Praise

I have had a bit of trouble with inconsistent download speeds. I did post on the forums and got a lot of help from the guys so praise for that. I did phone the BT help line who passed my problem higher up and today BT telephoned me asking if everything OK now which I had to say yes he did not say what had been done but my profile has gone back to 77mbps from the day before which had been dropped to 69mbps speeds now are stable long may it stay this way. So praise for BT.

Doesn't matter how far from the exchange actually.
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Similar Messages

In Praise of the N97

Just for a change can i praise the N97 while I understand some users frustrations can I just add this is not every N97 user. I have owned many phones and gadgets over the years from N70,N80,N95 Iphones Archos and Ipods
and to be honest I think the N97 is the best yet
Things i'm loving most about the N97
1.The memory 32gb = lots of movies and music makling it a one gadget in your pocket
by the way if you use dvdvideosoft video to ipod convertor on the ipod highest quality setting it gives great video files supported by N97 and its freeware
2.the radio transmitter fab with the ipod and iphone this you have to pay extra for
3.the internet access is great
4.iplayer with download
only bug on this is sometimes the download option isnt there
but ive found if you restart the phone the next time it is
5.camera is good as it was on the N95 its down to the lens not the MP
6.widget options are good
My wishlist for the N97
1.coverflow or something like it for the music player
2.N gage games I believe this is happening in september
3.The picture gallery to be fixed as for some reason the download picture
file only updates when phone restarted and for some reason you cant delete from this file via the phone
only from mass storage
overall though am a very happy N97 user like all technology sometimes you have to learn to work withthe nuances and behaviours of a device compared to my early experiences with a spv its a breeze

Me too, me too!! And so you don't think I'm a teenage geek jumping up and down in excitement, I'm a geek in her 50s jumping up and down with excitement.
I've just been having coffee with a friend who was given an iPhone by his employer as a work phone. He doesn't like it much at all. One of the problems he finds is the mute button is often activated by his ear – I thought that was amusing! On the other hand, my daughter and her husband like their iPhones – but they also have a house full of Apple computers!
I love my N97 – I did a lot of research and weighed up three phones – the HTC Touch Pro 2 (I know someone who has got rid of his already and swapped to the N97), waiting for the Samsung Omnia i8000 or the N97. While the iPhone is perfect for many, many people it was never an option for me. Capacitive screen too restrictive, no multi-tasking, no FM radio, low grade camera, no flash, no personalisation to speak of. Above all else a phone has to fit the needs of the user and I was very clear on my needs.
I've not had mine for 2 weeks or anything, but I love it. The keyboard is perfect for a mobile phone (we use phone keyboards differently to PC keyboards), the touch screen is extremely accurate, it feels good to hold (as in comfortable), was dead easy to upgrade and personalise, and I've had no bugs. Call quality is excellent, my daughter's description was "just like a landline, maybe even better". The speakers (for music) are not 7.1 digital sourround sound, but this isn't a stereo system, it is a phone - and the quality can be improved by fiddling with the equaliser.
Now I just need to send Nokia my invoice for the advertising spiel, but I am really happy with it.
I've had a few Nokias, so I suppose I am used to the Nokia world, therefore easier for me to adapt.
Thinks I'd like to see: Fancier transitions, but I'm hopeful we will get the upgrade to Symbian 2 which looks great - a litle worried about the RAM required for Sym 2, but we shall see - they say we are compatible.
More useful apps - but that will come in time as developers get stuff happening.
A few odds and ends, mostly usability that I posted on the thread about the next release of firmware - some I've already found apps for, like auto-scheduling the profile changes. I'd like to see the virtual qwerty keyboard as was in early videos - handy for a quick SMS. Abiliy to edit contact detail labels (not sure where that disappeared to, was on my old phone).
Like fowler1969, I'm very happy I went with this phone.
I will say this: I have noticed quite a few posts here and in other forums where the "issues" were not phone issues, they were user issues. This is not a phone for someone who isn't a little technically literate. The phone can be highly personalised, therefore the user needs to know at least a little about the basic concepts of smartphones and computer technology generally. If a person doesn't know the difference between the C: drive and the E: drive, or understand that an internet connection is needed to get email, then possibly this is not the right phone. Don't buy this phone because you want the lastest and fanciest - but it because it fits YOUR particular needs.
Clearly some people have had some issues, but I do believe these are the exception rather than the rule.
I agree Nokia didn't test the firmware it was shipped with well enough before release.
Message Edited by au_n97_user on 18-Jul-2009 07:22 PM

