I never blogged about Foxmarks... probably because what I use for bookmarks hasn't really been too important. I don't surf the web much, but rather, I use a web browser to look at things I get from some other source, like e-mail. So, I don't really keep track of my surfing habits. For the places I do visit frequently, I just use my memory, or a bookmark in my browser of choice... Mozilla Firefox.
Of course, I like to keep up with what's going on in the browser scene. Opera has been a good option for me to try, and when I was in my Mac phase, Safari was coming along well, and apparently is even better now. Even Internet Explorer is sucking much less these days. I'm not a website developer, so I don't go around testing each browser's rendering functionality. When I've written on-line help that uses a browser for display, I've depended on a toolkit or template to make sure I'm compliant with the target platform.
So, using Firefox, I chose Foxmarks, and I've been happy with it, except for one thing -- not having the ability to get my bookmarks when I'm not using Firefox. When might this happen? Well, say I'm at work, where I don't want to install a new browser on my office box... (I would, but you know... it's not mine, and the company that actually owns the laptop might not approve of me just mucking around with browsers and such...) True, I can use the My Foxmarks website, and it is great, but it didn't have an export feature. So to "get" my bookmarks, I'd have to install Firefox and then the Foxmarks extension, and sync. Yeah, I did that about zero times.
The new addition to My Foxmarks changes all that.
So, rather than logging into My Foxmarks, to get that link to whatever inappropriate site I needed to look at while at work. I can just export my bookmarks and import them into Internet Explorer 6 on my laptop... right?
Okay, that seemed to work.
I almost quit using Firefox once, and consequently looked for another way of doing my unimportant bookmarks, other than just importing and exporting from the native browser menu and saving the file somewhere publicly accessible, like the personal WebDAV space from my FastMail account. It appears that that Delicous thing is a good implementation, but I don't care for the social aspect. I'm not looking for more places to waste time on the Internet. I just want to get to the places I can't commit to memory.
I'll take a look at Delicous some time later, when I don't have stuff to do at work, or at least choose to not put it off so I can write a quick e-mail to my blog. For now Foxmarks has given me the key to not using the service, which must mean it is good enough that I'll not want to stop using it.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Getting Grandma to go digital -- PrintKey alternatives.
Okay, so I made this little post about a few things involving my mom-in-law and Vista and PrintKey. Apparently someone is reading my blog... which is fine. It is public, but surprising. The reply was more of a sales pitch. That is also fine. PrintKey has worked great for my mom-in-law, if she likes it, she should pay the person who developed it... unless Windows starts including the functionality in the OS... which happens for lots of small software vendors... and large ones too.
Here's the kicker... In this day and age lots of people think that if something is on the Internet it is free. Deb isn't one to not use postal mail because of free e-mail. She still enjoys sending and receiving cards from friends and family. I think she would actually be open to paying for PrintKey. She did offer to pay for the computer upgrades I give her, but that's more of a family service thing. I wouldn't expect her to pay... I usually just give her spare hardware, and free support, and it keeps me in touch with people who don't spend all day in front of a computer, like I do.
Should I be looking for an alternative, or just tell Grandma to go digital, whip out the credit card and pay for the upgrade to PrintKey Pro? Dear LazyWeb ... um... I haven't ever really asked for much, but since I have a blog now, and people are starting to read it... I could really use an answer. It really doesn't seem like a significant issue that requires spiritual guidance, like a prayer request. I guess I could always just ask Deb if she wants to pay to keep using PrintKey...
Maybe there's a printkey-like program for the GNOME or KDE desktops that would be cool. Who knows. Could that be the "Killer App"?
Here's the kicker... In this day and age lots of people think that if something is on the Internet it is free. Deb isn't one to not use postal mail because of free e-mail. She still enjoys sending and receiving cards from friends and family. I think she would actually be open to paying for PrintKey. She did offer to pay for the computer upgrades I give her, but that's more of a family service thing. I wouldn't expect her to pay... I usually just give her spare hardware, and free support, and it keeps me in touch with people who don't spend all day in front of a computer, like I do.
Should I be looking for an alternative, or just tell Grandma to go digital, whip out the credit card and pay for the upgrade to PrintKey Pro? Dear LazyWeb ... um... I haven't ever really asked for much, but since I have a blog now, and people are starting to read it... I could really use an answer. It really doesn't seem like a significant issue that requires spiritual guidance, like a prayer request. I guess I could always just ask Deb if she wants to pay to keep using PrintKey...
Maybe there's a printkey-like program for the GNOME or KDE desktops that would be cool. Who knows. Could that be the "Killer App"?
