I vaguely recall a quote from Henry Ford saying that customers could purchase a model t Ford in any color they wanted as long as it was Black.  That is apparently the approach that Palm has taken with the Pre on many areas, especially on the music manager.  You can use any music manager you like, but the Pre will only work with itunes.

That’s just fantastic if you already use itunes, like itunes, want to keep using itunes etc.

If you manage your music in Windows Media Player, Real, Winamp or just play music from folders on your hard drive or something, well then you are kind of stuck with Model T coloring.

Personally, I use Windows Media Player.  Is it better than itunes, is it superior to Winamp?

No idea and I don’t care.  I use it, because that is what I use, have used, and what I have thousands and thousands and thousands of songs organized within.  So to have to switch to itunes, basically means that ALL of my songs are now lost and disorganized in itunes and I have to start from scratch.

Not cool, but as an early adopter of a new device, I realize that the customer is not always right.  Don’t get me wrong, I’d be just as un-right if I were trying to use an iphone, but that’s kind of expected from Apple, because they are the screwy fools that made itunes!  Palm’s been working with other music players for years and years and doing it pretty damn well from my past experiences with treos, handsprings, palms etc.

I guess, I’m currently hoping that some non-Apple fan boy at Palm stands up and says, “hey some of our customers don’t love Apple just because, maybe we should give them some music player options on the Pre, after all we are trying to save our company with this phone, no point in alienating Windows Media Player users.”

Oh, and while you’re at it, don’t forget to fast track that Audible project.

I still really like the Palm Pre, but after my first Palm Pre died the yesterday, and Palm sent me on a 150 minute wild goose chase through technical support, I guess you could say the honeymoon period is over.  Oh, and if you are wondering what all those crazy stupid ‘itunes’ hyperlinks are for, you can find the same links by doing a google search with the keywords ‘itunes sucks’. 

Note. I’m a blogger, not a journalist.  I’m purposefully subjective, and prefer to look at the applied uses of gadgets and software in specific unique circumstances, and at extreme tolerances.  If you are looking for a generic ‘review’ of something, you have mistakenly come to the wrong place.  We don’t sell black model t cars here, we offer chartreuse model t’s with glitter pain jobs, flames on the hood, and well, that analogy is a little tired, but we don’t do generic reviews here.  If you want generic and objective, go over to Cnet and read a paragraph with a lot of verbage that you probably could have found in a Palm press release.

After I have had some more hands on with the actual player on the Pre, I’ll cover that again soon.  At first glance, the sound (and the headphones that come with the Pre) are excellent.  I would like to see software improvements in the following:

• the ability to adjust volume on the touch screen
• the ability to delete a song from the device (haven’t found this yet, if it exists, then it needs to be added as an option in more spots
• the ability to convert part of a song into a ring tone.  The G1 (android) from T-Mobile has this capability and it was excellent, a little music editor that you could select part or all of a song and set it as a ringtone or notification.  The ringtones that come standard with the Pre are about as diverse as a gaggle of Canadian Geese
• the ability to drag and drop songs up and down within the play list as the songs are playing (mixing on the fly)
• The ability to rate songs with stars on a 1 to 5 rating level and then later play songs by rating level, and better yet, have it update my computer files
• push button notification to update my facebook letting people know what song I’m listening to & maybe it includes a YouTube link if it can find one, or an Amazon MP3 sales link on my Amazon Associates account so I can make a fortune of my friends. 

But like I said, haven’t had a chance to think about this much yet . . .

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE

It is now 7:50 PM about 7 hours after my first Palm Pre died.  After much hassle (see below) my original Sprint store was able to replace my first dead Palm Pre with a brand new Palm Pre, which I’m calling, Palm Pre #2.

I must say that once I turned on Palm Pre #2, my new Palm profile setup for Palm Pre #1, immediately kicked in & started updating Palm Pre #2 with all my email address configurations (cool!) & my Google GMAIL contact info (Gmail contacts suck, but this did pull them in).  My Facebook settings did not work quite so well, but after entering my password all was well with Facebook too.

My Palm Pre #2 came with firmware version Palm webOS 1.0.2.  I’m not going to update to 1.0.3 nor 1.0.4 anytime soon, because I have no idea what killed PP#1 and can’t afford to waste more time if PP#2 dies on me.

UPDATE

I started this article to chronicle a couple important issues with my Palm Pre.  The second was apparently a terminal condition for my phone, and as I write this update, I’m trying to find the fastest way to replace my 3 day old phone.  Palm phone support kept me on the phone for about 146 minutes through 4 dropped calls, and ultimately told me they would call me back, maybe by tomorrow morning. 

