For all the gadgets and software I use, making notes is something I still do with pen and paper. When I think of something related to a project or an event, I scribble it down in a Moleskin notebook for later reference. That system works great until I either don't have my notebook handy or I need to look something up and can't remember when I wrote it down or how I filed it. As a result, I'm attempting to ween myself off of paper and into a digital notetaking solution. Evernote is one solution I tried the first time I attempted this, so it's the solution I'm returning to this time as well. It was me that failed the transition, not Evernote.

One reason I think I will succeed this time around is convenient access to my notes from either my computer or my Android phone (Evernote also has an iPhone app). Last time I tried Evernote, I didn't have a phone with apps. Beyond the Web interface, the phone apps are what really makes Evernote great. You can take a picture and send it to your Evernote account for future reference. You can upload files. You can simply jot down notes. All of the data becomes searchable for later retrieval. Using separate note categories and using tags to label your notes, finding the data later is a snap. While there is a pay version with more features, the free version of Evernote is excellent and will get you more organized more quickly.

I like spending less for the things I need, which means I’m willing to look for a coupon or holdout for a sale before purchasing. When I found an opportunity to reduce the price of my recent refrigerator purchase by $96, it made sense to go for it. This was in addition to an existing offer for free delivery and disposal of my existing fridge. The reason I’m telling you about this is there are discounts available on all kinds of purchases that can easily be added on top of any coupon or sale at stores like Best Buy, Home Depot, Target, and clothing retailers like Old Navy.

The key to increasing your buying power is gift cards. Plastic Jungle is an online service that sells gift cards at a discount from face value, allowing you to instantly get more purchasing power for each dollar spent. When it came time to buy my new fridge, I went to Plastic Jungle, ordered $1600 worth of Best Buy gift cards for $1504 and waited for them to arrive in the mail. I could have used the gift cards for a new HDTV or a computer, but what I needed was a new fridge. Upon arrival, I made my purchase with the gift cards instantly reducing the cost of my new appliance purchase.

Restaurant gift cards seem to offer the biggest discounts at Plastic Jungle, although there are also deals to be had on auto fuel from places like Shell and BP, as well as on hotel and rental cars. As I write this, Plastic Jungle is currently offering a 5% discount on face value for Best Buy gift cards, but a few of the other gift card options rates are better than when I was initially looking, so it literally pays to check back. So before make your next purchase of anything, check Plastic Jungle to see if it can save you money – chances are it will.

Quickly following Apple's announcement of the new Apple iPad, my favorite Seattle-based computer bag company, Tom Bihn announced two iPad additions to their product line. Cache, a protective sleeve, is designed to safely store your iPad and protect it from damage as you carry it anywhere. Cache has the added advantage of being airport Checkpoint Friendly, which means you don't have to remove your iPad from the Cache when going through security screening.

Ristretto for iPad comes in 5 different color combinations with enough room for your iPad, along with a days worth of travel supplies for commuting to and from anywhere. If you don't have an iPad, the Ristretto would also make a great Netbook bag.

My Tom Bihn Brain Bag has traveled to China, Taiwan, and all over the US. It still holds up as well as the day I got it. To date it remains the best bag I've ever owned. As an added bonus, I could walk down the street from my Seattle office and say hello to the people who made it.

"How do I connect to Xbox Live using wireless connectivity?"

To connect to Xbox Live using a wireless connection you need three equally important components to complete the process. You need a broadband connection like cable or DSL for high speed Internet access. You need a wireless router to accept the wireless connection from your Xbox 360. Finally, you need an Xbox Wireless Network Adapter from Microsoft. Additionally you do also need an Xbox Live account. After you have all the components, follow the steps below to setup your wireless connection to Xbox Live.

HP loaned me a Data Vault to try out in a small business setting. Data Vault is basically a HP MediaSmart server, re-envisioned as a backup solution for small businesses lacking the traditional client server configuration you might find at larger companies. Where HP MediaSmart focuses on making it easy for you to play music and movies, access photos, and backup files on your home network (all things Data Vault can also do), the primary focus of Data Vault is backing up files in a small office network.

The simplicity of setting up Data Vault for backups is both a blessing and a curse. You can literally configure any Windows computer for backups with the Data Vault in minutes, making it perfect for guaranteeing the ability to backup employee computers to prevent catastrophic data loss. If you occasionally work from home or travel, you can also configure remote access to the Data Vault, allowing you to recover files when you are away from the office. Simplicity also brought a bit of frustration on my part, because after configuring Data Vault I wanted it to do more.

At the end of each year, I like to take a look at which articles were popular throughout the year to see if I can anticipate what kinds of questions might bubble up in the coming year. More often than not a new software release or some new feature will pop up that throws off any hope of anticipating where the majority of questions might come from, but occasionally I catch something ahead of the curve. For instance, when I answered some questions about the RMVB file format back in 2005, I had no idea that it would be one of the most popular video formats for the next four years. Interest in RMVB is currently starting to tail off, correlating directly with the shutting down of file sharing services like The Pirate Bay.

As I look through the top 100 most popular articles published in 2009, a common theme emerges. Articles about productivity related solutions, things like using email, calendars, and IP fax services appear to pepper the list. More specifically, there appears to be a strong interest in making Google products like Gmail work with traditional desktop solutions like Outlook. Some of these articles benefit from having the full 12 months of 2009 to gain traction, but the article at #8 in the list below was published in August, which tells me it attracted a higher percentage of attention.

I did take the liberty of removing one article from the top 10 list because it was related to a game that is no longer available and #10 on the list may have limited usefulness due to the fact that the Windows 7 beta period is over.

