minezamac.com

If you can say that you know your email is always filtered from both Spam and Viruses your probably using an annual service like McAfee or Symantec or a company email account.  But you could be getting both for free by using a free service like gmail.  If you are having issues with viruses on your machine and people say that your sending them emails that really are from your computer then you need to clean your machine and consider an online account.  Of those available I have found gmail to be pretty painless other than the on screen ads that are shown that are supposedly pertainant to whatever words are being displayed on the page.  Some are pretty concerned about the privacy of their mail, but you may not be aware that email passes through hundreds of relay points on the internet all open to inspection by people other than you, so if your not concerned about that then why quibble over a bot looking at a word and displaying an ad.  In the end you need to do what makes sense, but chances are that for nothing you could be ridding yourself of a big headache and have access to your email from almost anywhere.

Google page explaining antivirus practice for gmail accounts

Google page explaining SPAM practices for gmail accounts

If your a PC user Google also offers a minimal free package of apps that includes a basic antiviru package called google pack.

Technorati Tags: gmail, antivirus, spam

Well we have moved to a new provider, webhosting4life, and we will see if the name says it all.  Or if 12 months from now we have a new entry.  So far the service has been pretty good, there are a few horror stories out there, and my initial call to phone support was disconnected after 10 minutes.  But the online livechat support works pretty well and the control panel is easy enough to use.

So as they say, “we’ll see.”

Have you heard the old saying like a dog on a bone?  Asa Dotzler is usually an interesting read if your into firefox, though lately I think his blog may need to change it’s tag line to something closer to “Firefox and more tattling”  He seems to have made his mission of late to report all the as he puts them “atrocities” in the practices apple has in installing software.  Now he doesn’t seem to care that yahoo and google virtually make it impossible not to install some left behind running app when installing their toolbars or chrome.  Apple must be on to something to have garnered so much atention from Asa, sad really that even when not trying to Apple gets attention, instead Microsoft sends Bill Gates to the show circus, talk about your atrocities.  Then again there was Bob.  nuff said.

Asa Dotzler: Firefox and more: apple continues to abuse windows users

Asa Dotzler: Firefox and more
apple continues to abuse windows users

WOW, what a difference.  I’m a mac guy and I think they are much better, better like it doesn’t stink to be a PC.  Which is exactly what they should have done 3 years ago when the Im a Mac commercials began.  Apple has been brilliant in differentiating themselves in small ways implying always that things work.

Microsoft is saying hey, your part of a huge group of users if you use a PC, and thats a good thing, in the commercials mind.  I don’t think it is a bad thing, I have to say watching the commericals actually made me kind of say again WOW, there are a bunch of windows users.  Something myust be working or they couldn’t do what they needed to do.  Is it easier or harder, no idea fro the commericals, but there is a lot of different things being done.

Check out all the new ad’s and see the ones that didn’t work from seinfeld at the microsoft ad site here.  (Apparently this is a Microsoft press link, so it may no longer work, they appear to be adding login requirements.  If not hit you tube.)

Microsoft Ad versus Apple Ad

I enjoyed seeing the first microsoft ad with Bill Gates directly in it, maybe they have had one before I don’t know but this one is definitely the first in a while. While I was mesmerized by Seinfeld’s interaction I can’t for the life of me figure out what they were really doing other than showing Bill and Jerry. I didn’t say, hey Microsoft is OK, or man Vista rocks, or hey they’re saying sorry for a bad high price on some iffy software.

But what I did see was an ad that basically didn’t say much other than Bills MegaJupitery something or other brain did pass on some smarttiness to other poeple at Microsoft. And that Bill would love to get us all thinking to the next big Microsoft thing from the last one. If that’s what they were after then it worked. I can’t wait to see what they come up with next. Maybe it’ll be Window double chocolet cream OS…

Windows Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld

This is it, BibleXpress, my new favorite iPod Touch Application.

So far, this is by far the best portable Bible app I have used. I used to use a version for the Palm, then for the Windows CE device (several), I thought had found the perfect device in the Kindle but it was a huge disappointment in the implementation of the electronic Bible. It wasn’t the Kindles fault as much as it was the fact that none of the Bible publishers knew how to implement a good index that allowed you to get to a book and chapter quickly.

