The year of low cost Windows 8.1 laptops?

Saw an asus 11.6 laptop in the weekly ad for $169. Would be good for people who need a laptop on the go. I think that these things may be a permanent offering thanks to low cost eMMC technology.

Seems to be so true of many software advances.
Especially some games. I have been playing Witcher 3 since about a week after it came out. And I have a number of other games I played in the past were the patches improved the quality.
Now the new patch 1.07 coming out is supposed to fix some things I have noticed and some things I have not liked about the game. I am thinking I am 60-70% done with the game but waiting a few months to buy or start playing it would have allowed me to be in on those updates from beginning.

Similar Messages

Don't take the low cost IPAD scam.. they are nearly 4 years old!

When I upgraded my iphone 4 to an iphone 6 three weeks ago, I was offered a low cost mini ipad. I took the deal only to find out later that the ipad you are given is an ipad 1, approx 4 years old now. The mini ipad 3 is now available. I heard something about 30 days return, but when I tried to return it today, was told...no its only 14 day return and I am 9 days over the limit. They willl not take back this obsolete piece of equipment. They would, with a $170 cancellation fee, plus a $70 return fee, or I could cancel my entire service for only $700.00 plus fee! ATT is providing mini ipad 3s at a discount, but I decided that since I had used Verizon since pre Alltel days, I would stay with them. I will be gone in 2 years. Will post to my facebook tomorrow! Scam alert!

Twilly wrote:
This is not a philosophical discussion on hindsight, rather an observation of dirty, and underhanded practices condoned by a large conglomerate that no longer cares about there customers and continues to take advantage of there position. The same goes for there pseudo company that are set up for collect or prepaid calls to people in dire straights such as prison or military. Evil underhanded snakes.
Or a discussion that sales people do what they have done for centuries, even millennium, try to make you buy things you really don't want or need.

Which is the best low-cost camera for my use?

Hi everyone. Been busy and off the forums for a while, but need your expertise once again.
I just found out that the Panasonic HVX-200p that's been on loan to me for 2 years has to be returned. Since I run a non-profit, I am thinking about asking my major donors to buy one for us. So, the question becomes which one? I own the CS4 MC, and you can see my other info in my profile.
I only do educational-type videos in an interview format against a green screen so far. I've been capturing direct to OnLocation via 1394 FireWire at 720p/60fps and editing in an HDV 720p/30 sequence. I sometimes do "man on the street" segments (capturing to OnLocation on laptop). I integrate numerous PSD graphics as educational slides, a lot of AE projects I get from videohive and customize, render, & import into PP, and motion backgrounds like Pond5's weekly free stock footage (much of this stuff gets resized, of course). I do some scoring and some SFX and export the audio to SB for touchup. I use a bunch of Lowes/Home Depot worklamps with fluorescent bulbs for lighting the subject and background. I key my backgrounds using PP/AE Dynamic Link. Oh, and I'll need a lapel mic and a tripod, too. I would prefer not to rule out shooting at 1080i/p at some point.
I export H.264 highlight clips which get uploaded to Vimeo and embedded in our website using prettyPhoto features. Ultimately, the finished PP project is exported as MPEG2-DVD, finished in Encore, burned via ImgBurn. If you want to see a good example, watch this http://vimeo.com/23346431. Caution: this is religious material. Be sure to repent before watching
So, there's not really much heavy lifting here. But when it comes to what is the minimum I need with the options of capture formats, etc., I'm clueless. I've read about problems with AVCHD, and although low-cost, is it really a problem for what I do? I trust this forum more than online reviews, and I'd appreciate recommendations of specific models and where to buy, if possible. Also, what about used cameras? Please remember, the budget is tight.
All suggestions and questions are welcome and very much appreciated.
Paul

Actually, two things surprise me in your statement and one is simply incorrect:
As for Broadcast quality..... a little station called CNN - you might have heard about them bought 250 of them from Panasonic about a year ago.
First, that CNN would buy JVC cameras not from JVC, but from Panasonic.
Second, there are no JVC cameras on the BBC approved list at all, see http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/site/BBC_Approved_HD_Cameras.pdf and the only affordable ones on the list in the handheld category are the Canon XF300/305. Maybe that is the reason the BBC bought 350 of these. Even the Sony XDCAM EX is only accepted in combination with a 50 Mb disk drive, not in the native 35 Mb format.
The BBC approved list is a list that most broadcasters adhere to, including CNN, Discovery, ARD and NGC.
The JVC GY-HD100U is definitely not acceptable for HD, and in no way HD broadcast ready. But that CNN bought that number of these cameras is probably caused by the fact that they think these deliver better quality than regular phones. And it does not use XDCAM, but a very simple HDV codec, limited to 1280 x 720 resolution. See http://pro.jvc.com/prof/attributes/specs.jsp?model_id=MDL101539&feature_id=03
This simply means that the Canon codec is very acceptable to the BBC for HD programs. The XF100 uses the same codec, but is only a single sensor camera and for that reason alone not approved by the BBC.
Paul, if you can live with the limitations of a single sensor camera - and given your intended purposes, I think you can - the JVC does not even come close and the XF100 material will be hardly worse than the XF300/305. To the untrained eye the results are almost the same.

I booted up this morning to find my voice over feature active. A black bar was at the lower left corner of my screen. When I began to click on the users in my login window it would not respond. All that I saw was the black bar saying authentication busy.

I booted up this morning to find my voice over feature active. A black bar was at the lower left corner of my screen. When I began to click on the users in my login window it would not respond. All that I saw was the black bar saying authentication busy. I was not able to restart, I was not able to switch users, I was not able to shut down. I decided to manually shut down my Mac. when it booted back up I was looking at the disk utility screen. When I clicked on repair or race it indicated that my hard drive had already been arranged. I was looking at completely formatted drive and I was having to either restore from Time Machine or reinstall lion. I had a back up but why did this happen?

