10.22.2005 | 8:35 pm |
With my new PowerBook I also obtained an iPod Mini. The only issue I had with the iPod was that I couldn’t play it in my car. I couldn’t find any cassette adapters that I thought I had. (The kind that plug into the headphone jack of a device and then they just feed the sound to a cassette deck)
I went to Best Buy to pick up a couple of things and went to the mp3 player section. It was here that I saw the Belkin TuneBase FM.
It seemed like a nice idea, the unit plugs into my car’s 12v power port (ie: the cigarette lighter), charges the iPod and transmits the songs to the stereo over the radio waves. As I picked it up I noticed quite a few “Returned item reduced price” stickers. I grabbed one that wasn’t returned. This should’ve been a clue . . .
I plugged it into the power port, stuck the iPod on it and picked a frequency. It worked pretty well. Then I noticed as I drove that the signal would get varying degrees of static no matter what frequency I set it to. This was annoying considering the device was $82.99 after tax. It did have a port to plug a cassette tape adapter into . . . But then didn’t that defeat the purpose of this device?
I also found that I had other needs for my car’s power port for my GPS unit or my cell phone, I didn’t like having it tied up for music.
I used it for a couple of weeks but decided that, while the static didn’t render it useless, it was not worth the money. I went back to Best Buy and got my money back.
It’s really too bad because otherwise I really liked that unit. It was slick, I could bend it to my will and position the iPod the way I wanted. It put the iPod where it was easy to reach over and change the song I was listening to without taking my eyes off the road.
Belkin usually releases pretty high quality stuff so I’m thinking that they’ll release a version 2 at some point where the reception problem as been fixed. For right now though I just don’t feel the TuneBase FM is worth it.
After returning it I went to Wal-Mart and bought a cheap Phillips cassette adapter for $10. Much better performance. Too bad most car stereos that are out now don’t have a cassette player built in.
I’ve copied the product website to a pdf document for when Belkin inevitably upgrades the product and removes the product website from their catalog.
Click Here to View
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10.22.2005 | 12:27 pm |
Appears yet another condo conversion is going on in Palatine. This time it’s Runaway Bay.
Click Here to See
Prices appear to be starting around 101k for a one bedroom unit which isn’t too bad.
I’m wondering though . . . Runaway Bay was managed by the same company that used to own the Brentwood complex (also in Palatine) before it went condo last year. They also own the Huntington Square complex in Mt. Prospect that I used to live at. I wonder if that’s going to be converted too.
Would be sad, in a way, to see that complex convert from apartments. It’s a very well run rental community and a conversion to condominiums would upset that for at least a little while until everything is stabilized.
A unit in Huntington Square would be a pretty good buy for someone in the market though, as people have been moving in and out they’ve been remodeling them. When I lived there my unit had brand new carpet, ceramic tile, oak cabinets etc. Heat, cooking gas, water and A/C were included as well which would be another good thing.
Ah well we’ll see what ends up being.
Mind you, I have no intentions of moving. I really like the complex I currently live in.
I made copies of what’s on the page now for when they decide to update their website and take down what they don’t own for rental properties any longer.
Runaway Bay Main Page
Runaway Bay Detail Page
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10.15.2005 | 3:31 pm | ,
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10.13.2005 | 6:11 am |
Where the Hell is Matt?
This is an interesting website that someone put together about their travels around the world. The video is more or less the focal point of this website and I find it pretty amusing.
I’ve copied it into a folder on my own web server, just in case this person gets bored with the site and pulls the plug.
Click Here for the Video
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10.10.2005 | 11:44 pm |
I’m very displeased with Symantec’s customer service.
I’m in charge of the computer systems and network at a small office.
We have a Dell Optiplex GX280 that we’re using as a file server (it will soon act as the server for the Filecabinet Solutions CS software package). The motherboard went out Sunday night. No big deal, they keep regular backups of it and we got the Dell Gold Support package when we bought the thing. Their own files are synchronized to their own PCs as offline files as well so they lost nothing during the downtime.
