Two invaluable tools (and plenty of related tips) for the next time you encounter an important piece of paper.

Source: The simple way to scan documents with your Android phone | Computerworld

The post The simple way to scan documents with your Android phone appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Well, that changes with the latest version of Google Keep. After the update, you will have two arrows in between the “+” and the overflow menu buttons right inside the editing bar – yes, these are the all-new undo and redo controls. This means that if you want to get rid of the most recent change, you can do so with a simple tap, and bring it back with another simple tap. Itâ€s worth noting (no pun intended), however, that the edit history goes as far back as your current editing session, meaning the moment you exit out of a note, undoing and redoing will no longer be possible.

Source: Google Keep gets undo and redo buttons with the latest update | AndroidAuthority

The post Google Keep gets undo and redo buttons with the latest update | AndroidAuthority appeared first on Not So FAQs.

I get it – spreadsheets aren’t the most exciting thing in the world. Still, Google has continued to improve the mobile and desktop apps, mos… by Corbin Davenport in Google, News

Source: Google Sheets adds machine learning chart creation, sync with Docs and Slides, and more

The post Google Sheets adds machine learning chart creation, sync with Docs and Slides, and more appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Scraping, Dissecting and Clustering the Billboard Hot 100 Charts

Fun stuff with R and very interesting reading.

Source: Billboard Bananas

The post Billboard Bananas appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Google has a long history of introducing, then forgetting about, and finally officially killing off its products.

Source: Pocket: Top 10 Services Google Killed Off

The post Pocket: Top 10 Services Google Killed Off appeared first on Not So FAQs.

In High Velocity Hiring, I reveal my system for filling jobs effectively and instantly―making it your ultimate weapon in winning the war for talent. Learn the story behind High Velocity. You’ll learn about the innovative and actionable program thatâ€s changing the way recruiting and hiring is done. I show you how to stop participating in the old way of hiring (keeping a job open until the right person shows up), and instead, engage in the new way of hiring (cultivating top talent until the right job shows up).Youâ€ll take away a straightforward step-by-step approach, called the Talent Accelerator Process, that harnesses a flow of top talent, eliminates hiring delays, and maintains a pool of people ready to hire.  – Scott Wintrip, Author

Source: High Velocity Hiring Book | Wintrip Consulting Group

The post High Velocity Hiring Book  appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Source: Apple will reportedly launch an unambitious 4K Apple TV – The Verge

The post Apple will reportedly launch an unambitious 4K Apple TV – The Verge appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Source: Amazon is dropping registration support for its earliest Kindle models – The Verge

The post Amazon is dropping registration support for its earliest Kindle models – The Verge appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Now if they would only get them for their faulty remotes all would be well in the world

Viewing habits were meticulously logged, tied to demographics and sold to third parties for ad targeting and tracking.

Source: TV maker VIZIO fined $2M for no-consent tracking of consumer viewing habits

The post TV maker VIZIO fined $2M for no-consent tracking of consumer viewing habits appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Chrome Remote Desktop looks like a real useful tool. Check it out.

These easily overlooked Android apps are all made by Google — and they’re all worth your while.

Source: 8 useful Google apps you probably aren’t using | Computerworld

The post 8 useful Google apps you probably aren’t using | Computerworld appeared first on Not So FAQs.

The redesigned app now supports group texts and MMS.

Source: Google Voice gets a new look for its first major update in years – The Verge

The post Google Voice gets a new look for its first major update in years  appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Google Calendar is an amazing and useful app because it’s more than that — it’s a cross-platform service that is as elegant as it is versatile.

Source: Google Calendar: Ultimate Guide | Android Central

The post Google Calendar: Ultimate Guide | Android Central appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Given that the horror stories (some are articulated in the OC Register’s article) seem to vastly outweigh the stories of happy timeshare owners, I would say avoid these like the plague.

John and JoAnn Belczak vacation in Hawaii every year.

Source: Should you get a timeshare? Fans love them but some will sell your their interest for a penny – The Orange County Register

The post Should you get a timeshare? Fans love them but some will sell your their interest for a penny   appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Researchers have discovered that simple “chemically active” droplets grow to the size of cells and spontaneously divide, suggesting they might have evolved into the first living cells.

