How to move a cellphone number that doesn't want to move

Desperation is the mother of invention. The person who came up with this hack for migrating a "stuck" cellphone number from one service to another developed a mental model of the underlying database problem, and hacked a workaround: "AppleInsider | How to port 'ineligible' mobile numbers to AT&T and iPhone"

Google voice search for phones

If I didn't despise my RAZR so much, this would tempt me to restore Sprint data services to my account. As it is I'll add this to my phone list so I can play with it.

Official Google Blog: 1-800-GOOG-411: now with maps

...a few months back we launched 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) in the U.S. It's a free telephone service that lets you search for businesses by voice and get connected to those businesses for free.

Today, your GOOG-411 experience just got better: during your call to GOOG-411, just say 'map it', and you'll get a text message with the details of your search plus a link to a map of your results right on your mobile phone.

Don't buy OS X software that doesn't use Apple's Installer

Adobe is the prime offender in the marketplace. We shouldn't be buying software that uses VISE and other non-compliant OS X installers. If a product doesn't use Apple's installer, don't use it. It's the mark of a vendor that doesn't care.

On Installers | Mac Geekery:

# PocketMac for Blackberry – Installer requires local admin account, AND installs essential components in ~/Library, forcing someone to log in with a local admin account, then drag the components to /Library/ then change the permissions so the actual user can utilize PocketMac.

# Adobe – Adobe’s installers and terrible enterprise support cause me an apopolectic fit. I still can’t get Reader 8 to repackage and deploy nicely....

Oldapps.com - older versions of applications

example: Old Version of iTunes for Mac Download. Handy when the new version doesn't work!

OS X: stay at 10.4.9?

I was thinking it was about time to install 10.4.10 when I read this:

MacInTouch: timely news and tips about the Apple Macintosh

.... I've just gotten off the phone with Apple support and they've confirmed that the 10.4.10 update is buggy, and another update is in the works.

...The tech I spoke with recommended that I archive-install 10.4.6 and update only to 10.4.9 using the manually downloaded updaters on Apple's web site.

10.4.9 works very well. I also read on Macintouch that the new iTunes is troublesome as well.

No rush, I'll check back in a couple of week and check Apple's forums before the update. Maybe I'll hold off on all Apple updates until they get out of the primary iPhone blitz...

Update 6/30/07: More on Mac OS X Hints Not a great update! Mac OS X Hints is probably a good place to visit one week after a major update, and prior to applying the update.

XP desktop and Outlook 2003 search: RIP Lookout, GDS, and YDS/X1

It's over. The big guy won.

About 3-4 years ago there were at least five serious contenders for full-text search of Outlook and the Windows file system. The best of the desktop search tools in early 2005 was a relabeled version of "X1" distributed as "Yahoo Desktop Search". Next was Google Desktop Search, though it was a distant second. Microsoft's search solution was weak.

On the Outlook front there was one great solution: Lookout for Outlook.

Microsoft bought Lookout, Google kept on going, Yahoo gave up, the others vanished. Now, finally, Microsoft has integrated the majority of Lookout's capabilities into a revised version of their desktop full text search tool. The result is very impressive.

I've been using WDS for a few weeks now, and at long last I'm removing Lookout for Outlook from my system. It hung on a very long time. I've removed X1/YDS from home and work, it was getting increasingly flaky with each Microsoft system patch (some things never change).

Eventually Microsoft will decide it's time to move their corporate customers to Vista and WDS/XP will die, but for now it rules.

Recommended, but as is usual with Microsoft these days, there are some caveats:

• Many of the Microsoft web pages referring to WDS are obsolete and have bad links.
• There are two ways to install. One installs only Windows Desktop Search, but no IE or Outlook toolbars. The other installs Windows Live Toolbar into IE and a separate Outlook toolbar. Windows Live Toolbar is also used to host my favorite blog writer. I recommend the second install, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were somewhat different applications.
• Toolbar installation into Outlook can be problematic. See the help links on the post-install page.
• Be sure to look at the help file (hallelujah, it's the OLD style Windows help) and look at the keyboard shortcusts and advanced operators such as "has:attachment", "before 10/1/2007", "filename:fred", "store:outlook", "kind:tasks", etc.
• Use the keyboard shortcut: windows-shift-F.

PS. Recently Google has sued to facilitate replacing Vista's search with GDS. Microsoft must be smiling about that. This is one battle Google isn't going to win.

Map photos in Picasa: Display on Google Earth

This little blurb about the new feature doesn't mention they are subsequently available on Google Earth:

Picasa Web Albums

See your photos arranged on a map, and show friends exactly where you took your best pictures. Simply type a location into the 'Place Taken' field when creating a new album, or refine a photo's placement using a drag-and-drop map.

More here.

Update 9/2/07: Google's Picasa image integration with both Google Maps and Google Earth doesn't work the way I'd thought it did. I'm not sure how it's supposed to work, I can't find any documentation. The one thing I see is that all images are not routinely available to the public even when the appropriate layers are enabled. As of 9/07 image display in Google Maps seems to barely work at all.

Your guide to advertising on the net

Coding Horror (CH), an excellent blog on software, is going to accept advertising. I hope that is good news for ongoing excellence, though I fear Jeff attempting to add new people and scale upwards. By way of introducing this change, Jeff has given us a concise high quality tutorial about: How To Advertise on Your Blog Without (Completely) Selling Out.

NYT Massive Evolution Science Section

Science News 6/26/07- New York Times. It will take a while to get through ALL of this. Wow, the NYT is having a great year.

No search means no iPhone for me

Deal killer.

The Mossberg Solution | Walter S. Mossberg and Katherine Boehret | AllThingsD

.... there’s no overall search on the iPhone (except Web searching), and no quick way to move to the top or bottom of pages (except in the Web browser). The only aid is an alphabetical scale on the right in tiny type.

