Over the past several years I realize I am spending less often. Not sure I am spending less, heh, but at least not as many times in any given, oh, month or whatever. Last week I broke down after much consternation over a few months and picked up one of the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drives. I took it home and hooked it up and popped in the HD version of King Kong.

As many have written similarly in the past, the picture and sound are pretty incredible. But, since I have an older DLP projector (an InFocus X1), I am not getting the full fidelity of a HD image.

So, long story short, even on the X1 the quality is noticeably and substantially better than standard DVDs. But it's  not what it can be, so I find my self leaning toward a decision point: I need a new projector. I don't want a flat screen, I don't think. I have a 120-inch (or more) diagonal image on the wall now, and I like it that way. One room is there just for the theater-like experience. It's not my living room, in other words.

 There are a number of newer 1080p projectors out there now, as it turns out, and they don't cost a zillion bucks anymore. I have been researching newer models and have found a couple that look interesting. But I figured there might be some readers of this here site that would have some experience and input.

Here is what I have found so far - what do you think, and what am I missing?

• the JVC DLA-HD1 (or it's cousin, the all-black JVC DLA-RS1) - this is my running favorite
• or the Sony VPL-VW50 (nicknamed the "Pearl")
• or the Optoma HD81
• or the Mitsubishi HC5000

Any ideas anyone?

UPDATE (July 28, 2007): Epson also has a real contender out that I am considering in their PowerLite Home Cinema 1080 model.

The FBI is contacting more than one million computer owners and operators whose computers have been victimized and taken over by fraudsters and other criminals who have installed "bots" which they then use to launch distributed criminal computer attacks and fraud scams.

“The majority of victims are not even aware that their computer has been compromised or their personal information exploited,” said FBI Assistant Director for the Cyber Division James Finch. “An attacker gains control by infecting the computer with a virus or other malicious code and the computer continues to operate normally. Citizens can protect themselves from botnets and the associated schemes by practicing strong computer security habits to reduce the risk that your computer will be compromised.”

So, if the FBI calls you might want to cooperate. But - exercise some common sense and a little caution: if you get a call or contact, be sure to confirm it's actually the FBI. The classic technique used by scammers is to take commonly used communication methods and closely mirror or duplicate them in order to make you think you're providing sensitive data to a legitimate business or agency, when in fact it's the bad guy in disguise. So verify, verify, verify.

The FBI press release is here. Snipped from the press release, an important warning about being wary of potential malicious information requests:

"The FBI will not contact you online and request your personal information so be wary of fraud schemes that request this type of information, especially via unsolicited emails. To report fraudulent activity or financial scams, contact the nearest FBI office or police department, and file a complaint online with the Internet Crime Complaint Center, www.ic3.gov."

RunAs Radio Show Number Ten is now online. While at Tech Ed US 2007 in Orlando last week, we sat down to chat with Isaac Roybal for the RunAs audio podcast, a Microsoft Product Manager on the Windows Server team working on the next version of Internet Information Services - IIS7.

Put simply, IIS7 includes a large number of significant improvements and enhancements for both developers and for the IT pros and hosting providers that have to implement, support, secure and maintain the servers. Tons of great information and interaction around IIS7 is available at the new community web site, IIS.NET. Many of the improvements and changes to IIS are listed on that site, as well. You can download Windows Server Beta 3 and go live with IIS7 now, and Microsoft has a program for doing so. If nothing else, you should be starting your lab work so you can plan, get familiar and see what the future of IIS holds.

RunAs Radio Show #10 | 6/13/2007 (41 minutes)
Isaac Roybal Shows Us IIS7

Isaac Roybal is a Product Manager on the Windows Server team who is deeply involved in Web Workload, especially IIS 7. Isaac digs into the details of the new management features in IIS 7, now available as part of Windows Server 2008 Beta 3. His responsibilities cover all things Web related with Windows Server and has been involved with IT for over ten years. Five of those years have been with Microsoft.

Links: RunAs Radio web site and RSS feed

We welcome your input and ideas for the show - Just email info@runasradio.com and let us know what's on your mind! We might even read your email on the air, and we are always interested to know what you would like to hear about as we book our guests.

