The Richter Scale^®

While at the Las Vegas Hilton last month, after the Sony Keynote, I was wandering about to a meeting when I stumbled across a vending machine selling tech toys. I thought this was incredibly apropos considering it was during the Consumer Electronics Show, and figured it had been planted at the Hilton for just that reason.

While discussing the machine with my fellow bystanders, a couple of folks from Zoom Systems wandered up to service the machine and restock it, and we learned that this machine was one of approximately a dozen deployed throughout Las Vegas, and that product was selling rather quickly too. The Zoom Shop vending systems had been in place for a number of months already, as well.

So what goodies did I find in the Zoom Shop machine? Well, for starters, iPod Nanos, video iPod, headphones, arm clips, power supplies, and Sony PSPs. And not discounted as best I could tell.

A very cool idea, but the biggest drawback I see is as the vending systems didn’t sell digital music or PSP games, a purchaser would be left with a cool toy and nothing much to do with it for a bit.

As I travel far too much (e.g. New York last week for the New York International Gift Fair and client meetings, Washington DC this week for a deposition in a patent case I’m working on), I rely heavily on my notebook computer. And more importantly, being able to quickly access my desktop as well as shut down my notebook, with the work state saved.

Under Windows XP (as well as previous Microsoft operating systems) there are two ways to save the state of the system so you can quickly go back to that state when you turn on the computer - standby and hibernate. Standby tends to drain the battery over time because it keep power going to memory so that you don’t lose your data, but getting in and out of standby is rather fast - typically a matter of seconds.

Hibernate is where the memory of your system is saved to a file on your hard disk, and then the system powers down. Pressing the power button lets the computer boot up, and when it sees an active hibernation file, it restores the system memory and state from that. This may take up to a minute each way (going into hibernation and coming out), but is still a lot faster than the typical 2-4 minute system boot and shutdown one experiences with Windows XP. It’s great for notebooks and desktop systems alike.

That’s when it works.

Turns out that for at least three years there has been a problem with Windows XP and hibernation on systems with more than 1GB of memory - an amount of memory that is becoming increasingly common these days.

What happens is that if memory has become fragmented enough (i.e. you run a bunch of applications that are memory intensive), then, when you attempt to enter hibernation, the screen blanks, indicates it is going into hibernation, but then flash and returns to your Windows display, upon which you get an error in a pop-up bubble at the right end of the system tray which says: Insufficient system resources exist to complete the API.

At this point the system will no longer let you get into hibernation (although standby still works, at least until your standby has timed out and tries to go into hibernation on its own, at which point you may be carrying a fully powered notebook computer in your bag which you think is standing by but is instead draining your battery and possibly overheating).

Your only recourse when the hibernation crash occurs is to reboot the system.

My old S-series Sony VAIO notebook had exactly 1GB and I never had a problem. My new Sony VAIO TX-690P has 1.5GB and the problem is consistent whenever I seem to run Adobe Photoshop CS2 and/or Macromedia Dreamweaver 8 in addition to my e-mail software (Eudora 5.1) and various Microsoft Office applications (e.g. Word, Excel). If after a reboot I only run e-mail and Office programs (in moderation), I can successfully hibernate. However as soon as I then also need to edit an image in Photoshop or a web page in Dreamweaver, I am pretty much hosed - hibernation will produce the error I indicated above.

Here’s the irony - Microsoft has been aware of the issue for at least three years, and even has a fix out for the original Windows XP, but that fix will not work on XP systems upgraded to Service Pack 1 or Service Pack 2 (all new XP-based systems ship with SP2). And there’s some question as to how well the fix actually worked on older systems.

There’s an extensive thread in Microsoft’s Community Forum about this this issue, with people owning Dell, HP, and other brands of systems all experiencing the same problem. The thread closes with a gentleman who got a suggestion from Microsoft that to resolve this hibernation issue, he should tell XP to not use more than 1GB of system memory.

That’s just bizarre in my opinion. We spend good money to get as much memory as we can in our computers, and here Windows XP won’t support more than 1GB if you want to hibernate? Ridiculous.

