Take It To The Web

I spent a couple of hours rebuilding my home PC yesterday which isn’t all that different from what I’ve done over the years. Except that it only took a few hours instead of an entire day (or night on a few occasions). 

In fact, installing Windows Vista Business only took about 30 minutes. That was the easy part. Once I had it installed, I ran Windows Update which found a lot of updates, 75 to be exact. Some of these were for my specific hardware such as video card, sound card and network adapter. I estimate that Vista has spent at least two hours downloading and installing updates. That’s a lot of time but things seem to be running well and I’ve not run into a single driver issue so far.

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Upon install, expect Vista to find many updates for your system.

Here’s a list of the programs I install first:

  1. 7-Zip – Open source archive utility.
  2. CCleaner – Cleans up your PC including registry.
  3. Clip Diary – Keep a history of your clip board.
  4. FileZilla – Open source FTP program
  5. ICE Mirror – Syncs folders/files between two drives
  6. Threatfire – Security program that analyzes virus behavior
  7. UltraMon – Must have dual monitor utility
  8. uTorrent – Tiny bit torrent program
  9. Adobe Photoshop Elements – For simple photo touch-up
  10. Windows Live (Writer, Photo Gallery, Messenger)

Even two years ago this list would have been two or three times this size. Products that run from the web are replacing boxed software. When I bought my first computer in college, I had to go to a computer store in order to purchase a game. My children will have no concept of that as everything they need will be a Google search away.

Did you notice one program I left off my list? I’m talking about Microsoft Office, and it used to be the first program I installed when I built a new computer. I no longer have any need for it at home. I have to install it at work because most of my coworkers still enjoy passing files around via email which seems about as fashionable as listening to Hootie and the Blowfish.

Removing Microsoft Office from your computer is the equivalent of getting a substantial performance upgrade for free. I’ve replace the bloated, buggy, resource hogging Outlook with Gmail and the rest of Office with Google Docs, and I can’t believe I didn’t do it sooner. Besides the speed, stability, no patching, no upgrades, nothing to install nature of Google’s products, I love having access to everything on my phone. I feel like to jumped 5 years into the future when I got rid of Office.

When I upgrade my PC and reinstall Windows every few years, I’m sure that list will continue to shrink as more products move to the web. I hope my children won’t have to waste time patching their operating system and updating their software.

I wish I were as lucky. Windows Updates is telling me it found 4 more "important" updates it wants to install. Lucky me.

Send Windows Live Messenger to Weight Watchers

For years I’ve used Mess Patch to customize Windows Messenger and it’s done a decent job. My main problem with the program was that some of the customizations were not explained well and one had to be a Messenger power user in order to understand some of the feature descriptions. But it was the only product I knew that would remove ads so I continued to use it.

But a friend recently told me about A-Patch which feels like a more polished version of the Mess Patch. But it has one killer feature: Real time preview. This allows you to see how your selections will look before making any changes to Messenger.

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A few of my favorite features include:

  1. Removes all ads (from Main and Message windows)
  2. Customizes the tool bar (No more Windows Spaces or Live Today buttons)
  3. Removes the Search Bar
  4. Disables Nudges, Winks and all that stuff that belongs on MySpace
  5. Enables more than 3 file transfers at a time

The first chat program I installed (not including MIRC) was ICQ and I loved it until it become a bloated piece of junk. I moved to Microsoft Messenger because it was small, fast and didn’t include a bunch of useless features.

But now the same level of bloat that happened to ICQ is happening to Windows Live Messenger. But with the help of A-Patch you can put Live Messenger on a diet once and for all.

Mixing Music with MixWit

A few months ago I created a mixed tape using MuxTape that requires you to upload your own MP3s. It’s a fun service but only allows you to upload 12 songs. As best I can tell, the only way to upload more music would be to create another account.

Today I heard about MixWit which allows you to create similar mixes but, instead of uploading your own MP3s, it searches other services for the music you want and creates a mix on the fly. I like how MixWit allows you to change the look of the tape and create a number of different tapes. Very cool!

Here’s the first mix tape I created tonight with a few of my favorite tunes from the 70’s.

 

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Elka Turns Eight

Eight years ago Kim held a cute and very squirmy boxer puppy on her lap as I drove north towards Seattle. We’d just picked up our new baby from a breeder in Chehalis, WA. I believe she was about eight or nine weeks old at the time and we’ve enjoyed her exuberant and attentive personality ever since.

