Internet

Why so blue?

Well folks, it’s because of snow.  I love snow, but snow that overstays its welcome is irritating and unsightly.  It must go!  And so . . . with the snow when it was pitched went my bloggy theme because it refused to let go no matter how hard I tried to pry its spiny fingers from those last few flakes.  WordPress themes can be fickle and even more so are the plug-ins we add to dress them up or add function.  Sometimes you can outsmart them at their own game, but other times ya just gotta give in, accept defeat, and try something new.  Fortunately for me, HeatMap just recently released Version 2.5.1.  It happens to be blue, and I’m OK with that.

How to make a Windows 7 Theme Pack

Many will call me trivial, but my initial disappointment with Windows 7 occurred when I discovered that it uses Themes rather than a single desktop wallpaper.  I had just discovered lots of fab new wallpaper via Vladstudio and InterfaceLIFT and was excited to give my favorites each a turn at presenting themselves on my desktop but could not do so because I didn’t understand the Theme Pack workings.  I allowed this annoyance to slip past me for approximately a month until a friend introduced me to The Windows Club, a site loaded with insider info on Windows 7, a site that I will now visit frequently to keep myself in the know.  I don’t like being clueless, and I still have much to learn about Windows 7.  In fact, I can’t even answer the Poll Daddy Poll on The Windows Club site because it does not give the option, “Yes, I have upgraded to Windows 7, but I am still kinda clueless.”

Anyways. . . . A quick search of The Windows Club yielded, voilá, a tutorial for creating one’s own Theme Pack.  Excited as I was with this information, I decided it was only fair to share my success here for the benefit of any out there who may be searching for a solution to the Theme Pack mystery.  Because I found the tutorial slightly confusing (duh, maybe it was just me) I’m going to provide the link to the tutorial here as well as my own interpretation of the instructions.  Using one or the other or a combination of the two, I am confident that you also will be able to create your own .themepack files to use and share.  For those of you out there who are scratching your head and wondering what a Theme Pack is I provide the following definition gleaned from The Windows Club.  A Theme Pack consists of four items: 1) Wallpaper with or without slideshows; 2) Window color; 3) Sounds; and 4) A screensaver (or not).  Don’t ask me how it works, ‘cause I’ve no clue!

How to create a Windows 7 Theme Pack: (my overly simplified version for those who need it)

1. Create a folder in the Pictures Library.  Give it the name that you would like to call your Theme Pack.
2. Add the wallpaper(s) that you would like to be a part of your Theme Pack to the new folder.
3. Right click on the Desktop and choose Personalize:  Desktop > Personalize
4. First, apply the default Windows 7 Theme.  Then select (click on) Desktop Background (located bottom left).
5. At top right of new screen, choose Browse to select the folder which includes your desired wallpapers (make sure all are selected or checked).
6. In the same screen choose from bottom the Picture Position, Timing to Change the pictures, and whether or not you want them to shuffle.  Now choose Save Changes.
7. Next select and edit one at a time the other choices at the bottom of the screen:  Window Color, Sounds, and Screen Saver. (If so desired.)
8. When you are done, click on Save Theme, give the theme a name (easiest if you name it the same as the folder), and voilá, you have your own Theme Pack.
9. If you want to share your Theme Pack with a friend, highlight the theme (left click on it) and then right click on it and choose Save Theme for Sharing. Your friend can easily install this Theme Pack by just double clicking on it.

And that’s it folks.  Pretty easy, huh!  If you wish to follow the directions from The Windows Club, click here.

Free Desktop and Mobile Phone Wallpaper

And so, as my Blog Catalog rating sinks lower and lower, I have to examine myself and my bloggy and ask what I ever did to Blog Catalog.  I’m not a creative genius and my writing style certainly does not rival Stephen King or C. S. Lewis, but for crying out loud, I try to present fun, witty, informative posts in a relatively intelligent manner.  My posts are not advertisements, but rather collections of information about free stuff that I believe my readers might find interesting or reviews of products that have either impressed or depressed me so that others might make more informed choices.  Maybe Blog Catalog thinks my bloggy is too commercial, assumes I am receiving payment for my mixture of encouraging and disparaging commentary.  Let me assure B.C. that if I were receiving payment for any of my ranting and rambling, I would not give a crapola about Blog Catalog’s opinion but would be rolling around in my windfall. 

