I tested Corel’s Digital Studio 2010. I found it to be rather awful, so I wanted to remove it. When I asked it to uninstall, it just did nothing. I dug and dug and finally found a removal tool from Corel here:
The strategy has evolved again (maybe just experimenting) by sending out a Delta Airlines postcard. (See other posts about previous mailings here.) Please comment if you received one with your location.
See below for the postcard images and text.
The postcard says that they have been trying to contact you about free round trip tickets and a hotel stay you have won. Once you go to the sales pitch and sign up, you book through a fulfillment company. I’ve seen two lately: Universal Travel Vacations (website, BBB report) or the The Vacation Station (website, BBB report TN, BBB report SC)
Also, here is another blogger with information about a postcard that looks like it is from Southwest Airlines: http://talestoldfromtheroad.com/2011/11/02/consumer-alert-southwest-escape-offer-grounded/
I have found the answers to this mystery thanks to the great work of the folks at BBB in Tucson, AZ:
http://www.bbb.org/tucson/business-reviews/travel-clubs/southwest-travel-club-in-tucson-az-20007983
http://www.bbb.org/tucson/business-reviews/prize-promotions/patterson-bell-in-tucson-az-20027549
An actual story: http://www.kgun9.com/features/investigations/122887609.html
NEW video from INSIDE THE SALES PRESENTATION: http://www.9news.com/news/article/362984/339/Companies-behind-free-airline-ticket-letters-
Great reporting from WKMG: http://www.clickorlando.com/news/Free-travel-offer-mystifies-consumers/-/1637132/15701330/-/8s7gus/-/index.html
Video from inside the first ever video encounter I’ve seen: http://www.kboi2.com/news/local/Travel-service-vacation-smart-international-us-airlines-vacationanddeals-com-175915611.html?tab=video&c=y
If you would like to read more about these folks, visit this post. You can read all about the sales presentation, the free offer and the what you get for your vacation membership club cash outlay.
ADVICE:
When I read this, it was just too good not to post. It’s from the Nebraska Attorney General (page 13 printed/page 15 PDF).
Look for the warning signs that may indicate a scam:
- Benefits sound too good to be true.
- The company has no permanent address and all presentations are held in rented conference rooms.
- They can’t, or won’t, provide you with references.
- They don’t want to give you an itemized list of what’s included in your trip until you have already signed the contract.
What you should do if you suspect a scam:
- Don’t sign any contract during the travel presentation. They are high-pressure events intended to stir the emotions of an exotic vacation.
- Contact a respected travel agent in town, give them the specifics of the trip, and ask if that seems consistent with industry pricing.
- Shop around. Compare your trip with other travel packages being offered to seniors.
Here is Michigan’s Attorney General’s advice:
http://www.michigan.gov/ag/0,1607,7-164-34739_20942-44762–,00.html
Here is the of the postcard:
DELTA / FLY AWAY ESCAPE
Dear x,
Congratulations! You have been selected to receive 2 Round Trip Airfares to anywhere Delta flies in the continental USA. Call within 48 hours. You will also receive as a bonus 3 day 2 night hotel stay!
We have been trying to contact you! (This is not a timeshare or land sale offer)
Toll free 1-800-313-1263 (or other numbers)
RSVP xxxx (your ID in their database) MON-SUN 9am to 8pm
Fine print: Certain restrictions apply. Call for details of participation. This offer is not sponsored by or affiliated with Delta Airlines but they are a major supplier. Taxes, processing fees and reservation fees are the responsibility of the recipient. Offer void where prohibited by law. Not applicable to Alaska or Hawaii.
[UPDATE 12/2/2011] Apparently Delta isn’t the only carrier they are testing out in their new postcards — Southwest Airlines is targeted as well: http://talestoldfromtheroad.com/2011/11/02/consumer-alert-southwest-escape-offer-grounded/
Here is what would happen if you did call:
I have a 2004 Jeep Liberty and the blower motor fan for the heat and air conditioning over time has gotten weaker and weaker to the point of setting number one not even working anymore. Over time, settings 1-3 will stop working and only 4 will work. Thanks to comments from Slav below, this is due to the full fan setting bypassing the resistor. I did some internet searching and found that this is a very common problem, but I couldn’t find very good instructions. Yes, there were step-by-step guides, but none answered all my questions. Here is my own attempt at helping you to make this job easy. (Click on any image for a larger resolution version.)
I had the dealership look up the part number — for my 2004 Liberty it is 5139719AA, although it is best to have them check fresh if you are going to tackle this project. If you decide you want to assume I’m right, here it is on Amazon.com.