She’s not as active as she used to be, but she still loves to play with the kids, chase squirrels, and watch over our home. I can’t imagine having a better dog for our family. I hope she’s with us for many years to come, although we understand that boxers, on average, don’t live as long as many other breeds.

Kim took this picture of Elka enjoying the sun in our backyard today.

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Friends

Last week wasn’t one of my better weeks at work. I won’t go into details here but dealing with HR over personnel issues about as fun jumping into a pool full of push pins. I spent most of the week writing and justifying and writing some more.

So I was pretty down all week. The only thing I was doing well was keeping to myself. I kept my office door shut at work which I seldom do. I ate lunch at my desk and I skipped the vanpool a couple of times. I just didn’t feel like talking to anyone. About anything.

But the kindness of two friends jolted me out of my self pity on the same night.

Thursday evening I missed my ride home and Kim had locked her keys in our van so I was stuck at work at 7 pm while most of my coworkers had gone for night. One of my employees who recently accepted another job (with no incentive to impress me) offered to give me a ride home at 10 pm and a good 60 miles out of his way.

Another friend IM’d me at work to say it was National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day. Who knew? But his wife had baked cookies and they were on their over to our house to drop off a bunch. I love the fact that I have a friend who has the wherewithal to know when National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day is and takes action.

Here’s to a better week. It can only go up from here. Thanks to two friends for lifting my spirits when there wasn’t much to be lifted last week.

Attempting To Convert Some Germans

Many years ago, I served a two year LDS mission to Germany. I realized today that I’ve not written much about the experiences I had during those years and then it hit me why: IT WOULD BORE YOU TO DEATH.

It’s not very interesting hearing how a church plunks young 19-year old kids into a different country and sets them off to convert a group of people who believe that church is something to attend on Easter and Christmas Eve. Telling these people that, in order to join my church, all they need to do is:

  1. Attend church every week for 3 hours
  2. Tithe 10% of your income to the church
  3. Stop drinking beer

The first two on the list are difficult but not impossible.

But #3 is a deal breaker.

Try telling a German he can’t drink beer anymore and see how well that goes over. Might as well tell him to stop breathing air. That would be the equivalent of banning SportsCenter, Scooby Doo and Days of Our Lives in our home. There’s no way that’s happening. Game over.

Trying to convert people to a religion that requires a good deal of participation is a difficult prospect. Add to that that most Germans had only heard of Mormons in conjunction with plural marriage or Donny Osmond and you have all the ingredients for an entertaining discussion.

On more than one occasion we’d find someone who appeared interested in our teachings and was progressing towards baptism. That is, until we told him that plural marriage was banned in 1890. The idea of having more than one wife was something these guys could get excited about, and we dashed their hopes as quickly as you could say “Oh Heck”.

Most days on a mission consist of attempting to talk to people who don’t want to hear what you have to say and handing out books nobody wants to read. And riding a nerdy looking bike with a ringer bell on the front and a wire basket on the back. It’s a miracle I didn’t get my butt kicked riding this embarrassment around town. This bike was so bad that it was stolen one night and returned two days later. Even a bike thief couldn’t be seen on this clunker.

I’ve had many years to think about what I learned during those years spent in Germany. I’ve come to the conclusion that, more than anything, I learned to handle rejection. I’d speak to dozens of Germans telling me I’m an idiot for spending my own (ok, my parents) money to come to their country and teach them about a tiny, US based religion. 

And yet I did it. And not only did I do it for two years, I was happy to do it. At least most of the time. I got spit on a few times and had a few beer bottles tossed my way. But nearly all the Germans I met were very kind. Even those that called me crazy for thinking I could convert them told me they respected my conviction in my beliefs.

So next time you see those crazy guys riding bikes while wearing dark suits in the hot weather, give them a break and don’t make fun of them. They’ve probably had 50 doors slammed in their face that day and will be thrilled to to be acknowledged by your wave or smile compared to other gestures they regularly see.

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Calling Comcast at Midnight

When we moved into our current home I had a choice between Qwest DSL service and Comcast Cable for high speed internet. Qwest service was less expensive and we had good luck with our DSL service when we lived in Seattle. So I decided to try DSL since we needed a phone line for our DirecTivo receiver anyway and the bundled price (phone + DSL) was reasonable.

