QUICKEN 2010 - On Tuesday August 14, 2007, I blogged on the literal impossibility of moving MS Money data into Quicken 2007. I am thrilled to report (especially with MS Money 2008 being the last Version of MS Money) that its now transparent and trivial to convert an MS Money data file into Quicken 2010. One clicks Convert, waits a couple of minutes and its done. ABOUT TIME.

Google's New "BUZZ" will Invade your privacy:

Read This, then

IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY:

Log into GMAIL

In upper right hand corner, select Settings

On next page on right most menu item, select Buzz

On next page for "Display following lists", select lower button "Do not show these lists on my public Google profile."


Click on Save changes

FINISHED!

No ATT U-VERSE for me !:
Turns out the U-Verse whole house DVR is no such thing. In other than the room of the DVR one can not perform most standard DVR functions while watching live TV, particularly Pause or Rewind.

ATT wants to charge $7/month for dumb receivers after the DVR. DirecTv charges $5/month for addtional DVRs, so if 3 rooms are wired up, with ATT I could record 4 programs, only 2 of which could be HD. With DirecTv, I could record 6 programs at once, all of them HD.

I could never get confirmation of the promotions attached to my account, and too many folks have posted on the web that ATT tries to cheat them out of promised promotions. I could never get written confirmation that my Install would truly be free, and my DirecTv wiring would be left intact.

Then had I wanted just U-Verse Internet and Phone, all promotions would drop off, and I was promised at least a $149 Install fee. Not acceptable.

I was particularly annoyed at the heavy migration of ATT Call Centers to third world locations with unintelligible agents.

It was unacceptable to have so many customer support offices keeping "Bankers Hours". Basically ATT still thinks it is and/or acts like it is a monopoly. Luckily it is not.

So I have cancelled my U-Verse Install

ATT 3G not working today in Houston: I either get NO SIGNAL, or a Strong signal that won't make phone calls, or allow data transmission. Turning off 3G on my iPhone allows functioning on the 2007 Technology Edge Network.

DOS software in Windows 7: Windows 7 has dropped support for DOS programs. Luckily there is Freeware called DosBox that allows one to create a DOS Window to run such software, even games. Better yet, one can create a "Dosbox.conf" file, and edit it so your DosBox is full screen. Works great in Windows 7 / 64 bit.

HP SUPPORT is Abysmal: Hewlett Packard moved much of their consumer support to India, and its worse than any stereo type of bad support from India. Questions are answered with Boilerplate, whether or not the answer fits, and whoever sends the email reply, signs their name as "Craig". The Grammar is so awful its obviously not coming from the states. After 30 plus emails back and forth I gave up, they flat don't have a fully functional set of Drivers and Software for a C309a printer to work with Windows 7 either 64 or 32 bit.
Then their phone support is equally bad. Even if you lie and say your Hardware is used for Business, you get connected to equally bad support people in Ontario, Canada.

Super Bloat from Microsoft: Microsoft has now made available to the "public" a beta copy of MS Office 2010. I was very annoyed to find I couldn't install the 64 bit version as it promised my MS FrontPage 2003 wouldn't work anymore. SO I went back and downloaded the 32 bit version, and despite leaving out the corporate components, the Install was promised to take over 2 Gigabytes of disk space. Must be all those former Vista programmers and and disjointed development procedures of Vista that caused that. Office 2010 = The revenge of Vista ! It's that kind of nonsense why I still use Office 2003, and have removed a FREE copy of Office 2007 Microsoft once gave me for attending one of their dog and pony shows. Likely will do the some with 2010 version. Why do Preferences and Settings have to be hidden so deeply in a non-intuitive place ?

TIME (20 minutes later) to Uninstall Office 2010 beta. Despite a configuration during Install to leave all previous Office programs, It only left Excel 2003, and deleted Word, Outlook, Powerpoint and Publisher. I really don't appreciate having to reinstall those after Uninstalling this Bloatware 2010, which has the same ugly Interface as Office 2007, only more crowded with nonsense.

Whither HP - I had some documents that needed to be faxed, and I have no FAX, so I planned to scan them into a MS Word Document, email the Word document to someone who could/would FAX them for me. Too bad my scanner didn't want to work under Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit.
I hadn't installed the HP software as Windows 7 knew about the printer. So I go download 311 Meg of 64 bit drivers and software from HP, and as I go to Install: It crashes, giving me obscure error messages. Calling HP support is useless as it puts you on hold for 30 minutes before you get to a new hire in India that knows nothing. Using my own instincts, I unplugged the USB cable from the printer, and temporarily turned off my Norton AntiVirus, and then the Install worked (although I had to drill down two layers to make sure it didn't secretly install Yahoo Toolbar). So the scanning function of my printer now works under Windows 7. Meanwhile the associated program "HP Photosmart Essentials version 3.5" flat doesn't work in Windows 7 - 64 bit. If you email HP support, the fools there just tell you to try and reinstall.

