SOFTWARE: Peanut Butter PC; better than nothing?

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/peanut-butter-pc-trying-to-keep-kids-safe/6428?tag=nl.e101

Peanut Butter PC: Trying to keep kids safe

*** begin quote ***

Bottom line

In summary, although Peanut Butter PC as a product offers a good idea for making the computer safe for kids, some youngsters with more crafty hacking smarts could get around the confines of the custom desktop and back into the cruel, unprotected world of regular Windows. Although this application serves as a decent roadblock for some that aren’t familiar with computers, it cannot be considered a replacement to parental supervision. It is always important to monitor your child’s usage of the machine, just in case someone does end up finding a way around the fence. At the price of $24.95, it might be worth considering after you give the software a test run via Peanut Butter PC’s 15-day trial.

*** end quote ***

Putting computing power in the hands of children is at best a calculated risk.

Perhaps, by putting it in their hands earlier, with instruction, examples, and SUPERVISION, can make it safer for all involved.

If I had a family, I’d put OPENDNS in the family’s router. That’ll help.

Reviewing logs is a good way to get to sleep at night.

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Posted by reinkefj

HARDWARE: Retire old hard drives?

Monday, August 13, 2012

http://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=31811.msg295493#msg295493

Should we pre-emptively retire old hard drives?
« on: August 02, 2012, 01:52:50 AM »

*** begin quote ***

We all know that hard drives can and will fail eventually, and often unpredictably and without warning. That’s why we make sure we back up regularly.

But here’s is a question I’ve been thinking about lately, and I don’t know the answer to:

Should we pre-emptively retire old but perfectly-working hard drives, and migrate data to a new drive? If so, after how many hours?

Or should we just run them into the ground until they fail?

Here’s a screenshot of one of my favorite tools (CrystalDiskInfo), showing smart data of my oldest drive, with 39,000 hours powered up:

*** end quote ***

What a GREAT question?

I’ve have NEVER heard it asked before. (And, I’ve been in and around it for a LONG time!)

I’ve been burnt by hardware failures a few times. Couple of times the hard disk died. Couple of times it was the supporting hardware.

(The disk might have well died. Thanks, DELL, for using a proprietary motherboard / disk drive combination. Couldn’t just take the good drive from a dead mother and slap it in another DELL as a primary or secondary. That consumed a HUGE number of hours of me, my hardware savvy tech friend, and DELL “technical support”. That one HURT! Turns out most of the backups I’d taken were corrupt. Good thing I’m a “belts ‘n’ suspenders” kinda guy. Had PRINTED copies of data. Paperless society my <synonym for donkey>!]

Cloud is the ultimate backup.(Another great business idea missed thanks to my “huevos muchos pequeño”!) But even that cloud solution can fail. What do you do if you can’t connect?

Argh!

Two of my more SPECTACULAR failures were, both times in a corporate setting — different employers — where I was REQUIRED to depend on centralized IT back up service, when I depended upon those others and … (wait for it) … one time my platform was “overlooked” and at the other place “ALL my backups for THREE <synonym for the act of procreation in real time> YEARS were corrupt”.

Double Argh! or is that (Argh!)**2?

Just writing this I’m now getting crazed because my current employer is another of those “you must use the centralize backup service” kinda places. 

(Note to self: ask them to restore some random file every week!)

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: OPENDNS recommended for everyone

Thursday, July 19, 2012

*** begin quote ***

Announcing new Parental Controls categories

We recently announced several improvements to the Domain Tagging system, our content categorization engine, and two new categories that you can enable for your home networks, effective immediately, to secure your family’s Web browsing.

As with every new feature we deliver, these improvements are the direct result of your feedback. Our team spent weeks evaluating both the current categories and your suggestions, and ultimately we decided which categories need to be added and which ones could use a facelift. By simply logging into your Dashboard and adjusting your custom settings, you can now filter Anime/Manga/Webcomic and Click/Survey/Pharmaceutical Web Spam. To our knowledge, OpenDNS is the first and only filtering service to offer a Web spam category, though Web spam is increasingly present online.

As the Internet evolves we’ll continue to evaluate our Web filtering categories and your requests to make sure we’re ahead of the curve. If you’d like to get more involved, join our Domain Tagging community and help make the Internet better for millions around the world!

*** end quote ***

Item #4 is for those with children. First this is free. Second, it’s invisible to all but the most techie kids.

* Open a free account on OpenDNS. (Not even sure this is required, but it’s a trivial step that allows them to enumerate their User community.)

* Open your favorite browser, connect to your router, (usually http://192.168.1.1 or 2.1)

* Find the screen where the router holds the DNS entry. (Easy. Most routers have tabs on their admin screen. One will be labeled: “DNS”.)

* Replace what the ISP gives you (theirs. so they can collect ad $ on you) with the OpenDNS values. 208.67.222.222 208.67.220.220.

That’s it. Each platform that starts up will shift to use the OpenDNS.

No one is the wiser that you’re protecting them.

You should check from time to time. You don’t “own” the router; the ISP does. From time to time, they will push a “refresh” or “software update”. (Not for your benefit, but theirs.)

