Vista is evil and should be destroyed (tm)

I’m sure that phrase is trademarked.  If it isn’t, it should be.

My mother purchased a computer a little over a year ago with Vista Home Premium.  It’s worked pretty well for her. 

When Service Pack 1 came out, she dutifully called me and said “Service Pack 1 is out, should I install it?”

Being the IT guy that I think I am, I did a bit of research, didn’t really find any issues with it to speak of, and said “Sure, absolutely, you’ll definitely want to install that Service Pack to make sure you are secure and up to date!”

Stupid me.

Ever since she installed SP1, the CDROM drive on her machine has stopped working.

The drivers are there.  It shows up as a drive in Windows Vista.  But when you try to use it, it always asks that you put a CD/DVD in the drive, even if there is one there already.

I’ve scoured technet articles, I’ve Googled.  I’ve poked.  I’ve prodded.

I uninstalled SP1.  No dice.  Still no worky.

I’m tempted to back it up, blow it away and install XP Pro on the machine.  Because face it, XP just works.

But that’s a major pain.

Anybody have any ideas?  I’ve tried removing the drivers and re-installing the drivers.  I’ve tried removing the device and letting Windows re-add it.  No dice.

Argh!

Technorati Tags: Vista,SP1,Evilness

Always carry business cards

This is a rule I’ve known for a while.  I just haven’t been following it.

You never know when you are going to be in a situation where someone wants your business card. 

This is not the case where you are just trying to give your business card out to anyone who is breathing and near you.

This is an actual case where someone comes up to you and says “Hey, I know you.  Do you have a business card?”

Previously, I would just look at the person and say “No, I sorry. I don’t.”

Now, I’m going to start carrying business cards in my wallet with me everywhere.  Because you never know where your next client will come from.  Or your next job opportunity.

Technorati Tags: Entrepreneurship,Self Promotion,Business,Marketing

WiFi will complement the home network

Not rule it.  An article on GigaOm today by Stacy Higginbotham talks about how WiFi will rule the home network.

I believe that WiFi can COMPLEMENT the home network, but it won’t rule the home network.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, as more bandwidth intensive applications come to be, the need for speed will be more prevalent.

Right now, I have a Comcast cable connection at home which is about 6,993 kb/s download and 1036 kb/s upload speed wise (this is much faster uploading than normal, but that’s what the test showed tonight at www.speedtest.net).

I look forward to the day when Verizon rolls their FIOS option out to my neighborhood.  I’ll be one of the first to sign up.

I believe that as we all get used to online video, and voice over IP (Skype anyone?) and other applications such as this, that the beauty of a wired connection is going to reign supreme over a wireless connection.

Wireless is nice for general usage, but for bandwidth intensive applications, a wired connection will rule the home network.  If you have the choice to have a wired connection or a wireless connection, I strongly advise wired, even if it is more expensive in the short run.

Technorati Tags: GigaOm,Wireless,Wired,ethernet,FIOS

Does Microsoft pay off camera companies

On Thomas Hawk’s blog, he talked about Microsoft’s new JPG format, and a quote from a Canon representative who says:

 

The big question that remains is how quickly the major camera manufacturers will begin to adopt JPG XR. Chuck Westfall, Canon's Technical Advisor/Professional Products Marketing Division, was on a panel on Thursday and commented that Canon would "love to put JPG XR into our cameras." Chuck suggested that camera manufacturers would still keep their proprietary RAW formats but would like to adopt the more flexible and better quality JPG XR in the future to replace JPG.

How on God’s green earth can Canon look at doing something like this with this new format from Microsoft and NOT consider the DNG format from Adobe?  DNG is well documented, and the adoption of such a format would be a great boon to photographers everywhere.   But instead of doing that, Canon looks like they are going to support a “Microsoft format”.

What’s the deal here?

Technorati Tags: JPG XR,DNG,Microsoft,Adobe,Canon,Nikon

PhotoSafe II to replace a laptop for travel?

Recently, I switched from using a laptop full time to a desktop full time.  It’s been an interesting transition.  Mostly good, sometimes bad.

When I travel (which is rare, but it does happen occasionally), I like to carry my laptop with me still to be able to download pictures from my camera.  A lot of the travel that I’ve done in the last year is for softball tournaments.  I tend to shoot multiple games in a day.

Also recently, uber tech blogger Kevin Tofel wrote a review of a product that sounds FANTASTIC for my needs, it’s called the Digital Foci Photo Safe II and it allows you to download your memory cards from your camera to this portable device and then once you’ve returned home, you can download those photos  from the portable safe to your desktop or laptop computer.

Sounds great, doesn’t it?

Here’s my only problem with the device: I can’t rename the files as they are downloaded to the device.

What I do is shoot softball and baseball tournaments.  At those tournaments, I shoot a card per game, and then when I get home or on my lapotp, I download with the following rename convention:

YEAR-MONTH-DAY-NAMEOFTEAM

I don’t see a way to do this with this device.  Without being able to do that, the device would be incredibly difficult to use for my purposes.

But if it did, oh my goodness. That would be AWESOME and totally worth the price of admission, which is apparently $189 for a 160gb version.

Kevin, does it do this?

Technorati Tags: Tofel,JKOnTheRun,Digital Foci Photo Safe,storage

BlackberryDevCamp like iPhoneDevCamp?

