$521 Bundle of Macintosh software for under $50 !!

- TechTool Pro 5 ($98.00) - comprehensive Mac tool to check the health of your RAM, hard drives, repair problems and optimize performance
- Parallels Desktop 4 ($79.99) - virtualization for the Mac that allows you to run Windows alongside Mac OS X.
- Circus Ponies Notebook 3 ($49.95)- an organizer to take notes with audio annotations, track tasks, collate ideas, clippings, photos
- NetBarrier X5 ($49.95)- firewall and intrusion detection software
- DVDRemaster Pro 5 ($49.99)- backup DVDs, convert DVD movies for use on the iPod, iPhone and AppleTV
- Multiplex ($35.00) - DVD management and playback system
- RipIt ($18.99)- Copy DVDs to your hard drive
- MoneyWell ($49.99) - Finance management software with direct connect banking, envelope budgeting, transaction and cash flow management
- Paperless ($44.95) - manage your receipts and document collections
- Posterino ($24.95)- Use your photos to create posters, postcards, photo frames, greeting cards and more.
- BetterZip ($19.95) - better .zip compression management


Buy it all at macupdate.com Before June 10, 2009


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WHOOPS : When I changed the Name Server for my web site to its new host, it destroyed the forwarding for email using that Domain. So for 9 days, I got no SPAM to those email addresses. Today I went to the location where my web site is now hosted and set up individual email forwards, and all is well.

Bye Bye GeoCities: As part of my ATT/Yahoo dsl account, I got to have free hosting of a personal website by Yahoo Geocities. But now, Yahoo has announced it's shutting down GeoCities, and with it the FREE Web Hosting I use for my web site. AT&T as my ISP could care less, and offers no replacement. So I needed a new place for billf.net to be out there. Luckily one can Google and find listings of free web hosting sites like HERE. Hosting companies have limits of storage space and allowed bandwidth for free accounts, so one needs to compare. I decided upon http://atbhost.net which provides Free Web Hosting for minimalist web sites like billf.net, and it's all there now. I apparently snuck in just in time, as Free Web Hosting Accounts are unavailable until May 26, when they change Servers and when they again will accept new Free Hosting Accounts.
It was easy to go to my domain registrar: godaddy.com, login and change the NameServer associated with billf.net, it took a little longer (less than 24 hours total) for atbhost to get their stars alligned, so I could ftp my web site files over, but all is good now.

Money: One thing that hurts some folks in current economy is low interest rates paid on savings. Luckily most of my retirement savings is in CDs, some paying as much as 4.2%. My after tax money was split between E-Trade and Emigrant Direct Savings. Emigrant Direct is down to 1.65%, a far cry from the 5% they paid 2 years ago. E-Trade was down to 1.25% so I started moving money to the higher interest account. This morning I note E-Trade is no longer displaying the interest rate on its web site, and I found out why. After doing a bunch of searching on their web site I found out they are now only paying 0.95% Interest in a Savings Account, so my account there is on its way to being closed out.

Check HERE for current Interest Rates around the country. Don't believe E-Trades' lies that their rates are competitive or the tops in the Industry.

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? Bugs ? with Firefox 3.0.10 : In the Macintosh version I have to reInstall it every 2 weeks as it loses its ability to display GMAIL in HTML. The Windows version in Windows 7/64 has to be closed with a File / Quit, or it loses its ability to remember your tabs, if you quit from the "X" in the upper right hand corner.

Windows 64 bit Freeware: I found this link of one mans' list of best free software for your 64 bit System. I would expect 99+% of Vista 64 bit software to run in Windows 7/64.

