iPad 3: I read online where someone predicts the iPad 3 will be announced or released on Feb. 24, 2012; Steve Jobs birthday is Feb. 24.
Story here:

Whenever it comes out, my attitude is:
]

Why I'll never shop with OfficeMax again: Their prices are usually higher than Amazon, Staples or Office Depot, except for 2 days a year. Black Friday, and "Teacher's Day" in August. They did have a PC antivirus program at 75% off that's good for 3 Users, so I was going to buy it on Black Friday, but then they posted : "Buy Black Friday sale items online on Thanksgiving", since I was already planning to visit JCPenney and Staples on Black Friday, I made the mistake of using their web site. The web site apparently went haywire from the Surge of traffic it couldn't handle; and one CSR told me they had no Computer Experts available on Thursday. Later managers denied that, but I think I heard the truth the first time. I never got to successfully complete my order. It kept giving me incorrect error messages, or crashing me out of the order form, so I finally gave up, and bought the item at 6:25 AM on Black Friday. Later Friday I discovered 4 pending charges from OfficeMax on my ChargeCard online statement. So I telephoned Office Max to get it corrected, and although they admitted to a "Computer Glitch" they didn't want to help get the charges removed. They asked for my Order Number, but I had never gotten a Confirmation while ordering or an email confirmation, so I assumed no order was placed. It took 2 whole weeks for the OfficeMax clowns at HQ to finally get things right; and I won't bore you with the details of their Airhead staff that repeatedly lied to me, suffice it to say I'm totally alienated.

Ink cartridges for Canon InkJet printers: Canon models MG5320 and MX882 use 226 and 225 Canon Ink cartridges, and a full set of 5 will cost one $71.94

However currently Fry's is selling the discontinued Model MG5220 for $49.99, and it comes with a full set of the same 5 ink cartridges, and a Virgin $20 Print Head. Makes a lot of sense to buy one or more, throw away the printer, and keep the consumables.

Cyber Monday ? : Received an email from a web vendor I bought some merchandize from a month ago, touting their Cyber Sale. Too bad the "Sale" price was higher than what I previously paid. Conclusion. No Sale.

Whither PayPal: Got an email today from PayPal, telling me they're going to put up to a 21 day hold on any funds from eBay sales in the future. I asked them "Should I stop using PayPal, or should i put a 21 day hold on shipping items from eBay?"
None of the lame excuses PayPal used for doing this apply to me. NONE.

Finally Found some: I've been looking in spice sections for 2 years now for dried Sweet Pepper Flakes. Finally found some yesterday, made by Zatarain's at a local Walmart's Grocery Section. I use it in Spaghetti Sauce and in Cajun recipes too.

STEVE JOBS - Difficult to work for because of his overbearing attention to detail, but it was the secret to his success.

What I find amazing about Steve Jobs that no one is mentioning is his success with Apple Stores. Xerox, IBM, Atari and Gateway amongst others quickly gave up trying to run Retail stores, only losing money on their operations. Apple makes bundles of money from their stores and is still expanding; and those stores were over seen in all detail by Steve. And even after all their success he was still looking for ways to improve them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Store

RIP ZUNE : Microsoft's attempt of gravy training off Apple's iPod MP3 player was never much of a success, and yesterday Microsoft gave up the ghost, declaring
the end of ZUNE.

Second worst Business Decision this year: Netflix is busy watching its stock plunge and its subscribers disappear with its' recent price hikes. I guess Bank of America wants to similarly shoot itself in the foot. After umpteen years of pushing Debit Cards, they now want to charge a monthly fee for their use. I never have had a debit card, despite tellers begging me over the years. One just doesn't have the same leverage in a dispute with merchants. With a Debit Card, the merchant/bank has your money already. With a Credit Card, they don't. Many's the time I've had a merchant refund my money after a problematic purchase ONLY because I had used a Credit Card, and could ask for a Charge Back. Story here: Then I like the affinity Credit Cards that give me points toward Hotel Stays, Airline Tickets, Room Credits on a Cruise, etc, etc.

Many friends and colleagues tell me that today (Monday Oct. 3) they'll be applying for a free debit card with their credit union, and ceasing all relationships with Bank of America.

Not so valued by AT&T this year. The last 3 years AT&T allowed owners of iPhones to upgrade to the new model with full discount after 12 months of ownership. This year even 15 months isn't enough.
I ordered my iPhone 4 Day 1, but I'm not allowed full discount yet. No "Discount" = No Sale

As a valued AT&T customer, you qualify for a discounted iPhone upgrade at two-year commitment pricing plus $250, along with a two-year commitment and an $18 upgrade fee. Please proceed with the online upgrade process for pricing details. You may qualify for a full discount on a standard iPhone upgrade on 12/02/2011

Really stupid of AT&T; It will cost me $175 Early Termination Fee to cancel my iPhone account, and Then I can get ~$400 on Ebay selling my iPhone 4; so it makes economic sense for me NOT to stay with AT&T.

