiac 3% of the Total MSRP
Porsche No Holdback
Saab 2.2% of the Base MSRP
Saturn 3% of the Total MSRP
Scion No Holdback
Subaru 3% of the Total MSRP (Amount may differ in Northeastern U.S.)
Suzuki 3% of the Base MSRP
Toyota 2% of the Base MSRP (Amount may differ in Southern U.S.)
Volkswagen 2% of the Base MSRP
Volvo 1% of the Base MSRP———————————————————————————————————————————————————-
EXAMPLE:
2007 Toyota Camry LE auto w/ minimum option needed (from edmunds.com)
MSRP: $20975
Invoice: $18771
Rebate: $0
Holdback: $420 (2% of MSRP)
Tru Inv: $18352
Tax in CA :$1514
Tag: 200 (est.)
Low ball: $18066
Target: [ ( 20975 – 0 – 18066 ) / 2 ] + 18066 = $19520 (out the door price, all fees included)

Also see:

• http://www.carbuyingtips.com


• http://www.fatwallet.com/t/24/444610

Make decisions based on your best knowledge, not your worst fear.

Jennifer is pregnant with our first child. Can you believe it? I am gonna be a father . . .

Celebrations abound!

This is a pickup only in (or delivery within 50 miles of) the Toledo area.

I would like to find a good home for my trusty Aerobird Challenger and my Storm Launcher. I would prefer pickup but I could deliver within 50 miles of the Toledo area. Here are some details of the planes.

Aerobird Challenger: About three years old. 70% of original life left, two batteries, charger, transmitter. There is some re-enforcing tape on the wing but that was put there to protect against crashes, not because something was broken. The plane flies fine but I fly it less every year and it does not make sense to just sit on it when someone else could make good use of it.

Storm Launcher: One of the very first few produced. Very few flights, simple modifications made for performance. It crashed one time into a wall and knocked off the front end of the floats. Easily fixed. Battery and charger comes with it. It flies like it is mostly new. Motors broken in.

This plane I do not want to get rid of but if I get a good offer, I will definitely consider it. I also have a combatwing XE2 with the insides of a Zagi 400. Needs batteries but comes with everything else. Speed 400. Hitec Focus III AM 3 channel radio, transmitter, servos etc. Not a new plane but will fly great with a little TLC. Equipment about 5 years old, plane about three years old.

Please email me at mark at wltc dot net if you have any questions, want to make an offer or would like to take a look.

One’s greatest hidden strengths are their weaknesses.

Venture Hacks: Venture capital essays Personal bookmark for a new blog talking about venture capital, management, funds, making the right decisions and survival in the world of private funding.

I read this on another post about a free speech mess in the blogging world, but it comes from Mark Pilgrim and really says a lot about bloggers. I might have to use it sometime.
I get to say whatever I want on my own turf, and suffer the consequences all by myself, including you ignoring me. If you don’t like that, you get to go start your own weblog and say whatever you want on your own turf, and suffer the consequences all by yourself, including me ignoring you.

I know that I searched far and wide for this answer and even ended up canceling my subscription with Rhapsody. The answer was relatively simple and I hope that someone will benefit from me posting it here.

If you are running Rhapsody 4.0 and suddenly cannot authorize your MP3 player anymore in Rhapsody, you might be running into the same problems that I did. My solution was to uninstall Windows Media Player 11 which was causing some issues in the PlaysForSure DRM and my Sandisk Sansa e260 player. After the uninstall, I restarted my computer and everything was back to normal. I have also listed some of the other resources that I have found on the Internet that has some pretty good solutions to the issue. These resources are also very good for other Sansa solutions, fixes and Rhapsody fixes, tweaks etc. If you find this information helpful or would like to add your own, please leave a comment.

Why do I get a “you are not the owner of this track” or “insufficient rights” error when I try to transfer a track to my device with Rhapsody?

Rhapsody Tips, Tricks and Tweaks

Why do I get an ‘Unable to authorize computer’ error in Rhapsody 3?

Why do I get a “Computer Not Authorized” error in Rhapsody 4?

I have always liked data in every form and manipulation of that data tickles my fancy a little too much. In pursuit of that endeavor, here is a little gem I recently uncovered.

I (recently started to) work out regularly on my exercise bike. I own a Nordic Trac AutoRider R400 which I absolutely adore. The bike is comfortable, there are lots of options and it is still fun to use it. Fun is a crucial component of any exercise routine. My plans are to train on this bike all winter and then ride in the summer. One feature of this bike that I find unsatisfying is the EKG monitor on the handlebars. The pads are not very accurate, nor very sensitive and the readout leaves a lot to be desired. I have been targeting heart rates (I have high cholesterol) and it is hard to do with the bike.