Death of Geocities Time Magazine this week has a good story
on the demise of Yahoo/Geocities. Read it here.
Yahoo's lame explanation is here.


.

Recipe 2 (see Nov 8)

Macaroni & Cheese

In 2 quart sauce pot on low heat, mix
3 cups Whole Milk
6 Tbs Flour, added slowly while stirring
6 Tbs Butter
2 10 oz Sticks of Kraft Extra Sharp Cracker Barrel, shredded. Many substitutes don't work.

While Cheese sauce in pot heats and ingrediants melt together,
Bring large pot of salted water to racing boil, and
cook 16 oz Macaroni - (Muellers Large Elbows work best), slightly under cook
about 2 minutes less than package says.

In Large Glass or Corningware Bowl pour about 1/4 of cheese sauce on bottom,
then add extra-well drained Macaroni; followed by rest of cheese sauce, and gently stir it
all together.

Bake for 30 minutes in 350 degree oven, covered the first 20 minutes.

Serves 6.

Leftovers the next day are exquisite in Tomato Soup.
Tomato Soup (my receipe) : In Medium pot over low heat, mix

1 Can Campbells Condensed Tomato Soup
6 oz Milk
2 Tbs Tomato Paste
1/4 tsp Onion salt, 1/8 tsp black pepper

Soup or Macaroni good topped with some KRAFT Macaroni & Cheese Cheese Topping.
UPC code 21000 61505
Hard to find may- be shelved with Parmesan Cheese in Pasta Aisle in
3 oz Blue Cannister

In Memory of my Mother: Just under a year ago that she passed at age 94. She had two recipes that her family loved. Let me post one today, and one tomorrow.

Bread Pudding: For Breakfast or dessert.
In Large mixing bowl mix:
12 oz of Apples and Apricot Sauce. One can always pulverize canned apricots in food processor
and mix 50/50 with commercial Apple Sauce.
2 eggs
4 Tbs Dark Brown Sugar
1/2 tsp Salt
2/3 tsp Cinnamon
4 Tbs of melted butter - Melt butter in baking dish

Crumble in and mix well with ~10 slices stale white bread. End slices work well.
Mixture should be well moistened but not soggy, add more bread if needed.
Transfer to baking dish.

Bake uncovered for 30 minutes at 350 degrees in Glass or Corningware dish.
Depending on oven, Set for Broil last 3 minutes for crispy top.

Let cool 10 minutes before serving.

SERVES 4

Aero Snap - This new feature of Windows 7 which Microsoft even brags about in a commercial is one I detest. Luckily it's not too hard, but hardly intuitive to be able to turn it off. Instructions are here for turning it off. Aero Snap allows user to drag a window to the top of the screen to maximize the window automatically, or to the left or right side of the screen to resize the window to fill and take up half of the screen real estate on the moved side automatically.

Windows 7 - So right on time, October 22, 2009 UPS delivers from Amazon my copy of Windows 7, that I had signed up for in June at 60% off. Amazon didn't bill me till it shipped, so that was nice.

Apple claims that it will be later this year before they have a new version of BootCamp allowing for Windows 7 installation on Intel based Macintoshs, and in any event they won't support my 2006 MacPro. Perhaps because I have upgraded to a Radeon 4870 graphics card in such a MacPro, I was able to install Windows 7 on its own hard drive and run BootCamp 3.0 ( found on the OS X 10.6 Install DVD) to install 64 bit drivers for the Apple Keyboard, Bluetooth, sound etc. I got the latest video drivers straight from the manufacturer.

I didn't find Windows 7 to be running so fast like Microsoft claimed, but at least I didn't have to telephone Microsoft support in India because I was reinstalling Office 2003 with an already used Activation code; my existing code activated it over the net.

If Windows 7 is so much better and easier to use, why are there dozens and dozens of books on how to use it ? ? ? The book that might be best "Windows 7 - The Missing Manual" is itself missing, not to be published until January.

Free AntiVirus: Microsoft has now released a Free AntiVirus program. Waiting on reviews. Likely not as all-encompassing as a Norton, Kaspersky or McAfee.