Yahoo Messenger : I like using Yahoo Messenger on my iPhone to minimize ATT overpriced TXT messages; and often conversations are continued later from my PC using the Desktop version, now at Version 11. However I hate Yahoo's installer, which by default installs Yahoo Toolbar in your browser, which is a waste of Browser space, and its been many years now that Google is a better search engine than Yahoo. If you uncheck "Install Yahoo Tool Bar" the Installer will Install it anyway, unless you first select "Custom Install", and then uncheck Yahoo Tool Bar AGAIN.

Bye Bye Netflix: NETFLIX - I quit due to increasing prices, and too many defective DVDs. Today I receive in my USPS junk mail, an insert from Blockbuster inviting to join with a free month. They offer"Unlimited exchanges for free in-store movie rentals". Too bad every store I know of in Houston, TX has closed. Then buried in the fine print of their Terms of Service, they freely admit to doing what Neflix got sued over:

Blockbuster reserves the right to determine product allocation among members in its sole discretion.

Weather Radio: Now that my Weather Radio with built in 5" analog B&W TV is obsolete, it's been discarded, and I've been looking for a new unit w1th 2 requirements.

1. It had to send Warning alarms of impending events: Tornados, etc.
2. It had to run off batteries. Since, comes a weather emergency, loss of power is common.

I had a hard time finding a unit that did both, and finally settled for the
Midland WR-300, which I bought through Amazon.

http://midlandradio.com/Desktops-Weather.OCS/WR-300

I was disappointed that it wouldn't use and recharge rechargeable batteries, like my old,
5 pound hulk with its TV; but it runs off AC, and automatically swiches to its 4 AA batteries if it loses power.
I'll stuff it with Lithium Batteries that run far longer than alkalines,
likely 3 or 4 days, but once it loses power, the thing loses all its settings.

Norton nastyness: I like to have all my Monitor screen available to me, or as much as possible, thus I am VERY ANNOYED that Norton Internet Security 2012 Secretly, without giving one a choice during its installation, Installs, a Norton Tool Bar in your Browser, and a Norton Widget in top right hand corner of the screen.

Both of them have been deactivated and removed from my system.

Norton for 2012: If you're running a legal copy of Norton AntiVirus, Norton Internet Security, or Norton 360; you may download and install a free update to the 2012 version here.

DirecTv and TiVo : September 3 marked the 3 year anniversary of DirecTv signing an agreement with TiVo (so they wouldn't be sued for DVR patent infringement) and promising a new HD DVR with TiVo. 2008 story here. Since then its always just 6 months off; and as far as I'm concerned DirecTv has zero credibility regarding a new TiVo unit.

Firefox 5 - Released today June 22, 2011. It's Fast You can download it here.

Major Breakthrough in photography !! I want one. The New York Times carries the story here.

The company's website is here.

..

Dell does a good thing: Not as good as if they came with the computer (like they used to), but:

Dell Customers can now request a set of backup discs containing the factory-installed operating system as well as the device drivers and utilities specific to your system.

One just needs to visit the web site:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dellcare/en/backupcd_form?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

I requested mine today: 6/15/2011, I'll give a followup if/when they arrive.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
FOLLOWUP: 6/16 : I get an email from India where they refuse to do anything since the system is more than 1 year old, and only refer to me a phone number that one uses to get For Fee support from India.

I wrote a complaint to M.Dell@dell.com; and we'll see what happens now.

Symantec: Disgraceful the way things are sold with rebates, and then the rebates specifications make you jump through hoops, so maybe they'll have an excuse to deny you. Then they may take 3 months to send you your rebate payment. iOmega was famous for taking the longest back in 2001. Symantec at least it's 4 weeks exactly between mailing in for rebate and receiving Debit cards for ones' rebate. Not especially good, but better than most everybody else.

ATT iPhone moves data faster than the Verizon iPhone does: That's what PC World concluded. Story is here:

US BANKING CRAZINESS : Some time back I got a US MAIL letter from Capital One saying: ..."your Sony Card account is now with Capital One..." Turns out that is totally untrue. Capital One is taking over the Chase Account (likely hacked at Epsilon) on June 1; but no one at Capital One knows about it, and no one at Chase knows about it. Calling either Bank will give you a different answer for every person you talk to.

Could get worse. If were to call a normal CapitalOne CC 800 number, you'd get connected to a Third World Call Center where you'd be incorrectly told that all CapitalOne priviledges now apply; i.e. No 3% transaction fee for foreign currency transactions.

So a Chase Sony Card holder who unexpectedly was still charged Chase fees might call his cousin the lawyer who'd start a major class action law suit against Chase and CapitalOne.

Microsoft Money: For unknown reasons, Microsoft discontinued Microsoft Money, with the 2008 Version being the last one released. Now however Microsoft has made available a FREE "Sunset" Version that does not require Activation. Get it here :DOWNLOAD MS MONEY

AT&T caps Internet useage for dsl and Uverse: Buried in an email received from AT&T is the following:

As of May 2, 2011, AT&T's residential DSL High Speed Internet plans will have a usage allowance of 150 Gigabytes ("GB") per month, and its residential U-verse High Speed Internet plans will have a usage allowance of 250 Gigabytes ("GB") per month. The usage allowance is the amount of data you can send and receive each month

and

What will happen if I exceed my monthly usage allowance?
You will receive a notice the first time your usage exceeds the applicable monthly allowance.

