US Cellular ‘Battery Swap’ Has Scammed ME!

They INTENTIONALLY gave me a compromised batteries HOPING that I will, in despair, either buy a new battery or get a new phone. Not once, but twice — and the second time around my wife told them that the first replacement had been defective.

I had a perfectly good, long-lasting battery on my Motorola Razr V3. But one day, while in Concord, NH, I noticed that I was ‘low.’ I happened to be driving past a mall with US Cellular and since I had been bombarded with promos for this battery swap I thought I will give it a try. They, as ever, were as nice as can be. Didn’t ask any questions. Just looked up my account. Took my phone away and came back and said here you have a replacement battery. It looked charged. Within 24 hours I realized that something was very wrong. This replacement battery wouldn’t hold a charge! I was lucky if I could get 4 hours STANDBY on a charge. In despair, I sent my wife to Tilton, NH, to see if my ‘friend’ who works for US Cellular was there and he could give me a battery comparable to what I had.

When she got to Tilton my friend wasn’t there. He has had some health issues. She was instead served by a female rep. I think I know who it is. Yes, I think I know her name. My wife, who very rarely has anything bad to say about people, said that this rep. was RUDE. Well, she put another battery in the phone. This was a couple of months ago. This battery does NOT hold a charge. My phone is continually turning itself off. I have it plugged in permanently. I don’t go out much. When I do, and I need a phone, I take my wife’s! It has got that bad.

What is galling is that I am supposed to be a ‘preferred’ customer, having been with them, uninterrupted for over 10 years.

Yes, my wife keeps on saying I should go and see my friend in Tilton and that he will get me a good battery — because he is a good guy, salt of the earth. I am sure he will. he has looked after me, well, for 7 or 8 years. But Tilton is 45 minutes away. Concord is 35 minutes away.

But, I don’t want to. I know the game they are playing and I will tango with them.

I just bought a new battery for $5.40 (inc. shipping) from eBay!

I have been ‘off-contract’ for 10 months. That kills US Cellular. They are hoping that they can force me to buy a fancy new phone and then get me to lock into a 2 year contract by saying I can have it for free.

I am NOT a big phone user. E-mail is my preferred mode of communication given that I am, in the end, a writer. So I do not need a fancy phone or lot of minutes. I have never TEXTED and have had texting disabled on my phones from day one. The only people that sent me text messages was US Cellular telling me that I should activate my texting feature!

Earlier this year we got a Magic Jack. Magic Jack works. It is a marvel. I love Magic Jack. Don’t believe any of the FUD you hear about Magic Jack — like it doesn’t support 911. It does. Yes, we in NH do not get a 603 number. That is annoying. But, I kind of like my 207 number since people now think I am calling from Maine.

So bottom line, DO NOT succumb to the US Cellular Battery Swap. It is a scam. It would be CHEAPER in the long run to buy a car charger. Trust me. I have no reason to give you bad information.

All the best.

P.S. Magic Jack Rocks.

Anura
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: A New BLOG dedicated to Windows 7

This BLOG, as you should be able to tell by its name (viz. ‘NH Life’), was never meant to be a high-tech BLOG, let alone one focusing on Windows 7.

I set it up to BLOG about life in New Hampshire. Given that I have been ‘heads down’ working on a new book, I didn’t do much Blogging (‘disciplined’ & ‘focused’ being two of my middle names).

Windows 7 came to be just as I had finished the writing phase of the book and had a bit more time whilst my intrepid editor was going through the proofs.

But, I decided that this BLOG needs to revert back to being a non-technical Blog.

So, I set up a new BLOG dedicated to Windows 7. It is called ‘Windows 7 Professional‘ — that being the version of Windows 7 use.

Plus, all the other names were gone. I was pretty impressed. Somebody even snagged ‘WindowsVII.’ But, most of these Blogs are not populated. Shame. People grabbed the names and did nothing. But, I know what that is like.

So please visit ‘Windows 7 Professional‘

Thank You

Anura

 

Windows 7: Preview Or Not To Preview

The built-in PREVIEW feature of Windows 7 is, indubitably, a powerful, useful and soon addictive feature, particularly so if you have a few thousand documents on your PC.

Yes, you can do without it, but it kind of grows on you.

But there is a problem. That is why I am bring it up here, as it is so symptomatic of the issues ‘power users’ will have with Windows 7.

Microsoft just did NOT go that one additional step needed to make many of these features outright winners.

Here is the problem with having PREVIEW.

To provide the Preview, Windows 7, given that it is still unable to violate the fundamental laws of physics, has to open the document — using the ‘default’ application, e.g., Word, if it is a Word document.

So now you are in a folder, BUT the document you selected is OPEN.

