This Week's Roundup of Time Wasters
This Week's Roundup of Time Wasters
It's Friday and you know I spend the week finding things to amuse you -- and keep you away from important projects. So here's this week's roundup of time killers.
- Visual DNA is a fun projective test. Just answer each question by clicking on the picture that fits. When you're done, you'll get a report about your personality. [Thanks, Judy.]
- Keep your cursor over the guy's face.
- Here's a video of a little white-knuckle "stroll." It's worth watching to the end -- if you can stand it. Some of the things you might wonder: Did he balance himself on those girders or was he holding onto something? How did he manage to walk with one eye looking through the camera, keep the camera steady, and not get dizzy? (BTW, if the guy really had huevos, he'd have done it on a dirt bike.)
FYI: Originally built in 1901, this walkway now serves as an approach to El Makinodromo, a famous climbing spot in the El Chorro gorge in Andalucia, Spain. There's more on the Wiki.
Caution: Causes dizziness and adrenaline rush. - You've probably seen the National Geographic documentary explaining what drugs do to spiders, especially the impact on web building. Here's even more in-depth info that'll open your eyes. Watch it to the very end.
- This is a longish story, but heartwarming. I sent it to my list and most people thought it was quite good.
In 1986, Dan Harrison (see picture above) was on holiday in Kenya after graduating from Northwestern University. His doctorate was in mammal behavior.
On a hike through the bush, he came across a young bull elephant standing with one leg raised in the air. The elephant seemed distressed, so Dan approached it very carefully.
He got down on one knee and inspected the elephant's foot and found a large piece of wood deeply embedded in it.
As carefully and as gently as he could, Dan worked the wood out with his hunting knife, after which the elephant gingerly put down its foot.
The elephant turned to face the man, and with a rather curious look on its face, stared at him for several tense moments.
Dan stood frozen, thinking of nothing else but being trampled. Eventually the elephant trumpeted loudly, turned, and walked away.
Dan never forgot that elephant or the events of that day.
Twenty years later, Dan was walking through the Chicago Zoo with his teenaged son.
As they approached the elephant enclosure, one of the creatures turned and walked over to near where Dan and his son Dan Jr. were standing.
The large bull elephant stared at Dan, lifted its front foot off the ground, and then put it down. The elephant did that several times, then trumpeted loudly, all the while staring at Dan.
Remembering the encounter in 1986, Dan couldn't help wondering if this was the same elephant.
Dan summoned up his courage, then illegally and surreptitiously climbed over the railing and made his way into the enclosure. He walked right up to the elephant and stared back in wonder. The elephant trumpeted again, wrapped its trunk around one of Dan's legs, and slammed him against the railing, killing him instantly.
Probably wasn't the same elephant.
Now if you read this far, and didn't ROTFLOL or LYAF (similar to LMAO, but you're doing it), you missed the humor (as did Snopes.)
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You're Not Stuck With Vista: Downgrade to XP
Are you unhappy with Windows Vista? Lots of people are, especially folks who were forced into it when buying a new system.
The first inkling of the Vista backlash happened when NEC offered a tool for IT administrators to downgrade Vista systems to XP. Unfortunately, it works only on NEC Versa notebooks and PowerMate desktops (See NEC Supports Vista 'Downgrade' to Win XP .)
Vista to XP News From Dell
Dell's making sure its customers are happy. The company is willing to supply PCs with XP; see Dell to Install Windows XP After June 30 .
According to a Dell rep: "Dell will still offer the Windows Vista Bonus option which will allow a factory installation of Windows XP Professional. (It will not be available for XP Home.) It will basically amount to Dell installing Windows Vista Business or Ultimate and then performing the downgrade to XP Pro so that you won't have to. After feedback/concerns from our customers, Dell has found a legal way to offer XP Pro after June for the time being."
Do It Yourself
If you have a spare weekend, and the wherewithal to find all the drivers, you can do the Vista-to-XP downgrade yourself. The biggest hurdle will be finding information about the specific brand and model of your system.
I dug around and found a few spots that offer some help. Cyberwalker's Peter Ehm put together a generic downgrading step-by-step. There's a load of stuff available from a Google search. And "downgrading to XP" on Microsoft's TechNet found over 60 messages.
Talkback
Have something to say about Vista? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.
Its clear.
Vista is bloatware and a nuisance to use.
