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So, we picked up this nice HP Photosmart Plus All-in-one. I can’t speak to the printer quality much, only time will tell, but I can report my initial observations around setup process:

• Without any option or checkbox anywhere, it installed HP/Yahoo Co-branded Internet Explorer Toolbar! What GIVES!? I hate those thing for so many reasons! Since when is it Ok to bundle Toolbars with Printer Drivers? Seriously, why does reputable company bundle what can only be called AdWare in a box with (supposedly) premium printer?!
• We invested a little more specifically to get Wireless capability. So I set it up in the corner of the room, on dedicated little desk. Guess What – You can’t complete Wireless setup without “temporarily connecting it to a computer via USB cable”. Huh!? Am I supposed to drag it across the room to set it up, and then back?? Luckily laptop was available, and helped the situation by installing on it first. I must say that once connected to a PC, it installed quickly and painlessly, transferring proper wireless setting to the printer over USB.
• Apparently (per documentation) only 5 home computers can use it over network. I don’t like limitations, especially Artificial Ones!!!
• They still haven’t figured out wireless scanning – if I try to click “scan to a computer” on the printer, it simply says “try doing this from a computer”. Brilliant user experience, no question.

Well, I will report more in the future. Our previous Epson all-in-one printer lasted for 4+ years, if not more. We’ll see how this one does. So far I tried printing single photo on their provided photo paper sample – unimpressive. But, I didn’t really buy it for photos, just regular round the home printing, and for kids school projects.

On a side note – I am going to resume blogging, apologies for long delay. I seem to spend my spare time Facebook games these days, and what may be accidentally left over goes to WoW.

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I am posting this courtesy of my good neighbor, who willfully provided a password to his wireless network to save us from going completely crazy and self-destructing as a family.
You see, we are over a week now without Internet!!!!
It feels that almost every aspect of our family life is crippled, and thus far Comcast seem to have done little to resolve our issue. After their tech didn’t show up for an appointment (which we already waited almost a week for), they said that all they can do is schedule us for Next Saturday….. All our pleas on the phone and even via twitter, didn’t help the situation thus far. Worse yet, it is pretty clear that outage is outside our home, and most likely affecting other houses.
But onto the main topic — Is Internet a Luxury or basic utility of our times? From school assignments even for our youngest new K student, everyone expects use of Internet on daily basis. Without going too much into longest list, it feels like every other moment we are reminded that something cannot be accomplished because there is NO INTERNET!
I ask myself — Is Internet really a Luxury and our family is just spoiled here and too centered around it? Or are we the new norm, where most activities, whether for school/study/work/shopping or after-hours gaming and video viewing, require fast Internet connection?
If Internet indeed such an integral part of life and such a basic utility, should any self-respecting provider allow themselves outages for weeks at a time? Would you agree to live without Water for a week? Or Electricity? Of course I would understand if there were a major storm and some serious damage that took time to repair, but this feels like simple incompetence where overloaded lines caused entire neighborhoods to loose signal, and no-one cares…
There, rant done! Weigh in on how you see things and whether I should seek immediate “Internet Rehab” for entire family or instead consider switching to new provider (which may be available all over town!).

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I use my Zune 30GB daily, but not today, thus far. I was afraid to even try today, but decided it is important to, for you, readers. So, found my Zune also Dead this morning, though it was fine last night. It’s hung now, during boot-up, so doesn’t boot… As I learned on the Net this morning, some bug associated with Dec 31st caused all original 30Gb models to fail.

These devices are firmware upgradable, so lets see how fast can Microsoft not only identify the issue, but actually issue a tested patch for us, poor folks.

Another interesting thing is how fast they heard about it, via the Blogosphere. I am sure people called in Customer Service also, but those Reps on the phone are paid to “repeat the standard troubleshooting procedures”, and no more. As most CS centers go, they are actually encouraged to never escalate issues, so I would be surprised if they, even after hearing so many people call, managed to get the note out to Zune Dev Team that “something was Up”. I will update this post as things develop.

[via Zune Insider] [also via ars technica]

UPDATE: After I read earlier that Apple’s Macs are ready for special “leap-second” year, I thought — probably Zune is affected by that. Well, we now have confirmation from Zune team , and it looks like tomorrow my Zune should be back to normal! I’ll update this post again tomorrow.

UPDATE2: Welcome to 2009, Happy New Year! Quick update – Zune battery ran out yesterday, as planned. This morning I charged it from computer, and it’s back to Life! Working fine, as promised! Hope none of you rushed to break your Zune or do anything crazy to get to battery.

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Hi, Happy Thanksgiving!

This is just a quick post to tell you that Google has released Picasa 3, and it is even better than the earlier versions. This is undoubtedly best software to manage your photo collection. I have been using it since version 1 and I recommend it wholeheartedly.

It is absolutely free to download and use – Kudos to Google! Here is a quick rundown of features in this new release.

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We just received the new XBox 360 Experience, and I decided to blog about it right away (I know, totally untypical!). I expected much from this major upgrade, and I have to say so far I am impressed!

Starting with the install itself, which was quick and smooth, and onto the little touches, like the super impressive Welcome Video that it starts with. Instead of boring guy presenting “New Features”, it’s just an artistic High Definition journey for the senses.

Choosing and customizing the Avatar was just as amazing. The interface is super natural and Beautifully done in pure HD! Customization options abound, especially in hair and face options. I found it to be loads of fun, no matter what they say!

Interface overall is very impressive, while staying fast and responsive also. Haven’t used it enough to figure out how functional it is, but I don’t think there ever were any issues with function here. In my opinion, the interface should first of all Impress, and it definitely does that now. Way to go, Microsoft!!! Clearly there is a solid team behind Xbox and Zune, now if only they get some of these guys to work on Windows 8 (sadly, Windows 7 seems to have mostly closed set of features now. More on that in separate post, promise!).

UPDATE: I meant to Thank Major Nelson for making it available for us, loyal Xbox fans, few days before general public availability.

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