Source: How Did Life Begin? Dividing Droplets Could Hold the Answer | WIRED

The post How Did Life Begin? Dividing Droplets Could Hold the Answer  appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Services like Keep, Evernote and Microsoft OneNote are often called “note-taking apps.” But they’ve grown beyond their roots, now offering collaborative workflow, reminders, checklists, geofencing, optical character recognition, voice transcription, sketching and more.

Source: Why you should start using Google Keep right away | Computerworld

The post Why you should start using Google Keep right away appeared first on Not So FAQs.

The post Not Making a choice is a choice! appeared first on Not So FAQs.

I’m a laptop user and this morning I woke to find my laptop in the middle of the infamous Windows 10 Anniversary update, all apparently done automatically. Now, this particular update takes a long f’ing time, requires multiple reboots, and you are told not to turn off your computer! So, Microsoft, what am I supposed to do about going to work? You leave me with two bad choices, 1) don’t take my laptop, or 2) disobey your instructions not to power off the laptop. I am not going to sit for hours waiting for the update to finish, so you’ve ruined my day.

The arrogance of forcing this major time consuming update on me at the most inconvenient time is unbelievable. As I said earlier, I will not forget.

The post Windows 10 Updates Suck appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Installing CCTools and Perl

The instructions for making this all work are as follows;

1. Install the CCTools app on your device from the Play Store

2. Open CCTools on your device. Select the menu and find the add-ons section, in that section add the following add-ons;
  

• GCC GNU C Compiler
• wget
• Perl

3. Test your Perl install, create a simple hello world Perl script and run it.

4. CPAN won’t run on the Android, so if you need to install CPAN modules follow the manual instructions below.

Installing Perl Modules without CPAN

1. Locate the module you want to install on CPAN, get the url of the package, for example, the Text::CSV module url is http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/M/MA/MAKAMAKA/Text-CSV-1.32.tar.gz

2. in CCTools, open a terminal session

3. do the wget,

wget http://search.cpan.org/CPAN/authors/id/M/MA/MAKAMAKA/Text-CSV-1.32.tar.gz


4. once the gz file downloads, do the following;


gzip -d Text-CSV-1.32.tar.gz
tar xcf Text-CSV-1.32.tar
cd Text-CSV-1.32
perl Makefile.PL
make
make install


Worked perfectly on my Android. Click on the image in this post to enlarge it and the terminal session of the Perl install of Text::CSV.

View my Flipboard Magazine.

The post CCTools App gets you Perl on Android! appeared first on Not So FAQs.

I’ve owned a 3rd Generation Apple TV for about a year now. During that time Apple has issued several updates that seemed to apply to the device just fine. Well no longer, today Apple put out an update that made me jump thru hoops that basically pissed me off.

Here’s what happened.

• Apple TV prompted for the update, I responded yes.
• It did the download then applied the updated and restarted the device.
• Instead of coming up normally, the screen displayed a picture of the device and a cable connecting the device to an iTunes logo. WTF?  This is a device for my TV, why do I need to involve iTunes?

Now, at this point I’m mad. A simple update is already going off track and Apple, in it’s arrogant manner, assumes I am supposed to figure out what the screen is trying to communicate. Well no, I don’t grok what Apple wants so I Google, only to find out that I am supposed to;

1. Find or go out and buy a cable with mini-usb on one side and usb on the other so I can connect the Apple TV to a computer that is running iTunes.
2. Connect it so iTunes can fix the botched update.

I am steamed now. I am not an Apple fan and don’t have these cables laying around and I find it mighty presumptuous for Apple to assume I will have iTunes installed anywhere. Roku doesn’t do this to me when I update either of my Rokus. Chromecast doesn’t do it to me. Only Apply forces me to use a piece of software that has nothing to do with my TV.

So, I borrow a cable and try to connect it to the Apple TV device. But no, nothing can be easy. It will not fit since Apple put the two connections way too close to each other. The fat HDMI cable makes it impossible to insert the mini-usb connector.

Back to Google. There I find a post that says to disconnect all cables from the Apple TV except the power cable. Not fucking intuitive at all here Apple. I’ve been performing an update on your damn device all along while getting the feedback on the TV screen, and you somehow expect me to just know that when I connect to iTunes I should disconnect the TV screen? I cannot believe you do this to your customers and still hold onto them.

