Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with Technology

iPod Touch skips songs and makes weird shrieking noise, what gives?

JoannaC — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 01:18:16 -0800

What's wrong with my iPod Touch? I have a first-gen ipod touch that I got on sale when the second-gen ones came out. I have been great about taking care of it, treating it nicely, keeping it up to date etc. The apps and everything all work correctly, but recently, it has been doing this thing where it will skip during songs. It will start playing the song, then emit a shrieking noise and jump to the next one. If it is a playlist on shuffle, the next song it plays will be 'song 1' even if it was further into the numbers by then. It does not always skip on the same song and sometimes will skip more than one song. Also, a song that skips one time may not skip the next time it comes up, so I don't think the problem is with the music files themselves...

I am not a huge music listener, but I do have some audio routines I use when walking, and I do enjoy podcasts so I am concerned about this issue. I am not sure if I need a new ipod as the apps and everything else are working correctly. I am reluctant to take it to the Apple store because they will charge me for it and I suspect any repairs would be cost-prohibitive given the cost of a new ipod. But I am at the same time reluctant to buy a new ipod since I am not a huge music listener and the apps all work correctly.

Any ideas what might be going on here and how to fix it? Or is this problem a fatal flaw and I need to suck it up and buy a new ipod?

More technology plz!

sarahj — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 15:44:57 -0800

How can I help my parents hook up their computer to their TV? My parents have a nice wall-mounted big screen Pioneer lcd tv and my dad's dream is to have their Dell desktop system in the same room wirelessly networked to it, for music-playing, presumably netflix and online video viewing, and general happiness. I've googled this in as many different verb-noun combinations I can come up with and I'm still not sure what I'm looking for. Is this possible?

My dad mentioned something called RocketFish, and I saw some BluRay players that potentially had wireless networking capabilities but I wasn't sure if that capability was usually used for some other purpose. I'd like to help him on this for a Christmas gift - what would I need to buy and do in order to do this?

Thanks so much! I can definitely provide more information if it's needed.

Last 5 years in Tech -- Basics Edition

hilaryjade — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:36:06 -0800

What are the major technological changes of the past 5 years, and the major trends that are on the horizon? I have a friend who is currently in prison, and who is very curious about things he sees on television. For example, he has asked about 3G networks, and why phones have keyboards. He wants a primer on what he's missing. Prior to his incarceration, he did not use a computer much -- a little online browsing, a purchase or two on eBay. He had a basic flip phone. His questions seem to be mainly stemming from what he sees on television or reads about in the paper, so he asked about:

Phones
Why do they have those little keyboards? Why do some have touch screens? Are the keyboards on the way out? What is a Blackberry?

Social Networking
What is Twitter? What is Facebook?

Other Devices
What is a Kindle?

I can put together answers for these, but I would like to figure out before I next visit some of the other questions he may have. If you were explaining the past 5 years in popular technology to someone who's only exposure is via media like television and newspapers, what would you include? I don't want to veer into Too GeekyLand, but I want to help him feel connected to the world he sees.

Thank you!

Best digitizing options for dual-language documents?

JoannaC — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 20:11:14 -0800

Options besides PDF for digitizing dual-language books? I have some teaching guides I use in my work which are quite bulky and I would like to digitize them. They are fairly simple-looking documents except that the text is mixed between English and French. (e.g. it has prompts in English telling you what to say in French to the kids when you are teaching, for example "say 'je suis ici' while pointing at yourself.")

I am using a Macbook, and the scanner I got was a basic model, a Canonscan 100 scanner on sale. I tried to scan a few pages, and it was a bit of a mess. I got an okay picture when I scanned it as an image, but all attempts at PCR extraction were dismal. When I set the scanner to OCR mode and the language was English, I got gibberish. When I set it to French, things improved a little and it got much of it, but the text still needed a lot of cleaning up.

I thought maybe it was just that the software which came with the scanner was not that great. So I downloaded a few utilities which claim to extract text from PDFs. They had great reviews. They totally choked on the French parts.

The PDF looks fine (I made a two-page sampler for testing purposes), but displays a bit too small for easy reading on my Sony Reader. I uploaded it as a PDF, LRF and epub in separate files onto my Reader for testing. The epub could not zoom at all (i.e. the page stayed looking the same no matter what). The LRF looked just like the PDF on lowest zoom but when I tried to zoom in, the text got garbled as it had when I tried to extract it from the PDF.

So, there are three possibilities here:

1) The scanner is not that great
2) The scanner is fine and I just need better software
3) Dual-language files are too hard and I am stuck with PDF

What do you think? Is there anything I can do here, or will I go to all this work just to wind up with itty bitty text in a PDF file? If so, it may not be worth scanning them all...