Without further ado, here are the 10 most popular articles published in 2009:

1. How to Convert MP4 to WMV
2. How to Play Blu-ray DVDs with Windows
3. Convert WMA to MP3 on a Mac
4. Redirect Emails from Outlook to Gmail or Hotmail
5. How to Edit FLV Video Files
6. How to Burn iTunes Moves to DVD
7. How to Send Pictures to Facebook from a Cell Phone
8. How to Sync Outlook Contacts with Gmail
9. Xbox 360 Media Sharing
10. Burn a DVD from Windows 7 ISO Download

"I downloaded a movie and my computer won't play it. The file is a MKV. What is an MKV file and how do I play an MKV file?"

MKV is the Matroska Multimedia Container, which is a video container similar to AVI or MOV. MKV files can have many different kinds of video and audio file formats stored inside them, which makes having the correct software for playback a little tricky. The MKV format has recently become a very popular format for sharing movies because it works well with subtitles and also retains the quality of high definition movies. To play a MKV file, I recommend one player solution.

"I have a USB 2.0 Logitech headset. Will my USB headset work with an Xbox 360?"

The Xbox 360 console has specific requirements for any headset you want to use to communicate in games or when chatting via the Xbox Live Vision camera. The primary requirement is the headset must connect to the headset jack in your game controller. Since the controllers all use a 2.5mm audio input (similar to the jack found on many cell phones), using a USB 2.0 headset is simply not an option.

Does this mean you're stuck purchasing a headset from Microsoft?

I’m back in Iowa for the holidays and getting here was made more painful by a failure of the iTunes DRM machine. We left for the airport on Wednesday morning. Prior to leaving, I signed in to iTunes on my laptop, purchased a movie for Wyatt to watch on the flight, downloaded the movie to my laptop, and then packed up to leave for the airport.

On the plane, as I attempted to play the purchased movie, iTunes informed me that my computer wasn’t authorized and prompted me to sign in, which of course I could not do at 30,000 feet. This is a massive failure of the transactional system that is iTunes. If I purchased a movie on my laptop and subsequently downloaded the movie to my laptop, where else would I want to play it? iTunes was obviously aware that the computer was not authorized. It seems to me that there should have been a prompt to authorize the computer during the purchase process to avoid this scenario.

This will be the last movie I purchase from the iTunes store ever. Some other company can have my money. I need movies that actually work on a plane and it’s obvious I can’t count on iTunes to deliver a reliable experience. Had I ripped the DVD for the same movie (which I also own), I wouldn’t have run into this issue, but then again, that’s deemed illegal.

"Do you know if I can reset the defaults on my iPod without using iTunes? my iPod is locked and I don't know the code to unlock my iPod. When I connect it to iTunes the iPod won't unlock."

If you set a screen lock code on your iPod, connecting the iPod to the original computer you first synced the iPod to should unlock the screen allowing you to reset the iPod screen lock code to something else. When that does not work, restoring your iPod to factory settings will reset the iPod screen lock code, which also results in deleting everything on your iPod, so be sure you have a back up before you start. If connecting to your computer doesn't solve your screen lock problem, look at these other options to get your iPod back in action.

At one point in the past, many people purchased Series E savings bonds for babies or for a rainy day and then forget the purchase was ever made. You can find out if you’re one of those people in just a few seconds by visiting the Treasure Hunt on TreasuryDirect.gov. This is the United States government’s site where you can buy and redeem securities directly from the U.S. Department of the Treasury in paperless electronic form. Recently, the U.S. Treasury has been attempting to track down matured Series E savings bonds, which had maturity dates of 40 years for bonds issued before 1965 and 30 years for bonds issued between 1965-1980. There are also some extended maturity periods for these bonds, but if you don’t know you have them you probably also don’t know if they’ve matured. The major limitation of the Treasure Hunt feature on TreasuryDirect.gov is that it can’t automatically look up Series E savings bonds issued before 1973. Be sure to check the Treasure Hunt to see if you have a bond or two issued and now forgotten.

"What are this year's Black Friday software discounts and deals?"

It's become an annual tradition for me to dig up some great deals on software and send them out to this list. I try to dig

Security Software Discounts

70% discount on VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware - when Black Friday ends, so does this offer. Get antivirus and antispyware protection for only $9.95 today only. Includes identity theft protection and anti-rootkit technology in addition to important protection from virus and malware outbreaks. This is the same company that makes top 5 rated Sunbelt Personal Firewall. You won't find any other commercial antivirus package at this price, so get VIPRE Antivirus + Antispyware for $9.95 before the offer expires at Midnight on November 27, 2009.

Save 15% on TrustedID Identity Theft Protection Get 15 + Points of Protection from TrustedID, including their $1,000,000 Warranty, Lost Wallet protection, Medical Benefits monitoring, Fraud Alerts, and full-family identity protection for a 15% discount.

Roboform Password Manager - 33% Discount. Roboform is the password manager I strongly recommend, so it's great when I can offer a way for people to save money on it. With RoboForm password manager, you remember one password, RoboForm remembers the rest. RoboForm memorizes and securely stores your online and offline passwords, so you will never forget them again. Enjoy easy, one-click logins to your online accounts. Save time by completing online registration and checkout forms with one click. RoboForm gives your passwords and other personal data extra security (strong encryption provided), portability, and complete manageability. You can save 20% on Roboform using coupon code ROBO-VMWX-THRT. The Roboform discount expires December 7, 2009.