Below is the original article and below that is the stream of twitter comments I made while on the phone with Palm for far too long.

In general I am extremely unhappy happy with my new Palm Pre.  I upgraded from the G1 to the Palm Pre last week, and this is a much much better phone on more levels that I’ll tick off here.  In the last 2 days, day 2 & 3 of my ownership I have noticed 2 problems that are somewhat troubling.  They have not yet repeated themselves, but I wanted to mention them as I document my initial experiences with the Palm Pre.

The first happened when I attempted to go into camera mode.  I tapped the camera application and instead of the rapid fire transition to camera, a function that has been amazingly fast thus far, the application seemed to hang as it started up.  I was unable to take a picture as the viewer never showed up on the screen.  It took some effort to close the application as well, which kept going from full screen to a tab / page view.  Finally it ended and no more issues since (that happened yesterday).

The second was a death sentence apparentlymore problematic.  I missed a call that went to voice mail.  I tapped the notification at the bottom of the screen indicating the voice mail existed, it dialed my voice mail and then my screen went black.  Nothing I could do could awaken the screen.  The voice mail played, but I could not tap any buttons or work the voice menu.  The speaker worked but the screen and the qwerty keyboard were both dead.  I attempted to power down the phone, but that button was dead also, so was the volume button.

So mid stuck-call, I had to figure out how to remove the battery cover, something not mentioned in the users guide that I could see. 

It involves pushing a button at the bottom of the phone then plying the back cover off despite the fact that it bent in an odd way that made me fear the cover would break.  Fortunately it did not break and the slight bend did not alter the shape of the cover permanently.

Then I pulled on the plastic tab to remove the battery.  That also was an unintuitive experience with no guide. 

Tip pull away from phone, not down nor up, the plastic tab is NOT attached to the battery, just used to lever the battery out.

Super Troubling Palm Pre Failure

After I reset the device, I attempted to dial my voice mail again.  All the fuss with the phone made it impossible to get my message.  When I went to the keypad and hit the voice mail button again, my screen and keypad went dead AGAIN!

This time the voice mail system hung up on me after it timed out.  Even after it hung up, my phone was still dead, so I removed the battery again to reset the phone.

Question – Is there a reset button on the Palm Pre?  Haven’t found it yet, but I hope so! Partial Answer – apparently there is, but it deletes lots of information from the device, still do not know where it is.

In the comments section of this Engadget article you’ll find some other complaints from other users

http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2009/06/07/palm-pre-trouble-roundup/

Now, keep in mind the restarting of the Pre takes about 1 minute and 45 seconds.  This is normally not a big issue, because I usually only restart it once a day, if that, but having to restart it twice in a 10 minute period, well. it gave me the time to write this silly 550+ word article.

Here’s  a reverse order run down of my twitter accounting of what happened when my Palm Pre died a partial Death

• ended 147 minutes w @Palm support-my 3 day old dead Palm Pre, still does not work-Tier III may call me back by tomorrow @Sprint15 minutes ago from web

• @Palm Tier II guy came back told me Tier III might call me back by tomorrow (trying to stay calm) my dead Palm Pre fm @sprint25 minutes ago from web

• been on hold now 37 min to get to @Palm Tier III support after working with Tier I & II for 98 minutes for my dead Palm Pre31 minutes ago from web

• The static filled, broken nasty hold music that @Palm plays for Tier I, II, & III support is grating on me while staring @ my dead Palm Pre38 minutes ago from web

• on hold 10 minutes awaiting Tier II trsfr to Tier III fm @Palm after waiting 13 minutes for tier I to Tier II trsft for my dead Palm Pre42 minutes ago from web

• @gtowna not getting any work done here, fooling with a dead Palm Pre and @Palm support about time to get a beer or 4about 1 hour ago from web in reply to gtowna

• If this were SnowCrash Pizza delivery instead of Palm Pre smart phones, I’d own Uncle Enzo’s Ass by now @Palm @Sprint #idiocracyabout 1 hour ago from web

• @Palm tier II is now putting me on hold to connect me to @Palm Tier III at 17:13 of 4th call- on phone w @Palm 114 minutes so far todayabout 1 hour ago from web

• back on the line with the latest tier II service specialist, only a 13 minute wait to get to him from tier I @Palm in re: my Dead Palm Preabout 1 hour ago from web

• @learningSEO before my Palm Pre died, I would have DEFINITELY recommended it, having some doubts now that @Palm can’t seem to fix it . . . .3 minutes ago from web in reply to learningSEO