Ah, but I digress.  My purpose here today is to lead my readers to a couple of really cool sites for the procurement of FREE Wallpaper and Backgrounds, not of the paper kind of course, but the kind we use to dress up our computer desktops, our mobile phones, our blogs and our web pages.  Check ‘em out:

1. Vladstudio – One of my favorite sites to visit and spend time, Vladstudio

   features the artistic creations of graphic artist, Vlad Gerasimov, and offers a wide selection of FREE wallpaper designs in a variety of specialized sizes, including for mobile phones and multiple monitors.  Currently (February 2010) Vlad is featuring his Valentine creations, awww, and being of a romantic mood lately, I have added several of them to my collection.  As if the free wallpapers aren’t enough, Vladstudio also offers Wallpaper Clocks (which work with Chameleon Clock from Softshape, a nifty but pricey little clock program that replaces the Windows tray clock), Online Jigsaw Puzzles as well as Puzzles for the iPhone (you can get 12 for free), adorable free E-Cards (any wallpaper can be sent as an e-card and some even have animation), Free Adobe Photoshop Tutorials, Themes for Blogs (for registered users), and much more.  If you’ve got a minute or an hour or two, visit Vladstudio.  It will be time well spent. 

2. InterfaceLIFT – InterfaceLIFT boasts 2,060 FREE high-resolution widescreen wallpapers by multiple artists–beautiful photographs and artistic interpretations—in a variety of resolutions, including ones for mobile phones, dual monitors, HDTV and for the iPad.  InterfaceLIFT also offers a collection, 1,445 to be exact, of cute FREE desktop icons for your downloading pleasure.  The ads can get a bit overwhelming on this site, but if you are willing to dodge them, it’s worth the effort.

From Vladstudio

Today I was un-friended

Call me ignorant, but I don’t even know how to un-friend somebody in Facebook.  I have never searched for this option because I have never felt the need.  I’m not sure what would cause me to feel the need, but so far nothing has.  Nonetheless, a more Facebook savvy relative of mine knows how to un-friend and she un-friended me today. (Yes, I know that “friended” isn’t a word.)  Apparently and probably (even likely), I got a little steamed up and overstepped my welcome on her page with a full paragraph retort on a political issue she posted and she felt that I was disrespectful to her personally.  Guess what?  I’ve decided she was right.  I meant what I said, no qualms there, but I certainly could have stated my opinion in a softer fashion without attacking her personally on her own page.  I hope you will forgive me, C.  On the other hand, I hope you will respect and understand that I love my country and that I take America bashing very seriously. 

Waving the white flag over here.  Any takers?

Free Windows Live Messenger Emoticons: The French do it best

This week, I’m on vacation, spending time resting and relaxing and whiling the time away with a few silly pursuits.  One of these silly, amusing pursuits is seeking out emoticons for Windows Live Messenger (WLM), my instant messaging client of choice.  Call me childish or overly emotive, but with the exception of the great functionality and features of WLM, the wide variety of available emoticons is my favorite part.  If you are gonna communicate you might as well be creative and have fun at it right?  

