Recently I bought a Lexmark P205 S500 Printer/Fax/Scanner/Copier All-In-One device from Best Buy at Merry Hill. It seemed to be the best combination of affordable, support for Mac OS X and included an Auto Document Feeder (ADF) which seemed like a good idea, given the amount of paper I have to scan.

After unboxing and setting it up, I installed the included software on my MacBook Air and gave it a test scan.

The included software allows you to scan with its own Scan Center, or you can use Image Capture which is built-in to Lion. I gave both a try, but neither offered the sort of functionality I needed given I was archiving a few years of documents.

I took a look around at other software available. I tried Yep which offers a really nice interface for browsing files, such as PDFs, txt, images and some other file formats, and gives you the ability to tag them with keywords to help you sort and organise them.

I also took a look at the demo for PDFPen from Smile Software. It is probably the most well known PDF editing software besides Adobe Acrobat, and at a fraction of the cost, you can understand why. It will let you mark up, redact, join and split PDFs, and OCR your PDFs. However it isn’t built for bulk scanning.

I finally took a look at PDFScanner (iTunes Link), available in the Mac App Store. It offers a basic way of scanning but had a few features that made it ideal for me.

Firstly it allows you to scan in as many pages as you like. Once scanned in, PDFScanner automatically deskew’s and OCR’s each page. You can then scroll through the thumbnails of each page, and drag to reorder them. If you scanned in a long document, you hit Save and name your file, or use the auto-naming setting to build one based on date and time scanned. If you have scanned in multiple pages from multiple documents at once, as I have done, you can select the necessary pages and click Save Selected. This makes it really simple to just scan a bunch of pages and deal with them later.

The last stage of my paperless solution I have still to decide on, is the organisation. I have been putting some PDFs into Evernote, which allows me to sync the documents to the internet, and access them on my iPhone or iPad, as well as use Evernote’s own OCR for searching and tagging documents. The other option is to manage them locally, which I could either do by date or by subject/company.

Either way, I’m on my way to archiving my old documents and clearing a lot of paperwork. For £10.49, PDFScanner is a good spend, and was fit for my task.

I’ve read a lot about RSS Player as a replacement but unfortunately this either isn’t available right now, or is not available outside the USA. But, I did come across DriveCast [iTunes Link]. Its basically the same thing, but with some benefits.

After paying the minuscule sum of 59p for this app and installing it, when you first launch it, you’re asked to login with your existing details, or are redirected to Drivecast.eu to sign up. As a new user, I went and registered, and confirmed my account with the auto-sent email verification. All pretty standard stuff.

Now, the interesting features. If you login to DriveCast.eu in your web browser, you’re presented with a nice 3-pane view. The top is a menu bar, the left, is effectively a source list, leaving the main pane for what ever you’re viewing. To get going, just hover over Add, and click Add Podcast. You’re given the option to choose one of the 20 suggested podcasts, or clicking Other to add your own. Once you’ve done that, you choose the syncing settings, how many episodes to download, title, description, etc. Then you’re good to go.

Back on the iPhone, after logging in, your device syncs with your account, and gives you a list of all the new episodes available. Clicking one gives you show info, a Play button, and a download button. Hit that and it immediately comes down, whether it be on Wifi or 3G, which means it conveniently steps over that iTunes 10MB limit they impose on 3G.

I’ve just started downloading a few shows, and it happily downloads while you listen to other shows. Of course, if you quit the app, the downloads stop until you relaunch it.

Back on the website, you can create playlists of shows and edit and delete existing show information. You can also upload files from your home PC to sync across to your device.

As well as that, you can set up recordings from your favourite internet stream. Select a country, language and pick a station, in my case I get a list of all the BBC channels. Then proceed to set up the date, and time of the show, set repeating times and you’re done. That show can be recorded and downloaded to your device at any time.