Time for a Positive Message, Lets Praise BT

We all seem to come on the forum when there's a problem and never laud the service we get. Well here my positive story.
People come here as a prospective purchaser and all they see is complaint complaint complaint, no wonder there's lots of them when we extol these experiences.
Some of you will start to read this and stop here so goodbye to you. For everyone else lets try and post a few positives, which is what the rest of the world could do with right now, half full not half empty.
No one has forced you to buy in to this service, most of the complainers have moved form Sky to BT. They all say the service was exceptional, then why move when its so good, ohhh its the money you say, don't want to pay them so much. Lets go to BT and pay a fraction of the price and when you get a fraction of the service you complain. Starting to ring true is it.
Years ago and I really to mean years ago, I moved from Sky to BTV when it very first launched when super fast BB was still a dream. I had a 2mb connection(just upgraded from ISDN) and it was awful, always buffering, falling over, the powerline adapters were terrible, so back to sky I went for many years.
Then Infinity launched to my village and I moved from 2mb to 40mb, hurrah and I ordered BTV because it was about the money and about 2 months before the Youview launch.
Like you all I was excited and then the dark cloud came with the box. I switched it on and like many stories here it rebooted every 2 minutes. I complained to the highest level over the service I received, a man came replaced my box and within the first month I had a working service that was reliable and my first months subscription was credited.
Then came Youview, I wanted it for the HD element to go with the new super duper TV we had just brought. I called BT told them my sob story which was true and they upgraded to BTY for £49(activation fee).
It came I plugged it in and it all worked, I must add, that that when infinity was installed I had them move it so it was next to the TV, 'all in the service' I pointed out to the engineer and showed him the web page with it on.
So now I have two boxes, I work in an industry that uses Powerline so I knew I wasn't going to use them more trouble than they are worth. So brought an external Ethernet cable and ran it from the hub, outside to the bedroom, 15m long. Fantastic job I thought.
Yesterday I moved my BTV upstairs plugged it all in and prayed that the Ethernet cable was fine( I used Cat6e in case I wanted gigabit in the future), and hey presto it worked, fantastico.
I now have 2 boxes that both work but we only use one at a time.
What's the moral of the story, patience, which we all seem to miss and it will work, just give it time. Yes BT are still experimenting with software but its reflected in the price you pay. Did sky ever charge £12 for everything, probably in 1984 they did!!!! Michael winner had the right phrase, Calm down dear, it's only a car, which should be attributed here, Its only a telecoms company.
So come on guys lets have more positive stories to compensate for the rest. I can almost guess what the next post after this is, oh well I tried and if its the opposite then thanks.
And finally BT, Thank You and I'm looking forward to the sport channels launching soon with he multi cast on BTY.

