Malware Killer

If you are a frequent visitor of the internet, no doubt you have had the wonderful opportunity to experience the horror that are viruses and malware.  Well, unless you use a Mac, then maybe you haven’t.  But if you have a Windows user, like me, then chances are you have experienced the dread of discovering that your system has been INFECTED.

I’m not sure what motivates these people to create chaos with viruses, or malware that disrupts your computer experience of even your work, but hey, people can be odd.  Be it greed, or simple amusement, these malicious pieces of software give us nothing but grief.

There is a big market for Virus programs, such as Norton and McAfee.  There are a few other notable names out there as well.  No doubt, you have your favorite.   As a Comcast customer, we were once provided with free copies of McAfee and now they have switched to Norton.  Both are decent programs in their own way, and both have their negative points.

The biggest negative to me is their inability to stop malware.  HiJackers.  That kinda thing.  You know, the one where you suddenly get fake windows popping up saying your system is infected and download this software for X number of dollars to fix it.  This is nothing short of a computer kidnap.  Often times, not only do you get these pop up’s every 30 seconds, but it prevents you from using the internet.  This would annoy me even more if I had to shell out 50 bucks for Norton or McAfee.

Why can’t these virus programs stop malware?  I don’t know.

Luckily, I was able to find this fantastic program that kills what virus killers won’t.  I’ve been running it for a year and have yet to come across a piece of malicious code this program couldn’t root out and remove.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t visit a lot of sights that subject me getting viruses or malware, but I still get them.  The only thing I can say is, Thank God For This Program.

I would highly recommend this program to anyone who is looking to complete their protection of their PC.  It’s worth the money.

It won’t catch the malware as it tries to install, but if you run it frequently, you will remain free of malware. Along with your virus program, you can rest a little easier about the operation of your machine.

Check out this fantastic program at:

ExterminateIt!

The iPhone Fever

I’ve always had a healthy respect for Apple products, especially after buying my daughter an iPod.  The ease of use of iTunes and the iPod was awesome, and frankly, I think Apple should use this as part of the advertisement.  Not just say it, but show it.

However, when the iPhone came out, I was naturally curious, but pretty steadfast in my decision to stay away from it.  The first one was way deficient in their ability to use it as a work phone.  I didn’t consider a smart phone, I considered it a toy.

Since I am in Sales, and I need a good phone that has more abilities than just texting and taking a few pics and a yahoo mail account, I never figured I would want to have one.  Even when they upgraded the device so it could do corporate e-mail, I was still pretty ambivalent towards it.  I just didn’t get the hype.  Or the fascination.

Then a few people I knew got one and showed it to me and I have to admit, I was a little impressed.  When the new 3GS version came out, I was even more impressed.

I no longer needed to spend 10 bucks a month for a navigation feature on my smartphone.

I could store music on it and sync it up with my Microsoft Sync system in my car and have hands free operation

I would no longer have to carry a pouch filled with CD’s around with me in a my car, which is already filled to the brim with work stuff.

In short, I caught the fever.  The iPhone Fever.

So when I got the change to complete some company training, and get a bonus, and when my old phone decided to get into playing the buggy game, I bought a new 3GS iPhone.

So what do I think about it?

There is a lot to say about the functionality of the phone. There is not so much to say about the battery life.  There isn’t a lot to say about Slow Responding Microsoft in upgrading the Sync system to give full function sync capabilities with the new version of the phone.

But over all, I would have to say, I really like the phone.  I just have to be careful in keeping it charged.

With a 3 megapixel camera, I can use it for pretty decent work pictures.  I don’t care much about the movie function, as I only used it for fun, but now with the high quality of the movies it takes, I could actually use it for work.  The corporate e-mail works great.  I was surprised at how easy the virtual keyboard is to use.  I love the cut and paste ability.  I love the maps feature, the compass feature (which comes in handy when directions tell you to start out North on such and such street), and of course, I love having my music handy all the time.  The safari browser and the way it shows the internet is beyond comparison.  The way you can zoom in and scroll it fantastic.

So, in short, I would recommend the phone.

Now, I only have to wait for Microsoft to get off their butts and provide an update to the Sync system so I can have full sync functionality.  I can still use the Sync system for the phone, which is awesome.  But I can not plug the phone into the USB port and change the phone and play music.  Why?  Because while it seems to play music, you can’t hear anything while it’s plugged up.  You can only stream music by bluetooth.  Which works great by the way, but it kills your battery and you can’t plug it in and stream music.

Now, for the last part.  The apps.  This is one feature of the iPhone that I had high hopes for and I must admit I couldn’t have been more disappointed.  There are 1000’s of apps the commercials say, but most of them are pure junk.  There are a few useful ones out there and some of them are even free, but as of this day, I have not been impressed.  Most of the apps seem to be silly little things, like poking a cow to make it go moo, or a fake taser, or apps that allow you to record your voice and it plays it back in a different kind of voice.  There also seem to be a lot of fart apps.

I hope in the future, more useful apps will come out, but until then…..

~Kev

Apple Macbook big heap of trouble

When I joined the work force out of college, they finally had desktop computers.  In high school, I had taken a computer class and learned on the Apple IIe, you know the one without a hard drive that had that shoe box size floppy disk drive (external of course).  So I was familiar with Apple from then, but the work force was already using DOS machines and Word Perfect as their choice of “typewriter”.  Yes, I said typewriter, because really, that was mostly what everyone used it for.