• @Palm Tier I is putting me on hold for Tier II so Tier II can put me on hold & refer me to Tier III for my Dead Palm Pre @sprint5 minutes ago from web

• @sprintcare thx for the offer, just sent you an email, calling @Palm tier II back now after firmware 1.0.4 install completed – Pre dead10 minutes ago from web in reply to sprintcare

• Installing firmware upgrade 1.0.4 for my dead Palm Pre fm @Palm @Sprint – 2 chk 4 updates type U P then click Updates on your Palm Pre19 minutes ago from web

• figures 30 sec after @Palm hangs up 1.0.4 dwnld finishes, hope this fixes my dead Palm Pre got calls to make, business to salvage @sprint21 minutes ago from web

• 3rd call to re-re-escalation rep, tier II, ended after 43 minutes-no resolution 4 @Palm Pre death-don’t call us we’ll call you ahmm @Sprint23 minutes ago from web

• @Palm escalated representative is now telling me to just wait an hour and see if it works later dead Palm Pre 28 minutes ago from web

• @JGoldsborough thx 4 quest, Yes, called them 1st, told me to return Palm Pre to store, but store has few/no replacements, trying to fix 1st33 minutes ago from web in reply to JGoldsborough

• Put my Pre into airplane mode to turn off @Sprint forcing wifi which is on, but download still seems to be stuck coming fm @Palm35 minutes ago from web

• @WarrenWhitlock Yes I have a Pre @Sprint is telling me to return it, on phone with @Palm escalated service rep -was great phone till it died38 minutes ago from web in reply to WarrenWhitlock

• download of Palm Pre firmware 1.0.4 fm @Palm failed while on phone with re-re-escalated tech support40 minutes ago from web

• after over an hour on phone w @Palm they now have me checking for firmware updates, per my mention I’m on old version @Sprint42 minutes ago from web

• while on hold for the last 20 minutes (3rd call w @Palm) Learned there is Palm Pre firmware upgrade 1.0.4-wonder if it can be pushed to me?about 1 hour ago from web

• Got to the re-re-escalated rep-kate, she didn’t read the case notes, wanted me to start fm begining -nonstarter- she’s now reading the notesabout 1 hour ago from web

• Apparently @Palm ’s Alex was also disconnected when talking to re-escalation team & so I’m getting re-re-escalated now-time for Idiocracyabout 1 hour ago from web

• apparently rebooting a Palm Pre really drains the battery, having to recharge while on hold for @Palm re-escalation of call – 15 Pre crashesabout 1 hour ago from web

• apparently tier 1 @Palm person-alex after putting me on hold has to re-escalate my call I can’t just call back & be escalated post drop callabout 1 hour ago from web

• just confirmed that my Palm Pre crashes when making calls whether wifi is turned off or on (crashes either way) @Palm @Sprintabout 1 hour ago from web

• back on hold with @Palm as they track down my last service repabout 1 hour ago from web

• @Palm Like yourself, I am recording these calls as well for quality improvement purposesabout 1 hour ago from web

• OK, refill of coke zero, choc chip cookie, time to call @Palm back after dropped call to get my Palm Pre fixed – maybe I s/become a Luditeabout 1 hour ago from web

• @Palm dropped my call on the other line while trying to call my
  mobile to see if it would kill my Palm Pre again- Deep Breath Aaaahhhhmm Ahmabout 1 hour ago from web

• @Palm is calling me now to figure out why my Palm Pre crashes (screen keyboard become unresponsive during calls) @Sprintabout 1 hour ago from web

• @Palm has me back on hold while Palm Pre boots up after crash – Speed tests show Palm Pre takes 1:45+ to turn on http://bit.ly/WnLlzabout 1 hour ago from web

my Palm Pre dies when i dial phone numbers from the qwerty keyboard too @Palm @Sprint Palm Support going 2 try calling me nextabout 1 hour ago from web

@Palm transferred me to a higher level specialist, who has me on hold while reading case notes from previous specialist #PalmPreDeadScreenabout 1 hour ago from web

@cartermason had great experiences w Treo on tmobile but Treo on Verizon was awful-> Verizon loaded too much crapware & killed the phoneabout 2 hours ago from web in reply to cartermason

Back on hold with @Palm re my Palm Pre that dies whenever it makes a call on @Sprint awaiting transfer to higher level of supportabout 2 hours ago from web

Palm just dropped my call while transferring me to higher level of support for my Palm Pre Crash, hope I don’t have to go through this againabout 2 hours ago from web