Good options for digitizing documents like these? The books weigh several pounds each, and there are 7 in the set, so it's a ton of weight to carry around with me...

Help with live online demo?

eggman — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 10:24:11 -0800

I need guidance/advice on revamping an online product demonstration. I'm interested in sites with general guidelines regarding online demos. I am also looking for a simple, easy to use camera to perform part of the demonstration live or some other live streaming media. I am an experienced salesperson so not really looking for general sales presentation info!

My goal is a clean, concise product demo which includes a component that is live via webcam or other streaming medium, then moving to the software portion of the demo. Primarily I'm looking for a decent webcam suggestion or other basic ideas on live online delivery.

Total demo time: 20 - 30 minutes including questions
Platform: WebEx or similar; currently using Glance
Subject matter: Educational technology
Resources: The full weight of my company behind me, but for my own knowledge I'd like to personally develop

Thanks!

Best tech gift for new dad: Wii or Pocket Video Camera?

thenewbrunette — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 07:59:58 -0800

Holiday gift for husband and our "new" family: Wii or Pocket Video Camera? Our first child is due a week after Christmas, and this upcoming event is informing my holiday shopping. I generally buy one "big ticket" item for my husband and am torn between a compact digital video camera (either the Kodak Zi8 or Flip camera) or a Wii system.

Pros for each:
Wii--1) He has expressed interest in one in the past; 2) we live in Minnesota and are in for a long, sequestered winter with a newborn. The Wii may be a source of moderate physical activity during this period, as well as enjoyment -- (I'm aware that we'll be doing very little of anything beyond sleeping and caring for the baby for several months!)

Pocket video camera--1)All of our family is out of state or the country, so sending videos would be a great way for grandparents, aunts and uncles to keep in touch with the baby; 2) we're planning a family trip next summer in the U.K. and it would be great to capture the experience without lugging a more cumbersome camera along with us.

Cons for each:
Wii--1) Last year, went to Best Buy and tried one together but the results were disappointing. The wand didn't work properly, it was difficult to control and was a frustrating experience. Possible that the "store model" was overused or damaged, but curious to hear your experiences with the system.

Pocket camera--1)We've tried out the Flip Camera, small screen, seems a bit dinky, and I have questions about battery life. 2)Also, unsure of ease of use with a MacBook Pro.

In summary: please share your experiences with one or both items. Bonus points for moms and dads with young kids--which would you prefer?

DDR3 Memory and Motherboard Compatibility

jbreyfogle — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:58:33 -0800

Question about DDR3 Memory and motherboard compatibility DDR3 speeds include: 1066, 1333, 1600, 1800, and 1866 (I am leaving out 2000's series). The motherboard I am looking at has the memory standards of DDR3 1800 (OC)/1666/1333/1066. Question: What is DDR3 1666? Assuming the port is compatible, will DDR3 1600 work with this board?

What's the 'law' that says "If someone says something is impossible, they're usually wrong; if someone says something is possible, they're usually right"?

meadowlark lime — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:08:26 -0800

What's the 'law' that says "If someone says something is impossible, they're usually wrong; if someone says something is possible, they're usually right"? This is a 'law' like Moore's Law or Godwin's Law, and is usually applied to technology but can also be applied to human behavior.

Is this a known 'law' or did it bubble up from my own subconscious?

It gets 20,000 miles to the isotype!

Funmonkey1 — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:12:49 -0800

[ScienceFilter]: I want to drive a nuclear powered car. If nuclear power is good enough for submarines, why can't the technology be scaled down? Looking for big picture such as limitations, environment, storage, infrastructure and adaptations required.

Intra-company knowledge exchange

philosophistry — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:08:02 -0800

How to increase knowledge exchange in a tech company. (i.e. imitate Google)? I work at a tech. company, and often we have redundant work. For example, someone spent a full day digging through implementing something from one API that another person knew how to do in 10 minutes. The thing is, former didn't know the latter knew about it, and the latter didn't know the former was working on it.

How do you increase the knowledge exchange within a technology company?

Are there books/resources on this?

I know Google has a lot of good strategies in this arena. Their most famous one is an excellent and open cafeteria which simply increases socialization among normally narrow developers.

Less famously, they also have heavenly snack rooms that keeps developers chatty.

Some in our company suggested wikis where people post their knowledge, but I believe that those strategies tend to fail as developers become wiki-shy.

How do they fix performance glitches when doing post-production on "live" recordings?

Joe Beese — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 10:18:09 -0800

How do they fix performance glitches when doing post-production on "live" recordings? Assuming that they don't have multiple performances to splice together, how do they correct a singer's pitch or fix an instrumentalist's late entrance?