I got a new Canon compact digital camera recently for taking snapshots (in places and at times when I don't want to carry my digital SLRs around). What better place to try out your new Canon camera than Cannon Beach on the Oregon coast? Overall the new camera does a nice, respectable job - especially for a compact model. Not too shabby. I'll do a more detailed review soon. My friend also bought one, a Kodak model, which cost half as much and took some truly terrific images. Click the images below to view larger sizes, blah blah.

For some reason I like birds flying over mountains and rocks and stuff. Some Jonathan Livingston Seagull psychological thing or something maybe, I dunno.

Haystack is the big rock that looks like - well, duh. Next to it in the water are two other smaller (but still quite large) rocks, called the Needles. One of them is in this pic.

From the What The Heck Were They Thinking Department:

I get a lot of "free" business magazines in my position at work. It's one of those inevitable and unavoidable facts of being in a job with "chief" and "executive" in the title. Some of them are actually useful. Many of them are not. A few have absolutely nothing to do with my job or areas of expertise. Those ones tend to get the virtual toilet flush, without so much as being reviewed.

Speaking of which, a new magazine arrived in my office mailbox today, and upon first glance the cover made me wonder, "Why in the world would someone actually name their magazine that?" Specifically, the acronym.

And for what it's worth, the magazine actually has some good stuff in it. But in an English speaking world, well...

I'd just go with the full name, myself.

I just upgraded my Blackberry 8800's TeleNav GPS software to v5.1.0.29 (an update from the the preinstalled v4.7), which was just recently released by TeleNav. It was really darn good before and  it's even better now. Included in this release is the until-now-missing-on-the-at&t-network feature of real-time traffic routing updates (dubbed "TeleNav Traffic alerts"). This added capability uses available traffic congestion and hazard feeds to update your route to the quickest available in real-time. In addition, the new version includes improved business listings in the search options and the ability to click on addresses right in the calendar and address book contacts, launching the GPS service automatically. That's something I can easily be grateful for, what with all those hotel addresses embedded in my Outlooks calendar for my travel days.

The UI is also greatly improved. The menus are much shinier and there's now a signal strength meter in the GPS software, a small but welcome addition. Note that when you install and run the first time you'll need to allow the software to set up several hardware and network access permissions, and you'll need to provide your TeleNav account password (which you used the first time you set up) as well. It appears I lost all my favorites in the upgrade process, so just be aware that something like that might happen to you as well. My recent locations list was still up to date. I had to change my map view from overhead back to the 3D birds-eye view as well. None of these things were a big deal for me.

If you have the Blackberry 8800 from at&t and use the TeleNav service, it's a free update for you. Just browse to http://ota.telenav.com/ota/at with your 8800 and download the new version. Note that the update requires a fairly long reboot after it's installed.

From the press release:

TeleNav Traffic alerts users through voice and on-screen prompts to traffic slowdowns and incidents along their programmed travel route. With just one click, customers can choose an alternative route or can remain on the original course. TeleNav Traffic calculates and provides an ongoing estimated time of arrival based on the customer’s current route and the latest traffic information. Subscribers can also view traffic information on a map and see details of surrounding traffic situations.

TeleNav Traffic is a feature of the latest version of TeleNav GPS Navigator™ and is offered as a free feature upgrade for TeleNav GPS Navigator subscribers. TeleNav GPS Navigator v5.1 also includes enhanced business listings, which identify more retailers and office parks. The TeleNav GPS Navigator now allows BlackBerry users to click addresses inside calendar invitations or contact lists for real-time navigation to that location.

Thanks to at&t and TeleNav for making this update happen. My $9.95 a month is going even further now. I have to say, always up to date maps, a small single device and turn-by turn instructions with Traffic is a pretty great deal. Even after say 24 months of using this service you would not have paid as much as you would to buy a GPS unit, and maps on a stand-along unit would be out of date before too long. I'm convinced.

Catching up on announcing a few new RunAs RunAs Radio shows that I've neglected to mention here over the past couple weeks. We publish a new episode each and every Wednesday. The show has been live since mid-April and it's been pleasantly surprising to see how quickly it's taken off!

Anyhow - RunAs Radio Shows 7, 8 and 9 are now online. Discussions in these shows include disk and file encryption and the TrueCrypt open source software, Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and what it means to you as an IT professional, and Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2007, a great tool for managing and monitoring your enterprise, whether small or large.