@ldbaldwin My Palm Pre was awesome up until today. I hope they can fix it, I do want to keep it.about 2 hours ago from web in reply to ldbaldwin

getting escalated to higher level of Palm support for my failing Palm Preabout 2 hours ago from web

Deleted all my downloaded aps on my Palm Pre per Palm but the phone still crashes when I call my voice mailabout 2 hours ago from web

My new Palm Pre crashed again while on phone w Palm support-recalling smug Palm Developer @CES He smirked at reset button question about 2 hours ago from web

on the phone with Palm about my dying Palm Pre, Sprint told me to returnabout 2 hours ago from web

@thepete lol I AM THE IPHONE KILLER!!!! Suspect if I bought an iPhone 3Gs it would go up like white phosphorousabout 2 hours ago from web in reply to thepete

Sprint doesn’t know how to fix my Palm Pre, suggested I return the phone to the store. Odds of store having replacement Pre VERY LOW.about 2 hours ago from web

I truly have the worst phone karma in the world 5 Treos on Verizon -> all dead, 1 G1 on tmobile -> won’t sync/slow, Palm Pre dying next?about 2 hours ago from web

calling sprint, I think my 3 day old Palm Pre might be half dead (screen and keyboard die when I make calls)

This is what I started to write about McDonalds before I realized that they now CHARGE for WiFi.

I had to swing into McDonalds for a skype conference and definitely like the fact that I can count on them, even at this very old McDonalds location in Gastonia to have WiFi. 

Other businesses take note, if you want a foot traffic draw, add wifi to your location.  I stopped here just for the connection and spent a little money that I wouldn’t have otherwise spent.

But when I actually went to publish this article, I found out that I had to pay to connect to McDonald’s WiFi.  So I guess that means I stopped at McDonalds for nothing.  Next time, I’ll drive the extra block to Panera Bread company where the connections are still free and McDonalds can miss out on my money.

I have worked on a couple different projects to teach younger children (3rd – 5th grade) how to use Dragon NaturallySpeaking both with version 9 and now with the new version 10.  From my experience Version 10 is easier, because it requires less training time.

That said the training environment is not geared towards children and for that matter its not really geared towards those with vision impairments, which is rather odd. 

Frankly, its a definite product short fall that should be corrected in version 11, and preferably in an update to version 10 (where it should have been to begin with).

That said, it is still a very good tool for helping children to learn how to compose their thoughts into text and an even better tool for older users that have visual impairments. 

Its this weird paradox that actually enables me to categorize this article under both Improving Technology and Broken Technology at the same time!

When I served in the military years ago, we used to say that you go to war with the army that you have.  That means both people and equipment.  So I’m not going to belly-ache about the absence of a design that would make this better for young users or the visually impaired.  Instead, I’m offering up some tips to help them get started.

1. The primary goal for a young user or the visually impaired is to get the minimum training accomplished so that they can then begin to use the product with a program like Microsoft Word.  With that program both groups can increase the zoom up to something that is easier to read.
2. For children, I recommend that they train with an adult standing by waiting to help them with any words they can not say or can not read.
3. Alternatively, the text at the bottom of this article has been transcribed from the DNS10 training session from one of the articles written for children.  A user could copy this text and print it out in a large enough font to read.  The problem is that the reading window that Dragon NaturallySpeaking uses for training is too small, has text that is too small, and it can not be resized to fill up the screen.
4. In addition, a user could set the resolution on their computer at a very low level like 800×600 which will increase the size of the box and the text.
5. As a final alternative, a user could ask someone else to record the text of the training session, and then they could listen to that recording and speak it while they listen.  Again they may need someone to help them know when to begin speaking and when to stop (in between new windows)

These are the segments that you might want to copy and paste into a more readable format.

In this step the computer listens to the sound of your voice and adjust the volume setting of your microphone when the computer is finished adjusting the volume it beeps to signal that the process is complete if you reach the end of this text but you have not heard a beep start reading the text again from the beginning you should only have to read about 10 to 15 seconds

In this step the computer checks the audio input from your sound system having high-quality audio input is very important for good speech recognition or audio input will make it difficult or impossible for the program to recognize your speech accurately when the computer has finished checking the audio quality it beeps to signal that the test is complete if you reach the end of this text but you have not heard a beep start reading the text again from the beginning you should only have to read for about 15 seconds

