As I’ve reported previously, Back to My Mac hasn’t worked out well for me. Because it shares ports with Windows Home Server (both vie for HTTPS), I haven’t been able to use BTMM.

Now, that’s not really a big deal for me. I have LogMeIn on every system, and that does the job nicely (if not better, when on a non-Mac system). But, I was surprised while in the Intel press room, to find my PowerBook G4 (sitting at home) as available.

At first I thought my AirPort Extreme had dumped its port forwarding table. So, I called up my Windows Home Server. Sure enough, it responded and loaded properly. This means that Apple has updated the NAT translation on the MobileMe servers. It is not a software update on the local machines, but rather a “cloud” fix that has enabled BTMM to work properly.

And, it’s a great fix indeed. It’s actually the same fix that I suggested awhile ago. The MobileMe server checks to see if the standard HTTPS port is routing to something else. In my case it is. So, BTMM is using an alternate port on-the-fly.

With MobileMe actually starting to work properly… I may actually keep my membership after the trial.

I don’t expect any major announcements at the keynote, but I’m in the front row… HD camcorder on and ready. If anything happens, I’ll post in this article.

8:25: The keynote is underway, but I wanted to point out that we’ll be posting it in full 720p HD on PhoneNews.com, hopefully tonight. This is something that we also aimed to do with LinuxWorld, but the quality wasn’t high enough (we may still post that on the blog though).

8:34: In case you’re wondering what’s up, Intel Chairman Craig Barrett is talking up the importance of education, especially in developing markets. He just struggled to say the letters OLPC.

8:38: And now, a demo of the infamous Wii Whiteboard.

8:41: Thank Jobs for the sudden motion sensor in my MacBook Pro. Some idiot with a camcorder just tripped on me, and my MacBook Pro flipped into the air. Literally. It seems to be okay.

8:47: Back to the developing world. Kiva.org is on stage talking about microcredit/microfinance.

8:50: WiMAX. 50,000,000 people to be covered by end of the year with WiMAX of some form.

8:57: Healthcare. Mr. Barrett lied down on the floor to demonstrate the effectiveness of combining QR Codes with personal health records in an emergency. It was a lot more comical in-person.

9:04: Mr. Barrett just confirmed that the video call (going to India) on the screen was delivered via WiMAX on their end. And yes, it worked without a hitch.

I know it’s short notice, but I will be at Intel IDF. Hopefully it won’t be a complete bust like LinuxWorld was (I’m still racking my brain to try and recover some of the footage for some good use).

But, if you do want to have lunch at Moscone West during the show, drop me a line.

Sacramento County (that’s in California), is telling folks some really misleading information about the Digital TV transition.

The DTV transition is confusing for many already. Some think they need to buy a new TV, when really all they need is a converter box. Others think that they need to buy a brand new HDTV. And, unfortunately, a new ad from the county’s management is misleading people towards that conclusion.

The ad, which is for the California Electronic Assist Recovery program, portrays a television set suddenly failing during a football game. The people, confused, walk into another room, where a mother explains (while chewing food) that they “needed a new TV before the DTV transition, February 17, 2009. So I bought this new TV and recycled the old one”. A brand new television is playing in the room.

Of course, you don’t need a new TV for the DTV transition, you just need a converter box. The county of Sacramento is (I believe mistakenly) convincing many consumers that they need to recycle their old TV before the DTV transition, in essence, junking it for a new one. Worse, the advertisement gives some correct information about the DTV transition, such as the date it will take place. Half-truths are the most misleading.

How can you help? Call the county at 916-875-5555 (that’s their customer service number, in the ad itself), and tell them that their ad is misleading, and incorrect in its facts. Tell them that they should remove the ad, or at the least ad a statement about the DTV transition, how a converter box is all that is needed for the transition, and that you do not need to purchase a new television for the transition.

I’ll be calling tomorrow, I hope everyone (even if you do not live in California), starts doing so as well.

Now, the ads are well-intended (at least, I hope they were). Of course, they will artificially inflate the usage of the program, should everyone start junking recycling perfectly good TV sets. A very cynical person would probably argue that the ads did this on purpose, to artificially boost the stats of the recycling program, by having people recycle working sets ahead of the transition.

Today the media was abuzz about how Apple’s market cap has sustained itself beyond Google’s. That didn’t hold for today, but by the end of business yesterday, Apple was number one in Silicon Valley.

And what was the reason attributed by many financial analysts? Word of the impending release of a new MacBook Air.

It was nice to play kingmaker for a day, but the credit does ultimately go to Apple. I’d like to like the MacBook Air, so here’s hoping they get it right the second time around.

Newegg is offering the
KWorld 340U TV Tuner for only $14.99 after a $20 mail-in rebate. This USB stick-style tuner is compatible with Windows Media Center, and can do both cable and over-the-air programming.

There aren’t QAM drivers available for Media Center (something that will hopefully be fixed by TV Pack 2008… Microsoft still hasn’t gotten back to me on that). However, it does include ArcSoft TV software, which does pick up QAM.