Business / Productivity Software Discounts

30% Off Dragon NaturallySpeaking 10 Preferred when you use coupon code: giahh897e. Create documents, reports and e-mails three times faster than most people type -- with up to 99% accuracy using NaturallySpeaking 10. New Dragon Voice Shortcuts collapse common tasks into simple voice commands. You can even dictate into a handheld device when you're away from your PC, or use a Bluetooth microphone. Supports both 32-bit and 64-bit systems. This offer expires 11/30/2009.

30% Off PDF Converter Pro 6 using coupon code: j2bm26xoo PDF Converter Professional 6 provides PDF creation and editing for home and business users at a fraction of the cost of buying Adobe Acrobat. It provides everything needed to create, convert, and edit PDF files. This offer expires 11/30/2009.

Multimedia Discounts

Save 50% on Audiobooks for 3 months & get a $10 Coupon for your next purchase. I've been an Audible customer for several years now and I still consider it the best way to get audiobook content. This deal allows you to get your first 3 months at a substantial discount and the extra coupon makes it an even better deal. Expires 12.16.09

Buy Creator 2010 Pro and USB Capture Device and SAVE $60 Instantly. Basically this discount gets you the USB capture device for free when combined with the purchase of Roxio Creator 2010 Pro. The software includes video editing, photo editing, music editing, CD/DVD burning and a bunch of other features to help you manage your media. Offer Expires December 1, 2009.

Save 60% on Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 Ultimate. Paint Shop Pro is still one of my favorite image editing solutions. The software does many of the things you can do with Photoshop for a tiny fraction of the price. Whether you're creating Web graphics, or trying to enhance your family photos, you really can't go wrong using Paint Shop Pro as your photo editing solution. Offer expires November 30, 2009

[UPDATE] As many people are pointing out in the comments, Gmail has the Forgotten Email Detector available in the Gmail Labs experimental features. So the big difference is Rackspace recognized people need help with attachments and turned the feature on by default. In my book, Rackspace still provided better service.

Have you ever forgotten to attach a file to your email? I know I have.

Gmail take note! Rackspace Email is the only email solution I’ve seen that traps this error and helps you avoid looking stupid. I just went to send an email with the words, ’see the attached PDF’ included and forgot to attach the PDF. When I hit send, I got a great warning message that tells me that it seems I have forgotten to add an attachment. Awesome! Any feature that keeps me from looking stupid is a good one. When is Gmail going to add this? In the meantime, kudos to Rackspace for getting it right.

As part of my latest round of videos I did for HP, Andru Edwards and I walked through the process of upgrading to Windows 7 from Windows Vista (and XP). There are two primary scenarios you might be going through if you decide to upgrade. You're either going to replace the operating system on your current computer or you're going to buy a new computer and need to move all your files and settings. In either case, it's important to backup all your important files, so you don't end up losing anything in the process. Through a couple of videos, we walk you through the steps required to backup your files safely and complete a Windows 7 upgrade.

I've mentioned several times about how much I enjoy have a Kindle. The format is an absolute joy to read on, without all the eye fatigue I feel after several hours of staring at an LCD screen. For my travel schedule, the greatest thing about the Kindle is I can bring the 3-5 books I'm reading at any given time, without needing all the physical space created by having those books in my backpack. Of course, if I ever forget my Kindle, then I don't have any of those books. Amazon makes a Kindle iPhone app, but since I use an Android phone, that doesn't help. Enter the Kindle for PC software. As long as I have a computer and Internet connection, I can still download all of my Kindle library. The reading experience does not match up with the Kindle device, because reading on a PC comes with eye fatigue. Being able to adjust font size and reading column width are a great advantage over paper, because you can optimize the page for faster reading, but it remains imperfect. Like the Kindle hardware, if you finish a book, you can always download a new one. If you think you might want a Kindle, don't use this software to judge against the quality of the reading experience; it's just not the same. But if you have a Kindle and want to share your library with another family member (or simply forgot your Kindle) this is an acceptable alternative. [Windows 7/Vista/XP $0.00]

If you think the new Twitter Lists feature was designed to help you organize the people you follow, you would be dead wrong. On the surface Twitter Lists help you organize tweets into something sensible, but there’s something more in those lists. What Twitter lists really do is provide Twitter with semantic relationships between Twitter accounts, while also establishing the real authority figures on Twitter.

Twitter can already see you are interested in the people you follow. You could also draw the conclusion that Twitter can see you are interested in people who follow you. In a reciprocal follow relationship, there’s an implied stronger bond between two tweeters. That reciprocity is devalued by all of the marketing morons intent on building follower numbers. None of who you follow vs. who follows you data gives Twitter the ability to develop semantics around user accounts.

Twitter Lists create those semantics. Each time 2 people appear on a list together, Twitter can begin to group those two people into buckets. The more lists any two people appear on, the more likely they are to be closely linked in some way. So if Robert Scoble and I appear on a list called Tech Bloggers, a list called Tech Influencers, and also appear on a third list called Geeks with Kids, there’s obviously some similarity between the two of us.

Lists also establish authority. Just like multiple links from reliable sites translate to greater relevance in search, the more people who put someone on a list, the more likely that person is to be relevant. While you could probably discount everyone who adds Shaq to a Twitter list as being a fanboy, anyone who adds my friend Kevin O’Keefe to a list probably considers him relevant to what they are doing online.

The net result of this should be a Twitter search with more relevant results. In addition to showing the latest tweets on a topic, Twitter search should be able to evaluate that certain people are better able to provide data on Seattle (where I live), or Tech (what I’m passionate about) than others. And if I’m signed in to Twitter, this should be further enhanced by an algorithm that provides results based on how other Twitter accounts relate to mine.