Several years later, I bought my first computer, and because I knew DOS, I bought one.  The processor was a 286.  It had a 10 MEG hard drive and thought I had hit the big league.  I was SOMEONE.  I had a COMPUTER and a PRINTER and wow, I could fill it up with useless stuff and erase it when the hard drive got to full!  Those were the good ole’ days.

As my career continued, everywhere I worked, they used a PC.  I remember when Windows first came out and I was like, oh man, this is AWESOME.  I was in awe.  The PC had this neat little thing called a “mouse” where you could point and click and start up programs and other wonderful things!  Of course, I went out and bought my own.  A 386 Intel Based PC with Windows 3.1.  Made by Compaq, the sucker was TOP OF THE LINE.  I can’t remember how much memory it had but it had a 320 M hard drive which was UNUSALLY big for that time.  I thought I was in the big leagues before, well now I KNEW I was.  I was SOMEONE greater than before!

Over the years, I have stuck with PC’s, mostly for the reason that that is what I knew.  It was compatible with what I had and at the time, Mac’s where behind the curve.  They only thing they were used for in those days was Desktop Publishing.

But then a major change happened at Apple.  They released a slick new system and a slick new operating system.  The landscape began to change.  Suddenly, a certain type of person HAD to have a Mac, and sneered at Bill Gates, Microsoft, and all of us PC users.  You know the ones I’m talking about, the ones wearing Berets, sat in coffee shops for hours reading or typing away, writing poetry, or taking notes on the artistic things they were into.  Maybe that is a completely unfair description, but hey, this is MY story, so deal.

Over the years, Mac has done some major work.  They came out with the iPod, new Macbooks, and the iPhone.  I could have switched, in fact, the beret wearing people I knew who used Mac’s kept making fun of me for not changing.  But I didn’t feel like learning a new system.  Lazy?  Yeah, so what?  All the companies I have worked for still used PC’s, and so it just made more sense to stick.

Over the last few years, the pressure really increased.  I was beset on all sides, people telling me to MAKE THE SWITCH, you Won’t. Regret. It.  Nope, I would tell them, not me.  I’ll stick to what I knew.  Of course, I suffered just like everyone else with system crashes and other issues that are typical with Microsoft and PC’s.

Then a strange thing happened.  My daughter grew up (and no that wasn’t the strange part) and became one of those Beret wearing, Coffee Shop sitting, Artistic types.  She had a PC and she killed it, and when she did, I started having to deal with the worst thing in the world, a crying teenage daughter, pleading and begging me to buy her an Apple Mac.  I was firm.  I was strong.  I wear the pants in this family and I am a man’s man.  So I told her no.  Then my wife stepped in and to make a long story short, my daughter’s tears of anguish turned into tears of joy when I took her and bought a Macbook.

You can stop laughing at me now for giving in.  YOU try living in a house full of females with all their weird monthly issues, mood changes, and other assorted stuff.  I bet you fold, just like I did.

So, when I announced to my Mac toting, hippie tree hugging, beret wearing, coffee shop sitting friends that I was taking the plunge, FOR MY DAUGHTER, they were so excited they jumped for joy!  They threw me a party!  They bought me a cake!  They ordered fireworks and skywriting planes to mark the event!  Ok, no they didn’t really.  But they did tell me, over and over again, how I would see how much BETTER a Mac was.  I, of course, sneered at them, and mumbled things under my breath that included words such as “fire”, “Aruba, Knife in the back”, “I’m a sucker”.  The rest of the words will remain between me and my brain.

When I got the Macbook home, I started it up, and I will admit I struggled some at first getting the thing going.  To me, this was a piece of alien machinery with alien software.  The type of alien that goes around in saucer ships and have names like Gliximbartumbar, with 10 fingers on each  hand, and a trunk for a nose.  Despite all that, I made it through.  The first hint of unease I got was when I installed the first piece of software and the entire system locked up.  I was actually surprised, because of what everyone had told me.  I called all my Mac friends on the phone and when they picked up, said only “neaner neaner” and hung up.  Ok, not really, but I WANTED to, and that makes all the difference.  I had a stern talk with my daughter, who was 15 at the time, and tried to convince her that because this Mac was so expensive, she had to take extra special care of it.  Of course, being a hormonal 15 year old teenage girl, I got a vapid expression, since really, why would she care what I spent on it?  That’s how they are at that age ( I refuse to confirm or deny that the older ones are the same, for my own safety ).

Things went pretty well for 14 months after buying the Mac.  In the mean time, I was still getting taunts, because I was using a PC, an HP Laptop running Windows Vista.  I won’t even GET INTO the torture I had to endure from my friends.  This HP is older than that Mac and has served me well.  I’ve never had a problem with it, other than when I let my virus subscription run out and got some viruses.  No system crashes, only a few program crashes that were so easy to recover it wasn’t funny.  In fact, I’m writing this on that same laptop, which is till older than PART of that Mac.  And that, my friends, is the problem.

14 months old, and the Mac hard drive FAILED.  I’m telling you, Apple and the Macbook is full of massive FAIL.  I can not even begin to describe the horror.  But that horror got worse when I priced having it replaced, the OS re-installed, and the data from the failed drive recovered.  Let’s just say that the horror equaled around $ 500.00 dollars.  I thought I was getting a joke played on me, that maybe these Mac repair people saw something in me that they could TELL I was a PC user.  I ran to the bathroom and checked, and my wife had not secretly marked me with a PC USER stamp.  The fact was, to get the thing fixed, it was going to cost me way to much money.  I thought about selling my daughter instead, but my wife persuaded me not to ( by smacking me upside the head ).