I highly recommend this for anyone with a Vista Home Premium computer. Windows Media Center is one of the few great things that was added in Vista, take advantage of it!

KWORLD ATSC 340U Dongle ATSC TV USB Stick ATSC 340U KWORLD ATSC 340U Dongle ATSC TV USB Stick ATSC 340U USB 2.0 Interface (Mail In Rebate $20.00 Expires 08/29/2008)

Over at PhoneNews.com, we’ve been doing a test of Chitika advertising. Many have asked me how to advertise more, while bombarding readers less.

A good chunk of PhoneNews.com readers find the site via a search engine. I won’t break down the numbers, but for any web site with good search engine optimization (SEO), that’s going to be a relatively higher-than-normal number. And, a good chunk of those readers are passers-by. They tune in, read a single article, and then bounce back to their search engine.

Chitika targets those readers. What they do, is run additional ads, which will only show when someone visits your site from a search engine. These ads are a “mini mall” typically featuring products from online retailers. Those products are derived from the content on the page.

It’s really a no-lose situation. Viewers that hang around will see the ads vanish within a few visits. Those that were passers-by, well, you just made some more money off of their visit. How much more money? Again, I don’t like giving numbers, but for a moderately sized site, you’ll certainly make a few bucks a day. We’re making much more from it, it’s certainly here to stay.

I am moving. But, I haven’t said to where exactly. Well, that’s mostly because I haven’t found a place. Anyone that has moved knows the pain of finding a new place to live. My troubles are much worse.

See, one of the killer benefits of the Sacramento Valley versus the Bay Area is a little company called SureWest. You may have heard of Surewest when then recently sold their regional wireless network to Verizon Wireless. But, SureWest’s strength is in landline service. Fiber landline service. Fiber to The Premises (FTTP/FTTH) service.

So, while still being able to reach the Bay Area and Silicon Valley within a couple of hours, I can work from home at 50 mbps down… and 50 mbps up per second. Just to give you a speed rate, that clocks in at being able to send an entire CD-ROM in under two minutes. Sure, Paxio is trying to pull this off in the Bay Area, but they aren’t what I would call “combat tested” (i.e. patently unreliable). SureWest is quite the opposite, being the first deployer of Microsoft IPTV over their network.

However, as with all things real estate, the key is location, location, location. Mainly, finding a place with service that is also acceptable to live. I’ve broken SureWest’s FTTP coverage down to three areas. One, unsavory neighborhoods that happen to be under their backbone. Two, overpriced neighborhoods that haven’t been hurt in the slightest by the housing crunch. And, three, a small sliver of reasonable places to live that are also lit up for FTTP.

Now, the real killer has been that SureWest has made this process about as hard as possible. I went to their regional offices, asking for a coverage map. I was told to use their coverage check. Now, their coverage checker is the most manic-depressive tool I’ve used since DSL in the old days. It will literally report FTTP coverage every other house (on the same block face of the same street). Clearly, it’s inaccurate at best. But, I’m stuck using it. And, I have used it over 500 times (trust me, I’ve kept count).

So, I’m closing this post near the end of my saga. I hope to have the papers signed on a new place later this week. I’ve said that to myself for the past three weeks, but it’s just about done… hopefully.

And, that is why I’ve been so tied up the past few weeks. Sorry. But, having 50 mbps to leverage will allow me, and in turn, MechaWorks, to have a great signal. After all, I have the bandwidth of a few cell towers at my disposal now.

Monday, I have a private conference call with the Media Center team at Microsoft. And, there aren’t really any limits on what I can ask… and hopefully, get answered.

So, I’ll turn to you. What would you ask the team behind Windows Media Center? Post your questions in the comments, and I’ll try to get them answered.

Microsoft today formally announced TV Pack 2008 for Windows Media Center, inside of Windows Vista.

And, they also said you can’t have it. If you want the benefits, like ClearQAM (that’s unencrypted digital cable), or the ability to add an unlimited amount of tuners (of any combination)… Microsoft appears to be directing you to buy a new PC.

This is the first time that Media Center updates have not been available in some form to existing owners. For example, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004 and 2005 were both offered as an upgrade by top-tier OEMs. In addition, major updates such as Update Rollup 2 (part of MCE 2005), were offered to all users.

Clearly, Microsoft is going to take a lot of heat for this. Microsoft media relations explained to me that they aren’t offering the TV Pack to end users, due to localization issues. However, I’ve seen the update… and I simply disagree with those reasons as being valid.

There is no reason I can see that TV Pack 2008 should not be a free update, for all Windows Vista Media Center owners.

I wish I could point you to some source to give feedback on Microsoft’s web site. Unfortunately, there is no such form or email address for Media Center. I do have rebuttals and prodding questions in at Microsoft media relations, so if/when I hear back, I’ll follow-up. Namely, we still don’t know if TV Pack 2008 fixes the CableCARD DRM issue, or how DirecTV owners will be able to get it (since the DirecTV tuner for Media Center appears to require this update).