Who this ultimately helps is Twitter partners who get the “fire hose” live stream of data. If Bing and Google can use semantic relationships and list affinity to evaluate the relevance of tweets, there’s more benefit for them in aggregating your data. So the question becomes: which lists are you on?

I’m an information junkie. Put engaging writing in front of me and I’m distracted for hours. Reading tech blogs is a no-brainer for me, but I tend to read about tech stuff while ignoring the rest of the universe of great material. Thanks to some current work with Lexblog, I find myself reading a ton of law blogs. There’s a whole world of great law blog content out there that should be making all of us smarter.

For instance, via the Florida Asset Protection blog, I learned that if I ever need to file bankruptcy or protect assets from a creditor, I hope I’m a Florida resident. I also learned that it might be easier to become a Florida resident for purposes of protecting your assets than it is to become a resident to attend college, but that’s another story.

I’ve tweeted this before, but I’m loving Food Safety News. Who doesn’t want a daily dose of all the food (information) that could kill you? Although Bill Marler’s wry criticisms of the state of the food industry on his Marler Blog cut to the heart of the matter in a style that resonates better with me.

Another great law blogging personality is Scott Greenfield of Simple Justice. I admittedly don’t get everything Scott talks about because I am not a lawyer (IANAL), but I like his writing style and I learn something every time I read his blog.

And because I can’t escape tech, the Nanotechnology Law Report is a fascinating read on the edge of the future where the law meets things that have barely crossed over from the realm of science fiction.

"I got an error while trying to install software on my Windows 7 computer. This is the error message: Error 2738. Could not access VBScript run time for custom action. How can I fix error 2738?"

This error is common to software applications that use VBScript for some portion of the install process. Error 2738 is an error that means VBScript is not properly configured to run on your computer. I encountered Error 2738 when I installed Verizon Access Manager, but there are many other times it can occur. To fix Error 2738 you may need to follow slightly different steps depending on your computer configuration.

"I'm have a large number of music playlists. I want to print playlist files of my music so that I can keep a record of my music collection."

Depending on what you currently use to manage your music collection, printing playlists might require additional software. To print a playlist in iTunes, for instance, you simply need to choose the playlist and Print from the File menu. Windows Media Player does not include the ability to print playlists, so you need to use another application. For most playlist management, I recommend using MediaMonkey, which has a ton of features you can't get from either Windows Media Player or iTunes.

"I am looking for a voice recognition to text program for transcribing the audio in my interviews. Got any ideas ?"

In my own experience, attempting to use software to transcribe audio recordings has met with mixed results. If there's a large amount of industry specific jargon used, the software fails miserably, leaving you spending more time cleaning up files than you would have simply by transcribing the audio the old fashioned way. A better result is to send your audio files to a transcription service like CastingWords.com. The quality is generally outstanding and the turnaround time is generally faster than most of us could do it ourselves. If you do insist on attempting to transcribe your audio using software, here are a few tips.

I found an old post I wrote back in 2004 stating that I’d never buy a device that was just for ebooks. My rationale at the time was that Pocket PC devices and others like them had gotten to the point where the screens were great for reading. Now I tell everyone I know why I love the Amazon Kindle. If E-ink had existed in 2004, I think my opinion then might have been different. At the time, everyone was touting screens that were special purpose LCD, which made no sense then and still makes no sense now. E-ink is easier on the eyes because unlike reading an LCD screen, you’re not staring into a light bulb while you read.

I find I’m reading more now that I have a Kindle because its more convenient than carrying a book around. For many types of information, like the morning newspaper, I like the format better because the text I want is unencumbered by all the ads. Not everything works on the Kindle. I don’t like reading magazines on a Kindle even though the content is largely the same. The difference is magazines have specialized in combining imagery with their text content to create something that’s better than the printed word alone. On a Kindle, the images are either gone or muted by the limitation of a monochromatic display. I don’t like these same magazines on the Web because they’ve gone to great lengths to make advertising more important than the content, so I find myself continuing to subscribe to several of the print editions.

If I were to gaze into a crystal ball and look for the device I’d really want to read this stuff on, I think my 2004 desire holds up, because I really want a multi-function tool like an iPhone or my T-Mobile G1, with all the applications that includes, plus the ability to get an E-ink experience when I simply want to read. Will we see that anytime soon? Hard to say. In the meantime, the number of books I purchased for Kindle in 2009 is close to double my book purchases for the 2 previous years. How about you? Are your reading habits changing because of technology? If so, how?

Amazon S3 became my primary solution for hosting images and download files over a year ago. It's also become an excellent place for me to post videos when I do projects for other people. What isn't so great about S3 is the lack of tools for getting data in to S3. For months I relied on the Firefox S3Fox plugin, which creates a sort of FTP-like interface for Amazon S3 in a Firefox browser window. Upgrades of Firefox periodically break this plugin, making it unavailable for uploading files at times. I tried various pay solutions and found them all to be largely worse than using S3Fox. Recently I started using CloudBerry Explorer for Amazon S3, which is free and does everything I need to get files from my PC to the Amazon S3 service. Like S3Fox, CloudBerry functions like an FTP client, except CloudBerry is a standalone application. Batch uploading is supported, you can configure permissions on files from CloudBerry, and overall I find CloudBerry Explorer to be far more reliable than S3Fox. A pro version adds support for compression to keep the upload cost of putting files on Amazon S3 down, along with encryption, support for multiple accounts and a sync between local files and Amazon S3. [Windows XP/Vista/7 $0.00]