Cancelling Service with AT&T
Geez, you'd think that AT&T would be "happy" to cancel my extra phone line I was carrying for my Mom. It costs $175 to terminate a line in contract. That's a lot of money. A quick "please let us siphon money from you for a long time" plea was answered with a "no". And the representative offered to cancel the line himself, if the cancellations department wasn't open. Funny, when I called Sunday night to cancel, the representative simply refused, noting that the cancellation department wasn't open.
"Did you return the phone?" WTF? Ugh... we've had the line for a year, the representative thought it was less than 30 days... Ugh. I guess he should have transferred me to the cancellations department, but I guess they weren't open. Getting that resolved... and breathing a sigh of relief... since I sold the phone on eBay to help recover the cancellation fee... I canceled the line, and that was that.
Oh well, I guess the $175 is cheaper than another year of $100+ monthly phone bills. Now to go to Wal-Mart and buy a $100 pre-paid card which, should last several months at $0.10/min.
"Did you return the phone?" WTF? Ugh... we've had the line for a year, the representative thought it was less than 30 days... Ugh. I guess he should have transferred me to the cancellations department, but I guess they weren't open. Getting that resolved... and breathing a sigh of relief... since I sold the phone on eBay to help recover the cancellation fee... I canceled the line, and that was that.
Oh well, I guess the $175 is cheaper than another year of $100+ monthly phone bills. Now to go to Wal-Mart and buy a $100 pre-paid card which, should last several months at $0.10/min.
Monday, June 9, 2008
The Obama Pound
Heh, there I was working... shuffling some documents, putting them away in the library... the Librarian is watching "The Obama Pound ".
Complete Awesomeness.
So, the guy clinches the nomination for the Democratic Party, his wife looks him in the eye, gives him the fist bump, and the thumbs up. But then... oh... the hand gesture toward the back side. I wouldn't call it a slap on the bottom, because it wasn't. But being preceded by the "closed fist high-five", and them being black... well, damn.
Obviously, The senator and his wife are in touch with each other, and I don't think anyone could read anything negative into it.. oh wait, I'm sure they will. Ugh.
Complete Awesomeness.
So, the guy clinches the nomination for the Democratic Party, his wife looks him in the eye, gives him the fist bump, and the thumbs up. But then... oh... the hand gesture toward the back side. I wouldn't call it a slap on the bottom, because it wasn't. But being preceded by the "closed fist high-five", and them being black... well, damn.
Obviously, The senator and his wife are in touch with each other, and I don't think anyone could read anything negative into it.. oh wait, I'm sure they will. Ugh.
Windows Vista Upgrade... This goes out to Deb, my computer guinea pig...
OSNews put up a story, How to Get and Keep Windows XP After June 30 , and I remembered my wife saying that her Aunt got a new computer, and was unhappy with Windows Vista. I'm tempted to say, "whatever... learn it and move on". However, if you're gonna learn something, why not learn something that doesn't lock you into a bunch of crap. I'm not going to detail what "crap" that is at this point. Just know there are alternatives.
Anyway, I recently took some spare parts and did a replacement of my mom-in-laws computer and discovered a couple of problems. Her old box was an AMD Athlon XP 1800+ with 1 GB of RAM and was supposedly "slow". Windows XP gets slow, and I did a few things to try to alleviate the "slowness" with not much effect. I built a machine with an AMD BE-2300+ processor a gig of RAM and an NVIDIA 8400 GS, and did a quick install of Windows Vista to see if that would work for her. I didn't get a chance to move *everything* over, so she's a bit concerned about not having her important programs installed.
I'm tempted to just put her old machine back. Besides having to "learn" Vista (she doesn't like learning new things on the computer). There were the following issues:
- She had an old parallel port connected BJC-2000 printer. The computer I built had no parallel port. Okay... I had an old BJC 2100 printer that I got from our old baby sitter who was going to throw it away when she moved. It even used the same cartridges... and had a USB connection. Awesome, I thought... Turns out that the printer is *so* old, Vista didn't have a driver for it.
- PrintKey .... this program is ancient, but again... the whole learning new things... yeah, okay. So she wants that installed, so she can press her "PrintScreen" key and send stuff to her printer (which is unsupported in Vista). I tried to download it, but there's only a paid version available. I was going to just show her the snipping tool in Vista (which is great, by the way) but it would have involved more of that "learning new stuff..." My kid started writing on her wall with an ink pen, so we had to go.
- Windows Contacts is the new Windows Address Book, and Windows Mail is the new Outlook Express. I really think she should have stayed with AOL if she's not going to do this new learning thing. That transition was pretty rough for her. I'm not sure if she'll be able to do everything, but she's making it along, after I imported her address book from her old hard drive. The hard thing is, I don't use Windows Mail or Windows Contacts. I didn't use AOL, and I didn't use Outlook Express. I offered Thunderbird, and AOL Open Mail Access . However, she wasn't comfortable with that. That's what years of AOL use will do to you. Unable to use any other platform, even for the same mail.
