OQO: It's broken.

My OQO Model 02 is a door stop at the moment. More or less.

I've talked here very long windedly about the issues I've been having with the integrated Sprint EVDO modem. Every once in a while it flips out and says device not found, and you have to let it rest for a while it'll work again.

I tried a lot of things, some of them under guidance from OQO support. Setting up dialup networking entries, reloading the OS, fiddling switches in the modem configuration stuff. It seemed that ensuring that I never used the device while battery usage was set to “max battery” was the likely culprit. It might still be. After staying away from that mode, I've had significantly fewer issues.

Until late last week. I was using the EVDO while sitting outside my office, at a patio table provided by my friendly neighborhood Starbucks. This was during the great “Skype outtage” on Thursday, so to make a client call, I needed to go outside, where my cell phone reception was better. (Since I couldn't use Skype, which is all I have for my office phone.)

Anyway, I'm in the middle of this very long client call, and the OQO hard freezes. NOT GOOD. OK, I reboot it. It says “device not found” when launching the Sprint app. OK, I think to myself, this is a side effect of the modem misbehaving. I'm at Starbucks, so I figure I've got a good backup in their Wifi. (I have a T-Mobile cell phone, so I'm already paying for T-Mobile Wifi.) So, I disable the modem device in the OQO, and fire up the Wifi. I get online with the T-Mobile hotspot, and surf my way around for about 15 seconds, before the thing HARD FREEZES yet again. Still not good. Even less good. I can't even remember the last time I had a box hard freeze on me. Before today.

So, I think to myself, maybe it's overheating. I let it sleep for a while (this was quite the long call) then crank the performance control panel all the way over to “cooler” (it was previously near the middle). I get online again, and it hard freezes again. OK, I'm getting nowhere, so I turn it off and leave it be.

After the call I need to make another. While on that call, I fire it back up, and get online. It locks up again. I give up, finish my calls, then head back upstairs.

I fire the thing up, disable all the internal radios, and put it into the dock. It connects to the net from my office via ethernet and the dock. I open a browser. After a few seconds? Bam, it locks again. I think, okay, maybe Firefox is hosed. I reboot, run a disk check, reboot again, then try IE. Bam, it locks again.

Yuck. I gave up at that point and switched to my old office computer (the large HP laptop that the OQO is supposed to supplant), and get that one loaded up enough to finish up work for the night.

The next day I turn the OQO on long enough to copy all my work files to my USB flash drive. I keep the ethernet unplugged. After I copy the files, I leave it sit to see what happens, while I work on the other computer. The OQO hard locks again after a few moments. (I don't recall if I had plugged the ethernet cable back in.)

So, that's where we're at. The thing's just about useless, and I've switched to a different computer for the time being. I am not pleased.

I emailed support on Friday and they escalated it to a support engineer. As of right now, he hasn't gotten back to me. I called this morning to find out the status, and they think that somebody will be contacting me by the end of the day, with next steps/RMA info/etc.

I'm bummed. I love the OQO, but I need it to Just Work. I already was slightly unhappy every time the Sprint flaked out, and now I don't know what's up with the thing totally melting down.

Time permitting, I might erase and reload the OS (again) tomorrow. I'm not sure if I want to go through the effort – it takes forever to download applications again, set up drivers, passwords, etc. I really shouldn't have to reload the OS twice since June to keep the it alive.

If anybody has any thoughts as to what could be going on here, I'm all ears.

I'm not running very much on this thing, so I don't know what I could be doing to it. The applications I'm using are primarily just these: Avast (anti-virus), Open Office, Microsoft Outlook, Firefox, IE, PuTTY, Cygwin, and Trillian. None of this stuff has killed any of the other nine computers I've run it on, so I don't get what could be causing it here.

(Update at 4:39 PM central: OQO Support sent me RMA information; the computer is being replaced under warranty. I'll ship it their way tomorrow.)

OQO Sprint Mobile Broadband Update

So, I think I may have figured out what was happening with the OQO losing sight of the integrated Sprint Mobile Broadband modem.

What was happening was this: After some amount of usage, usually from 30-90 minutes, the computer would drop the Sprint connection and tell me “Device Not Found” or “Please Insert Device.”

