Amazon Connected Home Solutions - Streaming Music

Amazon has thought this out for us.  They have made several videos that address some of the more common alternatives to help you achieve whole house music.  On this page you will find several videos just related to streaming music.

In most cases you will need a network of some type, be it hard wired or wireless.  Amazon has thought this out as well with their video series Networking 101.  Once your network is up and running, they have broken whole home music into three options.

Option One - Whole-Home Systems

Whole-home systems transmit audio from a central location (such as your computer) to a plethora of amplified possibilities: a home theater stereo, powered speakers, an HDTV, and more. The audio that is being served up through your home can either be the digital audio files stored on your computer's hard drive or audio streamed from an Internet radio station.
> Shop whole-home systems

Option Two - Wi-Fi Radios

Wi-Fi radios stream content from Internet radio stations, which requires an Internet connection. As the name suggests, a Wi-Fi radio can wirelessly connect to the Internet (the source) over your home's wireless network router (the transmitter), and it acts as the direct receiver. It doesn't require connection to your computer, only to your network router.
While Wi-Fi radios don't require a connection to your computer, some offer the capability of streaming stored digital audio files (such as MP3s) from your computer's hard drive. Also, some Wi-Fi radios offer a wired Ethernet option as a feature.
> Shop Wi-Fi radio's

Option Three - iPod Streaming Solutions

Apple iPod-centric solutions provide an easy way for you to stream music from your iPod or iPhone to wireless speakers or receivers throughout your home. Many iPod streaming products can operate independently of a home network, so if that's an option you're interested in, be sure and read more on product detail pages.
> Shop IPod Streaming solutions

Apple Airport Express

The Apple Airport Express is a compact wireless base station that acts as a receiver to audio transmitted over Wi-Fi from a computer music source running the Apple iTunes software. The Airport Express connects to an amplified speaker via an integrated 3.5mm audio jack output.
Music sharing is just one function of the Airport Express, which can also be used as a standalone Wi-Fi router (great using while traveling), extending the range of your main Wi-Fi router, or providing access to a printer (via its USB port) to a wireless network.

> Learn more about the Apple Airport Express

Android 2.2 - Where is the Alarm Clock?

     Like many happy owners of a phone running Google's Android operating system, I was quite happy to receive the recent upgrade to Android version 2.2 (Froyo).  The new interface is easier to navigate and, once you get used to it, faster, too.

    There are a couple of things about the latest release of Android that are puzzling, or at least were initially.  My next couple of posts will address a few of these items, along with some of the things I like about the upgraded OS running on my Motorola Droid.

    The first thing I noticed (and was puzzled by) was the settings area for the alarm clock seemed to be missing.  Where is my alarm clock?  I was fumbling with my Droid late at night knowing I desperately needed to find the settings area in order to enable an early wake-up for the next morning (which wasn't very far off).  I struggled to wrap my tired brain around why I couldn't see the icon right at the top of the applications area where I had accessed it so many times before.  Finally, after some searching, I found the alarm settings are now part of the Clock settings.  From your applications area click on the "Clock" icon.  You'll see the alarm clock icon located at the bottom left of your screen (it's the same image as before - little clock with bells on top).  The interface remains essentially the same once you're into it, only the way in which you access it has changed.

     So, that's where your alarm clock settings went.  Hope this helps you wake up on time.

Cannot start Microsoft Office Outlook. Unable to open the Outlook window. (A solution to a frustrating problem)

As I'm sure you're all aware, every Microsoft error message is helpful, complete, and crystal clear, right? Well, maybe not. My most recent adventure with an error message told me something I already knew, but nothing more. Here's the deal.

I had a short power outage this evening at my house wherein I learned just how overdue I am to replace the battery in my uninterpretable power supply (UPS). My Dell XPS 410 went "lights-out" right in the middle of installing a new application. Outlook 2007 wasn't even open, although I had only closed it seconds earlier (the process may have still be running). Upon restarting the computer and attempting to open Outlook I was faced with the following error:

This error message displayed each time I attempted to open Outlook 2007 on my Windows Vista machine.

After a couple of restarts and some basic troubleshooting I was beginning to get frustrated.  Google searches didn't seem to help much initially, as most of the results referenced an issue when using Windows XP and attempting to open Outlook in Win95/ME compatibility mode.  I'm running a 32 bit version of Windows Vista Ultimate and I most certainly am not running Outlook in in compatibility mode (who would run anything in 95/ME compatibility mode, anyway?).

A bit more searching and pulling together suggestions from a few different forums on the Internet led me to a very simple solution.  Open Outlook from the 'Start' or 'Start>Run' dialog box as follows:

Outlook.exe /resetnavpane

Outlook should start up with no errors.  I hope this helps someone and prevents the dreaded reinstall of Office (which was, in my mind, the next logical solution to this issue).