Well, I’m not a dummy and I have been inside computer before, so I decided to take the plunge.  I would fix it myself by replacing the hard drive.  Which I did.  It wasn’t hard, I’m glad to report, despite the fact all the experts were telling me the wrong information on where the drive was located and how to get it out.  Thanks to my friend Nathan, I got the old drive out and the new one in.  Even as I type this, the new drive is having OS X installed on it.  Now all I have to do is data recovery from the old one and I am not looking to plunking down the $ 100.00 dollars to get it done.  But, to save my sanity and my ears from a wailing 16 year old daughter, I will do it and count myself lucky.

But the point of all this is:  I just don’t get it.  The Mac experience for me has not been all that great.  System crashes and a failed hard drive after only 14 months.  Odd.  I think Apple installs a timer in the thing to force a failure after the warranty runs out.  Ok, I’m sure they don’t but I’m suspicious!  It’s not right ya’ll!

All I can say is that the next time one of you Beret wearing, hippie tree hugging, coffee shop sitting, artistic types start harping the virtues of the Mac over PC, don’t be surprised when I make bull horns, charge you, knock you down, kick dust in your face, bark at you, then sneer with a haughty attitude and tell you to mind you own business.  I’ll stick with my PC thank you.

Internet Explorer 8 – A quick review

It’s been awhile since I posted any type of tech review, and as I explained in my about me, I like to do so from time to time.  Although I have cut back some on my posting, I haven’t posted a tech blog recently because I just haven’t had the time to play around.  Well, I have something now, and it involves a new printer, internet explorer 8, Tylenol and a number of frustrated hours.

I recently saved up some money, and saved hard, because the printer I had was just sub par.  It’s pretty good for printing school papers for my daughter, but since I work out of my home office, it just didn’t do a decent job for business.  So I have wanted a new printer for some time and started squirreling away money for it.  I can deduct most of it from my taxes, since 99% of it’s use is for business, but that won’t help me until next year.  So I saved and saved.

I’ve been eying several printers, but a recent weekly special at Office Max caught my eye.  They had an HP J4680 All-In-One printer on sale for $ 109.99.  Since new inkjet ink cartridges for the printer I had would have cost me $ 50.00 for both black and the color (and I needed both), and I finally had just about that much saved, I decided to go ahead and get it.  One of the things I liked about it was the fact it allows wireless printing.  It was silly having to find my USB cord for my laptop and the printer every time I needed to print.

I decided on the HP because I have had several HP printers in the past and they have held up fairly well, except for the last one.  That one, was quite frankly, crap.  The printer I had was a Lexmark and I got in on sale for $ 20.00 at Walmart several years ago.

Now, onto the deal.

So I unpacked the printer and the set-up was extremely easy.  After removing tape, and a piece of cardboard, installing the print cartridges, it was ready to be plugged in.  Pressing a few buttons had the language set and the heads aligned.  It was time to install the software.  I installed the software on my machine and the only glich I encountered was when it tried to detect network wireless printer and couldn’t find anything.  Hitting next, it prompted me to plug in the USB cable that came with the printer and it would complete the wireless installation.  Not only did it do this, it set-up the date and time on the printer for the fax option.

After all this, I tried printing several items and the printer prints wirelessly with no problem, and the quality in black is as advertised, laser quality.  I was very pleased.

Then came the problem.  Suddenly, my Internet Explorer 7 crashed any time I tried to close a tab or a window.  That was irritating and I couldn’t figure out what the problem was.  I thought it might have been the new HP Smart Web Printing feature, which I closed, but it didn’t fix the problem.  After trying in vain to search for a fix, I gave up and decided to upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, to see if this would fix the problem.

Now, I’ve used Windows forever.  I learned how to use a computer before there was a windows so it’s what I know.  I don’t think Microsoft is perfect, and will point out flaws in a heartbeat.  But I will say that the upgrade was extremely easy.  Simply clicking one button, hitting run and it was done in short order.  I didn’t expect it to be that easy to be honest.  But it was and that made me happy.  When I started IE8 for the first time, IE8 informed me of a known problem with HP Smart Web Printing and even gave me the link to HP to download the fix.  Boy was I impressed!  I downloaded the fix and then started using IE8.

Although I didn’t use it long, this was my initial reaction to the newest and latest browser from IE8.

• Adding Favorites has become difficult.  Instead of add to favorites button beside the favorites button, now there is an add to favorites bar.  That is just stupid.  I can only add so many things to the bar before things start to disappear.
• Any website that has a log in window, the window for where you type became so small you couldn’t see what you were typing in it.
• Some websites buttons became small and since they included text on them, you couldn’t tell what buttons to click on.
• You can no longer sign in on multiple sessions on the same website unless you use the new “inprivate browsing option”

All of this I discovered in a matter of 30 minutes.  The multiple session thing was a big issue for me.  I have a personal myspace and another myspace for layouts and I can’t sign into them at the same time unless I use the new inprivate option.  According to Microsoft, this feature was designed so that if you are using a public machine, it doesn’t store information on where you go on the web.  A little search on the topic and I discovered it’s being called the “porn browsing feature” on the web.  Why? Because you can use this feature to do your dirty little secrets and keep it secret easier.  It was also mentioned that you can use it at work to prevent your employer from knowing you’re on websites instead of working.

Well, if you are trying to keep things secret on your computer, or keeping things secret from your employer, then you shouldn’t be doing them anyway people.  Sorry, thats how I feel about it.  If you’re into watching porn on the internet and are keeping it a secret from your spouse, shame on you.

