I am back home after going on a little field trip with the photography group to the old cemetery where the blue bonnets are in bloom. It wasn't my day. My pictures are rather disappointing.

Better

The sun is out today and my spirits are lifted. The area has received a great deal of rain over the last two days. There have been tornado watches, flash flood warnings, etc. I did not go to the Thursday nor Friday night photography club meetings. As I said yesterday, I was thinking of dropping out of the camera club group. I really did not want to do it, but I decided I did not like being stressed. This morning the man who heads up the group called and told me what I missed. He said the group is making a little field trip this afternoon to a cemetery out on FM 423 that is full of bluebonnets. It is wild flower season in Texas. I am going with them. I am glad he called.

 

I did more work this morning on my income tax. I want to go back and double check all of my math. Then I will copy everything onto the final set of forms, write out the check, go some place to make a copy and then stop by the post office. I am feeling much better now. I owe, but at least I know how much, and I am going to have it all done before the deadline.

 

Every morning I check Pricegrabber.com to see if they list any merchants who are selling the Canon MF4690 multi-function laser printer that I want. This morning I saw that two merchants were listed. Neither had the printer in stock. I also found a review of the printer on CNET. It looks like this printer is no longer vaporware. CNET rated the printer fairly high in all categories but said they prefer a model from Dell because it prints faster. Print speed does not matter to me. The Canon was better at scanning, faxing and copying than the Dell. Those functions are important to me. This afternoon I found that Amazon.com has the printer available for pre-order. They offered free shipping if it is ordered today. It said that the printer would not normally be eligible for their free super saver shipping. I placed my order. Amazon.com says they expect to receive the printer on April 22. After I placed my order, the estimated shipping date came back as April 26. Now if Apple would release a new version of iTunes that is certified to be Vista compatible I will be very happy.

 

I read this morning that Microsoft said they have no plans to release a service pack for Vista. Vista is fine just the way it is. Maybe I should send them my list. I also read that another security hole that affects many versions of Windows including Vista has been found. This is the first security flaw to be found in Vista. Microsoft said people using IE 7 under Vista have lesser risk than other versions.

Hectic Week

It is more than a week since I have written anything for the blog. My regular readers probably think I am having more computer troubles. I am happy to report that the new computer is doing very well. My absence is due to my getting involved in too many activities. The groups at Frisco Lakes are becoming very active. Everything happened at once. All of a sudden I am feeling very stressed and feel that I may have over committed. The activities are supposed to be fun. The photography group which was one that I really wanted to participate in but they are having meetings that do not start until 7:30 PM. Many people at Frisco Lakes are still working and have trouble getting to earlier meetings. Since I am fully retired I like daytime activities so I am afraid the photography group is one I am going to cut.

 

I am attempting to learn how to play Mahjongg. I am getting a little feel for the game, but I have a long way to go before I can look at the tiles and figure out what hands are possible.. I have been to the Canasta group sessions two times. Canasta is an easy game to play and does not not take a great deal of skill. There are five of us who are now taking Bridge lessons. I have played at Bridge but have never had formal instruction. I am going to stick with the Bridge lessons.

 

On Tuesday I went to the Museum of Nature and Science. There was an exhibit called Body Works. I did not realize the exhibit consisted of real human cadavers. I found it disconcerting. There was also an IMAX movie on the human body. I went with a group from the Frisco Senior Center. In April I am going on two day trips with them. The first will be to the Dallas Arboretum and the second will be to the art Dallas Museum of Art  to see an exhibit of work by Matisse. I just signed up for a trip in May to Granbury. There will be a riverboat dinner cruise and a musical at the Granbury Opera House.

 

Yesterday my neighbor drove me to Plano to see an eye doctor. My eyes were dilated and I really appreciated my neighbor volunteering to do the driving. Last year I was in Beaumont, and it was very difficult for me to drive back home after my eyes were dilated. The doctor, who I saw was a young woman. The office was not crowded and the exam only took 45 minutes. I could always count on being at eye doctor's office in Beaumont a minimum of two and a half hours. I have concluded that Beaumont needs more doctors. 

 

Last weekend Sears had a sale which was applicable to the garage cabinets that I wanted. I had been watching their sales since January and had not seen any that included the garage cabinets. I rushed in and purchased the cabinets. They were delivered today. The man who is going to assemble them will be out this weekend. It is good that I will be able to get the garage organized before hot weather arrives.

 

I am still working on my income tax. My taxes are complicated this year because of all the moves I made to get ready to purchase the new house. I worked all morning on the forms and am finally seeing light at the end of the tunnel. I calculated my taxes taking the standard deduction just to get a feel for how much I owe. I am now working on the itemized deductions. Just property taxes and sales tax exceed the standard deduction. My big problem is placing values on all the things I donated to Goodwill and the Salvation Army last year.

