Amazon vs. Apple vs. Google vs. Microsoft vs. Samsung vs. other

and the winner is???

I am willing to wager that you like me have had to wrestle with this battle royale yourself, either in the past, present or to be addressed again in the future and always trying to come to some conclusion as to which is the best way to go.  This has not been easy, and the decisions made do not seem to be permanent.  Things change.  And that means, like Wrestlemania, roll out the roman numerals because even if you found a winner last time, it soon will be time to do it again.

I have been in a constant shopping mod for cell phones, tablets, laptops, desktops and any other electronic gadgetry that comes along that promises to advance my standard of living with the mere transfer of a cash transfusion and a future draft pick to be named later.  I used to thrill to the hunt, leap at the chase, research with relish, and analyse till the cows came home with the confidence that I would know at the end of it all that I could determine what was good, better, best.

It works with cars so why not electronics.  

By looking at the universe of products, you layout a list of features and attributes measured against their effectiveness of meeting certain personal objectives weighted to your biases and desires and rated on your relative scales of values to come up with a very limited number of finalist that make the cut.  You try them on for size, select one, find a store willing to give you the best deal and next thing you know it finds its way home among your most prized possessions.

With cars it is fairly easy to make apples to apples comparisons.  With electronics not so much.  With everyone using a different language and different measuring sticks the comparisons become confusing rather quickly.  The comparison quickly becomes one of Apples and Oranges or Androids or MS as the case maybe.

If all you know is that 'an 8 cylinder engine is more than a 4 cylinder engine so it must be better right' and don't care about what either one does or why then you may not be in the same boat as I am.  I am looking for more.  I need more.  More helps me define and confirm my decisions.  I don't want to know that it has a quad chip, I want to know which quad chip and what speed it is running and which generation ship it is.  These things matter when trying to make an informed decision but it takes some real detective work to find the answers especially with some manufacturers.

Not everyone likes to look that hard or think that hard or spend that much time worrying about what is right for them so they phone a friend, "Hey, what have you got? Do you like it? Cool." and go get one of those but the next model up cause you have to have some bragging rights, end of story.  And for many that works great.

I am still from an era where a dollar was hard earned and hard spent and have wanted to get the most bang for the buck so it was important to try and find the best of whatever for me, and as I said before, I really did enjoy the whole shopping experience.

It is all about the system

So for those still with me I will start at the foundation.  Every system out there tries to be a closed proprietary system meaning they want you to be locked into only buying from them for all your wants and needs.  That is fine if they can deliver all your wants and needs but if not drop them and look elsewhere.  Please take note, systems change, some for the worst, some for the better, some stick around, some die off.  Just because you can get a great 'deal' on something be aware that it might not just be the model that is being closed out.  Also note that even if the system on the whole is solid, one of its divisions may not be.  There are a lot of products out there that have come and gone without a lot of impact and barely able to make one of those 'do you remember these' lists that get past around your email inbox.

So my system look narrows quickly when related to cell phones and tablets with a slight pause at the desktop/laptops.  I have grouped these a little because even though the operating systems are different the main systems all come from the same roots.  Basically you have Apple, Microsoft and Android or some version thereof.

Let's start with Android and it's derivatives of which there are many.  Most closely associated with Google, Android is a base upon which many have built such as Samsung, Amazon's Fire and dozens of other names too numerous to mention here.  Some use their own modified version of Android and that presents its own set of challenges for the user.  For example Amazon wants you to stay with Amazon and will not play with Google.  Also the further away from a pure Android system, the less likely it will be kept up to date with it's operating system.  And Android has a lot of versions.  So many it is hard to keep up with which candy name you are on or dealing with.  (Was I eating a jelly bean or a lollipop?  And does it matter?) It matters.  Although I like the fact that the software side of a system is in a constant state of update, meaning improvements and advancement, it also means that the hardware side is in for the obsolescence pile sooner.  When the hardware can't keep up with the latest software you are stuck with an upgrade, one you might not have been planning for.

Microsoft on the other hand is trying to be all things to all people and failing miserably.  For the desktop/laptop scene they have a pretty well established line that has served them well even if it has made many a user scream in frustration.  The attempt to move into other areas has not gone as well.  Cell phones with Windows do not capture 2% of the market and when you are that small it doesn't pay to bother with them.  At some point they will get their act together or give up and I am betting on the later.

Which leaves Apple the 500 pound gorilla that may or may not use gorilla glass.  Apple probably has the best universal approach out there.  It's users can find a consistent, stable, universe of commonality.  And even though there are different systems for the cell phone and the desktop you have a better chance of interfacing here than on most other platforms.  There are of course downsides and they will be mentioned later but they are the current king for finding simple utility in a product.

There are other solutions out there but they are on the fringe so to speak.  If you have these other solutions then you also are on the fringe, and I don't say that to belittle anyone but to give them the respect they deserve because they are the ones willing to put up with a few inconveniences in order to have a better solution and more power to them.  I have found that I spend too much time fighting with the simple solutions let alone trying to be one who is running on the fringe.

Or is it?

There is something more to consider than just the system and that is what are you going to do with it?  I remember a few decades ago when the first PCs were coming out the the question again was Apple vs MS.  Going to school at the time and with limited funds and the fact that businesses were using IBMs and MS I went with a MS based PC rather than a Mac.  In the process of looking I had a friend that asked, 'What are you going to do with it?' as if I knew.  We are talking way back at the start of all this so I wanted the world but soon found out the technology of the day was very short of ideal.  What he was referring to was not so much the hardware but the software or applications that I wanted to run that would help me to 'do' what I wanted to do.  Which platform or system gave me the best chance of doing what I wanted to do?

Same thing today.  What apps do you want that will 'do' the things you want to do and do them the best?  And more importantly where can you get them?

Here comes the big elimination.  It isn't really about who has the most apps...but it is.  You can do pretty much anything you would like to on any system but...then again you can't.  And so here it is boiled down in a nut shell.  When you see an app advertised 99% of the time it will say 'Get it now at Apple or Google Play'.  If you are not one of those two or if you cannot access one of those two then you no longer count.  Sorry and thanks for playing.  Microsoft/Windows will get a few mentions but generally not enough to worry about.  Everyone says Apple iTunes or Google Play, but I don't recall anyone saying Amazon Apps other than Amazon so for now all the Fire devices are out because if Amazon Apps doesn't have it, even if it is an Android based app, you cannot get it from Google Play.  Even if you can get it from Amazon Apps there is no guarantee if it will work on the Amazon Android Fire devices, some don't.

And after apps, content is king.  

Everyone knows that Apple's iTunes is a treasure trove but much of it can also be found with Google Play and Amazon and Podcasts Addict and so on and so on and so one possible next step is to compare pricing of your favorite albums and books.  You may be willing to pay more for the hardware but are you willing to pay up for the further installments of apps and content?

Wait a minute, didn't you eliminate Amazon earlier but you mentioned them again, what gives?  Amazon was smart enough to have a two way street but dumb enough to close off half of it.  You can get Amazon apps that will run on any Android device as well as your Apples so their store is wide open for all, just don't expect their Fire devices to work the other way.

Now for the most part I like Google and Android and I have found relative good use from them but I find that they often keep coming up short.  All too often they are just not quite there.  I hate it when that happens because the hardware used to run Android can be had at such a better price and sometimes flat out better hardware that it disappoints me to think that I am considering, let alone deciding, that my best choice for next upgrade will be Apple.

And Here is Why

I love my wife.  But you knew that already.  Her tolerance with technology is not as high as mine therefore whatever we get next must be simple, intuitive, functional, and easy, and if that doesn't describe Apple I don't know what does.

Everyone I talk to that has an Apple says about the same thing.  They love it and wouldn't go back.  They get long life out of the product and good service even if it comes with long lines.  The phones are everywhere so you can feel good about being part of the 'in' crowd if that means something to you.  Their products work, so even if they are dated right out of the box, they have been tested enough to give you a pretty good assurance that you won't have any issues from the get go or from future releases and with fewer variations and a tightly controlled system there are less worries for the apps as well.

And if I get a phablet I can try to justify the costs by telling myself that I am really getting a phone and a tablet and an MP3 player and a camera both still and video all in one.  So if I add all those items up the cost of a new iPhone is only twice what I would normally spend for all the others combined.  And I would be cool.

Basically though, I have been down the other path, tried it, been there, got the T-shirt.  It is time to try the other side of the fence and see if the grass really has a greener hue from a Retina resolution display.

Just have to figure out how to afford it.  If I forgo the around the world cruise and down grade my next car from an S class Benz to the Civic...

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

This is me joining the tablet world

I want a tablet.

Why, because everyone else has one.