XP is prefered by gamers and others who want an efficient and driver friendly operating system.
Vista is not good for notebooks with low-end processor + integrated graphics card (even with more than 2 GB of RAM). Downgrading a notebook is much more difficult because the manufacturer may not provide drivers for XP. I managed to downgrade but it took A LOT of searching for drivers and forcing it to install on the computer. My notebook is much more efficient with XP.
The cost of a hard drive is peanuts. Get two drives; iinstall XP on one and Vista on the other. When you want to have some fun and get some work done use the drive w/XP and when you want some challenging experiences, use the one with Vista.
Neat Receipts: Scan and Manage Receipts and Docs
Neat Receipts obviously handles more than business cards.
I've already tried the scanner on a big stack of business cards, so I figured I'd play around with the receipt functions (See Buried in Business Cards--And Rescued by Neat Receipts and Neat Receipts: Business Cards and (Almost) Perfect Scans for a quick background.)
Most of the receipts I end up with each month are from credit card transactions and I have a sophisticated system for dealing with them. First I enter the data in Intuit's QuickBooks; then I paper-clip the stack, put it in a drawer, and wait for the credit card bill. After reconciling the bill, I save the receipts that are for legit business expenses (and probably not-so-legit), using the same paper clip. Then I stash the stack in a portable storage device, an envelope marked "2008 CC Expenses."
To say that Neat Receipts makes handling receipts lots easier is an understatement. Scan them--portrait, landscape, or upside down, it doesn't matter--and the scanner's software optically recognizes the vendor's name, date, type of credit card, expense category, and payment amount--it even breaks out the tax.
Scan and automatically categorize your receipts.
Assign a vendor an IRS tax category--in my case, lots of Schedule C stuff--and Neat Receipts organizes the receipts in subsequent scans.
Neat Receipts remembers the assigned tax category.
Once I've scanned the receipts, I push the data right into QuickBooks. When I need to send expense receipts to my pesky PC World office manager, the program turns them into PDF files. (Neat Receipts supports Intuit Quicken and Microsoft Money, too.)
There are plenty of ways to export data from Neat Receipts.
My CPA is going to be surprised this year because I plan to use the Neat Receipts to print tax reports gathered from my receipts. The program supports Schedules A through F, Form 1040, and a slew of other forms. [Note to George: You're going to love this!]
More Than Receipts
A buddy of mine, John D., mentioned that he's paper-free and his file cabinets are empty. The one thing John said that really struck me is that for safekeeping, he's scanned in all his business records--tax returns, insurance policies, financial docs--and burned them all onto one DVD. Boy, does that makes sense. And Neat Receipts can do all the scanning.
Neat Receipts: Worth the Money
I was skeptical about Neat Receipts. In this economy, spending $200 is no longer trivial. But I'll tell you what: If you have lots of receipts you want organized, scads of business cards with data you need on your PC, and wish your desk was free of paper, Neat Receipts is perfect for you.
This was a comment to the 4/29 blog:
Oh my God, I can't stand Microsoft's 2007 word. It has done a super job of turning me off to Microsoft!
These guys practice predatory marketing! It's disgusting. I'm actually asking clients to cut and paste their files into emails to send to me, so I can avoid opening their Word 2007 files.
Microsoft has made it so that if you open one of their docs, you are forced to download their trial version, which freezes the current version you are using. I was locked out of my Word 2003 and Excel files for 3 hours, and had to call and chat w Microsoft's support, before I got my old files running again. I was so angry!
I actually started with 2007 Word on this new laptop I bought 2 months ago. But it was so hard to use, missing many of the old functions, I reinstalled the 2003 versions. But now, I'm dogged by these predatory marketing practices from my client's files written on 2007. Ugh!! MS is succeeding in doing the opposite!
Bringo and Gethuman: Talk to a Person
You probably remember Gethuman, the site that supplies toll-free numbers for zillions of companies. They also list the prompts -- press two, press one -- whatever.
Bringo goes one better. Go through their listing of about 230 companies listed by category, say, T-Mobile tech support, stick your phone number in a call-back field, and in a few seconds, your phone rings and you can start talking to the a person at the company. That's right, Bringo goes through the "press one if you want to talk to..." phone tree.
XP SP3's Aches, Pains, and User Complaints
I had an easy time with my Windows XP SP3 update, as did a bunch of my buddies and many PC World readers. But maybe yours didn't.
