Franz and Anne » Computer

Being a Couch Potato

Franz — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 20:41:00 +0000

With the bike in the shop, waiting for a new frame, I turned my attention to something I hardly ever do … being a couch potato. In our basement we bought a big screen TV but we don’t have any cable here and there are limited channels we can pickup off the air. No problem, I will use my second Macbook computer.

I used a HDMI cable and connected to the displayport on the Macbook. Sitting back more than 11 feet, I can control things using the bluetooth mouse and keyboard. That way I can watch things over the the internet. I also have a Logitech Harmony remote control and have it setup so the Macbook is one of the devices. One button switches everything around so the computer displays the picture on the TV and the sound from the Macbook goes out through an digital optical connecton to an amp I have here.

At out other house in California I have a slingbox connected to a DVR. But that quality is rather poor. I also bought a couple of movies on iTunes store but they take many hours to download and I have to pay just as much to rent them for 24 hours as I would to rent a DVD, where I have a few days to watch it. The Apple iTunes movie rental system just doesn’t make sense to me and I am glad I never wasted my money on an Apple TV.

I have Hulu desktop installed so I can watch things on Hulu. The quality is good but I find it hard to find anything I want to bother to watch.

The best system seems to be our Netflix account. Netflix allows you not get DVDs by mail, but also you can instantly watch. There is a large selection of movies I can watch on demand, with no wasted time downloading it. I just pay one monthly fee. The quality is not quite as good as DVD but plenty good enough.

Of course I can only stand to watch so much TV or movies. So I can usually sit back and use the computer to do all the stuff you use a computer for, including writing this blog entry. Although it may be hard to see in the photo, it is just as easy to read the text on the big screen, back from 11 feet, as it is to use my computer on my desk.

Okay, it has been 15 minutes and I need to get out of here. That is enough of being a couch potato.

Running with an iPhone

Franz — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 16:55:06 +0000

I decided to take my new iPhone 3GS on the run today with Anne. It is not exactly small enough to run with but I wanted to test out the GPS function. My original iPhone did not have the GPS. I used the MapMyRide application that recoreded the run. I also used my Polar heart rate monitor with a footpod which I have previoiusly calibrated. We ended up with 7.40 miles per the Polar and 7.42 miles per the iPhone. Remarkably close. The iPhone application also saved my workout and route we took, as you can see below.

iMapMyRide Jul 20, 2009 9:28 AM
Find more Runs in Morgan Hill, California

Tip-Toe through the Tulips

Franz — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 05:06:39 +0000

Yesterday we visited Deception Pass and today we were anxious to see the Skagit Tulip Festival. It was about a 10 mile drive from our hotel. There were several places to stop but we picked one place where there looked like vast fields of tulips to view.

Until you see such a large expanse of tulips it is difficult to realize how breathtaking they are. There were several different sections, each with it’s own color of tulilps. There is little I can add, so I will let the photos speak for themselves.

Peter

Tulip Festival

It was fun taking photographs while Sara was also taking them. I could take advantage of what she had visualized.

Emma

Abby and Mike

Tulip Festival

Andrew

Emma, Andrew and Peter

Anne wanted me to take a photo of this yellow tulip that was in the middle of red ones. She was sure she could use it for a talk some time.

Standing Out in a Crowd

Mother and Daughter

One more shot of that barn as we were leaving to return home.

Tulip Festival

Personal Websites Make-over

Franz — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 13:00:18 +0000

Long before most people had up a personal website, I started a website at one of my domains, kelsch.com. The problem with websites is trying to keep them current and updated. Eventually the information there was so out of date that I gave up and changed kelsch.com to a family blog. Blogs, such as this one are much easier to keep up and post new information. I have setup several blogs for different purposes, as have most all of my children.

I still have several websites I do maintain. I decided to do a make over on all of them using some of the techniques I have found including:

Flash based slide show that goes through about several images.
RSS feeds from the various blogs and photo galleries.
Contact form

So with these feeds the website keeps current without any need for me to do anything. I can change the images for the slide shows at any time by using Lightroom, selecting 30 images, and doing an export to the right folder, then FTPing them to the site. It only takes a minute.

See the screen shots below. Click on any of them and visit that website.

Here is a screen shot of what Kelsch.ORG looks like now [Visit Site].

Here is a screen shot of what the FranzKelsch.com site looks like now [Visit Site].

Here is a screen shot of what KelschFamily.NET looks like now [Visit Site].

Here is a screen shot of what my Photography site looks like now [Visit Site].

Here is a screen shot of what my Tech site looks like now [Visit Site].

See my detailed tech blog entry for additional information.

