Halloween Fonts just in case you need to make any last minute posters in creepy fonts.
Ghosts of Halloween is a site for a pretty elaborate yard haunt. It is very impressive, but I am happy with my much smaller one night haunt. He has a really nice grave yard which is a new addition to my yard this year. Maybe I should have visited there before to pick up some tips. Anyway, I did one thing I like better, I left some grass unmowed around the grave markers to make it look a little more unmaintained. I bet the neighbors though we were nuts with a bunch of unmowed spots in the yard.
Spirit Halloween Online Store has a 50% off sale on whatever they have left until midnight tonight so you can stock up for next year cheep. I ordered a few things and I am lucky to have a physical Spirit store located nearby so will be shopping there tomorrow to see if there is anything left worth picking up that I couldn’t get online.
October 31st, 2006
LiveScience.com has a mathematical attempt to debunk vampires. It is pretty convincing. Basically, assuming vampires started several hundred years ago, and that a vampire bites someone every month which creates a new vampire, the spread of vampires would grow exponentially and there would be no living humans left to feed on by now.
That of course does not take into account the fact (as shown in movies and TV) that not all bite victims become vampires, many just die. It also neglects slayers, hunters, death dealers, and accidental exposure to sunlight.
Anyway, I don’t think kids are going to believe the vampire living in their closet doesn’t exist just because of a little math.
October 26th, 2006
Here are a few more desktop wallpapers from photos I took that can be used for Halloween. They were taken early on a really foggy the morning last November when the spider webs were full of dew. My favorite is the one you can see the reflection of the tree upside down in the large dew drop. These webs were not by the same spiders as my previous post, these webs are much smaller, the biggest was maybe a foot in diameter.
Only seven days till Halloween!
October 24th, 2006
I have talked a lot about digital cameras on this blog. Well, here are some shots taken with my Cannon PowerShot S2 IS that I think make great Halloween desktops. I have been using them. They are golden silk (banana) spiders taken in Louisiana. Maybe not the scariest spiders if you are familiar with them, but no one wants to run into their huge webs.
October 13th, 2006
Believe me, you don’t want to know. Bugs, and not how you might imagine. Details here. Not that bad I guess since I have been eating the stuff for years, but I wish I didn’t find out.
October 9th, 2006
Last weekend I ordered an ATI TV Wonder Elite from Amazon for $77.99 for transferring some home videos. That was near the lowest price I found and was still cheaper than many after I upgraded from FREE Super Saver Shipping (5-9 business days) to Standard Shipping (3-5 business days) for $6.17 more. It was shipped Monday at 11:30pm. If you count that last 30 minutes of Monday, we are at five business days and it is still 400 miles away. But once I realized it was PM I guess I can’t be that upset with DHL. But Amazon’s delivery estimate said October 5, 2006 - October 16, 2006. October 16 is ten full business days from when it was shipped. It is hard to believe it won’t be here Tuesday (Monday is Columbus Day) since it is already in Texas, but if that estimate turns out true, I will have waited half a month for shipping less than 2,000 miles.
Looking into this a bit further I have discovered shipping begins with DHL, but through their DHL@home service, the package is actually delivered by the local post office. And of course, the post office is known for their speed and reliable delivery. DHL’s webpage says Standard Delivery is 2-4 business days and Deferred Delivery is 2-7 business days whatever that is. It appears DHL handles shipping up to your nearest (major?) post office so assuming you live anywhere near the post office, it should only take a day or two to make it the last bit to you.
I think we can assume DHL is including postal service delivery time in their estimate. So how does a max of seven days (for Deferred Delivery) turn into a possible eleven? I am not very good at math so I will let you figure that out. Even if the estimate doesn’t include the time it takes the postman to deliver it, once it has reached your city, it should not take four more business days which would get you up to the Amazon estimate.
And for those who think the Amazon estimate is just being safe, read “Why DHL Sucks” about 3-5 day shipping taking 7 business days. When I pay for 3-5 day shipping it better arrive in five business days. If I was willing to wait that long I would have chosen free shipping like usual. When I order on the weekend and actually pay for 3-5 day shipping, that means I want to use the item the next weekend.
I remember back when 3-5 day shipping meant you often would get your item in three days and sometimes it might arrive in two days. Those days are long gone. When I track non-DHL shipments, they often reach my city pretty fast and then sit there for a day or two before they do final delivery even if it is Friday so they don’t over shoot their low arrival estimate.
October 6th, 2006
Do You believe in Ghosts? I have never seen a ghost. I don’t know if they really exist or not. But this video shows some really compelling evidence. You really must see this for yourself.
October 4th, 2006
Have you been computer shopping and noticed that most low cost machines don’t come with Microsoft Office? You might find it comes with a time limited trial version of Office. Maybe it has Microsoft Works instead. It isn’t unusual to find a machine with a stand alone version of WordPerfect. And then there are the dirt cheep machines that leave you with no word processor.
So assuming you are the kind of person that doesn’t shoo the salesmen away till you have already decided, you point out that this machine doesn’t come with Word. He acts surprised a machine wouldn’t come with it and says you can get it for only $100 more. You think, wow that is a really good deal since I thought it costs more than $300 for Small Business Edition or more than $400 for Office Professional. What, I can install it on three machines? That is an amazing deal! The whole machine I was looking at costs only $400 why would I spend almost the same for one piece of software when the salesman is pushing it for $100.