 

I still do not have a printer that works with the new computer. I wanted to print out the IRS Publication that details the 2006 sales tax deductions. The deduction for sales tax had expired. Congress extended the deduction after the Form 1040's were sent out. There is a separate publication. I went down to the community center this morning to print the tables I need. There were two problems. They were completely out of 8.5 by 11 inch paper. When I tried to print out the tables on legal size paper, someone else's print job kept printing. Someone had must have submitted the same job dozens of times. The computers that are only a month old have been trashed by my computer illiterate neighbors. Grrrr! I was really mad.

 

After I finish with the IRS I have to take my car in for service and get the State inspection so I can get the registration transferred to Denton County. When that is accomplished, I will finally consider the move complete.

 

Computer Bobbles

This afternoon I decided to transfer the last of my files from the Seagate external drive to the new computer. I used the external drive to back up the old computer every Saturday morning. My old computer had one hard disk that was partitioned into C and D drives. When I purchased the external drive in the spring of 2006, I carefully configured the BounceBack software that came with it to backup both the C and D drives. I watched the backup process and it gave indications that it was backing up both partitions. I used the D drive primarily for photos and iTunes files. I remember checking the files on the external drive last June and could not locate the files from the D drive. At that point I manually copied all of the files on the D drive to the external drive. Well today I tried to find the files from the D drive. Again I could not locate them. The photos I took between June, 2006, and January, 2007, are no where to be found. The photos were mostly of the trips to Frisco while the house was under construction and photos I had taken while walking around Frisco Lakes. All is not lost because I had uploaded some of the photos to Smugmug. It will be slow, but I had set up Smugmug so my photos could be copied. I am lucky that I have that option to recover some of my files.

 

I bought the external drive when copying files to CD"s became too much for me to handle. It looks like I better go back to putting files on CD's as an extra safety measure. My loss is rather small compared to what some people are unable to recover when their computer fails. I kept my Word, Excel and scanned documents on the C drive. All of them now have been copied safely to the new computer.

 

This afternoon Windows Media Player again refused to load. This is the problem I had when I called Sony tech support. This time I turned the WiFi switch to the off position so I was no longer on the Internet, disabled Norton Internet Security and restarted the computer. Windows Media Player again started working. I enabled Norton and turned WiFi back on. The Media Player continued to work. Now I have to figure out what triggers its failure. I know it has something to with Norton, but I am at a loss to know what if anything I can do to fix it. At least I have a work around.

Games

I am trying to get involved with the Frisco Lakes activities. Monday I went to the Canasta group meeting. I had not played Canasta since high school. Canasta is not difficult to learn, and it rapidly came back to me. There was a big turnout for the group. They meet every Monday at 1 PM. I am not certain that I want to play every week, but it will be fun to play occasionally.

 

Today I went to the Mahjong group. I have always wanted to learn how to play the game. My mother had a Mahjong set, and I played with the tiles when I was a little girl. Well, after my first session of real play I am totally confused. I do not know if I have what it takes to master that game. I found a website this morning that had the rules of the game. I really could not make a connection between the rules that I had read and the way real people were playing.

 

Unfortunately I have found something that I really like to play. Windows Vista has a game called Mahjong Titans. It takes advantage of the new 3D Vista graphics. It is played with tiles like the traditional Mahjong game, but that is the only similarity. The object of the Windows Vista game is to remove the tiles in pairs until no tiles are left. This game is addictive, and I have been wasting too much time on it.

 

 

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

I have now spent ten days with my new computer with the Windows Vista Business edition operating system and have formed a few opinions:

 

The Good

The Sony Vaio VGN-AR370 is a beautifully designed 17" notebook computer. Its keyboard has very large keys and is well laid out. It is much better than the HP dv9000T that operated for two hours before dying. Sony configured the computer exactly as I had specified. So far I have found no hardware flaws. Vista has not crashed or hung. I have had no problems with Microsoft Office 2007 applications. I can use my external disk drive with the firewire port. I can sync the basic calendar, address book, memo functions of my Palm TX. I am able to transfer photos from my camera's memory card with the card reader. I like the special buttons next to the keyboard to eject a disk from the drive. There are also buttons to adjust the speaker volume.

 

The Bad

In order to close security holes in Windows, Microsoft has not provided backward compatibility with much existing software and hardware. I have not had any problems with Vista because I have been extremely cautious before installing or even running older applications. Sony was not so cautious. They have installed a number of programs on this computer that were designed for XP. I am sure they did this because I bought the computer before the new versions have been released. I had Sony install Photoshop Elements on the computer. The first time I loaded the program it said it was incompatible with Vista but was directed to the Adobe website. They  had a patch available that changed the Version to 5.02 which does run on Vista.. At the present time I am without a way to print or scan documents. I am waiting on Canon to start shipping their new MF4690 all in one laser. The driver for my little Epson PictureMate photo printer is included with Vista according to the Epson support site. I have not found the courage to test it.