In the following months, we will send you additional notices each month when your usage exceeds 65%, 90% and 100% of your monthly usage allowance. If you exceed your monthly allowance a second time, AT&T will send you a notice advising you that the next time you exceed your allowance - the third time - you will be billed $10 for each 50 GB of data over your allowance.

We will continue to send you courtesy notifications when your usage exceeds 65%, 90% and 100% of your monthly usage allowance to keep you informed about your usage patterns. All of these notices will remind you of what your monthly usage allowance is, provide you with information to help you understand broadband data usage, offer you tips on how to effectively control your usage to stay below your monthly allowance, and explain what your options are if you exceed your allowance in future billing periods. For example, you can modify your usage patterns to stay below your monthly usage allowance; continue your normal usage patterns and pay $10 for each additional 50 GB of data over your monthly allowance; or terminate your service, consistent with the terms of any special pricing offer that you previously accepted.

Importantly, if you do not receive a notice from AT&T, it means that you have not exceeded your monthly usage allowance. In some cases, it may mean that we cannot measure your usage yet. Either way, you should not be concerned about your usage patterns for billing purposes.

Amazon.com : Get free 5 Gigs of "Cloud" storage for music or data files.

FIREFOX 4.0 Just go to http://www.mozilla.com to download the new Firefox 4.0. And I'm pleased my favorite add-in for my favorite Browser is compatible with the new version. Ghostery can block all spyware.

Ghostery is now available in versions for Safari and Internet Explorer. Ghostery is a free download at http://www.ghostery.com

In contrast is a poor employer that still thinks it's a monopoly:

If you write to AT&T, what ever lame boilerplate they respond to you with is followed up with:

This e-mail and any files transmitted with it are the property of AT&T, are confidential, and are intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to which this e-mail is addressed. If you are not one of the named recipient(s) or otherwise have reason to believe that you have received this message in error, please notify the sender and delete this message immediately from your computer. Any other use, retention, dissemination, forwarding, printing, or copying of this e-mail is strictly prohibited.

Apple proves what a good employer it is to its employees: I still think they practice age discrimination, but if you're employed, they treat you better than any employer I ever had, witness this letter to their employees in Japan (as found on MacRumors.com today)

To Our Team in Japan,

We have all been following the unfolding disaster in Japan. Our hearts go out to you and your families, as well as all of your countrymen who have been touched by this tragedy.

If you need time or resources to visit or care for your families, please see HR and we will help you. If you are aware of any supplies that are needed, please also tell HR and we will do what we can to arrange delivery.

Again, our hearts go out to you during this unimaginable crisis.
Please stay safe.
Steve and the entire Executive Team:

and then more on the EdibleApple.com website:

Kevin Rose relayed a story from an Apple employee in Japan who detailed Apple’s efforts at one of their retail stores to provide the masses with free wifi and unfettered use of Apple products so that folks could keep up with the news and contact loved ones and relatives.

You know how in disaster movies, people on the street gather around electronic shops that have TVs in the display windows so they can stay informed with what is going on? In this digital age, that’s what the Tokyo Apple stores became. Staff brought out surge protectors and extension cords with 10s of iOS device adapters so people could charge their phones & pads and contact their loved ones. Even after we finally had to close 10pm, crowds of people huddled in front of our stores to use the wifi into the night, as it was still the only way to get access to the outside world.

Apple also let employees and executives sleep in the Apple Store in addition to offering to cover any incurred expenses employees generated staying at hotels and paying for taxis in order to get where they needed to go.

“We want to help our customers connect with loved ones in Japan in anyway we can,” senior AT&T Vice President Mark Collins explained. “Connecting with family and friends is most important at times like this- we want to make it as easy and worry free as possible for our customers.”

AT&T comes Through: As stated in my February 14 posting; my AT&T Mobility account is now reflecting an extra 1000 rollover minutes. I had thought it'd appear with a new billing cycle, but no, it just appeared 3 weeks after submitting for them. In 5 years with Cingular, and now AT&T Mobility, I've never used one rollover minute, but it's nice never to have to worry about going over my allotted minutes and paying 45 cents a minute for each extra minute.

More on my Ooma: I love being able to block any telemarketer even those who use loopholes in DO NOT CALL law, i.e. Huckabee. I just split the output for phones on the Ooma, and ran a line to my legacy phone wiring. Now I can put a phone in any of my old outlets, and by running a line to my DirecTv I have Caller ID showing up on TV when phone rings. GREAT.

Windows 7, Service Pack 1: The Service Pack is now freely available for download at Microsoft.com I had no trouble what so ever installing on home systems, although one system that had a "Release Candidate" version, had to have that uninstalled first. Took over an hour to download and Install, but no glitches, and all seems well.