Some of the more paranoid, not me, actually put another router after the ISP router. They wish to prevent the ISP from browsing their platforms or seeing the intra-platform traffic.

FMPOV who cares.

p.s., I use OpenDNS to prevent popup porn, phishing, and malware. Been using it for eons. I don’t understand why more people don’t. Don’t have to think about it. Most bad sites just won’t resolve. YMMV

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HARDWARE: My MACBOOKAIR is abandoned by Apple

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

http://arstechnica.com/apple/2012/07/confirmed-mountain-lion-sends-some-64-bit-macs-gently-into-that-good-night/

Confirmed: Mountain Lion sends some 64-bit Macs gently into that good night
Rage if you want, but it appears the reason is related to graphics drivers.

by Chris Foresman – July 11 2012, 8:30am EDT

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A very expensive love affair with the MacBookAir is over.

Apple has left me behind. 

Time to cut my losses.

Apple is a dead end.

Planned obsolescence to the n-th degree.

Sorry, but APPLE has just gone on my NOTRECOMMENDED list.

Time to revisit UBUNTU.

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MACBOOKAIR: Time to plan an exit

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Well, it is time to play they exit from the MCBA. Then, salvage what value I can from this trek down a technology mistake. A very expensive lesson.

So, what has to be done and what direction to take?

*Strategically, back to wintel, chrome tops, on to the cloud platform agnostic, or Linux?

* Strategically, what cloud services are impacted by platform, if any

* Strategically, where do the iPads fit in the technology plan

* Strategically, glad I didn’t lock into an iPhone. Do I need a “smartphone”. Don’t think so.

* Strategically, the mifis look smart now!

* Tactically, what about iCloud?

* Tactically, what about @me @mac

* inventory the apps on the MCBA

* what gets left on the island until the platform dies

* inventory the hardware that supports it

* what functions does it support and what’s the transition?

* What can be salvaged and sold off?

Argh, more work!

******

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SERVICE: Son of CARDSCAN, ScanBizCards, panders for business. Fool me once …

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Dear Dymo CardScan customer,

As you may already know we discontinued CardScan At Your Service (AYS) at the end of last year. AYS was an online service integrated with the CardScan which synced all your cards to a web-based database, for backup and to manage your contacts from any browser. Instead we have selected a powerful, comprehensive replacement service provided by ScanBiz Mobile Solutions and have made it available to former AYS users since February. We now invite all CardScan users to consider the ScanBizCards Web Sync service.
Benefits
The ScanBizCards solution is comprised of:
1. Web Sync: A web-based account to backup and manage all your contacts from any browser
2. CardScan Sync: a Windows desktop utility to keep your CardScan database (CDB) files in sync with your Web Sync account on the web.
3. ScanBizCards mobile apps: optional mobile apps to carry all your contacts with you on your iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows Phone and (coming soon) Blackberry.

The ScanBizCards solution provides many of the same features as AYS – and much more:
* Cloud backup and sync: keeps all your CardScan contacts in sync with your private Web Sync account in the cloud. Every card you scan and every edit you make to existing cards is automatically uploaded to the web.
* Bi-directional sync: syncing is both ways – every card you create or edit on the web updates the corresponding CardScan database (CDB) file on your local desktop. Installing the ScanBizCards Windows utility on a new desktop automatically creates a copy of all your CDB files. Note: syncing cards down to the desktop is only available for Windows.
* Many powerful web-based features such as:
- Browse and edit all your cards on the web from any browser
- View cards in “thumbnail view”, or a more efficient list view, or even on a map of the world (Map View)
- Export cards to various applications / email providers such as Outlook, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, Hotmail, Mac Address Book – or create a generic Excel CSV for other apps.
- Quarterly “keep current” system: send a request to your contacts asking them to review and update their own contact information (coming soon)
* CRM integration: available right now to Salesforce.com, SugarCRM and Daylite (from the iOS or Android mobile apps), more CRMs planned for this summer (please ask us for the one you use).
* Human transcription: don’t have time to review scan results for accuracy? Just submit cards for human transcription and the ScanBizCards transcription team will do it for you
* Go mobile: carry all your contacts “in your pocket” at all time by installing the ScanBizCards mobile apps on your iPhone/iPad, Android, Windows Phone and Blackberry (coming soon). Please check http://www.scanbizcards.com for more information.

Getting Started
The ScanBizCards solution costs $20 for the first year and $10 for each additional year thereafter. Click http://www.scanbizcards.com/dymo for more information about signing up and installing the Windows CardScan Sync utility. Note: for Mac users a web-based CDB upload method is available instead, click http://www.scanbizcards.com/dymo-upload for more info.

Questions?
Please email cardscan@scanbizcards.com with any question or issue or call +1 (646) 926-4095 (New York)

Sincerely,

The DYMO team

DYMO, a member of the Newell Rubbermaid family of brands.

Please do not respond to this email address, this mailbox is not attended. Please click here to email us directly.

You are receiving this email because you have registered a DYMO product. If you no longer wish to receive emails from us please unsubscribe here. Your privacy is important to us click here to read our privacy policy.