 

The Ugly

It has been almost five years since I purchased a new computer. In that time the cost-cutting computer companies have outsourced their tech. support operations overseas. Many of the people who are answering support calls just are not fluent in conversational English. A mal-functioning computer in itself is very stressful, but then mix in a phone call after more than an hour on hold with a person who does not respond to what you are saying and the situation rapidly becomes unbearable. My one call to Sony was answered in Florida. I had a very simple issue, and it was resolved. I give Sony credit in that they are directing the phone calls to specialists depending on the issue. HP on the other hand just dumps the calls into one big pool. Where Sony fell down was on their email support. I am certain that my email was answered in a overseas location by a person with a poor command of English.

 

The second issue that I consider very ugly is the trouble people are getting into by loading Apple's iTune on their pc's running Vista. Yesterday I found a thread where people with new computers with SATA disk drives with RAID technology enabled were getting errors that made it appear that they had failed drives. There was one who had to send a new notebook back to Dell and another to HP. My computer has the SATA drives with the Intel Matrix controller. After reading that I decided there is no way that I will install iTunes until I am certain the issues have been resolved. I miss my podcasts.

Update

I have lost confidence in Sony's tech. support. After receiving the reply that told me to download a new driver, I wrote back to clarify my question whether Ver. 4.3 of SonicStage is compatible with Windows Vista Business edition. This time I was told that Sony does not support Windows versions that were not factory installed and gave me directions on how to roll back my operating system to Windows Vista Home Premium. I nearly hit the ceiling. I wrote back that my Windows Vista Business edition was installed by the Sony factory in San Diego, CA. This time I got a reply back that apologized for the confusion and said Ver. 4.3 is not compatible with Windows Vista Business edition. This poor fellow finally found the same table I was looking at. I have a real problem with the "bloatware" that the computer manufacturers install on new computers. This time it is really bad because they are installing programs that do not run on Vista and can possibly corrupt the operating system. I think the best solution is to start uninstalling the unneeded software. I had Sony's SonicStage on my old computer. Until I got the iPod and installed iTunes, it was the program I used to listen to music on the pc. Now since there is not a fully compatible version of iTunes, the only safe option is to use Microsoft's Windows Media Player. I dread to think about what software I need to view a DVD.

 

Last night I went to the Frisco Lakes monthly meet your neighbor social. There is a lady that I have seen several times at the community's functions. Every time I see her she greets me like an old friend. I was embarrassed that I did not remember her name. I am bad at remembering names. This lady seemed to know so much about me. Last night I finally got the nerve to ask her where we first met. She told me she had been reading my blog. That explained a lot. Attendance at the meet your neighbor functions is being limited to about 70 people. When the socials were held in the sales center, the noise created by the crowd was very loud. I actually start to feel sick when I am in that environment. Unfortunately the same thing happened last night. As more people arrived, the noise level increased. I could not hear, and other people could not hear me. Then I started feeling ill. I looked for a place to sit down. Then I decided it was time to go home.

 

I am cleaning my car in stages. Yesterday I went over the windows inside and out with Windex and paper towels. I thought I was doing a good job, but when I took the car out yesterday evening I saw lots of streaks in the windshield. I used to do much better work.

 

I plan to go back to the Saturday evening service at the nearby Methodist church. I have talked to several people and found that it is a common practice in Frisco to have a projection screen and show messages in the church.

Troubled

Yesterday evening's episode with the Windows Media Player and the call to Sony tech support continues to bother me. The problem was fixed. That is good. How it got fixed is the unknown. The best answer I can come up with is that Norton Internet Security was somehow preventing Media Player from running. Disabling Norton while the computer was not on the Internet apparently allowed Media Player to work. When Norton was turned back on, the Media Player still worked.

 

Sony has quite a few programs installed on this computer that are used for music and video editing. One is called SonicStage. Version 4.2 is installed on the computer. Sony's tech support website says 4.2 is incompatible with Windows Vista. They now have Version 4.3 available for download. Here is where it gets sticky. They have a table that shows 4.3 working with Vista Home Premium but not with Vista Business. I have Vista Business. What am I supposed to do? I emailed Sony. I got back an irrelevant reply that told me where to download a driver and they apologized for my pc not working. My pc is doing just fine, thank you very much. I just want to make sure it stays that way. I have not attempted to load SonicStage Ver. 4.2 nor download Ver. 4.3. I will not do either until I receive clarification.

 

I have updated my spreadsheets where I keep my financial data. I now know how much damage the recent stock market gyrations did to my portfolio, I was relieved to see that the damage is relatively minor. I am able to edit my spreadsheets, but there are a number of commands on the menus that I really have a hard time finding. When I have several spreadsheets open at the same time I now have to find a window tab on a certain toolbar. The old way seemed much more sensible. I guess I am old and set in my ways.