Yahoo News publishes secret formula for Coca Cola: Read it here:

ATT Promotion for their iPhone Customers: Send a TXT Message to 11113020 with the message / Subject of YES and in a month, you'll have 1000 extra Roll-Over Minutes added to your ATT Cellular account.
Details here:

WiFi issues: If you're having grief maintaining a WiFi connection in your house or apartment, prehaps a neighbor is using the same "Channel" as you and interfering. Used to be you could download a "WiFi Stumbler" program like "eWiFi" on your iPhone and it'd identify all the WiFi signals it could see. Then you could see if you needed to change "Channel". Last March, Apple removed all such programs from the App Store, perhaps because the programs could be used to help one without WiFi to glom onto a neighbors WiF for free.

So what's someone to do to check on possible signal conflicts? Luckily there's at least one web based program that peforms such functionality to assist one: Just use:

http://tools.meraki.com/stumbler

.

Twitter won't save you: Excellent review of a book about the downside of technology on the Internet. Read it here:

iPhone 4: Verizon vs AT&T models: Best article I've read comparing and contrasting the two models; by David Pogue of the N.Y. Times. Read it here.

Verizon doesn't have capacity for a flood of iPhones either: The President of Verizon snarkily promised they wouldn't have issues handling all the iPhones they were going to sell, like AT&T had. Well that lasted all of 2 hours before they had problems; Story here:

Chevrolet Volt: Interesting review of test driving a Chevrolet Volt, GM's "electric" car. Prolly
enough negative comments that I wouldn't consider buying one.

Google getting less useful: Washington Post today had a story that's a case study of the Google signal to noise ratio upon searching for a specific answer is getting ever lower. I often find a useless hit that's just Ask.com.

P.S. Lucky I use Firefox with the Ghostery add-on as the Washington Post website had seven instances of Spyware.

AT&T admits it can't run POTS: AT&T applied to the FCC for permission to shut down POTS last month. I called in to ask when I would receive the unearned portion of my previous bill (they bill in advance) and was told "The check was cut yesterday". Should I believe that or is that from a script?

AT&T Mobility gets bad publicity: So yesterday at lunch time I'm listening to Jim Rome trying to interview Aaron Rogers about the up coming NFL Championship game. Rogers called in from Green Bay, Wisconsin on his iPhone. 3 separate times the call dropped or turned into a garbled staticy mess like it was an analog call. As Green Bay fan noticed here. Jim Rome proceeded with a long verbal tirade about how bad AT&T cell phone service is. And this year's ratings of cellular companies for consumer service rated AT&T worst. It took AT&T many years and a lot of effort to replace Sprint PCS as worst.

IDIOTS AT AT&T: So January 7, my AT&T POTS telephone number was ported over to Ooma.
Then Jan. 18, I receive a Postal Mail from AT&T (dated Jan. 11) asking me whether the disconnect of POTS was authorized. Why would they not call Jan 2 or at worst on Jan 7 BEFORE when they knew of the disconnect coming? Makes me happy to be done with those clowns.

Landline now with Ooma instead of AT&T: Today was my porting day, and my 23 year old ATT landline is now handled by Ooma. Was only down for 3 hours this AM.

AT&T doesn't keep it's promises, I keep mine.

Goodbye POTS : POTS = Plain Old Telephone Service (or Landline); I'm so annoyed at the dishonesty of AT&T. They keep hitting me with junk email, junk postal mail, and junk phone calls, despite assuring me after each complaint that I'm opted out and it won't happen again. Then everyone of their web sites hit you with SPYWARE, and they totally dishonestly deny that they're doing that. SO I had to do something to vote my displeasure. So I've now connected OOMA to my U-Verse Internet, and in another 2 weeks, if OOMA works as well as its seems to after hooking it up, I'll port my AT&T phone number over to OOMA, and GOODBYE POTS.

OOMA was a pleasure to hook up. Take it out of the box, plug an Ethernet cable into a free Ethernet port on the U-Verse Wireless Router/Modem, plug a phone into the OOMA,; go online and register the OOMA, and then power up the OOMA, and wait for it to check for firmware updates, and Bingo, you're good to go. Only gotcha is OOMA's Getting Started Guide omits the go online and register requirement. I bought it online from Costco, at a sale price, with free shipping, and a $50 credit on my OOMA account for Foreign phone calls (about 2 cents a minute). In the unlikely event I decide I don't like the Ooma, Costco is excellent about taking returns.

FOLLOWUP: I'm now informed that my AT&T number will be ported (transferred) to Ooma on January 7, 2011.

Your smart phone is spying on you: Both Browsers and Apps, and unlike Computer Browsers, at present there's no way to stop the total breach of your privacy. Story here:

84% of Web sites track you with spyware:
USA Today has good article on the subject
Read it here:
Read my Dec. 4, 2010 Blog post for how to stop it
on your computer.

BLOCK Txt messages on your AT&T cell phone: ATT has a secret web site that allows you to block email addresses from sending you txt messages: http://mymessages.wireless.att.com . You’ll need to register there, even if you already have an AT&T login for your regular account. One can block all SMS messages and/or multimedia messages sent to you as email. This is how spammers can get to you — they send junk txt messages to MobileNumber@txt.att.net or MobileNumber@mms.att.net. Its probably best to block both of them.