And apparently computer makers are either not informed, passing the buck, or unable to have Microsoft make it a priority to fix this bug, which from my perspective is a serious detriment to portable computing.

Wasn’t stability and the ability to run multiple programs without causing problems the reason we all switched from DOS to Windows in the first place?

I wonder if this problem is solved in Microsoft’s forthcoming Vista operating system (not that I think Vista will run well on many current generation notebooks). Wouldn’t it be a hoot if they didn’t fix this in Vista? Oops.

There’s a lot of panic out there - among politicians, lobbyists, lawyers, CEOs, managers, and just about anyone else that uses a Blackberry-branded hand held communications devices.

Rumors abound of a possible injunction by NTP, a small Virginia-based patent holding company, against Research In Motion (RIM), a Canadian company which makes the extremely popular Blackberry family of devices. An injunction would mean that the Blackberry data services - in particular e-mail - would cease operation for as long as the injunction is in place (which could be forever in the worst case scenario).

The basis of the rumored injunction is that NTP has patents claiming certain technology, and RIM has been found to infringe. NTP, as
the owner of the patents has the right granted to anyone who holds the patent, namely to prevent others from making or using their owned invention. Most recently, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear RIM’s appeal.

NTP has asked for a rather significant license fee from RIM, but as with all things, it’s relative. NTP has an expectation that it should be paid for the use of the inventions it owns, and that is not unreasonable. And Blackberry cannot afford to be selling devices and technology which is crippled by injunction. Ultimately, the two will come to some sort of compromise - they have to. NTP’s shareholders will not want to walk away empty handed, while RIM shareholders (and clients) have an expectation that the company will remain solvent and viable.

But will an injunction be so bad?

Sure, there would be the physical twitching - thumbs and fingers going through motions to scroll through lists of messages which are no longer there. These physical manifestations of information absence would undoubtedly be analogous to withdrawal symptoms when one goes cold turkey from alcohol or drugs. But after a few days those would go away.

There would still be the occasional forlorn gaze at the now purely decorative (if that’s what you can call the ugly lump of plastic that is a Blackberry) device void of electronic life. It might still be usable as a phone, though.

The twitches would come back when the despairing Blackberry user saw people with Treos or with Sidekicks, of course - much as an ex-smoker reputedly gets cravings for a cigarette when in the company of active smokers.

However, without the Blackberry to distract them from daily life, thumbs will regain their proper shape and be less sore, and ex-Blackberry users might realize they have friends and family who have been neglected in favor of getting that one last message out before dinner or going to sleep. They may realize that what they really had was an addiction to the illusion of data mobility.

I speak from experience. Last March the data network supporting the T-Mobile Sidekick II data phone went out for about a week while I was at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. I went through all the above symptoms and scenarios. It was a real eye opener. Sidekick users had no warning, and support calls claimed nothing was wrong. Blackberry users have it so much better - they have warning that something drastic may soon happen and can prepare contingency plans. They can organize their support groups in advance. Heck, they can even practice Blackberry abstinence now in preparation for the likely injunction.

Adventurous marketing companies are always trying to make the perfect, ergonomic computing environment, but I have yet to see anyone come up with an ideal solution. And the latest entry I saw at CES Unveiled was no exception.

According to EMA, the Nethrone “is the latest advancement in high-tech digital entertainment centers engineered with comfort & style in mind” and the company claims its design is the result of keeping up with user’s demands and is therefore supposed to be perfect for serious work and intense play.

However, the Nethrone looks pretty uncomfortable (and when I asked to sit in the demo unit, I was told that it would not be possible as the unit was a prototype and still fragile), and the effort the EMA employee pictured above had to go through to get in and out was not insignificant. The specifications I picked up also indicate the unit weighs 132 pounds (without a computer or monitor), and the maximum weight capacity is 200 pounds. That rules out many of my fellow couch potatoes and myself (presently weighing in at 202 pounds).

The real kicker is the price tag - a mere $2495.00, scheduled to be available in March 2005. I hope they haven’t scheduled a large production run.

Hello Kitty! - Unless you live on a rock, you’ve probably heard of Hello, Kitty, one of the most amazing merchandising successes in the last few decades. There’s not a product I can think of that isn’t available with a Hello Kitty adornment. Gloves, watches, umbrellas, clothing, flashlights, and even vibrators.