A possible workaround could be to have the horizontal scroll bar visible all the time.
<pre><nowiki>body { overflow-x: scroll !important; }</nowiki></pre>
* Stylish: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/stylish/

HT1364 All the cd's I have bought over the years, have all been uploaded into iTunes on a Windows PC. I have just bought an iMac and want to transfer my library across. What is the best way?

All the cd's I have bought over the years, have all been uploaded into iTunes on my Windows PC. I have tried just copying my iTunes folder across to my new iMac, but it doesn't recognise all of the music (but it does recognise some?). Can someone please tell me the best way to transfer my iTunes library from my PC to my iMac?
Thanks, Caroline

Copy the entire /My Music/iTunes/ folder from your PC to /Music/ on your Mac.

Cost to replace iPhone 5 within the year warranty

How much does it cost to replace the iPhone when it's in the year warranty?

If there is a defect, as opposed to physical damage, then there is no charge for replacement.
If it's physically damaged, then the price is US$229, regardless of warranty status. (Check apple.com for exact prices in your country. Not all countries offer out of warranty replacements.)
If your phone was lost or stolen, it will cost whatever the retail price of the phone is where you live.

I purchased Adobe Export PDF Annual. The cost was 23.00 for the year but I don't need this so I'd like to cancel this subscription. How can I do this?

I purchased Adobe Export PDF Annual. The cost was 23.00 for the year but I don't need this so I'd like to cancel this subscription. How can I do this?

See http://helpx.adobe.com/x-productkb/policy-pricing/cancel-subscription-acrobat-online-servi ces.html
[topic moved to Acrobat.com Services forum]

How do I open with one click all the windows that I have been minimized? When I right click on the lower bar Firefox icon, I only see the option to close all windows.

It is used to be that I could right click on the Firefox icon on the toolbar at the bottom of the screen and I would then be given the option to open all windows. Now I only see the option to close all windows. The ability to open all windows is very useful. Have you eliminated this capability? It was a very helpful feature because I often have more than 15 windows minimized at one time. On a regular basis I like to open them all and keep only the ones that I still need. I know that it is possible to see the name of each window that is minimized by moving my cursor over the Firefox icon, but this does not provide enough information. So I have to open each window one at a time to look at it and then decide to close it or keep it - this is a frustrating, time-consuming process. Is there another way to open all the minimized windows at the same time, instead of one at a time?

A possible cause is security software (firewall) that blocks or restricts Firefox or the plugin-container process without informing you, possibly after detecting changes (update) to the Firefox program.
Remove all rules for Firefox and the plugin-container from the permissions list in the firewall and let your firewall ask again for permission to get full unrestricted access to internet for Firefox and the plugin-container process and the updater process.
See:
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Server+not+found
*https://support.mozilla.org/kb/Firewalls
You can retrieve the certificate and check details like who issued certificates and expiration dates of certificates.
* Click the link at the bottom of the error page: "I Understand the Risks"
Let Firefox retrieve the certificate: "Add Exception" -> "Get Certificate".
* Click the "View..." button and inspect the certificate and check who is the issuer.
You can see more Details like intermediate certificates that are used in the Details pane.

Low-cost OS X purchase option for obsolete iBooks?

I have some obsolete iBook G3 500 mhz / 10 gig / 128 meg / CD and iBook G3 700 mhz / 20 gig / 128 meg / Combo. I have been thinking about just throwing them in the trash. Someone tells me, no no don't do that, you can sell them on ebay for ... $50 each or so. Woo.
(Oh, and yes a bunch of them do have that powerful sweaty "iBook Stink" keyboard problem. I am not sure what the official Apple solution is. Anyone tried applying Old Spice to a keyboard?)
Well the only way they are going to be useful is to run at least a newer OS than the 9.2.2 / 10.2 they have. And If I have to pay $120 per license for 10.4, there's really no point starting this exercise and I should go back to the original plan, electronics waste disposal. Preferably with a sledgehammer.
Microsoft has a way to deal with this. They practically give away Windows XP and now Windows 7 for low-cost rebuilt PCs through their refurbisher program, and the licenses cost something like $5-10 per computer.
Microsoft Refurbisher Program
http://www.microsoft.com/refurbishedpcs/programs.aspx
Is there a refurbisher licensing program for cheap old licenses of OS X, from Apple? I am not finding anything.
But I went through this previously. I'm mainly just looking for an update.
I wrote to Steve directly a few years ago asking about free or low-cost OS X licenses for these obsolete Macs, and Apple responded with the name of an electronics recycler near me. (Really!) Once support ends in about 3-4 years, who cares? Apple sure doesn't. And besides, you should be buying "the next one", to stay all hip and cool and "with it", anyway.
Still looks like trashing them is the best option, as trying to sell them for $20 per machine with 9.2.2 / 10.2 is not worth my time to pack and ship them..

txformer wrote:
Apple sure doesn't.
Precisely.
BDAqua wrote:
I have no idea what Apple has to lose by making say 10.4 available cheaply, certainly no sales loses
No? Through forced obsolescence you are removing older computers from the market and obliging people to buy newer, so faster turnover and sales of newer (unless they decide that they give up on Macs). Fast forward 5 years. Scenario where Apple sticks with their pattern of no longer selling old versions, nor will they be available on disc because it's all download. How will you get hold of Lion 5 years from now to make a 2008 Mac functional in 2017? I suspect the used Mac market will really be hit hard because our current means of updating older Macs by finding old discs on the used market will be gone. Right now I can buy a 6 year old OS (Leopard) to make my 10 year old Quicksilver still pretty functional in 2012. I am not sure we will be able to do the equivalent in a few years from now becuse we won't have a means of getting hold of the new system versions unless you buy one now and stick it on the shelf "just in case".
Only thing I can think of is maybe a Family Pack install Disc.
Technically those are for family use, not selling 5 computers to anybody on e-bay. In that regard you'd be no better off with a family pack than a single installer.

