Everyone has a different tolerance for pain. My physical tolerance is so high it is dangerous because my body can be seriously injured before I know about the problem – but my emotional tolerance is very low.
I have been having trouble with "pop-ups" – not stopping them…but getting selected ones to come up when I want them.

The real estate MLS for example uses "pop-ups" to bring all of the County zip codes into a display.
Not on my computer. Several months ago I lost that ability, and the ability to play AM radio from a website – and that is a pain because I live in one of those areas where AM reception ranks from poor to terrible.

At the same time a new ultraviolet lamp in my Koi pond placed a blanket of 60 cycle hum across the AM band, AND I could not listen via a website. (Yes, I checked the polarity, and re-grounded the circuit...nothing worked. Suggestions?)

So I called Rod Chan who sees these problems daily, and his analysis was some TSR was blocking my popups when I didn’t want it to…it turned out to be Adwatch…

That is too bad because I paid for that program and hated to lose it…it worked well, except for the blocking of EVERY popup, wanted or not.

So I downloaded Spysubtract and paid $39 for it.

Unfortunately, after many tries, I could not get the Activation Code they sent me to work. I called their customer Support toll-free number. After the usual Voice-mail Hell, a disembodied voice told me that problems with an activation code were being taken at ANOTHER toll-free number.

I tried the other number, another Voice-mail Hell and another very nice but unhelpful disembodied voice said, Please go to the website and send us an e-mail."

I did: An e-mail canceling my purchase!

Spysubtract has exceeded my pain tolerance level.

I downloaded and activated Spy Sweeper without any problem.

people who want my money need to make it easy for me to give them my money!

It is hard to believe that this is the 50th Anniversary of the harddrive -- but that is only because I grew uo with them, and now I am old!

I first saw a harddrive in 1968 on a government computerthat I was charged with programming...and I owned my first harddrive in 1980 -- a 5 MB Apple Profile that set me back $3,000 and change. My wife let me buy one of the first ones because tired of hunting all over the house for Apple floppys...and I assured her that I could NEVER fill up a 5 MB harddrive!

(Actually, I was right...the damn thing crashed, taking with it several books I was writing. That was my first introduction to "backing up"...)

Now we are working on the Terrabyte size hard drive, costing almost nothing.

Harddrives are the miracle of science -- a mechanical/electronic device that works on tiny, tiny tolerances and still performs for years! The hybrid harddrive is amongst us as we go toward the solid-state-only device, but for now more than 50 years the harddrive has more than held it's own, and cheaply in a highly competitive market.

Oh, great!

Just when I get accustomed to reading (but not owning) a laptop hard-drive of 100 GB, along comes Seagate announcing a 2.5 inch, 5,400 RPM hard-drive with 160 GB for notebooks.

Technology never quits!

Some Readers may accept my pronuncio that Apple was of a specific California culture reeking slightly of stale cannabis and pizza, while IBM was as buttoned down as could be…so an example.

I attended a two-week "Executive" school at IBM Headquarters in New York. I happened to already be a Navy programmer, writing machine code for the Univac 20B and being groomed for Project Director position, so my attendance with the first NASA contingent was more of an introduction to highly placed executives than it was to computers. I vividly recall the prohibition of booze on the campus even in our rooms, and the necessity of proper dress to class.

Fast forward several years to my visit to Apple at Cupertino to discuss the operating system with the programmers…where I was told, "They are not here. No one is here. Steve had 60 buses come at lunch to take everyone to bars all across the city. The guys you want are at Patrick’s on 37^th…go three lights south and take a left…it is a couple of miles down on the left."

So, I sat in Patrick’s around a table and we all drew "patch" diagrams on paper, or paper napkins, or whatever – wishing we had butcher paper which was our normal design recorder of choice.

My appreciation for both of those corporate cultures and their individual cutting-edge technologies remains to this day, but asking both to the same cocktail party would be a mistake, and trying to marry them in business would be an even bigger mistake.

Like the political parties, there is a great deal of pressure from their extreme wings and it is almost impossible to move to the "center" without breaking core principles and alienating the strong base. To a great extent, political parties are captive to their extremes…and so are Apple and WinTel.

Being the weaker of the two, it is up to Apple to make the first move but I fear the Intel situation is a matter of technological necessity not of corporate centrism.

I owned an Apple Computer dealership back in the days when we could walk into Mike Markulas' (Apple CEO) office without even seeing a secretary, so I have some insight into Apple.

My dealership was the first national business-oriented dealership.Apple has great products, and even better marketing -- because Markula was a marketing man before Apple.Their advantages are seriously good technology, terrific quality control, and ownership of their own operating system -- which gives them excellent control over anyone writing software for their computers.

So, why don't they dominate an industry they invented? Because Apple people were counter-culture from the beginning -- long hair, blue jeans, BMW motorcycles...and they expected to impact a (then) three piece suit, button-down Fortune 500 business world.

Mind you, this business world was one they mocked, in person, in ads, everywhere -- and then they expected to impact that same business world.

Apple !! -- their first commercial machine, had one business program -- VISICALC, the first spreadsheet, designed by Dan Bricklin at MIT and essentially identical to follow-on products Lotus 1-2-3, SuperCalc and Excel. Terrific program, and 50% of ALL Apple II computers were sold with VISICALC. It was enough to carry Apples into the private offices of Fortune 500, but not the computer departments.