I have a new theory: What if the power management settings are to blame? I often go to “max battery” mode, with the hope of squeezing every last drop from my extended battery, while I'm traveling (and I travel extensively). It dawns on me that the OQO has the ability to power down the device to conserve battery usage. It further dawned on me, that at least anecdotally, it seemed like every time I had the issue, I was on “max battery” mode. Starting last week, I've been careful to use “portable/laptop” mode instead, and I haven't experienced the issue since.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Blog Renaming Time?

So, is it time for me to rename this blog, "Problems with integrated Sprint EVDO on my OQO Model 02"? I've considered doing so, but that name is a bit too long.

I last talked to OQO Support about the issue on July 7th. They've made helpful suggestions all along and I'm grateful for that.

On July 10th I flew to Washington, DC. The EVDO modem was problematic at O'Hare here in Chicago, but worked like a champ the entire time in DC. I just don't get that. Could it be a coverage issue? The reason I think it may not be is that the device is not reporting no service - the Sprint connection manager is reporting no device found. When that happens the computer becomes very laggy, stops responding well, and you pretty much have to give up and turn it off for a while.

Prior to this, I had a Novatel USB EVDO modem for Sprint that didn't ever have this issue.

So today I've written back to OQO again with this and further information. I suggested that there is a hardware issue and asked what needs to be done to have it sent in for service.

It's going to suck being without the OQO for a while, but I need a 100% working device. If the integrated EVDO device just doesn't work well, I'll be disappointed -- that was a big part of why I went with the OQO. I still have my Sprint USB modem, but having that hang out of the bottom of the OQO is no fun.

Amphora Restaurant

Last week, we checked out Amphora Restaurant, a Mediterranean restaurant within walking distance of the Howard transit center. It was really good, and I'd recommend checking it out. We ended up with too much food; both the salad and the flatbread pizza I had were huge. They have a full liquor license, and a large patio.

OQO Update

I'm taking a break from a conference to jot down a quick update on my OQO -- from my OQO.

I'm in a hotel room in Washington, DC, online via the OQO and the built-in Sprint EVDO.

I brought my dock, and a bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

The keyboard is a Think Outside "Stowaway Sierra" folding keyboard that works great. I just got it yesterday on the way out the door, heading toward the airport. As I mentioned, it's works via bluetooth. It's very easy to set up, and it didn't require a driver (though a CD came with drivers on it for various devices). It runs on one AAA battery (included). Don't know how long the battery lasts, too soon to tell. Thankfully, the keys are actually large enough and spread apart far enough that I can type on it without my hands cramping up. (The external keyboard for my previous Sony Vaio UMPC was just too small; caused a lot of pain trying to type). The Sierra comes with a little stand that probably works great for a smart phone, but is worthless for the OQO; it's just not strong enough to hold it up. Oh well. I hope to find a better stand soon.

So, my Sprint woes have been intermittent. The OQO will just seem to lose its mind for no reason once in a while and say that the (integrated) Sprint modem can't be found. It's worked flawlessly here in DC, but flaked out twice while sitting at the airport in Chicago yesterday. I don't know what to make of it.

OQO support has been friendly and helpful, but I'm just not sure what to do next. Keep pounding on it, I guess. It feels like it HAS to be a hardware issue -- my USB Sprint modem occasionally would lose the connection, but the modem device itself would never dissappear from the view of the computer.

Overall, I'm still happy, and today has been a really good day. At the conference, a lot of people have stopped to ask me about the OQO. Everybody assumes it's some sort of PDA at first -- nobody realizes it's a full Windows XP laptop in disguise.

The double capacity battery has been a god send. I got from 9:00 this morning until about 3pm today, with an hour off for lunch, and a few minutes off here and there where I put it into hibernation when I didn't need it. Now I'm back in my hotel room, and I'll leave the double battery to charge, and bring the regular battery along to the next conference session.

iWhat?

I don't know if you were aware, but some sort of computer company released some sort of new phone yesterday. Haven't seen any coverage about it in the news, I wonder how it slipped through the cracks.

