Toluu

Of Zen and Computing

Clear Answers to Common Computing Questions

Check Your Hard Drive’s Health with Crystal Disk InfoNovember 26

Crystal Disk Info is a hard drive utility for Windows that displays a variety of information about a hard disk drive. “Hard Drive Diagnostic Tool Crystal Disk Info” by Martin of gHacks.net shows you the various bits you can check out in order to assess the health of your disk.

The hard drive diagnostic tool can do a lot more than that however but more about that later in the article. The software program is a portable application that can immediately displays information about connected hard drives (IDE, SATA and SSD) like the current transfer mode, the power on count and the power on hours.

How to Sync More Than One iTunes Library with One iPhoneNovember 25

“Sync multiple iTunes music libraries with one iPhone” by mrmobius of Mac OS X Hints discusses the steps necessary to synchronize songs from multiple iTunes libraries to one iPhone.

Tip author mrmobius describes how he puts files from two different libraries on his iPhone. He keeps his MP3 library separate from his collection of high quality (lossless) audio, but puts select tracks from both collections onto his mobile.

Mrmobius notes that this tip could theoretically be used to sync as many libraries as you want. I also imagine that it works with any iPod and not just the iPhone.

Photo by iLounge..

Apple Bends Over for Movie Studios, Cripples MacBooks with Copy ProtectionNovember 21

Wired reports that Apple has caved to Hollywood and added restrictive copy protection to MacBooks. The DRM scheme prevents MacBook owners from watching copyrighted content when the computer is connected to a display that is not “authorized”.

Movie studios are scared stiff of allowing anyone to watch video on a device that could used to make and distribute copies, giving them the false impression that they need to dictate where, when and how a customer is allowed to watch a movie or TV show. Unfortunately for the honest, law-abiding customer a “device that could be used to make and distribute copies” is pretty much any computer with a hard drive or television hooked up to a recorder — all devices with perfectly legal applications.

The copy protection scheme shipping with new MacBooks prevents content purchased from the iTunes Store from playing if the laptop is hooked up to an output device that is not approved. These unapproved output devices include many recent televisions and external monitors.When one attempts to watch an iTunes movie or TV show on their unapproved TV they see the following message instead:

This movie cannot be displayed because a display that is not authorized to play protected movies is connected.

That message and the very concept are both appalling. Who is any retailer or studio to decide whether or not our televisio

How to Spot Fake Compact Flash Memory CardsNovember 20

If you buy used digital photography gear or are dealing with certain eBay sellers, you should be on the lookout for fake merchandise. “Compact Flash Memory cards - is yours a fake?” by Camera Dojo goes into great detail as to how you can determine whether a card is genuine.

The first fake CF card I came across was pretty obvious, visually. I received it with a used camera I bought, so I really couldn’t complain. It was basically free and I was thrilled at the time (2006) to have a 2GB card thrown in with a camera. But it was the performance of the cart that tipped me off to the real problem. The card was significantly slower in the writes than my other SanDisk Ultra II cards; about half the write speed or worse.

Some of the things that give away the fake cards are:

• Poor labeling.
• Subtle differences in packaging.
• Poor read/write performance.
• Too-good-to-be-true prices.
• Manuals with poor printing and paper quality.

Be extra vigilant when hunting for bargains on camera gear, and remember that you get what you pay for. You should be extra wary of sellers located outside United Sta

Add a Self-Timer to Your iPhone Camera with FotoTimerNovember 19

FotoTimer is an iPhone application that adds a self-timer to the iPhone’s built-in camera.

Like the self-timer on your digital camera, FotoTimer gives your iPhone the ability to set a timer to delay your photo from being taken until you are ready (2, 5, 10 or 20 seconds). Countdown sounds alert you to when the photo is about to be taken making it easy for everyone to know when to smile.

In addition to getting you into those group shots, FotoTimer can also improve low-light photography with the iPhone camera. When you are in a dark environment a camera needs to use a slow shutter speed in order to take a picture. If you move your hand while the camera is exposing the scene, your picture will be blurry. Typically you can reduce blur with a tripod or by bracing yourself against something sturdy, but with the iPhone the simple act of tapping the screen to take a picture is enough to cause a significant amount of blur. FotoTimer can solve this by allowing you to prop your camera up and set the timer to take the picture, so you do not have to tap the screen.

FotoTimer is