Amazon S3 became my primary solution for hosting images and download files over a year ago. It's also become an excellent place for me to post videos when I do projects for other people. What isn't so great about S3 is the lack of tools for getting data in to S3. For months I relied on the Firefox S3Fox plugin, which creates a sort of FTP-like interface for Amazon S3 in a Firefox browser window. Upgrades of Firefox periodically break this plugin, making it unavailable for uploading files at times. I tried various pay solutions and found them all to be largely worse than using S3Fox. Recently I started using CloudBerry Explorer for Amazon S3, which is free and does everything I need to get files from my PC to the Amazon S3 service. Like S3Fox, CloudBerry functions like an FTP client, except CloudBerry is a standalone application. Batch uploading is supported, you can configure permissions on files from CloudBerry, and overall I find CloudBerry Explorer to be far more reliable than S3Fox. A pro version adds support for compression to keep the upload cost of putting files on Amazon S3 down, along with encryption, support for multiple accounts and a sync between local files and Amazon S3. [Windows XP/Vista/7 $0.00]

"When I go into a file in one of my folders I get a message that comes up as, 'There are more than 500 fonts in the system. Reduce the number of fonts or the display may be incorrect.' I don't know why that should come up as I have not added any more fonts or done any thing with the fonts."

That error message is typically associated with one of two types of files, either a Microsoft Works Spreadsheet or Microsoft Works Database file. I have seen it happen with some Microsoft Excel spreadsheets as well. Even if you never actively add or remove fonts from your system, many applications add additional fonts to your computer. Why a spreadsheet application displays an error if you have more than 500 fonts is something of a mystery, because in theory the application could be written to ignore all but a specific group of fonts needed for the software to work properly. In any event, there are a couple of ways to solve your font problem.

"I have a Sony Handycam DCR-DVD105 (about 3 years old). I have an iMac which loads CD on the side (of the screen). What do I need to buy so that this smaller CD can be inserted?"

I'm not aware of an adapter I would feel safe recommending for inserting mini DVD media into any slot loading DVD drive like most iMac and MacBook hardware now uses. Rather than risk breaking your internal drive, you might be better off investing in an external USB drive to playback the mini DVDs from your camcorder.

"I am using two Samsung SC-MX20. They give me really good video in low light, however, Samsung uses MPEG-4 compression and this can be a real hassle (time consuming) to uncompress. I tried a USB video capture device but (of course) it drops frames. Since Samsung does not have a FireWire connection, would a PCI video capture allow me to take the compressed video and capture in AVI format? If so, which PCI video capture card(s) should I consider? I have tried searching the web, but it seems everything is more aimed at capturing TV to PC and I am not sure it that will work for me?"

Since the Samsung SC-MX20 camcorders record MP4 files, rather than capturing to tape, you should be able to optimize a setup that will get you faster editing by simply opening the files. There could be a scenario where you could capture over component video connection using something like a Black Magic or AJA capture card, but upgrading a few components on your computer may get you to where you want to be for less money.

"Can I connect a computer to a 46" HDTV and use split screen software to make it like four screens / monitors in one? I have a PC with XP, and a Mac with OS X Leopard 10.5. However if the solution requires a different OS, I can get a new system."

There are a number of ways to achieve displaying multiple screens on the same physical screen. If you were to run 3 additional operating systems in virtual machines on Windows, you would effectively get 4 unique screen displays. On a Mac running something like VMWare or Parallels you could increase the number of screens. While the technology to do this is certainly possible, you're going to run into some limitations beyond the operating system that may be frustrating for the result you attempt to achieve.

"I'm looking for a music re-mix program. I don't currently plan on recording my own music. I want something simple that will allow me to sample loops of pre-recorded music from my collection of CDs and MP3s and layer them together in tracks to create new 'musical collages'. In other words, take a James Brown song, create a loop out of one bar of a riff, add another loop created from a horn solo by Miles Davis, and continue adding tracks, layering, fading in and out, etc. just for amateur fun. Don't need pro quality features. Anything like that out there?"

There are a ton of application choices for sampling music from your person collection and building music collages. Prices for looping software range from free up into the hundreds of dollars range. While you could go with a pro tool like Propellerhead's Reason or Sony Acid, I would suggest starting with one of the more basic tools that get you started in creating your own loops and samples.

Exporting data from Wordpress to take it almost anywhere else is a crapshoot as to how well the data will migrate. The extensible nature of Wordpress via plugins means you get an unknown assortment of data coming along with the base contents of your post, tags, and comments. If you didn’t delete spam comments before your export, you get to bring your spam with you. The awesome Wordpress revision feature hobbles your export file with every revision and autosave you ever made. Depending on where you choose to move your data (I know, who would ever leave Wordpress, right?) you may be stuck cleaning the Export file in order to get your content properly installed anywhere else. I’ve even had the misfortune of having another Wordpress install barf on content importing because a plugin from the old install wasn’t on the new install, which meant that the new WP install didn’t know what to do with some improperly handled metadata.

Instead of just giving me a dump of all data when I click the Export tab, WordPress should walk through a little wizard asking me what I want to keep. Let me choose to leave spam and revisions behind. Let me choose to leave all comments behind (without deleting them from the database). Maybe my tagging skills we lousy in a past life and I want to make a fresh start, so give me the option to exclude tags. These are all easy features to include. Maybe that’s asking for too much usability out of a free solution, but if it’s really the ultimate content management solution (it’s not), WordPress should be making it easier to work with data.

I know I’m going to hear that I should use plugins or develop these features myself. After all, WordPress is infinitely extensible. There is a plugin to delete revisions from WordPress. I don’t want to need a plugin to get clean data out, because I have no way of knowing whether that plugin will actually be stable. This is core functionality that would make Wordpress more useful to me and anyone else who ever moves their data around. I just wish they would fix it!