USB CAC reader - OWA from home

CAC Card Reader:

As Jeff mentioned in a previous post, having a USB reader for your DoD Common Access Card (CAC) can be very helpful if you travel or work from home. Even if you're just trying to keep your inbox from filling up while you're on vacation, having one of these handy little devices is essential for accessing your Outlook Web Access (OWA) email while you're away from the office. If you're like me and don't like spending money on anything you don't have to spend it on, keep reading...things just got cheaper. The CAC reader recommended in the previous post has been drastically reduced in price. They're currently going for about $10 LESS than they were just a couple of months ago. (Just under $15 is the current price). Check out the CAC reader and Jeff's post from January. Don't forget, every organization has different rules on the use of OWA and accessing DoD networks from home (or on the road), so check with your local Information Assurance Manager or Network Security section before you do anything.

Checking your email via Outlook Web Access (OWA) using your DoD CAC Card

This post can't provide all the details on how to do check your email with your DoD CAC Card because it varies by agency. Please remember that most agencies have rules and regulations regarding what it takes to access your email via OWA, so be sure to check with your Information Assurance section. This is intended to provide a high level overview of the steps necessary.

Training:

Most agencies will have mandatory or at the very least, recommended training.  The training should address the importance of dealing with personally identifiable information (PII) and other sensitive information that could be accessed via your OWA web mail. It should  also speak to your responsibilities when using OWA. These responsibilities run the gamut from ensuring that your computer is not filled with viruses and other types of malware to the proper way to end your OWA session in order to be safe. This cannot be overstated! Read it, know it. Most will also have user guides on how to use OWA.

Anti-Virus Software:

There is no reason for a DoD employee to not have valid anti-virus protection on your home computer. Especially since the DoD has free anti-virus software for home use. In fact if you plan on using OWA it would be negligent to not have a legitimate updated AV product installed...

“The DoD Antivirus Software License Agreement with McAfee and Symantec allows active DoD employees to utilize the antivirus software for home use. Home use of the antivirus products will not only protect personal PCs at home, but will also potentially lessen the threat of employees bringing malicious logic into work and compromising DoD networks. Contractors are excluded from using the software at home or on any other system not belonging to the DoD.

Note: You will NOT be able to download software if your domain is not a *.mil domain.

No technical support is provided for home users. If you have questions about the software, please contact the vendors directly for support. “

Software can be downloaded from the following site: (please remember that you have to download this software from a computer on a .mil domain.) https://www.jtfgno.mil/antivirus/antivirus_homeuse.htm

CAC Card Reader:

This is generally not provided by the DoD. You will most likely have to  purchase one if you want to use OWA. You can get an entire keyboard that has a CAC reader built-in, but that is rather bulky, especially if you travel with a laptop. I recommend buying a USB CAC reader . I have purchased this one and it works fine. Although I suggest that you plug it in for first use and let Windows download the newest drivers for it prior to first OWA use. It costs about $24 from Amazon.






Middleware:

This is the software that allows you to use your CAC card with the CAC Card Reader to check OWA.  Most agencies will have a link that you can download this from.  Check with your Information Assurance section to determine how to download the software. Most DoD agencies are using ActivClient. The most recent version is 6.2; this will work for both 32 and 64 bit computers.

We are not associated with any DoD agency.

Samsung New PC Studio and Microsoft Windows 7

Well there is never a dull moment in the life of a techie, and Christmas is certainly no exception. This year we got our daughter a new cell phone, the Samsung Mythic a897 Phone (AT&T). It came with an installation CD-ROM and a data cable. So I set about attempting to install Samsung’s New PC Studio on my daughter’s laptop that is running Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium. It failed!

From the error messages displayed, it was failing to install the drivers for the phone. So after searching both Samsung’s site and AT&T’s site for Windows 7 specific drivers, I couldn't find any that looked trustworthy.

I had to make Windows 7 run the software while essentially fooling the software into believing that it wasn’t being installed on Microsoft’s newest operating system.

The first thing I did was go to the Samsung Mythic website and get the latest version of the software.

Once I had the new version of the software downloaded, I right clicked on the file to get the context menu and clicked on 'Troubleshoot Compatibility'.

Then I selected the 'Troubleshoot program' link.

Here is where you specify that the program worked with an earlier version of Windows.

I chose Windows Vista (Service Pack 2) and clicked next.

Here is where you have to pay attention.  Click on the 'Start the program...' button.  This will start the install of the Samsung New PC Studio software .  Allow the software to finish installing before returning to this dialog box.  Once the software has fully installed, then click the 'Next' button.

That will bring up the following dialog box.  Click on the 'Yes, save these settings for this program' button.  This way if you ever need to uninstall and reinstall the program, you will not have to deal with the incompatibility issues since this will save the settings needed to allow this software to run on your PC.