Beside all that, the biggest problem I had was the fill in boxes becoming so small and certain button on websites becoming small.  Sorry Microsoft, but if I have to do a lot of research to fix that, then it just isn’t worth my time to upgrade.

So, I decided to go BACK to IE7.  I was worried about this, to be honest, as usually something like this is very involved and complicated.  But wonder of wonders, Microsoft has a “fix it” button to uninstall IE8 and revert you back to your previous version.  The good news?  It worked great.  The only thing it didn’t do was remove the MSN toolbar it added, which I can manually cut off under the toolbar option.

Trouble is, when I went back to IE7, it started crashing again.  So I simply uninstalled HP’s Smart Web Printing, because if I want to print a web page (100% of the time it would be an article for me), then I will click on the “printer friendly” link.  Uninstalling this HP add on fixed my crashing problem so I’m now back to normal, and have my new printer working.

Even though it was a quick impression, I would give IE8 a D- and can’t see any reason to upgrade.  But that is just me.

The good news is, I give Microsoft an A+ on the ease of installation, and uninstall of IE8, as well as the neat little catch of a known software conflict.

To sum in it all up, if you are happy with IE7, IE8 probably won’t make you happier and there isn’t really any reason to upgrade.

~Kev

Liquidation Sales – Oh the horror!

I’ve always liked Circuit City.  I was very sad when they couldn’t find a buyer, and not just because I have a family member who worked at their headquarters.  I’ve purchased 5 computers out of the 6 I have owned over the years from them.  The one I didn’t was because my daughter wanted a MAC.  I’ve always thought their computer prices were better and their selection was better than other places, such as Best Buy.

But life happens, and the turn out isn’t always so great.  So we are waving goodbye to Circuit City.

At the moment, they are currently holding a liquidation sale.  They even have those large signs on the buildings that say “EVEREYTHING MUST GO” that seems to bring out the shopping fever in us all.  Stands to reason, we all want a good deal, and most of us, especially now days, want to find a REALLY good price on that item we have been thinking about buying for a while, but just couldn’t justify the expense.

Now that Circuit City is liquidating their stock, I can personally attest to the fact that there are a LOT of people looking for a good price.  Unfortunately, despite the fact that I have always loved Circuit City, I wanted to pass on a warning to you all.

Be very very careful.

All is not what it seems.

Those special prices?  Not all of them are all that special.

I’m going to give you an example.  I currently own a 4G flash drive.  I’ve been wanting a bigger one because the thing is just so handy for me and my job.  So I went into Circuit City hoping to find a good deal.

I happened across an 8G Sony Flash Drive that was supposed to be 20% off.  No price on the shelf of course, so I took it up the register and asked what it would cost.  The price?  $ 39.99.  That didn’t sound right to me, so I asked if that was the sale price and the answer was yes.  Still thinking it didn’t sound right, I said no thanks and we parted friends.

When I got home from yet another visit to the store, I looked on the Best Buy website but they don’t carry the Sony flash drives.  So I did a search and found one at Staples.  It was the exact same model and was $ 37.99.  That was a non sale price.

Well, look for yourself: Staples – Sony 8G Flash Drive

As I said, I decided to go back today (before I looked the flash drive up) to look at some laptop bags.  I have one of course, but the sale price was supposed to be 40% off.  I figured I could find a much better one for about the same price as mine, which is starting to show some wear.  I picked out a couple nice ones, and they were not made of leather.  Now, I know even the non-leather ones can be expensive but I took it up to the register to see what the price would be.  Both were $ 49.99.  Well, that was to rich for my blood.  I can’t really justify spending that kind of cash on something I already have that is still in decent shape so I said no.  But after looking up the flash drive, I decided to try and find the same bags elsewhere.  I looked at a few places but trouble is, it’s hard to find the same models as I found at Circuit City.  Now, to be fair, since I couldn’t find the exact models and had to go with the closest match I could find, take this with a grain of salt.  What I found didn’t seem to show that the laptop cases were 40% off.

So, I guess I just wanted to warn you that if you are looking for good deals at Circuit City right now, know what you want and know what it is selling for elsewhere because that great deal? Well, it might not be so great after all.

Cautiously Yours,

~ Kevin

A Microsoft Issue – Office 2007 Spell Checker

 

A few months ago, my company upgraded to Microsoft’s Exchange server.  As part of the upgrade, they sent the sales force a copy of Office 2007 to install so that features in 2007 could be utilized with Exchange.  I won’t get into the specifics of it, because it really has nothing to do with what I’m writing about.

Upon installing and running the new Office 2007, I noticed a lot of differences in the look and where everything was located.  I’m used to change and don’t normally mind it, but this was so much change I almost panicked.  But, after a few cups of coffee, I calmed down and began to explore and even watched a few “what’s new” videos.  Simple enough.

However, after using if for a week, I did discover one major, catastrophic problem.

The spell checker didn’t autocorrect or highlight misspelled words.

I pause for you gasps of horror and surprise that something with a Microsoft product could go wrong.

Ok, sorry, got that out of my system.

For me, this truly was catastrophic.  I am a terrible speller and when I type, I am even worse.  I tend to type very fast and it’s easy to miss things even while I’m “reading along” with what I’m typing.  As all of us know, going back and proofing something on a computer screen is not as easy as something printed or written and I was missing a lot of mistakes.

Just so we are clear, I’m not talking about using to when I was supposed to be using too.  Or using there when I was supposed to be using their.  I’m saying that I could type the word hiccup as hiccop and the spell checker wouldn’t catch it.  No little red wavy line underneath.  Nothing.  I could run spell checker after finishing and STILL these horrid mistakes in spelling and typing I made would not be caught.  The grammar errors would be, but not the spelling.