"With the economic down turn I am interested in free online TV. I have an HP Pavilion dv6700 (with an hdmi port) using Windows Vista. I also received a remote control with my laptop but am currently trying to find it. I have a 42" HDTV that I would like to connect to my computer. I also use the Harmony One all- in-one remote control by Logitec."

My questions are:

1. Can I do this?
2. Can I get HD quality TV over the internet?
3. Will picture quality suffer from moving from my laptop to a larger 42" HDTV screen size?
4. What is the minimum broadband speed needed and what is optimal speed?
5. Can use the remote I have?
6. Can you make a favorites list with the equipment I have or do I need a software program for managing the channels and movie downloads?

We’ve all been on the receiving end of an employee following company policy at one time or another. For me, the instance that sticks out as most obvious to me was an occasion when I went to cash a check at the bank I visited every week, only to discover I’d left my driver’s license back at the office. The teller recognized me, but because it was bank policy not to cash a check without proper identification, I was out of luck. My lunch hour schedule prevented me from having time to go back and get my ID. Sure it was my fault for not having my ID with me, but I was no stranger to the people who worked at the bank. I was left with a bad feeling that I remember many years later.

Falling into the company policy trap can be even worse for small companies, because the the stakes are much higher. To use a hypothetical company as an example, lets say I own a video hosting service that competes with YouTube. My service charges a monthly subscription fee for a bunch of advanced features you can’t get from YouTube. Because of some exclusive distribution partnerships we worked out, our service also requires you to launch your video channel with at least 5 video segments. The 5 video policy was put in place because our distribution partners are concerned that too many video publishers launch with one video, realize it’s too much work, and abandon posting videos, which makes their network look bad. Your channel won’t be visible to the world until you have 5 video segments uploaded, although we will do the necessary configuration so that you’re live as soon as the 5 videos are ready to go.

To continue with my hypothetical example, lets say you are an artist who uses video as your medium. For your current project, you want to shoot a three minute video at exactly the same location, starting at the exact same time every day for an entire year. You want your video channel to go live starting on January 1 and continue throughout the year. Part of the experience of your project is that you need people to view videos from day 1. You can’t launch with the 5 videos I require, because our requirements do not match your vision. While we clearly spell out the requirements to everyone who joins our service, you contact customer support and request that we make your video channel live on January 1 with only 1 video.

There are two ways my video company could proceed. Customer support could respond that our policy is to require 5 videos and we refuse to make an exception. As a result you might take your business elsewhere and tell other artists that we aren’t a viable option for creative people. The other thing we could do is engage with you more directly, clarify what our concerns are about why we require 5 videos, and recognize that your goals are sound even though they don’t match up with our policy. Choosing the later course probably means you’re going to tell more people what a great service our company offers because we empowered you to succeed with your vision./p pBy being flexible in company policy when it makes sense, you can build a stronger company with rabidly loyal customers. In the hypothetical example I use, the 5 video policy exists to create a better experience for distribution partnerships, however, in the case of your art project, our company can have reasonable confidence that you will follow through because you have a track record for doing interesting art projects.

What about situations where an exception is made and the customer fails to live up to their end? There’s always that risk, but every business decision involves some risk, it’s a matter of assessing which ones will get the company closer to its goals.

"Is there any way to get still photos from digital movies? I have a Sanyo camera and took some movies with it. It also takes still photos. Now I want to get still photos from the movies. Is there any way to do that?"

There are a number of ways you can grab still photos from a video file, but the one I find to be most reliable for all video formats is VLC Player. The software supports virtually every video format and makes it easy to choose the exact frame in your video you want to capture. Here's how to get a still photo from a video using VLC Player.

"Can I use a laptop webcam to video chat with someone using a Xbox 360 webcam?"

Windows Live Messenger support for the Xbox 360 is currently limited to text chats only. To video chat with someone on an Xbox 360, both you and the person you want to chat with must be signed in to Xbox Live and have the Xbox Live Vision camera connected to your Xbox 360. The steps for enabling Windows Live Messenger text chats are fairly straighforward.

pSocial Media school is almost in session. If you’re still trying to get your head around how to use Twitter, want to know why you need to blog, need to attract high quality employees to your company or simply want to know how to connect the dots with local social media opportunities, you should join me at the Social Media 101 conference on September 25, 2009 at the Executive Briefing Center on Microsoft’s Redmond Campus./p pI’m specifically speaking on a panel about blogging and there’s also a ton of great information on how to use Twitter for your business, along with using social media to attract talented people to your company. The event starts at Noon, so you can even get some work done in the morning before sliding out of the office for an afternoon of social media education. See the full a href=”http://eastsidebusinesstechnology.com/2009/08/17/agenda/”Social Media 101 agenda/a for more details. Tickets are reasonably priced at $60 for an afternoon of social media education – a href=”http://sm101.eventbrite.com/”register now/a./p

"I want my Google Calendar email reminders to a different email account than my Gmail address. There doesn't seem to be an option in Google Calendar for adding another email address."

Google Calendar reminders are designed to be sent to the Gmail address associated with the same Google account. Currently Google Calendar doesn't support adding additional email addresses. There is a workaround to get your calendar reminders to another address, but you need to add a filter to Gmail to make it work.