So finally, I get the Apple TV and iTunes communicating. And what does it do, it does a ‘recovery mode’ whatever that is. When it finishes it tells me to disconnect the Apple TV and reconnect it to the TV.

I do so, and now I get even more angry. Seems that recovery means factory reset! All my settings are gone. Everything. I must now go thru the painful and slow process of inputting everything all over again. At this point, Apple is a bad word in my house. I am cursing the day I wasted my money on Apple products.

To anyone thinking about buying one of these I say don’t. The Roku is a much friendlier device and priced the same or cheaper so save yourself the aggravation and go with it.

The post Apple TV Sucks, Don’t Waste Your Money appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Flipboard seems to have a winner with their new magazines. They are easy to assemble and look great. I can envision them becoming an important publishing tool with a few more improvements. Some areas that need beefing up include:

• The ability to add editorial content to flipped content.
• More flexibility with images included in the flipped content, like choice of image used.
• The ability to embed content that isn’t hosted elsewhere, for example an index to the content or a publishers statement explaining the purpose of the magazine.
• An easier way to manage expiring content. As it stands now, the magazine just grows and grows and grows as more content is flipped into it. I would prefer a way to expire off older content (perhaps by age or perhaps by article count) so the magazine doesn’t become unwieldy. Using the Flipboard Editor to manually delete pages is a pain.

For an example magazine, check out the NotSoFAQs Mag.
View my Flipboard Magazine.

Flipboard Android, Flipboard iPad and Flipboard Web are all available to view the magazines.

The post Flipboard Magazines Are Cool appeared first on Not So FAQs.

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Natureâ€s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

The post Happy July 4th! appeared first on Not So FAQs.

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• I have two mobile devices that both use ActiveSync to connect to corporate mail on an Exchange 2010 server. One is an iPad and the other is the Galaxy Nexus.
• The iPad operates flawlessly, no issues whatsoever. My corporate mail syncs perfectly whether on wi-fi or cellular.
• The Galaxy Nexus operated fairly well until the OTA update to 4.2.2. Prior to the update I had several instances where I had to do the “delete the corporate account and recreate it routine” to get the mail to sync, it just stops syncing. Since the update only the first sync works, after that the Exchange Services basically goes into “let’s eat the battery mode” and runs constantly draining the battery to zero in several hours, all while NOT delivering any mail.

I am comfortable with technology, so I’m not afraid of doing the research and working on fixes to solve the problem. I’ve googled the issue extensively and have tried all of the obvious suggestions, up to and including a full factory reset (which is not fun and is particularly not fun when it was for nothing since it does not solve the problem).

I am now to the point where I will not purchase another Android device and I will recommend to anyone asking to avoid Android like the plague.  Google has known about this issue for years, they obviously made it much worse with the 4.2.2 update, and there is no progress at all in any of the forums about a solution, just more and more customer complaints. They don’t deserve my business when they put out a crap product like that.

UPDATE: Check out the Touchdown Mail Client for Android to solve this problem permanently. It’s not free, but it works flawlessly and the battery drain issue goes away.

The post Android Exchange Services Draining Battery appeared first on Not So FAQs.

First, you need to install the Android SDK. That part is pretty straight forward, just use the bundle download at the link here http://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html. The only issue I found with this step is that the system tool ‘monitor’ doesn’t actually run on a Windows 7 installation that has a user name with spaces in it (1). That one messed me up big time. The simple workaround is to use the ddms tool in the tools folder. It will warn you that it is deprecated, but just ignore the warning.

Next big obstacle that was not at all obvious to me was that I had to install Samsung USB drivers to get the debug mode working. I found the drivers at the link here Samsung USB Drivers Note that the drivers at this link must be a bit outdated since first time I connected my phone Windows 7 spent 15 minutes going out to the windows update site and downloading updates and applying them.