Hi willco01
Well you are right, most posters on nearly all forums do use them to complain. Not only is it human nature to want to find somewhere to express our concerns, but it is also a place where we go to find out if others are experiencing the same problems and if there are solutions to them.
Regarding Youview from BT, there is no doubt it works. I ordered it on Monday the 25th and it came on Wednesday the 27th. Emails and texts informing me that the service was ready, arrived as promised the next day. Good service by any standard.
Well that's the positive bit over, now to the negative:
I set the box up, not hard to do, but if you need a bit of help the User Guide is incomplete, it's all very well saying "Go to Settings", but nowhere does it say how to 'get to settings'. Yes I admit that on the picture of the remote it does mention settings, but it's not exactly obvious. I also realise that once you have become familiar with the box it's easy, but when starting and unfamiliar, most will look for a Menu Button.
We receive terrestrial TV signals from two transmitters, Heathfield and Crystal Palace, my Panasonic is able to select the strongest signal and display only those on the channel listing. The Humax box, even though I selected 'Kent' managed to display duplicate channels, trying to hide the unwanted ones is not an easy task as it involves selecting each channel individually, then identifying if it is a weak channel in a sub menu, noting it, repeating this for all channels, then going into another sub menu and hiding them.
My next problem was that the codes provided did not allow the remote to control my 50" Panasonic TV. I left that and moved on.
When I selected the BT Vision service a large 'Warning' was displayed. It informed me that I was not registered, even though I had emails disputing this, and that I had to dial 0800-800-900, which I did, after 15 minutes of "We Are Very Busy", and distorted music, I was connected to a gentleman in Corporate Accounts who was as surprised as I.
Understandably he knew nothing about the warning, the problem, or what to do, so he transferred me. After a further 20 minutes I was connected to a gentleman in the Indian Subcontinent. Unfortunately I didn't speak his language and sure as ... he didn't speak mine. We however persevered.
Incidentally BT have promised to bring the Call Centres back to the UK. Evidentially it's not cheaper, as it takes 3 times as long to resolve a problem, due to the majority of staff not understanding the problem, or us, and we don't understand them.
I spent long, and I mean long, periods on hold. Mainly whilst he was away trying to find somebody who knew anything about the 'warning'. I guess he failed as all we did was a 'reset' of the box, in the blind faith that this might perform some miracle.
Next we dealt with the channel duplication problem, here he instructed me to switch the box off, disconnect the antenna plug, reconnect it, switch the box back on and then reinstall all the channels? God is the Humax box slow tuning the channels. I suspected, no I knew, that all this would achieve was to undo my work identifying and hiding the duplicate channels.
At this point I demanded to speak with his manager. He had a go at resolving the remote control problem and said that the codes in the book were wrong and gave me a list of about 15, four digit codes. He then promised that he would ring me back in 3 hours, to see if any of the codes had worked and with news regarding resolutions for the other problems. Like a fool I believed him.
After 5 hours, and with trepidation, I rang 800-111-4567, after the now familiar repeated 'Sorry' and distorted music, I eventually spoke with someone who looked at my account. He stated that there was no record of my earlier conversation! He asked if I had a reference number and when I said no he said I should have asked for one. Notwithstanding that he said that he would solve my problems. Like a fool I also believed him.
I must admit he did apologised well, he did so profusely ever 2 minutes for the next 1.5 hours and yet we actually achieved nothing. He finally said they would send a new remote, as he thought the one I had must be faulty, that someone would ring me in the morning to arrange an aerial check, as this would resolve the duplicate channel problem, even though I assured him there was absolutely nothing wrong with the aerial. He also that someone from BT would ring regarding the BT Vision problem. By this time I was ready to give up, so I demanded a reference number and had some supper. All day Thursday on the phone frustrated and and nothing to show for it!
Friday dawned, I won't bore you with all the details, suffice to say I had by that time sorted the remote and decided to deal with channel duplication myself the long winded way. Mid morning I got a call from a company saying that they would be round on Tuesday to check my aerial and that BT were paying for it. Waste of money I thought but what the hell.
As I hadn't receive the promised phone call from BT I rang them. By this time there was only the 'BT Vision account' to deal with, so I thought this can't take, long, but I was wrong. The last person I spoke with, it was evening by then, admitted that BT had cocked up the ordering process and stated that it would take 5, yes 5 days to sort it out. I asked why? She put me on hold for ages, I began to think I was being punished for asking, but it transpired that they really didn't know. When she came back she just kept repeating it would take 5 days. Every time I asked why, she said because her manager had said so! When I asked if they had to write a letter and send it to the UK asking for the service to be reinstated, she finally admitted 5 days was a long time, that I was paying for a service which I was not receiving and promised to try to expedite matters.
Saturday morning, a miracle? No more like a false dawn actually, I receive 2 more emails and more 2 texts informing me that the "Vision Service was ready to use". Full of hope I tried. 'WARNING' ring 0800-800-900. I didn't, instead I rang 0800-111-4567, no I didn't expect to get anywhere and we didn't, but by God we tried, another reset etc. etc. etc. but with the anticipated result, it still didn't work. In the end I had to admit defeat as I had run out of time. Once again I was promised a call back, on Sunday, I asked for a reference number, but he said he couldn't provide one. Yes I'm also expecting the 'we have no record of your call treatment', but what can you do, go on the forum and complain?
Anyway by now it was lunchtime and I was ready for something to eat and then pick up my 9 year old Grandson and take him to the footy, we have season tickets, don't yer know. We ate Pies and drank Beer, well I did, he had a hot dog and hot chocolate. Then we saw Brighton thrash Huddersfield 4 : 1. I must admit this made me feel a whole lot better, to the point that I got taken for a new football on the way out, another £15. I must have felt in a good mood.
So now it's Sunday and no phone call, well I must admit I didn't really expect one, and by the time I do receive one the 5 days will probably be up and it will work anyway.
Ok so what do you think, believe me this is but a précis of what happened. Should I be on here saying what a **bleep** service or singing the praises of BT?
I must admit when it works, it works well and I have no reason to be on here, but when it goes wrong, God does it go wrong and then I feel I have a right to be on here.
Cheers Noel. Any one like to predict what Monday will bring?
P.S. does anyone know why the display is so dim, that you can only see it clearly in the dark and why it uses 19 watts on standby, unless that is you don't mind waiting for 2 minutes for it to switch on?

Praises for the X300?

I have ordered a new X300, which I will pick up in a day thanks to CDW.
I would love to hear what other X300 owners think of this new ThinkPad, and any praises, suggestions, or cautions are greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
P.S. I have read conflicting reviews. What exactly is the material of the exterior of the X300? Is it plastic like the T61 or magnesium like the T60 and X61?
Message Edited by LukeD on 03-04-2008 09:31 PM
MacBook Pro, with an aluminum unibody enclosure **As of September 15, 2008, our company has completely switched to Apple. Having used ThinkPad products for over 10 years, we had desperately tried to find just one reason to continue using these products, to no avail. We are of the view that ThinkPads are no longer premium products. We wish you the best of luck with your ThinkPad! Happy computing…**

billmorrow wrote:
8 useless CD's and a couple of useless DVD-CD's later its nice to know this..!
otherwise i would not have made a set of "something" that won't recover the SSD..
and there were no recovery CD's in the box for obvious reasons..
i think you better remove this menu item ASAP and make it clear this is the case because of limited SSD space..
meanwhile it runs with a generic version of vista and a few drivers..
Let's clear some things up here. First, if your Vista X300 allowed you to create recovery CDs, you have a pre-GA system with a very early version of the preload. Therefore, your experiences are not going to be the norm. In the GA version, the Vista preload does not have the option to create rec CDs, so if that's the menu option you're referring to, it is gone. The menu option I refer to in previous posts is "Restore to Factory Contents" in the WinPE predesktop area (i.e. disk-to-disk recovery). Recovery CDs still work like a champ.
Your system would not have come with recovery CDs because it came with disk to disk recovery, a-la the early, pre-GA preload (not to mention that recovery CDs wouldn't have existed at that time). I received four additional X300 ThinkPads yesterday; one Vista preload, three XP preload, and I can assure you that while there were no recovery CDs with the XP systems (because they have disk-to-disk capability in the service partition), the Vista system did ship with a set of recovery CDs.
Hope that helps.
Full disclosure: Lenovo issues my paychecks.