This email was sent by: DYMO, 3 Glenlake Parkway, Atlanta GA 30328 , USA © 2012 DYMO. All rights reserved.

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And, why should I trust “you” again?

You promised a free service if I bought your over-priced scanner. I did. You reneged. Now you want to sell me the same service?

fuhgeddaboudit! (translation from the Brooklyn dialect: “forget about it” with a sneer.) 

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: Open source isn’t a bad deal versus “Pay for”

Saturday, July 14, 2012

*** begin quote ***

That said, if you lean towards economics and like to think about the long-term costs of open source software, you may have brought to mind the old adage “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”. (Or, as it is commonly used to compare with open source, a Free Beer.) Open source software rarely comes with the technical support and warranty services that proprietary software provides. So while you may not pay upfront now, the expenses for the software maintenance and upkeep may accumulate and charge you in the future.

*** end quote ***

Anyone get any support from the commercial firms like microsloth?

Even in large organizations it’s a joke.

Unless your contract is up for renewal. The you are up to your in SEs, AEs, VPs, and unnamed executives.

Open Source usually has an interested community who is actually interested in your issues.

Some of my BEST support experiences have been from “Open Source”, “Free Software” communities.

I’m not sure how to harness it. But if I ever do, Bill Gates move over. The neighborhood’s getting a double wide.

******

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SERVICE: Google Apps v. Office 365

Thursday, July 12, 2012

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/datacenter/google-apps-v-office-365-summary-which-is-better/5637?tag=nl.e019

The Enterprise Cloud
Google Apps v. Office 365 summary: Which is better?
By Ian Hardenburgh
July 5, 2012, 12:20 PM PDT

*** begin quote ***

Takeaway: Ian Hardenburgh sums up his research on the Google Apps and Office 365 suites. He has a preference, but it still comes down to individual needs and your number of users.

*** and ***

So, which is better?

So at this point, you’re probably saying, that’s all fine and dandy, but which service is truly the better of the two? Well, I’d have to say Office 365, but only if your organization is prepared to (1) pay a premium (for a truly premium service), (2) take advantage of the advanced set of features noticed with auxiliary services like SharePoint Online, and (3) have the resources to thoroughly train your staff on the on-demand technology (You will have users saying, “Can’t I just have Office on my PC like I used to?). Otherwise, the scalability of Google Apps, combined with the applications and professional services that can be gained from its Google Apps Marketplace is a very close second.

Therefore, in my humble opinion, I’d say most enterprises, with the exception of extremely large ones, can be well-served by Google Apps. In increased summation, go with Google Apps if you’re a small enterprise and Office 365 if you’re a large one. It really is a crapshoot if you have somewhere between several hundred and ten-thousand users (what I consider a medium sized enterprise). Hey wait, I guess comparing Google Apps and Office 365 was simply a matter of enterprise size after all!

*** end quote ***

The choice is much harder for the “amateur” trying to get work done in the most flexible cheapest fashion.

Cloud is great if the inet is always there for you. (Only a Fortune 500 CEO or Gooferment bureaucrat has that.)

There are still format and User interface issues.

True Client – Server cooperative productivity apps are few and far between. 

Stuff changes in the wink of an eye.

Microsoft and Apple and Google all have their flaws.

Seriously, I don’t know. A plague on ALL their houses.

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HARDWARE: Retina MacBook Pro demonstrates Apple wants to be an “appliance company”

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/cracking-open/teardown-shows-retina-macbook-pro-is-nearly-impossible-
to-upgrade-difficult-to-work-on/696?tag=nl.e101

Home / Blogs / Cracking Open
Teardown shows Retina MacBook Pro is nearly impossible to upgrade, difficult to work on
By Bill Detwiler
July 5, 2012, 10:08 PM PDT

*** begin quote ***

Missing “Pro” features

And if all this wasn’t enough, Apple also dropped two features that set the MacBook Pro apart the thinner, but less “professional” MacBook Air–an Ethernet port and optical drive.

*** end quote ***

For awhile I was an Apple fan boy. For a very very short time before that I was a Wintel fan boy. Both times I’ve quickly soured over “offerings”. 

For Wintel, it was bloatware, crapware, feature creep, automatic updates, DRM, activation. But what really put the ultimate knot in my shorts was win rot. That almost mandatory bare metal restore every six to nine months was unacceptable. 

A brief love affair with Linux, it was just too hard to install. Too many distributions to choose from. And, they really wanted you to be a hardware geek. Personally, I’m astonished that large organizations with dedicated IT staffs haven’t jumped on this as opposed to Microsoft and it’s upgrade treadmill.

That all led me to Apple. I jumped in with Mac Book Air. And, for the most part it’s served me well. Except, like Wintel, it has Mac Rot. I’ve got several problems that the Geniuses haven’t solved and requires fairly frequent reboot. A bare metal install without a Lion distribution disk scares me silly.

I don’t like the whole app store concept. 

Personal computing has morphed into being a pawn or cash cow for the big guys.

Maybe it’s time to revisit Linux.

But, I’m going to try a Chromebox first.

Maybe I’ll be a Google fan boy next. I doubt. I always seem to find the man behind the curtain.