Final obstacle was to understand how to make it all come together. Here’s the steps I had to take;

1. Start ddms so it is running.
2. Connect your phone via USB. If the device drivers need updating, let them update before going to the next step.
3. Open a command prompt and switch to your sdk folder then the platform-tools folder and test adb to make sure it sees your device. The command below should display your device, if it doesn’t, recheck all your work.

   adb devices

4. Once you know adb sees your device, issue the backup command line as follows:

   adb backup -f Backupfilename.ab -all -share -apk

5. You will see a prompt on the phone to permit the backup. If you enter a password, the backup will be encrytped, if not it will not. Either way, you need to approve the backup on the phone by selecting backup my data.

For a loaded phone, the backup will take some time so be patient and let it run.

(1) Note that Rev 22 of Android SDK Tools fixes this problem with monitor, so go ahead and use monitor instead of the deprecated ddms. May 23, 2013

The post Using adb to Fullbackup an Android Device appeared first on Not So FAQs.

★★ Key Features

● Free ☆ Wunderlist is completely free for every device
● Cloud sync ☆ Your tasks are synced with your free Wunderlist account
● Email reminders ☆ Ensure your tasks never slip your mind
● Mail2Task ☆ Send tasks to Wunderlist from your email inbox
● Organize ☆ Sort your tasks into lists
● Due Dates ☆ Assign deadlines to your tasks
● Focus ☆ View a breakdown of your tasks with our filter views
● Notes ☆ Give your tasks further detail
● Prioritize ☆ Star important tasks
● Personalize ☆ Make Wunderlist your own with our included background wallpapers

It’s a great tool that does exactly what one wants for tasks. Recommended.

The post Wunderlist Task Manager appeared first on Not So FAQs.

It uses the power of social media to help you decide the best route to travel by using reports from other Waze users to both calculate your best route and visually show you where the traffic is on a 3d-like map display. The whole concept of using user reports of traffic in real-time is awesome and marrying that to route navigation and calculation sometimes seems like magic. Waze has sent me home on numerous different routes (including ones I never would have thought of on my own) by taking into account user reports of traffic and accidents along the various possible routes.

Waze is free and I highly recommend it.

The post Waze is Great for Navigation using Social Media appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Thinkbook by bitolithic is the killer application for iPad in my book.  It has helped me organize my notes and keep track of todo’s in a way that feels comfortable to me, mainly because it is so flexible (todo’s can be put right in the notes, yet an overall ‘Dashboard’ can be created to give a consolidated view of all of those todo’s – very neat and powerful).

Some of the main features of Thinkbook include;

• Plenty of note types: text notes, todos, questions and projects. Notebooks and pages behave like notes too so you move them around however you like using the slider.
• Use special finder notes to create dashboards. This feature is powerful, let’s you organize your todo’s basically any way you like, yet you can still get a view that consolidates them.
• The slider, a brand new way to make new notes and rearrange, move, copy and delete existing ones.
• Tag everything you can see. They’re inherited, tag a notebook with ‘work’ and every note in it will be treated as work.
• Fast search for text and tags.
• Dropbox integration. Backup and restore to Dropbox, export and import notes, pages, notebooks and projects as text, work on them on your PC, then import them back into ThinkBook.
• Easily email notes, pages or books.

The only thing missing for me is a desktop counterpart.  If bitolithic would just come up with a PC and Apple desktop version, I believe they would have a hit application on their hands. I highly recommend Thinkbook to all iPad users.

The post Thinkbook – Killer Application for iPad appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Perfect example is my Roku XR box and Vizio TV.  Once the TV goes to standby, the Roku and Vizio will not handshake properly and I get the infamous green screen instead of video.  The only solution that works for me is literally unplugging the HDMI cable from the Roku and re-inserting it. That is completely absurd and makes the box useless to me. I am not the only one, the Roku forums are full of complaints going back years and yet the problem still exists.

I blame Hollywood for this HDMI crap but the specific hardware/software implementation on the Roku, or the Vizio, is their issue – I don’t know which party is to blame but they don’t play well together.  Don’t waste your hard earned money on the Roku, you’ll regret it.

The post Roku XR Green Screens with HDMI On Vizio TV – Avoid This Product Combination appeared first on Not So FAQs.

A lot of the radio dialog uses 10 codes, a kind of shorthand you’ve likely heard used on TV shows involving police or fire. A reference to the meanings of these 10 codes can be found at the link here.

Here in Orange County, we’re able to pick up the Orange County Fire radio calls countywide. Unfortunately, police and CHP calls aren’t possible since those are encrypted channels.