Any thoughts, cautions, and/or praises for buying a T 61?

As much as I had hoped to hold out for the next model, I am going to bite the bullet and go for a T 61.
Here is the configuaration:
• Core 2 Duo T7250 / 2 GHz • Centrino Pro • RAM 1 GB • HDD 160 GB • DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM • GMA X3100 • Gigabit Ethernet • WLAN : Bluetooth 2.0 EDR • 802.11 a/b/g/n (draft) • TPM • fingerprint reader • Vista Business • 15.4" Widescreen TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) • TopSeller
If anyone has any thoughts, suggestions, cautions, and/or praises for the T 61, I would be very grateful.
I thank you all in advance.
MacBook Pro, with an aluminum unibody enclosure **As of September 15, 2008, our company has completely switched to Apple. Having used ThinkPad products for over 10 years, we had desperately tried to find just one reason to continue using these products, to no avail. We are of the view that ThinkPads are no longer premium products. We wish you the best of luck with your ThinkPad! Happy computing…**

The first thing I would do is buy a 2 GB stick of RAM and install it. 1 GB is not really sufficient for Vista. Well, nothing can really fix Vista, but 1 GB will make it worse. 3 GB would be even better.
The good news is you can buy the RAM and install it yourself MUCH cheaper than if you had ordered it with the machine - sorry, Lenovo.
The following is a good video on removing the RAM. It's for the T60 but it's exactly the same for the T61:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?lndocid=MIGR-63769
Message Edited by mbhockey13 on 01-23-2008 10:56 AM
Note from Moderator: Converted to clickable link.
Message Edited by nonny on 01-26-2008 11:39 AM
ThinkPad T61 15 Widescreen with nVidia Quadro graphics 6459CTO
Windows 7 Enterprise and Windows XP Pro

Praise for the nano

I just got my nano in the mail today, and I wanted to do something you rarely see on online discussion forums: praise it without complaint. Most of the time people post because they have a problem they need to figure out, or something irritated them and they want to vent. That's cool, that's what forums are for, to get things fixed. But sometimes you like a product so much you are motivated to say Thanks to the manufacturer.
I knew how small these things are supposed to be, and yet when I pulled it out of the box and held one for the first time in my hands I was still stunned. Every time I pick it up I am stunned anew. How on earth did Apple do this? Jonathan Ive, and the Apple design team, bravo!
Is my nano going to get scratched? You bet. Both of my previous iPods got scratched. It's the nature of them. But after seeing all the moaning about nanos getting scratched, I took a look today at my 3G iPod and wondered just how bad it was. This is an iPod I have used with no protection, just sticking in my jeans pocket on a daily basis. Is it scratched? I had no idea, so I took a close look. Sure enough, lots of little scratches on both the screen and the back. Go figure. I hadn't really paid attention before, and I won't again in the future. You don't notice it unless you look at it. So will I stick my nano in my jeans pocket? Yup. Will it get scratched? Yup. Will I care? A little, but not that much.
I love this nano. It works, exceeds my expectations in every way, and I just love it. Well done, Apple.

I certainly don't minimze the fact that scratches will occur, and with any iPod. And if it bothers you, I don't belittle that fact either. Each person will react differently. But I remember when the first iPod came out and people had similar complaints early on. It was so shiny and new that any flaw stood out. Wow, how shiny that back was! But oh, what a fingerprint magnet... And so it goes, iPod after iPod. The complaints about the nano are nothing new.
In fact, I think it's the early adopters who complain the most, perhaps because they are so into the technology they want to be first in line to buy these great devices. They love them! But that's why it bothers them when their beautiful gadget gets marred in any way.
Do I like the fact that my nano is in perfect condition right now? Sure. Same feeling as when I get brand new sneakers. They are shiny white and new. And until that first scuff mark appears, it feels new. Then that first mark appears and it hurts. But then you move on to a new level of appreciation, start to forget the scuff mark, and pretty soon it's just another workday shoe that you enjoy but don't look that closely at.
My 3G iPod is very scratched, but I stopped noticing. It was a tool, and it worked great, so I enjoyed it. I got to relax about it. Scratched? Fine, I'll stick it in my jeans and not worry about it any more. It's cool.
So I'm not saying people are wrong to complain. I just wanted there to be a reminder that this really is an astounding product, and it was worth saying Thank You to Apple.

Just the time to praise Garageband, aint it about time someone did!