Recently I also found the Polar FS1 Hear Rate Monitor Watch for about $50 and I thought that it might be cheap enough and work well. Then I found the ADI05 Software Logger on Amazon (it works with the FS1 and all its cousins) for about $27 and it all fell into place. I had a heart rate monitor, a receiver to plug into my computer to receive my heart rate data, a data logger for my computer and all the data I could ever dream of. From one of the reviewers, ... keep track of how much time you have spent in each zone per week and tells you how many more times, for how long, and how hard you need to exercise the rest of the week to reach your goal of maintaining, improving, or maximizing. I love it.

Now I need to fork over another hundred bucks to get all the stuff and write some code to put it into cool flash graphs. I can’t wait! PS: I will be looking for a relatively inexpensive road bike come summer. Any suggestions would be well appreciated.

Clocky – Alarm Clock that runs away Gauri Nanda came up with an alarm clock that jumps off your sidetable and runs around the room if you ask it to snooze. All this for $50!

This is a test post from the new and improved Microsoft Office 2007 suite. I am using the Metaweblog API to write this post. I will have to test the AtomAPI in the trunk with this as well.

O’Henry wrote that life consists of sobs, sniffles and smiles, sniffles predominating. I say that life consists of hopes, shattered hopes and fulfilment, shattered hopes predominating.

So, I needed to get in touch with Amazon.com Customer Service and was really not in the mood to explain my quandary in a long email. So, I decided to look on Amazon.com for the phone number and could not find it anywhere. Following that I searched Google for what would soon become a pretty cool story with a bunch of people running into the same issue. Here is what I came up with:

Direct, toll free line to Amazon Customer Service: 1-800-201-7575 (Watch out, they hang up on you if you ask difficult questions, have strange falsetto accents and sound like Japanese Flying Robots from Outer Space)

You could also click here (thanks LifeHacker) and have a customer service agent call you. This worked for me the two times that they hung up on me.

While I am on the subject, let me say how easy and satisfying it was to talk with an American in Idaho answering the phone for Amazon. The question was weird but the answer was really simple and the real accent along with the real American idiosyncrasies were curiously satisfying to me. As a matter of fact, I changed nothing on the order and was completely satisfied with the stale and nondescript answer I received from Dwayne, thanks in a large part to his ease in dealing with my request.

My friend Vijay and his wife Archana visited Jeetu in Ann Arbor and it was a wonderful surprise for me. We had a couple of dinners together, enjoyed each others’ company, ate Jeetu’s delicious food, drank a few and just had a very good time. I just wish I had more time to spend with them as opposed to doing homework for school. Jennifer has put up the pictures from their visit here.

Beside their visit, we had a really nice Thanksgiving with a small family dinner at Jennifer’s mother’s house. I friend a turkey for the first time this weekend and it was nice. I had received a lot of good advice on how to make sure I do not burn down the house and it was painless.

Milton Friedman Dies at 94 Friedman is a hero to me. I knew of him but did not know much about him till I started my MBA. His knowledge, experience, insight, direction and the education that he imparted on the world will be sorely missed. This article in the NYT does a good job of detailing the ups and downs of Friedman’s career and his (sometimes revolutionary) philosophy and economic train of thought. Thank you Milton Friedman, may your soul rest in peace.

I normally do not ship much and try to either use UPS or USPS to send my packages. I have also used FedEx in the past with relative success. However, now the big names have come up with a way to be completely irresponsible for their service and in the process make it “cheaper” for its users. Announcing Fedex Smartpost. I really wonder how executives at these shipping companies can come up with this horseshit and put it into production without performing a reality check. I see Fedex Smartpost as a way for Fedex and USPS to completely deny any accountability for a package shipped through this service, thus reducing overhead normally associated with extra checks and balances to control loss and/or mistakes. This makes everyone concerned look really, really bad. They need to hire better marketing and managerial folks.
I was shipped a small package through this service and somehow it got lost in the shuffle. However, now Fedex has no way of tracking it, nor does USPS. They both asked me to visit the others’ website/phone support to get it resolved. I shudder to think what would have happened if this package was expensive or had an insurance claim of some kind. Needless to say, I will never ship anything again (or have anything shipped to me) with any “Smartpost” type service. I really like accountability and would like to think that my carriers are responsible enough and reliable enough to want be accountable since they sell reliability and their business models are based on reliability of service. If anyone reading this was thinking about using Fedex Smartpost, I would strongly suggest against it. Save yourself the hassle and the line of flaming dog poop that these people are offering and pay a few bucks extra to use a better service.

