Free Today Only - Laplink PCmover Download
Today only, in a promotion celebrating their 25 years in the computer connecting business, LapLink offers the download version of their PCmover software (usually a $50 program) for the just right price of free.
That’s Great. What’s A PCmover?
PCmover facilitates copying files, program settings (e.g., browser settings, e-mail accounts, etc), some operating system data such as those that govern the appearance of the desktop, and - this is the big deal - programs from one computer to another, an otherwise arduous task. According to the blurb on the LapLink site, the program can even handle moves from a PC to a Mac.
Of course, to physically move the files, one must connect the two computers but PCmover can function regardless of how the files are actually transfered: via a network, an external hard drive, a two-way USB cable, … .
LapLink has a good to excellent reputation for their products, and while I have never used this program, I snarfed it up first thing this morning based on my experience with their software and hardware over the years. The most recent review I could find in a hurried search this morning was an article in the November 2007 PC World, which was summarized in the final line
But I Don’t Need …
I realize that not everyone bought a new computer yesterday and needs to copy the files from the old machine onto the replacement today. Even if you don’t need this program today, download it and tuck it away on your hard drive or, better yet, burn it onto a data CD so that you can find it 8 months from now when you do bring home that new laptop and realize the next hours of your life are going to be sucked into the whirlpool of tedious and treacherous tasks: moving files, resetting email accounts, entering passwords, re-installing programs, and abusing your intoxicant of choice. Or you can buy PCmover that day for $50. Or you can get it now - for free - and feel smug as all get-out when you rev it up for the job.
Is There A Catch?
The download is indeed free as is the needed serial number. Unless one is careful to uncheck two boxes requesting LapLink marketing be sent and check the third box (unchecked by default) requesting they NOT send advertising, one is, I suspect, likely to receive a sales pitch or two - or a gazillion.
To access the download one must to open a LapLink account, a process which asks for name, street address, email address, and phone. No credit card info is requested.
One should also be aware that only the download version of the software is free. Buying the program on CDs with a paper manual is not free although it appears that even that format is available at reduced costs.
How?
The offer is displayed on LapLink’s home page. Just click on that link and follow the directions.
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LiveWords Resurrected
I have reactivated LiveWords, a semi-automatic word definer. For information, including instructions for use, see LiveWords Plug-in For Ben
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LiveWords Now Dead
Pronounced At 4:48 AM. Cause Of Demise: System Failure
Plug Pulled On Plug-in
As outlined in LiveWords Plug-in For Ben, I installed the LiveWords plug-in in hopes of providing blog viewers a means of conveniently finding definitions or explanations of words and terms.
I ended the post documenting the installation of LiveWords with “This should be considered LiveWords’ audition for the cast of Heck of a Guy.”
Well, not every American Idol contestant is a winner.
I awoke this morning to find this comment from Ben,
Bummer, eh?
To be fair the the LiveWords folks, I should note that the English language options (e.g., Wikipedia, Wictionary, Free Dictionary, etc.),1 on the LiveWords menu had worked and, as of this morning, had continued to work for me.
But, unless this sort of tool works for everyone, it’s counterproductive. Consequently, I’ve deactivated and uninstalled LiveWords.
None of the other WordPress-compatible reference software I’ve found seems to offer the same capacities2 so while I continue to search for a blog-based solution, for now I can only recommend that Ben and others try WordWeb,3 which has reliably and effectively served as my most used dictionary for work done on a computer for years.
Footnotes
- I did not test the options not available in English ~back~
- See discussion at LiveWords Plug-in For Ben ~back~
- Also discussed at LiveWords Plug-in For Ben ~back~
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The Answer To That Picture Is
To the list of Cool Ways To Use Your Digital Camera Or Camera Phone one can now add “Obtain answers to the primal questions of life,” such as
Uploading a photo of the flora in question to PicaAnswers.com, one is rewarded with the answer,
Unlike most brand name answer sites which allow only text-based questions or, like Yahoo Answers, require an extra set of steps to use a photo, PicaAnswers.com and at least one other site, Yedda, focus on questions and answers based on uploaded photos.