Drivers for Windows 7/64 bit Version: When Windows XP first appeared in a 64 bit version, and later to a lesser extent with the 64 bit Version of Windows Vista/64 Drivers for Video cards, printers, etc were sometimes hard to find or buggy as all get out. I am happy to report that Microsoft already has Beta Windows 7/64 drivers for their Keyboards and Mice, and for other devices, so far many Vista 64 bit drivers have worked well. Certainly all the Apple supplied Drivers for Vista/64 seem to function normally with Windows 7/64. The HP Vista/64 driver for their C5200 Photosmart Printers report they are unable to establish two way communication with the printer, so they can't report ink levels, which may be just as good as HP will suggest replacing an ink cartridge L O N G before its needed. Also the scan function doesn't work as apparently with the Vista/64 drivers, HP included a 32 bit scan program, maybe by6 months after Windows 7 is officially released, HP will get its act in gear. Folks here are not optimistic, but confirm my findings of no 64 bit working driver. The file downloads to an X86 directory, so its obviously 32 bit software that HP hopes works on a 64 bit system, rather than a recompile. After installing it a second time over the first, it seems to be working now.

Good News on Windows 7 : I now have successfully installed Windows 7 RC1 64-bit Version on a separate Hard drive on my MacPro. I get all my Nvidia's speed doing it this way, rather than losing all the video speed by installing under Parallels.

The Install was hardly straightforward. I had to HACK both the Windows Install DVD, and the BootCamp drivers to get either to run.

These instructions did not work for me.

To Create a usable Install DVD HERE are instructions for using oscdimg.exe, otherwise a normal burn of the ISO from Microsoft will not work on an Apple MacPro.

A post HERE at MacRumors.com explains how to install 64 bit drivers under Windows 7 on a Macintosh using the freeware Orca.msi, because otherwise the 64 bit Vista Bootcamp Drivers exe file you're told to use won't run.

Then once Windows 7 is up and running, turn off third party cookies in Internet Explorer (Under Tools - Internet Options - Privacy - Advanced) and turn off Windows' User Account Control Settings, so you don't get all the Vista-like nag warnings (found under Control Panel - Action Center - User Account Control Settings).

After the 3 hours all that took (not to mention myriad hours till I gave up using Bootcamp for the X86 32 bit version - see earlier posts) a properly tweaked Windows 7 is much nicer than Vista.

Windows 7 - So now I'm trying to use Apple's BootCamp to Install Windows 7 RC 1 Build 7100; on an Intel MacPro and despite using instructions from folks who say they've done it it successfully, I can't get it to work. Next I'm going to try to Install Microsoft Windows Vista on a separate Hard Drive, and then upgrade it to Windows 7, which Microsoft says works. After successfully installing Vista, Windows 7 says it can't upgrade because it needs Vista SP1. So I go back to install Vista SP 1, but it needs 79 Windows Vista Security upgrades first.

FOLLOWUP: Unable to upgrade, reports back that Windows 7 is incompatible, and it rolls the System back to Vista. Why should I be surprised that Microsoft mispoke.

More Windows 7 Grief: The Release Candidate now has all the obnoxious nag warnings of Vista. Is this the update put in the Release Candidate? BLECH !! You can set programs to run in Windows XP compatibility mode, but they still report being incompatible and throw off NAG warnings. Symantic Antivirus 2009, a 6 month old program reports incompatibilities.
However running AntiVirus, it did identify 2 dozen tracking cookies for deletion, apparently all placed by the default Internet Explorer home website of http://www.msn.com; something else for me to change. Shame on Microsoft for all that Spyware !!! Then to turn off all 3rd party cookies.

Windows 7 = Windows Vista ME

I think anyone writing a review about how great Windows 7 Release Candidate is, was either using an earlier version, or didn't put Windows 7 through any paces, or is just a Microsoft stooge.

Windows 7: So I'm working with the Release Candidate of Windows 7 (Build 7100), and Microsoft arrogance shows up immediately. I have a minor issue, find a PDF support file, but unlike Mac OS X, Windows does not come with a PDF reader, and that is not acceptable as Adobe Reader 7.09 (which I had to download) won't run, as its "incompatible with this version of Windows", even if run as Windows XP compatible. It's not obvious Windows XP compatibility mode does anything.
So which rube let all that happen?
Another example of what Microsoft doesn't tell you about in their commercials showing how you can buy a PC cheaper than a Mac ( if you skew your wants list for the computer ) if you ignore all the missing features and software of the cheaper PC; and likely added crapware.