Needless to say, after sending out a few documents for my boss to look over and approve before sending out, I managed to embarrass myself to no end.

I’ve complained about it and even mentioned to my wife that Microsoft’s Live Writer caught my spelling goofs when Word wouldn’t.  I even used Live Writer, a blog writing program, to write one of my proposals then copied and pasted it into Word.  I had a devil of a time going back and formatting it, but at least I knew the spelling errors had been caught.

Well today, I wrote something and posted it somewhere and had several people comment on my misspelled words.  Since this was posted on MySpace, I really didn’t care, but darn it!  That was really the last straw!  So I finally decided to do something about it.

I went to Microsoft.com and tried to find a solution (always a mistake as a first option in my opinion).  I couldn’t find anything so I went to yahoo.com and typed in my problem and guess what?  You wouldn’t believe the number of poor souls with bad spelling problems who had the exact same problem.  Within in 15 minutes of reading several tech boards, I stumbled across a forum that looked promising.  So I gave what they suggested a try and low and behold…. IT WORKED!  I now have full function spell checking working again!

Now I am sure Microsoft is aware of this problem and the fact that they have let it go this long without a fix is highly annoying, but there ya go.  Such is life.  There are rumors, according to the posts, that they are working on a fix.  But I guess they are to busy working on the next version of Windows to worry overmuch about it.  I mean come on, they had a chance to fix it in the Office Service Pack 1, but they didn’t.  Good old Microsoft!

Anyway, if you are having this problem, I thought it would be highly nice of me to post the fix here for you to try.  It involves editing your registry so if you aren’t comfortable doing that then get someone who is to help you ok?  Also, I will not be responsible for anything that gets screwed up.  Back up your registry like a smart person before doing this.  Also, one important fact.  To the best of my knowledge, this is only a problem for people who upgraded from 2003 to 2007 or had 2003 first, uninstalled and then installed 2007.  If you didn’t own Microsoft Office before buying 2007 and have this same problem, I have no idea if this fix will work for you ok?

In Windows Vista, click on the start button.  In the box above the button that says start search, type in regedit and hit enter.  This will bring up your registry editor.  You will most likely get the box that says Windows Needs Your Permission To Continue.  Click on continue.

Click on File, then export and export  your registry as a backup.

The easiest way to do this is to then click on the little arrow beside HKEY_CURRENT_USER.  This will expand the menu.

Look for Software and click the arrow to expand the menu.

Scroll down until you find Microsoft and click the arrow to expand the menu.

Scroll down until you find Shared Tools and click the arrow to expand the menu.

You will see Proofing Tools and you need to click on the arrow to expand the menu.

You will then see something like the following under Proofing Tools.

• 1.0
• Custom Dictionary
• Grammar

Now here is the trick to fix the whole thing.  Where it looks like a folder that says 1.0, right click on it and click Rename.  Rename this to zz1.0 and hit enter.  Then click on File in the Register Editor and then click exit.  If any Office programs are open, close them.  Then open Word and type away and make sure to misspell some words.  You should find that your spell checker is now working! YAY!

If you are interested in the logistics of it all, apparently when you upgrade from Office 2003 to 2007, there is a problem that mangles your registry and doesn’t allow your spell checker to work.  By renaming it, it forces office to RECREATE a new registry entry that fixes the problem.  You can see this by opening Regedit again and going to the same location and you will see the old registry entry that you renamed UNDER a new entry that looks just like the entries above.  The 1.0, Custom Dictionary, and Grammar.

So, if you have had a problem, and followed these steps, you should be now running along correctly again.

If you tried this and it worked, congratulations and you’re welcome.

Amateur Help Desk – Kevin Riley

Cloud Computing – and end to the pain

 

Ok, so I have posted several entries on my quest to find a suite of on-line and free applications that would allow me to do the following:

1. Sync my contacts and calendar on-line to be shared with someone else.
2. Store documents on-line that would allow me to access them by my mobile, and my laptop, and share then with someone.  This would also allow me to utilize my Office Mobile application on my Smartphone to edit documents stored on-line, and resave them to the on-line site and/or e-mail them from my Smartphone.

That’s a bit short in the description, but feel free to look back to see what I was attempting to do in more detail in my earlier posts.

The search has been long and hard.  Frustrating.  Difficult.  Exasperating.  Irritating.  I pulled my hair.  I had moments of grumbling at my computer.  I wanted to throw tantrums and perform other unsavory and immature things.

To put it in all in a nutshell, it wasn’t a lot of fun.

Some of the items I tried were:

1. Microsoft Live and Skydrive
2. Google Docs and other Google Offerings
3. Gh.o.st Desktop
4. and last but not least, Syncwizard.

I won’t go into the amount of detail reviewing the last two services as I did the first two, for reasons I will explain later in the post.

Gh.o.st:

This is an on-line desktop service that basically simulates remote desktop services.  It provides you with a windows looking interface and will allow you to export your calendar and contacts for upload.  It also allows you upload files, such as office documents and mp3 files, movies, etc.  It will also allow you to use google docs to edit documents.

Although the interface looks nice, and although there was a lack of documentation, it was easy to set-up.  However, since it doesn’t allow syncing between the calendar and contacts, this was a service that worked for me.

I truly can’t understand why someone would want to use a service such as this, except for perhaps accessing documents from another computer.  You can not access the information by Smartphone.  What really confused me is why you would want to upload mp3’s.  With services such as youtube and yahoo music videos, if you wish to have someone listen to a song, you can look it up and play it.  I personally think having the ability to access mp3’s like this is a waste of time.