Well, at CES Unveiled there was the Hello Kitty Fender guitar:

I’m not into Hello Kitty, mind you, but this was amusing.

Rainy season here on Bonaire occurs from approximately November through mid-January. We only get 20 inches or so of rain here a year. So, when it does rain, the water pools in natural “salinas”. And that attracts our native bird species, egrets and flamingos among them.

This morning I remembered to bring my camera with me finally, and on the way back from dropping my kids off at school, spent a bit of time enjoying one of Bonaire’s many special moments, namely our native Caribbean Flamingos.

I know I am probably not the typical user of cell phones nor of MP3 players. My cell mobile phone (sorry, I’m a tech-term dinosaur, I guess) usage is limited to only when I’m away from my office or hotel room, and then used sparingly. I abhor ringing mobiles phones in public places, and with rare exceptions, my phone is on vibrate.

And I use my iPod only when in planes or airports, as my work commute consists of walking forty feet from my bedroom to my office, and by the time I have my iPod on, I’m in my office and can just listen to music on my PC (ripped CDs - legally owned - stored on my file server, incidentally) and its external speakers.

I just can’t fathom why someone would risk a lack of situational awareness by cranking music and drowning out their surroundings while walking alongside a busy street or on a sidewalk filled with strangers - I personally would like to be able to hear someone shout out a warning that a car has jumped the curb, or determine whether someone might be following me by the echo of footsteps behind me.

And that’s why the whole Bluetooth headphone/headset madness bewilders me. A good friend has a Bluetooth headset for his cell phone and looks like someone out of a Star Trek episode with that eerie blue light emanating from the right side of his head. And he can be looking right at you, yet speaking with someone else. Disconcerting, to say the least. Make the call and get it over with!

At CES, dozens of companies had Bluetooth headphones for listening to music on MP3-player devices, like the ubiquitous iPod. But why? Isn’t the whole point of a portable MP3 player that you can easily carry it around with you in the first place? One company suggest it would allow someone to put the iPod on a shelf and then sit on a couch across the room, with wires. Well, that’s also without any sort of control of the iPod too (without getting up, walking over to the shelf and doing the finger twirl thing iPod users do so well.

Wired headphones never run out of power, and you always know where the player is because you’re tethered to it.

But for me, the most important thing is that you can use wired headphones or earphones on a plane. Bluetooth headphone are strictly forbidden when in flight because they are transceivers.

I asked at a number of CES booths where Bluetooth headphones were being presented whether they had a wired option for those phones. They looked at me as if I was from another country (which, at least by virtue of my legal residence, I am). When I explained the plane issue and that that was where 95% of my iPod use occurred, I was told I needed to use a wired headphone. Duh.

I am sure there are people out there absolutely thrilled by Bluetooth head sets and don’t mind having to now have two extra devices to charge (the headphones and the transceiver that plugs into the MP3 player, but I’ll stick with my new Shure E4c earphones - wires and all (and no batteries).

Last year at CES, Powergrid Fitness introduced a couple of devices which replaced the typical game controller for a console like the PS2 or Xbox with a workout intensive resistance device. I was sore the next day after only about a 10 minute work out on one of these on the show floor at the time.

Problem with those devices was that they were large and expensive. You’d need a small room set aside just to use the exercise device in. Apparently I wasn’t the only one with that concern, as the company has now developed a much smaller, portable version of the exercise machine, and will be selling it in select Best Buy stores starting in March 2006. The new device is called the Exer-Station and will retail for just under $200.

The ExerStation works by converting pressure on the center vertical rod into joystick data. The responsiveness of the ExerStation can be adjusted to require almost no pressure to get movement in a video game, to excessive pressure for a real workout. The harder the user pushes, pulls, and leans the controller rod, the greater the movement on screen (since it translates to a greater angle on the “joystick”. All the various controller buttons found on a typical game controller are integrated into the handle.

At CES Unveiled, where the ExerStation was shown, they were using Blood Wake on the Xbox as their demonstration platform (Blood Wake was widely panned, but I enjoyed playing it when it first came out), and it was a good fit.

