Month: December 2008

by

I just remwmbered that I don’t like above ground subways. People can talk on their mobiles all the time.

How Some Hardware Companies Can Confuse Their Customers

by

I wonder sometimes what Technology companies are thinking sometimes. A few months ago I bought a Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 to use when traveling with my Macbook. It is a good portable mouse. I had no real complaints about it. That is why when I needed to use a portable mouse with my Thinkpad T61 I wanted to configure the mouse for use with it. The Thinkpad has bluetooth. That is when my problems started.

It turns out that the Thinkpad does not have the control panel option for Bluetooth even though the driver is installed and working. Some forum searches later and I discovered that this is unfortunately common for SP-2 + installs of Windows XP. I can’t really setup a bluetooth mouse without that control panel applet. I then figured I could download the latest Microsoft drivers and mouse software for the Notebook Mouse 5000. I was hoping that maybe I could configure the mouse using the Microsoft Mouse software. This is when things got interesting. When I went to Microsoft’s Hardware site to download the drivers I couldn’t find the mouse I own in the list. I verified that I have the right mouse type and I still couldn’t find it anywhere on the Drivers & Download page.

I then decided to search the internet for references to drivers for this model mouse. After about 15 minutes searching I found several references to the same problem I was having of not finding the drivers. One of the posts was actually on a Microsoft Forum. The answer blew me away. Yeah, there aren’t any drivers to download. According to someone who seems to be working at Microsoft said that since it is a generic Bluetooth Mouse there is not specific driver set for this model. My response to that is, oh I am sorry that I the end user didn’t know that. How can you expect a consumer to figure that out? You sell someone a product but when you can’t find that product listed on support and download lists it is kind of frustrating. I can understand that I don’t need a driver or special software for the mouse. Wouldn’t it have been a good idea to have this model in the list of models to choose from on the support site and when you select it you get a notice about not needing to download anything special for it? Come on Microsoft you can do better than this.

In the end my problem is still not solved since I don’t have any way to pair the mouse to the Thinkpad. Lenovo hasn’t been very helpful either. I am still working on the issue but I thought my little story was odd enough to take a few minutes and write about it

, ,

Company Party Vs Reunion

by

Yesterday was a bit hectic at work. I worked out of two different offices. I ran from one to another at lunch so I could be at meetings at the other location in the afternoon. It was very hectic but also extremely productive.

After work I headed out with a bunch of people to the company holiday party. I ended up not staying. There were really long lines. Truth be told I was double booked. A bunch of friends I used to work with at Partsearch were getting together and I hadn’t seen some of them in almost two years. I originally wanted to goto the holiday party and mingle for a while and then head out to the other get together. Well we needed up leaving for the party late, and then there was a huge line so I decided to skip out. I am a bit upset by that, but almost no one I know was going to be at the party. My team wasn’t going.

The Partsearch semi-reunion was cool. One of the big things I miss from working there was hanging out with everyone there. I still am friends with many people I worked with there, but it is still different being friends and seeing people everyday and doing almost everything together. To be able to go out to lunch with a group of friends at work is priceless. OK, enough reminiscing. The get together at No Idea (of course) was fun. I ended up staying out till after 10. Not so late, but late enough when I had a meeting at 8:30 AM today.

Getting Out

by

On days I work from home I have to sometimes force myself to get outside. I don’t want to be locked up all day. Today was probably a good day to stay in since it was in the 20’s all day, but I ended up going out twice. I had to get something to eat for lunch. I ended up also grabbing some Swordfish at the market by my house and cooked it up for dinner. It was fantastic as usual. I picked up some crab cakes for dinner tomorrow but then realized I wont be home for dinner. Hopefully I will have them Wednesday. I am glad I am cooking more.

I also ran out after work today to get a hair cut. I ended up getting a cut and a shave. I always love the way it feels after a professional shave. Especially in the cold air. The down side is it is not so cheap. I probably wont do that again for a while but I am not unhappy that I got one today!

Now I am off to attempt to get to bed early since I have an early day tomorrow. Here is to actually getting to bed!

Why Do Mondays So Hard To Get Through?

by

Today was one of those days that I didn’t get to half of what I had planned on working on. I wish it was due to procrastinating, but there is so much going on I need an other day to work on stuff that happens during the day I lived through! 🙁 I wish tomorrow will be better but I have almost a completely booked schedule tomorrow, and then a long night after work. Wednesday is totally booked up from 8:30AM onward. The plus side is if I let myself disconnect I do have a 4 day weekend. I just need to not log into email for the 4 days so I can rest. The question I pose is how do you stay disconnected when you know coming back to work there will be all the work you missed during your time off that you will have to catch up on?

My Short Week

by

I am excited for this week to get underway. I have a packed schedule at work Monday through Wednesday, but then I am taking two days off. I decided to use my vacation days by taking 4 day weekends for the rest of the year. I have to burn off days before 1/1, and I didn’t really plan to go anywhere since I wasn’t expecting to get time off right away when I started my job back in September. I am not complaining at all but I just didn’t think about doing anything cool.

My company holiday party is also this week so I hopefully will get to meet more people I only know from their voices over the phone!

I just hope I can get to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight. I wasn’t tired till almost 1AM last night. Getting to sleep on Sunday nights is always fun.

Online Radio

by

Today I have been home trying to fight a cold. Instead of listening to the usual play list I have on iTunes I decided to tune into some streaming radio instead. So far it has actually been pretty good change of pace. I have used AOL Radio before, and it has been pretty good. Today I am using my almost never used XM Radio login. I can really tell the quality degradation on my radio stream vs a downloaded song. I am going to see if I can tweak the quality at all? I have been making a list of some songs that I might actually go and buy since I liked them! In that way AOL Radio is better than the XM Radio via the browser. With AOL you can click on a link and bring up the song in iTunes to buy. Of course I don’t buy from iTunes anymore (I use Amazon) but it is a good idea.

UPDATE: Apparently you can buy music you hear on XM using Napster. Unfortunately I won’t use Napster for two reasons. 1 I have a Mac. Secondly I don’t want to pay for a flat fee for music. I would rather buy the music outright. Oh well.

, ,

Drinks & Dinner Was a Bad Idea

by

Last night I meet up with Danny & Anthony for some drinks and food. I knew I shouldn’t go out since I have felt like I have been coming down with something all week, but I didn’t listen to myself. I had a good time, but I probably should have stayed in. My throat now is not feeling good at all. I also had a horrible night sleep. I am staying in today to try and rest up. I am not horrible yet but not so happy either. I have already taken more Zinc, and some Tylenol. Hopefully I can kill this before it gets worse.

My New Monitor

by

After searching far and wide for a good deal on a monitor I ended up ordering a Dell 23″ LCD. I got a nice discount and it was the right size for me. It also offered DVI & VGA inputs. I got it yesterday and it looks great on my new computer table add on. I am finally using Outlook the way it was intended (full screen with a nice big 3 pane setup so I can see everything).

Now all I need for the perfect computer setup is a better mouse and keyboard for my Thinkpad. I just got a Microsoft Wireless Laser mouse for my Macbook and it is really nice. Moves really smooth. I might get another one for the Thinkpad, but I can’t figure out what kind of keyboard to get. I love the Apple Wireless Keyboard I use on my Macbook, but I don’t think it will work with a Windows machine.

, , ,