Did you mention that you needed this new computer for your business? Yes, the salesman asked what you needed the system for and you told him it was for your business. Did you mention having any students in your family? No, why would that come up, this is a business purchase. Did you point out Works Suite comes with Word? Yes, but he responded that for a business you might need Powerpoint and Outlook. Clearly he knows you are buying this for your business.
Is this an isolated incident? I don’t think so. I have heard this several times over the past few months at different computer and office supply stores. It helps makes the computer sale plus $100 of software and the salesman isn’t going to get in trouble with Microsoft for your business not being eligible for Student Edition, just you. He can always say you told him it was for your kids homework.
So what are the legal alternatives since Microsoft is charging insane amounts for their office suite? Well, my choice is WordPerfect Office which does a good job with most Word documents. Though at $250, its Standard Edition isn’t that much less than MS Office Small Business Edition. Microsoft Works Suite is also a good choice at $100 since it comes with the previous version of Word (which usually is good enough). There is also just plane Microsoft Works for about $50 if you just want a simple word processor and don’t actually need Word for compatibility. But if not having actual Word doesn’t bother you, there are Open Office or AbiWord which are completely free and read and write Word documents.
If you are interested in learning more about Microsoft licensing, ZDNet has a quiz. I was pretty surprised by a few of the answers.
Update April 2, 2007: I can no longer find anything about who qualifies for what version on Microsoft.com. The “not eligible” link above now points to the Internet Archive’s copy. Microsoft must not want you you are not allowed to use it till their lawyers show up. The page I previously linked to now redirects you to the main Office site. Looking up Office Home and Student 2007 at some retailers gives you this information:
- This product is for non-commercial, non-commercial location, educational use only.
- This is a personal learning license for qualified educational users only. (Example: In a household, only the students are eligible to use the software, however parents can use the software when assisting students.)
- You can install this edition on up to three (3) PCs in your home.
- This product does not qualify for future upgrade pricing or installation(s).
- You may not transfer your usage rights to another individual or allow them to install the program at another location.
- You are only eligible to use this product while you are a qualified educational user.
- Microsoft provides only installation support for this product.
That is pretty significantly different from the 2003 version:
- You must be a qualified educational user or a household member of a qualified user when you acquire this product.
- You’re restricted to using this product for non-commercial (non-revenue-generating) use.
- You can install this product on up to three computers or devices in your household.
- You can’t transfer your usage rights to another individual.
- You are still eligible to use this product after you or a member of your household no longer qualifies as an educational user.
The reason I am updating this is because someone I know just bought a new computer for what they thought was a really good deal (display model 10% off, a $200 rebate in store, and a free printer) and thought they got Microsoft Office. They did get Office, but only for the 60 day trial. I explained what they got and how much it would cost to buy the proper version of Office. Since it did come with Works, it will be $239 for the upgrade to Microsoft Office Standard 2007. They were pretty upset about not being told they were getting only the trial.
September 7th, 2006
Microsoft recently released another public beta of Windows Vista so I downloaded it as soon as possible. I just got around to installing it. This isn’t the 64 bit version though like I got last time; I have read that was slow for a lot of people so maybe not releasing another public 64 bit beta yet of it was smart.
It does seem a good bit faster than the last build I tried. My system still rates a 1.0 on the Performance Score even though the average of the components is 3.22, but now there is an explanation why. The “Base Score” is “determined by lowest subscore.” That does make sense since a major bottle neck can slow down the system significantly. But in my case, all I loose is gaming graphics and Aero. For many users that would not be a big deal. Since the scoring system appears to start at 1, you would expect that system to totally suck. But Microsoft says, “a computer with a base score of 1 or 2 usually has sufficient performance to do most general computing tasks…” So how do users differentiate the really horrible systems from the not so bad ones?
I opened up IE (which again didn’t appear in the Quick Launch toolbar until first run) and clicked on an article on Homer Simpson on the opening MSN page. I was then presented with a Suspicious Website popup, saying the site might be a phishing website. Good to know their system works so well it tags their own site.
I have not seen the UAC dialog much, but that could be because I was setup with an Administrator account. I thought users were supposed to be Standard Users. Looks like MS wants there to be at least one admin on the system other than the built in account. That makes some sense, but is going to leave that one user more vulnerable that necessary.
I really miss the Up button in Explorer. I use that all the time. You can do basically the same thing using the URL bar, but not by simply hitting one button in a constant place. I often would traverse folders very fast using the Up button. I hardly ever use the back and forward buttons.
I really like the ability to type commands or program names into the Start Menu, it really makes finding programs easier and faster. That is a good thing because I hate the menu otherwise. It is not nearly as easy to use as the Classic Start Menu or even XP’s menu. I like that My was dropped from the System places, but now they are hard to find. I keep looking for My Computer or My Documents and they just aren’t there. Computer and Documents just don’t stand out.
I pressed the “shutdown” button in the start menu and of course, being Vista you aren’t supposed to actually power off your system. It attempted to go into suspend or hibernate (whatever the default is) and quickly popped out. I assumed it was because I wiggled the mouse as I let go, but when it came back my wireless mouse was no longer recognized so I doubt it. Using the keyboard I again hit the shutdown button. This time it seemed go half to sleep and would not wake back up. Good thing I wasn’t trying to put Windows to sleep.
September 3rd, 2006
Next Posts
Previous Posts