Well the iPhone/Touch app of BibleXpress has that part nailed down. Just touch the top bar and up pops a rotating dial that allows you to quickly scroll to whatever book, chapter or version you want to get to. How do you think you get to the next chapter? In version 1.1 it is as simple as swiping your finger just as you might after licking it to turn a page.

Another thing that was disappointing about the other Bible apps I had tried was their dependence on connectivity, it might be great on your iPhone to be able to hop over and read a multitude of translations but what about when there is no connectivity. BibleXpress has an actual copy of the translations on the device, ready to be read anywhere.

In a note from the developer (see below) he mentions his intent to include a number of additional translations. Since the app store doesn’t currently offer a method of paying for upgrades you the buyer are having to trust the developer remains true to his word and includes more translations as he rolls out improvements and bugfixes. But so far, even if he didn’t get a single additional translation I would still say his app is NOT overpriced. I can’t wait to see what all improvements he makes, a simple reading plan would be awesome.

Check out the developers site for a youtube video of how it works and more information. If your like me and have been looking for a Bible that would potentially be with you always, this is a great place to start. I don’t know if it will replace my trusty Cambridge, but I will certainly enjoy the ease and speed in which i can pop around and get to verses. Did I mention it also has a powerful search capability…

A note from the developer at BibleXpress

The iPhone /iPod Touch software will be updated with more Bible translations over the coming months until at least 80% of the net price is being paid as royalties. We’re currently negotiating with 3 popular translations. Check back in a few weeks for updated information.

Well I had to resurrect the old technology site. Turns out it is still a significant portion of my mindshare. I’ll work on that..

I’ll begin posting my thoughts and adventures with my touch and GTD soon.

I just got back from a vacation where most of the time was spent touring around the North East of the United States.  I have never driven there and wanted a leg up on looking like a yokel so I dove in and purchased a GPS unit.  Many of the cars I looked at buying recently have one built in but I had hoped to find one that was small enough to also be useful as a walking nav unit.

My searches found several likely suspects and I was almost a Tom Tom owner when the nuvi 200 popped up on sale at amazon.com.  As any good American I delayed my purchase until online was no longer a viable option for my trip and I began to scurry about to find one locally.  Enter Radio Shack who apparently was sure everyone would want the wider screen of the Nuvi 220 but did happen to have one of the units for sale nearby.  I went and picked it up on my way home that Friday and packed it with the rest of my gear for the trip that Saturday evening.

We began our trip and my exposure to the wonders of having yet another person in the car telling me where to go and I have to say I was really impressed.  The Nuvi is lite, the controls are simple, and it has everything you will need in the box.  Unless you require a special bag or case for the GPS, in that event you will be going shopping. Pretty quickly we experienced the now familiar “recalculating” as we decided to pull of to an Apple orchard/packaging facility in Maryland or rest stop or gas station or restaurant.  Pretty much anything beyond the single minded pursuit of our destination made our poor GPS let us know that she needed to recalculate to figure out how to get me back where we needed to be going.

That’s when she got her name, we thought if she were alive the one question she would constantly be asking herself is “Is he ever going to follow my instructions?”.  Thus Izzy became our navigator on the trip.  Travling through Buffalo NY or Boston MA or Philidelphia PA, they were all no match for Izzy’s sense of direction and knowledge of local hotels, restaurants and gas stations.  The trip was really very easy and enjoyable having one of these little wonders with us.  So, if your going on a trip, or travel occasionally outside a 10 mile radius of your home then you should look into one of these units.  They are handy for more than just directions as they also serve up info on local points of interest and trip info such as time in movement and speed.

Garmin Site for nüvi 200

Because I don’t want to encourage Spam to these poeple I have altered the emails and phone number where appropriate to conceal their true contact info.  Other than that this is the email I replied to my Dell rep with after he sent me a email questionaire asking for a few answers.