If they simply record a new part in the studio, how do they approximate the venue's acoustics?

Help me to build the ultimate IT Help Desk for a 1:1 Laptop program at a K-12 private school.

mrbarrett.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 11:42:58 -0800

Help me to build the ultimate IT Help Desk for a 1:1 Laptop program at a K-12 private school. We're doing a 1:1 laptop program for Fall 2010. We'll be using the new MacBooks just released by Apple. Every student from 4th-12th grade will receive one.

And so we're now planning the building of a "Tech Center" at our Middle School and Upper School campuses. Inside each of these "Tech Centers" will be a manned IT Help Desk where students can come for hardware & software problems. It will be manned from 8am - 5pm every day.

I have quite a bit of space to work with--a room about 50 feet long by 14feet wide. We'll be purchasing all new furniture, partitions, storage cabinets, shelving, etc.

What features define the best IT Help Desks you've seen? What works? What doesn't work? How have you handled intake, repair, storage, pickup logistics? If you could build the ultimate IT Help Desk, what would it look like?

Help, I need a stronger wifi signal!

OuttaHere — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:53:19 -0800

Help! I live in a basement and need a stronger Wi-Fi Connection! I live in a Basement of a townhome and pay for internet which my landlord provides via Wi-Fi.

The problem is that he has the router on the third floor of the house, and I am in the basement. It probably doesn't help that it is an old building, so there is a lot of brick and mortar. Anyways, he uses Comcast so in order for us to have a land line in our residence we would have to pay for a completely new cable package/modem etc.

In my room I am getting like 25% signal, 2 bars out of 5 pretty much, and get a really shitty and slow connection. If I move my computer out to the main room my speed and connection increases 10 fold.

Anyway, I'm not the greatest with this kind of tech stuff so I was wondering if people out there had options for me. I haven't talked to my landlord about it but wanted to confront him with some options.

Anyone have ideas, especially if you are familiar with comcast. Are those "Range Extenders" worth it? Can you add a router to a lower level somehow to increase the range? Is there anything comcast can do?

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

On-Screen Keyboard for Windows 7

wintermute2_0 — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 09:23:21 -0800

How can I get my on-screen keyboard to work in 64-bit Windows 7? I'm currently running Windows XP and am finding it hard to resist the eye candy of Windows 7. I have the hardware to run the 64-bit flavor, but I have a compatibility concern. I use an on-screen keyboard called WiViK and I couldn't get it to run in the 64-bit beta. The WiViK states that it will run in 32-bit Vista, but not 64-bit.

WiViK hasn't had meaningful updates and the publisher doesn't seem too interested in future revisions. Am I stuck in a 32-bit world or is there any way to hack the code to make it 64-bit compatible? Barring that, are there other fully-featured Windows on-screen keyboards (word prediction, abbreviation expansion) that are 64-bit?

I'm thinking I should just start an open-source project to create a better and more flexible OSK. Any takers?

Give me your insights into help advance science

TheOtherSide — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:31:23 -0800

Science! How can I use my excessive tech / management / leadership background to enable science (while still getting paid a living wage)? I'm 15 years in to a wonderful software career. I've done it all: financial systems, enterprise systems, large-scale public-facing systems, open-source. Lately I've been developing knowledge management / learning management systems. Within a dev team, I'm usually the 'architect', though I still do serious coding.

I did it all for the money. Broke, debt-stricken, I gave up a potentially glorious science career (right!), so that I could make it rich in the gold rush of software. I never made it rich though I've done well.

Now, I'm in my late 30s. Financially stable, no debt, great salary, interesting work. But, the ticking of time is haunting me. I want to do something seriously great before I die. I don't want to do it personally, but I want to be part of something bigger. I want to see such technological and scientific advancements that my hair shall rise.

Science is something I've always loved. Obviously, it wouldn't make sense for me to throw away all of my experiences and start afresh in a science Phd program. Plus, I work with lots of academics, and it's really an annoying bunch. Of the groups of academics I work with I will crudely summarize and generalize:
20% independently wealthy with nothing better to do,
20% did it for status and love of strings of acronyms behind their name,
20% ego-driven and interested in pursuing their ideas at all costs,
20% wanted an easy tenured lecturer role and ended up a paper pusher,
20% purely passionate, research-driven, but overworked and burdened with the other 80% of their peers.

So, obviously I want to help that last 20%. How would I do this? I'm thinking that there have got to be social/cultural/technological/financial impediments to their work.

So here's my question: What are the software / social systems that are missing today that would greatly help the pure researchers do the work that they've dedicated their life and energy to?