Im stopping here to say thanks to APPLE for this great product. Who says these apple discussions have to always be about problems. For those who have mastered it and have put it to use its time i think to praise it. Especially those who are lucky like me who can really abuse it with a Quad loaded with 5 GB RAM.
It has allowed me to create some really nice music and without the effort i would need to do it like on these monster DAW's. Logic Express is not in the playing cards for me for now. If Apple decides to create a Logicband or Garageband 4 with more musical features then ill be just the happier for it.
Im just tipping my cap off to it and want to thank all those who have put up with my questions for the last 3 years.
The only thing thats missing now is Time.

Just good enough and better if you really know what youre doing. You have to be creative with it not have it make the song for you.
GB3, LE, name it. all will turn you off if you are just using it to repeat a musical loop for 30 seconds with a stiff drum beat and a monotonous bass loop added. There are third party loops out there ( AMG) that can be cut and pasted and surpass most of you guitarists out there. But if you can play great guitar then GB3 is IMHO great also. The DAW aint gonna make your song tasty catchy melodic etc if it ***** to begin with.
I am so taken by your post ( KB) because you have spelled it out so nicely.
These technophiliacs spend more time on perfecting the sound quality but more often than not and from what ive listened to the quality of the song is so often overlooked.
That you will always be responsible for and no software will create that for you.

A few days into having the Z10- MY pros/cons/thoughts/concerns/praises/etc....

*Let me preface this by saying I just want to lay it all out on the table- you may take it with a grain of salt, or feel free to comment!*
I have been a very loyal blackberry customer since 2007- I've had their curves, bolds, and torches, and I currently own the Torch 9810. Blackberry has been a fantastic company, and I've always loved owning a blackberry. I was EXTREMELY excited when I found out that they were releasing a new operating system as well as two phones, so, on the 22nd, when AT&T released the Z10, I went and bought it outright so that I could play around with the OS. Man on man, can I say how brilliant Blackberry has done with their new line of phones. The Z10 is sleek, sexy, quick, and unlike anything out there. I played around with it for quite some time, and the following are things that I've thought about it:
Good things/good features/wow effect:
- huge, bright, and wonderful screen
- quick interface and smooth OS
- loved being able to access the camera without having to go into the phone
- THE CAMERA!! WOW As all BB users can tell you, it is 100fold better; it's quick, it takes crisp and clear pictures, and comes with image enhancements, it's easy to use, and there are so many options within the camera application.
- I was able to transfer my texts, calender, contacts, and memos from OS7 to OS10
- I love being able to see my calender events on the 'lock screen'
- the HUB is quite a cool feature that consolidates many things
- call quality is great!
- the virtual keyboard is the best out there
- the 'sleep mode' screen is really awesome- the one that shows the clock, and alarm settings
- cool little features like when you want to power off the phone, and it prompts you to hold down the power button for 3 seconds
- NOT HAVING TO DO A BAT PULL EVERY TIME YOU DOWNLOADED A NEW APP!
- being able to folder up items on the home screen
- media sharing!!! connecting to a TV or PC or other DLNA supported devices
*this list isn't a fully extensive list, but these are the things I could think of right away*
Concerns/not so good things/problems/things I actually miss from OS7:
- Physical keyboard (YES, I know- the Q10 will be coming out soon... anyone know an official AT&T date???)
- back button and trackball/pad (that was blackberry classic!!)
- being able to determine how long the vibrate for text/bbm/emails/phone calls/etc
- APPS, APPS, APPS.... I just don't understand why so many apps from OS7 aren't there!! (BBuzz, Skype, Point, Shazam, Google Maps [not the blackberry version, but the regular google maps], and BBVA Compass Bank mobile banking were the ones that I HAD, but no longer would have on the Z10) <-- when developers ask what apps people want, well... simple.. GO LOOK AT WHAT iPhone IS DOING!
- facebook SUCKS on the new OS, and, well, it sucked on OS7 too, which is why I only used the 'mobile site'... now the BB10 mobile site sucks!! :/// I've only been able to check facebook from my computer except when I get updates!
- ACTIVE FRAMES!! WTF is that??? I had to purchase an LED/vibrate notifications app, but it only works if it's running in the active frames........ hate that... with a passion
- phone contacts and facebook contacts are merged and i hate that too!!! Ive tried all different ways to no avail to get that option off
- text messages, BBM, contacts, and 'reminders' lag
- the HUB and having everything consolidated... not a fan of that at all. I want email with email, texts with texts, and facebook with facebook. Maybe I'm paranoid, but consolidation scares me
- battery life is NOT very good, even though they tout the battery being the biggest yet
- I miss the way photos were categorized with BB7, and the whole media application was better on 7
- what happened to voice notes and voice notes recorder??
- I wish the 'memo pad' was back instead of it being called 'reminders' on BB10
- I feel like BB7 was just easier to use then BB10
- gestures, albeit being an awesome feature, is really hard to get used to. I want the back button and trackpad back!! made life SO much easier
*this too isn't a fully extensive list, BUT, because of most of these things, I am returning the Z10 tomorrow.*
I wish Blackberry would contact me and talk with me about the good/bad/neg/pos things about the new Z10!! There are some amazing updates and features, but I feel BB may have overreached a bit on a few things.
Phew! I just needed to vent and get all of that out there.
Let me end by saying that Blackberry has surly come around and made a dramatic turn around in the way they build phones. The phone itself is amazing, and there are great things about it. Unfortunately, MY cons have outweighed the pros right now- I just hope things get even better. BLACKBERRY- CONTACT ME AND TALK WITH ME....
Until next time, I hope you BBers have a fantastic week!!