Ready or not, here they come.  My choices* of best websites that offer Windows Live Messenger emoticons, display pictures, and backgrounds, from first to last in the order of my preference:

 Drum roll please . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1. The French do WLM emoticons best.  Visit this French MSN site http://www.ilovemessenger.fr/toppacks.aspx  to see and download my favorite of favorites.  You’ll notice a bit of a language challenge if you don’t speak French, but if you’ve downloaded much from the Internet, you’ll be able to muddle your way through the process.  I especially like the Emoticones 3D and the Emoticones Love 3D, but there are at least 16 cute packs to choose from: aliens, animals, baby animals, super heroes, etc.   No signup or sign in required.
2. Another foreign language site (Dutch?) with fun Christmas Emoticons, background and display picture:  http://www.emoticons-livemessenger.com/pages/msnnlkerst/ No signup or sign in required.
3. Kiwee – Windows Live Messenger Emoticons.  You can get to Kiwee through my link or directly from WLM by choosing “more”.  Kiwee’s emoticons, winks, display pictures, and backgrounds download directly into WLM ready to use, and they have material to celebrate just about every holiday, event and emotion you can think of.  This site does require registration and sign in for downloads but I have yet to receive any spam as a result of my registration and you can choose your preferences.
4. MSN Ifadeleri:  No signup or sign in required.  Oodles of adorable emoticons.  The only drawback to the emoticons on this site is that, since they are able to be used for multiple applications, you must save each one individually to your computer and then use WLM’s “create emoticon” feature (Tools> Emoticons> Create) rather than download directly into WLM.
5. Blog Catalog MSN Emoticons:  A wide selection of regular, 3D, and animated emoticons in all shapes and sizes.  No signup or sign in required but these also must be saved and created as emoticons individually.  Blog Catalog site provides instructions when you click on the emoticon you wish to have.
6. Windows Live Freebies:  Emoticons, winks, backgrounds and music for WLM.  Some cute, some not so cute (in my opinion). 

There are, of course, many sites on the Internet that offer emoticons.  Just make sure you have firewall and anti-virus programs installed and that you check out the websites and the download content carefully.  I tend to stay away from sites that bring up lots of popup windows and try to get you to install various toolbars and/or change your home page.  Have fun!

*with credit given to my pod mate who helped me locate these sites

The Samsung Intensity, A Review

Looking over my blog stats today, I observed that I am not the only one out there in cyberland researching and soliciting or giving opinions on the Verizon’s Samsung Intensity.  Because my previous post was more a commentary on my disappointment over receiving a possibly defective phone than a review of the Intensity, I have decided to add the rest of my two cents about this phone for the sake of those who may be currently contemplating a wireless phone choice. 

I really like the Samsung Intensity, give it four stars out of five, only holding back on the fifth star because it is not the ultimate and I have yet to find the perfect phone.  Although I had reception and sound problems with my first device (now returned and replaced), I have been infatuated with this phone from the moment I took it out of the box—the looks and the features and now the clarity of sound.  If you want a cute phone with a slide-down qwerty keyboard for texting, a decent 1.3 megapixel camera, the ability to store and listen to music, a wall charger/USB cable that allows for easy uploading and downloading of pictures, good (I would not say excellent) reception and sound quality, and great battery life, I recommend this one.  The Intensity comes in both black/gray and red.  Pictured above is the red one in memory, sniff sniff, of my original red Intensity that was replaced with a black one by Verizon.  Yes, I’m still slightly traumatized by that.  I bought a red case for it today.

Because I have found that usage habits and pickiness level play a big part in one’s satisfaction with a phone, I’ll tell you a bit about me.  I am a 40-something female who never found the need for a wireless phone until about 6 years ago when I inherited my son’s contract (on which I had co-signed) and phone when he entered the Army.  I’m on a Verizon family plan with my parents, and out of the 700 allotted anytime minutes per month, it would be unusual for me to use 200 even though my wireless phone doubles as my home phone.  Although I don’t spend much time on the phone, I expect the reliability, reception and sound to be of the quality I am paying for (and Verizon is certainly not the cheapest of wireless service providers).  I only recently began texting–I’m lousy at it and send less than 15 per week—but I want a qwerty keyboard with usable-sized keys for when I do.  I don’t generally listen to music on my phone, but I like to have the option available.  I’m on the Internet a lot at home and at work, but I don’t use the Internet on my phone as I am too impatient to deal with the tiny print and screen and I do not want to pay for it.  On the pickiness scale, I’m somewhere in the middle or closer to the obsessive side when it comes to sound quality and functionality but I don’t lose my head over every little blur and crackle or every functional quirk.  Last but not least, I like my phone to be attractive, if a phone can be attractive, but I know beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