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SERVICE: Yahoo! Groups Labs Applications (beta) and Groups Chat — goodbye

Saturday, July 7, 2012

ygroupsnotifications@yahoogroups.com via ng4-ip2.bullet.mail.bf1.yahoo.com

to JasperJottings.

Dear User,

Unfortunately, the time has come to say goodbye to Yahoo! Groups Labs Applications (beta) and Groups Chat. We thank all the users that were a part of this program. We intend to use this learning to enhance Yahoo! Groups further with new features.

On July 04, 2012, we will shut down the Yahoo! Groups Labs Applications (beta) and Groups Chat. We request you to backup any data that you might have created using the applications.

This closure will not affect your other services on Yahoo! Groups.

We look forward to continue having you as our customer.

Best,
The Yahoo! Groups Team

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You can’t depend on Cloud apps not changing on you. Free is just a hook up. If you’re not paying for it, then you have zero assurance.

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TECHNOLOGY: Solve those traffic jams … please!

Sunday, June 24, 2012

http://www.impactlab.net/2012/06/04/32-technological-innovations-that-will-change-your-tomorrow/

June 4th, 2012 at 3:20 pm
32 technological innovations that will change your tomorrow

*** begin quote ***

6. The Congestion Killer

Traffic jams can form out of the simplest things. One driver gets too close to another and has to brake, as does the driver behind, as does the driver behind him — pretty soon, the first driver has sent a stop-and-go shock wave down the highway. One driving-simulator study found that nearly half the time one vehicle passed another, the lead vehicle had a faster average speed. All this leads to highway turbulence, which is why many traffic modelers see adaptive cruise control (A.C.C.) — which automatically maintains a set distance behind a car and the vehicle in front of it — as the key to congestion relief. Simulations have found that if some 20 percent of vehicles on a highway were equipped with advanced A.C.C., certain jams could be avoided simply through harmonizing speeds and smoothing driver reactions. One study shows that even a highway that is running at peak capacity has only 4.5 percent of its surface area occupied. More sophisticated adaptive cruse control systems could presumably fit more cars on the road.

When a quarter of the vehicles on a simulated highway had A.C.C., cumulative travel time dropped by 37.5 percent.
In another simulation, giving at least a quarter of the cars A.C.C. cut traffic delays by up to 20 percent.
By 2017, an estimated 6.9 million cars each year will come with A.C.C.

*** end quote ***

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HARDWARE: POGOPLUG highly recommended

Saturday, June 23, 2012

and …

Perhaps, I haven’t explained myself well.

About the pogoplug and the disk drive.

You plug both into any power strip.

The disk drive plugs via usb into the pogoplug.

The pogoplug plugs via an RJ45 (local area network connection) (looks like a fat phone wire with bigger that a phone socket plugs on each end) into the ROUTER.

Note: it doesn’t plug into ANY computer.

(You can, but you don’t HAVE to. The value of this little 45$ linux box is that it is it’s own computer / appliance.)

Once you do that, I can give you a directory on the drive that you can:

(a) “mount” the drive on any computer on your home lan (wirelessly or wired) and use as you would the hard disk that’s internal to that computer. Including IPADs, ITOUCHs, IPHONES, and most smart phones.

(b) by correctly defining any path to the pogoplug via it’s web interface, it will give you a URL that you can “publish”, share, or use yourself.

So, for example, Luddite can upload his corny spam megabyte movie files to is and any one who has the link can look at it. ANd, would CLOG everyone’s mail systems with HUGE files.

So, for example, MIX2 can put the that big video on the “platform” and only allow certain people to see it. (Even if someone has the link, they can’t see it. I think it comes back “404 url not found” or something like that.)

SO, you can think of pogoplug as a “personal / group / public” cloud solution.

I’d like to deploy them at all my favorite people’s routers so that I can have off-site storage. (The power is use is about 8$ per year I’m told.)

I think it’s a neat device.

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SERVICE: FACEBOOK has risks; parents should engage a “Glenda”

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

I found something disturbing aimed at one of my young Facebook “friends”.

(You know they “friend” me when they think it’s “kool” to have some “friends” and want to build up their count. Then forget that the fat old white guy injineer “stalks” them forever. Like Glenda the Good Witch, watching over them and their online presence.)

So, I immediately alerted on it to the “command authority” (i.e., her parents) via the approved channels (i.e., her aunt).

Action was taken.

This post suggests that parents need to have a view into their children’s onine activities.

Of course, I offer my “glenda service” at my usual discount. (LOL!) But, you’ll have to be “kool” about how you get a Glenda on to their friend’s list.

“Wonder what that crazy old koot is up to this week end? You see him on Facebook don’t you, dearest child of mine?” May work?

Or, find a trusted friend or relative that the child has already been “friend-ed” during their naïve days, and assign them Glenda duty.

Forewarned is forearmed. Or in this case, four eyeballed. (Yeah, I know it falls flat. But you get the idea!)

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TECHNOLOGY: Domain Name price increase sparks “clean up”

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Guess I have to begin to get organized about my domains. 