I think I need a tablet.

Yeah sure whatever, but which one?

Depends what you are going to do with it?

Same thing everyone else does...I think.

I want to read books, listen to music, keep up with my pod casts, surf the web, update my blogs, check e-mail, watch T.V and movies, and best of all play all those fun games that everyone is playing.

O.K. time for me to shop the snot out of it like I do every big major purchase that as long lasting ramifications and will make a huge impact on how I will operate in the coming future.

A bit dramatic...maybe but that is just me.

If I am going to use a touchy feel interface then by golly it better work.  Me and touch devices have not gotten along very well in the past so any device I end up with had better work well enough on the touchy part to avoid any regrets as well as a processor that will keep up with today.

I have found that there are five basic approaches to tablets so I will begin by a process of elimination.

5.  Generics.  They don't count because they are just copy cats of the real McCoy.  They maybe cheaper and will get you by if you are not too demanding or of lowered expectations but they will always come up short.  I am tired of coming up short due to compromising.  So anything that has a name I have never heard of or is a we have one of those too (HP, Dell, Sony) I am not interested and you are off the list.

4. Windows 8 and/or 8.1.  I will admit I have tried several times to give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt but they have continued to disappoint me.  I have demoed many times on many different machines in may different stores with many salesman that tell me that "I have this at home and I love it after I got use to it".  I have looked for a replacement for this old home computer as well and I still don't love it anywhere close enough for me to get rid of my old box and I am running Vista if that tells you anything.

So when it comes to their tablets you would think that the Surface would be the shining example of what to look for in a Windows based tablet.  Sorry.  The entry level is overpriced and with just enough memory to open up (compare system memory requirements vs. available on the base unit and you will see what I mean).  The screen is smaller and the font is smaller.  This makes it a real pain to touch and select with any precision.  Remember me and my touchy problem, I saw much foreshadowing here.  The keyboard (option and extra) looks like a nice solution but is another not ready for prime time item from Microsoft.  Bundle this with price that made Apple look reasonable by comparison (more on this later) and Windows was quickly out of the running.  This includes the cloneables (see above).

3. Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Noble Nook.  As I narrowed down the selection it became harder, not because of the hardware itself but because of the cloud world you would have to become tied to.  Both Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook are good units and you won't go wrong with either.  They are fairly priced for what you get.  Between the two I would go with the Kindle over the Nook because the Amazon world is so much broader than that of Barnes and Noble.  Having said that it became apparent that for that very reason I would have to leave them in 3rd place.  The whole world is so much broader than either Amazon or Barnes and Noble individually that by choosing one of these you would be limited to their offerings and not much beyond.  This is not an altogether bad thing as their is much, much to choose from but it is a limit.  As a side note I have noticed that some of the games that I can get for free with ads are sold for $.99 or something similar on these two sites for their own machines, not cool.

4. Apple iPads.  There are many Apples to choose from and they would all be pretty good to have, at least from what all the users tell you.  There is nothing to compare to Apple when it comes to brand loyalty.  There must be something to it., and there is.  They make a good product with a well developed system.  In Apple world things are simple; simple to learn, simple to use and they work.  There is much to draw you in to the Apple world.  The excuses of not being compatible with the MS world doesn't seem to matter at all anymore.  Apples can accomplish pretty much anything you want them to do and do them as well as any other system out there.  In fact they are able to do a lot of other things better making those other systems only wishing they could.  It is not that their product is anymore robust as a look at returns will so them to be about average but when they are working they integrate into the Apple world like only Apples can.

There is one thing Apple can't deliver for me and that one thing has turned me away from buying anything Apple literally hundreds of times, and that one thing is "Value".  Notice i did not say Price.  Pricing is a marketing gimmick that is used for placing your product in the worlds market.  There are certain price points that consumers respond to and usually the market will deliver product at those price points regardless of the value they represent.  Apple has been very good at training its customers to respond to a different set of price points than users of other similar items.  They are very good at maintaining those price points as new product is rolled out and sending the now obsolete prior generation stuff to a new but still high price point for which their loyal customers have become accustomed.  This may work for them but as an outsider it does not work for me.  As I have said before when I was looking for an MP3 player I can not justify spending 2 to 4 times as much for an Apple product.  I might have to compromise on somethings but I can do a lot of other things with the price savings.  I realize that value is more than just price, but when it comes to Apple it is about price too.

1. Nexus 7 (2013).  So I ended up with a Nexus 7.  When you are talking about who's world you are going to play in, the next best one outside of Apple is the whole rest of the web, and the one that seemed to best exemplify access to that is Google, Nexus and the Android platform.  I am going to do and extensive review of the Nexus 7 later but for now, here are the highlights.  Awesome screen with resolution that delivers, better than Apple in most cases.  It is smaller than the mini but that makes it very portable and with all my scriptures a finger touch away I can always carry it with me.  Besides it will fit in my pants pocket even if it does make them sag a little.  Google Play is a click away as well as aps for Amazon Kindle world and many many others.  I can't get Apple iTunes or any Apple content but that is part of the reason this became and either/or decision.  There are many games to be had as well as many aps to choose from.  I spent much time playing with the screen and although it is not perfect it is much better than they used to be and will work well enough until the next generation comes along.

There are some things I think could be better but that is to be expected with technology that is still advancing at a fast clip.  We are at one of those tipping points where how we operate and interact is advancing so fast that manufacturers are trying hard to figure out the next new thing while hanging on for all they are worth.

The biggest decider again was the price.  I was able to go for the unit with double the memory while adding a screen protector and fancy overpriced case with a $25 credit to Google Play and my bundled price with tax was still $100 less than the mini iPad.  Is it any wonder I went with the second gen Nexus?

I have said it before and I say it yet again, if Apple ever decided to they would own the market and wouldn't have to settle for the 9 - 12 % market share in PCs.  Although they think they are all that now with tablets and phones they could be so much more.  It will be interesting to watch them going forward and see if as in times past, when they lost their visionary leader will they lose their vision again, or will they come up with a new vision and purpose?  One that isn't willing to be so exclusionary to the other more practical 88%.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farrwest.

On slow downloads and the reality of over sold expectations.

As I write this I am waiting, and waiting, and waiting for the last of a few files to download. I started the download sometime yesterday afternoon. It is now nearly 6:30 the next morning as the last file reports that there are 15 minutes remaining. The files are good size files I admit. There are about 50 files in all representing two classes, one on financial markets from Yale and one on Hebrew Scriptures in Judaism and Christianity from Harvard. Each file is in the 600 to 850 MB size range representing a 60 to 75 minute video lecture on the given topic. They come from the iTunes U store. There is a fascinating array of topics to be discovered there and so far if you stay on the Pod casts and iTunes U side of the iTunes store it has all been free, a price I readily relish in the internet age where far too many things have hyper inflated pricing under the label of being cutting edge technology. So why is my Qwest taking so stinking long to download a couple of school videos especially when they are bragging all the time about high speed internet and there wonderfully cheap pricing plan. By the way we have seen neither in our many months of belonging to them even after the changeover to CenturyLink. The bill remains high with extra charges that don’t make any sense and seem to reappear time and again even after request to have them removed. I am definitely going to have to find a better way. I know my computer is starting to show it’s age (and if you look in past entries you will see that it started showing its age shortly after we got it). It is very frustrating to be throwing good money after bad which makes a lot of decisions about upgrading versus buying new a dilemma as well. Who do you trust to deliver the goods on whichever path you proceed down? In these tight economic times, which decision will lead to the best value for the hard earned dollar? And if I get something new, will I ever be able to find a machine that can play the flight simulator programs with a fair bit of competence? Yahoo, the last file just finished, I am out of here, other errands to run, the job being one of them. Wish me luck. This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

Tales of the HP, Part Three.

It isn’t over yet, there is still much to be done. IE 8 is o.k. but I still like Firefox better so I need to get a copy and get it loaded. I did save all my links in the backup process; at least I hope I did. Speaking of backups, I will need to figure out a good way to transfer my old files back onto this box, and set up a good back up program. I should be able to use the one that came with the portable unit I got at Costco and since that is where I stuck my files anyway it may be a good way to transfer back the files. At least that was the thought when I picked it up in the first place. One back up drive should be able to support two different computers, right.

Optimist.

As I think back over the last few months and having to try and come up with solutions to the problems I faced, one thought ran over and over again in my mind; if I can’t get this working again then I will just have to get another computer, but if I had to get a new computer what would I do now? If I had it to do over again would I go this same route or would I try something different? Because of the problems I have had the last thing I want is something that will give me more problems, and I don’t want to spend any more money on this than I have to.