I recently upgraded to Rhapsody 4 from Rhapsody 3 since I was having trouble transferring playlists to my Sandisk Sansa e260 and created a large mess. Rhapsody would not start after upgrading to 4.0 and everything would lock up or freeze. This was after trying to uninstall Rhapsody and install it again from scratch. Rhapsody online help was poor to say the least and did not help at all. However, after reading some forum posts and trying to use my programmers’ thinking cap, I made it all work and work much better. I now can transfer playlists directly to my device without any rigmaroll and everything seems to work smoothly and seamlessly. I do like the new interface a lot better than the old one. It is cleaner, more intuitive and is simpler to navigate. No more “mixer”.

Before I go into this, this advice comes with no warranty or promise. If this completely breaks your computer and everything else, I am not responsible. please proceed at your own risk, especially if you have purchased songs on your system from Rhapsody. If you have purchased songs from Rhapsody and have them stored on your system, I am not sure how cleaning the DRM will affect your music. Please contact Rhapsody tech support for a better answer. This method only works well if you JUST use Rhapsody to go.

Here is what I did (this is considering you had a previous version of Rhapsody installed and nothing seems to work, program will not start):

• Install Rhapsody 4 from the installation file but uncheck the box that says start Rhapsody after install


• Unplug your device and close rhapsody (and WMP or any other DRM program) if it is running


• Open up a command prompt (start->Run->type “cmd”->Enter key)


• CD to the Rhapsody program files directory


• Use the RhapDrmClean.exe program to clean the DRM files



• type in RhapDrmClean -hx -hxstore -clean_phd_keys


• Type yes a whole bunch of times as Rhapsody asks you if you are sure


• Close the command prompt


• Now that all of your DRM components are clean, open Rhapsody, log in and set it up again


• You will have to re-license your device to get it to transfer music


• Now you can drag and drop playlists onto the device and the lists themselves are transferred


• If the device is not found, follow the same procedure you used before (when installed for the first time) to find and install the device.

I believe that there are a whole bunch of DRM updates in Rhapsody 4 and it conflicts with everything that Rhapsody had setup on your machine prior. The installation program does not seem to take care of this for you and it needs to be done manually. I am transferring all my music to my Sansa e260 as I type this. I love the fact that I can transfer playlists using Rhapsody now, it was a source of major frustration in the past.

I recently sold off my iRiver H120 on eBay and replaced it with a Sandisk Sansa e260 from Amazon for about $120 including shipping. As a side note, Amazon is simply wonderful. They are fast, courteous, and have price matched their own site and refunded me the difference in the price of the product since it went down. That is how to handle customer service.

Anyways, the Sansa e260 is definitely a good product. It is small, mostly lightweight, sleek and the screen is very clear and bright. You can upload songs, pictures and videos through the Windows Explorer or use a program like Rhapsody of Windows Media player to upload/control your music and create playlists etc. I primarily bought the Sansa to avail of the Music to go from Rhapsody and it has definitely been a pleasure and I am enjoying every minute of it. However, this is a review of the Sansa and I will stay away from talking too much about Rhapsody.

The scroll wheel is very smooth and works well with the software. I do have a problem with the smaller buttons around the scroll wheel since my fat fingers cannot get around to them too well but I think I have a feel for it now. The sound is very clear and loud (there is a loudness setting on the device beside the volume) and the player runs on the provided Lithium Ion batteries for approx 18 hours (more like 15 hours with frequent turning on of the LCD). I am not as fond of the headphones that come with the Sansa, but that was a given. I own a pair of Phillips set of sound isolating headphones that I love and will continue to use. Many of the features of an MP3 player are well manifested in the Sansa e260 including basic navigation, sound controls, equalizer, playlists shuffle etc. One note about playlists is that if you download a playlist from Rhapsody, the only way to get that playlist onto the player is to sync the device through Rhapsody.

One of the annoyances is the only way to charge the Sansa is by using the provided USB cable and it does not come with an extra wall charger. The other peeve is that the radio uses the provided USB cable as an antenna so if you want to receive FM transmissions that are a little faint, they are very noisy without that cable (the cable does not have to be plugged into a computer).

Overall this is a nice player with a lot of features and a small price tag. I look forward to finding lots of new music and enjoying it with Rhapsody and the Sandisk Sansa e260.

Django for non-programmers Interesting personal link. I will definitely need to read through some more about DJango.

UC Berkeley on Google Video: Finally! Almost every video on there is interesting and I will definitely watch them as soon as I have a few minutes. Look for Sergei Brin (of Google) in Information Systems 141 talking about Search Egines in Society and Business.