- Then there's the whole Kodak EasyShare thing. I installed it on the computer before I brought it over, but I didn't move her pictures. We imported some from a CD her aunt sent her, but that didn't really work out... too many questions, and she wasn't really into it. Then, I couldn't import her old pictures, because the hard drive enclosure I brought her old drive in didn't want to work in Vista on the new computer, even though it worked on my computer at home. I'll write that up to a bad enclosure... The EasyShare backup was like 4.8 GB... too big for a single-layer DVD. I guess the next time I head over, I'll just physically put the drive in the computer and move the files. Ugh. I don't use EasyShare, but I suggested it to her, based on her buying a Kodak Camera, thinking it would be easy. It was, but its still in that, learn it one way, not what is really happening kind of phase.
All this said, my mom-in-law isn't dumb. True, she's not really into learning new ways of doing things, but that's not a specific computer-ish thing. That's just her. Vista is for *new* computers, and *new* peripherals. However, the development is rooted in backwards compatibility. It's just this weird mish-mash of new concepts that are superficial and lack of support for old things that were changed without need.
The real question... of course, is... if I just said, "look, learn this Linux thing, and I'll support you 100%, would it really work out? I don't really use Linux for the things she does. The photos are really important to her, being able to read the e-mail stuff is really important to her... all those silly messages with weird things going on in the world that I'll casually glance at, because I've been "on the Internet" since college, and have seen them already... it is important.
They aren't important to me in the same way they are important to her.All my assets are a bit more digital... transient... I have a picture online, of my kids, if someone wants to see it, I send them a link. I don't really store anything important on my computer, so I don't do backups... She keeps the memory cards from her digital camera archived, and visits a store to print. It isn't really the same, but I know it is a completely valid way of using the computer.
Should I invest in using the computer like she does, so that I can help? Should I work on showing her how to use the computer the way I do, so that she doesn't have go through the struggles. She's not quite to the point where she realizes that everything is digital, and she can't "break" it. When she doesn't know how to do something, she asks, rather than simply trying. People make serious money writing books and stuff to help people out with this line of thinking/usage. I think I should write some "user friendly" books about how to do these things without Windows. I don't know if it would get published, but I do think it would be a worthwhile effort. If anything, I can use Deb as a guinea pig. LOL. I'll write that in the front of the book...
Anyway, I recently took some spare parts and did a replacement of my mom-in-laws computer and discovered a couple of problems. Her old box was an AMD Athlon XP 1800+ with 1 GB of RAM and was supposedly "slow". Windows XP gets slow, and I did a few things to try to alleviate the "slowness" with not much effect. I built a machine with an AMD BE-2300+ processor a gig of RAM and an NVIDIA 8400 GS, and did a quick install of Windows Vista to see if that would work for her. I didn't get a chance to move *everything* over, so she's a bit concerned about not having her important programs installed.
I'm tempted to just put her old machine back. Besides having to "learn" Vista (she doesn't like learning new things on the computer). There were the following issues:
- She had an old parallel port connected BJC-2000 printer. The computer I built had no parallel port. Okay... I had an old BJC 2100 printer that I got from our old baby sitter who was going to throw it away when she moved. It even used the same cartridges... and had a USB connection. Awesome, I thought... Turns out that the printer is *so* old, Vista didn't have a driver for it.
- PrintKey .... this program is ancient, but again... the whole learning new things... yeah, okay. So she wants that installed, so she can press her "PrintScreen" key and send stuff to her printer (which is unsupported in Vista). I tried to download it, but there's only a paid version available. I was going to just show her the snipping tool in Vista (which is great, by the way) but it would have involved more of that "learning new stuff..." My kid started writing on her wall with an ink pen, so we had to go.
- Windows Contacts is the new Windows Address Book, and Windows Mail is the new Outlook Express. I really think she should have stayed with AOL if she's not going to do this new learning thing. That transition was pretty rough for her. I'm not sure if she'll be able to do everything, but she's making it along, after I imported her address book from her old hard drive. The hard thing is, I don't use Windows Mail or Windows Contacts. I didn't use AOL, and I didn't use Outlook Express. I offered Thunderbird, and AOL Open Mail Access . However, she wasn't comfortable with that. That's what years of AOL use will do to you. Unable to use any other platform, even for the same mail.