The last feature I’ll mention is that DriveCast is not just for iPhone and iPod Touch’s. They also offer a small client you can download and copy to any USB drive, be it a flash drive or USB based MP3 player, allowing you to use any PC and internet connection to download new shows. They also offer Blackberry integration, syncing podcasts to your Blackberry via USB, a client for Nokia N800 and N810′s, a RSS feed to your DriveCast library to manage your podcasts in your other chosen podcatcher, as well as Mac OS X and Linux clients, so you can get your podcasts anyway you want

So far, I have only found one issue. When viewing episode details, it doesn’t parse HTML code correctly, so you see all the paragraph markers and break points, among other things.

Aside from that minute point, this is an excellent alternative to the iTunes app, and a real bargain at 59p. Worth checking out if you’re struggling with iTunes, or to run on any other device.

As I browse the website, I notice more features I like. Definately a site worth a look if internet streams and podcasts are your thing

DriveCast.eu

iTunes Download Link

Developers Website

My former employer was a public sector company, and foolishly I expected things to be a bit more secure than they were. And as a result, I’d like to share a few details of what they were going wrong.

1. At least 40% of employees using PC’s used a generic login, really designed for the IT department for debugging.
2. User profiles were locally cached and stored. This meant all your files remain on one PC, provided no means of backing up data, and made PC replacements very difficult.
3. All users had local admin rights. You would be surprised how many PC’s I saw running Firefox, BBC iPlayer, uTorrent. I can say right now that I would never transfer MP3 files or any films downloaded by these tools.
4. Desktops were not locked down. Change your wallpaper, delete or create any files.
5. USB drives, floppy drives and CD drives were all open. So much so that I caught a virus on my USB drive from one PC and spread it around to others before McAfee even detected it!
6. Desktop Support was provided using a tool called PushVNC which is a back-alley way of starting a VNC session with a remote client. Doesn’t provide the user any notification someone is watching or ask for permission. Serious Data Protection Act issues there.

Issues like these can be easily solved, and if someone would make the effort, things would be so much more secure. Group Policies could limit files being saved to My Documents only, stop USB drives, CDs, and floppies being used. No local admin rights would save issues with unauthorised software being used. Roaming profiles could be implemented, mapping a drive to a SAN for the My Documents and caching profiles locally. This would also provide a easier method of backing up, and certainly make my old job of replacing PC’s quicker. I can tell you that the data transfer was the most time consuming thing, especially when you have a Dell GX150 with USB 1.1 giving slow data transfer rates.

Anyway, my new job is private sector, and I’m fairly certain their network will be much more secure and easier to manage. But we shall see…

I’m still running my MythTV box, only now its in a different room, and its mainly just a backend system for me. I record stuff to watch later on my main laptop. But before I could use it, it needed to be on my network. So that means wireless. I bought a Wifi PCI card on eBay and got it today. I was a little unsure about the setup cos I didn’t know whether I needed to install some more software or drivers, so was prepared a little to haul it near the router to wire it in. So I installed the card, and booted up. After logging in, I moved the mouse to the Network icon in the menu bar, expecting to have to at least select the other ethernet connection. But much to my surprise, it gave me a list of available Wifi networks. I plugged in my key and voila! Connected.

Now compare this to the XP installation. Its all the same up to the boot. Then the New Hardware wizard kicks in, and there is a requirement to install software and drivers, choose whos configuration setup to use, and probably a reboot.

Now I thought XP was meant to support a lot of hardware, yet I seem to find that when it comes to Wifi hardware, you almost always have additional drivers and software to install, and yet Linux, which is often stated as being a little behind the curve, as there is no one being paid to work on it, handled my new hardware with no problems at all.

So I’m quite happy now, on my network, enjoying the internet and updating software to my hearts content, while I record TV. Thanks Linux

I’ve also requested my IT Technician Kit. I presume this includes my certificate, but it certainly sounds like I get something else. I’m looking forward to seeing what other gems I get sent, and I’ll be sure to let y’all know.

