Do you need to buy a new digital TV before February 2009?

NO!!

Boy, this is such an opportunity for deception (see this article, 3/4 of the way down), and I don’t like deception.  The myth is out there — you need a new HDTV before February 2009.  The cable companies and TV stores, I’m sure, aren’t going to try too hard to talk you out of that thinking.  For the cable companies, they’d love to sell you their more expensive digital packages that require a box at each TV, and we all know what the retailers want.  Here’s the deal:

  • If you have cable or satellite TV, nothing will change.  Comcast and the other cable companies will convert the digital signal from the broadcasters to analog and nothing will be different.  As Comcast in Pittsburgh has done in the past, cable companies will probably start taking away channels one-by-one for analog viewers to make you upgrade to digital cable boxes some day.
  • If you have rabbit ears on your TV, you need to take action:

To Vista or Not to Vista

As I posted last week, XP is here to stay, so the war won’t be as fierce as I first thought after June 30, 2008. However, you still have to make a decision — XP or Vista? For home users it will be difficult to get XP, since Dell will make XP available on business machines only (unless demand changes their mind). Here is a Pro/Con list for why to get Vista:

PROS

  • Vista looks pretty

CONS

I’m still trying to figure out any other benefits of Vista, I’ll revisit this post if I find some.

Here’s a great quote that summarized my views (by Galen Gruman, executive editor at InfoWorld):

Over the past year, CIOs and CTOs have consistently told me they see no significant benefits to Vista, and really don’t want to spend the time and money to update all their computers, retrain their users, and deal with application incompatibilities for a cosmetic upgrade.

US Passport Application Wizard & Firefox/PDF Issue

I’ve had getting a passport on my To Do List for about a year now, and I wanted to get the application done. I visited the Passport Application Wizard, thinking it would make the process very quick and easy. I almost always use Firefox (2.0.0.14) now, and this was no exception. I went through all the pages and filled out all the blanks, only to get the final page with lots of instructions. At the top was a button to “Create Form.” I clicked it, but nothing happens. I clicked Back and kept going back and forth, but it still wouldn’t work.

Passport PDF button

I want to get this done, so I used IE6 to fill out the form again. I hate doing things twice. Indeed, it worked fine, when I clicked the “Create Form” button, it asked if I wanted to Save or Open the PDF.

If this page won’t work properly in Firefox, they need to either fix the code or warn people not to waste all their time with Firefox. I emailed them, we’ll see if I get a reply.

Strange printing issues and fixes

Microsoft’s .NET Framework 3.0 (actually a subsequent automatic update to it) causes some HP printers to have some large problems and Microsoft has been unwilling to care or do anything about it. I believe this will cause some major problems in the future as it becomes necessary to install .NET 3.0.

I’ve seen it on many HP LaserJet printers including 4+, 5, 1300, 4200 and others.

Here is a symptom list:

  • Pages printing on top of each other
    • pages printer on top of one another
    • all pages print on page one
    • multiple pages on page one
  • Microsoft Word 2007 envelopes printing symbols
    • envelopes print garbage
    • envelopes have strange characters
    • symbols print with Calibri or Cambria

Fixes

  1. Update the printer driver with the PCL6 driver from the manufacturer’s website — this was my most used fix
  2. For the envelope problem only, in the printer driver settings see if there is a “Send Truetype as graphics” setting to choose. (Thanks to this site.) You could also try using a different font.

I have worked with Microsoft on these issues, they believe that HP’s drivers are at fault. My ticket number was SRX071205601374 in early December 2007. I am very upset that Microsoft would knowingly automatically install an update that destroys printer drivers. They may fix this finally when some big companies install .NET 3.0 and find that 10,000 of their printers stop working properly. I did my best to warn them!

Here is a very early report of this problem — February 2007.

XP here to stay

Well, my prediction is wrong already (Summer Predictions). I can see clearly what will happen now. Microsoft will not extend the deadline, June 30, 2008 will be the end of OEM XP sales. However, Microsoft does allow downgrades to Windows XP (see this Word doc) if you own Vista Business or Vista Ultimate. The big computer manufacturers that cater to business will make an option available where you buy Vista Business, but they downgrade it for you and ship it with XP loaded. This has already been announced by Dell (Dell Downgrade Service). Lenovo’s program looks a little different, since you do it yourself.  Here is a good story with more details.

This means life will continue with the better OS.

Widescreen = Small Screen

For some reason widescreen monitors are all the rage, so that’s primarily what the stores are selling now and almost all laptops now have widescreens. I suppose that the HDTV-look influences it and just because it looks cool and new, etc. However, I think that the sizes that are advertised are deceptive. For me, and many users I support, vertical size is very important. For businesses, a website or a piece of paper are not wide, like a movie, but rather tall.

Unless you have a really good reason, I recommend going with a regular ratio monitor (4:3 or 5:4). I have put together some measurements below that give some perspective:

  • Dell 1907FP 19 inch flat panel: 11.9 inches tall x 14.8 inches wide (5:4)
  • Dell 16 inch CRT: 9.5 inches tall x 12.75 inches wide (4:3)
  • 19 inch widescreen flat panel (calculated): 10.1 inches tall x 16.1 inches tall (16:10)

As you can see, a widescreen 19 inch monitor is actually 1.8 inches shorter than a regular 19 inch monitor. To match the height of a 19 inch regular ratio monitor in a widescreen, you’d need to buy larger than 22 inches. To go the other way, a 19 inch widescreen is as tall as a 17 inch regular flat panel monitor.