When the first iPhone was released, there was an event in California called iPhoneDevCamp and bunch of folks got together and explored the possibilities of developing for the iPhone.

Since the second version of the iPhone has just been released (you already knew this unless you’ve been under a rock in lower Kazakstan), there is an upcoming iPhoneDevCamp 2, for the 3G iPhone that was just released.

But is there a similar event for Blackberry users?

There are a couple applications that are available for the iPhone that would be REALLY nice to have on the Blackberry.

- PickleView – This is a web app for the iPhone that allows you to chose your favorite/hometown baseball team and their current game is shown on the screen with it automatically updating the score, the balls & strikes, who's up, etc.  I’m not a huge baseball fan, but this is a cool application.

- The same guy who wrote PickleView wrote a similar application for college football.  This is the application I want for the Blackberry.  I’d also like a version for NFL football as well.  It would be VERY VERY nice.

Anybody up for the task?

Technorati Tags: iPhoneDevCamp,Blackberry,PickleView

Hooters restaurants even draw in the young

A story from CNN today:

5 year old ends up at a Hooters after leaving day care.

 

A little early in his life to be heading to Hooters, me thinks.

Really glad he didn’t get hurt crossing the street, or kidnapped.

 

Technorati Tags: Hooters

Newsgator to Go on Blackberry

I have started to use Newgator to Go occasionally on my Blackberry to read feeds.  One feature I wish it had however, was the ability to hide posts that were already read. 

With FeedDemon, I can set it such that if the feed is read, it doesn’t show up.

I can’t seem to do that with the Newsgator to Go client for Blackberry. 

 

Anybody know how?

Technorati Tags: Newsgator To Go,Newsgator,Blackberry

Joining the Crackberry Addicts club

I had to replace my cellphone recently, as it was rebooting itself every 12-15 seconds.  I was going to wait until July 11th and replace it with an iPhone, but I’m not really an Apple fanboy at this point in my life.

So I decided to go in a different direction.  I needed  a Smartphone, one that would keep my phone book, including addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, etc.  I look at various phones and settled on a Blackberry Pearl.

I set all my email addresses to forward to my GMail account and now it all just shows up on my phone as email.

I can respond to the email from there, if I like, or I can read and delete the email from the phone.

I know what you are thinking.  That’s a pretty small device to be reading/responding to email.  That’s what I thought too, initially.

But after using it for a couple weeks, I’m pretty attached to it.  I changed my email alert to be a depth charge (just one) when an email comes in. 

I really like this new phone.  From what I’ve read about the new iPhone, it probably would have worked for me too, but I’m happy with my choice.

Technorati Tags: Blackberry,AT&T,IPhone,Crackberry,GMail

Think Skylook instead of HotRecorder for Skype

A Guest Post by a poster by the name of Glenn C. caught my eye tonight on Skype Journal, about the fact that he had purchased HotRecorder and had problems recording calls with it.

Even more infuriating, he had problems getting a refund from the company or from Paypal because he had already “received” the software, even though in his experience, it was faulty software.

I don’t know if Glenn C. will read this post, but if he does, check out Skylook from my friends in Australia.  It will do what you need.  Their is even a 15 day trial period, and the guys who wrote the software are frequently available on Skype and VERY VERY responsive to feedback, both negative and positive.

Check ‘em out.  They have another utility, called Callburner which will just record Skype calls, if that’s all you need.   Skylook integrates with Outlook and tightly intefaces the two.

Like I said, check ‘em out, tell them Mike Strock sent you their way.

Technorati Tags: Callburner,Skylook,Skype Journal,Skype,HotRecorder

Why California?

Everyone knows, when the Big One (TM) hits California, it’s going to break off and float away.  So why do all the cool cars get sold for use ONLY in California?

Autoblog Green, via Engadget had a post about BMW going to offer 490 Mini Coopers for sale in California which are 100% electric.

I make no secret of my interest in an electric vehicle.  I’d love a Tesla.  Or an NMG.  But a Mini Cooper would be REALLY cool and useful.

An office mate of mine has a brand new 2008 Mini Cooper S.  It’s a SWEET SWEET car.  Great for commuting.  I’d love one.  They aren’t that expensive and they get pretty good mileage.

But an electric  one would be fantastic.  It would probably only go 50 miles on a charge, but even that would be useful for my daily commuting needs.

Come on BMW.  Think of Washington before California next time.

Technorati Tags: BMW,Mini Cooper,Electric,Hybrids

Crime pays, apparently

If you go to the Jawbone site (http://www.jawbone.com), there is a link on the front page that says ‘If you are busted breaking the Hands Free Law, JAWBONE will help soften the blow.’

It goes on to say that if you get caught breaking the new Hands Free Law that went into effect on July 1st in California and Washington, just put your ticket number in and you’ll get $20 off the online price for a Jawbone Bluetooth headset.

Sounds like a great deal.  You get a $125 ticket, but it really only costs you $105, because you get $20 back from Jawbone when you buy their headset.

Except….the Jawbone headset costs $120 before the rebate.  So the ticket just cost you $205, plus shipping.

I’d love a Jawbone headset.  But I’ll use my cheap Bluetooth I have now until they come down in price.

I’d rather pay the $120 for the headset and not have to pay the extra for the ticket.  But I’ve been advocating Bluetooth for more than a few years now.

Technorati Tags: Bluetooth,Jawbone,Lawbreakers,Hands Free