 

I have been neglecting my routine chores. The cupboard is almost bare. The batteries in both of my wristwatches have died. My glasses are out of adjustment and hurt my nose. I have to get out of the house, away from the pc and take care of these things. I did manage to order a short-sleeved shirt from L.L. Bean yesterday. This morning I ordered a pair of shoes. The online merchants must have missed me while I was without a pc.

 

It is time for another meet your neighbor social tonight. The months are rolling by. I checked my records. It was March 20th last year that I signed the sales contract for the new house. I just could not repeat what I have done n the past twelve months.

Sony Tech Support

I was hoping that I would never have to call Sony tech support, but tonight it became necessary. Yesterday I had listened to a mp3 file in Windows Media Player. The computer has the new version 11. It worked without problem. I had to go through some initial setup the first time that it loaded. This evening I double clicked the icon to start Media Player and absolutely nothing happened. I tried to open the program from the Start menu. Again nothing. I put an audio CD in the drive. I clicked to open in Windows Media Player. Nothing happened.

 

I was forced to make the dreaded phone call for tech support. I had a very short wait. A man with a slight Hispanic accent answered. I told him about the problem. He had me try several things. Then he told me to run the Windows restore option. Yesterday 3 Microsoft Windows updates were installed on the computer. The restore process started. While waiting for the restore to complete, I asked the tech where he was located. He said he was in Florida. I told him it was good to talk to someone who was in the U.S. At that point the pc had rebooted and there was a message that said the restore did not complete. Before I started the restore the tech had me turn the WiFi switch on the front of the computer to off so I was not on the Internet. He then had me go into the Norton Internet Security and turn off the protection. At that point I clicked on the Media Player icon and the Media Player loaded. I put a CD in the drive and music played. I turned on the Norton security software and put the WiFi switch in the on position. Media Player still works and I was able to connect to the Internet immediately. I do not understand what was the cause of the problem.

 

I was worried that the Microsoft updates that I installed yesterday were uninstalled. The tech told me they were still there. After I hung up I went to the Windows Update page and did everything I could to check for installed updates. It appears that yesterday's updates are still installed.

 

I had read that Windows Vista Business edition ships with the administrator privileges disabled. I told the tech that I was planning on buying a new printer and would need administrator privileges to install the printer. He said they were enabled. He told me to check and double check that the printer I purchase has the Vista drivers. He said right now Vista is very fragile. I told him I was researching every piece of software before I installed it. He said I was doing the proper thing.

 

I had found an article on how to enable administrator privileges in Windows Vista Business edition. I had written down the instructions it is a nine-step process that takes you deep into the bowels of Vista. I went through the steps and found the screen where the privileges can be enabled. The tech was wrong. Administrator privileges are not enabled on this computer. I left them turned off; but if I find myself in a situation where I need the privileges I do know how to enable them.

 

This afternoon I listened to Leo LaPorte and Steve Gibson's Security Now podcast. Steve Gibson had been skeptical regarding some of the security measures Microsoft was implementing in Vista, but today he has changed his tune. He was saying mostly favorable things regarding the security of Vista. It is the security changes that are causing so many software and hardware incompatibilities. On the surface Vista does look very different from XP, but there are major changes under the hood.

Another Good Day

I continue to be very pleased with the new pc. I have read comments about how Vista is much slower than XP. I am finding just the opposite, but I did shell out quite a few pennies for a very hefty piece of hardware. The website for Frisco Lakes homeowners was terribly slow on my old computer. I have heard several people say the same thing. I am truly amazed that my new Vista machine zips through the website.

 

I am waiting for Canon to release the ImageCLASS MF4690. I have decided to go ahead and buy it locally so it will be easier to return in case of problems. This device has a very unique feature. You can plug a thumb drive into a USB port on the printer. It will scan documents in a number of formats and store the files on the thumb drive. You can then copy the files off of the thumb drive on to a pc. Processing of the scanned images can be done on the printer and does not have to involve the computer.

 

Speaking of thumb drives I started readying about Windows Vista's ReadyBoost feature. Vista can use the flash memory in a thumb drive to speed up a number of Vista functions. Sandisk has partnered with Microsoft for the ReadyBoost feature. Sandisk is going to start shipping a new line of Cruzer Contour thumb drives that have much faster flash memory than is in current thumb drives. They are going to have high prices, but they come in a number of different sizes up to 8gb.

 

I have turned my computer into a big iPod. I took the earphones off the iPod and plugged them into the computer. I am listening to podcasts that I have missed over the past six weeks. One day Apple will release a fully Vista compatible version of iTunes, and I will again be able to use the iPod.

000001
Those are the last six digits of the serial number on my new computer. That scared me silly when I saw that. It is amazing that it has run for six days with so few problems. I think it is a real tribute to Sony that it is running so smoothly. They must have put the extra month they took after the introduction of Vista to good use.