Powergrid Fitness claimes that the ExerStation can increase a person’s metabolic rate five times that of resting leel, and can burn 350 calories an hour. The device is (or will be) compatible with the PS2, Xbox, GameCube, and PC. Xbox 360 support is being investigated.

The ExerStation is 2 feet tall, but rather compact, and very easy to set up from what I saw. But in my use I found that it was a bit cramped (no doubt the result of my being 6’ 3” tall - not exactly average or petite). Likewise, I found the controller too close to my body - I would have liked some adjustability in the ExerStation. Also, the based platform the rod is mounted on had sharp corners - a sure way to leave permanent dents in one’s thighs (or worse). However, I was assured that this was still a prototype and that greater ergonomics would be in the final shipping product.

Seeing as I am a video game junk and an exercise slug (I think slugs actually exercise more), the idea behind the ExerStation certainly appeals to me.

In the hopes that this could be my exercise panacea, I’ll add the ExerStation to my wish list as well, and once I get once, I’ll post a more in depth review. I’m already thinking of the great response to my wife complaining about my spending too much time playing video games - “But honey! I’m exercising! You want me to be healthy, right?”

Due to being Mom-Dad this week while my wife is up in frigid New Hampshire, and more e-mails than flamingos here on Bonaire to weed through (the flamingo population here on Bonaire ranges from a few thousand to somewhere around 15,000), it’s taken me almost two weeks to get my office and to-do stack sorted out post-CES. I now have a pile of CES things I want to comment and report on here in my blog (beyond any editorializing I do in my writing for Jon Peddie’s TechWatch).

Two weeks does give one a chance to ruminate and reminisce, and thinking about why CES is such an interesting show to attend each year (other than because of work), I’ve come up with a rather simple answer: It’s the place I get to create my wish list for big kid (i.e. 40-something year old kids like myself) toys for the coming year.

With that in mind, I’ve started a new category in my blog, where products and technologies I write about will also be tagged as “Wish List” items when they are ones I plan on procuring in the coming year.

I hope to also add unprocured wish list items to a “Wish List” roll in the Left Side menu of my blog in case any of you are wondering what toys I’m still waiting to have ship and be available.

Right now, the Kodak V570 camera and the Sony Reader are my first two wishlist items. More forthcoming in the next day or two.

It’s now two days after the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show has ended its run in Las Vegas. I saw a number of things at the show that I will still be reporting here later, but I wanted to share some observations of life during CES first, and more importantly, how to survive a show like CES

First, wear good, comfortable shoes. Without them you’ll cripple yourself walking the miles of aisles in the three main venues (Hilton Convention Center, Las Vegas Convention Center (LVCC) (with four massive halls!), and the Sands Expo) and I walked all of them except for North Hall in the LVCC. My choice of footgear was the Merrell Jungle Moc (taupe, size 13 U.S.), broken in for a week or two before the show (my last set was a year and a half old and had no grip left as the soles had worn flat). While going to the monorail one evening, I met Michelle, a model from Austin working for one of the oriental consumer electronics companies in the Central Hall of the LVCC. Her employers made her wear high heeled shoes while manning the information counter at the booth. I had (and still have) great sympathy for her poor aching feet. Asking women to wear heels at trade shows is pure male chauvinism and unnecessary, never mind it being a cruel thing to do.

Second, hydrate well. You’ll make yourself sick if you don’t drink a lot of water all day long. Symptoms of dehydration include being light headed, headaches, slurring words more than usual, and possibly dizziness. Las Vegas air is dry - very dry. Don’t be afraid of drinking too much water - bathrooms are everywhere. I always carried a spare bottle of water in addition to whatever I might be drinking at the time. Also, lots of water helps flush toxins (like the residual alcohol from the night before) from your system and keeps your insides “well lubricated”.

Third, wash your hands often and/or use one of those anti-bacterial hand gels. Everyone you’re shaking hands with has shaken hands with people from all over the world carrying all sorts of great germs and contagions. Flus and colds are a major post-show “thrill” for many show attendees. Minimize your risk of infection with good hygiene. And, if you find your hands getting dry and raw from too much hand washing, use a moisturizer (I recommend Dr. Bigelow’s quince-based hand moisturizer from Bath & Body Works - smells great, doesn’t leave a greasy residue and moisturizes well).