Symantec support is worse than useless: Horror stories here:
http://blogs.pcmag.com/securitywatch/2009/03/symantec_support_gone_rogue.php

Garmin GPS - I love my Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS, and went to Amazon to see whether a map upgrade was available. Come to see the larger screen Garmin Nuvi 760 was on sale for $224.29, a good deal since Office Depot is charging $427.95. So between the Amazon credits I have, what I can sell my current GPS for on eBay and what I'd save on new map software, the Garmin 760 is a free upgrade. At this new lower price points, it now makes sense to annually do the same thing. Don't buy a map upgrade, get it free in a new GPS, and sell your old GPS on eBay.

Norton Internet Security 2009 bug continues: Even though I have every feature turned on the software reports me at risk. I hit FIX and it says it can't fix Advanced Protection with my chat agent keeps calling Advace Protection. He claims a virus can cause that. But both Norton 2009 and Malwarebytes complete scan find nothing. So the Norton rube says: "

For help diagnosing and removing viruses or
malware infections from your computer, we have a fee based virus removal service.
Would you like me to transfer you across to this team?

So I ask to ESCALATE, and am kept waiting, and its not obvious I'm getting anything
other than another rube in the next cubicle. This is a known issue, but was incorrectly listed
as fixed by version 16.5.0.135; After 10 minutes of waiting, I complained about the wait time and asked them
to email me the solution. Like that will happen.

Sure enough they did not escalate nor email me. Just another
worthless rep named Sankardeep who also referred to Advace Protection, but had no help.

Conclusion, time to go back to Kaspersky.

HP Color LaserJet 3800n - FIXED ! - By USPS my "new" $39 615N JetDirect Plug in Ethernet adapter model 615N arrived. Turns out not to be new as it had a configuration of a domain name of jp.morgan.com. I turned off the LaserJet, removed the motherboard, removed the plate covering the EIO plugin socket, plugged in the 615N, re-inserted motherboard, turned on LaserJet, went through onboard Menu system, where a new EIO device showed up in addition to the embedded, and I turned on TCP/IP. and gave it an IP number, and entered the Gateway number, changed the setup in Windows, and voila, I have working 10/100 Ethernet again for my LaserJet. I upgraded the firmware from version 15 to version 57.

Buggy Norton Internet Security 2009 (16.5.0.135) - Doesn't know how to turn on "Advanced Protection", Automatic "FIX" fails, as does One CLick checkup. If I turn that feature off it seems OK, and does scan faster than NIS 2008; also it no longers bombs out on a "too long" path name. But update a NIS 2008 with 4 days left on subscription, and you lose those 4 days, and your new 2009 says you have 366 days left on your subscription. BUG !!
The program has been for sale retail for 6 or more months but they're still attacking bugs by the carload. This weeks' slipstreamed version attacks (allegedly) many, many bugs:
see here at bottom of page.

- Fixed an issue where you may not be able to access shared folders on a computer connected to your home network.
- Fixed an issue where the Quick Scan Open Security History expansion was not working on first click.
- Fixed an issue in Home Networking Map - not warning the user that another user is viewing the map.
- Fixed an issue in Home Networking – removing a remotely monitored device does not persist.
- Fixed unnecessary UAC warnings during install/configuration.
- Fixed a crash in Home Networking Map User Interface.
- Fixed a crash in the AntiVirus Scan User Interface.
- Fixed a contributing issue for Error 3040,10001
- Improved Home Networking remote monitoring Antivirus item formatting
- Added option to allow Pulse Updates to run when laptop is on battery power (Settings/Miscellaneous Settings)
- Added SONAR support for Vista 64-bit
- Allow Context Scanning (Right-Click file scanning) for Vista 64-bit
- Added Norton Product Tamper Protection support for Vista 64-bit
- Added UMPC support (install UI fits now, auto panning for small screens)
- Added Norton Safe Web integration (watch out for more details in a separate thread)