Norton AntiVirus - This week Norton started selling the 2010 versions of its AntiVirus and "Internet Security" programs. I typically buy them at Frys when they're sold with big rebates, and save them for when my current installation has expired. It was last April when I installed 2009 Norton on my Windows Systems (Windows XP Pro, Windows Vista Home Premium, Windows 7 Ultimate Release Candidate). Frys had some versions on sale with rebate, so I went to buy the 2010 Norton Internet Security, and they tried to trick me into buying the 2009 Version, as they hadn't received the 2010 yet, but didn't initially tell me that.
Kaspersky always has their newest software available for download, and you can upgrade to the newest version using a "last years" activation code. Norton apparently doesn't do that.
Luckily after surfing around the Symantec (owners of Norton) web site, I stumbled across where they do in fact currently have all such available. http://www.norton.com/fo/ Norton refers to the activation code as "Product Key" there, and one should have their key/code available on the envelope of the original install disk of their 2009 product, and I did. I downloaded and upgraded, and it was a slow process, taking about 40 minutes total, but when through I had the newest 2010 software installed with 183 days left on their clock.

Nasty email: Ignore any email purporting to be from the IRS.

Read here and here

MMS comes to my iPhone:
ATT did it smart. Rumors had the network crashing from everyone starting to
send pictures with their txt messages at once. Rather than push MMS capability
to everyone, you have to Pull it down.
Just Sync your iPhone with iTunes, and click on "Check for Updates"
at which time a "Carrier Update" is offered, click
accept; it all takes less than a minute to download and install. You
then have to cycle power on your iPhone, after which to the left of
the text entry window in Messages, there is a tiny Camera icon, which
allows you to take a picture or browse for a picture to attach.

By requiring the end user to manually pull down MMS capability,
such added functionality will be spread out over a few days.

Deception by Tropicana:

I'm glad someone beat me to complaining about Trop50, a "Juice Drink" that Tropicana tricks people into thinking is low Sugar Orange Juice, when its really a mixture of only 42% Orange Juice and water. Now why wouldn't everyone want to pay Orange Juice Prices for water? And shouldn't it be called Trop42?

The evidence is here:

Spam from Apple: So I get an email today from Apple touting
the new iPod Nano, and say to my self:

"Self, what can the Nano do that my iPhone can't?" "Isn't the iPhone much better?"

Only shortcoming I could identify is the Nano has a built in Pedometer. So I go to download a Pedometer program for my iPhone from the "App" store, and am confronted with dozens. How to choose??

So I Google, and read the reviews.

The one that appears to be best is "iTreadmill", which I'm about to buy.
Wish me luck.

GPS applications for iPhone

2 1/2 years ago, I bought a Garmin Nuvi 360 instead of an iPhone, choosing to wait till the iPhone had the features I wanted. I was glad to make that decision

I bought an iPhone 3GS 2 months ago, and still love it. Great to have email,Google and some wonderful apps in my pocket

Two major GPS apps are now available for the iPhone, both have major negatives based on reviews I have read.

1. Navagon - $69.99 till August 31. Then $99.99
- Won't do text to speech - ie doesn't name streets
- Voice is too low in volume for many reviewers.
- Street names are in hard to read font.
- May have trouble maintaining satellite contact
- Does not have "Apple" like interface
- Not well integrated with CONTACTS


2. Tom Tom
- Won't do text to speech
- POI database seems out of date.
- Heavy battery drain
- Announces turns to make too late for some

3. ATT Navigator
Universally hated because
- Very slow - dependent on ATT Network to pull data for maps
- Monthly $10 fee.

4 Months ago I sold my Garmin 360 on Ebay, and between what that brought in and the savings not having to buy a new map, I got a Garmin Nuvi 760 from Amazon effectively free.

Advantages of Garmin 760 ($200)over iPhone apps.

- Identifies street names - has excellent text to speech
- Has a larger screen (4.5 inches)
- Can play music (built in MP3 player), handle phone calls
(blue tooth), and keep navigating.
- Known update policy - Both Navigon and Tom Tom are vague about
availability, timing and pricing of updates . Thats major for me.
i.e. When and at what price will Text to Speech be available?
- ie "Make right turn in 200 feet" or
"make right turn on Telge Rd in 200 feet".
- in iphone GPS reviews, folks who have used stand-alone GPS units
complain iPhone GPS apps aren't there yet. Folks who have not used
GPS units before generally like the iPhone apps.


Already 50 reviews posted in the App store after TomTom only
being for sale for 12 hours.