In addition to the identify this queries (”What kind of fish is this?” What is the name of this flower?), users of PicaAnswers.com, which appears to have been opened only eight days ago, have already found some creative ways of using the site, which depends on other site visitors for answers, to find help that would be difficult or expensive to obtain otherwise. For example,
- Can someone link me a web site that has cool looking pots like this, seen this one in Disney World?
- My son washed my car and used the abrasive side of the sponge and left these scratch marks. My question is can these be polished or buffed out easily?
- [I] would like to know if this contractor is installing this window right/
- [I've] got a contractor working on my home here. He’s putting on Tyvek, but it seems loose and sloppily put on. What do you think?
Currently, site members contributing correct answers receive nothing but the satisfaction of helping a fellow human being. It seems likely that at some point, a means of acknowledging useful answers, such as the points and levels Yahoo Answers awards will be added to the mix.
It certainly seems a site worth bookmarking for future use.
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Gratuitous Hovering
The Long and Winding Road
As a result of an unbroken series of mishaps that began well before dawn, I am only now beginning today’s attempt to batter out a cogent post that meets the goal of being at least arguably affiliated with something reminiscent of a redeeming social value.
As it turns out, I’m willing to settle for posting my whine of the day, especially since its subject is one of the 17,213 reasons I never quite caught up with today’s projected timetable .
I was scheduled for a medical procedure in a nearby town at a facility with which I’m semi-familiar. Because of the recent snow which made travel especially treacherous for anyone with my non-existent navigational skills, I realized it might be wise to review the route on a cartographical representation of the sort found on the wonderfully weird and wacky World Wide Web.
Time was tight, but how long could it take?
I Googled the healthcare system by its name plus the town and state where it’s located, clicked on the top entry that had “locations” in the title, and ended up at the map shown below:
The playfulness built into the map is indicated by the legend; one is to hover the cursor over a “pulsating dot”1 to bring up a small window with information about the healthcare facility to that position.
At least the site was functional. Holding the cursor over a sensuously throbbing spot revealed the kind of flag displayed in the lower right of the map below.
So, What’s The Problem?
Well, because I couldn’t immediately recall the hospital’s cross streets - which was why I was looking at a map - there were at least a half-dozen dots that could have been the right place. And the only way to find which dot was the correct one was trial and error.
This wasn’t a map - it was a memory game.
Or that one.
Or this … oops, didn’t I try that dot already?
Where was I … Damn, now I have to start over.
[Repeat infinitely]
Given that I was behind schedule when I started this ostensible map check, the “hover to read” process was as delightful, charming, and useful as tossing bowling balls 10 feet in the air and catching them in ones teeth.
Moreover, as far as I can determine, this is not just a case of a tool not being well suited to my particular task - I find it difficult to come up with any mapping situation for it which this set-up would be the optimal solution compared to, oh say, A Map.2
You Sunk My Outpatient Center
On the other hand, you change some of those dots to frigates, mines, submarines, and such, and you’ve got yourself a fairly entertaining, geographically specific version of Battleship.3
That’s all for now. You can, I suspect, look forward to more fine whines at another time and in another post.
Footnotes
- Am I the only one who finds “pulsating dot” provocative? Or was I the only one who found “pulsating dot” provocative until you read the preceding sentence? ~back~
- A non-mappng situation that uses this mechanism to good effect is the Netflix site, which identifies movies by their DVD cover art; additional details are provided when the cursor hover over one of those movie designations. ~back~
- As a bonus of convenience, war strategy games like Battleship are a handy way to sublimate aggressive fantasies of the sort generated by the cursor-hovering requirement ~back~
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Handling Time Zones and Nanny Filters With Google Functions
In the past week, I’ve leaned and used two Google special functions to good effect and am today moved to share them.
1. Asking Google What Time Is It SomeCity
I’ve had a number of occasions in the past two weeks that evoked questions of this sort: “What the heck time is it in Denver?”
