Threw away the Gevalia coffeemaker yesterday morning: it was too big, too
dirty (I never cleaned it) and didn't work very well. I hear rumors that
Black & Decker have a smaller one that fills a travel mug instead of a
glass coffeepot; that would be useful. Might have to look for one.
I want one of these: the SyncMaster 172W LCD monitor, from
Samsung. It looks like the same
sort of display as the Powerbook I was pining for a few weeks ago.
On the other hand, the VX2000 from
ViewSonic has a certain appeal: bigger
screen, higher resolution, wider viewing angles, etc., etc.
Over at RoadWired (www.roadwired.com),
they're selling the Pod: about the size of a lunchbox, but with:
Over 20 pockets and compartments hold camera or other
compact device, digital media and/or film, cords and adapters, batteries,
mobile phone, and more.
I can imagine some highly unusual circumstances in which such a thing
might be necessary, but in general anyone who makes a habit of carrying
around that much gear has Serious Problems.
I've been using Outlook Express at work for a while now, but I have not
enjoyed the experience. Every time I launch it, it complains about the
certificates it gets from WRI's mail servers. Its IMAP support is just
a little flaky. And lately it's started dropping icons from its toolbar:
after a while, there's only a few left, spaced very widely.
I must find a replacement, and soon.
Hm...Black & Decker has the Brew N Go personal coffeemaker:
it will deposit fifteen ounces of caffeinated goodness into a stainless
steel travel mug (no more coffeepot, no more pouring, no more dripstains on
the counter). All the relevant parts—including a permanent filter (no
more paper filters)—are dishwasher-safe. And it costs only $22.
Snooping around in the newsgroups, I see that people were complaining
about the Outlook Express disappearing-toolbar problem as far back as
version 4.71 (1998). Sheesh, 'Softies, five years and you haven't come up
with a fix yet? There isn't even a Knowledge Base article
acknowledging the problem.
Installed TaxCut 2002 this evening. It went fairly well, except that
the installer required Administrator privileges but didn't bother to
check whether it had them. (Bad installer developer. No donut
for you.) No Product Activation, which was nice, but I was
disappointed to see important offers from special partners
cluttering the installer and the TaxCut Start menu folder.
I don't want advertisements in the software that I use, thank you
very much, so I deleted them.
Their online registration form is also quite deceptive: after a
long series of nosy questions (which I didn't answer), there's a
Register Now button; after that, there's a long stretch
of empty space followed by a sneaky little pair of checkboxes:
‘Do not sell your personal information to anyone who gives
us money’ and ‘Do not send you spam’. Both
are unchecked, i.e., TaxCut can sell personal information,
and TaxCut can spam their customers. Sneaky, sneaky.
Didn't work, though. I checked both, and then hit Register Now.
Having finished grumbling in the Daybook about TaxCut's sneaky
registration process, I started work on our federal taxes. I didn't
get too far, as we're still waiting for a 1099 from the bank and a
W-2G from the Lotto people. (We only won $12 last year, but I figure
we'll get audited if we don't report it.)