Today I've got a smattering of reader complaints and a fix for one of the most common errors.
Don G. said, "I restarted and the screen went all blue with the following message: 'stop:c0000139 (entry point not found) can't find Gdi32.dll' -- etc, etc. I tried everything to get XP Pro to start -- getting into the Bios or safe mode, or anything else -- to no avail. F8, F9, and any other 'F' I could think of and none worked. I just kept getting the same screen and message over and over again."
Don found details and a partial solution on Microsoft's TechNet forums; read Windows XP will not start after SP3 install. Unfortunately, it cost Don $94 to have a local tech support guy use the info to fix his PC.
There's a wealth of SP3 incident reports, along with solutions for many of them, on Microsoft's TechNet.
You can also read the threads about SP3 hassles in "Windows XP SP3 Sows Havoc, Users Complain" and "XP SP3 cripples some PCs with endless reboots." [Thanks Leo and Karl.]
Safe SP3 Solutions
Jesper Johansson has a good write-up for dealing with SP3 problems and PC Hell talks about resolving the continuous rebooting problem. [Thanks, Jon.] Microsoft's euphemistic "change in functionality" Knowledgebase article has a short list of programs that may not, uh, work so well after installing SP3; it includes ATI's Catalyst and NeatReceipts. Oddly enough, I had no trouble installing or using NeatReceipts. I'm sure the list will grow as more people complain.
More than one of you experienced a failed SP3 installation with the error "Service Pack 3 Setup cannot update a checked (debug) system with a free (retail) version of Service Pack 3, or vice versa."
That's gibberish, of course--but lucky for us, Microsoft supplied a solution:
1. Manually download the installation file of SP3 from Microsoft's Download Center.
Note: The above link is also appropriate for home users. Please save the file to C:\ (The root directory of partition C).
2. Install SP3 in Safe Mode. To do this, we can avoid third-party programs conflict and make sure the installation can be performed completely.
3. Restart the computer and keep pressing the F8 key until the Windows Startup menu appears.
4. Choose Safe Mode, and press Enter.
5. Double-click the downloaded file "WindowsXP-KB936929-SP3-x86-ENU.exe" on "C:\" to install Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) in Safe Mode.
Note: In Safe Mode, your system display and Desktop will look and perform differently than in Normal Mode. This is only temporary. To return the system back to Normal Mode, simply restart the computer.
Talkback
Have something to say about SP3? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.
My computer, an Averatec 1000, downloaded and installed SP3 with no problem. Unfortunately, that was the end of my wireless. It cycled on and off in 5 second intervals, never able to resolve the connection. After trying everything I could think of, I had to use a restore point and roll it back to just prior to the installation. Now it works perfectly again. Unfortunately, I am left with the vast amount of SP3 code floating around. I tried to remove it with System Clean-up, but don't know if it did or not. Now what do I do?
Only problem that I have had with SP3 was actually getting it from WU. If the restriction on its being offered to IE8b users was talked about earlier than a couple of days ago, then I missed it. Within minutes of uninstalling IE8b (which was problematic for me any way except in IE7 mode), WU site offered SP3 and I installed. Haven't really noticed any difference, but at least no problems so far.
The only problems I have had thus far (not with my own computers, but with clients) has been getting Windows Updates to work, as well as any Microsoft-based installation (mainly Windows Live). The solution took some time to uncover, but it appeared that the main cause was an incorrectly registered DLL. If this is happening to you, Click on Start, then Run, and type in "regsvr32 wups.dll" and click OK. If that doesn't work, your next stop should be Google...
Funny "Happy Mother's Day" Video
The video says it all...(and boy is it funny).
This Week's Roundup of Time Wasters
There's no denying that I get a kick out of spending a couple of hours a week digging up these time wasters. The big difference, though, is I'm getting paid; you're just, uh, wasting time.
- The balloon people who float into the sky seem to have it down to a science. Watch two movies of what they do here and here. (Be patient, they're slow loading.)
Ballooning into the sky - The University of Colorado's Physics Education Department created some really cool simulations on their Technology page. These full-fledged, working models are a hoot to try. Fill a vat with salt, play around with the water levels, and try, as they say, to "achieve a dynamic equilibrium with solid precipitate." Or mess around with sound by adjusting the harmonic content, volume, and frequency of sound and waves. Don't be alarmed -- the site uses Java and you'll see some dialogs explaining the temporary downloads.