I’m a great believer in the “spaghetti theory” of domains. Have a great idea? Throw up a domain or two and see what sticks. 

For every “box of nickels” and “box of nickles”, there are a lot of “memetaxonomy”, “auntie collector”, and “ram 1968″. 

With the price increase, the cost of being sloppy in going up. 

Perhaps, there’s a better deal for registering domain names?

But first one has to have a list of one’s domain names.

Last time I got this bug was when I thought that GODADDY’s soft porn advertising campaign was worthy of some moral outrage. It was bait and switch cause the uncensored version didn’t really show anything …

(Yes, all men are pigs. And, I had to do penance for that near occasion of sin. Just seeking it, as of course a purely IT research activity, was deemed by my priest as “really?”. Can’t get anything by him.)

… and wasn’t even funny!

So, now I have the bug again. 

Let the domain hunt begin! 

Argh! 

(Thus demonstrating I have no life. When a tiny price increase gives my life real meaning. Sort of one step short of those “extreme couponers”?)

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Customer ID: 9113251

Dear Ferdinand Reinke,

1&1 Internet Inc. appreciates your business and strives to consistently provide the best quality domain and web hosting services to our customers.

We are writing today to inform you that as a result of recent price increases by
the major domain registries, we need to increase the annual
rates for .com domains. In order for 1&1 to stay
competitive and continue to offer you excellent services, we have made
the following adjustments to our pricing structure.

For domain renewals and new orders as of 07/01/2012, the following domain
rate changes will apply:

*.com domain renewals will be increased from $9.99
to $10.99 per year.

The new price for your domain(s) will be applied to your next domain
renewal after July 1, 2012.

1&1 is committed to offering very competitive prices and professional
services in the domain environment and we hope to continue to meet and
surpass your service expectations.

===========================================================================

PLEASE NOTE:
This price change does not affect any free domains included in your package.

===========================================================================

ANY QUESTIONS?

If you have any questions or concerns regarding your account, please contact
our support representatives and they will be happy to assist you.
So that we can reply as quickly as possible, please contact us via e-mail
at contracts_us@1and1.com.

Thank you for choosing 1&1 and we look forward to your continued
success.

Sincerely,

Your 1&1 Team
1&1 Internet Inc.
http://1and1.com

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P.S., SPS (i.e., Self Praise Stinks)! “excellent services”? Never, even if true, throw your own bouquets. imho!

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IPAD: The kids’ toy box; perfect for the elderly non-techie

Friday, May 11, 2012

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-57429122-37/six-scenarios-where-the-ipad-is-trouncing-the-pc/?tag=nl.e019

Six scenarios where the iPad is trouncing the PC
TechRepublic’s Jason Hiner has little use for an iPad. But he’s pinpointed six areas where it’s become people’s preferred device and is disrupting the PC market.
by Jason Hiner May 7, 2012 9:00 AM PDT

*** begin quote ***

6. The kid machine

For the past couple generations, kids have taken to computers and technology with almost no trouble and with few exceptions. However, with the iPhone this phenomenon started to go a step further — or younger. Suddenly, 2-year-olds could figure out how to swipe to unlock the phone, touch the photo app, and flick their little fingers across the screen to flip through photos. Once we got a big screen version of this experience with the iPad, the sky was suddenly the limit for infants, toddlers, and preschoolers. They had a computer that required no training from their parents. Apps like Intro to Math, by Montessorium took advantage of the iPad interface to deliver software that was inexpensive, easy to learn, fun, and effective.

On the other end of the spectrum, the iPad is easy enough to figure out that plenty of elderly people who never felt comfortable with a computer have been able to use an iPad to do a few basic things. The key to this scenario is the iPad’s multitouch interface, which requires no user manual and no instruction to get started.

*** end quote ***

Ever since I saw the YouTube video of a baby trying to stroke a magazine to make the “screen” turn, I knew Apple had a winner.

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SERVICE: FACEBOOK shoots itself in the foot

Sunday, May 6, 2012

http://techcrunch.com/2012/05/05/facebooks-positive-comment-policy-irrelevant-inappropriate-censorship/

Is This Censorship? Facebook Stops Users From Posting ‘Irrelevant Or Inappropriate’ Comments
Colleen Taylor

*** begin quote ***

Updated. Today was just another Saturday morning in blog land when Robert Scoble, the well-known tech startup enthusiast, went to post a comment on a Facebook post written by Carnegie Mellon student (and TechCrunch commenter extraordinaire) Max Woolf about the nature of today’s tech blogging scene. Scoble’s comment itself was pretty par-for-the-course — generally agreeing with Woolf’s sentiments and adding in his own two cents.

But when Scoble went to click post, he received an odd error message:

“This comment seems irrelevant or inappropriate and can’t be posted. To avoid having comments blocked, please make sure they contribute to the post in a positive way.”

Now, Facebook makes no apologies for working to create a safe and clean environment on its corner of the web by shutting down abusive or harassing behavior, content such as pornography, or generally spamming of the system. This particular method policing “inappropriate” comments may be new, but it would fall within the same general realm.

*** end quote ***

I love it when these tech giants step in it.

Like this!