On my last three computer buys I have spent the extra money up front thinking that I was getting better quality, performance, and time before obsolescence only to find that I only got a small increment if any and that the problem quotient was still there. I readily admit that I will think long and hard before even considering an HP again. This has left a bad taste in my mouth for their products, and I do mean that with a plural. Maybe it is the platform and I should switch from PC to Apple.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about that one also, but like the PC, Apples are not perfect. They are far from being cheap let alone inexpensive. If they were half the current price on any and all models the whole story of personal computing would have to be rewritten.

They are also every bit as proprietary as anything out there. This is both good and bad. Good in that they should be in an excellent position to tackle compatibility issues but bad in that there is definitely a monopolistic feel within the platform. But with all this control they should also have a handle on quality issues, especially for the money they charge. That expectation is not born out based on some things I have read. My brother put it best when he told me to go to the local Apple store and take a look at the line at the service counter.

For now I will give the old HP one more shot. I kind of have to with all the time, effort, and money I have invested in this thing. It is too bad that the world is moving so fast and technologies are changing so quickly because some days I would like to go back to an older box that ran simpler software and still seemed to do what I needed it too without too much fanfare. Actually it seemed to do the basics at least as fast as the current boxes do. Bulky is bulky no matter what your time-frame of reference is. It is hard to say which technology is pushing which. Does new software require new hardware or does new hardware dictate new software? All I know is you can never have enough of either when it comes to gaming. And lately it all kinda seems like a game. And one that is getting harder to win.

Either way I will press on and let you know what happens. A lot has been happening in the world lately and without a blog to share my comments with the office has been taking the brunt of my soap boxing escapades. They will probably be glad for the reprieve.

As always, I am Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

Click here for Part One of the HP adventure or
click here for Part Two of the HP adventure.

Tales of the HP, Part Two.

I found one (a portable backup hard drive), looks about right, on sale, says it’s easy to use, preloaded with backup software…let’s try it.

After much rebooting I was able to get the computer up and running longer than 3 minutes, plugged the backup drive in and started to copy files over. The best I was able to do was move 1.9 Gb before it crashed. This is not good.

I was not going to trust my data to someone I could not talk to first that should be able to save the data before rebuilding the computer. I chickened out and took it to a different local PC shop, one that advertised free virus scans and one I had been in once before when I went shopping for a particular piece of computing hardware with a friend. I was hopeful.

Too hopeful it turns out. You can’t run a virus scan if you can’t get the computer to run at all. Minimum diagnostics charge was $69, thank you very much, but they go through it totally and test each part then let you know what it will cost to repair before fixing…yada, yada, yada. I got the call the next day saying come pick it up it is ready to go. I go there and the lad tells me that they ran a hard drive check disk, found some bad sectors, repaired them and it ran fine. I asked if they ran the free virus scan and he plugged it in to their monitor to show me. It crashed three times before he sheepishly turned to me and said “You probably want to leave this with us a little longer.”

Several days go by and still no word so I stop in after work to see what the verdict is. He thinks it might be the memory but he also is not getting consistent readings. He has been pulling components out of my box and putting it into one of theirs then running the test piece by piece so at least this time they are using good method. The techie tells me that the hard drive is working fine. This is good news to me since that is where my data is. So I ask “Can you save the data?” to which he replies “yes, we usually charge $79 to transfer data.”, and I reply “WHAT, you have got to be kidding me?” but he wasn’t.

I then decided that I could do that part of the job myself if I only had the right tool. I found it in their shop, a box which will act like a portable hard drive when you insert your internal hard drive into it and then power it up and plug it into the USB port of another computer. I talked him into giving me a break on the price, he gave me $5 bucks off, and off I went $100 poorer but at least on my way to saving the photos.

Having a little mechanical savvy I was able to open up the box, pull the internal hard drive, build the portable unit, plug into my wife’s laptop that she is using for school, transfer the files, return the internal hard drive to its original position inside the HP desktop box, put the case back together and start feeling hopeful again.

I then immediately hooked up the new recently bought portable backup drive from Costco to the wife’s laptop and did a proper backup of all the files on her computer including the newly transferred files from the HP. This was another ‘whew’ moment.

Off to the UPS store and the computer was now on its way to PC repair store number two, the original one intended to do the repair work under the extended warranty. The repair tech contacts me a few days later saying he couldn’t find the power cord that I know I took with the box to UPS to be shipped, but he said it was o.k. he had one available. He then asked me several times making sure that I had backed up my data. I assured him I had made every effort to do so and that is why it took so long to get it to him from the day I first submitted the claim. This to me was confirmation that I had done the right thing in making sure I had my files off the computer before sending it in, a system rebuild was in the works and I could feel it.

A week went by but being busy with work I hadn’t had time to notice or do much with home computers anyway so I just let it be. About the time I did start to wish I had it here though it showed up from UPS, on a holiday no less. I unpacked the box trying not to get the packing peanuts everywhere. There was a note inside stating that they had replaced the System Board (Mother Board for us old timers) and power supply (evidently the power cord got lost along the way), and had run a “burn-in for more than 19 hours and everything is working fine”. They also installed fresh OS with all driver and window updates. Does this mean I am truly back in business and that I can run my computer without fear for the first time in its life? Honestly, I don’t know.

Only one way to find out, plug it in and try it out. So that is what I am in the process of doing. I took care to plug all the various wires and cords back into the same places they came out of (more or less). With fingers crossed I hit the power button and waited for the lights to dance. Of course the first attempt ended in a mouse that wouldn’t operate and a keyboard that quit after a few taps of trying to operate a computer without a mouse. I quickly called back the PC store who suggested I buy a new mouse since they sometimes go bad or try plugging it into a different slot and see if that works. The mouse and keyboard worked fine before I started all this so there was no reason for them not to work now and besides, I have a serial mouse, not a USB mouse so there is only one place to plug it and the keyboard into, and they are color coded from HP and no I didn’t get them mixed up thank you very much. It turns out Microsoft is still not as plug and play as they want you to believe so the computer had to decide what drivers to use and then needed a reboot. One reboot later the computer recognized the keyboard and mouse and I could try again.

Next thing I noticed is that I have in essence a new box and that there is nothing loaded on it but the newly loaded operating system. All the rest is gone. I still have the software disc for MS Office and such so not a big deal although it does require reloading everything with subsequent re-registering and reconfiguring and rearranging and just redoing everything that you had done once before. (These really are remarkable time saving devices aren’t they.) So I have Office on here now and IE8, both running on the newly updated 64 bit Vista with Service Pack 2. I also have my Anti-Virus software package running; it was the first thing to get loaded and updated.

Of course I have already done several system updates as suggested by Microsoft’s Windows update and currently have another 18 waiting for me since I just loaded MS Office. I have also had to reload a version of Adobe Acrobat reader which is required to read all the manuals and read-me docs that seem to be everywhere these days. I also tried to load Adobe Flash Player but that one got hung on me. In fact I already have 4 system problems that need checking for solutions, 2 for the HP and 2 for Windows. Actually when I pressed check for solutions it went looking for 18 of them. I hope this is not a sign of things to be with this system.

I will try to follow the software manufacturer’s suggestions, keep everything current and updated, treat this computer with the kid gloves I always have and hope that things are going to be different this time around, thinking that maybe I did just get a quasi-lemon last time and that I am fully repaired and now I can surf the web and compute without fear, and my productivity will go through the roof as my creativity soars by with the broken barriers of hardware limitations.

Optimist.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West. If you are ready to see the conclusion Click here for Part Three of the HP adventures. If you missed the beginning Click here for Part One.

Tales of the HP, Part One

O.K. so I have been off line for a while. Not totally a bad thing but not a great thing either.

The computer finally gave up on me. What a pain. First one side of my dual core processor locks up making everything run very slowly. This lasted about a week. It was at this point that I contacted the American Express warranty people. Since I bought the computer at Costco and used my Costco American Express card they extended the warranty by one year. I am kinda glad I did.

I have had issues with this HP Pavilion box on and off since day one and it finally got so bad that it became unusable. I was never sure what the cause was as the problems acted differently each time. Of course the first thought is that you have picked up a virus or some nasty software but that is the first thing I checked for and except for a few spy-ware cookies I was clean. (Practice good surfing habits people.)

In the past I have contacted Costco’s concierge service which comes with new electronic purchases. They act as an intermediary for user issues and are very friendly, patient and helpful. If they are unable to solve directly (I am guessing the 80/20 rule were 80% of all new customer problems can be handled with the same 20% of the questions/answers) they will contact the manufacturer on your behalf. The first contact was to help me create the initial back up disc for the operating system that no one seems to ship with new computers anymore. The machine would not cooperate in making the disc for me so HP agreed to send me the backup Disc directly. Problem solved, back to work.

