Josh Bancroft’s TinyScreenfuls.com

I just got this error on my freshly rebuilt T40, which is think is sublimely hilarious:

Or in other words:

To help protect your computer, Windows has killed itself.

I don’t know what I was doing to cause it - last thing I did before it popped up was copy a couple of files from a network share.

My Pentium M 1.5 GHz CPU doesn’t support Data Execution Prevention (DEP), but it was interesting to read the Help (from the “What should I do?” link):

Data Execution Prevention (DEP) helps prevent damage from viruses and other security threats that attack by running (executing) malicious code from memory locations that only Windows and other programs should use. This type of threat causes damage by taking over one or more memory locations in use by a program. Then it spreads and harms other programs, files, and even your e-mail contacts.

Unlike a firewall or antivirus program, DEP does not help prevent harmful programs from being installed on your computer. Instead, it monitors your programs to determine if they use system memory safely. To do this, DEP software works alone or with compatible microprocessors to mark some memory locations as “non-executable”. If a program tries to run code—malicious or not—from a protected location, DEP closes the program and notifies you.

DEP can take advantage of software and hardware support. To use DEP, your computer must be running Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or later, or Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 or later. DEP software alone helps protect against certain types of malicious code attacks but to take full advantage of the protection that DEP can offer, your processor must support “execution protection”. This is a hardware-based technology designed to mark memory locations as non-executable. If your processor does not support hardware-based DEP, it’s a good idea to upgrade to a processor that offers execution protection features.

It’s nice to know that Windows is looking out for me and my interests.

Internet Archive: Details: TinyPodcast 2005-04-12

Sorry this took a couple of days. Ourmedia.org is having some issues - my file seems to have uploaded to archive.org, but isn’t showing up on Ourmedia.org. So the link above is to the archive.org page for the video.

We review the Sony PSP, using a round Altoids tin to store UMDs, a quite detailed review of the new game Archer Maclean’s Mercury, have a look at Lumines, and some shots my Sony MDR-EX71 earphones with the wire insulation falling off.

The video is about 68 MB, and 16 minutes long or so, in Windows Media 9 format. You can download the file directly here (right-click, save as).

Have a look, and please let us know what you think about including video content. I’ve got lots of ideas for cool things to include in the future, so let me know if this is interesting to you, you hate it, etc.

Thanks!

Here’s this week’s podcast. We try something new this time - simultaneous video and audio podcasting. Look for the video download link soon - I still have to pull it off of the camera, and upload it to Ourmedia.org.

Download the MP3 file directly (20 MB, about 45 minutes), or subscribe to the TinyPodcast RSS feed in your favorite podcast aggregator.

This week, we do a more in-depth review of my new Sony PSP, including a new game, Arthur Maclean’s Mercury. Verdict: gets really hard, really fast. We also have a look at Lumines in some more detail. You all know I’ve been having headphone quality problems, and now I have the pictures/video to prove it.

Hope you enjoy the show. We love to get feedback - email us at tinyscreenfuls@gmail.com, or call and leave us a voice message at 206-339-TINY.

Catch you next week!

jkOnTheRun: New eReader version for Pocket PC- VGA!

eReader is my preferred ebook reader on my Pocket PC. Much lighter and faster than Microsoft Reader, and eReader (formerly Palm Digital Media, formerly Peanut Press) has a great selection of affordable ebooks, and reasonable DRM (you enter your credit card number to unlock the book).

I’ve downloaded the new version, to check out the VGA support, and I’ll report back any interesting findings. I’m especially interested to see how well it plays with the forced “true VGA” mode (via SE_VGA) that I’m running in.

So I have a dilemma about my earphones. I’ve been a big fan of the Sony MDR-EX71 in-the-ear buds since I bought my first pair to replace the stock earbuds that came with my iPod. The sound on them is great, and since I always clip the remote to my 40GB iPod (or, more recently, my Shuffle) to the front of my shirt, the “SL” short lead model has been great - the cord is long enough to reach my chest, but no extra cord length to get tangled. I wear them pretty much all day, every day. I listen to podcasts and music in the morning during my train commute (or play Lumines on my PSP, or watch last night’s TV shows on my Dell x50v). They’re in my ears most of the day while I’m working at my desk. They’re the most comfortable and best sounding earbuds that I’ve ever used.

My first pair of EX71s died a couple of months ago. For some reason, the left one just stopped working. I’m sure it was some kind of short, because I could get it to crackle in and out of a working state by holding the cord at weird angles. So I ordered replacement pair.

I’ve been using the second pair for a couple of months, and they’ve developed a problem. The black rubber insulation on the wire that goes to the right bud is disintegrating, all along the back of my next. Coming off in little bits. There are now two separate sections of bare wire about three inches long each. Fortunately, the buds still work.

So herein lies the dilemma. I can’t bear to use the standard hard plastic earbuds, like the stock iPod ones. But I’m hesitant to buy another pair of the Sony EX71s, for fear of throwing good money after bad.

I’d love to get a pair of Etymotic E6i’s, like the ones Scoble let me try when I had lunch with him last month. But the MSRP on those is $150 (even though Amazon has them for $99). On the other hand, I can get another pair of the EX71s for around $30-$40. But this will be my third pair, and I don’t really want them to crap out on me after a couple of months.

*sigh*

What to do? Anyone have any ideas or suggestions? Should I just bite the bullet and get the Etymotics? What’s the warranty like on them? If it’s lifetime, that would be much more tempting.