The app has a free 7 day trial, so no reason not to give it a try. To get a sense of what will be available to you on your  BlackBerry®, head over to Radio Reference and listen in to those channels that interest you. Both the app and the online Radio Reference site are a great way to get a taste of radio scanning without the expense of actually buying a scanner!

The post Here’s a Fun Blackberry App – Scanner Radio For Listening to Police & Fire Calls appeared first on Not So FAQs.

I’ve been using LastPass for months now and have to say that I really like this product.  Keeping track of a gazillion passwords across multiple browsers and multiple PC’s was impossible before LastPass. Now it’s a breeze, my laptop, home PC and work PC are all synchronized automatically and the underlying storage of the data is fully encrypted.

You’ll note from the menus displayed to the left that there are lots of options, making this a fairly rich tool.

I highly recommend LastPass.

The post LastPass Is Pretty Cool appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Apparently, there are a ton of reasons one might get this error. If you google around, you will find all sorts of solutions (which may or may not work for your specific case).

I was seeing this error in Outlook 2003 (no exchange server involved) whenever I did anything with notes. Tried all the recommended solutions with no success until I came across a post here that actually worked for me!

• Tools>options>other tab, then advanced options and unselect “when viewing notes, show time and date”

Thank you so much to Microsoft for giving us one error message that applies to hundreds of possible conditions.

The post Could not complete the operation. One or more parameter values are invalid. Welcome to Outlook Hell appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Seems that this problem is caused by the iPhone plug-in. Disabling the plug-in makes the problem go away. You can disable it by locating the d_iPhone .dll in the plugins folder and renaming it to d_iPhone .dll.old or simply deleting it if you prefer.

Kinda frustrating that this problem hasn’t yet been fixed.

The post Mediamonkey – Audio Library Has Stopped Working appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Some googling turns up all sorts of advice, including messing with the registry, upgrading the installer to the latest version (presumably a brand new machine would have the latest version), and running msiexec.exe /unregister followed by msiexec.exe /regserver.

None of that stuff worked (no, I didn’t mess with the registry – that one didn’t ring true to me). What did work was checking the task manager (ctrl-alt-del then start the task manager) and looking for any instance of msiexec in the processes tab (click the show processes from all users button first). End process any that you find. Once all are gone, close the task manager and retry your installation.

In my case it worked. Apparently a previous run of the installer was hung up on shutdown (hence the need to end the process) so any new attempts to install were failing. No clue why the previous instance hung…. that’s for another story if I ever find out!

The post The Windows Installer Service could not be accessed. Aaarggh! appeared first on Not So FAQs.

PDF To Word is just the solution. Online, available anywhere you can get to a web browser, free, and simple to use. Just upload the PDF file, fill in your email address, and five minutes later you will receive the converted file in your mailbox.

I’ve found reasons to use this handy tool several times and have been happy with the results each time. It also supports RTF output for those with word processors other than Word.

The post Easy Way to Convert a PDF to a Word Doc appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Now, I’m a newbie to Vista, but not to laptops. I regularly hibernated the old HP without any major issues (until it died after hibernating with a completely blown partition table, but that’s another story).

Imagine my surprise when I put the Toshiba away at night (in its’ laptop case) and wake the next day to find a very hot laptop in that case with a dead battery.

Seems that something comes on in the wee hours of the morning and wakes up the hardware, even though it is on battery power, and proceeds to run things like Windows update!  The verdict is out on exactly what is causing this (prime candidate is Windows Update itself) , but clearly in my case either Toshiba or Microsoft has dropped the ball in configuring these laptops.

No way should this behavior happen out of the box and no way any normal user should be expected to figure this one out. Poor quality control on someone’s part for sure. Since more than the Toshiba brand seem to be impacted (see article linked to above), my money is on Microsoft as the culprit. Aarrghh!

The post Toshiba Laptop and Windows Vista Hibernation… Recipe for a Dead Battery appeared first on Not So FAQs.

The free account works great for important files, like your Keepass wallet and things like tax returns or other important documents. The service works seamlessly in the background and supports Windows, Mac, iPad and Linux! Recommended.

The post Dropbox – Secure Backup, Sync and Sharing Made Easy appeared first on Not So FAQs.