The next time was when the Hardware and/or Memory started going flaky. I never could tell which if either was really bad but during the experience I got a lot more familiar with some of the system diagnostic tools. With the support of the concierge I ran many different diagnostics but without a clear, consistent indication of what was wrong we couldn’t proceed to fix anything. This is also the time when I began to suspect that all the different Microsoft updates might have had something to do with it. It seemed like every time I turned around there was a new critical update that needed to be loaded, and when I did load them sometimes things got better and sometimes things got worse, sometimes much worse. It was in this phase that I learned about Vistas ability to return itself to a previous version. That came in handy a couple of times but again I never really was able to identify what the real problem was or what really fixed it.

And here is the rub. The computer would go on these ‘rants’ if you will for several weeks marked by excessive CPU time, or constant hard drive activity even when the computer should be in sleep mode, or the most irritating action of all, the reboot out of nowhere. I have heard that you should leave your computer on all the time and I have heard that you should leave your computer off when not in use. I have gone both ways and at this stage I don’t think it really matters either way. Based on the way you use your computer and frequency it becomes more a matter of convenience versus energy savings from my point of view.

Either way, the computer over its life has acted up on several occasions, diagnostics would turn up one problem or another without consistency, and then after a few aggravating days and sometimes weeks the computer would right itself and all would be well again. It would run perfectly normal for weeks and months with no rhyme or reason.

Unexpected reboots are generally not a good sign and that was always a good signal to me that something was acting up again with mine. Sometimes it was in the middle of the night and the next day when you went to use it you would notice that it had done a reboot. Sometimes I think this was legitimate as a new Microsoft update had been pushed out and it require a restart. It would take a little digging to see if that was the cause but it didn’t explain all of the non-use reboots, not by half.

It is when it started rebooting in the middle of what you were doing that really gave cause for alarm, and much frustration. There is the case where you get something hung up and you have to do a hard reboot yourself, it is a pain but that is a fact of life with these computers running Microsoft. It is something else entirely when it happens on its own or is accompanied by the blue screen of death. This last episode got so bad that I could no longer use it for any amount of time without it crashing in the middle of whatever I was doing. Bad news for me…and bad news for my data.

I finally gave up trying to figure it out and contacted American Express Warranty service, described the problem with what my attempted corrections had been and they agreed to send it in for repairs. Now I face my second problem, the service repair shop they use is a local PC store that has a store about 10 miles from home; however, the store they use for warranty work is located about 70 miles from my home. No problem, I could just run it down there myself and have them fix it while I wait and I would be back in the chase. I neglected to think about the fact that I would have to drop it off and leave it with them for who knows how long before they could get to it, diagnose it, repair it, and return it. On second thought, send me the shipping instructions.

Ah yes, the shipping instructions. They were sent fairly quickly…to my e-mail account…that is accessed through the internet…by… (I think you got ahead of me on this one)…my broken computer. O.K. the internet is everywhere and so that wasn’t as big a problem as it might have been but still one I had to work through. The next problem was slightly bigger.

The instructions said to take the shipping slip to the local UPS store, they would box it and ship it for you, all you needed to bring was the box, power cord, back up operating system software, and the signed authorization letter for the local PC store to do the work. On this signed letter was a place to enter your description of the problem and a paragraph warning of the chance that through the repair of the computer it may be necessary to do a rebuild of the system, in other words wipe out everything on the computer and start all over with a fresh load of the operating system and this my friends means that any files and photos you had loaded on your computer that didn’t reside in another spot would be lost forever.

Now you would think that someone that has had this much problem with their computer would know enough to have backed everything up (and at this point probably several times a day) and you would be right…except for the several times a day. I couldn’t remember when the last time I had done a back up so I wasn’t sure where to begin and I knew I had a lot of photos…a lot of photos which means a lot of backup space was required. That shouldn’t be a problem as I had plenty of CDs and DVDs with which to do this but it would be a lot more convenient to get one of those new portable backup drives, plug it in and let it do it all in one big sweep. Now which one do I get, how big should it be and how much should it cost? Back to Costco.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West. Click here for Part Two of the HP adventures.

Increase your e-mail awareness

Since I am continuing to send myself an e-mail trying to sell myself Viagra, and growing increasingly tired of the many implications I decided to do a little checking to see where the link was going. I did this without opening the e-mail’s link. I just hovered the curser over the link and looked at the address listed below. I then entered the address into www.networksolutions.com/whois-search and it came back showing the current registrar as Beijing Innovative Linkage Technology LTD. It also shows the name server as ns1(2,3,4).collig.ru. In other words they are using a Russian domain.

There is some other information and some phone numbers but I am not pursing it any farther. I don’t know whether someone is spoofing them the same way they are spoofing my e-mail address to make it look like I am sending myself these e-mails or what but I don’t like it. If our government was really concerned about our welfare they would be actively reaching out and attacking these people. What they are doing is deliberate and with intended consequences. This is not an accident.

If there are any of you out there that love to hack and disturb but still want to do something for a good cause and stand for something right, here is your target. Take out a spammer. Actively eliminate those that are deliberately out to do harm. I don’t have the wherewithal (resources or knowledge to do it) though I really wish I did.

We have all seen the warning about not clicking on a link from an unknown source or untrusted party and that is good advice. It seems that is still only a portion of the advice you need as I can’t even trust my own e-mail now. Either way please be careful out there. The war that is waging out there is bigger than any of us realize and we are getting caught up in the crossfire, so when in doubt…duck.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

I got Junk Mail

Ever since I was old enough to have an address associated with my name I have been exposed to junk mail. I am not just talking about all the silly stuff they try to send you the minute you set up an e-mail account. I am sure you are all well aware of the myriad methods of spam and other loosely direct sent ads that overwhelm your in-box once your e-mail address is known. I am sure there are computer programs out there that randomly generate addresses to known server domains in attempts to find a 'live one' just so that you can receive the latest method of physical enhancement or reduction depending your gullibility.

I am rather referring to the spam e-mails ancestor, the original junk mail that travels by snail mail and arrives in the mail box located outside in a physical form that requires you to interact with it by direct physical means.

I actually like this form of advertisement. Really. It is the direct and physical nature of it that appeals to me, mainly because I can deal with it on my terms and on my time table. E-mail needs to be dealt with right now. Once opened it demands attention, mostly because if you decide to deal with it later it will sit there waiting and building up with all the other e-mail messages you have waiting for your attention. O sure you could file it into another folder, one marked 'to be read later' and let that one build up until one day you force yourself to look at them and notice that you were invited to a special party all expenses paid, for you and all your friends and close associates and all you need to do is RSVP by Friday only to find that the Friday the e-mail is referring to happened two and a half years ago.

Actually this is a good method for handling certain e-mail for your work address. It is amazing how many work assignments can get lost or company policy statements can go unread without affecting your routine daily life structure. I have found that if you quit producing a neglected and useless report and no one says anything about it for the next six months it probably won't ever be missed and your time will be better spent elsewhere. Of course if it is missed for what ever reason and it is still a neglected and useless report your time will still be better spent elsewhere. Such is the existence of a cubicle dweller, but that is another topic.

Our topic is good old fashion junk mail. Now there are some that say that you should open your mail as you receive it and deal with it immediately as a form of good time waste management. Well sometimes I am just not ready to deal with it thank you very much and hard physical mail makes that possible. If I want to wait until later to read it I can and the urgency I place on this hard mail depends on the pile I put it in and how high it stacks up without falling over or allowing me the ability to create a path around it on the floor.

Hard physical mail comes in self contained packaging other wise known as envelopes that give an indication generally of who sent it and what is in it. Here I have the ability to decide if this is something I really want to deal with right now or is it something I have to deal with right now or, or is it something I can put aside for later review.

But e-mail also comes in a form of envelope just like hard mail, I hear you say. It has an address of the sender and it even comes with a subject line to let you know what the topic of the message is. But this is where it breaks with hard mail or should I say hard mail is easier to discern. Hard mail comes with a return address that is either truthful or not and you know at a glance what you are getting. If it is from a friend they will have their address on it and you will recognize it, if it is a bill or advertisement from someone you know they will also have their address and sometimes a logo that you will recognize and know. If it is junk the return address will be none existent or a p.o. box number or other address without a name listed, or if a name is included it will be some made up funky name built to resemble someone else's name like "United States First Federal Integration Refinancing District Office". This tells you someone has something to hide and it is pretty evident right now.