Haven’t seen it personally, but I can imagine some developers buying the midnight oil to fix it and then again being “burned at the stake” on Monday morning,

Great “fun”!

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: KODAKGALLERY days are numbered

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

http://www.macworld.com/article/1166562/shutterfly_only_bidder_for_kodak_gallery_customer_accounts.html#lsrc.rss_main

Shutterfly only bidder for Kodak Gallery customer accounts
by John Ribeiro, IDG News Service Apr 26, 2012 10:00 am

*** begin quote ***

Online photo service Shutterfly has emerged as the only bidder for the customer accounts and images of Kodak Gallery online photo services business, the companies said Wednesday.

*** end quote ***

Only last year, I urged folks to get their backup in order. 

The times are a changin’!

KodakGallery is on life support.

And, that’s the part of “put everything in the cloud” that people forget.

This is the last month for folks use Apple’s IWEB to publish web pages. 

Don’t be a sucker. Stick to open standards and non-proprietary software like what you get from Apple and Microsoft.

Don’t be lured to the “Dark Side”.

Like the Gooferment, NO ONE is here to HELP YOU!

Apple, Microsoft, and all the ISPs want to lock you in.

No matter how cheap and easy it is to start, it’s always painful at the end.

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3 Comments | SERVICE | Tagged: , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

MACBOOKAIR: Finally complete the LION upgrade

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

OK!

I was thanks to DRIVESLIM ($, not free) able to free enough space on the slender MACBOOKAIR which I cam McBahh1.

I was then able after 3 password resets finally get an MAC APP STORE id that would work.

I was then able to download the LION MAC OSX UPGRADE ($). That I had already paid for. Thankfully, I didn’t have to pay for it again.

I was then able to perform the UPGRADE.

An hour later, while I was doing other things, McBahh1 dinged like an oven timer and it was done.

Observation: McBahh1 is now running “sprightly”. No more performance like a nursing home resident. We’ll see if any of the old problems return (i.e.: “I’m too tired to compute; I’m taking my union break for as many minutes as I feel like”; “There’s no free disk space; deal with it.”, or my perennial favorite “Year, I rebooted; what of it?”)

Casualties: NVU (free) no longer runs; I quickly found BLUE_GRIFFON (free) to replace it. 

Observation: BLUE_GRIFFON doesn’t do file transfer like NVU did. (Argh!)

New method: FILEZILLA dusted off to upload. New version of FILEZILLA installed. Works.

Casualties: MAC OSX 10.7.3 aka LION in the FINDER utility no longer displays the amount of free space. (Or it’s not obvious how to do it.)

Opinion: Well worth it. But what a hassle. Months of hassle to get to this point. Exponential number of Arghs.

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE: MARSEDIT v3.5 (5031) has what I’d call a “user interface” bug; resolved

Sunday, April 29, 2012

MARSEDIT v3.5 (5031) has what I’d call a “user interface” bug. It doesn’t crash, but it doesn’t respond the same as the old version and the result produced is “livable, but not as it once was”.

The last version (number unknown) on the macbookair a keyboard <shift><return> would do a “line feed”, but not a “carriage return”. This version <shift><return> and <return” act identical (i.e., extra white space of paragraph in the post).

So how do I get what I want?

I liked the old output. MarsEdit’s value has just dropped from 5* to 3*. Because now I’m asking what else has changed and what other bugs have been introduced?

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Excellent support from the folks at REDSWEATER.

Within hours I had a response.

It was a UI change. To do the old <shift><return> is just a <command><return>.

AND, they immediately agreed there should have been a “Heads Up”.

They now go from 3* back to 5* in my book.

As they say in the war movies: “That is all. Carry on!”.

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Posted by reinkefj

IPAD: Zagg keyboard. Did I get scammed? I think so!

Saturday, April 28, 2012

I received the package. Opening it the packing slip. says “… ipad3 …”. However the instructions say “… ipad2 …”. Did you ship me the wrong one or are they interchangeable. If “interchangable”, then why did I wait and pay extra for the “ipad3″ model? This has me wondering …

I await you answer.
fjohn

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I’m not happy because when I ordered there was no “back order”. After my order was in and sitting for a couple of weeks, then magically it was backordered. Since the ship date was a couple of days, what choice did I have? But even that slipped.

# – # – # – # – #   

On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 12:01 PM, The ZAGG Team – Matthew G. <questions@zagg.com> wrote:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting ZAGG, where we are Zealous About Great Gadgets! My name is Matthew G. and I appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

 The tracking number you have, 9405510200828351438398, is a USPS tracking number. You can look this up on USPS.com and find more information about your package. Please note that USPS tracking numbers are more of delivery confirmation numbers and do not provide actual tracking like UPS and FedEx do.

<<< Nothing like that is on the website. The confirm email points to those two vendaor to “track your shipment”!>>>

Please note also that USPS can take anywhere from 24 to 72 hours to update shipping information. Since your order only shipped as of the 23rd of April, USPS would not have any information in their system about your tracking number. I would check over the next few days for any updated information on your delivery confirmation number.

I hope this helps! Please feel free to contact us back with any questions or concerns.

