I Need a Decent Journal - Time Keeping App

Do you have a Status Report that you have to deliver to several different customers during the week, each status being delivered on separate days?  It seems like all of the Apps available for iOS either allow you to collect time, collect journal information, but not both at the same time.  I need an App that does the time clock thing, but allows me to enter journal information on what I have been working on (sort of like GTD sub-projects) during that time period and then click on a different task and start timing for it.  When I want to generate a report to turn in for status purposes, I need to gather the information based on a time period with time collected and journaling information embeded.  I can't seem to find something to meet that need.  Maybe I will have to roll my own.

Updates over the air

Ok, I finally bit the bullet and allowed my iPhone 3GS and iPad 2 to update to iOS 5.1.1 over iCloud.  What is interesting is that the way Apple has engineered the experience is that you first see a Medalion over the Settings App.  So, out of curiosity you open the Settings App and discover that the General Settings has the number one next to the name.  Upon clicking on General you will see a number one next to the "Software Update" line.  Clicking on this will bring you to the Software Update page and a button that says Update Now.  You will also notice that the update has already been downloaded and the size is displayed.  When you click on the Update Now button, the system will go through the normal process of checking the download, unpacking the download, and then installing the download.  A few minutes later and it is ready to go.  Both devices went without a hitch.

You might be wondering why I haven't tried this before.  It's because I have always been afraid of loosing connection while the download is happening and not being able to recover.  That is why I have always done the iTunes route, which by the way I do not feel is intrusive.  I will still use the Mac Mini to run iTunes as a backup plan.  I don't plan on using iCloud to do my backups as my devices all have different loads of music, apps, etc.  In fact, my iPhone is 16GB and my iPad is 64GB.  The iPad would definately not fit on the iPhone.  I am waiting for the iPhone "5" or whatever they are going to call it to come out and then I will upgrade.  I have the old grandfathered unlimited data and I refuse to give that up.  Yep, I still use ATandT for cell phone service.  It's not as good as Cingular was but I have had the account for many years and some good bennies to boot.

Why is it not possible to Airplay to an iOS device?

Ok, in the world of things that go bump in the night. Why can't I do some Airplay kinds of things from my Mac to my iPad? I mean as an integral part of the operating system and not with some special set of programs like Air Video. I found out that I can put an Air Video App on my iPad and load an Air Video server on my Mac and that will stream video to my iPad from the Mac, but it doesn't integrate with other applications and it has a proprietary streaming function, so it really isn't Airplay. What is up with that?


- LW

Was able to get Airplay working

Ok, thank goodness for small victories. I was able to get Airplay working on my new coffee table laptop. I bought a program called Aerodrom and loaded it onto my laptop. I initially had a great many problems with Symantec until I disabled it for 15 minutes while I installed. It seems that one of the items in the installer is a dll that is packed and Symantec doesn't like it. Symantec wants to be able to scan a dll as it is installed to avoid a package putting something malicious into the system. It turns out that after installation, Symantec recognizes the dll as being okay, it just needs to not be allowed to interfere with the installation.

I was able to launch Aerodrom and found that it allows me to stream both my iPhone 3GS and my iPad 2. It doesn't give the ability to duplicate the screen from the iPad 2 but at least a lot of the apps will stream Airplay wise to it. I found that Aerodrom does have some hiccups in starting however. I still have to figure out what is causing that to happen. It may be some settings with Bonjour, which has to be on the laptop in order to work. I was also successful in playing something using the Plex client on my iPad 2 and having it show up on the laptop. This means that I can stream from my Plex Media Server to the iPad2 and then to the laptop. I think that I might invest in an AppleTV now that I know that the Plex client will stream. Oh well, more tests are in order. Now if I can just get some time with the laptop when my granddaughter is not doing homework.


- LW

What is the next great project?

I still have much work to complete the network Media Server as I have seen it. I need to ensure that my iPad is able to stream the HD content from my new HDHomeRun Prime. Right now, I am limited to the non-HD channels via the 3rd party HDHomeRun app. I am still unable to stream TV content through my PLEX client. Strangely enough this doesn't bother me so much since I do have a streaming capability on the new coffee table Laptop that I bought about two weeks ago. I updated the PLEX media server version last night and over the weekend I converted some more DVDs to digital form for streaming. I am still not at the point where the wife is using the Roku to get her DVD content (we have been concentrating most of our time helping the granddaughter do her homework at night). So things to be accomplished include:
1. get more DVDs from the library converted to digital form on the PMS
2. figure out how to stream the HDHomeRun Prime to the Roku via PLEX client
3. figure out how to stream TV content to the iPad via PLEX client
4. check out the output of the new coffee table Laptop on the living room HDTV
5. look into getting a new Roku if #1 and #2 pan out
6. possibly get rid of the second STB if #2 and #5 pan out


- LW

Added some Microsoft Office to the Mix

As much as I hate to say it, business runs on Microsoft Office. Are there better products out there that don't cost as much? Depends on what you need to do. So many people use Microsoft Office to do their writing and spreadsheet work that they typically assume that it is the only product available. Libre Office is coming into it's own. However, in order to remain compatible with my work situation, I purchased a copy of Office 2010. I got a really good deal primarily because it was purchased through a deal made with my work. I was able to get most of the packages that I use on a daily if not weekly basis. I am missing Visio and Project, but I really don't necessarily need them for home use since I bring my work laptop home every night.

Having Office at home allows me to now move some personal things that I had on my work laptop to my new big screen laptop. I may actually use my work laptop less and less. Go figure.


- LW

I changed out some things in the home network

I don't know if I have made a mistake or not. I decided to get a HDHomeRun Prime (HRP) and put it into my network. What I found out is that Windows Media Center under Windows7 is very picky about video cards. In fact, when the video card did not match it's minimum requirements for HD TV it refused to allow me to authenticate the CableCard in the HRP. What I ended up doing to get the CableCard activated was to log on to the HRP via Internet Explorer and get the values that were shown. Then I logged into Verizon and authenticated the card online with that information. Once I did that, I was able to access the HRP video stream on my Mac Mini using the PLEX Media Server.

Unfortunately, I discovered two problems with this approach; the URL information that came from the HRP folk was pretty much incomplete for my area and the stream locked itself to the Mac Mini PLEX client. I was unable to get the stream to happen on my iPad2 with it's PLEX client, although I was able to receive the stream with the HRP app that a 3rd party had developed. Maybe I should look into making my own iPad2 app because this 3rd party app does not provide a stream from the HD side of things. This is because the H.264 video is not native to the iPad2. I am pretty sure that the processor in the iPad2 would be able to handle the stream and I have sufficient bandwidth on my home network to receive the signal.

I did go out and buy a Windows Media Laptop this last weekend. It has an i7 processor (quad core) with 8GB ram and a 750GB hard drive along with a 17.3" diagonal screen. This laptop weighs about 6.5 pounds and is huge. I was able to get Windows Media Center on it to authenticate to the CableCard and be able to play back TV on pretty much any channel that I normally receive on Verizon FIOS. I did discover that it un-authenticated from the CableCard after some Windows7 patches were applied and I was using the HRP from other devices in the house. But, I was still able to receive the TV signals just fine even though it repeatedly wants me to re-authenticate the CableCard. What is up with that? More about this mystery later.


- LW