(the following issues were also fixed in the 16.2 patch)
- Changes to allow future LiveUpdates better handle error conditions.
- Fixed an issue with 64-bit LiveUpdate patches.
- Fixed several Winqual reported errors.
- Fixed a compatibility issue with Microsoft Outlook Connector after installation of Norton Add-On Pack.
- Fixed an issue where the product would sometimes interfere with its own ability to match IDS signatures properly.

(the following issues were also fixed in the 16.1 patch)
- Fixed issue where Protection updates download but date does not change.
- Fixed issue where in some cases, if you looked at the details of which updates succeeded and which failed, it would show all updates failed even though only one update failed.
- Fixed issue where Virus Definitions were considered non-valid in certain scenarios.
- Fixed instance where Advanced Protection will fail to start.
- Fixed issue where LiveUpdate fails to download and apply Web Protection definitions.
- Fixed issue with Identity Safe showing garbled characters in a few areas of the User Interface.
- Fixed multiple instances of ccSvcHst.exe crashes caused by components.
- Fixed issue with ccSvcHst failing to shutdown on a reboot (End Task dialog displayed indefinitely).

My HP Color LaserJet 3800n - Like it celebrated being 2 years old by having its built in Ethernet go on the fritz. Only works by rebooting between print jobs. Not good. And its Ethernet is on its motherboard, so its not easily repairable. In fact would cost more to repair the motherboard than it did to buy the printer in the first place.
But I got lucky in two ways. First it works fine via USB2 cable. Except then its not on the home network. However it has a slot for plug in boards, so I've ordered a HP Print Server Jet Direct 615N to plug in, which after disabling the built in Ethernet in the setup, should work (I hope).

I had placed an order for a HP 615N at Overstock.com; and then discovered it was way overpriced for the "refurbished" unit that they are selling; and they gave me serious grief before they agreed 6 hours later to cancel the order, (and they hadn't shipped it yet, so it should have been trivial to do so) so I could buy a claimed new unit for less money at compuvest.com. Won't ever be shopping at overstock.com again !!

New Goodie from DirecTv: With one of their newer HR2x MPEG4 HD DVRs, and a free piece of software, available here, (DIRECTV2PC), one can Stream content from their "DirecTv Plus HD DVR" to their PC on their home network. If you have a wide screen 1900 x 1200 24" Monitor, its gorgeous. Since one can pull over any recording, one can record whats on now, to allow it to be streamed over and watched. You do need a newer model PC to have the horsepower for this to work smoothly.

CapitalOne Bank: I use a CapitalOne Visa Card when I go overseas, as perhaps uniquely among credit cards, it doesn't charge a 3% currency conversion fee. Calling them to talk about a future trip resulted in my discovering that they now have most of their VISA call centers in India. One day soon that fact that may do as much for them as paying bonuses did for AIG. Luckily they have a (formerly) secret number that only reaches stateside VISA call center(s) 800-819-2222; and if you need to call from outside the United States the unadvertised number for that is 800-847-2911

ATT / DirecTv combined billing: Allegedly one gets a monthly credit if one allows ATT to bill them for their DirecTv.

Seems like the biggest scam going. AT&T just wants to get customers on the phone to try and upsell them to a Wireless Unity Plan, or a Wireline Long Distance Plan, or even U-Verse.

Then they'll find some reason why you don't qualify for a combined billing discount, which a quick Google of ATT Combined Billing shows can cause more grief than you can imagine, as the combined billing makes it near impossible to correct billing errors in the individual ATT components as what ever rep you talk to wont have access to whatever database you need them to connect to.