I found this GREAT website to figure it all out: tvcalculator.com and change the source image to none.

Routers – faster is better!?

Please, consumers, do not take your purchasing advice from Best Buy sales people… It has been the myth that you must buy a new digital TV before January 2009 (I’ll blog about that another day). Now sales people are pushing Wireless-N routers. I was looking in a sales circular lately and it has FAST (Wireless-G), FASTER (Wireless-Super G), FASTEST (Wireless-N). This is just so deceptive.

  • Wireless-B has speeds up to 11 Mbps (don’t have newer security protocols)
  • Wireless-G has speeds up to 54 Mbps
  • Wireless-Super G (various names) has speeds up to 108 Mbps
  • Wireless-N has speeds up to 108 Mbps (but better range than B/G)

Just for perspective here are internet speeds available in Western PA:

  • Verizon $20/mo. and under DSL – 0.768 Mbps
  • Verizon $35/mo. – 1.5 to 3.0 Mbps
  • Verizon FiOS – 5.0 Mbps
  • Comcast – 6.0 Mbps

So, what you’ll notice is that any of the router should be able to handle the internet speed with no problem. The higher speeds on the routers will only affect transfers of files between one computer and another on your internal network. Most users don’t do that, do Wireless-G should be all you would need.

Summer Predictions

[NOTE 4/23/08, please make sure to read “XP is here to stay“]

As I blogged in my previous post (Xpublicans vs. Vistacrats), I believe this is be a contentious summer for the IT industry. I want to go on record now with my predictions of what will happen.

With lots of kicking and screaming in the background, July 1 the big manufacturers will stop selling computers with XP, as the kingdom of Microsoft has decreed. After about one month of this new world, Dell, HP, Lenovo will look at their sales and find that their shareholders will be VERY unhappy looking at the results when enterprise stops buying. Vista is dead for business. With computers sales dropping off a cliff, Microsoft will cave in to the pressure and allow XP once again.

I think there’s a chance that the companies may use all this to their advantage, to encourage sales of new computers, then Microsoft will extend the deadline at the last minute.

These may be wishful predictions, because I’m not sure that Vista is supportable. I don’t know if I can please my customers because of its inherent defects. I’ll post about that soon..

Microsoft Word 2007 Spellcheck Fix

I’m posting this for the benefit of the Word 2007 world. I spent a lot of time trying to fix a computer in which the spell check would not work in Word. For the benefit of searchers, here are some other word combinations: word 2007 spell check not working, spellcheck off, fix spelling.

Here is a support guide:

Symptom: Misspelled words are not red-underlined in Word 2007.

2. Type in this sentence: “I will going to the store.” If “going” is green-underlined, Spelling and Grammar Checkers are installed, do not start with installing or uninstalling. (If no green underline, install the missing piece from the installation CD as shown below)

Installation

3. Make sure checkboxes are set properly as shown below:

(Review tab, Set Language)

Set Language

(Big round Office Button, Word options, Proofing)

Word options

If all are set properly, click Add-Ins (on left) in Word Options. Click Disabled Items in the Manage drop-down box, click Go, and look what I found:

Disabled items

Click Enable after clicking on “Addin: speller en-us (nlsdata0009.dll)”

Credit for this fix goes to user “Huddy” (from this company: www.hudsonhill.co.uk) here:

http://help.lockergnome.com/office/Word-2007-spell-check-problem-ftopict932165.html

If none of this works, try this:

http://mcpmag.com/columns/article.asp?EditorialsID=1697

Also, other credits:

http://help.lockergnome.com/office/Word-2007-Spell-checker-working-ftopict909134.html

http://localtech.gidblog.com/2007/07/24/fix-microsoft-office-word-2007-spellcheck-not-working/

XPublicans vs. Vistacrats

It looks like just when the Presidential race is heating up with the Democratic nominee fighting against John McCain, another divisive race will be heating up as well, XPublicans against Vistacrats. Another race with conservatives against liberals, traditional vs. cutting edge. It will be war!http://ceoec.ru/

July 1, 2008 will be the beginning with everyone taking side, with some being moderate and being open to each camp.

We all know that Microsoft are all Vistacrats, that’s easy, how about the everyone else:

-Computer manufacturers — I don’t know, maybe Vistacrats in order to sell new, expensive hardware to everyone, but maybe moderates once sales of new computers fall dramatically in July 2008 and force Microsoft to allow XP sales indefinitely.

-Software companies – Vistacrats, how else can you get users to buy you new software unless the old version won’t work on Vista. Why else would you buy new software when it works fine (hello, Intuit)?

– Businesses — XPublicans, no doubt. Why buy expensive new hardware to run something that has not one benefit for business users. (Possibly hyperbole.)

– Consultants/indie computer stores – XPublicans. How can we make businesses happy with Vista? I think downgrades to XP is the only way to please.

– Tech media – XPublicans, that’s been shown already: http://slashdot.org/~twitter/journal/177855

– Home users – Moderates, some users just need internet and that doesn’t matter. Some savvy users will be ticked and will stay with XP.

– Games – XPublicans for sure. XP = fast; Vista = slow, hmm?

My advice — stick with XP!