OQO update: Working well, but I haven't been using the Sprint service very much. Been working with OQO support, who guided me through some driver updates. I think the issues still exist and will likely be reaching back to support next week, as I get more time to pound on the mobile broadband service.

OQO + Sprint Mobile Broadband woes?

So I love my OQO with its integrated Sprint Mobile Broadband service...



...when it works. Too often lately I have strange connection problems that I never had in the past with my previous laptop and an external Novatel USB mobile broadband modem. As you can see from the picture above, sometimes it works great. The signal is usually strong, and the connection speed is perfectly fine for this little device. I've used it multiple times to jump on to the work VPN, run Outlook, and catch up on emails while riding the train.

Except, once in a while, like today, the computer takes on a mind of it's own, and decides to be a complete pain in the ass.



Once in a while you get dumped off shortly after connecting. Invariably it tells you that the device can't be found. It sometimes helpfully suggests that I remove the device and re-insert it, which I obviously cannot do. As you can see from the screenshot above, I do have the device enabled in the OQO Wireless Dashboard control panel. So, why can't it be found?

It takes a reboot (or sometimes two) to make it start working again. And sometimes it'll only work for about fifteen minutes before complaining again. Not good, not acceptable.

It doesn't seem to be a coverage issue. As you can see from the top screenshot, I've got a good signal, and yet, this is where I am when the issue is occurring today.

What I don't get is that the connection manager software is laggy and slow. Every once in a while it freezes up for many seconds at a time. My previous sprint mobile device, the Novatel USB external modem doesn't do this (on the OQO or any other laptop). So, I'm concerned that this is hardware related, or that these things just don't work so well integrated into the OQO.

I've emailed OQO support just now about this issue, and hope they can nudge me in the right direction. The Sprint mobile broadband is a huge part of why I bought this device. OQO, don't let me down here.

Migrating Your iTunes Library

Over the weekend I erased and reloaded my main desktop computer. It's almost three years old, still pretty fast, but it had never been wiped clean before, so I was starting to get paranoid about what malware I might have accidentally installed at some point in the past. The usual anti-malware/spyware stuff wasn't finding anything, but two plus years is a lonnnng time for a computer.

The computer was/is essentially my media hub, including iTunes to manage my iPod. I've been very careful to always back up my iPod and iTunes library. As far as backing up the iPod, I always allow the computer to be the master iPod library, and slave the iPod itself to it. In a few instances when I've loaded songs on the iPod remotely (usually because I'm traveling), I'll re-slave the iPod to the computer, and reload those songs, when I've later returned home.

That, plus allowing iTunes to maintain the iTunes Library folder for me, and having iTunes copy all songs that I load into the library, means that my hard disk has a perfectly backed up copy of my entire music collection at all times.

This has saved my bacon at least once, when my previous iPod was stolen on a business trip. That sucked, but all I had to do was stop at my local neighborhood Best Buy on the way home, pick up a new one, plug it into iTunes, and iTunes loaded my entire library on to the new one. (Which was smaller in size, had a larger drive, and a better screen than the previous one did, anyway.)

In preparation for erasing my desktop computer, I picked up a very large networked drive (one terabyte), and copied everything I cared about to the new drive. This includes my entire "My Music" folder, containing the iTunes folder, all the music, cover art, library data, etc.

After I erased the desktop, reloaded XP Pro, reloaded the anti-virus, installed 900 security patches, and loaded all my usual applications (Slingbox, iTunes, Open Office, Skype, etc.).

Then, before running iTunes, I copied the "iTunes" folder back from the network drive into the "My Music" folder on my desktop. There was no "iTunes" folder there yet because it hadn't been set up yet.

After copying the folder back, then I launched iTunes. Agreed to the EULA, told it not to search my hard drive for anything, and asked it to take me to my library. My library magically reappeared. It took a while to re-index everything, maybe a half an hour or so. I imagine it is reading the "iTunes Library.itl" and/or the "iTunes Music Library.xml" library data files.

Then, I went into the iTunes preferences, and set everything back to how I prefer to keep it -- allow iTunes to manage the library, copy files into the library, etc.

