Cameron's Brain

how do I NTFS this Tablet?

I love my Acer Tablet PC. Okay - sure - there are things I'd love to see improved and I'd like a new one. But, all that aside I love it.

However I've got one issue - it came with the had drive formated as FAT32. I let it go, even though I would get the "needs fixing" bluescreen at least once a week after a fresh boot. When it came time a couple of months ago to re-build her, I of course wanted to NTFS the drive.

BUT... no can do. The Tablet version of Windows XP that came with the machine isn't your standard Windows CD, no sir. It's a fancy-pants Acer boot cd with other little apps added to it. Which is nice 'n all, BUT... it doesn't give me much control over the Windows install and it doesn't give me an option (as far as I can tell) to NTFS the freakin' drive.

So... I'm still stuck with this FAT32 monstrosity.

Any ideas from you geeks out there? How do I pimp this beeatch?

Geek uses OneNote & Tablet PC to take notes during church sermon

Knowing how much attention I still get when I use my Tablet PC in ink mode in public places, I had to laugh at the idea of using one in church. Well, actually, the idea of me actually BEING in church is funny enough (except for Phil's church of course, which is more like a country club anyway). The geek over at the palmsolo blog talk about his recent OneNoting:

I used OneNote again on my Tablet PC at church to take sermon notes and find this is an incredible use of the technology. I also use eSword to read the applicable verses and then copy and paste the verses into my OneNote sermon notes. I also made a complete switch at work to using the Tablet PC and the only hang up with using an external monitor, keyboard, and mouse is that we have no USB keyboards at work right now and the USB to PS/2 connector is not working with my Tablet right now.

I think this guy even out-geeks Phil! Speaking of Phil, I have to apologize to him, Des and listeners of the Personal Productivity show. We recorded one with Phil as guest last Sunday (yes, on a Sunday), but somehow my recording with MixCast Live only recorded my audio! Bugger. So we're going to try to do it again over the next couple of days.

Activewords InkPad Beta

A fortunate few of us have been playing with the new Activewords InkPad beta for the last week or two. The newest version is pretty slick. I can now ink my activewords when I am in portrait mode!

The new beta can be found here and Buzz encourages everyone to test it and provide feedback. He also asks that you remember it's a beta! So, you know... the usual caveats apply.

You can also tune in to the latest edition of The Tablet PC Show podcast to hear James Kendrick interview two attorneys who use Tablet PCs and who rave about the new InkPad beta, along with MindManager, OneNote and Dragon Naturally Speaking.

Mindmanager on the Tablet PC

Hobie Swan from Mindjet has posted a detailed explanation on how to use MindManager on a Tablet.
And good to see Mike Jetter, MindJet's CTO and co-Founder, has also started blogging.

I've slipped on my usage of MindManager in recent weeks and it's been bothering me. I really need to get back into it and update my maps. I need to start a MindManager 12 Step program. "Hi I'm Cameron and I haven't mindmapped for three weeks. I am so ashamed."

OrangeGuava video & Tablet PC Show #2

Tom Clarkson from OrangeGuava sent me an email yesterday with a link to this new video he has created demonstrating the capabilities of OG. I'd been asking Tom for a dummies guide because, although I can tell OG has some amazing capabilities, I couldn't get my head around it. That was until I watched the video. Now I'm really looking forward to playing with it some more. I believe JK's getting Tom on The Tablet PC show soon and I'm really looking forward to that.

Speaking of The Tablet PC show, #2 went up yesterday with special guest co-host our good buddy Marc Orchant! We have Marc to thank for introducing us to JK in the first place. It was Marc who suggested to me that JK would make a great host. Thanks Marc! The download numbers we had for the first Tablet PC show were larger than the numbers we've had for ANY single podcast EVER in the history of TPN (okay so that's only three-and-a-half months including the entire history of G'Day World, but... y'know). Congrats JK!

Googgy Launcher seems useful

After reading about it on Marc Orchant's Tablet PC blog, I decided to give Googgy's Tablet PC Launcher app a trial tonight. After playing around with it for a few hours, I have to say it seems pretty useful. One of the challenges with the Tablet is the disappearance of ALT-TAB when in pen mode. I've played around with a few solutions to this dilemma recently and I think Googgy's approach is perhaps the best I've come across. It really goes seem to make most functions of the Tablet only a few clicks away. This still isn't as fast as ALT-TAB, but it's fairly functional.

What I'd really love is a small button which hovers semi-transparently on my screen while I'm working and can be tapped to alternate the open applications or provide a quick drop down menu with a single tap.

Any smart dev's out there want to build me something like that? You even have my permission to call it the "Cameron" app. :-)

Watching RAGE at midnight is always fun. You see clips you'll never see anywhere else. Right now they have one of my fav tracks from the late 80s - "Epic" from Faith No More. Oohh - now it's Billy Idol  "Rebel Yell". Someone please tell me Billy wasn't gay. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Just looking at the way he's dressed up in this clip... c'mon.

OH! OH! EVEN BETTER - "Hot For Teacher"! SIT DOWN WALDO!

ObjectDock - a must have Tablet app

I can't remember whose blog I read this on this morning (so my apologies), but someone mentioned a little app called "ObjectDock" from Stardock. ObjectDock is a program that lets you organize your short-cuts and running tasks onto an extremely customizable dock that sits on your desktop like so:

This morning I was sitting with Jasen, the graphic designer working on the new TPN site, and I was admiring, once again, the wicked taskbars on his iBook. You know how the icons expand and shrink when you run your mouse over them? That's the only reason I would even consider buying a Mac (yeah yeah I've heard it all before so don't even bother).

BUT NOW - I don't have to worry about it! ObjectDock does the same damn thing! This is especially wicked on a Tablet because one of the problems with the Tablet is getting fast access to apps. Check ObjectDock out, if for no other reason than fun. It truly put a BIG GEEKY SMILE on my face tonight.

WOW, I just found a Tablet PC ad

I was scanning The Age online and saw an ad for the Toshiba M200. Who said the Tablet was getting no marketing?

ritePen for the Tablet

JK mentioned ritePen on his recent podcast and, having just installed it, I have to concur. It's a "must have" for the Tablet. When in pen mode, it essentially allows you to write anywhere on the screen and have that ink converted into text inside the active application. This is something I would have expected to be native to the Tablet OS but... oh well, I guess that's the strength of the Microsoft model for their partners. They sometimes leave so many basic things out of their products, partners get to fill in the gaps. Of course, it sucks for customers to have to pay extra for stuff that should have been part of the basic product (oh you wanted wheels with you car, Mr Reilly? sorry, that's extra). Guess we shouldn't complain though. At least we have the Tablet in the first place. Thank you, Sir Bill.

What if the Tablet PC team??

... would put a link from their home page or their Tablet PC Commuinty page to JK's new Tablet PC show on TPN and all of the great blogs he mentioned! That would rock. Just a hint guys and gals.