Here are the tools I used: 2 small flat head screwdrivers, 8MM or 5/16″ socket (1/4″ drive), 1/4″ drive ratchet, 1/4″ drive long extension or a 1/4″ socket driver, flashlight; optional & preferable: this looks like it would be the perfect tool for this job, a 1/4″ universal joint adapter.
Before starting, forums that I read insisted that you remove the negative wire from the battery to prevent airbag deployment. I was skeptical of this, but to nervous to risk it. Just do it.
1. Empty and remove the glove box. This is actually really simple. Open the door until it won’t open anymore. Look on the left and right for this large clip:
Push the clips toward each other and open the glovebox further:
Once you open the glovebox far enough, you can slide the whole thing to the right and remove it:
(I didn’t figure this out until I was done, so my subsequent pictures won’t reflect removing the glovebox door.)
2. Some might say to remove the wiring harness now, but I had a lot of trouble with that, so I took the resistor out, then worked on removing the wiring harness. This is when I first used my socket driver to remove the top screw:
3. For the bottom screw, I tried using my socket driver, but it was too much of an angle to bite:
This is where you can use a flexible or universal tool or a ratchet, like I did:
Thankfully I was able to hold on to the screws. If you drop one, I’m not sure how hard it is to get back.
4. Then I pulled the resistor out:
5. It took me a long time to figure this out: you must pull out the red clip lock in order to allow the black lever to release the wiring harness. Prying the red lock didn’t work, so I ended up needing to use a small screwdriver to push up on the little locking piece in the back:
Here’s what it looked like when it released:
At that point, push down on the black lever to release the wiring harness:
6. The rest is just going in reverse now, you can either put the harness on now or later; I chose now so I could see what I was doing.
Here is the old resistor. It has either worn out or made with very poor quality control:
PLEASE comment if there is a better way to do something that I didn’t figure out!! Also, let me know if this was helpful.
I have a 2004 Jeep Liberty and it sounds like many others have had these same issue I’ve had, so I figured why don’t I list what I’ve figured out so you don’t have to! (I haven’t listed normal maintenance items like brake pads or fluids). Comment on others things you’ve learned and how to fix them!
88,000 miles, 8/2009 – Replaced battery. Five years from OEM battery – sounds reasonable, although Consumer Reports notes this as a trouble spot
91,500 miles, 12/2009 – Water pump, belt, tensioner. Water pump froze, which destroyed the belt. Consumer Reports listed this as a common problem.
95,000 miles, 2009 – CD player. My model has a 5-CD changer. It mostly does not return the CDs when I ask. It is crap. Consumer Reports lists this as a trouble spot.
99,800 miles, 6/2010 – Left outer tie rod. Needed to complete an alignment.
107,500 miles, 12/2010 – Rack & pinion, power steering pressure line. This was a nightmare. My power steering fluid reservoir kept emptying out, but nothing was leaking on the ground (baffling!!). Upon my mechanic friend’s inspection, he found that the boots on the ends of the rack & pinion were blown up like a balloon. We had the hardest time getting the rack out and putting the new one back in. The key is to just keep taking things apart — there’s no easy way to sneak it out. It took us eight hours.
115,000 miles, 6/2011 – Exhaust gasket. My tire/service shop couldn’t figure out how to repair the exhaust leak that slowly grew louder and louder over a six month period. They said they couldn’t find a gasket to fix it. My mechanic friend was successful in finding a gasket from the dealer. I subsequently was at a Jeep dealer and was chatting and he asked it I replaced the exhaust gasket yet. This must be very common. The gasket was a piece of soft metal that fits near the catalytic converter where the leak was. If you find a part number, please comment.
120,200 miles, 10/2011 – Blower motor resistor. The fan motor has been getting weaker and weaker over the last few years to the point of which setting 1 hardly has any airflow. I even replaced my A/C coolant twice thinking that was the problem. I searched online and found this was yet another common problem and a part number was listed (Consumer Reports lists this as a common problem as well as the A/C compressor). I went to the dealer and they said I needed Part Number 5139719AA for my 2004 Liberty (not 5066552AA which I found in a search). If you determine that this is the right part, here it is on Amazon. See my post on how to replace the resistor.
120,200 miles, 10/2011 – Emergency brake swivels. I asked my tire/service shop to check the emergency brake since it stopped working all together (it hasn’t worked well since we bought it). They said they had the same issue some up on another Liberty lately and they needed to recondition the emergency brake swivels. I’m not sure exactly what that means, but it cost me $190. I see that AutoZone has a $32 parking brake kit — maybe someone can enlighten us on whether something could be easily replaced.