Can't connect to the iTunes Store
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS1368
iTunes: Advanced iTunes Store troubleshooting
http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3297
 Cheers, Tom

In Praise of the Quicksilver 2001 - 867 MHz

Yes, I have newer machines but this one has been working very, very well for over six years and I decided that I was not going to let it go and not give it the Leopard treatment. I find it amazing how well it is working with all the current system updates, a process that would cripple any older PC. I was a little concerned to find that now this machine is at the bottom of the Leopard food chain, but I did a backup on an external if I had to find my way back to Tiger.
Over the course of time I made some changes. I swapped out the 32 MB ATI Graphics card for a 128 MB model three years ago (Core Image as software though); I swapped out the 60 GB hard drive with a 120 MB model (largest this machine can take); and I added a PCI (SATA) card that allowed me to install a 250 MB internal as well. I also added an Airport (not extreme) Card to connect to the local network. The machine was built with 1.12 GB of RAM.
The installation seemed to go well, about an hour or so overall (I believe this machine has a 4x DVD read). Of course I had the issue with the Login based on 10.1 or earlier and found this right after my login after the installation. I had to do a new keychain, but (although a little inconvenient) it was fairly easy to do.
The first thing I noticed is that the icons for the PCI card connected drives had changed. Before they looked like the main hard drive, now they are orange and are similar to the FireWire attached drives. Everything seems faster than Tiger, and that is quite impressive on an over six year old machine. Safari is snappier than ever. Mail is fast as well. I don't miss the Spotlight delay while typing at all. Quick Look and the additions to viewing files in the Finder work fine and are very useful.
My menu bar is not transparent (not enough GPU power?), so for some detractors this may be a good thing, but it doesn't detract from the use at all. I'm a left-side dock person and I liked the original design that looked like when it was on the bottom, but the current configuration is OK and the lights for active programs are very easy to see. It seems to be using up more RAM than previously, but I'll have to keep watching that and see if it's overall or just certain things.
Overall my rating of this effort is a big success, and I'm sure I'd find it harder and harder to live without Leopard each day if I did not upgrade this machine. I'm not expecting this machine to act like a top of the line model, but with it's new spots, this mature machine has a lot of life left in it!
Some things I've tried so far (not in great detail, just briefly):
Photoshop CS seems to work.
Filemaker 8.5 seems to work.
Rise of Nations seems to work (maybe a tad slower in some respects, but barely noticeable)
Word seemed to work, although it seemed a bit cranky when initially highlighting text and moving windows.
Still bonding with Stacks, seems useful but requires some mindset adjustment, but it is faster than having the Application Folder in the Dock and holding it down for a menu of the contents. It would be nicer if you just saw a folder though and not the first application icon in the dock.
Spaces are definitely Cool!
Preview (4.0) has an odd crash after adjusting colors and trying to save
Disk Utility (11.0) takes a while to repair permissions and only give the rotating status bar while doing so.
So here are some thoughts from the bottom edge of the Leopard territory -- and they are good! And I still have a lot of testing to do yet.