Alternative low cost suppliers for LV compatible I/O cards

I'm looking for a low cost LV compatible card to use in my lab on Windows
PC's by students, because the original NI cards are not so cheap. Number of
I/O, resolution and speed is not so important, but it must work properly.I
don't want to use the "German" solution with a SoundBoard, because its quite
limited. It must have at least 4 I/O and 8 or 12 bit resolution. Has anayone
any experimence with other suppliers than National Instruments in Europe?
Thanks!

Thanks for the info, i will certainly investigate it next week!
Marc
"kevin" schreef in bericht
news:Y6Y5a.9680$[email protected]..
> In article <3e57dd24$0$83869$[email protected]>, "Marc Thijs"
> wrote:
>
> > I'm looking for a low cost LV compatible card to use in my lab on
> > Windows PC's by students, because the original NI cards are not so
> > cheap. Number of I/O, resolution and speed is not so important, but it
> > must work properly.I don't want to use the "German" solution with a
> > SoundBoard, because its quite limited. It must have at least 4 I/O and 8
> > or 12 bit resolution. Has anayone any experimence with other suppliers
> > than National Instruments in Europe? Thanks!
>
> Check o
ut my response to this post:
>
http://exchange.ni.com/servlet/ProcessRequest?RHIVEID=101&RPAGEID=135&HOID=5
06500000008000000505B0000&UCATEGORY_0=_49_%24_6_&UCATEGORY_S=0&USEARCHCONTEX
T_QUESTION_0=Is+it+possible+to+acquire+an+analog+input+without+a+DAQ+board&U
SEARCHCONTEXT_QUESTION_S=0
>
> Just go to MeasurementComputing.com. I've used these boards for several
> years now and haven't had many problems. I would strongly suggest the
> CIO-DAS08/JR for $179(US):
>
http://www.measurementcomputing.com/cbicatalog/cbiproduct.asp?dept%5Fid=117&
pf%5Fid=183&mscssid=N1UUA2JCKE0P9PWU130KXM64XNRX1SS4
>
> I'm sure they'll provide you an educator discount. Oh yeah, these guys
> aren't in Europe so perhaps the added S/H won't make them so cheap...
>
> Good luck,
> -Kevin

Want to buy a home by the end of the year - do I have a chance?

Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums, and only a "lurker" for about a week or so. There are too many factors involved to explain why, but my wife and I want to buy a house by the end of the year; so we're calling December 15 our deadline. As you read through our situation below, please keep the following questions in mind. I have the opportunity to use about $3000 to pay down some debt; what do I pay down, and what do I leave with a balance (and use for purchases)?Should I open a personal loan to pay off some cards and have a "new" type of loan on my credit report? Or will the added inquiry hurt more than the new line will help? I get constant offers from crap places like Prosper, but maybe with a better company...Should I refinance my NJ Class loans at a lower interest rate?Should I refinance my car loan at a lower interest rate or longer term?Should I go into repayment on the Federal student loan now so I can choose the repayment plan with the lowest monthly payment (30-year "extended" or "graduated extended") and have it show up on my credit report with a low monthly payment? Or will it not come up on my credit report as such (will it still show a high payment)? Or will the payment amount be ignored by the mortgage company (I've heard some use something like 1% of the loan amount per month)?Since my wife's employment situation is not ideal, can I get approved with only my credit and income and whatnot (making me the only one legally responsible for payment), but still have "joint ownership" of the property?It looks like a downpayment of 5% on $240k ($12k) turns into about $20k of up-front expenses when you count closing costs and escrow-tax-insurance-somethingorother (technical term, right?). What are the chances that after settling on a price with the seller, they'd accept bumping up the price by the amount of my closing costs, and then paying my closing costs for me? So basically, I'd be financing the closing costs. I've seen it mentioned in another form ("I offered $###k with seller-paid closing costs"). If the chances are low, how else can I reduce those closing costs? I've seen negative points, personal loans and cash advances (not sure if legal to use borrowed funds?), and downpayment-assistance programs (reduce downpayment = more cash available for closing costs, but I haven't seen this offered in NJ outside of taking a second mortgage for the downpayment in certain cases only) mentioned, but does anyone have a definitive list of how to lower the financial burden of closing costs?Based on my income, debts, interest rates, monthly amount I can put into savings, and general "homebuying timeline," when should I get pre-qualified? Please do not limit your advice to that related to the questions above... I hope to learn as much as I can, as quickly as I can 1. Mortgage Credit Scores:
What are your fico MORTGAGE credit scores for each mortgage applicant?I don't really want to pay to get mortgage scores now because I'm not ready to get prequalified... still paying down credit cards, so to me it's useless to get the score until my credit situation is stable. Here are free scores from credit cards and whatnot:
Myself:Discover 6/21: 773Citi 5/26: 744Capital One 6/18: 746Mint.com 4/7: 686 (score to be updated July 7th) My Wife:Discover 6/14: 749 Based on these, and the general deviation between them and mortgage scores (<50 points?) I think I would be able to qualify for a conventional loan, skipping FHA (ugh... mortgage insurance for life?). Some low-downpayment loan programs like Fannie Mae's MyCommunityMortgage (MCM) require higher scores (especially for DU), and I do think I would have the required 680-or-so, but as I mention elsewhere in this post, I haven't found an NJ MCM lender (other than brokers). But ideally, a 3% downpayment (like MCM) and reduced (compared to FHA and conventional) MI (again, like MCM) would be ideal... Obviously, there's no guarantee that these are anywhere close to the mortgage scores, so once I feel like I've paid down my cards as far as I need to (i.e. I feel I'm ready to get pre-qualified), I'll make sure to buy the mortgage scores. I'm thinking that point will be in about a month, but that depends on your answer(s) to question 8 :\ 2. Credit Negatives:  None except for a late payment more than 24 months ago on a student loan that was in "interest-only deferment." I believe that's on TransUnion, which is what Capital One pulls. 3. Gross Income./4. Source of income.   Myself: $65,000 (+ bonus that some years is as low as $500, so won't include it)My wife: $13,000 (±$2,000) All income is from employment (hers is part-time, and with two retail jobs, very likely to vary; mine is a salaried position). I may get an added part-time just to boost my savings, but it wouldn't be reported to them (I'm thinking a 3-6 month deal). 5. Monthly debt payments. Here are all my cards and loans, including month opened, APR, balance, limit, and payment. All balances as of today: Currently in my name w/wife as authorized user:Elan Financial CC, opened 6/2013, 20% APR:$-10 ($10,600 CL); payment $0Discover It CC, opened 5/2013, 15% APR:$2,900 ($5,000 CL); payment $59 **current APR 0% since entire balance was transferred from Elan at one point with a 0% offer that expires in AugustCapital One Quicksilver CC, opened 2008, 16% APR:$678 ($4,000 CL); payment $25Citi ThankYou Preferred CC, opened 8/2013, 14% APR:$700 ($2,600 CL); payment $25BankAmericard Cash Rewards CC, opened 8/2013, 15% APR:$616 ($2,000 CL); payment $25 My credit limits all went up within the last 6 months. Before then, they were $6,600 for Elan, $4,000 for Discover, $1,000 for Capital, $2,000 for Citi, and $800 for Bank of America. BofA was the only one that didn't automatically raise my limit or tell me I should request an increase, and when I requested it, they were the only ones that hit me with a HP. The Kay card below has also had a constantly-rising credit limit, from an original of $500, to $2500 a year ago, to the current $4000. Just in my name:Kay Jewelers CC, opened 4/2012, ridiculous (25%?) APR:$0 ($4,000 CL) - payment $0Macy's CC, opened 5/2014, 25% APR:$0 ($600 CL as of March) - payment $0M&T Auto Loan, since 9/2013, 5.3% APR:$10,310 ($14,218 original) - payment $231 (72 months total)HESAA/NJ Class, in repayment since 6/2015, 7.5% (approx. avg.) APR:$13,014 (originally less, but interest has accrued while in school) - payment $131FedLoans Direct Loans, in grace until 11/2015, 5% (avg.) APR:$56,237 (originally $52,000, but interest has accrued while in school) - payment $403 under standard repayment, <$250 under extended repayment ("Mortgage Letter" shows $403 unfortunately, since I can't pick a repayment plan now unless I forfeit the rest of the grace period) Wife's name w/me as authorized user:Discover CC, opened 5/2015, ridiculous (>20%) APR:$1,304 ($1,500 CL) - payment $35 So basically, I have a crapload of debt and quite a few recent inquiries. However, my credit score shot up when:The 5/2013 accounts aged to 2 years (and thus the inquiries were removed);I paid down cards and increased limits; usage went from ~$13k of ~$19k revolving limit used to about ~$6.5k (at one point) of about ~$25k (at one point) revolving limit used; now it's at about $5k used of $29k;I was added as an authorized user on my wife's card (at card opening).I think those point to a nice boost to the credit score when (1) I pay down the cards even more [to end of July], and (2) the three inquiries from BofA, Citi, and M&T disappear [2 in Aug, 1 in Sep]. Sounds like my pre-approval should be early October, making my intended closing date near-impossible . Maybe I can still qualify with a good rate despite the inquiries?
6. Employment (for those who are employed). Myself:Went from $16k/year to $26k/year part-time while in school, now $65k/year (as of last month) and salaried, all at the same company for 4 years now, and the boost was due to graduating; surely they can throw out the 2-year requirement? I plan on staying here for many years, and am about 99.9% certain there will be no reason for that income to drop in the forseeable future. Wife:Nothing's sure, and it's very low pay. As noted above, $13k/year at the moment, but she's unhappy with both (retail... ugh) jobs, so that's not guaranteed. She's looking for a break and a decent office job, but even if she gets it, I'm pretty sure the short length of time that she'd have it before getting a loan would make the difference in income useless. I'll add here our budget: In our current situation, with about $5000/month net income ($1k from her, $4k from me), we can comfortably save $2000/month. July and October are 5-week months, so that goes up to $3000 those months. However, I'm using the $3000 surplus from this month to pay down cards. So that's $7k added to savings thru October or $9k thru November. Hypothetically, I could "skip" paying off cards (or pay down all but Discover) in order to boost up savings.
7. Assets/Reserves. This is to determine how much you could potentially have as a down payment and also as reserves to help qualify (for example if your debt to income ratio is high this could help qualify you anyway). Savings: $5000Checking: Everything that goes in, goes to paying credit cards or into savings. I haven't made a purchase transaction with a debit card in over a year because I get points on all my cards. So call it $0 available for moving to savings.
8. Location:  This is to determine govt guaranteed loan limits, what special programs might be available for you, how much property taxes & homeowners insurance will likely be, amongst other items. Central New Jersey (Somerset, Middlesex, possibly Hunterdon counties). I don't know where I can find a "conforming" 3-3.5% down loan here that's not FHA, since no local banks seem to advertise something like it. I've been looking at MyCommunityMortgage and they seem awesome - 3-5% down with mortgage insurance that is typical for 10-15%-down conventional loans - but when I do search for "Fannie Mae + your home state" as recommended, all I get is HomeFirst and general info on MyCommunityMortgage (since the income/value limits are higher for NJ, that info gets included in all their documentation on the program).
9. Property Description:  Single-family, "single home" (no townhouse/condo). No foreclosures, short sales, or other "as-is" situations.
10. Property Value.  $200,000-$250,000
11. Occupancy.  Currently? Rent $550/mo. As far as every credit application I've filled out is concerned, it's my responsibility. However, since the contract IS in both our names, I could hypothetically call it $275/mo (even split) or $440/mo (split based on relative income). Not sure what that would help/hurt with; I've heard of sticker shock being a concern for some, but if all goes according to plan ($2000/mo into savings, basically the amount the mortgage+tax+insurance would be), I don't see that being an issue. 12. Transaction Type. Purchase - primary residence. ----------------------------------------- Sorry for the extremely long post... and thank you all in advance

