Quality HP Software

For years I've complained to my father about the poor quality of HP's Mac scanner software. He always brushed it off as my standard are pretty high and it would appear (to outsiders) that I don't like many programs. (There are some programs I really like and there are some that just suck; yes, my standards are high, but I'm on a Mac and I deserve the best!). Recently, he started using his HP All-In-One with his new Mac (he had been using it from his PC) and after hours (maybe days) of frustration, he contacted their support and got no where (support was on a PC reading from a script). He complained up the change and accused them of fraud/deception as they advertised certain features working on the Mac, when they clearly don't.

It was quite fun basically saying "I told you so"; I have an HP All-In-One that I bought several years ago that I only use as a fax machine and a copier; for those functions, it works great. If HP is serious about the Mac, they need to step up to the plate and re-write their software. Windows users might like the cutesy scanning app, but Mac users just want it to work like every other Mac application and integrate with Address Book (for the fax app), etc.

If their devices weren't so cheap, Mac users probably wouldn't be lured into buying them.

Turned off my server

As I've previously written, I started making the move to turn off some of the services running on my server. Last week, I managed to move the last service (SlimServer) running on my server somewhere else; in this case to my AppleTV which is quieter and more energy efficient than my monster server. So, last Monday, I sent an init 0 to the server and turned it off. I then moved my UPS to my office. It is such a relief to no longer have to make sure my server is running; while I do have some services running on my virtual private server, I don't have to worry about it physically being up. In addition, by not using my server as a router, I don't have to worry about restarting my server and having it affect my internet connection.

Things have been humming along and Google for Domains is working out quite well. With GoDaddy handling DNS and email forwarding on some domains, I don't see a need for me to turn on my server. It has been a great experiment and has taught me a lot; I first brought a dedicated server online something like 8 years ago!

Radio Hanukkah == Radio Not-Christmas

The other day I heard an ad (yes, an ad) on XM for Radio Hanukkah. Cool, I thought, and tried to tune it in. After a few false starts (I kept getting a message that I wasn't authorized to play the stream and then online streaming stopped completely), I was able to tune it in. We started listening to it while lighting the candles and thought it was cool to have Hanukkah tunes, but unfortunately there isn't enough Hanukkah music to fill a full station. XM Radio has decided to play all music that is Jewish, like "Going to Israel", "Eliyahu Hanavi", etc.

There are some pretty funny songs like a Hanukkah song to the tune of an Outkast song. I haven't heard Adam Sandler's Hanukkah songs, yet; they're always a crack up.

Oh well, at least I don't have to listen to endless repeats of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.

GPS Search continued

So today I saw that Staples had the Navigon 2100 for $149 and I had a 12% off coupon bringing it to 132. So, I decided to give it a try as it is a bit cheaper than the Garmin units. I was surprised that Staples had it, so I bought it. It came with free lifetime traffic alerts which was a pleasant surprise. After using it for about 5 minutes, I've decided that the unit is a piece of crap. First off, I crashed it by ejecting the SD card, second the navigation is awkward, third the unit is very slow when tapping anything, fourth, the POI database with over a million POIs is quite small. It couldn't find the local Costco that has been there 7 years. Overall, I was quite disappointed with this and will be taking the unit back tomorrow.

However, it reaffirms my research that the nüvi is the unit to get. I should have taken it as a warning that the Navigon website lists that it is running Windows CE. Frankly I don't care what it runs as long as it runs well. It has a 400 MHz processor in it and it seemed slow as molasses in January (of course, somewhere cold).

Oh well, I'll just bite the bullet and buy the nüvi.