FYI, the following are lists of commonly voiced pros and cons that I have seen in recent reviews of the Samsung Intensity along with some of my own thoughts:

PROS

1. Good battery life.  Yup!  So far so good.
2. Qwerty keyboard.  Check.
3. Sleek and attractive.  Yeppers! 
4. Takes nice pictures.  Yes, for a phone, it takes nice pictures.
5. Wall charger doubles as USB connector.
6. Accommodates microSD expansion to 16 MB to store more photos and music. 

 CONS

1. Call and End buttons are too small.  I couldn’t agree more!  They are small, vertical and awkwardly located. 
2. Face buttons and qwerty keys difficult to push.  Um, the keys do require a firm touch but I do not find them to be difficult; i.e., not a flaw but more a matter of preference.  I notice the stiffness more on the qwerty keys than on the face buttons.
3. A bit bulky.  It is definitely not as thin and petite as some phones, but if one wants a phone with a slide-down keyboard and decent-sized qwerty keys, I think a bit of thickness is a part of the bargain.
4. Clunky and big.  See above.
5. Auto Lock can be easily unlocked causing butt and purse dialing.  I can’t speak to the butt dialing because I do not keep my phone in my back pocket but my purse did run up some internet usage charges.  I was not happy about that, but (no pun intended) I am getting around this quirk by changing the shortcuts for the directional keys.
6. Muffled, unclear sound and breaking up during conversations.  Hmmmm.  My first model did all of that.  Now, three days into using my current device, I am no longer experiencing the blur and breaking up.  Is the sound as good as my previous phone, a Motorola Krazr?  No, I must admit that it is not.
7. Dropped calls.  Haven’t had a dropped call since I exchanged my first Intensity (the cherry red one, boo hoo).  Ask me in a week or two, and I hope to give you good feedback.

Happy phone shopping and may you choose the best model for you!!

It’s not over . . .

. . . until Comcast say’s it’s over.  This year, on Christmas eve, I received an unanticipated cash gift from an unexpected source.  I’m sure everyone, including myself, wishes that I would cease with resurrecting the Comcast ordeal, but fair is fair and I believe if I publish the bad, I must also publish the good.  In my last post I hinted that the rebate check I received from Comcast was not all that I had hoped it might be but that I would be putting the matter to rest.  Well, I spoke too soon.  Just days after the first check, I received another check that added with the first satisfies the entire amount I believed was owed to me.  So again I say, thank you Comcast for working with me to resolve this situation.

Yoo-hoo, Mr. Comcast man, where are you?

Several weeks ago, hmmm…actually it’s been just a few days short of a month, I wrote a blog post entitled Comcastic not so fantastic detailing my recent frustrating experience with Comcast Internet service.  The very next morning – Wow, that was fast! — I received a polite and apologetic comment from a Mark Casem at Comcast. 

Crystal,

I am sorry that we lost you as one of our one of our customers. I will definitely share your experience with our regional contacts so that we can look into problems you have experienced. I know it is all too late now, but I would really appreciate it if you can provide the phone number that was associated with your former account. This information will help us get a better understanding on your experience so that we can prevent the problems from recurring. We certainly don’t want other customers to experience the same.

If there is anything that I can do to come back as a customer, please let me know. Again, I sincerely apologize for the experience.

Regards,

Mark Casem
Comcast Customer Connect
National Customer Operations
We_Can_Help@cable.comcast.com

It’s no secret that Comcast and other large companies pay people good money just to sit and search the Internet and the news to find out the latest on the companies’ public images and to spy on what their employees are blogging about or what they might be doing on FaceBook and MySpace and such, but I never expected anyone, including Comcast, to notice little old me and my bloggy.  I even got a “Can I help?” response regarding my Comcastic ordeal from the Comcast advocate on Twitter, Mr. ComcastSteve.