Next, I had to re-authorize this computer to be able to play my iTunes-purchased songs. This is a concern; I just used up my third authorization, out of five allowed. What happens when I run out? It's irritating that moving the library counts as a new computer being authorized. But, that's a rant for another day. To get the computer to ask me to authorize, I clicked on the "Purchased" smart playlist, and clicked on a song I had previously purchased from iTunes. The authorization dialog box popped up, I entered my username and password, and iTunes authorized the computer successfully.

At the end of this long (because of the 80+ gigs of data involved) but simple (did this take more than ten active clicks?) process, I now have my entire iTunes library, all my playlists, all my purchased songs, TV shows, and podcasts, working on my freshly-wiped computer. I couldn't be happier with how easy it was.

ProcCGI for shell script postform handling

Note to self: If you're going to build shell script CGIs, you need ProcCGI. I've been using this thing for years, and it's invaluable. It's a simple C program that will convert postform information into variables that you can access from your shell script. It really is a shell scripter's best friend.

I'm dropping this note here, because every couple years, I start over on a new webhost, or new platform, and forget the name of ProcCGI. As it's invaluable, that's unacceptable! So, hopefully this will help jog my memory, next time.

(And maybe I'll even remember to do " apt-get install build-essential " on Ubuntu first.)

D-Link DPH-50U Skype Adapter

What does the D-Link DPH-50U do? Well, it lets you hook a regular telephone to your computer. Why would you do that? To use Skype, of course. If you don't already know about Skype, it's time to learn. Skype is an insanely neat telephone replacement software for your computer. If you and your friends all have Skype, calls between each other are free. You could be in Tokyo, your friend could be in Iowa, it's still free. I love it. I've been encouraging friends to get Skype accounts left and right.

Both my home and office phones are actually Skype accounts. To make them work with real phones, we use SkypeIn (buying a phone number) and SkypeOut/SkypeUnlimited (calling regular phones). If you want to be able to receive calls from ordinary phones, you buy a SkypeIn number. In any area code you want, or even in any country they have support for. Then inbound calls to you at that number are free. As far as making calls, you can either pay per minute (about 2.5 cents per minute in the US, I believe), or you can do SkypeUnlimited, which lets you call anywhere in the US and Canada with no long distance charges. That's what I do -- I got it for some amazingly cheap price as a starter deal. But even at the "full" price of $29.95/year, that's still an amazing deal.

The adapter isn't necessary to use Skype. You can use a normal computer microphone and headset. If you have a laptop with a microphone and speakers built in, Skype will work like a speaker phone (which comes in handy for meetings at work). There are also various cordless and corded USB telephone handsets available (I'm quite fond of the IPEVO Free-1). But with this adapter, you can talk on Skype over a normal phone, and even use it to dial out (if calling a regular phone).

If you have an incoming call (from another Skype user or from a phone), the thing makes your phone ring. The inbound caller ID works as you'd expect, unless you get a call from another Skype user -- then the caller ID actually shows their user name. Pretty neat.

There's only a couple oddities about dialing this thing that make me wonder, what were they thinking? (Or that it wasn't designed in the US.)

• You need to dial 001 + (area code) + (phone number) + *. I assume 001 means US, then the area code and number are expected, but then you have to hit the asterisk. I know from a programming perspective, it would be very easy to set a "default" country, so you wouldn't have to dial the 001.
• And why do you have to tell it you're done dialing by hitting star? Can't it figure it out, say, if you've stopped hitting numbers for 2-3 seconds, then connect the call? Seems to be a no brainer.
• Out of the box, the thing plays a special information tone when connecting your call. You know, the three beeps you hear before a recorded voice tells you that you call cannot be completed? That's how the device tells you it's working. Very strange. Thankfully, upgrading the driver to the latest version (1.1 as of this writing) seems to address this.
  

These aren't deal breakers for me, but if you have somebody in your home or office who isn't tech savvy, these little quirks are going to confuse the heck out of them.

Even with all of that, it's still pretty neat to be able to plug in a normal telephone. We'd been having problems with our previous Skype phone (not the IPEVO one) at home, so today we wandered down the street to our local neighborhood Radio Shack and picked up a cordless phone with two handsets to use as our new Skype-based home phone setup. Took only a few minutes to set up, and so far, it's working great.