Thank you for choosing ZAGG! We appreciate your business.

All the best,

Matthew G.

Customer Service Representative
ZAGG Inc.
3855 S 500 W STE C

SLC, UT 84115

800.700.ZAGG(9244) (toll free)
801.263.0699 (o)
Nasdaq Symbol: ZAGG
ZAGG.com

— Original Message —

From: “reinke (reinke cc)” <reinke@reinke.cc>
Received: 4/23/12 6:45:59 PM MDT
To: The ZAGG Team – Darren S. <questions@zagg.com>
Subject: Re: order IC5629043

9405510200828351438398

I got this tracking number. But neither UPS or USPS find it.

Help?

fjohn

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On Thu, Apr 19, 2012 at 2:15 PM, The ZAGG Team – Darren S. <questions@zagg.com> wrote:

Hello Keith,

Thank you for contacting ZAGG, where we are Zealous About Great Gadgets! My name is Darren S. and I appreciate the opportunity to assist you.

I apologize for any confusion you may have experienced regarding your order. I see that order IC5629043 was placed on April 2nd, 2012. Orders placed through ZAGG.com orders typically take 1-2 business days to process and ship. This may vary depending on product demand, however. In order to assist you with determining the current availability of a given product, the expected shipping date for an item has been included on the product page itself.

Having said that, I see that the expected ship date for this order was is April 23rd, 2012. The ZAGGfolio on this order is currently experiencing inventory issues which has caused a delay in the shipping of this order. Our processing facility is working as quickly as possible to fulfill each affected order, and we expect inventory for this item to become available around April 25th, 2012. Nevertheless, we regret any inconvenience to you and acknowledge the difficulty this has caused.

Once an order leaves our facility we will send a shipping confirmation email. You can also check the status of your orders on demand via ZAGG.com. Log in to your User Account Manager to check the status of your most recent orders and view a snapshot of your order history. You can also update your account information. Take advantage of this service by visiting our website at http://www.zagg.com/support/account.

We apologize for any inconvenience and we appreciate your interest in ZAGG. However, please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or comments. If you prefer assistance via a live customer service representative, our phone number is (801) 263-0699 or toll free at (800) 700-ZAGG(9244). Our office hours are Monday through Friday, 8 AM to 5:30 PM, Mountain Time.

Thank you for choosing ZAGG! We appreciate your business.

All the best,

Darren S.

Customer Service Representative
ZAGG Inc.
3855 S 500 W STE C

SLC, UT 84115

800.700.ZAGG(9244) (toll free)
801.263.0699 (o)
Nasdaq Symbol: ZAGG
ZAGG.com

— Original Message —
From: reinke <reinke@reinke.cc>
Received: 4/18/12 11:52:51 AM MDT
To: “questions@zagg.com” <questions@zagg.com>
Subject: order

status on ic 562 9043?

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I think I was scammed. What’s your opinion?

ZAGGS is definitely “NOTRECOMMENDED”! 

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Apr-27 @ 04:25  

HERE’S THEIR AUTORESPONDER:

Hello reinke (reinke cc),

Thank you for contacting ZAGG, home of the invisibleSHIELD! We appreciate hearing from you and your email is very important to us. We will reply to your inquiry as quickly as possible. Most emails are replied to within 1-2 business days, but please allow up to 3 business days. Our hours of operation are Monday thru Friday, 8am – 6pm, Mountain Time.

If you need a replacement for your ZAGG product, please follow the below link for a quick instructional video: http://www.zagg.com/support/contact.php#hidden_replacementVideo

You can also visit our Frequently Asked Questions page below for information on our warranties, shipping, products, refunds, etc.:

http://www.zagg.com/faq

To help track your inquiry we have generated a reference number. Your message id 349264. Please add @zagg.com to your address book to prevent our messages from going to your spam folder.

Sincerely,

The ZAGG Team

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Apr-27 @ 04:48  

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: SkyDrive free storage space

Thursday, April 26, 2012

http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/window-on-windows/take-advantage-of-limited-time-skydrive-loyalty-offer-from-microsoft/6049?tag=nl.e064

Microsoft Windows
Take advantage of limited time SkyDrive loyalty offer from Microsoft
By Mark Kaelin April 24, 2012, 8:31 AM PDT

*** begin quote *** 

Takeaway: Get a free SkyDrive upgrade to 25GB just by clicking the right link, but don’t wait too long.

This story has been showing up all over my social media streams and on several of the websites I track, but I could not leave the news to chance when it comes to readers of the TechRepublic Microsoft Windows Blog. Whether you use Microsoft’s SkyDrive on a regular basis or just occasionally, you still have a limited time to upgrade your account to allow access to more free storage space.

*** end quote ***

I grabbed mine. You?

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Posted by reinkefj

NOTRECOMMENDED: Google’s GDRIVE while live; when uninstalled leaves a mess. NOT GA; use only if you’re on the “bleeding edge”!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

Looks interesting as a DROPBOX competitor.

I can’t tell if it uses real hard drive space. (It must.) 

So it’s behind DROPBOX. (You can tell DROPBOX that you don’t want a local copy.)