Call me crazy, but, being a fair person who forgives and forgets easily, I was taken in by the compassion and good will which was extended in my direction.  I truly began to reconsider my own actions and attitudes and began to feel guilty for publishing the Comcast bashing post.  (Read my reply to Mark’s comment after the post.)  I promised to e-mail the phone# associated with my account along with the details so that the problem could be researched, and so I did, within just a few days of the post.  I confess that my e-mail had both generous and selfish intentions, *blush*:

1. Even though I had quit Comcast and become a member of the Qwest family, I wanted to help Comcast resolve the problem with Internet at my address so that future residents of this apartment (I will be moving within a few months) will be able to have Comcast Internet without disturbance.  I was even willing to allow them to enter my apartment again, if necessary.
2. I hoped to regain some of my hard-earned greenbacks.  My account never received all of the credits I was promised leaving me with an ending bill of $18 rather than the $50+ credit that was promised and due to me.

The following morning, I received this concise response from a Vinisha Chugani at Comcast:

Thanks for contacting us!  I am reviewing this now along with Mark.  We will give you a call.

Thanks,

Vinisha

Fast, brief and to the point!  I loved it, a taste of hope and the expectation of satisfaction, but it was short-lived.  A week went by and then another week and another week and now it’s been almost a month.  Vinisha, Mark, Steve, you handed me hope and then dumped rejection in my lap.  Yoo-hoo, Mr. Comcast man, where are you?

Bookmark Hell

OK, I admit it.  I’ve sunk to a new low.  I’m in Bookmark Hell.  I didn’t even know there was a such thing as Bookmark Hell until tonight, but let me tell you folks, there is!

I love my bookmarks, cherish them even.  Without them I would be lost endlessly flipping through the pages of the Internet unable to find my way.  What’s the malfunction then?  OCD and me.  That’s the malfunction.  Tonight I went on an Internet cleaning spree, did the change the password and update the records thing, etc.  Then, I got the brilliantly horrible idea of reorganizing my Bookmarks–especially risky at midnight when one has to work early the next day.

If you are like me, and God help you if you are, you have bookmarks all over the place.  I have IE bookmarks, Firefox bookmarks, and bookmarks in two of several Google toolbar accounts.  Gah!  The neat freak in me (and yes, Philip, there is one) has been quietly and secretly going mad over the fact that these various bookmark locations are not in sync with one another and that the folders/labels do not more accurately reflect their contents.  Happily surfing along, at different times I have added bookmarks to one or several or all of these locations but never (well, ok, not in over a year) have I taken the time to try to marry and organize them.  Tonight I tried and I’m sorry I did.

The results:  I think I might have the full set in my IE favorites but they aren’t as portable as Google bookmarks unless I want to carry a USB flash drive.  Firefox is being a beast and I’m not entirely sure what it imported because it made duplicates for each of the four bookmark locations rather than melding them.  Google account #1 will not completely dump its contents nor will it take on the entire set of bookmarks.  Google account #2 is the one I’m counting on.  So far so good, but Google why do you make it so confusticating to edit your bookmarks and add folders.  I want to just be able to drag the contents around like I can in Internet Exploder, but no, I have to go to the bookmark page and mess with changing labels for each one.  And, by the way, why can’t I create a label without adding a bookmark.

This is all too much for my tired head.  Tomorrow is another day.  To be continued……….  Maybe.

Comcastic not so fantastic

I should have known I was in for trouble when a gal named Happy at Comcast offered me a deal that was too good to be true a little over a year ago, but I had been without Internet for more than a week due to a move and was eager to be surfing at lightening speed with Comcastic glee.  I had been given the runaround and/or an exorbitant cost estimate by several of the DSL companies and so made an impulsive decision to go with cable Internet. 