But the DSL service hasn’t been as reliable as I expected. Flashing the DSL modem with the latest ROM from the Qwest website hosed the modem and our speeds have been in the 150k down/550k up range. We’ve never approached the 1500k download speed that Qwest advertises. On a good day we might reach 1100k although the upload speeds have been consistently over 600k till lately.

So last night Kim and I finally had it with slow internet speeds. Running a number of speed tests confirmed we weren’t getting close to the speed we are paying $42/month for. Here’s what I’m getting as I write this.

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I went to the Comcast website to see what type of service they have at our location. Their website is easy to navigate although not very helpful. When I fed it my address it gave me the option to order high speed internet online but only if I were a current Comcast cable TV customer which I am not. I eventually located the customer support number and called expecting to hear a message stating their offices were closed given it was midnight.

I was surprised when a man answered the phone and offered to answer my questions. Yes, high speed internet is available at my home. Yes, I can supply my own cable modem. I can even have it installed as early as Monday. The only confusion came when I asked about prices. I heard him shuffling papers around for a bit. He said he needed a few minutes to locate the “pricing chart” for customers who don’t bundle phone or TV service. I can’t be the only person that does this, and why wouldn’t the prices already be loaded in system? He asked if I wanted to order service which I did, but not without a solid price quote.

For a split second I pictured myself signing up for some exotic broadband service that includes satellites, underwater fiber lines and unmarked black vans for $3000 a month.

He eventually found the pricing chart, but his voice didn’t instill much confidence when he said, “It’s about $42 a month…oh wait…it’s ten dollars more since you only have internet”. I said, “So it’s $52 a month?” and he replied, “Let me see what the computer says”.

Can someone at Comcast introduce the computer and the pricing chart to each other?

He typed some stuff into his computer for a bit. He then said, “It’s normally $99 to install your service, but I’ve got some coupons around here”.

Coupons?

More paper shuffling.

At this point I started to wonder if I had called the wrong number and got some kid playing World of Warcraft in his mother’s basement.

More typing as I now wondered if maybe I shouldn’t have removed that 56k modem from my PC a few years back.

Eventually, he enthusiastically exclaimed that the “coupon worked!” and that I would only be charged 20 bucks for the installation. “That’s great news”, I remarked to which he replied, “Funny how nobody minds the wait when I’m saving them money”.

I had to cover the phone while I giggled a bit. This kid is a crack up. 

He then asked me the weirdest question of the night which is saying something: “In order to access your account in the future I’ll need the last 4 digits of your Social Security number. But my system will only allow me to put the last 4 numbers into the computer if you give me all nine digits”.

WTH????

It was past 12:30 am by now. I decided to give him what he needed to place the order and hope my identity is safe.

Comcast internet is scheduled to be installed on Monday between the hours of 8 am and Noon. If nobody shows up, I’ll know there’s at least one more Brett Nordquist running around.

What’s Taking So Long?

I’ve uninstalled hundreds of Windows programs over the years. Most just take a few seconds to remove. Maybe a few minutes to get rid of a larger applications like Microsoft Office or Adobe Creative Suite.

But I’ve never had a product tell me it’s going to take OVER 2 HOURS to uninstall itself like Tunebite did tonight.

I could install a fresh copy of Windows XP in 148 minutes.

I could watch the extended version of the Blue Brothers in exactly 148 minutes.

I could burn off about 2000 calories on our treadmill in 148 minutes.

I could do 4 loads of laundry and still forget to add fabric softener in 148 minutes.

I could listen to Pink Floyd’s, Dark Side of the Moon 3.5 times in 148 minutes.

That’s almost enough time to round up my kids and tuck them into bed.

But not quite.

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Microsoft releases the Worldwide Telescope

Microsoft released the Worldwide Telescope for download this weekend. This is the coolest product I’ve seen come out Microsoft in years. Maybe ever. This is the product that made Robert Scoble cry the first time he saw a demo and now I understand why.

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I can’t stop clicking around the galaxy. This is very addicting. Work can wait while I zoom around the cosmos.

It’s breathtaking. Amazing. And freaking cool.

Hey, Microsoft just created something cool that doesn’t have a big green X on it.

I like that Microsoft put out a product just because they can. I have no idea if they will attempt to create a business or service. But there’s no doubt that my kids will have the opportunity to learn about space and the universe in a manner that wasn’t available to me.