DO NOT TRACK : USA Today had a story on how most websites put spyware on your computer, and even commonly used techniques (some previously mentioned here - see my Oct. 25, 2010 post) do not fully stop it. The way to fully stop it, AND IDENTIFY WHO IS USING WHAT SPYWARE, is to install Ghostery for the Firefox Browser, and only use Firefox as your Internet Browser, unless another Browser allows Do Not Track add-ons. Tracker Block says their program should be used too, with Firefox.

AT&T, I discovered, despite claiming not to use Spyware, uses Webtrends. Go to the WebTrends website and see how they advertise their Spyware to companies.

Even USA Today, which ran the story, uses Spyware, one discovers after installing Ghostery.

I have been running Norton Anti Virus Quick Scan a few times a day to remove Spyware, but after installing the above mentioned Firefox Add-Ins, instead of finding and deleting its usual 4 to 12 instances of Spyware, Norton found Zero ! And an added benefit, my Uverse 12mbps Internet connection tests 10% faster than before I installed Ghostery, since any speed test is no longer competing with Spyware. Speakeasy.net speed tests result of 11.4 to 11.9 mbps download speed depending on location of test were obtained, and distance had no correlation to speed.

I've tested Firefox with its privacy add-ins on Windows 7 - 64 bit, Windows XP, and Windows Vista 32 bit and Mac OS X 10.5.6 - 32 bit; so I expect it'd work most any other OS.

Followup - Default settings for Ghostery do next to nothing. It must be manually turned on after Install. : FireFox Tools> add-on's> Extensions> Ghostery> Options button> Blocking tab> "Select" All & "ON"> Options Tab Enable Auto Update> Performance Tab - Enable all Scans but NOT Lite mode.>Save.

Thanksgiving Leftovers: To do something with leftover Turkey meat: Today I'll make chili, using a modified Consumers Reports recipe. CR came up with a chili recipe to have to compare against canned chili many years ago. I omit corn, and use more beans amongst changes.

12 oz Ground turkey
4 strips bacon
1/2 Garlic Bulb
2 Medium Onions
1/2 Green Pepper
1 TBS Garlic Wine Vinegar
1 tsp salt
5 Tbs Chili Powder
2 16 oz cans Pea beans
1 Tbs Dark Brown Sugar
16 oz Hunts tomato Sauce
3 Tbs Olive Oil

In large skillet for over an hour heat coarsely chopped onions, garlic and pepper on low heat in Olive Oil, stirring frequently. Separately brown bacon, real or turkey bacon. Add ground turkey,
cooked bacon, to onion mix and cook for 10 minutes. Add drained beans, tomato sauce, spices and heat covered on low heat for 30 minutes. Add extra water, chili, salt or brown sugar to taste.

Good with Fritos, or fresh home-made bread.

Going to 12 mbps Internet: ATT dsl maxes out at 6 mbps; so if I wanted faster through ATT, I was forced to go to Uverse, not a happy prospect knowing how disorganized Uverse is (they totally fubarred a UVerse TV installation last January, so I upgraded my DirecTv instead), with half of ATT Broadband/Uverse support in the Phillipines, and the rest usually giving out Bogus information. I had to use an ATT supplied Uverse Modem, a 2Wire model 3600HGV, which none of the Uverse CSRs Level 1 or Level 2 know squat about. They make up answers. Phillipine support is stumped by most any question. ATT sent me email, snail mail, phone calls, and cell txt messages reminding me about my impending UVerse TV Install (I was getting only Uverse Internet)
CSR BOGUS made up answers:
1. You don't need dsl filters any more.
BOGUS The box from 2Wire, sent by ATT has a full set of dsl filters
2. It may take hours for the "order" to float through the system, wait till 8 PM before activating.
BOGUS I tried activating as soon as my line was lighting up the 2Wire modem (green at Broadband), 5 minutes later I was on the Internet again. (At 11 AM), but still got an automated phone call from Uverse at 6 PM, reminding me to try to activate at 8 PM.
3. I was told there was no way to reconfigure the modem to a 192.168. 0.1 IP# to match my existing network, and I was stuck with its default 192.168.1.255 address; and any change would negatively impact the ATT network anyway. One CSR said use another router behind the 2Wire, another said that's not supported; don't do it. I was almost ready to cancel my Uverse order.
Again, Totally Bogus, I went to SETTINGS, LAN, DHCP in the modem setup; and there is the Menu for changing the modems default IP. Couldn't be simpler, once you knew where to go. I found that menu by trial and error. And apparently CSRs are trained to lie.

Although ATT supplies dsl with no fees or hardware charges, the same is not true for UVerse. I negotiated away the SETUP fee and hardware charge for Uverse Internet before I would accept it.

No proper manual is supplied with the "Self Install" kit, luckily I set it all up while I still had dsl,
and Google is one's friend.

I had to reconfigure the Security on my 2Wire modem for my existing network, a new SSID (from my existing Network) that didn't broadcast , and a new 26 character WPA password to match what my network already used. That worked well for all devices (Printers, Laptop, 2 Desktops, iPhone, DirecTv DVR) except my Linksys WET54G Bridges that connect my Sony model 460 BlueRay player to the Internet. It uses older WPA encryption, and it had to be reconfigured to match what the 2Wire would accept. Good thing I have 20 years experience with TCP/IP and 10 years experience with WiFi; and lots of Networking experience, one needs to know about subnets and masks.After my phone line was switched over (My Voice line was only down for a few minutes, 2 separate times).