Well, it's been a month with Leopard and I like it very much, but on this machine I not quite "sold" as of yet. I'm hoping future updates round off the rough edges and put the past spark into all aspects of the machine.
I really like Spaces, CoverFlow and QuickLook.
I really don't like the Preview Crash, Disk Utility Speed and Indication, Hunger for RAM, and the "Little Stall".
The Preview crash still happens when adjusting and trying to save, but this is happening among a large number of different machines so it may be with the GPU and Leopard coding.
Disk Utility still takes longer than Tiger in repairing permissions and the graphical indicator of the task is still not fully corrected yet.
RAM seems to be more of an issue than it ever was with Tiger. I've got 1.125 GB well within the requirement, but at times it seems to get taken up more frequently than under Tiger. While running Tiger I never had to check what was using what RAM with Activity Monitor. It seems that more stays active with Leopard as with Tiger the active was always somewhere between 25% to 40% of RAM, and the inactive was at least that much or more, but active would slim down and inactive (less yellow than blue - on Activity Monitor standard colors) would increase, but never any slowdowns with this scheme. With the same amount of applications running in Leopard, the yellow (active) will work it's way up to half with very little blue (inactive). Over time if you leave the machine on and sleep more RAM will kept getting taken up. From my observations it seems to be Safari, which starts out at about 50-80 MB for five tabs, but overtime and surfing it will balloon up to over 300 MB and it makes more sense to quit and restart Safari to get back more RAM. I thought it might be related to Spaces, but I turned it off and the RAM usage was the same. I always expected Leopard to use more of the RAM, but I think there must be some optimizations that can be done to make better use of what is available and to curtail Safari's thirst for memory. Make no mistake, Safari is a great browser; and is my number one choice.
The "Little Stall" (using a Seinfeld-esque slant at naming) is also a result of Leopard I'd like to see the last of. While running the new screen savers "Shell" or "Arabesque" or using any of the iTunes Visualizer (including the original), the effect will run for about three seconds then they're be a "little stall" of about half of a second and it will continue for three seconds and on. It almost seems like there is some disk usage or caching involved and seems odd as I have 128 MB of Video RAM (ATI Radeon 9000 Pro). Could it be that even with 128 MB that Core Image is being done as software and not hardware is causing the the "Little Stall"? I find that hard to believe that this is how the effects are supposed to work on a machine with a non-programable GPU, since there are a number of machines that are well within Leopards requirements that have non-programable GPU's. How many iBooks and other machines are out there with 32 MB GPU's of the same type? I'm hoping that future updates will bring us updated ATI drivers that allow Leopard to take advantage of the same things Tiger could without issue.
All that said, I have Tiger on a backup drive with a complete backup of the drive when I did the upgrade, and I booted up in it the other day to update my Mail if I decide to take this machine back to Tiger and concede on Leopard. As I was working in Tiger, it was as good as I remembered, but in the end I was really missing some of the Leopard features. So I'm keeping Leopard (updating Tiger mail as a fail safe) and hoping future updates will take the Leopard experience on the Quicksilver 2001 - 867 MHz to where it needs to be.
So in the end, I'm a bit torn between what I had, what I have, and keeping hope for what I will get in the end. I'm a few tweaks away from true happiness, but the wait is excruciating.... I know I'm not alone, so let's hope the tweaks and fixes come fast and furious.

New TODO view--praise and criticism

I love the new ToDo section of Mail. At first I thought it was a very basic application, but now I understand that it can compete fairly with Entourage by the use of Smart Mailboxes. Once I got my head round the terminology--Smart Mailbox is the same thing as an Entourage View--I was up and running. Apple has done a good job with this, but the depths of the module are well hidden. Most new users will not understand and will complain about the lack of filtering (as I did in another thread).
So far, though, I have two major criticisms and I hope Apple will take note:
1) There is no "Start Date" field. This, in itself, is not a big problem for me because I take a fairly simple view of ToDos, or tasks, and don't see them as a full-blown project management system. But the problem arises when data is synchronised with devices using a start date field. In particular I am thinking of Windows Mobile 6 phones/pdas. When a ToDo is created in Apple Mail it's usual to choose a due date. When the item is synchronised with Windows Mobile the due date is reproduced also in the start date field. Subsequent editing of dates causes problems. We need either a start date field in Apple ToDos or a fix to ensure that start dates are not added to the record on synchronisation.
2) The filtering for Smart Mailboxes does not allow (as far as I can see) for ToDo items with no due date. When creating mailboxes, or views, it is a useful catch-all to be able to include those items without due dates alongside other time-based selections.
Message was edited by: Michael Evans3

Sorry, posted to wrong section. See Leopard Mail section.

T500 praise

Hi everyone,
Got my brand new T500 a week ago, tried a SL500 for 3 weeks, but decided i did'nt like the keyboard layout (why are lenovo the only one with the ins/home/pgup - del/end/pgdn buttons in a 3 under 3 config - all other vendors throws these keys around like they were infected.
Well back to my T500, i got 1 thing to say about it - i LIKE it.
Thanks lenovo!
Anders

I am not a photographer and use a machine for business-type tasks. I notice a little flicker on CCFL screens and none on the LED screens. I used a T500/W500 for some time and now I use 530. I simply prefer the brighter whites on the LED screens, although my current 530 is an FHD panel and I needed to tone down the colors. It was too "hot" for my taste

ToDos--lavish praise and a little criticism

I love the new ToDo section of Mail. At first I thought it was a very basic application, but now I understand that it can compete fairly with Entourage by the use of Smart Mailboxes. Once I got my head round the terminology--Smart Mailbox is the same thing as an Entourage View--I was up and running. Apple has done a good job with this, but the depths of the module are well hidden. Most new users will not understand and will complain about the lack of filtering (as I did in another thread).
So far, though, I have two major criticisms and I hope Apple will take note:
1) There is no "Start Date" field. This, in itself, is not a big problem for me because I take a fairly simple view of ToDos, or tasks, and don't see them as a full-blown project management system. But the problem arises when data is synchronised with devices using a start date field. In particular I am thinking of Windows Mobile 6 phones/pdas. When a ToDo is created in Apple Mail it's usual to choose a due date. When the item is synchronised with Windows Mobile the due date is reproduced also in the start date field. Subsequent editing of dates causes problems. We need either a start date field in Apple ToDos or a fix to ensure that start dates are not added to the record on synchronisation.
2) The filtering for Smart Mailboxes does not allow (as far as I can see) for ToDo items with no due date. When creating mailboxes, or views, it is a useful catch-all to be able to include those items without due dates alongside other time-based selections.