However, if you’re looking for something that will allow you to upload documents, constantly export contacts and calendar information for importing on-line, that gives you an interface similar to Windows XP for accessing anywhere, you might like the service.

Syncwizard:

The first thing I will say about this service is that the lack of documentation is mind boggling.  This service basically is an interface for a number of different services, and condenses your access to one place.  According to what I could read and understand, with available Outlook programs, you can sync calendar and contacts, as well as store documents on-line.  You can also download a file that you can install on your Smartphone so that you can access the information that way.

It looked like I had found my solution.

I began the very lengthy and complicated steps to try and download, install and run the connectors.  Once done, it didn’t work.  It seems that you have then spend an impressive amount of time searching help threads to discover proper settings for the connector, which doesn’t match the default setting at all.  I finally discovered what settings I needed and the connector appeared to sync with my Outlook contacts and calendar, but unfortunately, none of the synced information appeared on the syncwizard space that belonged to me.  I never even tried the on-line file storage.

However, despite the problems,  and you are a patient and computer literate to the point of being half magician, it might be worth checking out if you are looking for a similar service.  I stopped working on it.

Why?

Well, I just so happened to be talking to our corporate IT person today, explaining some of this to him and he told me that our company will soon be rolling out Microsoft’s Sharepoint, which will do everything I want.

If you want to check out Syncwizard: http://www.syncwizard.com/en/index.jsp

So there ends my quest.  I spent a lot of time and effort trying to make my life easier for my job, only to discover my company is already working on the very solution I was looking for.

Ain’t it always the way?

So, good luck if you are looking for something similar.

In closing, I will say, out of this entire exhausting experience, I only got what I consider one great benefit out of it.  That benefit is Microsoft’s LiveWriter, which I have found to be an extremely excellent program.  LiveWriter is a blog writing software that is easy to use, quite powerful and works like a charm.

I love Microsoft’s LiveWriter.  If you blog yourself, I highly recommend getting it.  You will have to install Windows Live to get it, but it’s worth it.  Trust me.

Until my next adventure in some crazy computer screen, I remain,

Still Computer Crazy.

Kevin Riley

My Continuing Journey in Cloud Computing – Google Docs Review

 

Hello fellow readers and technology fans.  Yesterday, I wrote more about my experience with Windows Live, and trying to come up with a way to use it in a more business oriented way.  If you read it, then  you know I was more than a little disappointed.  Ok, not just disappointed, but disgusted and irritated.  There were several hair pulling incidents, and plenty of sneers directed at my laptop screen.

Well, tonight I want to write on my next experience in seeking to discover a way in harnessing the power of my laptop, my Smartphone, and the internet.  We’ll get to that in a minute.

First, I want to make sure that you all know that although I gave Windows Live a terrible review, it was only in reviewing the service as I wanted to use it.  I’m sure that for non business purposes, it would be a pretty enjoyable experience.

Now that we have that out of the way, lets focus on what I did next in my quest.  I decided to try Google and their suite of applications for cloud computing.  This includes Google Docs and Google Calendar.

Again, the above symbol represents what I’m looking for.  I want a seamless suite and service that will allow me to do the following but keep in mind my laptop would remain my “core” device.

1. The ability to create documents on my laptop and upload them onto a secure service that I can access from anywhere and have the ability for someone else to access them if I choose.
2. The ability to seamlessly sync my contacts and my calendar for viewing anyway and by someone I choose.
3. The ability to have my Smartphone access all of this on the road, including my calendar, contacts, and documents.  This would include the ability to download documents onto my Smartphone, edit them with my Mobile Office Suite, e-mail them from my Smartphone and re-upload them to my cloud drive for access by my laptop later.
4. I would even like the ability to have photos uploaded here so I could share them with my boss and the experts at the office.

In short, I want something seamless that connects my work not only to and from my Smartphone, but also have it available from another computer and have my boss be able to access, add to and change contacts, calendars and documents if he needs to.

So I signed up for Google Docs.  Figured that was the best place to start.  I will admit I  was immediately impressed with the interface.  It was much better than Microsoft’s.  You have the ability to create subfolders for your work.  The fact that you can use The Google Doc program to edit and create is nice, but not really a requirement for me.  When trying the service, I was immediately dismayed to discover I could not upload documents that were created using Office 2007.  The file extensions for those (using Word for the example) is *.docx.  Google doesn’t allow that format, so you have to save as a 2003 document.  I’m not sure why Microsoft even made Office 2007 save in a different format, considering they have been using *.doc for so many years, but I won’t get into that now.  So that was the first disappointment.

I’m going to include a portion of a screenshot for the space you store your documents.  Note I have blurred the folder names, as that happens to be sensitive company data.

I know it’s a little hard to read, but I’m sure you can see it’s rather nice.  You can assign other users to have access if you want, although I didn’t try this feature.

Once I was done, I tried to access this feature on my Smartphone.  I will admit it was a little difficult getting through submenus to finally reach it, but it was intuitive enough to get right through it, unlike Microsoft Live’s Skydrive.  The mobile interface was fantastic.  It almost looks like the above screenshot.  Sure enough, I clicked on one of my documents and could view it perfectly.  I was getting really excited!  Then my excitement took a leap out a 10 story building, landed in a garbage truck, got compacted and carted away to the dump.  it seems, for whatever reason, you can’t download your documents and re-upload them from your phone.  What a disappointment!  The only thing you can do is view them.