• Show #9: Eric Marvets Talks TrueCrypt! (published 6/6/2007)
• Show #8: Brian Komar Talks PKIs (published 5/27/2007)
• Show #7: Rory McCaw on MOM 2007 (published 5/23/2007)

Links: RunAs Radio web site and RSS feed

We always welcome your input and ideas for the show - Just email info@runasradio.com and let us know what's on your mind! We might even read (and answer) your email "on the air," and we are always interested to know what you would like to hear about as we book our guests.

I just arrived in Florida this evening for TechEd, so I am catching up on some news, and found this at BetaNews.com. It's good news in the "let's make effective security easier and better" category:

At TechEd 2007 this morning, Microsoft's senior vice president Bob Muglia generated the biggest applause of the day (not related to the Christopher Lloyd cameo) by announcing the new Server Core installation option in the forthcoming Windows Server 2008 will have as one of its ready-made "roles" the ability to rapidly appropriate Internet Information Services in a command-line-only environment.

The Server Core option allows you to run Windows Server without all the fancy Windows stuff - I other words, it's truly bare-bones and includes only what you really need.

UPDATE: On the TechEd floor today I learned that the "server core" implementation of IIS7 won't support ASP.NET applications - just HTML and ASP type stuff. Hopefully ASP.NET will be an option in the future.

From Microsoft, here is a description of the concepts behind the Server Core installation option:

The Server Core installation option of the Microsoft Windows Server 2008 operating system is a new option for installing Windows Server 2008. A Server Core installation provides a minimal environment for running specific server roles that reduces the maintenance and management requirements and the attack surface for those server roles.

The Server Core installation option of Windows Server 2008 provides the following benefits:

• Reduced maintenance - Because a Server Core installation installs only what is required to have a manageable DHCP, File, Print, DNS, Media Services, AD LDS, or Active Directory server, less maintenance is required.
• Reduced attack surface - Because Server Core installations are minimal, fewer services and applications run on the server, thereby decreasing the attack surface.
• Reduced management - Because fewer applications and services are installed on a server running the Server Core installation, there is less to manage.
• Less disk space required - A Server Core installation only requires about 1 gigabyte (GB) of disk space to install and approximately 2 GB for operations after the installation.

You can keep up to date with the Server Core team's efforts on their blog, and participate in the Server Core TechNet forum.

Reference Link: TechEd 2007: IIS7 to Become Seventh Server Core Role

Google holds it secrets close, as it should. One of its most valuable assets (probably its most valuable) is still its search engine, and because it's the end-all-be-all of Internet searching, how well it works is very important to the company. Add to that the relevance and accuracy of searching as it relates to Google advertising revenues, and the importance becomes quite huge.

The New York Times published a story this morning about the Google search inner sanctum, a bunch of people who tweak and adjust the search algorithms used to get people what they're looking for on the web. It's a good article and dives deep into the work the team does and how much more accurate search has become.

“Expectations are higher now,” said Udi Manber, who oversees Google’s entire search-quality group. “When search first started, if you searched for something and you found it, it was a miracle. Now, if you don’t get exactly what you want in the first three results, something is wrong.”

It's an interesting read, well worth the time. And think about how much storage is required for this:

And Google does more than simply build an outsized, digital table of contents for the Web. Instead, it actually makes a copy of the entire Internet — every word on every page — that it stores in each of its huge customized data centers so it can comb through the information faster. Google recently developed a new system that can hold far more data and search through it far faster than the company could before.

Find out more about Google's PageRank as well as a little of what they call "signals" - cues and other information the search engine algorithms generate and use to determine what you see when you search and why.

Article reference: Google Keeps Tweaking Its Search Engine (NY Times Online)

As I mentioned recently, I went to a sleep study center a couple weeks ago and stayed overnight, where I learned I have an apnea problem. A couple days ago I returned to the sleep center to spend another night, this time with a CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine and a mask. It was in interesting night.

A little pill helped me fall asleep that night, but throughout the night I woke up from the weirdness of the mask on my face. Sometime in the middle of the night I had a pretty bad "mouth leak," meaning my mouth was opening so the air pressure from the machine and mask over my nose was flowing right out my mouth. So the technician came in and put a chin strap contraption on me, which was a bit too much - I have to say I felt like I was in a head cage or something.

