Google Apps

Google continues to expand its reach in the online realm. And today's New York Times carries a story about yet another ambitious Google undertaking that has terrific potential. Google Art is a new project that offers access to collections and even interior views of Art Museums from around the world. You can read the article from the Times by clicking this link, or you can see it for yourself at www.googleartproject.com.

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Windows Phone? Yes . . . and not so much.

I bought a Windows Phone the day they became available. Mine is a Samsung Focus, and I love the design of the phone and the look and feel of the Windows operating system. But since the day I bought it I have also had variety of power-related issues with it. Sometimes the phone just spontaneously reboots. Sometimes after such reboots, it will have lost changes to the settings, start screen, etc. But if I reboot again, everything comes back as expected. When I bought the phone, I did not install the optional SD card, on which some people are blaming the power problems with the phones. Even without the card though, I still had some issues--but not the reboot problem. Mostly, sometimes it would just seem to be powered off, and pressing the power button didn't turn it back on. At first I was having to pop the battery out and reinsert it, then power the phone back on. Then I discovered that if I held the power button in for about 10 seconds, then released it, then pressed it again as if to turn the phone on, it would power back on.

So after using the phone almost constantly for about 2 weeks I bought a Sandisk Micro SD card, 32gb. I had read the docs and backed the phone up before inserting it. I installed the card and performed the system reset. Then I synced. I was surprised to find that the sync reinstalled music, but not my apps. Each app had to be manually reinstalled from the marketplace. (I did not have to pay for apps again--the store knew I had already bought them). The sync also didn't restore start menu and settings changes, or Internet favorites. But after installing the SD card, I have now begun to see the phone reboot for no apparent reason.

So, it would be a great phone if the power issues can be fixed. But the sync system needs to be changed so that syncing a phone restores it completely, including apps, settings, favorites, etc.

I'm keeping mine just as is for now. Part of being one of the first customers to get one is the adventure of unexpected "features." But I expect to see Samsung and Microsoft working hard to address these issues promptly, and I'll be dumping my Windows phone if that doesn't happen.

FujiFilm S5200 Camera with 2GB XD Card

A few years ago I bought a FujiFilm FinePix S5200 camera. At the time I bought a 256mb XD card, which has been fine ever since. But I decided recently it was time for a storage upgrade. I looked at the manual that came with the camera and the largest card it said the camera supported was 512mb. So I checked the FujiFIlm website to see if they had any updated information and found their compatibility chart, which indicated that the S5200 was compatible with cards up to 2GB.

I bought a couple of cards and when I inserted one in the camera and turned it on the display indicated a "card error." I tried turning the camera on and formatting the card, but the card wouldn't format. It tried, but then showed the "card error" message again. I tried to email a question to FujiFilm about the compatibility issue but the form failed when I submitted it. So I was about to give up when I decided I'd try taking the batteries out of the camera. I did that. Then put in the new 2GB card and turned the camera on. That did it.

So, yes, the 2GB M+ card will work with the S5200 camera. No firmware update is needed, but you'll probably need to take the batteries out of the camera before you swap the card.

Clearing the address bar in mobile IE

If you're using a Samsung Blackjack 2 you've no doubt run across this. You want to type an address into the address bar of the browser to visit a specific site. So you press the right soft-key to get to "menu -> address bar" and the bar opens with the cursor there so you can type. But the address of the page you're currently on is also there. You can hold down the delete key (the arrow pointing to the left, just below the button for the letter P.) That will delete one. character. at. a. time. Tedious. Instead, hold down the "back" button (gray icon of a "u-turn" symbol, very top row of keys on the right.) That will clear the entire address, leaving only the "http://" -- so you're ready to type the new address.

Ubuntu Server 8.2 on Virtual Box

Downloaded the ISO file from ubuntu.com. Mounted the ISO file in a new Virtual Box VM. Ran the installer, which completed without any problems. Upon first boot, received a nasty fatal error message: This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: 0:6. Could go no further booting the VM. Just had to "power it off." Quick Google search led to a post in the Ubuntu forums. "Apparently in Virtual Box this error is corrected by: General -> Advanced -> check Enable PAE/NX." Yep, that worked. I now am able to boot into Ubuntu server and get to the ~$ prompt. Now if I only I knew what to do with that. Ah well, one step at the time.

Thanks to dcstar at the Ubuntu Virtualization forum for the fix.

More to come.