It doesn't necessarily have to be software systems. It could be people systems (e.g. new academic structures), financial systems, etc.

Let me know your thoughts.

What are some clever tech-related sponsorship levels?

pyjammy — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 07:12:02 -0800

Help me think of some clever sponsorship levels for our upcoming tech conference. I am on the planning committee for a fairly small (150ish attendees) national conference. The organization that puts on the conference is a group of Catholic IT professionals. This year, we're implementing sponsorship levels, like "Platinum", "Gold", and "Silver". But those are kind of boring.

Help us think of some technology-themed levels we can use.

We will have three levels of sponsorship, and the titles need to be obviously "good", "better", and "best".

Hope me the legitament phone filter

shoebox — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 22:01:26 -0800

Help me choose a legit new cellphone that's on the market now that can meet all of my 21st century needs and demands. My trusty old cellphone recently met with the business end of cutting edge Swedish furniture design (phone in pocket; bumped into table). Higher powers have recognized that a phone is essential for them to keep tabs on me - so they in their great wisdom have decided to fully subsidize my replacement and left the details up to me. However, I really have not been keeping up with current technology. That is where I need you, hive mind.

My budget is ~$500 CDN, although the less spent the better. I don't mind if it goes over, but nothing too ridiculous. The plan is to basically get a phone second hand/off ebay/the black market/whatever and stick in my current Rogers SIM card. However, I don't have a data plan (on family plan right now) and don't plan to get one, so I suppose a smartphone would be out of the question.

A few other things to consider:

Wifi capability would be excellent. I am almost always in a multi-bar zone and would like to put it to good use.

Must have a decent music player (and expandable storage). I was thinking of getting a new mp3 player to replace my old zen micro from eons past, but now that cellphones can do virtually everything, this seems like a good way to kill two birds with one hand-held device.

A decent camera would be nice (same reason as above).

FM Radio. For when my music gets monotonous.

Bluetooth would be cool.

Must be black. I can live with blue or dark gray.

Most importantly, I plan to take care of this phone and need to last a long time, so something that wont be obsolete in at least a few years or so would be preferable.

Great idea for a course--horribly misdirected.

k. — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:16:41 -0800

I'm taking an innovative course on using technology for humanitarian causes, taught by a professor I really like. But it's awful! How can I tell him what I think, and/or turn this disaster of a course into something worthwhile? My hopes were high at first, because I was really excited about the topic: I wanted to learn how to use my technical skills to do something good for people, instead of just to make money. I'm hoping to find a job in my field that does some kind of good, since I'm not sure I could stand it otherwise.

But the course turned out to be very different: it seems to be entirely about giving people computers. Dumping gadgets on people is of questionable long-term value, and, most importantly, it doesn't teach us students anything about how to use our skills--which are not about donating technology but about making it--to make the world better place. We read case studies of projects that gave people technology, and we're installing a computer lab made from donated computers in a local public housing project. While this kind of community-service might help some people in the short term, it sure isn't teaching us any new technical skills or any ways to use our existing skills to help people in the future.

I don't think using technical knowledge for the common good is an unreasonable idea. Engineers Without Borders does it all the time; so does the Humanitarian FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software) Project. And, given that we're adept at crunching numbers and have a GIS expert on hand, I'm sure there's a lot of climate- and environment-related stuff we could work on as well. All great things, but not what we're doing in this class.

The course is small and somewhat student-directed, so I may be able to push the class (or my own work in it) more toward something I could actually learn from. But I have to do this very carefully, for two reasons. First, our class is effectively committed to the housing project's computer lab, so any additional projects or "field work" we take on has to be in addition to our work on that (in other words, at least some of us have to continue the work on that and probably most will). Second, I don't want to seem oppositional or offensive, because I really like the professor--he's a fascinating person and one of the best teachers I've had--and I want him to like me too.

How should I express my doubts about the course, and how might I try to shift the focus more toward material from which I might actually learn something?

Help me identify potential grant sources for rebuilding an elementary school's IT network

Imhotep is Invisible — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 09:42:58 -0800

I have been tasked with rebuilding the computer lab and administrative systems for an elementary school. One of my tasks will be to seek out and apply for grants of funds or equipment for an upgrade. What organizations should I approach? The primarily African-American Christian school located on the south side of Chicago has approximately 20 lab machines and 8 administrative machines, though the majority of the machines are out-of-date. I would be looking to obtain network hardware (firewall, switches), complete desktop systems, printers, 2 small servers, client licenses for Office and Windows, antivirus and content-filtering solutions, and (potentially off-site) backup.