Come to think of it, that is kind of what the spam mail tries to do also. The difference is that some do not list an e-mail address or some will use phony addresses. I have even received e-mail that supposedly came from myself. If they can send out spam using my own address what is to stop them from using the address of your friends. Besides we have all heard of how they send e-mail trying to pretend it is coming from your bank or credit card company in order to steal your account information. Deceiving people are deceitful no doubt about it.

Of course e-mail accounts prevent this or at least they try to prevent this with spam filters. Spam filters by the way only work a little for me. I have had more spam make its way into my in-box and more real letters make their way into my spam box than makes sense. I don't understand why it happens but it does. I think we rely on our computers too much by letting them make way more decisions for us than we should, especially seeing how often they get it wrong. Point is you can't trust them to do everything for you, you are going to have to do much of it on your own.

So our e-mail accounts have tried to develop ways to work like we use too, or at least how time management consultants tell us we are supposed to. They provided folders and sub folders to use to sort through and keep track of all our e-mail traffic. In order to sort through the e-mail you pretty much have to open it up and read it unless it is the same old drivel advertisement from emazon or am-bay telling you about the great yo-yo sale they have going this week and how they remembered that you once looked at a picture of a yo-yo so you must be an aficionado, and though you know it is junk you can't quite commit yourself to labeling all e-mail from them as junk just in case they do send you something important like a half price sale on that left-handed smoke shifter you have had your eye on, especially ones that come in your school team colors of purple and green.

So like all mail, you need to go through it and determine if there is any value to you in it and will you act on it now, later, or never. It is the 'never act on' mail that makes me glad for hard snail mail. If you get spam it is electronic. If you really get upset and want to reply to the so and so that sent you this piece of time wasting mind numbing crap the best you can do is hit the reply button and spend even more time hammering out a message to them that will fully explain in detail what you think of the piece of drivel this cretin was thoughtful enough to leave in your in-box. After much venting and fuming and fusing over just the right wording to use you hit send only to find that the address given is none functional. That's right, it is a dead address, phony or spoofed and your message goes nowhere, and all that energy that charged you up the first time around enough to want to make a reply just got recharged and still has no place to go.

Hard mail on the other hand almost always has some number or address associated with it because they are trying to get you to take action and spend money on them (especially since they spent real money on you not that cheap electronic money they use to send spam). But I have found that it is generally still a waste to get my knickers in a knot and try to make a direct reply and have found that it is much better to dispose of my frustration energy by shredding, folding, bending, and mutilating physically the item that caused that frustration in the first place. This is done directly through hands on contact. Very satisfying. Something you just can't do with an e-mail...unless you print it out, but why bother.

Later I will have to share some stories of my junk mail with you that I find amusing. I have tried to save a few from immediate shredding just because they are so over the top with stupidity. Never deal with anyone that expects you to be dumber than they are in order for the deal to work.

One more thing about hard mail that I really love. It is not a sleazy phone call from a telemarketer. If ever I have wanted to reach out and touch someone. Beyond telling them directly to put you on their "Do Not Call List" I tell them to send me what they have via snail mail. If they don't have my address I am not about to give it to them and if they have it most are not willing to send you anything by post anymore. It actually cost them something to do this and not everyone is willing to work for your business anymore. It's a shame really. It helps subsidize the US Post Office, and from what I hear they can use all the help they can get. If they do send you something you have real hard mail that might help you change your mind about them and their product or at the very least you will have something to shred.

Remember to recycle as appropriate. There is bound to be plenty of good fertilizer in there somewhere.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

iRazoo do you, or do I?

Have you heard of iRazoo? In my effort to find new ways to be compensated for wasting my time on the internet and providing a second or third or even thirtieth supplemental income I happened onto a web site called iRazoo, and as all things such as these I will pass on my findings to let you know if it is worth it or just a waste of time.

iRazoo is a new search engine web site that adds a twist of earning points with each search and letting its users provide feedback on the usefulness of the site through comments and a vote of yes or no to recommend a site also earning points. These points can then be traded in for toys or gift certificates. Seems simple enough but how does it deliver.

First off you will notice that as a search engine it is kind of weak. It will pull in sites for you but it is quite a mix with many entries seeming far off target. In fact they look like plants (paid advertisements) that have little to do with the subject at hand. That means that you will not be using this site as an alternative to do your regular searches. So the real use of this site is to gain points and earn stuff.

Points are relatively easy to earn, in fact it was so easy that they changed the rules within days of my joining. It seemed that some would just hit the site, grab points and move on without any seriousness in evaluating the recommended sites, so they added a timer which means you cannot vote for a site until 30 seconds have past. That is o.k. because the site comes up in a new tab, and while you are waiting for the 30 seconds to pass, you simply go back to the search page and click on another site to open up, and another one after that.

Update: They will only let you open one searched page tab at a time now so no multi-tasking means it will take 3X as long.

Three is the limit however as you can only earn points on three sites per search term used, and that is not a daily limit, that appears to be for all time. That means you have to get tricky if you want to search on a topic you are familiar with. For example, you might look for ‘Mini 500’, ‘helicopter’, ‘mini 500 helicopter’, ‘mini helicopter’, ‘500 mini’, ‘500 helicopter’… anyway you get the picture. Also each page can only be used once for points so you will have to choose carefully. Notice I did say page and not site so each page on the site can bring you points.

The three click limit is very…well limiting. Again, as a search engine iRazoo is less than stellar for those that know there are thousands and millions of web sites out there for just about any topic and to hold yourself to just the first three is rather silly.

The next limit that you will become familiar with is the daily earning limit which is currently set at 300 points per day. Because of the way the points are paid out, 8 here and 8 there, I don’t think I have hit an exact 300 yet. 300 divided by 8 gives you 37.5 so I always have a number that leaves me short and it doesn’t look like it will pay you partial points to fulfill your max. This just means it takes you longer to reach a prize level.

So what are the prize levels, or in other words, how long will it take to get something for nothing? First thing to remember is that there is very seldom a something for nothing; you are trading your time, interest, and feedback if nothing else. Even with the layered multi opened page approach I use it takes about 20 to 30 minutes to max out my points (your mileage may vary). In the iRazoo advertisements they say that you can earn a prize in as little as 10 days but that has to be 11 now since you can’t reach a full 300 point day to make the 3,000 point minimum prize level in 10 days.

So what do you get for your 3,000 points of effort? A $5 gift certificate to Amazon. Now you will have to run the numbers for yourself and decide if 5 hours worth of effort over an 11 day period is worth a $5 gift certificate but $1 per hour hardly seems worth the time, especially if the usefulness of the search engine just isn’t there.

If you wish to accumulate your points there are higher prizes to be had such as a Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3 40gb, or Xbox 360 60gb for 100,000 points. An unlocked 16gb iPhone can be had for 600,000 points (that’s 2,000 days or 5.479 years for those that are counting). Or you good just hold out for the $25 Apple iTunes music card for 18,250 points (about 61 days work).

Can you get more points and can you get there faster? Yes, sort of. Two ways are offered, one is that there will be banners appearing for which you can take up an offer or buy product and the sponsor will credit you with points, eventually, (allow 6 to 8 weeks…you know the drill) and in the mean time you have given you info out to yet another someone on the web and possibly some hard earned dollars for a product you might not really have wanted for which there are plenty of other sites to get rebates on your purchases. If you can’t tell, I don’t think I trust the banners.

The other way to get points on iRazoo is to put a link to iRazoo on your web page about iRazoo or tell a friend about iRazoo so that they can join iRazoo and take advantage of this thrilling iRazoo search engine web site by joining iRazoo themselves and earning their own iRazoo points and iRazoo rewards, and for each person that joins iRazoo based on your sponsorship and promotion of iRazoo you will receive 50 iRazoo points and the person referred will also receive 50 iRazoo points. So feel free to click on any of the hyper linked mentions of iRazoo and you can play iRazoo also. Did I mention that only half of your points used can come from iRazoo referrals’, yet another limit placed on your iRazoo efforts at iRazoo.


Although I haven’t been on iRazoo very long, maybe a month or so, (it has been a busy month) and I certainly haven’t been on it every day, I am up to 2,418 points and am working on my first Amazon gift card. Why, I don’t know. I just want to see if it works for one thing and the pursuit of something for nothing still intrigues me. I also can’t tell you how quickly they pay out or how true to their word they are because I haven’t hit that spot yet either. They do have a promo going where you can win a search and win $5 Amazon gift certificate but I haven’t won one yet, and I’m not holding my breath.

One more suggestion for those willing to try, leave your radio or TV on in the back ground so when you are drawing a blank on what to do for the next search word just use the first word or phrase you hear coming out of the radio or TV. Do this carefully though, for it might be a word from a commercial that you really aren’t too anxious to learn more about.