Georgie_Boy wrote:
Hi everyone, I'm new to the forums, and only a "lurker" for about a week or so. There are too many factors involved to explain why, but my wife and I want to buy a house by the end of the year; so we're calling December 15 our deadline. As you read through our situation below, please keep the following questions in mind. I have the opportunity to use about $3000 to pay down some debt; what do I pay down, and what do I leave with a balance (and use for purchases)? You want to get as many of your ccs to zero as you can ...optimum scoring is one account carrying a balance of 3-9% of your CL, all others at zero ...the mortgage lenders will count each account with a balance as a monthly debt due equal to your minimum payment when calculating your dtirs ...those minimum payments quickly add up and can seriously impact how much you can get approved for.Should I open a personal loan to pay off some cards and have a "new" type of loan on my credit report? Or will the added inquiry hurt more than the new line will help? I get constant offers from crap places like Prosper, but maybe with a better company...Ignore the personal loan offers. You have a decent credit mix now between your ccs and auto installment loan. A personal loan would only hurt your scores at this point.Should I refinance my NJ Class loans at a lower interest rate? Not personally familiar with these but it looks like a SL from the other info you've provided. Generically you should refinance when the total cost of doing so is beneficial to you. That said, a mortgage lender is going to look at total student debt, and use the greater of your current payment or 1% of the total ...thus refinancing for mortgage purposes may not result in any dtir benefit to you. Should I refinance my car loan at a lower interest rate or longer term? If this is a new car loan, yes ...if its a used car loan, it depends on age and value because your current rate isn't outrageous for an older car loan ...generically, if you can refinance to a lower monthly payment at a reasonable cost, you should do so in order to lower your dtir ...but its a trade-off because the HP will probably cost you a few points on your scores.Should I go into repayment on the Federal student loan now so I can choose the repayment plan with the lowest monthly payment (30-year "extended" or "graduated extended") and have it show up on my credit report with a low monthly payment? Or will it not come up on my credit report as such (will it still show a high payment)? Or will the payment amount be ignored by the mortgage company (I've heard some use something like 1% of the loan amount per month)? All of the govt guaranteed loan programs have recently moved to using the higher of your current payment or 1% of the total in your dtir calculations ...do the math and act accordingly. Be wary of any lender that is not using the higher figure when giving you preapproval numbers, uw will inevitably catch it and it could torpedo your loan after you've signed a contract and spent on prepaids and fees.Since my wife's employment situation is not ideal, can I get approved with only my credit and income and whatnot (making me the only one legally responsible for payment), but still have "joint ownership" of the property? She is either on the loan or not ...you can't have it both ways. At the time you apply, your LO will look at both of your incomes and tell you what will work best in your situation. As long as her income can be documented via tax returns, it should be "useable"It looks like a downpayment of 5% on $240k ($12k) turns into about $20k of up-front expenses when you count closing costs and escrow-tax-insurance-somethingorother (technical term, right?). What are the chances that after settling on a price with the seller, they'd accept bumping up the price by the amount of my closing costs, and then paying my closing costs for me? So basically, I'd be financing the closing costs. I've seen it mentioned in another form ("I offered $###k with seller-paid closing costs"). If the chances are low, how else can I reduce those closing costs? I've seen negative points, personal loans and cash advances (not sure if legal to use borrowed funds?), and downpayment-assistance programs (reduce downpayment = more cash available for closing costs, but I haven't seen this offered in NJ outside of taking a second mortgage for the downpayment in certain cases only) mentioned, but does anyone have a definitive list of how to lower the financial burden of closing costs? This is very specific to the loan program ...conventional with 5% dp limits seller concessions to 3%, FHA is 6% regardless, USDA is technically unlimited ...be aware that every lender will have their own overlays which may affect those numbers. It is also affected greatly by your market conditions which at the moment vary greatly by your locale ...in a buyers market, you can expect seller concessions ...in a sellers market, probably not. USDA offers the best govt guarantee program for closing costs since they will allow you to include closing costs in the loan up to the appraised value. New Jersey's web site is screwed up (at least for me) and I can't nail down exactly what dp/closing cost assistance programs are available to you but it looks very dependent on the specific location you are buying in.Based on my income, debts, interest rates, monthly amount I can put into savings, and general "homebuying timeline," when should I get pre-qualified? DO NOT get "pre-qualified" ...get "pre-approved" ...a pre-qual is virtually meaningless ...a pre-approval means they've actually looked at your documentation and, short of verification, are reasonably sure they can get you to closing ...its a huge difference ...as far as when? ...yesterday would have been great ...rates are rising ...its almost certainly going to get worse ...so bite the bullet ...find a decent realtor in your target area, ask them to recommend lenders they have worked with that can actually close their loans ...talk to those lenders ...get a pre-app ...go shopping ...if your credit scores/dtir improve significantly because of cc paydowns, ask your lender to rescore you ...mortgage pulls within 30-60 days all count as one HP. Please do not limit your advice to that related to the questions above... I hope to learn as much as I can, as quickly as I can 1. Mortgage Credit Scores: Its essential to your question of "when" that you know your actual mortgage scores ...the Discover scores are actual Fico cc scores, the others are FAKOs afaik ...but the Fico cc and mortgage scoring models differ in several important ways and vary easily by +/- 50 points depending on what is in your CRA files ...mine actually track fairly closely but others have seen very negative differences ...its worth the $40 imnsho to know where you actually stand ...anything you do to improve them in the next month will only help but is not sufficient reason to delay ...again imnsho.  2. Credit Negatives:  Have you tried to have the late removed from the CR? Depending on the SL source, some programs have been very responsive to GW requests after a good payment record has been reestablished ...ymmv but you lose nothing by trying.  5. Monthly debt payments. Get the Discover to under $500 if possible ...and ask for a CLI asap ...Discover has been handing them out like candy lately ...keep a balance open 3-9% if possible but if not, as low as you can ...its more important to zero the other ccs first.Capital One Quicksilver CC, opened 2008, 16% APR:$678 ($4,000 CL); payment $25 ...pay it to zeroCiti ThankYou Preferred CC, opened 8/2013, 14% APR:$700 ($2,600 CL); payment $25 ...pay it to zeroBankAmericard Cash Rewards CC, opened 8/2013, 15% APR:$616 ($2,000 CL); payment $25 ...pay it to zero HESAA/NJ Class, in repayment since 6/2015, 7.5% (approx. avg.) APR:$13,014 (originally less, but interest has accrued while in school) - payment $131FedLoans Direct Loans, in grace until 11/2015, 5% (avg.) APR:$56,237 (originally $52,000, but interest has accrued while in school) - payment $403 under standard repayment, <$250 under extended repayment ("Mortgage Letter" shows $403 unfortunately, since I can't pick a repayment plan now unless I forfeit the rest of the grace period)Its almost certain that the last two will be seen as a combined 69k SL with $690 used in your dtir calculation Wife's name w/me as authorized user:Discover CC, opened 5/2015, ridiculous (>20%) APR:$1,304 ($1,500 CL) - payment $35 ...pay this to zero Credit score almost certainly isn't your major problem ...debt-to-income is Total income = 78k =6500 moTotal mo debt = 134cc/231auto/690SL= 1055 + ~1600 mo PITI+MI (220k@5%/5%dp) NJ taxes are higher than national avgs = 2655 total monthly paymentsThats a be ratio of 41% ...ideal is <36% but many programs will go higher
6. Employment (for those who are employed). Do not count on reason and logic being used in the mortgage process ...this will come down to finding a lender who will work with you ...if the 4 yrs is same company and the line of work matches your degree, it may not be a problem ...but its one reason you want to get the pre-approval process going now ...to find a lender who knows your exact situation, has reviewed the documentation, and given you a pre-approval knowing all the facts ...av pre-qual will look at your score, ask you for your current income, and promise you pie-in-the-sky until the rubber meets the road and his uw upchucks over your employment history ...goodbye loan and all the money you paid ...get a real pre-approval  8. Location:  Hunterdon county has a lot of areas eligible for the USDA program and your income is well within the limits ...if the commute is acceptable, its a good program. Somerset/Middlesex are mostly ineligible. The NJ website for dp assistance programs isn't working for me but take the effort to ask your prospective lenders about these programs and their experience with them. Any that pooh pooh them should be scratched off your list. 11. Occupancy.   Sticker shock WILL be an UW issue but you appear to have it addressed. Current rent will not factor in to dtir for your mortgage.  ----------------------------------------- Sorry for the extremely long post... and thank you all in advance ...I could only wish that everyone would supply as much info as you have ...please feel free to ask if you dont understand ofr if I misunderstood something ...hth