- Then there's the whole Kodak EasyShare thing. I installed it on the computer before I brought it over, but I didn't move her pictures. We imported some from a CD her aunt sent her, but that didn't really work out... too many questions, and she wasn't really into it. Then, I couldn't import her old pictures, because the hard drive enclosure I brought her old drive in didn't want to work in Vista on the new computer, even though it worked on my computer at home. I'll write that up to a bad enclosure... The EasyShare backup was like 4.8 GB... too big for a single-layer DVD. I guess the next time I head over, I'll just physically put the drive in the computer and move the files. Ugh. I don't use EasyShare, but I suggested it to her, based on her buying a Kodak Camera, thinking it would be easy. It was, but its still in that, learn it one way, not what is really happening kind of phase.
All this said, my mom-in-law isn't dumb. True, she's not really into learning new ways of doing things, but that's not a specific computer-ish thing. That's just her. Vista is for *new* computers, and *new* peripherals. However, the development is rooted in backwards compatibility. It's just this weird mish-mash of new concepts that are superficial and lack of support for old things that were changed without need.
The real question... of course, is... if I just said, "look, learn this Linux thing, and I'll support you 100%, would it really work out? I don't really use Linux for the things she does. The photos are really important to her, being able to read the e-mail stuff is really important to her... all those silly messages with weird things going on in the world that I'll casually glance at, because I've been "on the Internet" since college, and have seen them already... it is important.
They aren't important to me in the same way they are important to her.All my assets are a bit more digital... transient... I have a picture online, of my kids, if someone wants to see it, I send them a link. I don't really store anything important on my computer, so I don't do backups... She keeps the memory cards from her digital camera archived, and visits a store to print. It isn't really the same, but I know it is a completely valid way of using the computer.
Should I invest in using the computer like she does, so that I can help? Should I work on showing her how to use the computer the way I do, so that she doesn't have go through the struggles. She's not quite to the point where she realizes that everything is digital, and she can't "break" it. When she doesn't know how to do something, she asks, rather than simply trying. People make serious money writing books and stuff to help people out with this line of thinking/usage. I think I should write some "user friendly" books about how to do these things without Windows. I don't know if it would get published, but I do think it would be a worthwhile effort. If anything, I can use Deb as a guinea pig. LOL. I'll write that in the front of the book...
Samsung R225 Sucks -- what time is it?
Okay, I started wearing a watch again, because apparently looking at my phone for the time is too much hassle for me, and after years of religiously wearing a watch for years, I felt somehow restricted by it. Now, after going a few years without it, I've come back to wearing a watch... for many reasons.
Anyway, I got this cheapo free phone, and the time was off, and I wanted to have it at least be right. Some genius decides to put that in the "Organizer" settings, rather than the "Phone" settings. I don't use the organizer on this phone -- because it isn't a PDA. I appreciate the option, but um... no. Put the time and date settings for the phone where they should be...
Or just make every phone a Personal Data Assistant. Okay, thanks!
Anyway, I got this cheapo free phone, and the time was off, and I wanted to have it at least be right. Some genius decides to put that in the "Organizer" settings, rather than the "Phone" settings. I don't use the organizer on this phone -- because it isn't a PDA. I appreciate the option, but um... no. Put the time and date settings for the phone where they should be...
Or just make every phone a Personal Data Assistant. Okay, thanks!
Sunday, June 8, 2008
AT&T One down, one to go.
This past week, I canceled my service on my personal phone with AT&T. I ported my number to a T-Mobile prepaid line, with an old phone I had. I just don't talk on the phone that much. I had "a bazillion" Rollover minutes, and I was simply tired of paying for them. I sleep at night, and I see the people I want to talk to on the weekends. I have a phone of my own, at home, that gives me unlimited long distance.
I ported my wife a couple of weeks ago. She had an unlocked RAZR, which would have been sweet, but we're both stuck on these crappy Samsung R225 pieces of junk. Also, I didn't get any additional airtime added to my phone yet. I'll probably just drop $100 and go straight to the "Gold Rewards status". $0.10/min for the win... and no extra crappy fees.
Now maybe I can afford gas, and diapers. it's $4 a gallon... I should invent an auto engine that runs on dirty diapers... That'd be a total "genius" move. Minivans powered by the stuff that makes you get one anyway.
I ported my wife a couple of weeks ago. She had an unlocked RAZR, which would have been sweet, but we're both stuck on these crappy Samsung R225 pieces of junk. Also, I didn't get any additional airtime added to my phone yet. I'll probably just drop $100 and go straight to the "Gold Rewards status". $0.10/min for the win... and no extra crappy fees.
Now maybe I can afford gas, and diapers. it's $4 a gallon... I should invent an auto engine that runs on dirty diapers... That'd be a total "genius" move. Minivans powered by the stuff that makes you get one anyway.
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