I, more than most, RENAME documents. It is one of my multi-level, paranoia-fueled, means of version control.

With PREVIEW ON, Windows 7 still gives me the option to RENAME. So I go ahead and rename.

THEN it tells me, it can’t do the rename BECAUSE the document is open!

Come ON. This is 2009. Yes, I agree, that YOU can’t and shouldn’t rename an OPEN document.

But here are three options that anybody who has gone through IT 101 will be able to come up with:

1. Gray out the RENAME option, if PREVIEW is on, thus precluding renaming of that document.
   
2. When you click RENAME, with Preview on, DISPLAY a warning saying you must close Preview you can rename.

    

3. Permit YOU to rename, BUT then display a message saying RENAME will only occur when you exit Preview … and that you should check that the rename occurred.
   

This is basic stuff. That is my GRIPE. This is why the Mac camp is still so gung-ho about what they have.

Hope this helps. Cheers.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: Hidden Changes to Disk Defrag

Turning Off Windows 7 Automated Defrag

This is NEW, not-publicized and hidden. Windows 7 has automatic, scheduled System Disk Defragmentation. Depending on what type of user YOU are that can be good or BAD.

But, before we go any further let me just tell you WHEN it is set for. It is set for once a week, at 1:00am every Wednesday. Got that. So whether this happens or not depends on whether your PC happens to be up at 1:00am on a Wednesday night.

I don’t have a problem with this per se. By issue is that Microsoft didn’t notify me that this DEFAULT was set … and worse still HID IT in a place that one would not normally look.

To FIND where the scheduled defrag is set … YOU have to HIT the ‘Defragment Now’ button! That is my real gripe. Those that do NOT want Windows 7 to do their DEFRAG will shy away from hitting this button given its sense of immediacy. I was even talking to a PC expert last night. I wanted to show him WHERE the automatically scheduled Defrag was set. So I told him to hit the ‘Defragment Now’ button. He was reluctant because like many PC pros he doesn’t want Windows to do the defrag.

That is my issue. Automated DEFRAG is set … but people don’t know about it.

They should know about it for multiple, obvious, reasons. For a start, IF they want to avail themselves of this feature they may want to change the time. Then there are those that will shudder at the thought of letting Windows defrag their system disk. Some may not even understand why an old man like me is even bothering to write about this on a Saturday morning.

Disks should be defragmented. No question about that. I used to be a real stickler. Defragmenting weekly, if not more. I am not as obsessive any more. My work pattern has changed. I don’t work with as many documents a day or week as I used to. Instead, given that I have been writing a dense 300 page book on papal history, I work on the same document for weeks at a time. So I don’t really see that much of an hit on performance by not defragmenting.

But here is the history. The original defrag that was available in Windows worked but was kind of lame. It gained a reputation among the cognoscenti as being ineffective. In reality, it could have just been that it did NOT have the compelling graphic, color coded graphic of file sectors being moved around … as the disk was getting defragmented. But, the bottom line was that most ‘pros’ chose to use 3rd party defraggers. Some of these defraggers could automatically usurp the Windows one. So you went through the same process, but now it was a 3rd party tool that did the defrag rather than what came with Windows.

I have a free version of Diskeeper on my production XP machine. That is totally integrated with Windows. But of late I have been using System Mechanic.

I am a BIT leery of System Mechanic 9.0.x on Windows 7. But I have used it to do defrag. It does NOT defrag Windows 7 system files as well as it does XP files. Not an issue right now.

Anyway, my goal here was to give you the facts about Windows 7 defrag so that YOU can do what YOU want to do. Hope this helped.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: Screwy Things Are Happing. A HEADS UP.

Something happened on the Web yesterday afternoon … in some way IMPACTING a number of THIRD-PARTY Windows 7 tools.

I am talking here about anti viruses and system tools such as Avast, System Mechanic, Advanced System Care etc.

Around 4:30pm yesterday, November 5, Avast sent out their daily update. Shortly after that Avast on my Windows 7 machine went crazy. The Avast icon ‘globe’ in my ‘SYSTEM TRAY’ was spinning SO FAST for so long I thought it would drill a hole in my monitor!

I am no stranger to Avast. I have been using it for 2 years and have it on 3 machines.

This was not right. Did some checking. It was doing an automatic scan on my C: disk.

Hey, you are not supposed to do that. (And for that know Avast, my VRDB is DISABLED. So it was not VRDB).

Checked with my buddy who also has Windows 7 and Avast. Same kind of inexplicable Avast behavior.

Then I had System Mechanic 9.0.5 LIE to me about an error on my C: drive.

He runs ASC in addition to System Mechanic and Avast.

Well by last night his Windows 7 rig was in SERIOUS TROUBLE. He lost ‘Sticky Notes’ and ‘Sniper’ from the System as well as other Windows utilities.

