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I'm playing around with the new release of Radio Userland. It's progressed a great deal since the last time I tried it. Now I need to figure out how I can run it as a service under Windows, so it's always on...

So far, I'm underwhelmed by editing my weblog in this manner. It's not obvious how you create subject lines, as you'll notice above on the left side, all I get is the date. Also, the editor box lacks the WYSIWYG editor that I've come to know so well...   10:08:09 PM

Warning: Easy CD Creator 5.0 can kill!

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I've spent most of the day battling the problems that Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5.0 can cause with Windows 2000.  By performing a complete install, you can render your operating system unbootable.  I've also discovered that uninstalling Easy CD Creator 4.0 can leave your CD-ROM drives unusable to Windows.  In short, I've had a frustrating day, but I've learned quite a bit.  I've also come to loathe Roxio, and I wish a plague on upon their programmers, their tech support people, and their Quality Assurance people, if any actually exist...

I've detailed the problems, and the fixes, that go with this new product.  As far as I can tell, I'm the only place on the web that has the info about this new product, as even Roxio's pages don't have any support information for version 5.0.  You may want to spread this information far and wide, for I predict there will be a great many others who will have these problems...

 

Dell Rumors?

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Our Dell Field Rep stopped by this morning.  It was the first any of us had met him.  He seems like a pretty nice guy, and was very honest with us about what he was willing to do to get our business.  What I was happiest about, was getting  a chance to look at the roadmaps for Dell's Optiplex and Precision lines.  It appears that the Optiplex GX150 Mini-tower will be released on or by the 23rd of this month.  We've been buying the GX115 series lately, but we despise the integrated video, and the lack of an AGP slot.  The GX150 series have the AGP slot, but the current cases lack options for Zip drives.  The new GX400 models are using the Pentium IV CPUs and the expensive RDRAM that comes with them.  Too rich for our blood...

I also told him that Dell should start offering Microsoft's optical mice as an option with their computers.  We prefer them, as we don't have to clean them all the time, especially in high-traffic areas like our computer labs.  I was told by both him and our Texas-based Dell rep that such a bundle was likely in the works. 

Good News!

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Why am I not suprised?  Mac OS X isn't going to support several "goodies" when it ships, according to this article at ZDNet.  When it comes out later this month, you'll be unable to play DVD movies, or use Apple's iTunes and iMovie software.  It's pretty sad when Apple can't even get their own software ready in time for the launch of the OS.  This means you can expect to see third party applications available sometime around 2010...

Good news from my mom today regarding my sister's MRI!  Here's the e-mail:

The MRI showed no malignancy and seemed to indicate that it may be a lymph node. she has an apt with her ENT next Friday so I will keep you posted as to what he says. His office staff yesterday said she could wait until her next regular apt but they called again today. I have no idea when he thought her apt was!