Now that I have taken the ground work for you, it is up to you to decide if it is worth it for you. If I get one gift card I will be happy but I will also move on to hopefully bigger and better things. And as I continue to look for them I will continue to share my findings with you.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

Still looking for my MP3 player

Every so often I throw caution to the wind and decide to look for a fairly decent MP3 player, and every so often I give up in frustration because what I want is not out there.

I went looking again this last week.

I still don't have one.

All I want is a simple player that is big enough to handle my files (not even all of them as I have many). Music playback is basic and I tend to think that all players should succeed at this to some degree or another but then quality comes into play and from what I have read and researched so far, headphones make a huge difference with some users spend up to three times as much for aftermarket headsets as they do the player they use them on. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

If it had the ability to play movies that would be great, a bonus even. My expectations on this front are rather low however. Screens are small, resolution is limited and you just aren't going to get that theater experience in a noisy or crowded environment. Also, again from my research, there are many users that are having trouble loading, formatting, configuring or just plain making movies compatible to their players so some don't even bother with them. That is a shame.

I hear a lot of people use theirs for tuning into podcast and downloading TV shows and such. This sounds fabulous if it works as advertised but again I see compatibility issues arising so I don't want to get my hopes up to high.

These are all pretty common functions for which most users get MP3 players for. I however want something more. I want to listen to audio books with an MP3 player. In order to do audiobooks well an MP3 player must do three things, be compatible with various audiobook formats, do bookmarking and have variable playback speed.

There are many different audiobook services and formats. Not all formats are supported by all players. Some are very selective on what they will and will not play. Check this out before buying a player or signing up for a service. My intention is to hit the library and check out CD books (don't read that out loud it sounds bad) then download convert them to MP3 files which should work on about any player. I do belong to overdrive but haven't gone beyond downloading and listening to the books from my computer.

Bookmarking allows you to stop, do or listen to something else then comeback and start up where you left off without having to spend a lot of time searching all over for your place. Depending on how the books files are set up you can waste a lot of time looking for where you were rather than listening to your book.

I am a big fan of books on tape. Of course books on tape became books on CD and now books on MP3. It is a great way to get some 'reading' in while doing other task like driving to work, doing chores around the house, or going for a walk. I also find that I am able to get through more material this way than if I try and find a quiet moment or two to sit down and physically pick up some print. My eyes aren't what they used to be and so my reading speeds have slowed somewhat, and this is where my other desire comes in.

Through the miracle of technology, I have a cassette player I found at Radio Shack some years ago that has the ability to speed up the playback while adjusting the pitch so that you can listen to a recording at twice its normal speed and it still sounds like a normal voice. Some cassette players that did this would only go 15% faster and then sounded like the chipmunks where talking to you. Even Windows Media Player after about version 9 has a speed playback function built in that works pretty well and has helped me cover many a book at half the time it might have. Windows Media Player can playback up to 200% speed with it sounding pretty even and smooth. Speeds faster than that start dropping or clipping sections, though you would think that with the speed of today's computers they could fix that, kind of like getting higher frames per second playback on video. Some audio I really would like to go faster than 200% while there is some audio that I have to work to keep up with at 140-150%. The faster you go the more focused you get. Sometimes you really have to pay attention and that helps.

I really like speed-ed up playback. Some readers are just slow and need to be pumped up. Some files you want to cover more than once because there is so much to absorb and repetition is a great way to improve retention (think textbooks). Some sections really drag or get repetitive and could use some form of speed reading technique. For example, you don't read the lineage section of who begat who the same way that you read the Lord's prayer.

I have about worn my cassette player out and that is why I have been looking for a replacement. Might as well go modern and get and MP3 player. Lighter, carries more data, easier on batteries, plugs into stereos easier and should just be an all around better solution to the problem at hand. It sounds like MP3 players were made with me in mind.

Except they weren't.

I am having the hardest time finding finding any mention of this feature on all but the smallest handful of players and even then I have to dig into the fine print to find it. Most players do not have variable speed playback. They just don't.

I have been to hundreds of web sites and read thousands of comments only to find a few select references on out dated posts. I have been to manufactures web sites and submitted questions directly when the helps and site searches produced nothing only to be told by their reps that none of their players offered that ability.

Apple Ipods do have this capability for files in their audiobook section but they only have three selections, slow, normal and fast. Fast from what I can gather is 140% which is better than nothing but not what I was hoping for. If I went with Apple, I would pay too much, wouldn't be able to play WMA windows media formatted items, and would pretty much be locked into the Apple market. They maybe the standard but they haven't convinced me their better.

Microsoft Zune has no speed control on current models and like Apple they are overpriced, and proprietary in nature preferring that you only play in their playground and spend money at their store. As I have said before, I really like Windows Media Player though it is buggy and I have had to learn some work around's when downloading CD's, I find myself having a hard time trusting anything with the Microsoft name on it due to past experience with less than trouble free software. Windows Media Center is a great disappointment and after three attempts at Flight Simulator and nothing closely resembling the demonstration models you think I would learn.

So with the two biggest names not even in the running there are many other names that stand out as having better products and hopefully the right extra feature but sadly no. There is mention that some older products singularly had this ability but short of picking one up used on E-bay they are not current and would not come with buyer protections like a warranty. This is a must. In my research I have noticed one common thread and that is that these tools are not all that dependable. Many users are well beyond their first player with many telling of their current player being the fourth or fifth one. Some have multiple players and use them for different things depending on their fancy (one for jogging, one for books, one for this music vs. that). There are also many, many reports of buying a player and not having it work right out of the box. This means returns and that means I need to make sure and buy from a reputable dealer.

Through all the searching I did come across one potential manufacturer that might give me what I need, Cowon. Cowon has a pretty function web site were you can download the manual and read up on the model you are looking at before you buy it. I have looked a three or four manuals now and they all indicate that they have variable speed playback. Not only variable speed playback for audio but for video as well, how cool is that? Some models indicate they will go to 150% while one indicates 200%. Not only that, but they have a status bar to show how far into the track you are and you can even use that bar to fast forward or return to a spot in the file you are listening to. It sounds like some one that designed their players actually uses them. Did I mention they have bookmarking?

So where do I get one? I don't know. For some reason, no one is carrying them anymore. I thought Walmart or Target or Costco or Best Buy did or would. Not even a mention of them in Overstock.com. No luck. My search on Amazon got confusing (it is hard to tell where their store ends and the sublet stores begin). Also the pricing for a player that doesn't have many outlets seems to be a little high to other comparable units.

I know I am getting picky but I am not going to spend Apple overpricing dollars on a company that seems to be loosing it's market presence and doesn't have the capability to service their products without the use of overnight shipping. With all the trouble I have read about from users that have had to have returns or have had to by replacements before a year is up, I am hesitant to lay out too much coin for an unproven product no matter how much I want one.

And I do want one.

I do want one but I can't prove that it will do for me what I want it to. I can't prove that it can't. These are the things that drive me nuts. Analysis paralysis. Risk/Reward. How bad do I want one? I let you know, but for now...

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

Do you have a perfect computer?

Does anyone have a perfect computer? I mean really perfect, not just really nice, or really fast, or it's o.k. because those are usually followed up with but...

Take a moment and think about it. Do you have something be it an app or whatever on your computer that you do not use or rather can not use because it does not work? I am guessing that we all do. We have all downloaded something or even worse, bought and paid for something that does not deliver as advertised.

I have just spent the last hour (and that is on top of the other hours spent) trying to figure out how to make the news feed gadget on my Vista sidebar start showing current news again. It is stuck on May 12, 2009 (no it did not take me that long to figure out that it wasn't working and yes I have been trying to figure it out since then) and I still don't care that Sen Byrd has been sent to the hospital with an elevated temperature, or that Donald Trump is having a spat with Miss California. It was all valueless news then and it hasn't gotten any better with age.

So until I can figure out how to make it better or finding a working model, off it comes. Off the sidebar that is. I can't quite bring myself to delete it off completely. I wouldn't know how to restore it if I did. I might want it back some day because it was useful once. It use to update regularly like it was supposed to and provide fresh headlines with which to face the scary world we live in. Now I have to be content with being scared over and over by things that happened May 12th.

It is amazing that I spend as much time trying to keep up with the news as I do. It really doesn't seem to matter much one way or the other anyway. We went on a driving vacation awhile back and after two weeks on the road in the middle of the country listening to PBS' 'Wait, wait don't tell me' I was amazed at how many answers we knew for their quiz of current news events.

Amazed and disappointed at the same time. What a waste. Part of the reason for going on the road trip was to get away from all of the garbage that makes up the daily grind like the continual pummeling we take by exposing ourselves to a constant barrage of news feeds. If you are like me, you are getting it from all sides, newspaper, magazine, net, radio, television, and water cooler. Much of it is done in sound bites with very little depth or detail, hardly any real or accurate analysis, and much given with excessive regurgitation as if repetition with somehow make it more important or in some cases real.