126,300 – Check engine light (oxygen sensor). It started to come on during the exhaust leak (see above). I replaced the oxygen sensor behind where the leak was and it fixed the light.
128,000 – Hood lift supports. Yeah, my hood won’t stay up anymore. I’m going to try these.
133,000 — AND THE JEEP IS OFF TO A NEW HOME! A 2009 Jeep Grand Cherokee has taken its place..
Consumer Reports also lists issues with the windows. I haven’t had any problem..so far.
QUIRKS:
For those of you thinking of buying this year, here are some annoyances:
[UPDATE 11/21/2011] Apple has a very good page explaining how to work around this problem, albeit while not acknowledging that it is their problem.
Here is the original post:
My Intel Core2Duo Windows 7 64-bit computer started having this problem with the AppleMobileDeviceService.exe taking 50% of the CPU usage continuously, whether iTunes was open or not. Some may see 100% of the CPU in use.
Apple’s support recommended a painful “uninstall everything in this exact order and reinstall everything.” I generally hate that approach because they just aren’t trying to figure out what’s wrong, plus many users were saying it just came back immediately or a week later.
This sounded like a more reasonable solution (downgrading the Apple Application Support from 2.0.1 to 1.5.2), but it made me nervous that it might affect functionality with the iPhone 4S or iPad2. I assume that when Apple included this update is when the problem started for me.
Then, I found this blog that recommended a “netsh winsock reset” which sounds like a true fix to me. I did that and my Bsecure/Bsafe CloudCare (internet filtering software) popped up a notice that it had repaired itself. After restarting, the problem still persisted. I then uninstalled Bsecure CloudCare and the problem was gone! [Clarification: I do not recommend the “netsh winsock reset” because of the risk to messing up the computer!]
On that blog the author says, “Apparently the Windows TCP/IP stack can get corrupted and this will reset the Winsock Catalog to its default state – i.e. one that works properly.” I think he is correct, except for the “corrupted” part. According to Wikipedia, “a Layered Service Provider is a DLL that uses Winsock APIs to insert itself into the TCP/IP protocol stack.” Bsecure CloudCare and other webfiltering solutions use LSPs to do the filtering. Some malware/adware in the past insert LSPs, as well. I bet that there are a heck of a lot of computer users out there with a non-standard TCP/IP protocol stack that are suffering badly from this software bug of Apple’s making.
I’m not 100% certain on this, but with my own experience and seeing how doing the “netsh winsock reset” fixes the problem, it makes sense.
If you are thinking of trying the “netsh winsock reset,” be aware that it could be fixing a problem, or creating a worse problem than Apple’s bug.
[UPDATE 10/17/11] Based on Matt McLaughlin’s comment, I’m feeling more confident about my theory. He looked at his “Winsock Providers” tab in Sysinternals’s Autoruns. Check it out to see if there is anything there if you have this problem. I will not recommend what to do about it.
[UPDATE 11/21/11] SO, it looks like Apple has endorsed my conclusion about what it causing this problem (link to Apple’s support document about this very problem). And their solution to this problem: REMOVE ANY SOFTWARE THAT USES LSPs. Yep, these vendors use LSPs for 10 years or more and Apple’s software has a bug that causes our computers to malfunction and we must remove the other vendors’ software, not get an update from Apple to fix the bug…
[UPDATE 12/18/11] Here is a list of software that is rendered unusable and needs to be removed because of this problem:
[UPDATE 1/21/2012] Bsecure has somehow released a “fix” that allows CloudCare and iTunes to both work fine together. Here are their instructions:
iTunes store should now work properly & the mobile device service will no longer conflict.
It’s very simple: on the iPad 2, double-tap the home button and swipe the icons at the bottom to the right to show the brightness, volume and media controls — click the AirPlay icon and choose AppleTV and mirroring:berryjam.ru
On the iPhone 4S, double-tap the home button and swipe the icons at the bottom to the right and swipe the media controls to the right, also. (Home button, swipe twice). Then click the AirPlay icon and choose AppleTV and mirroring:
I didn’t include this above because I assume you have already done it: connect your iPad/iPhone to the same wireless network that the AppleTV is connected to and make sure the AppleTV is on.
For Real Racing 2, I found that it was best to start the mirroring before starting the app. It was rather slow and choppy for me, so I upgraded my wireless network with Wireless-N for all the Apple devices and it helped some, but it’s not great the first few times. I also had to restart the iPhone 4S when it wouldn’t display anything.