I tested my new Network Speed. Generally as expected and hoped for, double of what I got when I had 6 mbps dsl. Now 10 mbps or better actual download locally, somewhat less when farther away websites are chosen. 8 mbps on WiFi with my iPhone, faster from another desktop on wifi. Need to download again Windows 7 Service Pack release candidate to test speed. Desktop speed tested at dslreports.com.

Followup: Early Sunday morning my iPhone tested at 10.95 mbps download WiFi speed, using the free App. "Speed Test".

Now to see if my next ATT bill credits me for having my dsl shut off on November 27, 2010, and doesn't "forget" to credit the sales tax that was charged on it. Then to make sure a friend who "referred" me to Uverse gets his $50 referral credit.

Engineering for Prosperity: Seems like all too many items are now only "Made in China" and are of poor quality, designed to fall apart in a few years so they can sell you another.

Case in point: A 40 year old Rival Electric Can Opener Model 765. Sturdy, Solid, large thick chromed metal lever, weighs enough to stay put; made in the United States (K.C., Mo). Was starting to act like it had a problem with the gears moving, making sounds like it was struggling. I went to a local High End Hardware store, and all they had were the same cheap $20 Can Openers one could find in Walmart; light weight, plastic piercing lever, small blade, or as I describe it: JUNK. I expressed my displeasure to them and kept looking, but never found an Electric Can Opener even close to the quality of my old one. So I unplugged my geriatric unit, removed 6 screws from the back to reveal the insides, and as I had finally guessed the grease on the gears had congealed over the years. So I sprayed everything in sight with WD-40, reassembled, and tested. It was acting almost as good as new! So then I re-removed the back and put some Lubriplate grease on the gears. Now acting better than new, Good for another 40 years I figure. In the meantime, I have an instant savings of $50 plus tax and shipping.

The Check is in the Mail: I was notified today that my payment for trading in my 2006 MacPro is on its way from Powermax. I wasn't pleased with their taking 6 plus weeks to process my trade, but all seems to be ending well. They offer trade-in values exactly inline with eBay values, so it saves the grief of the eBay process to sell to them. When I Googled to see if anyone had any complaints about Powermax, I found none, although when someone asked how they could afford to offer relatively high trade-in prices, the answer was "Have you seen their selling prices for used Macintoshs?" Indeed their selling price is like 20% off new, and roughly double their trade-in price. Must be more of a demand for warranted used Macs than I knew. I however am in no position to warrant a used Macintosh of mine for 3 months when I sell it. I had upgraded over the years (more memory, 2nd Optical Drive, better Video card) that had increased its value.

Windows 7 Service Pack 1: Release Candidate 1 is now available for downloading here:
If you installed the earlier beta version it needs to be uninstalled first before installing the Release Candidate. Instructions here. Thank goodness for Google as Uninstalling the Beta is not at all intuitive. I have a 6 Core 3.33 Ghz Intel Xeon processor, but it still, as Microsoft warns you at beginning of the Release Candidate install, takes over an hour to do the install.

Followup: Windows 7 SP1 RC is set to expire on November 30, 2011. The platform will begin to highlight the coming expiration date on August 30, 2011.

.

MS Office 2011 for Macintosh : When a reviewer (David Pogue, NY Times) who 90% ++ of the time writes glowing reviews writes a scathing review of a product, it has serious credibility.
The review in question is MS Office 2011 for the Macintosh. The review is so well written that
my copy of MS Office 2011, due in today from Amazon, will be returned unopened for refund.

Followup 10/27: Office 2011 has now been shipped back to Amazon. Thank you David Pogue.

Followup 11/1: Amazon has now issued a full refund, including shipping.

Staples giving you Spyware ? I received a $20 off coupon in the mail from Staples. Valid only today, only at a new Staples. So I went online to double check the address as the map on the back of the coupon was poor. I entered my zip code, and up came an error message telling me to enable cookies. However I HAVE COOKIES ENABLED. What is disabled is 3rd party cookies, and Adobe Super Cookies, usually used only to leave behind spyware or tracking cookies.

So I conclude STAPLES needs to track me it thinks. NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.

FOLLOWUP: After several emails back and forth to Staples, Staples confessed to using Spyware: Read it and decide:

To further improve your shopping experience, Staples partners with third party vendors to evaluate how the Website is used and to provide continuous improvement for our services. Like most websites, we use "cookies" for a variety of purposes to improve your visits to the Website.