I did have a problem with the computer yesterday. I went ahead and installed the Palm Desktop software so I could sync my PDA. Palm said the Desktop was working for the basic PIM functions, but the third party software such as Documents to Go were not compatible with Vista. The bad part was the Palm software automatically installs Documents to Go along with the Palm Desktop. I went through the sync steps and attached the PDA to the computer after installing the software. The sync was successful but generated error messages pertaining to Documents to Go. The computer behaved normally until I shut it down.

We had a very severe thunderstorm yesterday afternoon. When the sky darkened, I shut the computer down. After the worst of the storm, I turned the computer on. I noticed a message in the task bar that said some programs were blocked at startup. Then I found that I could not connect to the wireless network. The less than helpful Vista diagnostics said to call the ISP or network administrator. I was able to connect to the network with the Palm. I checked the device manager and found no hardware problems with the network adapter and the little WiFi LED on the computer was illuminated. I called AT&T's DSL number. When I told the tech that I was running Vista, she put me on hold for a lengthy time while she searched for Vista support information. She came back and led me through steps that I had already done. She then told me to call the computer support line.

I shut the computer down and rebooted. This time I was able to click on the error message before it disappeared. It brought up a window that listed all the programs that load at startup. I noticed DataViz was listed. They are the publisher of Documents to Go. I unchecked that program and rebooted. This time there was no error message and the pc connected to the network. I decided to again sync the Palm. It hung when it attempted to sync Documents to Go. It would not respond to the command to cancel. In desperation I finally disconnected the USB cable. The computer straightened out. I had to do a soft reset on the Palm, but no data was lost. I then went into Control Panel and uninstalled Documents to Go. I again synced the Palm and this time it zipped through the process with no errors.

I did more reading on the problems of iTunes with Vista. Apple released version 7.1 of iTunes last week. It addresses some of the problems with Vista but is not a complete cure. I read some awful stories of how iTunes messes up Vista. Some reported that when they attempt to burn a CD with iTunes the computer looses the ability to find the drive. After reading that I have decided to wait until Apple relased a fully compatible version of iTunes. I don't want anymore trouble.

I do have one piece of good news. This morning when I checked my AMEX account I saw that a credit from HP for the returned service policy posted to my account. That ugly episode is now closed.

Approaching Normal

The more I use the new computer, the more I like it. I have had no problems with Vista crashing. It seems very solid. It just needs more compatible hardware and software. I am gradually updating my financial spreadsheets. I filled in all the missing information where I keep my checkbook. It balances with the bank! I was without a computer for almost six weeks. I need to read the Dummies book on Office 2007. The menus in Word and Excel are very different than older versions. I am lost.

 

Yesterday morning when I looked out the window I saw that the redbud tree had bloomed overnight. The grass is beginning to turn green. I am glad that spring is here. I had not experienced such cold weather for many years, and I found I did not like it.

 

This evening the photography club is having its first meeting. I hope it develops into a group that I will like. I noticed the cheap movie in Plano is showing Happy Feet. I didn't see it when it was in the first-run theaters. I am debating whether I want to go there this afternoon. It is supposed to rain, and I do not want to get my clean car dirty.

Still Adjusting

I spent yesterday afternoon looking at the manual for the new Sony Vaio. I must say I am very impressed with the computer. I would say the Sony is the Lexsus and the HP dv9000T is the Lincoln. When you compare a Japanese luxury car to an American luxury car, it is obvious that the Americans just do not put as  much thought into the details. I am seeing the same type of differences in the high-end notebook pc's. The Sony has very handy, but unobtrusive buttons, to adjust the speaker volume, eject a CD, etc. The keyboard is has a much better layout. There is much less junk software installed on it. The HP tried to sign me up for all kinds of services the only time it booted. There was none of that on the Sony.

 

Since I am having such a good experience with the Japanese-designed computer, I decided to look for an all-in-one laser printer from a Japanese company. I read a review in PC Magazine for a Canon ImageClass MF 5770. It received the Editor;s Choice award. I then looked at the Canon website and found that it has the usual problem. It is not yet supported under Vista. I then found an announcement on the Canon website of a new MF 4690. It will start shipping in April. The website did not designate which Windows versions are supported. I did some more searching and found detailed specs on the PC Connection website. It lists Windows Vista as a supported operating system. I emailed Canon to confirm the Vista support. I got back an email that said they could not comment on product that had not shipped but gave me a phone number for their pre-sales department. I called. After much searching the man found the same specs I had seen on the PC Connection site.

 

My advice is if you are thinking about upgrading to Windows Vista, wait a while.

High-Tech Church in Frisco

I went to the Saturday evening church service at the Methodist church that is close to my house. The congregation was formed in 1999. Like most things in Frisco it is new and high-tech. When I walked in, I noticed that people took the invitation to come in the clothes they wore for Saturday yard work very seriously. The majority of the people were young couples with children, but I saw a few who looked like they would be eligible to live in Frisco Lakes. After I sat down, I noticed there was a screen mounted high above the altar. Church announcement and slides were being shown. It was very similar to all of the ads that are rotated at a movie theater before the show starts. I looked up and saw there was a computer projector mounted high in the ceiling.