How to reduce the size of winsxs in windows 7 ultimate x64

Ok so first off there are some caveats to responding to this question
1.) Im on windows 7, so DONT refer to some "winsxs is important" vista link...
2.) i am well aware of what windows side by side is for, and appreciate dll ____ must be bad for some... but lets be honest, professional people like me know how to keep a system in shape and not remove DLL files willy nilly and should have some kind of
"i know what im doing" option
3.) i know its important system files blah blah blah
4.) i know it MUST be possible to trim this... vsp1cln.exe and compcln.exe from vista sp1 and sp2 respectively shows it CAN be done
so in light of that, as there is no vsp1cln.exe or compcln.exe included on windows 7 i need to know if they are compatible with windows 7 if i just pull down a version from vista.
if not, there must be some kind of method to reduce winsxs size... mine is currently at 6.2GB and that... frankly... is too big, i can understand a few GB worth, but 6! thats a whole windows xp installation!
now, if a utility could be written that would be detrimental to compatibility but acceptable in terms of limited damage then that would be good, perhaps removing the ability to uninstall updates if for example, your system has been stable since february
i know i wont have problems and have the retail disk if it gets fubar.
I cant see what all that folder is for... i mean if you dont want such compatibility or the ability to install extra components without finding the disk then you should be able to remove that... i dont use a lot of the server side components, so why cant
i remove those.
also winsxs uses a lot of hardlinks and junctions that are reporting hard drive usage that isnt actually used as explorer counts these files repeatedly, there must be a way to tell explorer not to count those files... it might be all well and good to say
theres 2gb not actually being used, but if windows is throwing a fit because it thinks im out of space then those 2gb might as well be 2 TB for all the use they are to me.
lets take for example the winsxs/backup folder, there are about 60% of that taken up with FONT BACKUPS... i mean SERIOUSLY! ... you backed up the FONTS!?
WHY!?!?
There must be more things like those that could go
perhaps someone could get back in touch and explain why microsoft windows is the ONLY operating system that seems to think that if it doesnt have 80 hundred million backups and spares it wont work... linux does not have this side by side thing, nor does
macosx