Adobe Contribute

Franz — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 01:07:06 +0000

I am creating this blog using Adobe Contribute 3, which was included in the Adobe Creative Suite 3 Wed Premium edition that I recently installed. It allows me to create blog entries off line, then upload them to the server. Previously the entries were all made through a WordPress provided webpage on my server.

Cotribute 3 can also be used to edit webpages directly, but I will most likely continue to use Dreamweaver for that since I prefer to keep the original on my local computer and publish to the website. Here is what the screen looks like as I am creating this blog.

iPhone Limitations

Franz — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 16:03:31 +0000

I am glad I bought the 8 Gb version of the iPhone since I have nearly filled up that space now.

The video includes two movies and several video podcasts. The audio includes my 4 and 5 star rated music and many audio only podcasts. The photos include all my photos I have in iPhoto for 2007. I am sure they will have a 16 Gb version of the iPhone soon since they are now offering that in the new iPod Touch. I don’t think I need a hard disk based iPhone like some want with 80 Gb. That would defeat the function of being slim enough and long enough battery to use as a phone.

Another limitation that I am finding is Apple’s approach of not allowing the installation of programs by 3rd party developers, except what they can do with Safari. I just think there would be a lot of neat little programs like were developed for Windows Mobile, that would be useful. On the top of my list would be a real version of Skype and a version of Slingbox player. They have a version of the Slingbox player for Windows mobile, Windows smart phones and Palm phones. But all of those allow the installation of a program. Currently with the iPhone the only thing a developer can do is host something on a website you browse to with Safari. Considering that Apple claims the iPhone is running OSX, it should not be difficult for them to open it up. Their claim about security is most likely a cover for what they really want, and that is to control everything, typical of Apple.

The final limitation is the use of the AT&T Edge network. When I am at home it uses WiFi which is fast. But Edge is slow. But I had that on my old Windows Smartphone so I guess I am not sure what I am missing.

Even with those limitations, the iPhone is by far the best phone I have ever purchased and I continue to be amazed by is capabilities. The user interface is outstanding.

Bought an iPhone – Update

Franz — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 06:27:30 +0000

Hre is an update to the post about buying a new iPhone, after I have had a chance to use it for a few days. On Saturday, I broke down and finally bought a new iPhone. After Apple reduced the price of the 8Gb model by $200, it seemed like a good deal. My existing phone with AT&T cost me $20 a month for the data plan (with no text messaging) and the new iPhone data plan is the same cost, so on a monthly basis there was no increase in costs, plus I get 200 text messages included. There is just no comparision between my old Windows Mobile phone and the new iPhone. I can actually use the iPhone for email and web browsing while that old phone was almost worthless for that. I actually don’t use my phone as much for voice calls as for data, so it made a lot of sense to go with the iPhone.

I have now had a chance to use the phone for a few days and clearly state that this is by far the best phone I have ever used, even exceeding the Blackberry phone that I had while I was working. I would even go as far as to say it is the best user interface on any device I have ever used.

My previous phone was a Cingular 3125. It had Microsoft Mobile 5.0 on it but had a regular cell phone keypad. It was very hard to read email messages on it and for me to send a message meant only a few words. I did like the slim design. However it got poor reception. When I complained about that initially, the Cingular store said it was just our local town and since I was new to Cingular, I was not sure. But with the iPhone, now on the same network, gets 4 bars of reception in the exact same place my old phone barely could get one.

The iPhone is the first phone I have ever seen that browsing the web is at all practical. Sure it is not as useful as a regular computer, but you can’t put a computer in your pocket either. The fact that it uses WiFi is a big plus since the Edgne network can be slow (as I already knew from my old Windows Mobile phone). It would have been nice to have the iPhone use the new 3G network, but for me I rarely would be in a place to take advantage of that at this point in time.

There are tons of reports on the workings of the iPhone so I will stop here and just say I am very pleased with the phone. I just need to learn to type on the touch sensitive screen that has no tactile feedback. I am improving but have some ways to go. Apple has once again taking a mature market and turned it upside down.

I Like My Life ‘08

Franz — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 23:07:24 +0000

I just installed iLife ‘08 on my Mac computer. So far I have only tried iPhoto but a neat feature there is that photos are grouped by events. That happens automatically as you import them from your camera, or you can manually move events groups around. It was quite easy to drag and drop two events together because they were on different days but the same vacation, for example. This is how it looks when I start iPhoto.

(click above image to enlarge)

When I click on any event it shows the photos in that event (or just run the mouse cursor over the event and it does a mini slide show).

Click on any photo and you can view it full size with tools to edit it, email it, or send to the web.

I hope you didn’t try to click on part of the image to get the photo to enlarge. You need to get a Mac for that! This blog just has some static screen shots