Archive for August, 2008
Question Asked: Can I Sync My iPod With Windows Media Player?
Despite what Apple would like you to believe, your iPod does actually work with Windows Media Player.
By default, it won’t work. However, you can purchase an add-on application called MGTEK dopisp, for a small price of $19.95. Once you’ve installed MGTEK’s application, you’ll get a new option in Windows Media Player to “sync” your iPod (once you’ve registered it with MGTEK’s software, of course.)
Sync iPod With Windows Media Player
Once your iPod is connected, it’s a very simple process to drag files from your library to the Sync List. Once it’s full of tracks you want to sync, just click the Start Sync button at the bottom (not pictured) to begin the process.
Speed-wise, it’s about as quick as iTunes is. I transferred about 200 tracks to my iPod via this method last night, and it took about a minute and a half, give or take.
There’s a lot of reasons why people argue one versus the other, iTunes vs WMP. While some people use WMP because they’re anti-iTunes, that’s not the case for me. I moved to Windows Media Player mainly so I could stream music from my terrabyte music drive directly to my Xbox 360 and/or Playstation 3, which I can’t do with iTunes.
Hope that answers your question. I know some people are hesitant to spend money on add-ons for some applications, but MGTEK is 100% worth it.
Question Asked: How Do I Get Telemarketers To Stop Calling Me?
Great question, and I’m sure one a lot of people want to know the answer to.
The first thing you should do is register for the “Do Not Call” list. (donotcall.gov) This is the list that telemarketers are supposed to abide by, before calling you. If you’re on this list, they shouldn’t call you. That’s not to say they don’t, but they shouldn’t.
The list is run by the government, specifically the FTC, so telemarketers definitely should take it seriously.
If you get a call from a telemarketer, and you’ve been on the list for more than 31 days, be sure to mark down the time of the call, the date, the number it came from, and the name of the company/person/agency. You can then file a complaint with the FTC online. I haven’t been able to find out what happens when you file a complaint, I assume it works the same way as the Better Business Bureau folks do, where they notify the telemarketer, give them a slap on the wrist, and wait for it to happen again.
Once would assume that there’s a “so many strikes and you’re out” rule, only it’d probably be a “so many strikes and you get a big fat FTC fine” rule, instead. Who knows.
Question Asked: How Do I Backup My Website?
Great question, and one that’s very important. While most web hosts offer some form of a backup option, it’s not always reliable, or up to date, or even complete. In some cases, your host may even charge you to restore the backup they have, in case something goes wrong.
I run two applications that backup all of my data, and I highly recommend both of them. They’re both very easy to use, very easy to configure, and automatically backup your data.
The first, is from a company called Novosoft, and the application is called Handy Backup. I use it to back up all of my web files (php, html, .htaccess, images, etc.) I have it set up to do a number of backups, but you can configure it to work however you want. Mine’s set up to connect every night, and download any file that’s been changed in the last 24 hours. I also connect every Saturday night, and download all of the files, overwriting last week’s files.
The second application is something I recently purchased and set up, it’s called Auto Backup for MySQL Professional Edition. This application works the same way as Handy Backup, but does exclusively MySQL databases, of which I’ve got a lot.
Both applications together will run you about $200 up front. However, they’re lifetime licenses, and you can use them to backup as much data as you want. Handy Backup will even backup files on your computer (email, mp3s, etc.), and copy them to a secondary location such as an external hard drive, or DVD.
The important thing to ask yourself is; is your data worth more than a couple hundred bucks? Would it cost more than $200 to rebuild your site, repost all those years of posts to your blog, and reupload all those photos to your photo gallery? For me, it’d cost way more than $200. The benefit of being a web guy, is that I use these applications to back up all of my clients’ websites, as well. And being the entrepreneur that I am, I charge them a monthly fee to do so, which helps to recoup the $200 I paid for the applications.
Data backup is ultra important, in a day and age where people get hacked all the time. The only person you can rely on to restore your site, is yourself. Better to be prepared, than to scramble.
Question Asked: How Do I Transfer Content From One Xbox Hard Drive To Another?
First, let’s tackle why you’d need to do this. The majority of Xbox consoles come with some form of a hard drive nowadays. If, like me, you bought the system with the 20gb hard drive, and, also like me, download every Rock Band downloadable song there is, you’re eventually going to run out of disk space.
You’ve got two options; the cheap way, and the right way.
The cheap way would be to get a memory card, plug it into the front of your XBox, and move your data there. Then put your new hard drive in, and copy the data to it. Time consuming, not automated, and may not be that cheap, depending on the amount of data you’ve got.
The “right” way, is the Xbox 360 Hard Drive Transfer Kit
So, how does it work? Pretty simple, from what I can see. You take this “transfer cable”, plug your old hard drive into it, put your new drive on your console, and run their CD in your console.
They make it pretty well known that it’s a one time transfer, not a copy or a clone. And it’ll wipe the data from your 20gb drive. Seems well worth the price, to me. The data copy can take an hour+, so be sure you’ve got time to sit and wait. It won’t copy data as fast as your computer, because, well, it’s not a computer, it’s a gaming system.
The process seems pretty easy to do, and has generated pretty good results, aside from people complaining over the price of the 120gb drive ($179.99 on Amazon, $229.99 from Microsoft.) However, if you’re running out of space on your hard drive, you really don’t have any options, aside from upgrading, or deleting some of your precious content from your drive. Which, after paying all those Microsoft points for, who’d want to? It’s your content, you paid for it, you should get to move it.
Microsoft also disclaims that some downloaded content may not be transferrable, due to licensing issues, and may need to be authenticated to use (you may need to login.)
As someone who’s been looking for the way to do this, now I know. Thanks for asking, it was a great question. I hope you’ve got a better understanding now.
Edit: I finally got around to buying the 120Gig hard drive last night, and used the transfer kit to move my files from one hard drive to the other. It took just over an hour, and was really easy and painless. After it completed, it warned that I had some “corrupt files that couldn’t be moved”, but I couldn’t see anything missing.
Warning, the new hard drive has about 10gigs worth of junk on it (demo games, videos, etc) that you can delete to free up space.
Question Asked: Why Are Number 2 Pencils So Popular?
Well, first thing’s first, let’s clarify what makes a number 2 pencil.
Pencils are graded based on the various levels of hardness of the lead. The softest lead, a number one, is just soft enough to make a mark on a piece of paper, but not hard enough to survive under continued use without sharpening. Often, number one lead is used in mechanical pencils.
Number 2 lead, commonly used by children in school is a bit harder, and therefore more sturdy. It will survive longer usage, without breaking or requiring sharpening.
Combine its reliability with the often too-good-to-be-true pricing, and you’ve got the makings of a popular type of pencil.
Also, one should note that the hardness of the lead, in a number two pencil, leaves the optimal darkness on a piece of paper, which is machine readable. I’m sure you remember the “bubble tests” from your school days (or was it school daze?), where you fill in the bubble of the answer you want to pick as yours. The grading machine then scans your test card, and compares it to the answer key. These machines that do this testing can read the number two pencil lead the easiest. There is a reason why your teachers always made you use a number two pencil for those tests!