But it did work - Even with the interruptions, I felt noticeably more refreshed than ever the next day as I drove to work and went about my daily work routine. I also had some super-crazy dreams on that first night with a CPAP machine at the sleep center, ones which I actually remembered. And that pretty much never happens to me these days. My doc told me my REM sleep (deep sleep where you dream) was pretty much too broken up to be of any good to me based on the number of apnea episodes I was having, so he was not surprised at the dreams, or the intensity/craziness. He said there's a theory of REM rebound, where a person who has had badly fragmented sleep suddenly is able to enter extended REM sleep, so the brain has a lot of clutter to clean up and the dreams can be intense or active.

I was sent home with a CPAP machine (actually it's a BIPAP machine that has a humidifier - more on that later) and a couple different masks to use. One of them is very small and fits under the nose, and the other one is more of a traditional full-face mask. I tried the nasal pillow model last night with limited success (it made the lower bridge of my nose pretty sore by morning), so tonight I am trying the mask that covers both the nose and mouth in hopes it will provide better results since I am told I am a "mouth breather." It turns out there are a lot of masks out there, with new ones coming out all the time, so it's a matter of trying them til you find the one that works best for you. Most take some getting used to, they say.

At some point here I'll get all geeky and write about the hardware and what it does (the BiPAP machine is computerized and has a smart card like thing that I can pull out and take to the doc so he can see how well I am doing on the machine - pretty cool). I'm lucky to have really good health care insurance that recognizes the preventative value of this stuff and covers the significant majority of the equipment cost

Any CPAP tricks out there that people know of? How long did it take people to adjust, I wonder?

Scott Hanselman posted a great list of items to look at and check into when you're using virtual machines with Virtual PC (or server) and need to ensure good performance. It's not automagical to have things work at best performance, so getting educated and knowing what to do and when is important.

His list is here:

• VM Performance Checklist - Before you Complain that your Virtual Machine is Slow

I'll be heading for TechEd next week in Orlando, Florida.

Richard Campbell and I will be recording some RunAs Radio interviews on the Virtual TechEd stage, and I am looking forward to catching up a bit in terms of the latest and greatest IT technology. The past several months of my work (and life) have been pretty much consumed with the acquisition of the company I work for, so I am looking forward to the chance to focus my mind back on the rest of the technology world for a change.

RunAs Radio Show Number Six is now online. I'm a few days late in posting this, but Wes Miller (who worked in the past at Winternals and Microsoft) sat down with Richard and me to talk about the future, benefits and issues around 64-bit Windows in the Server and Vista flavors.

RunAs Radio Show #6 | 5/16/2007 (34 minutes)
Wes Miller on our 64-bit Future

In late 2004, Wes left Microsoft to work for Winternals Software (which was then acquired by Microsoft in 2006), in Austin, Texas, where he currently resides. Wes currently works at Pluck (http://www.pluck.com) in Austin as a Development Manager. His area of Windows focus is generally enterprise deployment, lifecycle management and security.

Links: RunAs Radio web site and RSS feed

We welcome your input and ideas - Just email info@runasradio.com and let us know what's on your mind! We might even read your email on the air, and we are always interested to know what you would like to hear about as we book our guests.

I was having dinner the other night with a bunch of people from work, including Scott Hanselman. As is overly-typical during an American dinner "out" in the early 2000's, the subject of TiVo and other PVRs came up. As time has gone on over the past few years, it's become more and more difficult (especially as other PVRs have also become commonplace) to be on the side of the conversation where you're in the small group of people who don't have a PVR already. I got my first TiVo when they first came out. I hacked it and turned it into a 240GB powerhouse. I was an early adopter, but apparently I am not exactly a power user.

Scott (this story is really about him) did the thing Alpha Geeks do at dinner when someone mentioned they don't have TiVo. He said:

 "WHAT?!?! Are you kidding??"

Seems life cannot be lived with out it, hehe...

Then he showed his true Alphaness when he said:

"Sometimes I put on closed captioning and I watch it double speed."

Doing this, he explained, allows him to get a lot more TV watching done than simply watching it in real-time-shifted-time (or is it real-shifted-time?). And he continued the thought:

"If you put in a DVD you can watch it 4x. I watched Oldboy like that," he said. "And if someone got their head cut off you could just go back and watch It in real time." Yeah, or slow motion I guess.

"Huh?" I asked him. "Old wha?"

"Oldboy," he repeated. "It's like the Korean Pulp Fiction."