———— email appears below ———- 

Unfortuantly Dell wisely chose to place a Confidentiality notice on their email, I have altered my response to allow you to see what their questions were…

Person who I can’t name due to notice,

I am answering your questions below in the form of a transcription of my efforts to buy a Dell server today…

It begins with the fact I am looking to buy a server today.  I have an HP in mind but want an alternate price and perhaps an alternate vendor.  It will be a Quad Quad capable box with 24 GB of ram.  Your out so I tried to call QChrisQ, couldn’t get his number down fast enough so I called back and zero’d out to the operator.  Kenisha badge number zzzyyyqqq wouldn’t transfer me until after I gave her the customer number you gave me in the email until I sent her a pimnt of blood for analysis.  Why she had to verify all our account info before she would transfer me I can’t imagine.  I suppose it is because your customers never call in this number a second time and you want to make sure you had their info correct.  How do you sell anything with this system?  I am of course typing this while on hold with Kenisha looking to find Chris’s number, I guess I should have just called and listened to your message again and hoped for the best or used email.  But neither of those two methods are what I would call high customer service.

12 minutes so far on the call…

I think the above qualifies as an answer to question 1. (Which I can’t leave below because of your notice, but essentially I am paraphrasing of course here is what you kind of asked…”Question 1 – Have U had difficulty dealing with Dell in the past? Was it to do with your account manager? Ordering? Tech Support?”)

The answer to question 2  (paraphrased of course - “Question 2 – R U a all Dell shop? If not, what is holding U back? If so, what do U like that I should keep doing?”) is we have no “in service” dell products.  Although we have over 60 HP servers and close to if not a few more than 500 HP desktops and 45 or so laptop purchases within the last year and a half.  Annual IT hardware spending is somewhere around $350,000, not a huge fish perhaps but it is not an amount to scoff at.

15 minutes…

Now supposedly QChadQ @ extension yyyqqqwww is my rep?  Again how do you guys sell anything?  I honestly want to try and buy a Dell server because although my HP gear never puts me through this to buy I had heard you were tight with VMware and have their product avauilable on the motherboard rather than me having to install it.

17 minutes still no one on the phone.

Question 3 (”Question 3 – What R your pain points, in your position or with your IT?) - is just primarily cost, quality and availability.

Question 4 - (Question 4 – What can Dell do to prove that U are truly a valued customer? What can eye do?) Have someone answer the phone - Don’t send out a questionare email before you plan to go on vacation for 2 weeks in the near future.  Send out a free server to evaluate forever for the trouble of the call.

20 minutes - Now in a pool hold queue, “please hold and the next available rep will assist you…”

22 minutes - resolution management (New England area) Nice person, no idea why I was transfered there, she is trying to transfer me to Chad…

New different music.

24 minutes…

27 minutes… nice lady returns and asks who or what I am trying to do or get a hold of.  I give her the spiel she sets to trying to find QKrisQ Qclomanti’sQ extension for me.  If she returns I will ask her to simply transfer me back to yours and I hopefully will get it down this time.  WOW that is service if that is what this comes to…

30 minutes…

32 minutes… She is extremely sorry about this, but she can’t find any one with that name to transfer me to.  I have asked her to transfer me back to your extension.

34 minutes… music just changed maybe I am in a new queue…

35 minutes… automated voice tells me to hold on while she transfers me…definately new music.

36 minutes… automated voice tells me your sorry but you cannot process the call further and hang up on me. WOW.  Excellent service.

New clock starts as I redial your 800 number to call you.

1 minute in: welcome to Dell to serve me better …

1:30 finally get your message…. 

2:15 redial the new number you have for Kris… Hilarious… the person you gave me is out as well but tells me to contact you as his assistant.  Truly exceptional service.

Question 5 - (”Question 5 – What is the most important thing to U when dealing with another company? (ie. Relationship, Response Time, Price, ect.)”)  Competant service and sales representation.  I can only hope I caught you in the worst “Perfect storm” scenario for bad service and that normally you are a top notch rep.  But after the Phone tag extension game I have my doubts.  Needless to say, I wanted to buy the server today with end of year funds that came available. Perhaps next time I will get to speak with you personally, or perhaps your replacement as I have yet to be able to build a relationship with a Dell rep as your turnover has to be record setting high in that regard.

I must be a glutton for punishment as I called back the 800 number and tried to enter the extension for the mysterious QChadQ that Kenisha said was my rep…  Ahh the number is no longer in servcie.