There’s also no way to cut, copy, or paste text...

I'll wait for version 1.1.

Update 7/1/07: help is supposed only the way.

Nice summary of a diy quiet vista desktop

The sweet sound of near-silence has a good summary of a quiet vista desktop build. I'll probably never build another PC, but I like tracking these examples.

Gmail won't send a zipped bat file

I tried to mail a zipped archive to my work address. It contained one batch file -- Gmail rejected the zip since it contained an 'executable' file.

Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!

I'm beginning to see some more problems with these hosted services.

I renamed the file to .bak.

Google to Acquire GrandCentral?

Google to Acquire GrandCentral? is a recent rumor. The author adds a tongue-in-cheek comment "I wonder why Google would want that company...". GC is all about owning identity of course, and all Google fans now that Google's core strategy is owning identity management and authentication.

I'd probably rather Amazon owned my identity, but I'll take Google over Microsoft or the Banks.

I like GC, but I'm not willing to commit to them (put my GC number on my business card) until they show evidence of persistence. A Google acquisition would do that.

Using a GC number on your business card would eliminate the biggest downside of using a corporate mobile account ...

OS X and Mac Mini tutorial and configuration guide

I've updated the tutorial, and associated system configuration guide, that I prepared for my 77 year old visually impaired mother. The reference may be of general interest in preparing an OS X system for any person with visual impairment, or who needs a minimalist computing environment.

Here's the guide (the configuration information is in an appendix)

• Mac Mini Tutorial (PDF, 2.5MB)
• Mac Mini Tutorial (RTF, 3.5MB)

There's also a companion blog with screencasts, but to date those have not been very useful.

Most recently I made the following changes:

• OS X 10.4.10 allows one to change mouse pointer size. Maybe that's always been there, but I didn't notice it before.
• I stopped using the ctrl-mouse scroll zoom feature and instead enabled the keyboard zoom. I turned off the dizzying screen motion default behavior, now the screen is fixed and moves only when "pushed" by the pointer at a screen margin. I set maximal magnification to "two" and I changed the keyboard mapping from an obscure modifier key to the + and - keys at the far right of the keyboard (which she doesn't use).

I've not added it yet, but I have also found that a lower intensity halogen desk light ($12, I checked before purchase that the cheap thing worked) that illuminates the keyboard, without shining on the display, is very helpful.

See also:

• Adaptive iPod (old style)
• OS X usability hall of horrors
• older post on this topic

I think this would be a great Tidbits 'take control' book topic but they didn't respond to my suggestion. (Anyone who wants to do that can take whatever I put up. No rights reserved.)

Canon's CanoScan drivers: the horror and the Vuescan alternative

On the one hand, Canon has historically had better OS X support than say, Hewlett Packard. True, their drivers are famous for cooking hardware, but at least they existed. On the other hand, one might be better off without them.

I recently tried reinstalling Canon CanoScan LiDE 30 7.0.1.1X drivers on my mother's Intel Mac Mini. I had odd error messages about "error code -5000" and "N067U not found" during my reinstall attempts, despite running as an administrator. My guess is privilege/security issues and left over bits from an earlier install were confusing Canon's very (very) primitive installer. A quick Google confirmed my suspicion that this was not a battle worth waging. So I went about removing the bits and pieces.

Wow. What a mess. OS X desperately needs to permit only use of signed installs with the Apple Installer and true uninstaller support. Canon's installer sprays junk everywhere. Spotlight seemed to find it all, including seven files in \Library\CFMSupport. (Touch that folder with great care -- like everything in \Library it can have some dangerously critical stuff in it. In my case, however, Get Info showed every file there belonged to Canon.) Then I had to delete two "login" entries. (I got rid of some Microsoft Mouse and Keyboard drivers at the same time, that uninstall was only marginally better but I think they were well behaved enough that I could have left them alone.)

I then tried Vuescan. Vuescan is the idiosyncratic [1] OS X and Windows product of Ed Hamrick, a Caltech alum who's been working away at it for 9 years. I think he may be a one man shop, and based on my own CIT experience (unofficial motto: "the truth shall xxxx you over") I have a clear (though likely incomplete) mental picture of Ed. In brief, trustworthy, stubborn, irascible, reliable.

Mercifully Vuescan supports the LIDE 30 without any Canon drivers (but not, for example, the LIDE 35 -- that scanner is junk now). I'd registered Vuescan two years ago, but my one year upgrade period had passed and Ed doesn't offer old downloads. He does offer[2], for $40, upgrades of an old 1 year license to a "professional" license that provides upgrades as long as Ed stays in business. That's the same as a new 1 year license and the new version (pro or regular) has a "guide me" feature that I think my mother might be able to use (the other pro features don't matter to me).

So I upgraded to Vuescan Professional and it's working well so far. I do get odd behaviors with auto crop, similar to what I remember with earlier versions. but the manual crop works.

Oh, the Vuescan Installer? Drag icon to Applications. Uninstall? Drag icon to trash.

[1] Ed's approach to license numbers, serial numbers, and email addresses strikes me as a bit over-engineered, but with some patience and persistence I was able to figure it out. I've no idea why he insisted on changing my customer number with the upgrade -- maybe something to do with identifier misuse.
[2] Download new version. Enter old information. Try to register. You get an upgrade button.

PS. If Apple really wanted to please customers, they'd use some of their billions to hire some device driver programmers to create Apple drivers for scanners and printers. Either that, or return to the old days of reselling devices under the Apple name. Canon, HP, Brother, etc are incapable of producing quality drivers - on any platform. XP/Vista is no different, but there Microsoft writes the drivers that work. For that they deserve praise and credit.