Yahoo! has done well with integrating personal Yahoo! Mail with the iPhone, but has been terrible with making Yahoo! Small Business email work with the iPhone very well — until now. They have made the Small Business email accounts IMAP-ready!
Here are their instructions: http://help.yahoo.com//l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/bizmail/pop/pop-39.html
Hello? Where are the rest of the instructions for the iPhone?? Well, here they are:
1. Go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account…
2. Other > Add Mail Account > type your name (what you want others to see in the From line), your full Yahoo! email address, your Yahoo! password for that account and a description (for the iPhone to display to you).
3. Choose IMAP, Incoming Mail Server: imap.mail.yahoo.com, type in your full email address and password again.
4. Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.bizmail.yahoo.com, type in your full email address and password yet again, click Next. (if I’m missing a step here, please comment about it)
5. In the Mail, Contacts, Calendar settings, click the new account you just created, click on the email address, scroll down and click on Advanced.
6. Match up the iPhone’s Drafts, Sent and Deleted mailboxes with Yahoo!’s matching mailboxes.
7. You’re done! You can even view all your subfolders in your Yahoo! email. (In your iPhone click in the top left “Mailboxes,” at this point you’ll see your folders, or scroll down and choose your Yahoo! account’s name)
5.
After being infected with malware (Windows XP Pro SP3), I scanned this hard drive from another computer, cleaned the MBR trojan with TDSSKiller, but there were no icons on the Desktop anymore and I couldn’t right-click on the Desktop, although the Start Menu works just fine.
Here is what I found:
Click Start > Run > regedit to get here. Then go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Notice the key “NoDesktop” set to 1. Right-click on “NoDesktop” and delete it and restart. There may be other keys in the “Policies” section that you should review, also.
[UPDATE 2/15/12 : Here is a support page from ESET that has a utility that might fix this easily. If you try it, please comment.]
One of my clients has a Canon Color imageRUNNER c1030iF and I needed to enter some static IP info, but I couldn’t find the System Password. In the CD manual, I finally was able to find the password since I couldn’t find it anywhere online. You also need to set the System Manager ID linked here.
System Manager ID default: 7654321
System Password default: 7654321
PROBLEM: A user double-clicks an Excel file or Word document from Windows Explorer or the Desktop and it opens Excel or Word, but the file doesn’t open for a minute or multiple minutes, even if it on the local hard drive. If you open the file from within Word or Excel, it opens up perfectly fine and quick. My users are using Office 2007 currently with this problem.
I’ve run into this problem a handful of times now, and I dug for hours looking for a good solution. I found many with the problem, but not much good information on a good solution. HOWEVER, I found something that works. I found it Joel Clermont’s blog from 2004! (Thanks, Joel!) I have modified his instructions and added screenshots.
1. First, open any folder in Windows XP (Start > My Computer).
2. Click on the Tools menu, and choose Folder Options.
3. From the dialog that pops up, click the File Types tab. You will now be presented with a list of all document types recognized by your computer.
4. Scroll down to XLS, select it, and click the Advanced button.
5. Now you’ll see several “Actions” registered for Excel worksheets. Usually, Open is the default (indicated by being in bold). Select “Open” and click the Edit button.
6. The main piece of data in here is the field labeled “Application used to perform action.” This should point to your Excel executable, followed by some command-line arguments. Here’s how it modify it to fix the problem:
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\EXCEL.EXE” /e “%1” (see below for how I fixed Word)
It is very important to make sure that the %1 is surrounded by quotes. %1 is the variable representing the full path and file name of the document you are opening. If it contains any spaces, and this is not surrounded by quotes you will get a flurry of weird errors.
7. “Use DDE” is normally checked. Now, make sure that “DDE Message” is empty. Click OK. (Although this will re-enable automatically,Play Store Download since the fields are blank it doesn’t seem to matter.)
8. Click OK back at the Edit File Type dialog. Click Close on the Folder Options dialog.
9. Now try to open a file directly again.
10. Repeat from Step 4 for any other file types that aren’t working well — for my latest computer it was XLS, XLSX, DOCX (not DOC for some reason). If you modify the setting for XLS and it doesn’t fix your problem, try changing XLSX, also (same for DOC and DOCX).
For Word, here was how I modified it:
“C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office12\WINWORD.EXE” /n “%1”
I don’t know why this happens, but I suspect that these modifications we have to make are because something else got corrupted or modified (I consider this a workaround, not a fix).