The post File Shredder appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Xmarks is free and works with IE, Safari, and Firefox. No reason not to give it a try, you’ll like it.

The post Check Out Xmarks appeared first on Not So FAQs.

It is basically a service that allows you to collect information, links, files, etc in one place, all synchronized to the various devices that Evernote supports;

• Windows/Mac OSX
• iPod, iPad
• Blackberry
• Palm Pre
• Web Clipper

The windows client is a dream. Uses SQLite under the hood to maintain a local database of your stuff that is sync’d to Evernote’s servers.  The real beauty here is that all this stuff is available to you anywhere, from your Blackberry, your laptop, even any place you can get to a web browser. And because there’s a copy on Evernote’s servers, you have built-in painless backup you can get to easily to recover your data from a local crash.

Getting stuff into Evernote is easy;

• The web clipper let’s you send entire pages or parts of pages direct to Evernote.
• The Blackberry client let’s you send pictures and sound recordings, as well as locally produced notes direct to Evernote.
• The Windows client supports drag and drop direct into Evernote.
• You get a special Evernote email address that you can use to email anything you want added to your Evernote database.

Once the stuff is there, you can easily organize it with tags and search it with Evernote’s powerful search capabilities. I love this app,  I’m not all that organized, so having a place to just dump things and later be able to easily search and locate what I am looking for is a delight.

Highly recommended.

The post Evernote Rocks! appeared first on Not So FAQs.

I’ve had a 32″ Vizio for about a year. Until recently I’ve been very happy with it but my recent experience with the remote has me wondering about the company and quality. My remote suddenly stopped working. None of the buttons would get a response from the TV. Put in new batteries, no change. Tried using my wife’s remote, no change.

So, naturally I turned to Google and started some heavy googling of the problem. Turns out there are plenty of posts out there about Vizio remote controls mysteriously not working. A common problem seems to be the control working intermittently, some days it works, some days it doesn’t.

Suggestions for fixing the problem include;

• Remove the batteries for 24 hours, then try again (supposedly this ‘resets’ the control)
• Remove the batteries from the control and unplug the TV for 30 minutes (again, supposedly resets both)
• Replace the batteries (duh!)
• Clear obstructions from in front of the screen (another duh!)
• Place a strip of blue painter’s tape over the IR sensor on the front of the receiver. The painter’s tape filters the stray IR from the TV and allows the remote signal to get through. (Way above my head, I don’t get it but some say this works).
• Remove sources of IR interference. There’s a good article here that goes into detail about possible sources of interference. (None of which applied to me).

I’ve tried the suggestions and still the remote seems to work only when it decides it wants to, which makes me think the real problem is a defective receiver in the TV.

Anyways, finding so many of these complaints around the internet with no solution offered by Vizio doesn’t leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling about the Vizio brand…. if you are considering buying one, buyer beware!

The post What’s With Vizio Remote Controls? appeared first on Not So FAQs.

No clue about what happened, but I suspect it may be related to hibernating while a windows update was pending a reboot.  My very first thought was that the hard drive died, but running SpinRite against it revealed no issues or problems other than reporting that it was an empty drive.

My first step in exploring what that empty drive meant was to boot up Ubuntu from CD and seeing what it thought about the drive. The partition editor reported it empty, so time for some googling on the subject of corrupt partition tables.

Google revealed SystemRescueCD with an indispensable tool on it,  TestDisk.  Following the Step by Step instructions outlined on the Wiki found the missing partitions and quickly and easily rebuilt the partition table. Ten minutes after booting up the SystemRescueCD  it was booting to windows and back in business.

Can’t say enough about these tools, truly indispensable and my hat’s off to the authors!

The post SystemRescueCD and TestDisk to the Rescue appeared first on Not So FAQs.

• If an email has exactly one attachment, the menu function ceases to work when you are viewing the email. This has the side effect of making it impossible to do anything with the attachment.

An email to Empower’s support has yet to be answered. Googling the problem turns up other reports of Blackberry users on OS 4.5 having the same issue and same non-response from support.

Until this issue is resolved, I do not recommend spending your money on this product.

