Google+ First impressions

Being in Google+ is like being in an (mostly) empty coliseum. You can feel the presence of thousands, but you don't see them.

What I like:
* Circles: I like being able to group my friends
* Automatic upload of phone photos via the G+ app
* Set up: G+ is Google, and Google knows all. When I first logged into G+, it knew my previous addresses, work history, and everyone in my contact list. Set up was a breeze.
* Automatic integration with Gmail

What I don't like:
* Mandatory Circles: As far as I can tell, you can't write directly to someone in G+. Unless you make a circle for just them, then write to that circle. Could at least have given me an email link.
* Usability: G+ gave me all my contacts, and I sorted them into circles. Most of those people don't have G+. I went to share a message to a circle yesterday, and it, by default, checked a box that would email my post to those people who don't have G+. Um, no thanks.
* Usability: Automatic upload of phone photos via the G+ app had to be set up twice in order to make it work.
* Usability: The photos links don't refresh the photos. E.g., I click "photos of me" and its empty, just says "Tag yourself in some photos to show up here". So I go tag myself in some photos, go back to "photos of me" and it's still empty until i refresh the page. Same for "photos from my phone".

And finally:
* It's soooo quiet. Nothing happens there because the crowd is on Facebook.

I made an app

Don't stop for a moment

Remember a year ago (almost exactly!) when I said I love my Samsung Moment?


The love has died, folks. I'm not sure what has happened, but the piece of crap is basically a brick these days. It's slow as hell, even though I've taken off all but the most essential apps and widgets. It's been this way for a couple months now. I think the problem is that its outdated processor can't handle the updates of even the few widgets and apps I run. It didn't (and will never, thanks Sprint!) get an Android update past v1.6, and Android is up to, what, v2.3 now?

I'll get a phone call, push the answer button, and have to wait 10 or more seconds for the phone to actually stop ringing and answer. Sometimes it won't answer. Sometimes I won't get the call, even though I've got good signal.

Pandora crashes constantly. Weather channel app crashes frequently. Can't even play Angry Birds, the processor is too slow to handle the graphics.

I went through all the wickets with Sprint and they refused to give me an upgrade or replacement even though I've been a customer for a decade. Time to try a new carrier when my contract's up, or cheap enough to break.


Update11/4/11:
I talked to a customer service rep on an unrelated issue and bitched for a little while before she took pity on me and sent me a replacement Moment. It works *so* much better. I'm happy again!

Still upset with Sprint's treatment of us though. We were going to add a line this weekend to have a 'home' phone, but we decided we didn't want a 2 year contract since we were so unhappy with them at the moment (pardon the pun). So today I need to reactivate the ol' tracfone.

Turbotax 2010 install freezes at 27%

Well, actually, it goes up to 28%, then back down to 27%. Running Windows 7, the problem ended up being that I didn't have write access to the start menu... strange since I was running that install as Administrator.

Verify in the system application event logs.

To fix it I used this awesome little app called, rightfully enough, "Take Ownership"...
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/add-take-ownership-to-explorer-right-click-menu-in-vista/