So why should I get upset if my news feed reader on Microsoft Vista sidebar does not work if there is so little value added? It is a principle thing. It is a function that is a selling feature (or at least it was supposed to be something they were expecting to be useful or they wouldn't have put it in there) that if it is used or not should at least be able to be used by the user. O.K. that got a little wordy, but it is because my emotions are rising up a little. I just want my stuff to work like it is supposed to, that's all. Keep it simple and Let it Be.

So back to the original question and the original thought. Does anyone have a perfect computer, or more to the point do we even expect to have? Have we become so conditioned by incompatibilities or even inabilities of our computer products, that we just expect that bugs are standard issue, some things work and some things don't, get used to it cause that's just the way it is? Mediocrity reigns but it is the only game in town.

I guess I could bring up the whole Apple vs. Microsoft PC thing but I don't believe all the Apple hype anymore than I buy into Microsoft's. Even playing with a Mac in their store a few months ago I ran into a bug, and I am not overjoyed by their controlling nature anymore than I am with Microsoft's so why switch. Besides that their pricing structure sucks.

I could always try something new, buy a bare bones machine individual components, assemble then load with Linux or some variation there on. That I am sure would occupy endless hours of learning and reinventing the wheel while at the same time having the same experience of endless configuration in the search to make everything work just so. The idea of getting off the grid even if it is only figuratively does intrigue me but do I really want to spend that much time and effort if I only end up with the same frustrations?...Nah.

But that is why I bought a name brand box with name brand software preloaded in the first place. The market place was supposed to provide the engineering, research and development that would replace the frustration with experienced driven solutions so that I wouldn't have to. For this we pay big rates of hard earned dollars, and when it doesn't work is there any wonder there is disappointment.

I guess the other thing that nags me about all this, is that after paying the price and still having items that do not function, I still retain them. It is electronic and only takes up electronic space but it is the idea of it that I need to get over.

If you have a bread maker that no longer makes bread, do you hang on to it or do you throw it out? If it is repairable do you fix it, or do you let it sit there for awhile? Does it make a difference if it is physical object that gets in the way or if it is a physical object that is stuck way off in a corner, or in a shed, or in a crawl space where it is out of sight out of mind?

In other words, if an item has no value in it's current state, do you return it to a state of value (or at least try to) or decide that there is no longer value to be had and delete it from your world?

I must continually remind myself that value is not what you paid for something or the price tag that hangs on it, rather value is derived from what you get out of it. "Use it or lose it" is one of those phrases that has more than one meaning.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

blue screen update

Well it is well past time to provide an update on the blue screen situation. As I have said before, I have been racking my brain trying to come up with a plausible idea as to why the blue screen crashes were occurring and how best to fix the problem. I figured there must be a software compatibility problem somewhere and it was driving me nuts because every time you turn around each of the programs wanted to update the latest and greatest version that was supposed to correct some bug or security patch a vulnerability.

It is amazing that with all the updating that was taking place you think they might have stumbled on a correction with some of the actual problems that this box had been experiencing such as the windows media center’s inability to record and playback live TV as advertised let alone just watch it in real time.

Also surprising is the fact that most all the software programs and especially Microsoft products like to have you plugged into their networks to report any problem areas you may have and constantly provide feedback with which they can make their products better in every way. That is the sales pitch anyway. It seems that they want you to turn over as much control to them as possible and they will take care of all your software problems for you so you won’t have to worry about a thing. At this stage I have almost given in to it completely as I can’t figure out what they are trying to do half the time anymore and they don’t seem to be willing to tell me, unless it is in code.

So round one was to make sure that I had the latest and greatest versions of any software, updates and patches. This included drivers and anything else I could find that seemed like it needed updating. This took a long time and a lot of effort doing searches and researching items to make sure I was getting the right items for my machine and its configuration. Also not easy is working with “high speed” Qwest internet running at a whopping 1.5 Mb on its good days. This is much better than dial up and I shouldn’t complain but at the price they are charging, both Qwest and I should be ashamed.

So after making as many updates as possible and only seeing the situation get worse I decided that the next step was to start a process of elimination, in other words start taking out some of the updates and see if one of them was the problem. My two biggest suspects where Microsoft Internet Explorer and Adobe Acrobat’s Reader/Flash/Shockwave/whatever else they were dumping on me.

Since I had downloaded IE 8 thinking that I would be starting fresh with a new browser and that it would leave the old problem behind, but noting that the new browser did not function well from day one, it was the first to go. I removed the program and then tried to redo IE 7. I say redo because that is exactly what it became. Many of the settings and previous configurations had been lost. This may have been a good thing because since that time we have not had near the problems with crashing.

Next to go was the Adobe add-ons, though I think I might have lost them from the browser when it went through its changes. I have gotten a lot of update request for the Adobe software but have agreed to very little of it for now. That is my typical position by the way in taking on any new updates. When given the choice between letting the program do a ‘typical’ load or a ‘custom’ load, I will generally pick the custom load and look at each of the elements being added. Most times my picks will match the ‘typical’ load but just as often I will find them trying to insert an additional item that I don’t think I really want or need.

I also downloaded the latest security software from McAfee during this period and again ran a thorough scan of the system finding nothing more than a errant cookie. Besides taking significant time to run its scans and downloads I find it a little more comforting than the “One Care” security solution that comes from Qwest.

The other thing I have done is to update and start using Mozilla’s Firefox a lot more. It is almost the preferred browser at the moment though there are still many sites that seem to function better with IE. I hate having to go to more than one source for technical solutions but that is still a fact of life in this high tech world.

So with all this done I have to say, so far so good. I haven’t seen the blue screen in quite some time, but I admit that I still do not push this computer anywhere near where I think the limits ought to be. I still feel like I am treating it with kid gloves. Maybe because I have this need to justify the time and dollars invested, but I still want to get my money’s worth out of this adventure.

The only other side effect of note at this time is the fact that for some reason the computer is closing up and shutting down then restarting at sometime while it sits idle. I know this because I have left some applications open and come back the next day with nothing showing open on the taskbar. This is an important reminder about saving and backing up your work. I have had a pretty good track record and didn’t think these kinds of things would happen to me but it just goes to show that some things really do happen and through no fault of your own. I will probably be a little more sympathetic to other people’s stories now, even if I thought I was before.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

blue screen continues

Just a quick update while I am still functional today. Any and every session of late has ended in a blue screen of death or in other words a hard crash. Sometimes it will come back up after a hard reset sometimes it will just beep at me. I understand that the beeps are the HP way of diagnostics but I don't know what it is telling me yet so I don't know which way to turn.

I started it up again this morning and got the usual Windows closed in an unusual manner last time do you want to open up in safe mode or regular? I selected regular and it opened fine, or so it appears. It always realigns my icons on the desktop after one of these episodes.

Since it has opened I started running every diagnostics test on it I could find. HP has this box loaded with what looks like pretty goods ones in hardware diagnostics so that is what I have been doing for the last three and a half hours. I even ran the heavy stress tests on it and just like before everything is showing as fine. Previously I have run all the updates and virus and spyware scans and came up with nothing and so I am running out of ideas. I am afraid I am going to have to pull the big plug and reload all software from scratch. There is a system recovery app loaded but I am not sure what that does completely so before I do anything I will once again check in with the Concierge service from Costco and get further guidance.

There are too many other things going on in life to be shut down like this. It really sucks up a lot of time trying to do the diagnostics and run the test and all the while you are not checking your e-mail, news or blogs, not to mention the yard work, housework, car work and errands that aren't getting done.

Now if all the hardware testing is showing that the box is functioning properly then that leads me to think this is a software problem. I have never had a perfect running system but it has always worked enough that I learned to live with it. We paid the extra to get the on board TV tuner and Windows Media Center that I have never quite been able to get to work the way I imagined it would. Record your favorite shows, I never have. Watch all the new digital channels that are available, I get two channels o.k. but the program freezes as I try to change channels past the one in the middle. Also, if I have had Windows Media Player open and it hasn't closed correctly (which it never does) Windows Media Center will not play until I open up the Task Manager and kill Windows Media Player manually or reboot the computer. These are the type of workarounds that I have had to come up with that never should be but what we learn to accept when living in a Microsoft world. Maybe those Apple computer adds are based on something more than rumor.

I am currently using the Firefox browser to enter this as the update to Internet Explorer 8 did not go well and while I do not blame it for the problems I am having (since the blue screen problems started before the IE8 update) I still half wonder if there might be a connection to IE and the blue screen anyway. Will trial and error always be the case with computers? I think that is a given in my lifetime.

