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This really doesn’t have to do with computers. But while I was attending Penn State I was able to participate in THON. Each year they raise more money for children with cancer than the year before. After 46 hours of a no-sleeping, no-sitting whirlwind of a weekend at the Penn State Interfraternity Council/Panhellenic Dance Marathon (THON) overalls announced the practically incomprehensible total to be donated to the Four Diamonds Fund, an unprecedented record-breaking philanthropic total of money raised – $5,240,385.17 ...

I have recently run in to a couple websites which have a very annoying “feature”. Basically they have taken an internal policy applying to passwords and forced it externally on their loyal customers. This “feature” is to remember every password you have every previously had and not allow you to use it again. I don’t know what ‘Genius’ inside these linked companies thought this might be a good idea because this is how they run things with in the corporate walls, but out in the real world all that they are doing is forcing loyal customers to pull out their hair. ...

It seems like the multi-billion dollar children are at it again. The bitter rivalry between these two companies ceases to amaze me. Apparently none of Apples products are ready for Windows Vista according to a Yahoo News article. According to a document that Apple has posted on its Web site, none of the software that it’s made available for the Windows environment has been updated for Vista compatibility. That includes not only iTunes but QuickTime, Airport For Windows, Bonjour For Windows, iDisk utility, and AppleWorks for Windows. All of those applications or utilities are listed by Apple as compatible with Windows XP and earlier versions of Windows, but not Vista. ...

Many of my co-workers and friends have been having trouble setting up iTunes on Windows Vista 64-bit. So I thought I would put together a quick reference sheet that will make it easier, since Apple hasn’t quite got their act together yet. Background on Windows 64-bit In the 64-bit versions of Windows there are two locations for programs to be stored by default. Program Files - All the 64-bit applications that can run with out any assistance from the 32-bit emulator. Program Files (x86) - All the 32-bit applications that need the 32-bit emulator to help then run under the 64-bit versions Windows. Problem When installing the latest version of iTunes (7.0.2) on Windows Vista 64-bit the install of the QuickTime software completes successfully, however when the iTunes software tries to install the application it produces an error message saying that it cannot find the QuickTime installation. ...

I woke up this morning and found the following error on my Windows Vista 64-bit box. I am guessing the Blue Screen happened from some chipset drivers I installed last night. It is a testament to the great work the Microsoft development team has done with Windows Vista, that Windows is now able to recover, without a reboot, from the shoddy programming of 3rd party hardware driver developers. I am happy to see that Windows Vista isn’t all glamor upgrades and I suspect this has to do with running most of the drivers in user land now. ...

Recently I posted about the bad user experience that the Adobe Update Manager provided. On the same day that I posted that entry I also sent a note to Adobe about my disappointment in their product. I am happy to say I received a positive response from Adobe, and with the e-mail below, my respect for their QA team has gone up a couple notches. I say this because it takes a level of humility that is required in software development to admit you are wrong, something that not many companies have anymore. ...

Recently I upgraded Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.0. I would first like to say that I found the new updated user interface a very nice experience. However there was one problem with the experience and it had nothing to do with the Adobe Acrobat Reader 8.0, it had to do with the Adobe Update Manager. For some reason the Update Manager puts a folder called Updater5 in the My Documents folder. From what I can tell this folder is always empty at least it has been always empty on my laptop. You are all probably saying why not just delete the folder and stop whining about it. However it is not that easy, I delete the Updater5 folder and as soon as I open Adobe Acrobat Reader up, the folder reappears. This makes me furious because not only is this a bad experience for users, such as my self, that like to keep their document folders organized, but the folder isn’t called Adobe’s Documents or Adobe’s Temporary Directory it is called My Documents as in Nick’s Personal Documents. ...