GimmeSomeTune – This is the most useful iTunes plugin I use (and the only but thats beside the point). What it does is simple. It does loads. I will give you on-screen displays (like Growl) of your currently playing tracks, add hotkeys to control iTunes globally. It will fetch album art from Amazon, it will even fetch song lyrics from Leo’s Lyrics (which I find particularly useful). Basically, its a nice little plugin to have running. Only downside is upgrading it isn’t the easiest thing to do.

Missing Sync for Windows – I won’t say much about this since I don’t use it now. I was using it to sync my iPaq 5450 PDA with Address Book, and iCal. Its still really useful, but since I got my iPhone, I don’t use it. Still worth checking out if you own a PDA.

Miro (Formerly Democracy) -Its like TV on your computer, from the internet, like IPTV almost. Its a massively useful program that will let you watch video and audio from the web. There is a built in directory for videos, and you can subscribe to podcast feeds and (here is the best bit) you can subscribe to bit torrent RSS feeds and get your fave shows as soon as they are released. I tend to use it for any shows I don’t wanna watch on my iPhone, like Command-N, Webnation, Unwired, Diggnation (sometimes) and so on. Check. It. Out.

Microsoft Office – Now we all love our Macs, how could we not, but the fact is, there is a large amount of people who don’t know about them, so use Windows, and they are likely to have Office (99% for Word) so to help them in their niche little world, we can get Microsoft Office for Mac. And guess what? It’s actually better than the Windows version. I could tell you why, but why don’t you just try out the 30-day trial and see for yourself.
If you’re not bothered about the tracking features, and other advanced stuff, try iWork ’08 from Apple. Its lurvly.

Onxy – Another little utility which you can use to keep your Mac running smoothly. Great for laptop users. The most useful tools are clearing caches (to free up some much needed free space) and running the cron jobs that should run to help maintain your disk which usually run at 3am.

Original List, Part 1, Part 2, Part 3.

Well thats your lot. I’m done with this. I might put up some more suggestions as I think of them, but for now, I can close this chapter of my blog.

Anyway, I recently discovered ITT (In The Trenches) which is a great podcast for IT professionals, by IT professionals, where Kevin, George and a slew of other guest hosts,  chat about general IT stuff, like servers, mail systems, networks, qualifications, and share some handy tips, in fact it was George who provided the iPod Backup idea and system.

Well, this was their last podcast recently as they’re closing it down. Kevin’s site is going to be reused for his own purposes as he moves on to a busy time in his life.

Anyway, wanted to post a thanks to them all for the great discussion and info they’ve given me over the past few months, and wish them both the best for the future.

Feel free to check out some past episodes before they vanish from the site.

I signed up for the CompTIA A+, N+, Microsoft MCSA and Cisco CCNA. I have reached the stage where I am ready to take my A+ exams and contacted them about booking them. I was then told that the exam fees were not included in the course fees I had paid up front.

Having now done some research online I have found out that the CT College have often been quoted as fleecing students. They charge large fees, provide little support, and misrepresent their services.I am currently speaking to them and will try to cancel my course, and reclaim my course fees. I will be looking to start court action and contact the Trading Standards if I do not get a reasonable response from them.

I’ll keep you updated with my progress, but I would warn anyone considering study with them to reconsider QUICKLY. Having done the study for one qualification, I could do just as good a job with a £30 book from Borders or Amazon.

http://www.certforums.co.uk/forums/thread18129.html

http://www.certforums.co.uk/forums/thread4590.html

Update 1: I received a letter today stating that they stand by their original letter. They have no record of my phone call to them querying the exam fees being included, and believe that it was clearly explained that they were external and excluded. Luckily my girlfriend was in the room with me at the time and can vouch for this. My next action is to get copies of my phone bill showing this phone call to them, and ask them to investigate that. If they cannot prove that they told me otherwise, I will argue some more. As I said, I also have corroboration of this matter.