Fourth, snack often but avoid bad carbs. Bad carbohydrates are chips, baked goods, pizza, french fries, cookies, sugar-sweetened drinks, etc. These will give you a quick energy boost, but the post-rush crash will make you very sleepy and groggy and unable to power walk the aisles and speak coherently with vendors. Fresh salads, nuts, low carb energy bars, and water are the best options. Salads are available at the eating outlets in most show halls, and it’s pretty easy to bring packages of nuts and low carb snacks in your bag.

Fifth, get a bag with wheels to stick all the brochures and tradeshow loot into. Otherwise you find yourself lugging 30 pounds of paper and stuff on your shoulders, which is bad for your back, neck, and shoulders. Plus, it drains your energy reserves. I particularly like the wheeled backpack I bought last year at CES for about $40, as it is convertable between wheels and backpack straps. This year’s model didn’t have the backpack straps. An additional bonus of wheeled bags is that you can strap a second bag to the top of the extended handle should you run out of space in the main bag. The only downside is that the cattle, er, people wandering the show floor who don’t pay attention to where they are going occasionally trip over such bags. Hopefully after tripping over such bags often enough, such people may learn. (Personal observation - there were far more bag trippings at the AVN Adult Exposition held concurrent with CES at the Sands Expo Center than at CES, likely because there were more sources of distraction - more on that later).

Sixth, unless you are fortunate enough to be lodged near a main show hall (I was at the Treasure Island, only a 10 minute walk from the Sands, but about a 30 minute walk from the Las Vegas Convention Center), be prepared to wait a long time for a bus (only available at an “official” hotel), or taxi to get you to where you want to go. In Las Vegas, the monorail is also an option, but that can get rather congested too. Taxi lines at the LVCC were rumored to be in excess of two hours at one point, while half hour or longer waits for buses were the norm. And that did not include travel time on rush-hour packed streets.

Seventh, carry a bunch of cash around on the last day of the show when in the vicinity of smaller booths - you may be able to buy some demo items for a steal because booth personnel would rather not ship them home. My bargains from Sunday include an Ethernet and PC cable tester, several Pelican cases, and a wireless day/night surveillance camera. Any leftover cash can be used at the card tables at the casinos after the show (I donated to a couple of casinos during my stay).

Eighth, get at least 6 hours of sleep a night. Very difficult to do in a place like Las Vegas, but if you wear yourself out with lack of rest, you become more susceptible to colds and illness, never mind it’s difficult to talk with people when you keep yawning all the time.

Nine, don’t forget your business cards at home, and then always carry more than you think you will need. I will typically take a full box of cards with me, and put them in my planned luggage for the trip well in advance of leaving home (days or weeks).

Tenth and lastly, don’t forget you can always use FedEx or UPS to ship boxes of brochures and other show items home from the show, but that the business centers at hotels do close at some reasonable hour (even in Vegas). That way what happens in Vegas can be shipped out of Vegas without inciting the ire (and resulting monetary penalties) of the airlines. I shipped three boxes of stuff out on Sunday evening, packing it all up while watching “Doom” on pay-per-view (starring The Rock) (4.5 out of 10.0 on The Richter Scale, incidentally).

One additional non-general thing I learned for myself was that quality blogging from the show is not easy. By quality blogging I mean providing more than a sound bite of information, or doing lots of little posts from my phone (as I did during E3). I had great aspirations, but little success.

Technical difficulties with my new notebook computer aside, I had seriously overbooked myself with meetings and conference sessions, which left very little writing time, and there was no easy way to quickly get images from my digital still camera (an aging but still great Canon S500) into the right shape to post to my blog. The camera in my Sidekick II cell phone was too crappy to be of much use either. I will have to come up with some new approach to see if I can blog live. Suggestions are welcome.

So, instead, I will be blogging a week later with observations and commentary about CES. Looking on the bright side, it means my blog entries may actually be better thought out, with better images than would have been possible if rushed from the show floor. Or maybe not.