My first indication that life with Comcast might not be all lollypops and ice cream was my initial bill.  What?  Yes.  Regular price and doubled due to the extra part of a month.  Indignant, I dialed up Comcast customer service and politely gave them a small piece of my mind.  Turns out that not only was there no customer service rep named Happy to be found, but my six-month special with a then to follow discounted regular rate was quickly nixed and replaced with a not so special three-month discount and then back to the non-discounted rate of $59.99 per month.  I should have been enraged and I was, but I choose my battles and this was clearly not one I was going to win without cancelling and going with another company so I waived the white flag and took it.  As I stated above, most of the DSL companies did not provide service in my area or wanted too much moola. 

And then there was a year of detente.  Comcast was content to take my money, and I was content with my Internet service and generally happy, no pun intended, with the exception of the few seconds that it took me to click the “pay” button on my bank’s website each month.  At one point, a minor glitch occurred during which my Internet died for a few hours every afternoon/early evening, but not wanting to upset the apple cart and since the outages only lasted for a few weeks, I gave Comcast the benefit of the doubt and placidly navigated my Internet way.

Little did I know, that one day approximately three weeks ago, I would come home and find that my peaceful Internet world had crashed and burned.  Waaaaaah!  I tried everything to patch up our relationship on my own but nothing worked – new Ethernet card, new modem, checking cable connections, new cables, changing IE settings.  Call me crazy, but despite our differences, I had hoped that Comcast and I would continue our relationship for a good long time.  After all, changing Internet services is like moving to another physical residence or changing banks with all the change of address notices and account numbers, etc.  I waved that white flag and screamed at Comcast, “What did I ever do to you that I deserve this.”  I was lost!  I do everything online.  I don’t own a checkbook or stamps.  Even my junk mail comes from the e-world. And how could I blog or tweet or keep up with my Facebook buddies.  I don’t have many real-life friends, and the ones I do have are mostly long distance.  Turn off my cell phone service, for crying out loud, but don’t take my Internet.

After a week, I gave up my do-it-ur-self determination and called the fantastic Comcastic technical support.  Despite the language/accent barrier (because, of course, the techs were in a country far, far away), the techs I talked to were pleasant and they did their best, which was absolutely nothing.  “Ma’am, there appears to be nothing wrong with your connection or your modem.”  You see, my problem was not “no connection” and was not a “slow connection” but rather the dreaded “intermittent connection” – on, off, on, off, on, off.  Have you ever noticed that there is never a number to choose on the tech support lines for an intermittent connection?  The Internet companies assume that you either have one or you don’t, right?  Finally, after several calls over several days and chatting with several tech people, one of them came up with the brilliant idea of sending a tech to my house.  Duh!

The night before the first (yes, the first of three) tech was to visit my home, I opened an explorer window and Googled “Comcast sucks” out of frustration, never expecting with my raunchy connection to get the search results up.  I chuckled to myself as I observed that there were entire blogs, societies, web pages, YouTube videos dedicated to the subject.  Here is one of the two videos that I enjoyed before my connection again gave up the ghost:

Three techs, two and a half weeks, and still no Internet service later, I found myself struggling through my intermittent connection to revisit the rates and service areas of the few DSL companies in my area.  I was just about to click the final “submit” button at the Qwest website when the connection died again and did not return for the rest of the evening.  Sigh!  So close and yet so far.  On this one, Comcast did me a favor because I got a better deal with Qwest the following day over the telephone.  Thank you for very small favors Comcast.

And now my story is almost over.  Driving home from work on the day that my new Qwest equipment was to arrive, I called Comcast to inform them that I would be moving on to greener pastures only to find that they had been charging me $30 a pop to come out and NOT fix my Internet connection, adding $89 to my bill.  This time, I went off my nut, I lost it, I let the guy have it.  In the end, he relented and promised to credit me the three visits and time lost.  I’ll believe it when I see it.