How To: Switch between Outlook and Palm Desktop synchronization

palmOne - Support - Knowledge Library: "How To: Switch between Outlook and Palm Desktop synchronization"

TechTutorials.com - Fixing a Stuck Print Job in Windows 2000

TechTutorials.com - Fixing a Stuck Print Job in Windows 2000

This happens to me quite often. It's one of the biggest Win2K annoyances. Nice fix.

---

"Fixing a Stuck Print Job in Windows 2000

Occassionally a print job gets stuck in the print queue and cannot be deleted. When you try to cancel the print job it will show as 'Deleting', but the job will never go a way. Additionally, new print jobs that you send to the printer will not print either.

There are a couple of easy ways to fix this problem as follows:

1) Open the services control panel (start -> settings -> control panel -> administrative tools -> services). Right click on the Print Spooler service and select stop. After that has completed, right click on the Print Spooler service again and select start. You can then close the control panel and the offending job should disappear from the queue.

2) An easier way to do this is to just click on the Start Menu, select 'Run' and type in 'CMD'. At the command prompt, type 'net stop spooler'. Once that is complete, type 'net start spooler' without the quotes of course.

After you perform either one of these actions, the job should disappear from the queue and you should be able to print again. "

Silicon Valley - Dan Gillmor's eJournal - Google's Definition Lookup

Silicon Valley - Dan Gillmor's eJournal - Google's Definition Lookup: "If you type (without the quotes) 'define:' and then a word, Google goes out and finds Web pages where that term is defined. For example, I put in the word 'type' and got back a fairly long list of sites where the word has been defined in some way. (Nothing came back when I put in 'weblog' but 'blog' returned a bunch of definitions. Go figure.)"

---

Google is the command line interface to the web. Very weird that the CLI should be "hot" in the post-Mosaic web. Maybe we're post-GUI too?

The CLI is a handy way to "hide" advanced features that one is testing out.

Udell: InfoPath, Adobe and others

InfoWorld: Next-generation e-forms: January 23, 2004: By Jon Udell: E-business Strategies

Microsoft's XML-oriented InfoPath, which shipped with Office 2003 in October, is now deployed and in use. Adobe plans to ship a beta version of its PDF- and XML-oriented forms designer in the first quarter of this year. And e-forms veterans such as PureEdge and Cardiff, whose offerings are built on an XML core, are lining up behind XForms, an e-forms specification that became an official W3C recommendation in October 2003.

---

Nice Udell article on InfoPath, I need to send this ref to Andrew.

Canon PowerShot Pro1 (the "G8") Disappoints

DCRP Review: Canon PowerShot Pro1

---

Reading between the lines, this is a downer. The Pro1 CCD is just too small with current technology to capture 8 megapixels properly. Canon's last great camera in this lineup may have been the G3 (I have a G2 which I'm very fond of).

I'd been hoping they'd use their Digital Rebel CMOS in the f/u to the G5, but maybe it didn't fit the form factor.

john

Why I hate computers: "Unexpected error ($80080005)" with DataViz BeyondContacts

DocID: 13208 - During the synchronization, I recieve an error in the HotSync Log "Unexpected error ($80080005)"

...Restart your computer and try the synchronization againl.... Uninstall and then reinstall Outlook. After uninstalling and then reinstalling Outlook, restart your computer and try the synchronization again.

---

1. Chapura KeySuite is hosing my Outlook data when I sync to my Tungsten E. I paid $50 for it a few months ago.
2. I switch to DataViz BeyondContacts. In two days of testing it works ok. I have to stop at day two for irrelevant reasons.
3. I pay for BeyondContacts. $30.
4. BeyondContacts starts failing to sync. It can't connect to Outlook 2003. Retry fails. Outlooks is "busy":

$80080005 - A possible conflict involving Beyond Contacts and another application has occurred. Please see http://www.dataviz.com/BCConflict/ for more information on this error. There was an error attaching to Outlook. Restarting your computer often corrects this problem.

I am developing a visceral dislike for:

1. PalmOne (hacked up Palm conduits and databases)
2. Chapura (only because they've caused me great pain for years)
3. Outlook (every version)
4. Microsoft (ok, I always disliked them).

I wonder if I could figure out a way to get a piece of desktop software to suck in the Outlook calendar and then sync from that software to the Palm ...

PS. BeyondContacts spells "canceling" "cancelling" and "receive" as "recieve". It doesn't help my confidence in the product.

Googles fragility

The Register: "Google's IPO is expected in July, but doubts are already being raised. 'IMHO, they made a huge mistake in not having their IPO earlier as their 'superior technology' is increasingly being compromised,' a Slashdot poster noted at the weekend. Google is still the world's most popular brand name , but the deteriorating quality of the results raises questions of whether it can get to the finishing line in time. Google's greatest threat is not the competition: but that it appears to have no Plan B. We certainly don't hear that 'Google is God' so much these days.

From its omniscient authority of just a couple of years ago, Google already looks like one of Silicon Valley's most spectacular burn outs. Only by popular folklore, they're supposed to burn out after they've IPO'd, or been destroyed by Microsoft. Google hasn't even IPO's yet."

---

The fear is that Google has run into some pretty severe technical problems. Their infrastructure may be too big to fix ...