MS Office 2010 : Most PCs now come with Windows 7, 64-bit preinstalled. You'd think you ought then install the 64-bit version of MS Office 2010 for best compatibility. You'd be wrong. If you manually find the x64 folder on the DVD, and then run the Setup from within that folder, a Setup Warning appears:

You cannot install the 64-bit version of Office 2010 because you have 32-bit Office products installed. These 32-bit products are not supported with 64-bit Installations:

Microsoft Office FrontPage 2003
Microsoft Office Single Image 2010
Microsoft Enterprise 2007'

If you want to install 64-bit Office 2010, you must uninstall all 32-bit Office products first, and then run setup.exe in the x64 folder. If you want to install 32-bit Office 2010, close this Setup Program, and then either go to the x86 folder at the root of your CD or DVD and run setup.exe, or get 32-bit Office 2010 from the same place you purchased 64-bit Office 2010.

Strange, I could have sworn the same company wrote amd published all versions of Windows and Office, and no such conflicts should exist !

I followed a suggestion on the Retail packaging and downloaded the Installer from http://ofiice.com/downloadoffice operating under the incorrect assumption that Microsoft would slipstream a newer Install version of Office 2010 with all currently available updates and patches installed. WRONG. Further that website only transferred the 32-bit version, and hid the option to obtain the 64-bit version.

Elsewhere on the Microsoft website they state the following:

Office 2010 products are available in 64-bit versions; however, for the best productivity and user experience, Microsoft recommends 32-bit Office 2010 for both 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems. Office 64-bit is optimized for advanced data analysis scenarios that most users don’t require, and existing 32-bit add-ins are not supported on Office 64-bit.

Seems like they're admitting how incompatible the 64-bit version is.

Your Computer / browser is likely spying on you. In addition to "3rd Party Cookies", which have zero relation to the web site you are at, there are also "Super Cookies", used because most browsers now easily let you Block 3rd party cookies. To Block 3rd party cookies in Internet Explorer, Instructions are here. For Firefox, instructions are here.

For Firefox, there is an excellent add-in to stop Super Cookies, called SuperPrivacy. It can be downloaded for free here, once installed it can be configured using their instructions. For Internet Explorer its a tad more difficult, you should go into Adobe Flash, and not allow it to store Super Cookies. Instructions here.

For a Macintosh: Use NoScript (for Firefox and you can block google analytics with it, as well as anything else)

Whither Apple: I may no longer buy anything sold by Apple. I was helping a colleague set up their iPhone 4 and they got so frustrated with iTunes, they returned the iPhone for refund after 5 days. To get refund for AppleCare the only thing the Apple web site says is to call 1-800-SOS-APPL, if you tell the automated menu system you have an Apple Care question, you get connected to a typical 3rd world support CSR in the Phillipines that doesn't under stand spoken English satisfactorily, and refused to connect one to the United States.
When did Apple reduce their support so?

This is the Electric Car I want: Already in production in Japan. See it here:

Newsday App for iPad - Better than a Newspaper. See it here.
Apparently Apple had them pull the advert.

MS Internet Explorer as Unsafe as ever: Read here and then go get Firefox

MS Money: For unknown reasons Microsoft abandoned MS Money. However one can download for free a "Sunset" version of MS Money 2008 here.

2nd DVR drive in my MacPro: Bought a 2nd Drive at Frys today. I use Pioneer Drives, as they always work well with Macintosh, and firmware updates are easy to find. Makes duplicating a CD or DVD much easier and faster to work with 2 drives. I had to return the PATA drive I bought and get a SATA drive, as Apple has changed its internal configuration in the new Mac Pro.

Minor slip-up by Apple: No drivers available for Broadcom 802.11n on my new Mac Pro to use under Vista 32 bit. Not on the BootCamp drivers section of the supplied 10.6.4 Install DVD. Luckily I found the drivers I needed on a 10.5.6 Install DVD from a MacBook.

Symantec Norton Internet Security : The 2011 Version is released. If you're running the 2010 Version its' Activation Key will work on the 2011 Version which you can obtain by clicking through here:
2011 NIS

New Mac Pro: Easy to set up for Macintosh, just put the Macintosh HD from my 4 year old Mac Pro on a new Drive sled, and mount it. In 2 minutes after it reboots all I need to do is enter the 26 digit WiFi security code, as the new Mac has 802.11n built in, old Mac didnt. Works great.

Not so simple for Windows 7. Same insertion of old drive but.....After booting, it takes 5 minutes "Loading Device Driver", and is too stupid to ask for the SSID in the WiFi connection script, so I have to dig into it to get that before 26 digit PSA code will connect me. Then Windows 7 wants to be re-authenticated as its married to the hardware, and I have new Hardware. Automated authentication fails. Luckily it provides an automated 888 number to dial in and enter 9 sets of 6 digits from screen, which it rejects at last three digits, and connects me to India where its almost impossible to understand them, and their computer keeps freezing. So I read them 9 groups of 6 digits, and they eventually read me back 9 other sets of 6 digits, and I'm authenticated. Took 20 unnecessary minutes.

PC Updates: How did a beta of Windows 7 Service Pack 1 sneak past me? I must have been vacationing too much this summer. You can find it here. Use at your own risk.

Norton Internet Security 2011 is about to be released this week they say. A beta good till Sept 27 is still available from http://www.symantec.com

Free iPhone 4 Case: Finally received my Free iPhone Case (A Belkin Shield Micra). It's one piece Clear Plastic so it covers back and edges. SO the Shiny Stainless steel external antenna is shown.