I've found this ask question about how to approach a foundation and there's plenty of information about how to write a grant request but there seems to be vast volumes of potential sources and I'm not sure how to identify who would be an ideal partner.

Is this report worth the money? Who else would you recommend I/we approach?

Much obliged!

Offsetting sea level rise: An engineering idea of Biblical proportions

0bvious — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 04:52:25 -0800

The seas are rising. Climate change has made it inevitable. I have a strange question... Assuming that world sea-level rises by 1 metre over the next hundred years - Would it be possible to cordon off a section of land, somewhere in the centre of a continent, and flood it to create an artificial ocean, thus reducing the consequences of the sea rise? This Biblical scale engineering feat must take these issues into account:

1. The section of land would have to be a very large 'bowl', in the centre of a continent, that is already below sea level. Another section of land, leading from the ocean to this central 'bowl' section, would have to be carved out to create the biggest dam system mankind has ever witnessed. Does somewhere like this exist?

2. The number of humans currently living in this 'bowl' would have to be less than the number of humans who would be displaced by the 1 metre sea level rise. Otherwise this huge engineering feat would not be worth undertaking.

3. Other environmental issues should be taken into account, such as the ecosystems that would be displaced or the new weather patterns and ocean currents that would be created.

Do you have the calculations of water/land displaced? Or ideas about where this kind of thing could be built? I'd love any input on this monstrous thought experiment.

Thanks!

Apple Airport Extreme or Express?

invisible ink — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 22:13:34 -0800

What is the difference between an Apple Airport Express Base Station, and an Airport Extreme Base Station? I have a tiny 500-square foot apartment. All I want is to be able to surf the web wirelessly. Can I go with the cheaper Express Base Station? Why is one cheaper than the other (in other words, what can the Extreme do that the Express cannot)?

I Envy the EnV (Yeah, I just wrote that. sigh)

47triple2 — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 18:10:10 -0800

I have T-Mobile. I want an Lg EnV3. Suggestions? I was messing with one of the Lg EnV3's inside a Verizon store today and I love the keyboard and interface. I cannot switch to Verizon. What is a phone comparable to the EnV3 that is available on T-Mobile's network? Is it possible to get the EnV3 on T-Mobile's network? (Yes, I realize the whole CDMA vs. GSM thing.)

Thanks!

Help me get over my fear of inadequateness in workplace

the_dude — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:48:52 -0800

I'm having trouble adjusting to an environment where everyone around me seems to be leaps and bounds more advanced. I'm working at a small tech company (with big clients). It's very technically oriented, not like a consulting firm, we just develop stuff all the time. I'm a recent hire; kind of made my way in through luck and they seemed to like some of the stuff I used to work on.

What my problem is that although I'm fairly competent (at least passable) in my field, I feel like my co-workers are just geniuses that seem to be able to do anything faster or better than I can. And it has been literally rendering me pretty much dysfunctional lately.

For example, I come up with an idea that we can all work on. Start researching for it, talk to my co-workers about it. And before I can actually start doing anything about it, like a day later, one of my co-workers excitedly show up at my desk, showing off what he did with my idea; he just implemented it in the time it took me to get my head around some of the technicalities. Don't get me wrong; I'm not jealous or mad and I have *no* hard feelings towards that guy or anything.

Stuff like this happens just keeps happening. And I feel growingly incompetent.

What it makes me feel like is just being unable to start doing anything on my own. It's to a point that I feel like if I embark on something either it's going to be way too late compared to others or just it's going to fail (and them somebody will have to finish it up).

I do not want to give up what I am doing and I know I'm in a place where I had been working for a good part of my life. I can't let this go. However, I need some help to get around my fears. Or whatever you call them.

how do I minimize the number of applications I use to track various areas of my life?

esolo — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 08:44:23 -0800

how do I minimize the number of applications I use, while still keeping my organization online? Over the past year, I have been trying to go fully paperless, and web-based. This meant migrating from Outlook to Gmail, Gcal, etc. However, now I am drowning in apps. I have Wesabe for finances, Google for calendar and mail, Todoist for todo lists, WeightWatchers app to track my food, another app to track my workouts. Is there any way around that? Unfortunately, I am finding that an app meant solely for a specific task work better than an all in one solution... Has anyone figured out the best way? Help!

How much should I charge for consulting work?

hellodonna — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:11:04 -0800

I will be doing some consulting work. Basically I will be strategizing with a very small company on optimizing their presence on the web and helping them with social networking. Here's my problem-- I have no idea what to charge for my time. I will spend two hours driving to them and probably an hour or two consulting. What do you think I should charge? I don't want to be too low but I am also scared that I might be too high. What do you think would be a good rate? I am located in the Philadelphia area if that makes any difference.