Okay maybe some background on the root of the problem would help.
Windows XP (and Windows 2000) used a fast and great mechanism called Hotfix Installer (Update.exe) to install updates. Updates installed in very little time. If you wanted to further reduce update times on Windows XP, you could just temporarily stop the
System Restore service and updates would install at crazy speeds. Note that this is not recommended for novice users who don't know advanced recovery methods, as some updates can sometimes cause your system to stop booting so you cannot even uninstall them.
The method the Hotfix Installer used was simple, it just installed a new version of files to be updated at %windir%\system32 and %windir%\system32\dllcache (the Windows File Protection cache). For files that were in use, a restart copied them from dllcache
to the system32 folder. This is simple file-based servicing. The hotfix installer (Update.exe) also supported various command line switches like /nobackup which means not to backup files it patches. Again, this is not recommended for novice users as some updates
can screw your system even after the comprehensive testing Microsoft does before releasing them. But if you won't be uninstalling any updates (usually one only requires uninstalling updates if they cause problems), you could save a ton of disk space by not
backing up the files it patched. The Hotfix Installer backed up files to C:\Windows\$Uninstall$KBxxxxxx folders so even if you did back up the files at install time, they could be safely deleted after a few days if no stability issues were found after using
Windows with the newest updates applied. Update.exe also supported the very important and convenient ability to slipstream a service pack or update into the original Windows setup files using the /s switch.
When Microsoft was developing Windows Vista, they realized that components had gotten too many interdepencies on each other and to service each file reliably without breaking another component that relied on it, Microsoft introduced what they called as Component
Based Servicing (CBS). You can read all about it in a much more technical way at The Servicing Guy's blog. What CBS does basically is it installs all files of the entire operating system, including all languages into C:\Windows\WinSxS and then it hard-links
files from there to C:\Windows\system32. This has the benefit of not having to insert the OS disc to add or remove any components, and some other advantages as well like offline servicing of a Windows Vista or Windows 7 image. But the design introduces a major
disadvantage of taking up a lot of hard disk space. Whenever an update is installed, it no longer installs it to C:\Windows\system32 and C:\Windows\system32\dllcache like Windows XP's hotfix installer (Update.exe) did. Instead, it updates the files in C:\Windows\WinSxS.
Now, Windows keeps multiple copies of the same file but with different version in WinSxS if it is used by more than one Windows component. The higher the number of components, that many number of times the file exists in C:\Windows\WinSxS. When a Windows Vista
update (.MSU) is installed, the components get updated, each and every one, instead of the files and the worst part is it still maintains the older superseded previous versions of components in WinSxS so the user would be able to uninstall updates. Microsoft
does say that some sort of "scavenging" or deleting older copies of components takes place but is scarce on the details. The scavenging seems to take place automatically at certain intervals in Windows 7 but not in Windows Vista. In Windows Vista, you have
to add or remove any Windows component for the scavenging to take place. And Microsoft says the scavenging will free up some disk space but in practice, on my system, I see my free disk space only decreasing on Vista as I remove or add any component. Windows
does not give the user an option to not backup the earlier versions of components like Windows XP's /nobackup switch in Hotfix Installer did. As as you install more and more updates on your system, they will take more and more disk space. This is one of the
primary reasons Windows Vista and Windows 7 are so bloated. Another reason for them being so bloated is the DriverStore that these OSes store. All drivers that are shipped with the OS and the OEM ones which you download and which are installed for a particular
system are staged in C:\Windows\System32\DriverStore. But let's not go there for now.
Now, an important thing to note is that the size of the WinSxS folder is not what Explorer or the dir command report, it is far less but is misreported by Explorer because it counts the hard links more than once when calculating size. That does not mean,
the size of WinSxS is not causing real-world disk space problems on numerous Windows Vista/7 systems in use today. Microsoft's ingenious recommendation to this problem of ever growing disk consumption is to install fewer updates to keep the size of the servicing
store under control. Of course, users cannot deny installing security updates and leave their system open to security holes. What they can do is install less optional updates, the ones that Microsoft releases on the fourth Tuesday of every month and also install
less of the hotfixes that are available by request from a Knowledge Base article. In short, you have to trade the number of bugs fixed in the OS by installing hotfixes at the cost of enormous amounts of disk space. The whole servicing stack is a total downgrade
to Windows XP's update.exe method. It causes heavy disk thrashing and slow logoffs/logons while Windows configures these updates at the Welcome Screen. Many systems are unable to boot because of failed updates. Another disadvantage of the "new" servicing stack
(and the redesigned Setup mechanism of Windows Vista) is the inability to do a true slipstream of service packs and hotfixes.
The time it takes to actually install these hotfixes online compared to Windows XP is also completely unacceptable. When you start installing an MSU update, it spends a lot of time determining whether the update applies to your system. Then, the update itself
takes much longer to install compared to Windows XP's Update.exe (hours instead of minutes if you are installing dozens of updates through a script). Finally, that post-installation process ("Configuring updates... Do not turn off your computer") takes several
minutes before shut down followed by a second post-installation process (configuration) upon restart before logon that also takes also several minutes and thrashes the disk.
I can install the entire SP3 for Windows XP in about 10 minutes after downloading the full installer. I can also install a slipstreamed-with-SP3 copy of Windows XP is about 45 minutes on a modern fast PC. In contrast, Windows Vista or Windows 7 do install
relatively quickly (in just about 15-20 minutes) on a modern PC but installing the service packs and updates takes more time than anything on XP did. Not only can service packs not be slipstreamed, but Vista Service Packs are not even cumulative, which means
if you clean install Windows Vista today, you have to install SP1 first which takes about 90 minutes, then SP2 which takes less time, then all the post-SP2 updates which do take hours to install. If you really HAVE to use Windows 7 or Windows Vista, you are
stuck with this slow update non-sense as Microsoft does not even acknowledge that there is any slowdown or loss of functionality in the new servicing mechanism. The fact remains: MSU updates are slow as **** and take too much time and as Windows 7/Vista get
older and Microsoft stops producing service packs, a clean install is going to take longer and longer to bring it up-to-date with all patches installed. Is is worth wasting your time on an OS whose servicing mechanism Microsoft completely screwed up? I once
again recommend you read more about the servicing stack and how it operates at The Servicing Guy's blog:http://blogs.technet.com/b/joscon/. To fix this messed up servicing stack, Microsoft also offers a tool
called CheckSUR for your system if it finds “inconsistencies in the servicing store”.
Microsoft's Windows Vista and Windows 7 products are not engineered with disk space in mind. It causes a problem, especially for SSDs which are still low capacity and very expensive. The only hope is that Microsoft again completely redesigns this servicing
mechanism in a future Windows release so it would not cause this growing disk space consumption issue, speed up installation of updates by an order of magnitude, not slow down logon and logoff, not prevent systems becoming unusable because of failed updates
being stuck at a particular stage and allow true slipstreaming.
Microsoft's response to this is vague - they simply state "Windows 7's servicing is more reliable than Windows XP" but they cannot acknowledge it is a million times slower and still unreliable...slow to the point of being unusable and sometimes leaving systems
in an unbootable damaged state. Of course they know all this too but can't admit it since it makes their latest OSes look poor. Moving from a very simple and fast update mechanism that worked to a complex one that requires endless “configuring” and repair
through CheckSUR is a product engineering defect.
Take a look at servicing-related complaints in Microsoft's own forums:
1.
Very slow install of updates to Windows 7
2.
Windows 7 - Updates are very slow
3.
Windows 7 Ultimate, it takes long time configuring updates
4.
"Preparing To Configure Windows. Please Do Not Turn Off Your Computer"
5.
Very slow update install at shutdown (Windows 7 Home Premium)
6.
Why does my computer run so slow when installing updates?
7.
Every time the computer is shut down, it always says installing update do not turn off your computer
8.
Computer is working slow and wants to do windows updates all the time
9.
Windows 7 Update install time taking a very long time
10.
Windows wants to install 6 updates every time I log off or put the computer in sleep mode
11.
Problem In Configuring Windows Updates at the time of Startup
12.
Computer really slow after latest updates
13.
Windows hangs up in "configuring updates"
14.
Why can't windows 7 install updates?
15.
Every time computer is shut down, receive Installing updates, do not shut off....
16.
How long does it take for the Windows 7 Home Premium updates take?
17.
Windows 7 "Installing Update 2 of 2" for 12 hours now
18.
Updates causes endless reboots
19.
Updates stuck installing for over 24 hrs. Computer does not boot
20.
Cannot load Windows 7 after installing 2 critical updates
A proper solution to this problem would be to completely re-engineer and rewrite the servicing mechanism so it operates with the speed, reliability and pain-free operation of the XP servicing mechanism.
I don't see this situation improving in Windows 8 either. Good luck with your Windows tablet taking hours to install service packs and updates. Now, do iPads take that long to install updates?
So fact is Microsoft understates or conveniently hides the real system requirements to keep a Windows 7/Vista system running. System requirements are install time may be 15 GB of free disk space but over time, this number increasing is unacceptable, especially
for people's SSDs which are running out of disk space!