The fog was thick for this morning’s 10:35am sailing of the Wenatchee from Bainbridge Island to Seattle. From my usual spot in the galley area, I occasionally glanced up from my Kindle to look out the window, only to be greeted with a thick gray cloud in my field of vision. As we got near shore on the Seattle side, I suddenly saw Ivar’s zipping past at a speed considerably faster than what I’d normally expect for the morning commute. The ferry gave 5 short blasts on the horn to indicate imminent collision, followed by a loud bang and a jolt to the ferry. Down the aisle someone shouted for a doctor on board.

I went out on the front of the ferry to see what happened. All things considered, the damage looks minor, as you can see in the pictures here. As far as I can tell only one woman was injured and the resulting injuries appeared to be minor.

Near the end of 2005 I finally took the initiative to learn to speak Mandarin, which is the official Chinese dialect spoken in China, as well as learn to read and write Chinese characters. I opted to hire a tutor in Seattle who could help me in this pursuit. In September 2006, I went to China for 2 weeks, where I found out that my Chinese was good enough to get around, but not good enough to get by. In the summer of 2007, I went to China for 6 weeks, studying Chinese 4 hours a day 5 days a week. By the end of that trip, I spoke Chinese better than 95% of people in the United States (maybe more), but I still needed work. Another month or more in China would have made a dramatic difference in my ability to speak Chinese, but that wasn’t in the cards.

Since I don’t have regular access to speak to people in Chinese, I’m constantly looking for tools to keep my Chinese from going stale in my mind. Most recently I ran across the Rhythmic Mandarin series in iTunes. Most of what’s there is already part of my vocabulary, but I can’t help thinking this would be an ideal solution for anyone who wants to ramp up to learning to speak Mandarin quickly because it uses a fairly unique approach to language learning, based on The Third Ear by Chris Lonsdale.

Rhythmic Mandarin is an amazingly catchy method for language learning, combining music and spoken phrases into context that makes it easy to learn. I think the key for me that sets Rhythmic Mandarin apart from other language learning audio tools I’ve seen is that they effectively chunk phrases in ways you would expect to hear them in conversation, rather than trying to focus entirely on whole sentences or just bombarding you with vocabulary.

I wish I had found this years ago, because it would have made my Chinese language learning much easier. You can order CD versions at Amazon.com, but I recommend you download Rhythmic Mandarin as MP3 files, because you can easily take them with you anywhere. The MP3 files are ready for your iPod, Zune or any other player. The methodology strips away the confusion of learning a language and makes it seem quite simple.

"What is the best Windows fax application?"

The best Windows fax application really depends on how many faxes you send and how often you receive a fax. It also might depend on other software on your computer. If you only need to send a fax occasionally, I recommend using the free fax site FaxZero. It allows you to enter the phone number you want to send a fax to and upload a file to fax. If you want to receive a fax on your computer, you will need a different solution because FaxZero is only designed for sending faxes.

I could live without a cell phone 99% of the time. Unless I need to have a conversation, most of the communication in my life can be handled via email or a short text message. So the idea of the Peek Pronto really intrigues me. It's got all the email and texting of a cell phone without the bother of ever having to answer the a call. Think of Peek as the push email functionality of a Blackberry unencumbered from all the other stuff Blackberry piles on in the way of features.

"I have a Sony Handycam with a hard disk drive / Memory Stick Pro Duo. I can upload videos from either onto my computer and they will play. The problem I am having is that when I try to import them to Windows Movie Maker, I get this warning: 20090731112533.mpg could not be imported. An interface has too many methods to fire events from. How can i remedy this?"

Windows Movie Maker is notorious for only working well with DV-AVI camcorder files and WMV files. Any other file format that works was a stroke of good luck. Your best bet for editing the file would be to use some other software, but if that's not an option here are a few suggestions for getting past the error message and on to editing your movie.

"Where do you get a wireless card for your computer and are they expensive? I have a laptop and a desktop almost never use the desktop computer"

Where you go to get a wireless card for your computer depends more on the type of wireless card you are looking for rather than whether you have a laptop or desktop computer. In most cases, the same type of wireless card will work for both. The first thing you need to determine is whether you are looking for a wireless card with a built-in connection or a wireless card that allows you to access your home wireless network.

"My Sony HandyCam recorded DVD was not finalized, now i don't have the HandyCam. How can I recover the data from the camcorder DVD?"

There are two types scenarios where DVD camcorder disks are not finalized. The easy one is you simply forgot to finalize the disk. The slightly more challenging scenario is that the camcorder failed to finalize the DVD. Depending on which scenario you have I recommend a slightly different course of action.

"How can I keep my Outlook contacts in sync with Gmail contacts?"

If you want to sync Outlook contacts with Gmail contacts, there are two ways you can do it. You can do it the hard way, where you export your contacts from Outlook and then import them into Gmail. Or you can sync Outlook contacts the easy way by using software to keep the two contact lists automatically up-to-date.

"What are the best FireWire alternatives for my Mini DV video camera? My computer doesn't have a FireWire port on it, but I want to edit the videos I shoot. Is there something that I can use to connect my camcorder instead?"

FireWire cards have gotten cheap enough that buying one is often the most cost effective way to go. For laptops there are several PC Card and Express Card adapters available. For desktop systems, a PCI FireWire card is usually under $20. If you really don't want to go the route of purchasing a FireWire card, there is one solution that can solve your problem.

When I need to do a Windows screen recording, I use Camtasia from TechSmith. Nothing else comes close to offering the rich set of features. When I need to do a screen recording on Mac OS X, I'm left feeling disappointed because none of the alternatives match my experience with using Camtasia in Windows. I've heard rumors from TechSmith for a couple years about a coming Camtasia for Mac OS X. Now they are finally coming true. Announced on the Visual Lounge on August 7, Camtasia for Mac OS X launches on August 25, 2009. What this means for me is less dread in doing Mac screen recordings. I can't wait!