Finally enjoy your new phone and its software.

Pay Attention to Changes to Facebook Privacy Settings

Many of our customers and readers are undoubtedly users of social networking sites like MySpace, Twitter, and Facebook. I'd like to remind our friends and readers of the importance of actually understanding some recent changes to the privacy settings in Facebook. If you simply clicked "Next...Next...Finish" and "I Agree" when this week's notice popped up in Facebook, you should read on.

Facebook introduced changes in their privacy settings this week under the guise of making these settings more customizable and granular for their users. I tend to think there are other reasons, but we'll leave that discussion to the dozens of other blogs and media outlets that are beating that drum this week. My focus in this posting is simply to make Facebook users (current and future) aware that by default there is very little privacy when using Facebook.

First, let's talk about what kinds of data you might have within your Facebook account.

First Name
Last Name
Phone Number
City of Residence (this could also be the city in which you were born)
State of Residence (this could also be the state in which you were born)
Birthdate
Employer/School
Sex
Religious views
Political views
Email address
Photos of you
Videos of you
Your daily activities and/or geographic location (depending on how much you offer in your status updates)
Job title
Relationship status (and the name of your significant other, if applicable)
Favorite movies, TV shows, music, books, etc
etc.
etc.
etc.

Now that you see the list above all in one place, doesn't seem like an excessive amount of information to be giving away? It does to me. I can't see why there is a legitimate need to share this amount of information with so many people. But then I guess that depends on your personal thoughts on the subject and, as we'll see later in this post, how you have your privacy settings configured on Facebook.

Who sees this stuff? That also depends on how you have your Facebook privacy settings configured. But first and foremost you should understand that Facebook's default and recommended settings let the whole world see this information. Keep in mind, Facebook isn't just an online community of your peers and friends. It's also a treasure trove of information for those seeking to steal your identity or tailor their advertising to you. Or to send you spam. Or to steal your identity. Did I mention identity theft?

Who has an interest in this kind of information? Identity thieves. Advertisers. Spammers. Your ex-girlfriend/boyfriend stalker. The guy across town who wants your new LCD TV and would like to know when you're out of town (remember, you told him you were in Cancun?). Your employer (you know, to see what you're REALLY doing when you call in sick).

Alright, so I've scared a few of you, open the eyes of some of you, and lost the rest of you. Well pay attention, the good stuff is up next. Let's take a good look at the settings that Facebook "recommends" that you accept.

Click on Settings at the top of the Facebook page and then select Privacy Settings and you'll see a page like this:

The first area to consider is the Profile Information section. This will show you the details of all the things you're sharing, and with whom. Things like birthday, relationship status, and employer can be found here. I suggest setting all of them to Only Friends. You can even set them to Only Me or to specific users by selecting the Customize option.

The Contact Information section allows you to specify who can view your phone number, email addresses, website url, IM screen names, etc. These settings can also be set to be available to a many or as few people as you like, but I suggest that they be restricted to Only Friends at a minimum.

The next section is one that I think is widely overlooked. The Applications and Websites area is one that can protect or expose a ton of your personal information. In some cases, this exposure can take place without your knowledge or participation.

For starters, click on the Learn More button next to the What You Share section. Read it. Understand it. Please don't take it lightly. When you use applications in Facebook, you are agreeing to let the developers of those applications have access to your personal information to do with it whatever they wish. Photos, personal data, email addresses, birthdates, children's names, etc. All of these things (and more) are surrendered when you use a third party application within Facebook. The What You Share section will help you understand this. Read it. Understand it. Did I mention identity theft? Yeah, see, you have no idea who wrote those applications you're using. Quizzes? Games? Send a friend a drink or a gift? Yeah, those are the applications I'm talking about. You have no idea who wrote them, why they wrote them, and what parts of your personal data they're taking for their own use (or to sell to someone else).

Another good place to keep an eye on is the What Your Friends Can Share About You. Click on the Edit Settings button for this section and find all the ways (and there are many) that someone you're friends with on Facebook can agree to give away YOUR personal data. That's right, you don't even have to give away your own personal information. An unsuspecting friend of yours can do it for you, saving you the trouble. Nice, huh? Do yourself a big favor...go to this section and un-check every box you see. There is no reason that any of your friends' activities should result in the exposure of your personal information. Can you say identity theft?

The last two sections of the Applications and Websites area will allow you to view and edit applications you have blocked or edit which invitations you have previously chosen to ignore. These areas are pretty self explanatory (by now you're getting pretty good at this stuff anyway, huh?).

So, are you a little more paranoid than you were at the beginning of this post? Good, then my work is done here. Remember, privacy is a right that must be guarded and protected. Don't give away personal information unless it is absolutely necessary. And when it comes to Facebook, it's never necessary.