I called Dell last night, they correctly diagnosed the motherboard problem and offered to send a tech out within four hours. I didn’t want to be there at midnight and just told them to send someone out between 1 & 4pm Monday. The tech arrived and replaced the motherboard. We’re waiting for another replacement stick of memory so for now the computer is only running with 256MB of RAM which is fine considering it’s current usage.
At this point, Norton Internet Security started throwing fits about not being activated (Which it was I’ll have you know). Ok fine, I stopped back up there after my regular job to check it out. I activated the program multiple times and it didn’t get better . . . Fine. I uninstalled and reinstalled Norton Internet Security.
Once I did that it complained that I’ve tried to install it on too many different systems. I’m thinking it saw there was a different motherboard in the system somehow and didn’t want any part of it.
Whatever the cause I had to call Symantec to fix the issue. I waited through 25 minutes of 80s music on hold (It was good 80s music) and finally got to speak to a representative. I explained the situation and he unlocked the software without any real fight. (How could I prove that really was or wasn’t the situation? I think they figure if you have to call in it’ll scare the software pirates off)
Once the software was activated I ran a LiveUpdate. Everything updated but the software would not pull down Norton AntiVirus definitions. The product activation guy couldn’t do anything with this so he sent me to tech support. I got a technician amazingly fast.
This guy sat with me on the phone for about an hour trying different things. Registering DLL files, downloading a couple of utilities . . . Probably some other stuff that I’ve forgotten about.
After an hour of this he says “All I can tell you to do is uninstall and reinstall the application. There’s a utility at http://www.symantec.com/symnrt that will ensure the program is completely uninstalled from your system, run that before reinstalling” He seemed anxious to get off the phone at that point. I ask him if he could stay on the phone with me while I go through that process. He told me that for him to sit through an uninstall/reinstall process it would be a $30 charge.
Let me get this straight . . . He can spend an hour on the phone with me going through changing obscure configuration settings, registering DLL files and who knows what else we did in our efforts to make it work but they draw the line at staying with the client while they uninstall and reinstall the program to make sure that suggestion works?
At this point I thank him for his time and hang up (Yes I was pleasant, it doesn’t pay to tick people off no matter what the circumstances). I uninstall every component of Norton Internet Security, run the utility he had me download and reboot several times during this process. Then I go to reinstall the application . . .
Norton Internet Security is in even worse shape now than before. Once I installed it and rebooted I could see the icons but I couldn’t click on them. Eventually the setup windows would come but they were amazingly slow between transitions. Every other application I launched on there ran fine, Norton was the only one that crawled. After 20 minutes of fighting with it I decide to uninstall and reinstall again. Same issue.
I uninstalled it completely.
I’m debating on reformatting and reloading the server. Now is the time since there’s nothing major on there that can’t be quickly plopped back into place . . .
I’ll let it settle for a couple of days, all the other machines on the network have fully functioning versions of Norton Internet Security and this machine isn’t used for anything other than file storage and a couple of programs through Remote Desktop so I’m not too concerned. In the meantime the server is able to again be the primary storage location for their files and they’re able to perform their backups. Thats the important thing.
I must say though I’m very disappointed in Symantec right now. I’ve been a loyal Norton Anti-Virus / Norton Internet Security buyer for years though I’ve never needed tech support on any of their products until today. If this is what I have to look forward to if I have future issues with their products . . . I think I’ll be looking at other Antivirus / Firewall applications for future purchases. I’ve steered many people towards Symantec applications too.
On the upside I did manage to configure a wireless web camera for the office this weekend. The office is shared between two businesses and there’s a lobby but no real receptionist . . . The camera is there so they can view who’s in the lobby and see if it’s one of their own clients. One of the people from the other company wanted to utilize the lobby camera as well so I set up a domain for it on DynDNS.org (just their free service, this isn’t detrimental enough to warrant any upgrades they offer) and had the router point port 80 to the camera’s fixed IP address. I then set up logins and passwords to prevent anyone else from using the camera over the internet (not that there’s anything top secret that happens in the lobby but I don’t want more of a drag on the internet connection than necessary). Works like a charm and everyone’s happy.
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