 

Instead of having a traditional church choir there was a group of 5 or 6 people up front. Several had guitars. One woman sang. They definitely were not the hymns I am used to in a Methodist Church. When it was close to time for the service to begin, I again looked up at the screen. I saw a Windows Vista desktop that said Vista Home Premium. I watched as the computer operator loaded a presentation to be used during the service. From then on every hymn, every prayer and every scripture reading was shown on the screen. They had a graphic to illustrate the minister's sermon. The sermon was good. The minister is a middle-aged man. His sermon was the only part of the service I considered traditional. There was nothing wrong with the service. It was just very different from what I have been used to.

Is Big Brother Watching Me?

After spending the second day with the new Sony with Vista Business Edition, I have decided Microsoft is keeping an eye on me; and I don't like it. On Friday and early Saturday morning I connected my Seagate external disk drive to the IEEE 1394 port on the Sony. Before doing that I had searched the Vista Help for instructions and found none. I used the same procedure that I had used with XP. After I did that I found the "Safely Remove Hardware" icon and chose to remove the IEEE 1394 device. Both times it worked without problem. Shortly after I turned the new pc on for the first time updates from Microsoft were downloaded and installed. I thought I was all caught up with the updates until the second Tuesday in April. Much to my surprise when I attempted to put the pc in hibernation a message popped up that said it was installing updates and not to turn off the computer. I waited. The pc powered off by itself. I turned it back on and it came up with a message that said it was configuring updates. I went to the Windows Update History and found that a patch for the IEEE 1394 port when using an external hard drive had been installed.

 

Later in the afternoon I again attached the hard drive. This time when I was ready to dismount the drive, a completely different window popped up. It listed my device. I clicked on it and second window opened that said it would attempt to dismount the drive. By now I was scared. What would I do if I could not dismount the drive? Finally another window opened and said it was safe to remove the drive. I know Microsoft had detected that I had an external drive and sent a very customized patch to me.

 

Later in the afternoon I encountered more Microsoft intrusion into my life. I could not find any games on my computer. The old familiar solitaire game was no where to be found. I had read that Microsoft jazzed up solitaire for Vista, and I wanted to see it. Finally I Googled Vista Business Edition Games. There were a number of articles. One gave a step-by-step procedure for enabling the games on Vista Business Edition. Microsoft has hidden them because their corporate clients to do want their employees wasting time playing games. I am a retiree. I paid for this computer with my own money. If I want to waste the remainder of my life playing solitaire, it is my business.

 

I loaded up solitaire and again I became frustrated with Microsoft. The new version has new sounds like cards are being dealt. I am still having a little trouble using the touchpad. I slipped and attempted to move a card to an incorrect location. Instead of just beeping and preventing the move, a scolding window opened and scolded me for making an illegal move. I then had to close the window. When I got to the point there were no more moves, a window opened and told me there were no more moves and gave me the choice of replaying the game or exiting. When I chose exit, the game closed. I opened and tried again. This I closed the window and chose new game from the regular Windows menu. I do not consider these changes improvements. I feel like Microsoft is harassing me.

Adapting to the New Computer

The new computer powered on and booted without problem this morning. Contrary to what I have been reading Vista booted rather rapidly. Web pages seem to load much faster, too, than my old Sony. I have been using a new Dell notebook at the community center that runs XP. The community center is using AT&T DSL which is the same as I have in my home. The Sony Vaio with Windows Vista is considerably faster. The only problem I am having is adjusting to the touchpad on the Vaio. I changed the mouse pointer speed so that is faster than the default and that seems to have helped. I think HP had a better placement of the mouse buttons, but so far that is the only thing that was better about the HP. I copied my Favorites from the external drive to the new computer. I was able to visit all the websites that are part of my normal morning routine without problem. The only problem is I have been without a computer for so long I have forgotten what the normal morning routine is.

 

I checked my American Express account this morning, and they have removed the temporary credit they put on my account when I opened the dispute with HP. That is all right, but I do not consider the dispute resolved until I receive the credit for the service policy. I am fairly confident that will be no problem.

 

The paper documentation that came with the Sony is practically nil. I found the manual that resides on the hard drive. It is 187 pages in PDF format. It is an excellent manual. There is a separate manual that explains how the RAID technology is set up on the drives. I am really curious about that and as time permits to try to read and understand the manual.

 

This morning I am going to the community breakfast. I get up at 5 AM every morning. I didn't think I could last until 9 AM for breakfast so I went ahead and had a cup of coffee and an English muffin. I hope that will hold me over.

 

Yesterday I read about a Methodist church in a Frisco newsletter that has services at 5:30 PM on Saturday. The dress is casual. I read the information on the church's website. It said feel free to wear the clothes you have on for your yard work. I know of a church in Beaumont that had a service for people in casual attire. It must be a trend that is catching on. I am going to go to the service this evening and check it out. The church is fairly close to Frisco Lakes.