Never mind…

The remainder of the email was generalities such as these ” It’s my goal as your account manager for yyy zzz Inc to make sure that your experience with us is always top notch. I understand that in the past you may have had issues or concerns that may have gone unaddressed, and to me that’s not acceptable. So I was really hoping you could help me out by answering some of the questions below, because I really want to help you.  If U have some other feedback you feel eye should have, please forward that to me as well. I know you’re very busy, so I really appreciate the time you’re putting into this. If there’s something I can do for U to make life a little easier in your own position, please don’t hesitate to let me know.”

I sent them the above kinda not exactly that would break their confidentiality notice…

ME

Well you need not worry about how hard it might be to return an e-Book to amazon. Same day service in fact. When purchasing a copy of the bible for my Kindle I chose what I thought was the tried and true NIV version. In fact when I received the bill I had indeed selected the “Todays NIV” a newer updated version. Now I have not read the Todays NIV and it may be fine but I did indeed want the other for sure so I used the customer support option again and sent an email this time. The question I posed was “Is it possible to simply switch the books out on their end or did I need to return the original”.  Their reply is below.

Hello from Amazon.com.

Thank you for writing about returning “Holy Bible, Today’s New
International Version”, which you recently purchased for your Kindle.
You can return any item purchased from the Kindle Store within seven
days of purchase.

I’ve requested a refund for the purchase and removed the item from
Your Media Library. If the item is still on your Kindle, please delete
that copy. After the refund is issued, you will no longer be able to
access it. I’ve included instructions for removing an item from your
Kindle below.

Refunds are issued to the payment method used to make the original
purchase and usually complete within 2 to 3 business days.

You can purchase the correct ASIN # B000FC2KBU at your earliest
convenience.

Information about making purchases and managing your content is also
available in the Kindle User’s Guide on your Kindle or on our Kindle
Support pages here:

http://www.amazon.com/kindlesupport

Also, I appreciate that you took the time to include your feedback in
your email to us. It is very important for us to hear about your
experience using Kindle and shopping in the Kindle store. Strong
customer feedback like yours helps us continue to improve the service
we provide, and we appreciate the time you took to write to us. I’ve
passed your feedback along to the Kindle team.

I hope you found this information useful. Our goal is to help you get
the most out of your Kindle experience. If you need further
assistance, please contact customer support at 1-866-321-8851.

Thank you for choosing Kindle.

*****
HOW DO I DELETE AN ITEM FROM MY KINDLE?
To move or remove an item from your Kindle, follow these steps:
1. If you are not already on the Home screen, press the Home key.
2. Scroll the cursor to the Menu selection, and press the Select wheel.
3. Select “Content Manager” from the Home screen menu.
4. Select one or more of the items listed using the check boxes to the
right of each item.
5. Scroll down to the Menu selection, and press the select wheel when
you have finished selecting items.
6. Select “Remove Selected Items” from the Menu.
7. Select “OK” to confirm removal or “Cancel” to abort.

*****

This may seem like a small thing but making it as easy to return a book as buy it was really important to me. If I wander into Barnes and Noble and get a p-Book (Paper Book for those of you like me who didn’t realize there was such an abbreviation, but I was exposed to it recently and thought it funny ) if I get it home and have buyers remorse they will typically take it back the next day with out fuss. Amazons has done the same thing.

The only surprising thing that was said was alluded to in the beginning of their reply… “If the item is still on your Kindle, please delete that copy. After the refund is issued, you will no longer be able to access it.” That would seem to indicate that items that are in the protected .azw format somehow phone home and see that they should not be used. At first blush I was mortified by this apparent phoning home, but upon reflection realize that is the nature of DRM (Digital Rights Management) and really should have expected it.

Since I did return the book it is only fair and correct that they have some way of insuring I do not continue to use it. I think that despite my Orwellian tendency to dislike any type of phoning home that this is exactly why I don’t have to pay for the wireless portion of the device. I can see this type of action occurring in a great number of devices and portends the ability for a MP3 device to truly be a subscription device shutting off access on a timed or tethered function in the future. But more on that perhaps later.

For now buy all the books you want, if you really hate them within the first 7 days you can return them, pretty much hassle free. How long will that policy remain unchanged? With the ability to shut them off by DRM perhaps a while, but there are some pretty fast readers out there. How long before we can simply rent a book?