Since I am rarely far from my computer when these queries arise, the reliably accurate answer is quickly obtained by entering into the Google search box the incantation - What time is it SomeCity - where SomeCity is replaced by the name of the city. Hitting Enter brings up the answer.
For example,
2. Using Google Cache To Defeat Overprotective Web Filters
Using the WiFi connection at a local business, I was denied access to a medical site, apparently because it included the reproductive system in its clinical considerations.
Bummer.
As a workaround, I performed a Google domain search for the forbidden site. Then I clicked on the “cache” option rather than the primary link to the page found. Because the page that came up in my browser was from Google’s servers rather than that nasty medical site, it was shown without interference - although it was an exact duplicate of the page I originally sought and was blocked from accessing.
To avoid embarrassing anyone unnecessarily, I am not using the actual site or business in my example. Instead, I’m using a url from A List Of Websites Blocked At Panera at Tintopia. At that time (2004), Panera’s nanny filters blocked wctu.org - the official site of The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union.
First, I did the domain search,1 in this case, entering the search term(s), “Xenophon,” a word I knew was used on the index page, followed by “site:wctu.org.” (Entering only “site:wctu.org” without the quotes in the search box will show all the pages at the site that Google indexes, along with their cached versions.) The pertinent section of the Google results page is shown below.
Clicking on the usual choice, the first ink in the result, would have produced the page below - if Panera hadn’t blocked it.
Clicking on the cached result, the area circled in red on the graphic of the Google search results, produces the page shown below, which will ordinarily be accessible despite the filter.
This method is only useful for static web pages. Links on cached pages, for example, send the browser to a current page, not another cached page. Also, the current web page may have changed since it was last surveyed and saved by Googlebot. The date the page was cached is shown at the end of the first line on the page (see area above circled in red).
Pretty cool, eh?
______________________
Footnotes
- For full instructions re searching a specific site, see “Domain Search” at Google Help ~back~
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Try Some GoodCleanWholesomeFun
DrHGuy Gets Semi-Current, Opens Tumblelog At Good Clean Wholesome Fun
We’re taking a break from our All Broomcorn All The Time format to introduce GoodCleanWholesomeFun.com - or as we like to call him, GCW Fun - the quick-witted, energetic, happy go lucky younger tumblelog sibling of DrHGuy’s jocose but prolix, sometimes abstruse Heck of a Guy blog.
Readers who are in the adult, non-geek population may find the Wikipedia definition of tumblelog helpful:
Think stream of consciousness; think non-Joycean stream of consciousness.
Why Does Heck of a Guy Need Good Clean Wholesome Fun?
I’m auditioning GoodCleanWholesomeFun.com1 as an augmentation to and occasional stand-in for 1HeckOfAGuy.com. I’m especially interested in deferring to the tumblelog when I don’t have time to write an essay-length post and when I’m working on a longer piece that requires more than one day to prepare.
In addition, it seems a dandy means of shamelessly promoting my favorite Heck of a Guy posts.
Both the design of tumblelogs described above and Tumblr, the software that powers GoodCleanWholesomeFun, make posting a link to a site, a photo, a video, or a quote a quick, easy process. Posting a link to web site X can be done without leaving web site X and can even be done by phone.
The ease and speed of posting makes this process ideal for pointing to sites that require little or no explanation beyond, “Hey, look at that,” the rough equivalent of one friend calling another to say, “Turn to Channel 48 - someone is harvesting broomcorn.”
I’ve been playing with GoodCleanWholesomeFun for four or five days now and feel as though I have the hang of the thing. I’ve added five posts today with a total of 15 minutes effort.
As I said, it’s a tryout, and you get free tickets to the dress rehearsal.
The Good Clean Wholesome Fun tumblelog is available - for now - at
____________________________
Footnotes
- For the story of how I came to own this domain name, go to Invest In Good, Clean, Wholesome Fun ~back~
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Mesomorph Plays The Right Card, Trumps Satellite Access
Mesomorph1 And Verizon Team Up To Attempt Rescue Of Internet Access
Readers may recall that I have, on rare occasions, expressed mild to moderate perturbation over our satellite-mediated Internet access.2 As problems have worsened, I have searched for a better performing alternative but here in the hinterlands we are too far removed from the telephone switching station for DSL and too far past cable’s end to tap into that pathway.