Well, I tried to distract my disappointment by trying the calendar.  I activated it and it was really nice.  Easily added to and edited.  But to add your appointments from Outlook,  you have to export them and import them up into Google’s Calendar.  Their is no Outlook Connector to connect them.  This time my disappointment got diverted from the dump to an incinerator.

Am I the only one seeing the problems here?  Sure, Google Docs was created for the average home user, as well as their other software suites on-line.  But I’m still quite disappointed that they didn’t see the advantage to business people, like me, who are looking for something to save them time, energy, etc.  I guess with Google, I’m less disappointed than in Microsoft, since their core income comes from the business world.  Talk about a major let down.

So, if I was to rate the Google service, I would give it one star (for my purposes) but only because the interface is better than Microsoft’s and you can even create and edit documents on-line with Google Writer.

I’m diligently looking for other options and may have found a promising lead.  The service is G.ho.st and I will be trying it out to see what I can do with it.  I’ll let you know of course and if you want to check it out yourself, take a look at: g.ho.st.  It only give you 5GB of storage but I can actually see myself not needing that much space.

I would now like to say that this whole process has made me wish I had a programmer or was a programmer.  It’s seems to me that their are plenty of applications out there that are trying to do a wonderful thing, but they are more interested in personal life applications and not business.  Not every corporation will have a set-up for something like this, although I know for great amounts of money, it is available.  What is needed is an application that helps a business individual, like me, be more efficient.

Until next time, I remain, computer and internet frustrated.

~ Kevin Riley

Computer Frustration – A Windows Live Review

 

Ok, so a few days ago, I wrote about some difficulties with using Windows Live and the Skydrive that Microsoft has released.  If you read it, you will know I ran into some difficulties but finally was able to access my Skydrive from my Windows Mobile Smartphone.  Since then, I have continued to work with Windows Live and attempted to add another option.  After working on it off and on for the past few days, I decided to write more about the experience.

Let me start this off by explaining what I do for a living.  I work for the Garratt-Callahan Co., Inc.  We are a company that provides chemicals and service for a variety of markets for treating water that is used for Boilers, Cooling Towers and Waste Water Systems.  I am a Territory Manager, which means I do sales and service.

My job doesn’t require me to carry around a laptop on a regular basis.  In fact, there are still plenty of Territory managers that don’t even have a laptop.  The company does not provide a computer, but you are expected to own one.  We have a corporate intranet that has forms, product information and various other things we need.  They still have all of this available in paper format, but you have to admit that it’s much easier doing it all on-line.  We have corporate e-mail as well.  We use Microsoft Exchange for e-mail and can either use Microsoft Outlook or use the Web Access for e-mail.  So just to be clear, it’s not like our company is in the dark ages.

Be that as it may, I also have a Windows Mobile Smartphone.  I don’t have to have one, I only really need it for my company phone.  But in trying to be more efficient, I decided on using a Smartphone.

My current set-up is as follows.  My phone uses IMAP for syncing my corporate e-mail and I can send and receive e-mail on it.  My customers and potential customers are stored on my phone.  In addition, because it’s a Windows Mobile phone, I have my contacts synced with Microsoft Outlook.  My laptop uses Outlook IMAP so my e-mail is also synced on my laptop.

Now that we have that out of the way, lets get to the meat of the issue.

When I read about Windows Live, the Microsoft Propaganda said that I could use it to sync files, contacts, calendar, etc and have access to it on all on my laptop, phone, and anywhere I had access to a computer.  Sounds good right?  Well it did to me.  So I decided to install it and see what I could accomplish.

This is what I envisioned when I read about this.  I saw the ability to do the following:

1. Have my contacts automatically sync from my phone to Outlook and Windows Live and vice versa.
2. Have my calendar sync from my phone to Outlook and Windows Live and vice versa.
3. Since I don’t have my laptop with me all the time, have the ability to access Skydrive from my phone and e-mail documents I have put on the Skydrive.
4. Be able to access Contacts, Calendar, and files from any computer, and have it accurate because they are all synced together with my laptop and phone.

I don’t think that is really to much to ask for.  Especially when you look at the very limited information on Windows Live and it hints at the ability to do all this.  Lets take the Skydrive for example.  Here is a screen shot of a part of the Skydrive introduction page:

If you look on the right, it clearly states Access it online, Desktop, Mobile.

If you read my previous blog, you will know how much trouble I went through trying to get access to my skydrive though my phone.  I finally got to it on my phone.  Good right?  Well, except for the fact the interface was awful.  It was full of all these folders that don’t show up if you access on your computer.  It takes a lot of maneuvering to get to your files.  I could have dealt with that, honestly.  But as of today, when I try to sign onto Skydrive through my phone, it says I must have Java enabled, something a Windows Mobile Browser doesn’t support to access it.  So now that is a crap shoot.

My next experiment was to to try and get my contacts and calendar synced up.  I had installed the Outlook Connector when I installed the Windows Live suite of software, but it didn’t work and I had to download it separately.  After a little over an hour hunting, installing and pulling out my hair, this is what I discovered.  Windows Live contacts and Calendar can sync up with Outlook, but only if you enter the data on Windows Live first.  So what exactly is the point?

I already have corporate e-mail and it’s connectable with Outlook and my Windows Mobile phone.  So why would I leave off using my corporate items to use Windows Live?  it doesn’t make sense, and for corporate users, it’s no good.  Did you get that?  Let me repeat it. For Corporate Users, Windows Live Doesn’t Work.

Either Microsoft intended Windows Live for personal reasons or they widely missed the mark.  Not only is the whole thing lacking in any decent instructions, but it’s difficult to install correctly and get working, and it doesn’t even work as advertised.