Update 2: I’ve written back to them for a third time, enclosing proof of a phone call they claim they have no record of where I was told that my exams were included. I now wait for a reply.

Update 3: I have set up a Google Group here where people can share their thoughts a bit better, and hopefully get the word out about these people.

Windows XP operating system *
Minimum 500Mb (RAM) memory
Internet Explorer 6 browser (or later)
Windows Media Player 10 (or later)
A video and sound card capable of playing high quality streamed or downloaded programmes
JavaScript, ActiveX and Cookies are all enabled
A high speed broadband internet connection

The first problems. XP – What about all those new PC owners with Vista? How exactly can’t it Vista support it when it should be backwards compatible?
IE6 – Firefox is a much better browser, and a large amount of people are using it nowadays.

Then there’s the Mac and Linux users. No supported way of running it. Why? The main reason is probably because it runs on Peer-to-peer networking (much like Limewire or Kazaa). So that means a desktop client, which means background services, which would need to be written from the ground up. There are a number of problems with this. Firstly, the lack of cross platform support. Surely if I’m a License payer I should be able to access these services without having to spend money on either a) a new windows PC (or should I say old as I need XP), or b) some sort of vitualisation method like Parallels, VMWare, or Virtual PC for non-intel Macs. Thats awful.

My question is this. Why, if they couldn’t do cross playform at beta launch, couldn’t they do a non-OS specific method? ABC.com offer all of their TV shows (well most) online, the next day, via the website, on most browsers, supplied using Flash. This means any OS, any time, no background services using up your bandwidth to transfer or receive files. Its just there to watch. I don’t see whats so bad about that?
Or even better, like Azureus, a Java application that will run on most systems?

I don’t see why they didn’t choose a better system for delivery really. If they’re only offering on-demand TV rental (don’t think they have shows for purchase yet. see later) why can’t it just be flash based?

Now of course this isn’t just the BBC. Channel 4′s 4oD service which seems to run the same P2P framework, is also single platform. They all use the same network, WMP encoded video files, which I’m not a fan of (having tried the 4oD service a bit)

The other problems is the lack of shows anyway. You can’t get the latest hot thing on the BBC, Heroes (already shown on Sci-Fi on Sky/Cable and in the USA) at all. You ca get the Heroes behind-the-scenes show, but not the real thing. They need to offer the best stuff to get it to be popular and work better (since its P2P).

The last point to make. There is a way to get around some of these problems, at least the half the platform specific stuff.
iTunes.
They offer TV in the US to purchase, the day after they’ve aired, they’re yours to keep, no background download services taking up your bandwidth, and they’re then at least available to a larger share of the population.

So thats my thoughts. Of course, rumors are that there are iTunes TV announcements Coming Soon so maybe we’ll see the Beeb and CH4 get on board then.

Now, alternatives. I’ve had a quick look at the BBC iPlayer forums and some points made about alternatives. There are obviously less than legal methods, the most popular being BitTorrents. Now, with this, you’ll probably get better quality, its still P2P in a sort, although it only runs when your applicaiton is running (be it BitTorret, BitComet, Azureus, or Transmisson or xTorrent for Mac) so keeps your bandwidth usage down. Its also better quality usually. Someone also complained about the horrible torrent sites, and banners and popups. Well, this isn’t 1999. It’s not like Jennifer Saunders on that Barclaycard advert. I use www.torrentz.com as a search engine, to find the file, then click one link to the torrent site, like Mininova, BTmon, or snarf-it, then one click to download. And if adverts are REALLY that difficult to stand, try something like TVShows for Mac OS X, or TED for Windows. Both of these will easily download torrents for your new TV shows regularly, without you seeing much, and start them downloading easily.

Its really not difficult to fund alternatives to some of this stuff. So please, BBC and Channel 4, wake up.

Tags: bbc, iplayer, torrents, ted, tvshows, macosx, bbctv, ondemand