Mac Pro: Today I placed an order for the new Hurd-Papermaster model of the Mac Pro.

iPhone Jailbreaking: The Library of Congress has just ruled Jailbreaking the iPhone legal. I remember my first smart phone, a Treo 300. Having software from anywhere and anyone with no restrictions can be a disaster. Manufacturers publish SDKs so software publishers will know how to properly write software that doesn't conflict with the Operating System or each other. With no restrictions, publishers may (and often do) give in to the temptation to take shortcuts (ie use protected memory they shouldn't, or directly address the hardware rather than going through the operating system). Apple strictly enforces its' SDK rules, and won't allow improperly written software to be sold in its App store; and as a result you NEVER hear of the iPhone crashing. The Treo however didn't have that discipline and after loading a few 3rd party applications, would often lockup, or need to be rebooted so it could refind the Sprint network, after losing it. No such grief with the iPhone. So even though I could gain some additional functionality (ie Tethering) by Jailbreaking, I have zero intention of doing it.
Here's a news story with more downsides of Jailbreaking.

Free iPhone 4 Case: I just ordered mine from Apple. They designed a very nice iphone application that uses your iTunes Account to know who you are. Details here.

Case for iPhone 4. I just ordered a case for my iPhone after earlier buying and then returning cases to ATT and to BestBuy. The one I ordered is a Griffin Reveal, recommended to me by a former NASA colleague. Based upon temporarily using 3G Griffin hard shell polycarbonate cases shoe horned onto an iPhone 4, I believe this will at least 80% reduce the antenna problem. Read about it here:

iPhone 4 issues: If you hold the iPhone 4 in a normal way a
right handed person would, in the palm of your left hand, thats "Wrong".
But even Steve Jobs holds it that way. Steve's answer
"Don't hold it that way". Such total arrogance.
Not the Apple I knew and loved.
Lots more pictures of Steve and others in Apple's ads here:

iPhone 4: Just got my iPhone 4 yesterday, older iPhone 3Gs will be sold on eBay. Used the
Free App Speedtest.net, and got the following results from the ATT 3G Network.

Download Speed >3000 kbps

Upload Speed >1200 kbps

Not too shabby. None of the problems reported online here:

Off to Barcelona, and a new iPhone when I get back.

Buying an iPhone 4: Since the AT&T stores are shut down for ordering, I just ordered my iPhone 4 online at Apple.com. It's now listed as "Ships by July 14". I didn't want to wait any longer, or I wouldn't be eligible for "best pricing" next year, as initially one is eligible for reduced pricing after 17 months in contract at AT&T, but in the past 2 years ATT has shortened it to 12 months for anyone that would have had to be be in iPhone contract for 13 to 17 months.

ATT is the BP of Phone companies: Obviously cutting corners in the wrong places when for the 4th year in a row its computer systems crash when trying to authorize orders for iPhones on the first day of sales of a new model. And to add insult to injury ATT wants to charge you an $18 activation fee for this unacceptable service level?

3-D TV : My best TV only does 1080i, and its certainly not capable of showing the new 3D. Then new 3D TV sets cost double what non3D TV sets cost, manufacturers trying to pull in extra bucks from early adopters. I'll pass for now.

However, last night at 2:28 AM CDT, DirecTv updated my HR24 HD DVR Receivers firmware to version 0x3e0 from 0x3da , and it is now 3D capable.

DirecTv: I've been a DirecTv customer for 13 years, and especially liked the years where I had a TiVo DVR from DirecTv. They currently broadcast ~150 full time National Channels in HD, far more than Dish or Comcast, but 2 months ago they turned off HD broadcasting using MPEG2 which uses 50% more bandwidth than MPEG4 which they now use for all HD broadcasting. The one TiVo model (the HR10-250) that received HD broadcasts was thus crippled, and although DirecTv offered to replace it with a model capable to receiving MPEG4 HD broadcasts, I held out for their current top-of-the-line model, the HR24. I'm glad I did. While the HR24 doesn't have a User Interface as simple and elegant as a TiVo, it performs better than their earlier HR20, HR21, HR22 and HR23 models. The HR24 feature set is listed here: I like its larger hard drive, and it has capability to use SWM (one cable to feed two signals rather than two) and DECA (allowing that one cable to also carry Ethernet. While it doesn't change channels as fast as a UVerse receiver, in all other aspects it's better. My HR10 has now been sold on eBay.

DirecTv claims a TiVo MPEG4 unit will be available in about 6 months. But they've lost all credibility on that score, as that promise has been in effect since September 2008.

Flying to Europe: I'm flying to Barcelona at the end of June, and hope the current lack of issues there from volcanic ash is the case then.

Good Luck flying to Europe: Here is a nice map
showing the spread of the ash:





Double click on map to enlarge.

Click here for a list of airports and their status.

Twitter Security: As with Buzz and Facebook, default Security settings open you up to the whole world and can create bad situations. Read the following for suggestions here.

Facebook Security: The New York Times recently had an article on how to secure your account so you're not giving out information to everyone that you hadn't intended to. Read it here. Other takes on the subject are here and here.

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.