My Data Is Safe

I had backed up my old computer to my external disk drive about an hour before the old computer died on January 27. I have been wondering if the years of my life that are stored on that drive could be retrieved. The HP computer died before I could connect the external drive. This afternoon I connected the Seagate drive to the firewire port on the new computer. It recognized the drive without problem. I copied some of photos to the new computer. I am not going to copy any sensitive data to the new computer until I have gained confidence in it. I viewed some of my Hawaii, Charleston and Savannah pictures as a slide show. I am so glad I spent the extra money for the higher resolution adapter. Even the product of my poor photographic efforts was breath taking on the new computer.

It Is A Very Good Day

This morning when I got up I called American Express to check on my card activity. I was surprised to hear that I again had a large credit balance. I checked the recent activity and a credit for approximately $100 less than the price of the HP computer had posted. I rushed to shower and dress. Then I went to the community center to use a pc. I logged onto American Express and saw that HP had indeed issued a credit for the second pc. I checked the order status and saw that HP had assigned a return order no. to the pc that FedEx sent back to them yesterday. They had not given me credit for the service policy. When I went back home. I called HP customer service and told them I needed to return the service policy since the computer had already been returned. It took some time, but the woman finally gave me a return authorization number. She arranged for FedEx to pick up the envelope on Monday between 1-5 PM. I will get a credit for the full $108.24 that I was charged for their worthless service policy.

 

I settled down to wait for the delivery of my new Sony Vaio. A little before ten the doorbell rang. A man was returning to a yellow rented Penske truck. He had just dropped the package and did not wait for my signature. The FedEx tracking information had stated that a signature was required. There was a label on the box that said contract delivery. It appears that FedEx is now outsourcing their deliveries. In addition someone had drawn a map on the box on how to find my street. Any way the box appeared to be in good shape.

 

I opened the box and removed the contents. I installed the battery, plugged the power adapter in, pressed the power button and held my breath. Sony has Vista setup so it is ready for use much faster than the way HP had installed Vista on the first computer. I connected to my WiFi network. The computer downloaded the Windows updates. I updated the Norton Security software. I then shut the computer down. It was at this point that the HP had permanently died. After a few minutes, I again pressed the power button. Vista is rather slow to boot, but the computer did exactly what it was supposed to.

 

I purchased the Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student addition. It appeared that only a 60 day trail version was installed. I loaded Excel and it asked for a product key. At that point I called for product support. While I was on hold, I picked up the Microsoft Office CD and saw a product key on the back of the disk envelope. At that point a tech support person answered. She confirmed that the product key on the back of the disk was what I should use. I then typed in the key and all is well.

 

I was expecting the Vaio to have a lower Windows Experience Index than the HP since it has slower disk drives. Much to my surprised all of the numbers are higher than on the HP. All of the HP numbers were 4+. The Sony disk drive has a 5.5 and its graphics have a 5.6. 5.9 is the highest possible score. All I can say is WOW!

 

I made made two changes to the Sony that I did not have on the HP. I upgraded to Windows Vista Business edition in order to get the fax, scan and backup programs. I decided they were more important to me than the entertainment features in Windows Vista Home Premium. Sony did not offer the Windows Vista Ultimate edition. I also upgraded the graphics controller to one that can display the WUXGA resolution. It is comparable to what I had on my old computer.

 

I am very, very happy now.

Lucky Break?

The second HP pc, which I had canceled, arrived in Dallas this morning. I was prepared to refuse the shipment. I had a pen and notebook at the front door. I intended to ask the driver for identification and record all the details. I also had my digital camera nearby to take his picture. By now you must be getting the idea I was very uneasy about refusing to accept the package. Around 9 AM I again checked the FedEx tracking information and this time it said delivery exception "incorrect address". The same thing had happened with the first HP pc. I had called FedEx immediately, assured them they had the correct address and gave them directions to my house. This time I saw no point in having them bring the package to me so I could refuse it. I went to a home owners orientation meeting this morning. When I got back home around 11:15, I again checked the FedEx tracking information and saw that at 8:46 AM they returned the package to the shipper, and it showed the new tracking number. The package is being sent priority overnight and is scheduled to be delivered in Memphis, TN, tomorrow. This is the same HP facility where the first pc was returned. Now I hope that Amex will be able to rapidly resolve the dispute and make the credit to my account permanent. This is really strange that FedEx is still having trouble with my address. There must be a special group that handles international packages which has not been updated on the new streets, but this time I am not complaining. I really think it is just plain crazy that HP is shipping computers directly from China to the end consumer.