Play with a vat of salt water.
Louder. No, softer. - Air Jelly: The video says it all. (Details). [Thanks, Paul.]
- In case you are having trouble figuring out how you're going to pay for gas, not to worry: The Feds came up a new, handy-dandy Gas Coupon.
- Violators will experience our services for free. But you really don't want to. . . Hired Assassin Agency. [Thanks, Paul.]
- It drives me nuts when I see incorrect use of English -- grammar, typos, and other gems -- on menus and signs. You know what I mean -- a menu that uses quotes for emphasis (our chili is "super hot"), misspellings (Pastries, Cakes, and Deserts), or apostrophes used incorrectly (violator's will be fined). The Typo Eradication Advancement League is out to put a stop to it. They carry whiteout, chalk, tape, and magic markers and are on a cross country mission too fix egregious error's. (Just testing...)
TEAL graciously makes corrections.
Windows XP SP3 Is Up and Running (Wheewh!)
My experience with installing XP SP3 was mostly good. I rebooted and furrowed my brow during the lengthy shutdown; the wait for the system to boot up didn't do much for my system. The first screen that appeared advised me that Microsoft didn't like my Automatic Updates settings. Microsoft wants me to let it run the updates automatically. Tough luck, Bill -- I want to decide when to install any updates. (See Quitting Time Is Best for XP's Automatic Updates.)
SP3 doesn't like my Updates settings.
Once my system settled down, the Quick Launch tray appeared, and the System tray was fully populated, I started trying applications. Keytweak, a handy keyboard remapping tool, was the only program that wouldn't run. (See Quick Keyboard Tricks, a Neat Keyboard, and a Notebook Docking Station for a KeyTweak review.)
One of SP3's victims: KeyTweak
SP3 Speeds Up My PC
As I launched and tested applications, I noticed that every program loaded faster. My usual cast of characters -- Eudora, Explorer Plus, Maxthon, Ad Muncher, Kaspersky, WinPatrol, and others -- all suddenly appeared more quickly on screen, ready to go to work. Office 2003 apps --Word, Excel, and Outlook -- were especially quick to load. Sure, I agree, it could be a perception thing (I haven't changed my blood pressure meds), but I don't think so.
And so far, I haven't heard from readers experiencing any major disasters.
Of course, I'm curious about your experience (my address is below). Any big changes after SP3?
Service Pack of Troubles?
If you do have problems with the upgrade, you can receive help from Microsoft for any update issue free of charge at the Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 3 Help and Support site. The site includes E-mail Support (24 hour response time), chat support (11 minute response time), or by phone at 866/234-6020 (varying response time).
Help for SP3 installations.
Talkback
What's your take? Are you going to grab SP3 yourself or let Window Update do the job? Or maybe ignore the whole thing and buy a Mac? You can use Comments below or if you'd prefer, fire an e-mail right into my inbox.
Installed SP 3 this evening in about 30 minutes flat including downloads (over 6 Mb connection). Used Windows Update after the dowload pack refused to install (that confusing free/retail, either/or thing).
Zero difficulties, except I had ActiveX disabled in Internet Explorer on principle, and WU uses it to inspect and download updates. If anyone reports a blank page when trying to connect, that's probably the reason.
Three little Windows saying installation of one file failed disappeared with a click on Retry.
Results: everything does seem a bit faster. I'd say roughly 10-20% on some things. I don't use Microsoft suites like Office, but OpenOffice seems a bit quicker. Firefox opens faster, and the ancillary stuff like Memorizer (my pet clipboard extender) and WordWeb snap open. Some of that's likely due to cleaned up files. Installing a Service Pack is more or less a clean install of WIndows.
Now, if WinPartol will just stop telling me about all those changes...
Tutorial: Two Ways to Get Windows XP SP3
Take your hands off that mouse. I know, you're ready to grab XP SP3. But slow down a sec and read my quick tutorial. It could save you some time and make your life with the new Service Pack less harrowing. (Tomorrow I'll tell you about my Windows experience with SP3 installed.)
Denny Arar posted Windows XP SP3 Available for Download late yesterday and she supplied links to the download. But before you do the deed, I suggest you do a little reading.
Wait a minute! You say you haven't followed the XP SP3 saga? Read Robert Strohmeyer's Windows XP SP3: First Impressions and Early Tests Say SP3 Speeds Windows XP. (I'll get back to the speed issue from that last report tomorrow.)