"Roxio Buzz came with my Gigabyte motherboard which I purchased with my ATI Radeon HD 4770 video card. I get this message "The display adapter does not meet minimum requirements",. I don't understand how Roxio cannot support a video card that came out only two months ago."

Roxio Buzz stopped being developed awhile ago, although it does still pop up in some bundles like the one you got with your motherboard.The software was a great idea when it first appeared on the scene as a way to quickly edit videos and upload them to YouTube. Most of the important features of Roxio Buzz are now rolled into the Roxio Creator software bundle. There are some possible explanations for why your new video card isn't supported, but there's no chance you'll see a fix released to solve the issue.

I want great journalism to stick around. I don’t care whether big news outlets like New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal are the source of that journalism or something new and better. What I do know is that Washington Post reporter Ian Shapira is asking the wrong questions about how to news outlets compete with the likes of Gawker and Huffington Post in the online space.

In a piece titled either How Gawker Ripped Off My Newspaper Story or the Death of Journalism (Gawker Edition), Ian Shapira outlines the effort he put into writing a story about business coach Anne Loehr and the subsequent “theft” by Gawker in a blog post.

The major complaint Shapira has against Gawker is that they reference too much of his story in the Gawker article. I tend to agree with the issue of quantity, but find the solution (requiring Gawker (or anyone) to pay to reference more than a certain amount of a story to be a solution that only lines the pockets of lawyers who do the prosecution on violators. The reason Gawker works is because they neatly summarize things people few people want to spend their full attention on. Most people don’t have time for the full in-depth story. We want quick news hits that allow us to comment and move on to the next thing. Better Solution: Washington Post should build a better Gawker. WP could be giving people the full Shapira article and simultaneously be running their own Gawker competitor, extracting the best parts of an article with a link over to the full deal. Shapira could even be the blogger that summarizes his own article in that context, possiblly including a juicy tidbit or two that didn’t make the editor’s cut.

Overquoting on Gawker’s part resulted in too much of Shapira’s followup dedicated to a discussion of revised copyright laws, which is a misguided solution to the problem. Instead of focusing on how to crack down on the length of quoting, Mr. Shapira ought to be asking what Washington Post and others big news outlets can do to attract more of the audience that opts to start their news day at a Gawker or Huffington Post type outlet. As the guy who covers the Millennial generation for WP, Shapira might even be the guy who can find the solution to competing against Gawker.

A good starting point would be a comparison of the barriers to reading created by Gawker vs. the barriers to reading created by the Washington Post. In the case of Gawker, the Web reader has no barriers, you just hit their page and start reading. With the Washington Post, at various points in navigating their site, reading is interrupted to attempt forced registration. This interruption in reading implies that the primary business of the Washington Post is to collect user accounts, not display ads on as many pages as possible. If the Washington Post can’t give up the nag completely, then at the very least they should allow me to skip it and keep reading or rely on registering people when they comment (which is what Gawker does).

Another issue that leaps out at me is figuring out how newsrooms can make better use of technological advances. Example one: Shapira complains about an abridged biography that took him 3,000 words of note to acquire. While I’m sure some fact checking is in order, I got the same info reading the about page on AnneLoehr.com. A little advance research on the Web can save hours invested in gathering a story. Example two: Shapira reports spending four hours transcribing Anne Loehr’s presentation he attended as part of his research gathering. One word here: Outsource! When I need a transcription, I send my audio to CastingWords.com or something similar because I don’t have the time to transcribe. If my little one-person operation can afford that, surely Washington Post could be getting a discounted rate on transcriptions in bulk. The Post reporters could be spending that extra time engaging with readers in social media outlets or creating the blog summaries of their articles.

Another complaint in the article about Gawker is the failure of referring links from site’s like Gawker to prevent layoffs and contraction. That’s not Gawker’s fault. Just like classified advertising used to be a major source of revenue that supported journalism at newspapers, the new model needs a new sugar daddy. In my 5 things to drive online newspaper revenue I propose that newspapers need to get serious about being the source for online travel information about their geographic locale. When I search online for travel info, the local paper is never the best source of information, despite travel being one of the best paying online ad categories.

To summarize: If WP wants to beat Gawker, they need to:
1) Consider readers first by reducing nag screens
2) Embrace technology to create a more agile staff
3) Adopt an aggressive effort in travel to drive online revenue

"I would like to find out how I can broadcast a live video stream on the Internet and what kind of software I need for this to be a success."

If you asked this question a few years ago, the answer to how to stream live video would have been extremely complicated and fairly expensive to implement. Today, if you're willing to put up with a few advertisements on your video stream, you can get started broadcasting your own live video stream in just a few simple steps.

"How can I embed a .wmv file in the HTML of my Web page?"

If you want to embed a WMV file in your Web page, you need to use some custom HTML code. There are a few specific parameters to set, to specify which Windows Media Player is used on the page, whether the file starts playing automatically or not, and how it displays with other elements on the page. You also need to consider compatibility issues for people viewing with different browsers and operating systems.

"I have an audio file that only plays sound from the left channel, which means I'm hearing nothing from my right speaker. Is there any way to fix this?"

If you're only getting audio from the left channel of an audio file, that means whoever saved the file stored blank information on the right channel. You can fix the file so that it plays across both the left and right channels, but you won't be able to create a true stereo experience isolating portions of the audio in either the left or right channel the way a commercial audio CD might. To fix the file, you'll need download some audio conversion software.