The post Empower Mail Viewer PRO for Blackberry appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Well, it wasn’t. First, the installer weighed in at a hefty 68 meg, and either their servers are slow or my network connection was unusually slow, it took several hours to download. Then comes the actual update itself. First the installer updates the Blackberry Manager Desktop software, then it prompts you to hook up the Blackberry and it basically does a backup, deletes everything on the device, then installs the new OS and software and restores the data.

Sounds straightforward, right? Here’s what happened.

• No one mentioned that any Outlook Recurring appointments for full days will get totally screwed up by the restore process. When you run the next sync, the appointments on the device side all have their times messed up and they sync to Outlook as changes that cause every ‘all day’ appointment to suddenly become a multi-day appointment. Very aggravating. The solution here is to change the sync setting on the calendar to one way from Outlook to the device, this needs to be done BEFORE you do the OS update. Then you can update, sync replacing the bad device calendar with Outlooks good calendar, reset the sync settings and you are back in business.
• The Blackberry device OS install and subsequent restore take a long time and it is not at all obvious that something hasn’t hung. More than several times during the process I was tempted to cancel out thinking that it was hung up, it isn’t, you simply need to be very very patient.
• No one mentioned that upgrading the OS would wipe out the settings on virtually all 3rd party software you have installed on your Blackberry. I ran into these specific problems;
  • Empower HTML Mail Viewer Pro –  The version pre-upgrade would not reinstall correctly. After emailing Empower support, I was advised to visit www.getempower.com to download and install the latest version. That solution worked.
  • Documents to Go – It isn’t entirely obvious that the Documents to Go is included in the OS upgrade. They uncheck the box to install it during the upgrade (probably since it wasn’t an existing app on the device) and unless you go back into the Application Loader and check that box, it will not be on your device. Also, the version shipped with the upgrade does not include the Excel piece, you need to update Documents to Go after installing it to get that piece.
  • Spades – The game registration is lost during the upgrade. You will need your code to reregister the game.
  • Folders – Any folders you created on the Blackberry are blown away.
  • Viigo – All of your settings, including registration, are lost during the upgrade. You’ll need your Viigo user and password to get going again and all feeds will start over fresh.
  • Google Maps, Opera Mini – These and other apps will all start in their original installation mode, asking you to accept license terms and defaulting to out of the box settings.
  • Keepass – The first sync after the OS upgrade will fail. You will need to open the Keepass application on the desktop and open it on the Blackberry one time each before syncing again, then it will work fine.

All of the above ‘gotchas’ were time consuming to figure out and fix. The entire OS upgrade process is far more time consuming than one would expect, so be sure to set aside a 2 – 3 hour block of time just in case. It is not simple and not painless.

The post Blackberry Curve 8330 Upgrade to OS 4.5 appeared first on Not So FAQs.

The price is very reasonable, $4.99 at this writing, and the gameplay (so far) is ok. Tho, just like the Spades I played on the Palm, my partner at times seems incredibly dumb.

Recommended.

The post Spades for Blackberry appeared first on Not So FAQs.

I’ve waited and waited for Iliumsoft to come thru with the promised eWallet for Blackberry originally scheduled for release July 2008.

No longer will I wait. I’ve found a solution that works for me, Keepass, the open source password manager, with the following pieces to the eWallet puzzle;

• A plug-in eWallet converter that takes an exported eWallet text file and imports it into Keepass.
• A windows desktop client (Mac and Linux versions also available).
• A Blackberry client that includes near full sync (deletes are not supported, you have to manually delete from both sides to keep them in sync with deletions).

This completely free solution works and is available right now. I was up and running in about 30 minutes with the most difficult part being the somewhat cryptic instructions on configuring the sync in the Blackberry desktop.

For those former Palm users who are now on the Blackberry having extreme eWallet withdrawal pains, check out Keepass, you won’t regret it.

The post eWallet for Blackberry alternative, Keepass appeared first on Not So FAQs.

This is the second time I’ve gone this route, and this time I took some notes since it is frustrating to get it to work.