Also, it copies to the local drive all the docs on the GOOGLE_DOC account. (I don’t want them all on local. That’s why I put them up on GOOGLE in the first place Argh!)

Jury is still out!

# – # – # – # – #   2012-Apr-25 @ 18:51

GDRIVE puts down a “footprint” on your machine. I don’t know what all that crud it but in my case it’s two or three GIG!

Even uninstalling with APPCLEANER doesn’t remove the “footprints” (i.e., at least two directories with big files). One of which is PICASSA related if your believe the directory names.

I’d classify this as alpha software and leaving it the “bleeding edge” folks until it gets more exposure and “testing”. 

It’s imho NOT ready for prime time use.

# – # – # – # – #  2012-Apr-26 @ 02:47  

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Posted by reinkefj

SOFTWARE:Suggestion to MARSEDIT, a blog posting client, for improving a great product

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

I’d like MARSEDIT (4? as opposed to 3.4.4 4949) to:

(1) Parse the message for tag suggestions.

(2) Have all the blog’s used tags in a right hand scroll bar like categories.

(3) On the change date, have choice for now.

(4) On the post to blog function, display the post date, allow a change, and say confirm. Like when I have no tags or categories.

(5) Support stationary for blog posts. Not colors, but predefined format with text.

(6) Make me thin, young, and handsome.

When can I have it?

At no extra cost, of course.

Thanks,
fjohn
“Customer F. John Reinke”

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And, shortly after I send it, I remembered: “And add the date to the individual post screen by where choose the blog it goes to.”

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: Apple APPSTORE continues to befuddle me

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Apple store asked for another reset after taking #2 to download epson ipad print (free) app. That app works beautifully. Unlike the APPSTORE app.

This is my THIRD password reset. I know I know it.

Interesting I went “up” to the APPSTORE for the free IPAD Epson utility. It challenged me for my password, I gave it, and it started to download. So, i thought: “Hey, stuff working. Let me update the 18 apps that I couldn’t do last time”. Silly rabbit.

It tells me I’ve forgotten the password I just used successfully.

Argh!

So I go thru the “i forgot my password” again. (After waiting a good 5 or 10 minutes. Reset it by incrementing the number to “3″!) Went back and retriggered the update. And, it worked.

Argh!

So here is something very funky with how Apple has the APPSTORE coded.

Argh!

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Posted by reinkefj

SERVICE: GARMIN — caution warranted

Monday, April 23, 2012

Funny – peculiar.

I’ve reported to the SURVIVAL BLOG http://survivalblog.com, as have many others, of “death by GPS”. Some are funny, like the truck driver in England who followed the GPS into a river when there was no physical bridge where the GPS said there was one. Others are tragic — the German tourists who drove into Death Valley unprepared, unaware they were on a trail, and suffering a mechanical (breakdown). Or the tech fellow who followed the GPS onto a seasonal logging road in California – Oregon area and was trapped by snow.

I picked up Garmin to deal with confusing Virginia roads and poor signage. So far, I have been:

(1) trapped twice in a loop — once in VA and once in NJ;

(2) annoyed at least five times when it for example insists I get off a perfect good (and free) 295 to jump onto the Turnpike and pay to get to exactly the same place (i.e., the DE bridge).

(3) it insists on annoying me when I stop for gas or the WC.

(4) It’s sent me to a non-existent WalMart.

(5) Twice it couldn’t find an American Legion despite being given an address.

(6) And, numerous other little challenges. Like give it an address and, no matter how you enter it, it can find it.

(7) Finally, there’s not way to pick a spot and say take me there. (At least, that I could find.)

So, as self defense, I, if I’m going somewhere “new”, will Google map it and mapquest it BEFORE venturing out. (Prematurely opened my new VA printer, just so I can print those in case GARMIN develops a stubborn streak.

Sometimes it’s wonderful. Like when the corporate apartment’s dryer didn’t. Garmin with the word “laundromat” found me a 24/7 big one two towns over with the most interest Latino Customers. (Several of the Mexican ladies smiled at me as I loaded my wet tidy whiteys into a huge dryer. Not wanting to be in some Country Western tune where the big boyfriend takes exception to me with my high school Spanish saying “leave me alone, señorita”, I just focused on playing with my IPAD.

So, it’s like an idiot friend, who at random, dispenses both good (i.e., don’t drive home) and bad (i.e., buy us all a round) advice.

Caveat emptor applies to its directions.

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Posted by reinkefj

MACBOOKAIR: Didn’t resume for hibernate

Sunday, April 22, 2012

One of the many petty annoyances.

* The Ghost of Hard Disk Space Past, when all the free space disappears and needs a reboot to recover the 4 or 5 gig.

* Fails to resume from hibernate

* Firefox fails to close

* Random app crashes

* The screen has a finger goo straight line of grease on it corresponding to, I guess, the CVBNM keys. Argh!

* The Apple App Store, Mobile Me, and ICLOUD can “lose their memory of you” when Aplle decides to “improve” stuff. Double Argh!

So I’m coming to the decision that Apple is as bad as Windoze.

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Posted by reinkefj

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