Well at least while I am functional, maybe I can get those photos sent out to family that I promised. They probably think me a heel for neglecting them this long.

Until the next blue screen appears, I will let you in on one more secret. It is very difficult to type with all your fingers crossed.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

computer has blue screen of death

So much I want to share but it is hard when you computer develops the blue screen of death. I have been fighting it this last couple of weeks and I am afraid I am losing the battle. I have resorted to an old box to send this message in. For all those that I promised to send stuff via e-mail, my apologies, I will get it done as soon as I can, whenever I am functional again that is.

The HP box we brought home less than a year ago is the one that is giving us fits. I must say that I am glad we bought it at Costco since they have a pretty helpful concierge service for just such a thing and I have been working with them to see if we can figure out what the problem is.

There have not been any consistencies as to why it will shut down or when. I have had it report everything from memory error and dumps to no OS found. I have done reboots and hard reboots. I have run diagnostics several times and always nothing shows wrong. I have run virus scans and adware and spyware scans with nothing to report. I have updated every conceivable update to device drivers and software including all the latest service packs for Windows Vista and Explorer with no luck. By the way as a side not, the new Explorer 8 update is not recommended as it doesn't play well with the add-ons for 7 yet and so it is less than fully functional.

I can not tie the system problems to any recent events and though there have been some compatibility problems with Microsoft Vista and the new HP Printer/Scanner/Fax machine I don't think this is the cause. It tended to restart whatever program you were using to print from after you shut it down, glitchee but not blue screen worthy.

There is the system recovery program but I fear this is the method of last resort as it takes everything back to square one. I have backed up most things so I think I can recreate but that means a whole lot of time and no guarantee that it will not do it again tomorrow, but I am afraid that is my only option. I guess I can look at the bright side as this will give me a chance to go back to Explorer 7.

Anyway the box is beeping at me and I was told that HP uses beeping codes for diagnostics so I will take one more shot at it before pulling the big switch. If it is not repairable then I am confident that Costco and HP will help put things right. Customer service is so key to things these days. I hope that I will always remember to be twice as quick to praise as to criticize.

I know that there are some out there that have had to go through the same thing and there are those that never have. All I am saying is 'wish me luck'.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

Too good to be true, Part 2.

You may have read my other e-mail about “Too good to be true?” where I shared with you an e-mail offer that promised a large chunk of money if I would assist the person in moving some money from a long forgotten bank account out of the country and into my account. Evidently I was not the only one to receive this fabulous offer as some of you let us know that you also saw this same thing. You were smart and decided to check it out before getting caught and taken by that scam. Good for us.

Well I got another e-mail that just looks too darn good to be true. What do you think? Here it is as it came to me. Note the wonderful English and typing skills.

International Certified Bank Draft.
Thursday, March 5, 2009 10:59 AM
From:
"Mr. Jess Williams."
To:
My Dear Friend,

How are you today? Hope all is well with you and your family? I hope this mail meets you in a perfect condition.

I am using this opportunity to thank you for your great effort to ourunfinished transfer of fund into your account due to one reasonto assist me in transferring those funds despite the fact that it failed us some how.

I have authorized Mr Alan Smith where I deposited my money to issue you an international certified bank draft cashable at your bank. My dear friend I want you to contact Mr.Alan Smith for the collection of this international certified bank draft. The name and contact address of the Mr. Alan Smith is as follows.

CONTACT AGENT Mr. Alan Smith.
EMAIL: mralan_smith@hotmail.co.uk
PHONE: +234 275 008 03

Ask him to send to you the total $500,000 (five Hundred Thousand US Dollars) which I kept for your compensation for all the past efforts andattempts to assist me in this matter. I appreciated your efforts at that time very much,so feel free and get in touch with Mr. Alan Smith. and instruct him where to send the amount to you.

Please do let me know immediately you receive it so that we can share the joy after all the suffering at that time. At the moment, I am very busy here because of the investment projects which I and the new partner are having at hand. Remember that I had forwarded instruction to him on your behalf to receive that money, so get in touch with him and he will send the amount to you without delay.

Finally, my sincere advice to you as a christian is that you should endeavour to pay your tithe to a bible believing church when you get the money.

May God continue to bless and guide us at all times.Cheers.

Sincerely,
Mr. Jess Williams.

Well, there you have it. Doesn’t it just make you want to immediately call or e-mail the given contact point and let them know of their mistake. After all as a good christian that endeavours to pay your tithe to a bible believing church you must be the kind of honest person that would try to clarify that mistake. I don’t recall knowing a Jess Williams or Alan Smith or helping either of them in any business endeavor whatsoever. It just wouldn’t be right for me to ask them to send me $500,000…or would it? I mean maybe they are meant to send me that money. To have that much money they must be very smart men and they must know what they are doing and they did send this e-mail to me personally and besides, I deserve it, I work hard, I do my best to get ahead but can’t seem to quite get there, why shouldn’t I be the one to participate in this easy money. Besides won’t my church be happy when I give them a large check to pay tithes on the money they send. Just think of all the good that will do. What was that number again? Gotcha!

Now they have contact they will find some excuse to hook you in to performing some other act for them. They will just need you to do such and such first, or the bank won’t let us do a cashier check but we can do an electronic funds transfer that will also get the money to you faster, what is your account number and I’ll send it out today? Or they have a service fee to right the cashier check, just send me enough to cover the fee and the money is yours. Some will even go for a second or third ding if they can get anything out of you stringing you along with the ‘we are almost there, we just need a little more to take care of…’ routine. Besides what is a little investment on your part if you have the chance at so much more, then what is a little bit more if you are that close to getting it all, and then ‘I can’t stop now, look how much I have invested, I need to get it back at least.’

What would you do if you got this e-mail, or one of the many floating around out there like it? Maybe you did get this very same e-mail, what did you do? Some of us have been around the block a time or two and recognize the signs but there are others that are seeing some of these things for the first time. That is why these kinds of things continue to appear. There is always someone new, there is always someone greedy and gullible and willing to take a chance that it just might work…this time. Trust me, as the times get tougher we will see many more of these kinds of scams appear. Please be careful out there and help others to be careful too. Bringing these things out into the open is the best course of action. Bad things usually wither and fade away when exposed to the light. Shine on.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.

Hi TED

As I was surfing the other day I came across an interesting site that I had come across some years ago. It is http://www.ted.com/ and it is well worth a visit. To use their own words, “TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.
The annual conference now brings together the world's most fascinating thinkers and doers, who are challenged to give the talk of their lives (in 18 minutes).” Also as they say TED is ideas worth sharing.

You might have heard of Bill Gates releasing mosquitoes on a group he was giving a talk to. This is the place where it happened. You can see the video of this and many other talks on the TED web site. If you have never had the chance to hear Bill Gates speak, this is an easy and inexpensive way to see him in action. His talk covered Malaria awareness and creating better teachers and education which fell under is topic of “How I’m trying to change the world now”.

Concerning the education system, Bill has some charts and some interesting observations on the current effectiveness of the schooling system. I also have some ideas in this area. Bill, if you are listening, get with me. I have had an idea running in the back of my mind for some years now that would harness the power of technology to increase education on a national scale that could easily go global but it would take someone with your resources to pull it off. Where you are talking about reforming the system, I am talking about bypassing the system and getting right to the heart of the matter.

Money is part, but knowledgeable technicians and effective teachers are the other. It involves creating an on-line school that is affordable (free) and available to all. Borrowing from some other successful models such as game sites, you tube, and social sites, education could be brought to a whole new world of individuals that are not served well with the current system as well as providing continuing education to the world of people that thirst for knowledge. I can’t do it from where I sit but you could, if you truly believe in this. What the rich were to public libraries in the past, Bill Gates could be for education in the here and now.

Bill Gates was not the reason I came to re-discover the TED site. As I said the other day, aviation is a passion for me and I came across a talk that Paul MacCready gave on aerodynamics and flight entitled ‘Paul MacCready flies on solar wings’. MacCready is the person that gave rise to the human powered aircraft, the Gossamer Albatross, that flew across the English Channel and then went on to create the solar powered unmanned aircraft called the Helios which broke the SR-71’s altitude record. He is an amazing man with a creed of “Do more with less”. This interesting video can be found at http://www.ted.com/talks/view/id/176.

There is a myriad of topics and talks to be found here. I intend to delve deeper as I get the chance. Where it only takes 20 minutes I should be able to find the time. What I have seen so far just whets my appetite for more. After all, education can and should be a lifelong process. The thirst for knowledge should be unquenchable. Enjoy yours.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.