1. The install disk that comes with the Curve from Verizon has Blackberry Desktop 4.3 on it. This version won’t handle the conversion, so a trip to the Blackberry site for Version 4.5 was in order.
2. The Treo desktop software also won’t work. A downgrade to PalmOne’s Version 4.14e is needed on the Treo side. Interestingly, I had to first install 4.14e, then after the install completed, I had to reinstall it using the repair option (first time thru actually did not leave a palm.exe file installed, no idea why, but that’s a major oversight).
3. Obviously, Outlook is required on the PC involved.
4. Before beginning the conversion, open the Palm desktop software and for each of Calendar, Todos, Address Book, and Memopad, use the Tools -> Options -> Tools -> Check and Repair Corruption options to make sure the Palm datafile is corruption free.
5. Use the Blackberry device switch option to switch from the Treo to the Blackberry. If you have the correct versions as noted above, the option to convert from a Palm Treo will not be greyed out. If it is, re-check your software versions.

Hope this helps some other poor sole from frustration!

The post Converting from Treo to Blackberry appeared first on Not So FAQs.

The advice I gave the visitor was;

1. Set up a Yahoo account (free, easy to sign up if you don’t already have one), and create a Yahoo Calendar.
2. From the Palm Desktop, File -> Export the calendar using the datebook archive format.
3. In the Yahoo Calendar’s Options, select the Import/Export option listed under Management.
4. Use the “Import from Palm Desktop” section to browse to your saved archive file and import it to the calendar.
5. Once it is imported, use the “Export to Outlook” option to create a CSV file that you can save to your desktop and use in Google Calendar to import the Palm Calendar.

It’s a lot of steps, but it mostly works. You may see problems with recurring events not coming over correctly, but by and large most of your calendar entries will make it.

If other visitors out there have a better solution for this common request, please do share it with us. Many folks will appreciate it!

NOTE: Visitor KimM commented below that http://www.kmoser.com/palm2csv/ is now available as a free online tool to directly convert your Palm Calendar to csv format. Thanks KimM!

The post Importing Palm Datebook into Google Calendar appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Enter the Blackberry. The Curve is a really nice device. No too big and not too small, great screen, great sound and 100% handsfree bluetooth dialing. The only downside I could find was having to give up the Palm Desktop and eWallet.

I really really dislike Outlook. The simplicity of Palm’s Desktop software along with Thunderbird as a mail client have been working well for me for many years now. Changing would be painful.

I also find eWallet an indispensable tool that I can’t do without. Good news there is that IliumSoft is working on a Blackberry version of eWallet that they promise to release real soon now.

After much introspection and second guessing myself, I finally went ahead with the Blackberry Curve. Spent a weekend of pain jumping through hoops to get the data off the Palm moved to Outlook so it would sync with the new Blackberry (that is a story in itself, not easy but doable).

Now that I’m there, I’m delighted. RIM did a great job on the Curve, the setup was a snap and the Desktop Manager seems to work well. Other than the pain of working with Outlook, I couldn’t be happier.

Now, if IliumSoft would just release eWallet….

The post Blackberry Curve appeared first on Not So FAQs.

I have a nifty (at least I think it’s nifty) idea for making it easy to find desired content on the Kindle using a “taglist” file and the Kindle’s Search function.  I’d like to contribute this idea to this web site.  Here’s a sample, a few entries from my own taglist.txt file:

” Is Amercia Losing At Globalization?”
qeconomics qglobaleconomy
” Is Amercia Losing At Globalization?”
Newsweek Sep 8, 2008
————————————-
” Big Russ & Me ”
qbio qRussert qnonfiction
” Big Russ & Me ”
Tim Russert
————————————–
” King Lear ”
qPlay qShakespeare qtragedy qfiction
” King Lear ‘
William Shakespeare
————————————–
” The Island of Dr. Moreau ”
qscifi qadventure qfiction
” The Island of Dr. Moreau ”
H. G. Wells

You guys are probably smart enough to figure out how to use this as well as how to create this.  But in case you didn’t get enough sleep last night, the tags are the words that begin with the letter q.  One searches on the applicable tags and gets a Results screen with a list of only those documents that the user has associated with those tags.  One can then do another search on the document title and Kindle will bring that up for them.

Larry Goss

The post Using a TagList with Kindle Search Function appeared first on Not So FAQs.

Love the Blackberry Curve. This device is a joy to use.  RIM really did a good job on it and I couldn’t be happier.

The post Blackberry Curve appeared first on Not So FAQs.