Unlike me, he is an out and out PC and Windows expert. So he didn’t panic too much. He ran diagnostics and reinstalled just his system files.

But he continued to see weird stuff.

So as I write this he is doing a FULL Windows 7 CLEAN INSTALL.

Something is not right. We can both feel it in our bones and we do know what we are doing.

So a HEADS UP. PLEASE share your experiences if you are seeing some weird stuff with Windows.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

 

 

Windows 7: iolo System Mechanic 9.0.5 ALERT

On October 28 I posted that System Mechanic 9.0.x was hanging with Windows 7.

I also reported that to iolo. Those of you who have System Mechanic may have noticed that we have had an eerie hiatus from SM updates for a few days. It was spooky. Not seeing any new updates.

Yesterday there finally was an update.

So I ran a FULL scan cum system analysis. SM said I had 5 problems … one of them a DISK PROBLEM.

YIKES.

Brand new Western Digital best-of-breed 750GB drives.

Didn’t trust SM. So didn’t tell it to fix it.

Ran Windows 7 disk test tool. Said both disks were OK.

Ran SM again. SAME error.

Told it to check the disk … but NOT to fix it.

Took … like 3 hours to do that.

Then told me that I sure had an error.

It could only be fixed after a restart … the C: drive being my system disk.

So said OK.

SM then invoked Windows 7 disk tool … in deep scan mode.

It ran for 3 hours and then said disk was FINE.

So System Mechanic was wrong.

This is screwy. I have been using SM since ~2001 starting with SM 6. I have 3 paid licenses and have it on 2 XP machines. Never had an issue with XP.

I will NOT use it again on Windows 7, though I know I have registry errors.

This is getting scary.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: Media Player Wouldn’t Start. Had To Restart.

I had noticed that the Windows 7 Media Player is a bit more temperamental than the version on XP.

It has always given me this vibe that it was tethering on a knife edge … ready to crash.

Well today I was playing around trying to edit artist’s name, genre etc. Then I closed it. Did something else.

Went back to start it. IT WOULD NOT START.

Had to restart Windows 7.

Hmmmmmmm!

On the whole, I can’t really say I am thrilled with Windows 7. Today was a particularly bad day.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

 

Windows 7: Can’t Preview Microsoft Clip Art! This Is Beyond The Pale

Article moved here.

Cheers

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: Alternative to Macromedia Fireworks

Article moved to here.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com

 

Windows 7: Virtual Memory Settings Bother Me

I have to assume that at a minimum 70% of Windows uses have no idea what Virtual Memory (VM) is, what it means in terms of performance and what their VM settings are. That is how it should be.

Lets be fair. Microsoft buries VM setting pretty deep. In Windows 7 to get to it, you have to go SYSTEM → ADVANCED SYSTEM SETTINGS → Advanced Tab → Advanced Tab.

Yes, through three (3) levels of choices that say ‘ADVANCED.’ That would scare many with a faint heart.

As I had said in an earlier posting Windows 7 had allocated 12GB of VM on my machine … which has 12GB of REAL, physical, very fast (rather expensive) memory. That was crazy.

Because my VM was so large, Windows 7 nor applications were using all of my REAL memory. Instead, it was using the 12GB of VM on disk.

Talk about having a dog but then having to train the cockatoo to make barking noises.

I reduced my VM to 4GB. I now use more of my real memory.

Though it is an option you should NOT totally turn off VM. Some Windows applications were designed to REQUEST a large chunk of VM for their own needs … when they are activated. Disabling VM would result in Windows 7 having to handle these requests on a per ‘exception’ basis. So best to leave some VM. OK?

My gripe. I SHOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO DO THIS MYSELF.

Yet again I question those that tested and reviewed Windows 7 … during the last 7 months. What were you testing? That Windows 7 could still display porn sites? I haven’t tested that, but I assume that we would have heard about that if it couldn’t.

Basically, Microsoft is just reusing LEGACY CODE from XP. Nothing wrong with that. That is how it should be. But, REFRESH the code to reflect 8 years of technical innovation.

When XP came out, having one 1GB of memory on a PC … was equivalent to having 12GB today.

So the XP VM default setting was 1.5 times REAL memory. That made sense when you have less than 4GB of real memory.

With Windows 7 the VM allocation algorithm should have been along the lines of:

If physical memory greater (or equal to) 8GB set initial allocation to 1/3 of real (or possibly even a lower value),
If physical memory greater (or equal to) 4GB set initial allocation to 1/2 of reak (or possibly even a lower value),

If physical memory less than (or equal to) 1GB set initial allocation to 1.5 times actual.

At least that would give us a fighting chance.

Many thanks. All the best.

Anura Guruge
www.guruge.com