WMP600N - weak connection and low signal - Windows 7 x64

I bought the WMP600N because Linksys and Microsoft listed it as 'compatible' for Windows 7 x64.
My experience:
- unstable and weak connection
- pings to websites like google.com drops, average: 1 out of 3
- low signal, on the same spot my three years old HP-laptop with 'a build in wireless card' has full signal strength in Windows 7
- it works well under Windows XP (32 bit)
I'am convinced that drivers for the WMP600N are not ready for Window 7 x64. Linksys (or Ralink, which developed the chipset), please release a proper driver for the WMP600N!
Message Edited by Storm_dutch on 12-20-2009 09:51 AM
Message Edited by Storm_dutch on 12-20-2009 09:52 AM

I'm not sure about you guys, but I use WMP600N and running Windows 7 64bit without any issues. The driver that I'm using now is Driver Version: 3.0.2.0, Driver Provider: Ralink Techonolgy Corp, Driver Date: 6/19/2009. Here's what I did when I upgrded my wireless adapter. 1. Uninstall the original wireless driver from device manager. 2. Turn off the computer and phisically removed the wireless adapter from my computer. 3. Pop in the new WMP600N and turn on the computer. 4. Windows 7 then automatically detects the new adapter and intall the proper driver for it. Well, that's all I did. The whole process is very simple and straight forward.

Now have iphone6 and signed for different type lower cost account. Not seen on billing service. to have started Oct 1,2014

**after receiving iphone6 and signing 2 year contract, negotiated for a change in plan with lower cost and discount... not seen on october bill as promised..totally unable to obtain help on phone to verizon. thanks

Thanks for the response. I had the 65 advantage plan for 2 years. Service rep at Verizon store assisted me when I activated my new iPhone 6. She noted that over the 2 years i had used only a few minutes of talk, one to 2 texts per month ( at a fee of $. 20 each ) and a minuscule amount of data... and that the phone was for emergency contact to me from my disabled invalid wife only. She searched and found a discount special plan for a savings of $15.00 per month with a final monthly fee before taxes of $45 and not $59 per month to start on Oct 1st. It does not have a name to the plan just that it carries this special discount. That is all I can tell you. Thanks for the assistance. Await your reply. Thanks
Bob Bonus
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> this is Incorrect email........... should be [email protected] Wednesday oct 8th, 2014... do not know if you received this response to your email a few days ago. Sorry for the mistake. Await your response. thanks
bob bonus

Low-Cost data migration and ETL tools

Hi, Im building a database for my company. We are a rather small size book company with a lot of references and still growing.
We have a Mysql database here and are trying to find some good tools to use it at its best. Basically we are just starting up the database after dealing with Excel: we had a size problemu2026 So im trying to find a program that will allow us to do two different things: the migration of our data from the old system to the new one and a specialized software to perform ETL (Extract, transform and load) on our database.
About the price of the tools, if we were one year ago, the accounting department would have been pretty relaxed about this. But today, we have some budget restrictions and therefore need a low cost tool. So could you give me some advice on a good data migration and etl tool for a low cost?
Thanks for your help.

Hi,
Some companies have budget problems and are having to reduce their cost of operation.
Have you ever heard of open source tools? They can do the job easily and less expensive than proprietary solutions that cost a lot of money.
You can have a look at a good ETL open source program called Talend Open Studio: it is user-friendly but also has advanced features intended for technical users (java debugger, code injectionu2026). It can perform data migration and ETL as you wrote in your first post.
The website is [here|http://www.talend.com/solutions-data-integration/data-migration.php] to download the open source program. They have a forum and documentation you can read. Tell us what you think about the software.
For an ETL benchmark: [ETL Benchmark|http://blogs.sun.com/aja/entry/talend_s_new_data_processing]

The year of low cost Windows 8.1 laptops?

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