(I was at a cocktail party of a Fortune 500 company while I was divesting myself of my dealership, and had already taken over their LA TV statioion, when I heard someone as k the Director of Computers if the company had any micros...and he said, "None, and they wont so long as I am here."

Then IBM came out with their line -- EVERY business computer director was IBM trained! (As was I!)

These IBM computer guys bled IBM blue, and they had been kicked in the shins by those scraggly, maggot-infested, FM radio types from Apple for several years.

Yes, Apple computers were in some offices, but when the time came to make corporate purchases, by the thousands, which computer were these IBM trained people going to choose?

Duh!

(You could own either, but the company only bought IBM and if you wanted support from your IT Department, you had better have an IBM on your desk!)Apple may have had somewhat hurt feelings but they didn't like corporate types anyway -- and they owned the burgeoning school business (except universities), and the gamers.

I can tell you from the "inside" that Apple had 100% of a tiny market, and when IBM came into the nicro business, Apple took a "double truck" in the WSJ with a huge "Welcome IBM" ad.

Apple's theory was that IBM legitimized the micro business, and that Apple would have 40% of a huge market rather than 100% of a tiny market.But they never changed their attitude toward corporations -- remember that famous Apple ad of the hammer thrower destroying the corporate clone's computer screen a la "1984?"WOZ and Jobs were gamers, and counter-culture icons.

They could not bring themselves to put on a three piece suit, and besides, they were having fun and making millions.

(Years ago, there was a meeting of Apple and IBM -- it made news because the Apple people wore coats, and the IBM people did not have ties!)

Apple was losing market share far faster than they had anticipated. Much faster. Cachet counts.

Apple meant cute, IBM meant serious. Big business or small, business people were serious.

Apple's iPOD outsells their computers! They make great EVERYTHING, but they dallied while WinTel machines caught up.

There is not a dimes worth of difference between them -- ownership of one or the other is a religious experience, not a technology one. Apple is pretty, bullet-proof, and dominates the graphics and film market...but if you want to tinker under the hood to do something not "normal" or call a friend for help, WinTel makes sense.

Like Chevys and Fords, there is no "better," there is just personal choice.

(Apple addicts are a cult, and they disagree...)The move of Apple from Motorola to Power PC to Intel tells me that philosophical changes are in the wind.

25 years late.

Just don't buy an Apple today until they switch...

The Christmas Holidays are more than a time to see family -- it is time to get some things done that simply take TIME!

There is no substitute for just plain time!

This time I recorded -- or rather finished recording 250 CDs -- onto my hard-drive to travel onto my iPOD. Also, I installed a second wireless computer system that plays all of that music -- obviously music I like because I bought the CDs.

The house has a "Soper G" wireless router for computer use using a 108 mbs Netgear router -- and a separate 11 mbs "B" router that is wirelessly connected to an Apple Airport "G" connected to my two-zone Bose amplifier. In THEORY, the Super G shouild be able to connect to the Apple Airport -- but in practice I could not get a wireless connection, so I installed the "B" system. (To be completely accurate, Rod Chan installed the "B" system when he got tired of us trying to get the Super G system to recognize the Airport...to him, time is money!)

I certainly prefer music, particularly music I love, to TV!

Using iTunes I can have the computer select whatever music at random, or I can play what my mood dictates -- classical, smooth jazz, git fiddle, easy listening, Brazilian, 1940s swing, military marches...etc. Using my laptop anywhere in the house or in the garden I can select any single piece of music, or a complete genre in a second.

All in all, I can listen to more than 2,500 pieces of music, 7 days of music, 24 hours a day without repeating a song, and I can determine in which part of the house -- or all of the house -- the music plays. Different music can play in three different parts of the house/garden if that is desired.

I am feeling pretty smug now that it is over...and it works! It took a long time! Using 11 Bose speakers, plus a Bose Music System, there is pleanty of musci for the small house plus lanai!

Anyone wishing a demo can call me anytime...

Yesterday I was interviewed by a reporter from the SD Union -- she was using an iPOD with a recorder attachment. (iTALK from Griffin -- $42.) Damn neat, great design, and iPOD holds thousands of hours of recording. Looked good. (She did too...undergrad at Wellesley and grad at Stanford...)

This morning I read Mossbergs column in the WSJ -- he is using the iPOD to download and backup his digital camera on vacations, using a new iPOD Camera Connector. ($33)

COSTCO is carrying the Altec Lansing InMotion speaker system for the iPOD for $149! Great sound, great price, VERY small and portable compared to BOSE, AC and battery powered.

Just when Konfabulator becomes free, up jumps Google Desktop 2 (Beta) with a really great free competitor.

Right now I am using both -- and you should give them a try. Of course, they do eat up a lot of memory...

One of the best (now free) programs around, is Konfabulator – a program recently bought by Yahoo and made free in their competition with Google.

Konfabulator gives you a number of useful icons for your desktop: Weather (current and five day forecast), analog or digital clock; "To Do List"; and loads of others which you can use or not have visible. There is a memory counter, a stock list, and loads of options.

I got this tip from Leo Laporte’s Sunday show…and his shows are now available on Podcast.
Download the Konfabulator from http://www.konfabulator.com -- there are more than 1,000 valuable icons you can download.

If you have not tried www.earth.google.com you are missing a great treat...it is satellite photo program that is really exciting. You need a decent graphics card, and one of the new 3-D cards is supposed to provide real punch...but the site is terrific with whatever you have...