Hi Michael,
I'm just working myself into it and so far am tempted to second you.
Until then - I am still looking for a way to sort hierarchical, i.e. first after priority, second on due date (and then I'd like those without duedate last ...)
Anybody got an idea how to work that out?
Thankx,
Roox

More praise for pacman

I've recently been using Ubuntu and Mandriva on a 64 bit workstation that is in my office for a few weeks. There are some aspects about both of these distros that are pretty snazzy. I *really* liked the way both Ubuntu and Mandriva found my rather goofy Linksys USB wireless device and configured it very nicely for me. And Ubuntu set up my wireless printer really easily, too. Both of these things took a bit of tweaking in Arch, and I was glad to get help from this forum.
Still, in at least one area, these very pretty distros fall far short: package management and system updating.
Pacman really strikes the right balance between ease of use and user control. The Mandriva update system, for example, is really easy to use, but it makes me feel out of touch with my system. And, for my money, it doesn't handle dependencies as well as good old pacman.
So, for those who may be thinking of using Arch, you'll likely find that pacman is the feature that sets it apart from both the mass-market distros like Ubuntu or Mandriva as well as from the hard-core *nixer distros like Gentoo and Slackware.
My 3 cents (inflation ).

apt-get isn't that bad.
And you can't really compare to emerge from Gentoo, because it's quite different (source based).
But for the rest, I agree.

Praise for the uncluttered UI

I really appreciate the effort to keep the UI uncluttered, concentrating on the useful features. It is very clean, and mostly very intuitive. The acrobat.com 'my place'
Tabs
Very clean and simple. Much better than the weird control that Word uses. (http://lmgtfy.com/?q=microsoft+word+tabs)
Lists
Again, very clean and simple. The list continuation feature just worked. Nice.
Export / Import
Saved to word format, just worked, with images and everything. Nice job.
Every now and then I need to create a PDF, but not that often. Pricing model does not fit my needs at all, especially since my copy of Word 2008 can do it.
Images
Text wrapping is a really hard feature to get right, I really liked the options you gave me.
Browsing to flickr & google just worked, again very nice.
Checkbox
What a great little feature! Thanks.
History
This seems to work quite well too. I have not used it long enough to have it save my bacon.
Fonts
I'm sure you hear this all the time, but 7 fonts is really disappointing.

Thank you for your thoughtful feedback. Yes, we are working on adding more fonts! Thank you for your patience in the meantime.
Michelle

In praise of the Sony CineAlta 4K SCL-PK6 Lenses...

Hi, all, I just had the opportunity to try the Sony CineAlta 4K SCL-PK6/F lenses on a demo from Sony Canada. And, I can just say, Wow! At this pricepoint, I am simply amazed at the quality of the images I can get with these lenses. I have used rental lenses from a couple of reputable rental houses with my F55 before. They were the much higher priced, but older models from the highly reputed brand. As well, I have had demo lenses from other respected lens makers. [Due to circumstances and conditions that caused these other demo lenses not to have their best chance, technically, for a fair showing, I will not name or make detailed comparisons.] But, I have not been as pleased with the images from any previous lenses as I am with the Sony CineAlta 4K primes. I did not have the lenses long enough to work up a full technical review. But, I did get to shoot some people under controlled lighting conditions and some weather shots. I will state my bias as far as the look of lenses. I do have a preference for the Cooke Look. So, the way the CineAlta lenses handle the light in colour, contrast and focus is very much along the line of my preferences. I can see why some people have stated elsewhere that they suspect that the Sony lenses have Cooke glass. I don't quite believe that is so. The slight yellow shift of the Cooke Look is not as apparent in the Sonys. Although there might still be some smaller shift in that direction. There is not the blue shift in whites and green tints in skintone I see in other lenses. As for focus...it simply pops. Once the flange focus on the F55 has been properly set, the focus hits on the witness marks, precisely, and every time, throughout the focal range. There was one disappointment that came from this demo, that these lenses do not have the lens information systems that were built into the first generation lenses that were sold with the F3 early on. Clearly, the priority in this generation was to put the money into optics, mechanics and built quality. So, for me, since I don't, yet, own any appropriate glass, this will be the set that will allow me to shoot my self-funded projects and achieve the look I am aiming to develop. Thus, I clearly believe these lenses are underrated. I would love to hear from others, here, who have actually used these lenses. Maybe we should start the CLAS, the CineAlta Lens Admiration Society. Best regards,
Will

I am a big fan of these lenses, im using them like crazy in advertising and other work. I find them Sharp and sutable for vfx work.. here is a recent spot i shot with the primes.. http://youtu.be/pTIMnbHqf5I here is the btshttp://youtu.be/BL4d_lb0zx8

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