It turns out I was looking for access in all the wrong places. Mesomorph, pictured above, was more resourceful. After multiple efforts, he surmounted my misinformed resistance, persuading me to audition Verizon Broadband, a service marketed primarily to businesses whose employees need broadband access in a variety of locations.3
A Brief Semi-Technical Digression
The idea behind this system is that Verizon (along with a few other services) uses EV-DO4 technology for wireless data transmission via radio signals to provide broadband Internet access. This is not the same sort of Wi-Fi connection you use while sucking down your Starbucks fix or hijack from your neighbor’s wireless network that he never bothered to secure. Verizon EV-DO is available in lots of places, especially cities, but not everywhere. In situations in which EV-DO service isn’t available, Verizon provides Internet access through the regular cellular network, albeit at reduced speeds (still about twice as fast as dial-up). Because Verizon is our mobile phone network, we were able to check in advance that we could receive the EV-DO signal in our home.
The set-up was easy and quick: We installed the Verizon EV-DO Broadband management software program5 from the provided CD, inserted the PC card6 (displayed in the above photo by my son in model mode), booted up, clicked “connect,” and faster than you can say “Evolution-Data Optimized Broadband Access” we were online.
The Verizon Broadband Screen Test Thus Far7
While it is too soon in this experiment to declare Mission Accomplished, I can accurately summarize our experience after 2-3 weeks as So far, so wonderful.
We’ve been able to access Verizon Broadband reliably throughout the house at speeds fast enough to comfortably surf the Net, view graphics, watch videos, etc. I was also able to spend 30 minutes working on the computer yesterday in a medical center parking lot while my elder son saw his doctor. On our Thanksgiving trip from northern Illinois to southwest Missouri, we were routinely able to hook up to the Net while mobile until we entered the deep recesses of the Ozarks near my mother’s home.
This isn’t a solution for everyone. Service is not ubiquitous; we have the good luck to receive a strong signal in our home, but reports of weak or nonexistent connections still populate the wireless forums. The service costs more than the typical cable or DSL Internet access providers but about the same as my satellite set-up. There are also maximum download limits unlike the all you can eat contracts most cable and DSL providers offer. The limits are more generous, however, than those of my satellite provider.
And I’m waiting to make sure that the first month’s billing from Verizon is what I expect it to be before I say good-bye to the satellite in the sky.
Nonetheless we are well-satisfied thus far and I confess to cautious optimism, a condition rarely associated with me - and young master Mesomorph, of all people, is responsible. Go figure.
Thanks, son.
Footnotes
- The Mesomorph is also known as my 18 year old son ~back~
- Just for grins, I went to the Heck of a Guy blog’s WhereTheHeck site search, entered “satellite access,” and came up with three or four online rants about my problems with the satellite service, including one that grouped them in an “Axis of Evil” that precluded publishing posts for a time. Also included in the conspiracy was the selfsame Mesomorph. While my son has lately evidenced tentative signs of repentance and reformation, however, no such signals have been forthcoming from the satellite folks. ~back~
- The other major role in this crusade for access into the Holy Land of the Internet has been played by the magnificent Stubby, Mesomorph’s long-time boon companion and, not so incidentally in this case, the Manager of a local Verizon store, who spent much time and effort explaining the technology and the service options. ~back~
- EV-DO is an acronym for Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data Only, which is also abbreviated as EVDO and EV ~back~
- The software program can also be used to manage other (non-Verizon) wireless connections. ~back~
- The PC card we are trying out works with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and Mac OS X. ~back~
- I have neither the expertise in general nor sufficient experience with EV-DO in particular to offer a comprehensive analysis; a recent review of Verizon Broadband, including specific speed and connectivity tests in different areas of Chicago, that is substantive, readable by those without a technical background, and congruent with my observations thus far can be found at Broadband on the go: the ups and downs of Verizon’s EV-DO network ~back~