Leave it up to Scott to come up with this. Personally, I tend to like the music and the dialog and taking the time to enjoy the whole movie package. Dunno about Oldboy since I have not seen it, but now I will have to - I guess I'll find out if it's better in 4x...

Snoring and sleeping are two things that fall on a very short list of items that one cannot observe about oneself. Because of that, there's a strong tendency toward denial. It's a natural human tendency.

As I mentioned the other day, on Thursday night I went to a local sleep lab and spent the night there hooked up to a bunch of wires and stuff to find out what might be going on with me. I've been waking up tired for some time, feeling like I am getting little rest, etc. You can read more about that in the original post.

Anyhow, as you can sort of see in the bad-angle and bad-hair picture there on the right, I got a zillion wires, sensors and bands stuck to me (which it turns out was not as bad as people thought it would be) and fell asleep after spending the evening watching some TV and taking a Lunesta provided by the physician.

I remember waking up a few times throughout the night, which is pretty typical of me. Once the technician (who was very cool, by the way) had to come in and re-attach an airflow sensor that worked its way loose from my face, but overall I figured I slept as well as I do normally, or maybe even a little better than normal. I'll chalk that up to the pill.

The way the study worked was if you exhibit severe apnea within the first few hours they hook you up to a CPAP machine for the rest of the night. That didn't quite happen with me, so I was not woken up for that change of equipment. So in the morning I did the typical rationalization things and figured I was in the clear, no problems, must just be my head or something.

But when the doc came in the next morning (It's a great arrangement by the way - You fall asleep and the doctor shows up first thing so you don't have to come back for another office appointment), he showed me the data printouts and graphs from the night. Turns out I am waking up about 60 times an hour due to breathing problems - Apnea to be specific. People tend to be surprised by the facts since they can't observe it themselves, so when you can see your own stats and see that, hey look - I stopped breathing completely there for like 5 or 10 seconds and then make a loud snore and took a huge gasping set of breaths... My blood oxygen level dropped to like 80% in many cases. Well, let's just say the evidence speaks for itself.

I actually remembered waking up maybe 4 times or so because that's how many times I was awake long enough to form a memory and to become fully lucid, the doc explained. The other several hundred times were enough to be awake but not long enough to remember.

According to the doc I have at least moderate sleep apnea. Because I shifted off my back to sleep my side for most of the night, the apnea signs were probably not as bad as they would have been otherwise (it tends to be worse if you are positioned on your back, and during the time I was on my back the data shows it was in fact worse).

Apnea is simply the closing of your airway while you breathe during sleep. When you sleep your body relaxes, and that includes the muscles that shape the upper part of your airway (the part above the Adams apple is flexible, the rest is rigid). If the airway closes you get no air. If you get no air the brain is not happy. If the brain is not happy it wakes you up to move the muscles needed in order to open the airway. If this happens often enough, you never get long enough sleep to enter that REM phase, or deep sleep, which is needed to get "real" rest, or restorative sleep. And if that happens you have to deal with the problems of sleep deprivation. As mentioned earlier, you don't wake up long enough to remember anything, so it's hard to know when this is happening unless someone else sees it and knows what to look (and listen) for.

My doc said to think of the collapsing airway as being similar to the effect of trying to suck a milkshake through a straw: The straw collapses from the negative pressure and nothing can get through. The same is true for the throat for many people. That's really what snoring is - a collapsing or blocked airway.

So, long story short (too late), I will be going back to the sleep study place in a couple weeks for one more night, during which they'll hook me up to a CPAP machine. That stands for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. It's a thing you wear on your face to blow some air into your airway to maintain enough positive pressure there to keep the airway open. I have spoken over the past few days will a surprisingly large number of people (some of whom commented here) who tell me they use a CPAP machine when they sleep and it's changed their lives. Well, worth a try then I guess. I have to admit I am not thrilled about the idea of wearing a mask when I sleep (it seems to me to be such a tied-down option) but I will try it if it might help. You never know.

More in a couple weeks, after the next phase of this whole deal is complete. Meanwhile if you ever need to do the sleep study thing, Oregon Sleep Associates is a good group of professional people and the sleep center is nice - not at all hospital like and easy to relax in. My doc's name is Scott Fromherz, MD and he's great at explaining things and answering questions. Definitely recommended if you find yourself needing a place to fulfill the need.