 

Sony sent me a confirmation that they have shipped the pc along with a FedEx tracking number. It is scheduled for delivery on Friday. I will again be closely monitoring the FedEx tracking info. If I see a delivery exception, I will run to the phone. The Sony pc is only traveling from San Diego, CA. I had Googled "HP, problems, dv9000T, disputes." I found all kinds of people who have had bad experiences. I did the same thing with "Sony, Vaio, problems, AR, disputes" and found very little. Some day this will all be over and my life will be back to normal

I Feel Stick

Much to my dismay the last time I checked the HP order status I found that the computer has now shipped. I again called American Express and read the emails to the agent. I again was told to refuse delivery of the package. I was so agitated I again called HP and tried to contact Katherine Wapner, the CTO Escalation Manager, who had emailed me several times. I again was transferred and ended up with just a regular customer service representative. He said if I refused delivery of the package it could take up to two months to get my account credited. He said I had 21 days to return the package. All I have to do is call and get an RMA and they will pick up the next day. I again called AMEX. They said even though HP is a large reputable company he had seen cases where their word to authorize a return was not kept. He said he still advised me to refuse delivery and try to get a receipt from FedEx. I did not think FedEx would issue a receipt. I called FedEx and confirmed this. I started searching on the Internet for a phone number for Katherine Wapner. Her name appears on several websites. I started reading the horror stores about shopping experience with HP Home Shopping. It was enough to make me feel nauseated. After again considering the alternative I am going to follow the advice of American Express and refuse delivery. From what I have read I am taking the proper course of action by disputing the charge through the credit card company.

Every few hours I check the order status on the HP website to see if a tracking number has been posted. So far it still has the same old message with a Feb. 27 estimated shipping date and says the tracking number will be posted upon shipment. I feel quite relieved that the pc apparently did not ship on Sunday. I have copies of all the emails regarding the cancellation printed and ready to mail to American Express.

Every morning I check the activity on my credit cards and note the information on my Palm calendar. I ordered the HP computer on Jan. 30. On Jan. 31 the charge posted to my credit card even though they did not ship the computer until Feb. 8. I am already having a much better experience with Sony. Their website clearly states your credit card will not be charged until the product ships. I can tell they have obtained an authorization on my card, but no charge has posted. The estimated ship date on the Sony is March 7. The order status still shows the computer as out of stock so I will not be surprised if the shipment is delayed. I am prepared to wait.

I have ordered the Sony computer from the Sony Style website. I checked their store location this morning and found that there is a Sony Style store in the Dallas Galleria. If problems develop with the Sony, perhaps I will be able to take it to the Sony Style store. I am optimistic that the Sony will be problem free. My old Vaio went four years and eight months with heavy use without one problem.

Lost All Confidence in HP

On Thursday morning I received an email from the escalation manager at HP telling me that the shipment of the second pc was delayed until March 8. She said it would ship no later that ten business days after the original shipping date. She said I could reply to the email with my order number to cancel and I would receive a prompt refund. I immediately sent an email informing her that I wished to cancel. My reply was sent slightly over five hours after her email had been sent. She had also given me the option to call to cancel. Just to make sure I called the number and was transferred three times before I completed the cancellation process.

 

Late yesterday afternoon I got an email from the escalation manager telling me the computer would ship on Sunday. I immediately replied that I had both emailed and called to cancel the order. I told her "DO NOT SHIP". She did write back and say she would attempt to get the order canceled before shipment, and if unsuccessful, she would attempt to have FedEx reroute the package to their warehouse. I called American Express and told them the computer may be shipped to me. They advised me to refuse delivery and tell the driver to return the package to the sender since the computer is being shipped after the dispute case was opened.

 

On Thursday after I thought I had successfully canceled the HP computer I found that Sony is now offering the customizable Vaio AR. I placed an order. This computer is shown as out of stock but Sony is estimating that it will ship on March 7. I hope I do not get stuck with two very expensive computers. I am documenting every email and every call. HP will have a major battle ahead of them if they do not refund my money. I hate to get caught in disputes. This is the worst customer service experience I have had in my entire life.

 

Yesterday I went to CompUSA and saw a Sony Vaio AR with Windows Vista. The Sony and the HP dv9000 series are very similar. I only used the HP for a few hours before it died, but I did find the keyboard very annoying because there is a small right shift key. The Sony has a much better keyboard layout. When my old computer died, I called Sony to find out when they would offer customizable AR's. They said they would be available on March 1. At the time I did not think I could go without a computer for that length of time. Well I have been forced to endure without one and have found rather creative ways of coping. Sony kept their word and did offer the AR's on March 1. I hope they continue to fulfill their estimates.

 

While I was at CompUSA I looked at the all-in-one laser printers. I saw the HP Laserjet 3055 which I had been considering. It looks like it is top heavy with a scanner perched on top of the printer. I have found a Dell all-in-one laser printer that looks promising. I went over to the mall where Dell has a kiosk in hopes of seeing the printer. They did not have one on display but the salesman was very familiar with the model I am considering. He told me Dallas is the only city in the U.S. where Dell maintains a walk-in service facility.