It's a Good Idea to Read This
Start with Microsoft's Steps to take before you install Windows XP Service Pack 3, a handy set of instructions to ensure a pleasant experience. It talks about "fast user switching" issues (like making sure everyone's logged off), administrator rights, and error messages you may encounter.
Then take a quick look at the Service Pack's Release Notes. Among other things, you'll discover that if you installed Internet Explorer 7 (or the IE 8 beta) before installing SP3, you won't be able to remove IE -- unless you first uninstall SP3. It's not an issue for most users, but it may be for you. If it is, be sure to uninstall IE7 or IE8 before installing SP3.
Update: There's a work-around for the IE 7 hassle. It's explained here. [Thanks, Jeff F.]
Update: You might also swing by Microsoft's Windows XP TechCenter.
Downloading vs. Windows Update
Downloading the entire Service Pack from Microsoft's Download Center, all 343MB of it, will take 30 minutes or longer, depending on your DSL or cable modem connection. (Think about the poor schlemiel -- or is he a schlimazel? -- who's still using a 33K modem...)
SP3 is big because it contains every known XP update in the universe. So unless you want to burn SP3 onto a CD, the best bet is to do the upgrade from Windows Update.
Update: You can grab SP3 on an ISO file to burn on a CD at Microsoft's Download Center.
You can do that by using any current version of IE and heading to Windows Update. Even easier, go to Start, Help and Support, and select "Keep your computer up-to-date with Windows Update."
The installer will check to see what you already have on your PC, so the download's sure to be smaller than the full-blown Service Pack -- at least it was on my PC.
Windows Update makes for a quicker SP3 installation.
I used Windows Update, and from start to finish -- downloading everything, lots of file backups and copying, and an automatic installation -- it took 40 minutes at my cable modem speed of 1.5 megabytes per second.
Tomorrow: SP3 is up and running. And I have news for you!
Why is one 344mb and the iso 544mb
Go to Microsoft Communities Newsgroups where you will finf numerous posts requesting help for the many problems caused by SP3.
Vista, the impending withdrawal of XP, and now SP3 will add to sales of the Mac.
NeatReceipts: Business Cards and (Almost) Perfect Scans
It takes about 10 seconds for business cards to get scanned and the data optically recognized, then displayed in the Neat Receipts scanner's software. (Just tuned in? Read Buried in Business Cards -- And Rescued by NeatReceipts.
After each card is individually scanned, it's shown as an image in one panel, with the contact info in another two areas. I found it amazing how NeatReceipts could extract information on the card and get it into the correct field.
Neat Receipts pulls out the usual stuff -- name, address, e-mail, and Web site. If the business card labels the phone numbers, Neat Receipts sticks them in the right fields: phone, mobile, and fax. Anything without a field, say, "Universal Remotes," goes into the Other category. I haven't played with it, but you can add custom fields.
Business card image and contact info.
I can scan in black-and-white or color, and if the card has a back side (behave!), I can scan that, too. The data on the back of the card doesn't get assigned into info fields -- the whole back is just read in as an image. I'm also able to attach anything else I scan to the contact info record, maybe a document or a photo. That's handy.
Neat Receipts recommends I scan the card in horizontally. Yet even if I stuck it in vertically, the software rotated the scanned image on screen so it was readable.
One small problem: Even though I paid attention, when I scanned a card with material on both sides, I often scanned the back first. Unfortunately the scanned image can't be reassigned as front and re-processed.
Are You Really Accurate?
There were a few times Neat Receipts failed to do a perfect OCR. It was mostly because the business card paper was very shiny or the lettering was angled. There were other Neat Receipts goofs, but I don't think they're serious. For instance, "SSPR" was changed to "Sspr;" some names dragged along an underscore ("Sunar_"); and "TigerDirect" became "LigerDirect." It was no biggie, and fixing the typos was a heck of lot less work than manually entering all the data.
I scanned about 60 cards in less than 30 minutes, and that included time scanning the wrong side, false starts (when I didn't push the card into the scanner far enough), and correcting any mistakes. I imagine as I use Neat Receipts more often, my scanning skills will improve.
So far, I'm seeing why so many people feel the device is a worthwhile business tool, and why it may be worth the $200.
Tomorrow: Scanning receipts and tax reports.
Update: With SP3's release, I have to push the next part of this story to next week.
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