If you are looking for something personal wise that will allow you to place your contacts and calendar on-line and share photos of your dogs and share recipes documents, then I guess Windows Live is for you.  Provided you feel like going though all the trouble to install it and basically start from scratch getting your calendar and contacts on Windows Live FIRST.

However, if you’re like me, and you use Microsoft products, such as Outlook, Word, etc. for business purposes, and you are looking for a way to sync it all together, then Windows Live is not for you.

For a company who makes their bread and butter in the business world, I just can not for the life of me understand what they were thinking in doing this.

My rating for Windows Live is a half star out of 5.  Now if they hadn’t changed the Skydrive so I could have accessed it from my phone, as advertised, then I would have given them one and half stars.

Now, if someone knows more about Windows Live and knows how to get it work like I am wanting, please feel free to let me know.  Also, if you can recommend a service, that is free that will accomplish what I am looking for, I would also love hearing form you.

Do me a favor and pass the word would you?  I would love for Microsoft to hear about this.

Until then, I remain, un-synced and frustrated.

Windows Live Spaces – A Seamless Environment?

I am a fan of Microsoft. I always have been. I have Windows Vista, Office 97, and bunch of other Microsoft programs. There are several reasons for this. But despite the reasons, it’s not a bad product. Sure, you can say all you want that Bill Gates is evil, but at the end of the day, Microsoft has been around and stood the test of time. It really hasn’t been all that long ago (for me) when Apple computers really weren’t worth much. Granted, in the 90′s, they had a reputation as being THE device to use for desktop publishing.

So. My reasons? Well, like I said there are several.

1. Partly it is because Apple had the Apple IIe with an external hard drive when I was in high school and really… you just couldn’t do much with it.
2. When I started in the workforce, they only thing used in business was IBM compatible computers with DOS.
3. It’s what I learned right out of high school and into college (I learned to program IBM memory in college).
4. Everywhere I went to work after my first job, it was PC computers and Microsoft.

So, those are a few of the reasons. But lets get back to the point. Even though I’m a Microsoft fan, I’m not a snob about it. My daughter wanted a MAC laptop so I bought her one. That’s right you MAC snobs. I have a MAC in the house!

Even though I’m a fan, I’m about to unleash my wrath about Microsoft and their products.

So, I work from my house. I’m in sales and the company I work for is on the other side of the country. To stay in touch, I utilize a computer and cell phone. This grants me access to our corporate e-mail, website and intranet. All my numerous forms and information I need for my job are stored on our corporate network. My cell phone is a smart phone and allows me to access my corporate e-mail on the go and other things.

Well, I decided to make my life easier. You see, it’s not always convenient for me to carry my laptop around, and sometimes I really need access to some of my files. Microsoft has this new service called Skydrive, which is part of Windows Live, which gives you 25G of space to store office documents. It’s supposed to make things seeamless so you can do all sorts of neat things. Your phone contacts, messegner, docuements, and calender are all supposed to sync up.

I went to the Microsoft website and after some searching, finally manged to find Windows Live. I downloaded this massive 108M file and installed it. One note before I go on. Is there any documentation available? Not really. Only some blurbs that say what it can do. Not how to do it. But, the installation went perfect. After my reboot, I uploaded some Word files to Skydrive. It worked!

I was excited!

Then I pulled out my cell phone, and signed into Windows Live Mobile. My excitement crashed. Hard. And bouced. Twice.

It seems you can get to most everything on Windows Live EXCEPT Skydrive. Needless to say, I was sitting here going Who the, What the? What about the seemless promises? What about accessing my files from ANYWHERE? It was, I’m sad to say, a no go.

So, I set off on a trip, scolling and clicking all over Microsoft’s website looking for a dag-on solution to my problem. I was determined not to rest until I could access my Skydrive on my mobile phone so that I could edit documents using my Office Mobile software and e-mail them from my phone.

After a seemingly much longer than actual 45 minutes, I came across this little tidbit. “Access Skydrive from anywhere by going to skydrive.live.com.” I did that and hey, I did manage to get access to my documents folder, and dowload a file on my mobile phone. But one, it took to long, two the interface is SCREWY and doesn’t show up right on my phone browser (which IE Mobile).

Talk about a frustrating experience. This had to be the most ridiculous piece of work that I have seen in a long time. What are the engineers at Microsoft doing over there? Are they purposely TRYING to make things as hard as possible? I think they are!

This is my take on Microsoft vs. Apple.

Microsoft is run by Bill Gates (yes I know he is retired) who is a nerd (and I say that with love Bill, really). All programers are nerds (again, said with love). What do nerds like to do on computers? They LOVE to show off! They want to show you how smart they are. Because everyone is a nerd, including Bill Gates, everything about Microsoft is just a bit harder than what it needs to be. When things should be straight forward, they aren’t. When it could take 5 steps, you end up doing 10. And for some us, it’s guess work at that.

Now Apple? Run by Steve Jobs. Steve is not a nerd. He doesn’t have a lot of techincal abilities. So what did he do with HIS nerds? He looked at what they produced and said “ummm guys? That’s to hard, go back and fix it”. Which they did.

This is why installing music on an ipod is so freakin easy vs trying to use Windows to but mp3′s on an mp3 player. This is why a whole new generation of kids are flocking to MACs. Because it’s EASIER.

Hey Microsoft? Hire someone who isn’t a nerd to look at everything before you release it on the population, ok? It would be greatly appreciated.

End note: I used Word 97 to not only write this blog, but it got published to this site.  Seamlessly.  At least something worked right.