Welcome to general training

training is about to begin

You are about to read some short stories. The computer will listen while you read, so they can learn what your voice sounds like. Students at Provo high school wrote these stories for you to read. Michael Rutter and Carl’s Barksdale edited them. We hope you enjoy the stories! Susie, the singing swine by J. E. E. Rockwood once upon a time there was a pig. But this wasn’t any ordinary pig. This pig could talk! Oh it sounds crazy, but it’s true! She could say all the words you and I can, and even some we can’t. Farmer Bill used to come out every day and talk with that pig. It was quite a sight to see. Farmer Bill set on a tree stump with the pig right by him. They talked as though it was the most natural thing in the world for a farmer and his pig to speak with one another. It had never occurred to Bill that most pigs can’t talk. It was quite a shock when it dawned on him. He was talking to his wife, Lucille, during dinner. Bill mentions something his pig had said. Lucille looked up from her plate and stared at Bill. "Pigs can’t talk! They are stupid," she said as she took another bite. Bill thoughtfully chewed his carrot. Obviously not all pigs were too stupid to talk. This pig could talk! Then he thought that if his pig could talk just like people can, maybe she could do other things people can do to. Maybe she could cough, hum, or maybe she could sing! What an idea! The thought kept turning over in Bill’s mind as he finished his supper. He calmly walked out to the pasture and knelt by Susie, the pig. "I have a question," he said. "Can you sing? The pig smiled as well as a pig can smile and said, "of course I can sing!" She started singing the most amazing song, Beethoven’s "ode to Joy." It was the best song bill had ever heard! "That’s amazing!" He said, "can you sing anything else?" Susie pranced around Farmer Bill singing Mozart. "I’ve never heard anyone sing like you before!" Bill patted the pig’s head and smiled warmly before walking back to the house. Once inside, Bill picked up the phone and called an old friend of his from school. This friend happened to run Carnegie Hall. It was the very same Carnegie Hall that all the great musical people have performed an explanation point they had a pleasant conversation before Bill went to bed. A week later a huge crowd gathered at Carnegie Hall. Nobody knew what was going on. They heard that some special performer was out to sing, someone fantastic. But not a single person knew who it was! The mystery only added to the excitement. The crowd became quiet as the orchestra warmed up. They were still as the lights dimmed. There was a long silence as the crowd leaned forward in their chairs and listened to the announcer. "Carnegie Hall is proud to present. Susie!" Farmer Bill walked onto the stage in a suit. Following him on a leash came his amazing pig. She wore a bright pink dress with tiny white polka dots and trimmed in lace. Around her head was a white bow. The crowd sat in surprised silence. They didn’t know if they were supposed to cheer or laugh! Bill remove the leash as Susie sat herself down in front of the orchestra. Bill walked off the stage, leaving Susie alone.

So that’s it so far. This took more effort than I realized to create, and I keep thinking that there must be a better way to go about this. That said, short of combing through Nuance’s job search board or something, it would seem that this function would be best handled by Nuance in house.

I ran into a set back in the Website Upgrade about a week ago.  I was working to include a dynamic css menu system that would automatically update every time I added a page into my content management system.

I compared several different tools and pulled the trigger on CSS Menu Writer a Dreamweaver extension.

To make a long story short, the software did not do what I expected nor did it do much of anything the way I expected it to do it!

That said after essentially walking through one user issue after the next all week long, by the end of the week, I had figured out how the tool actually works, and I had conceived a way to achieve my goal anyway, even though the software isn’t actually designed to make things such as I wanted, easy.

Fortunately, I have some strengths in working with content management systems and databases, and so I was able to compensate for the software programs shortcomings and still use some of its capability to achieve the same result.  So now, I am back off to the races to work to finish migrating the site over into the new system and make up for the week I lost with the wisdom that I gained.

One of my primary goals is to have the new site up and tuned heavily before August when I will fly out to LA and Vegas for back to back conventions.  By the time those events come around, I want to insure that my website is reliable and make the least of my worries be the search for some good hotel deals.

Last week I was in a hurry and made a rookie mistake.  I was working on a project and needed for some weird reason (using a software program that is not compatible with Firefox - . . . MindManager. .   aahemm. ..  ) to get a copy of all my Firefox bookmarks into some strange and weird program called Internet Explorer 7. 

I had not heard of this program which devotees sometimes call IE7, but I needed to find a way to import in a copy of my Firefox bookmarks, so that I could then use some special function in the desktop software program that I was working with on this special project.

The Problem – I lost my Firefox Bookmarks!

So after I imported bookmarks into this IE7 beast, I noticed about a day later, that I had lost about 80 percent of my bookmarks in Firefox.

Why 80 percent and not 100 percent?

I have no idea.  For some reason the bookmarks in about 100 folders that I had were deleted from Firefox.  They still exist in Internet Explorer which imported them but they were stripped out of Firefox.

So the quick lesson I learned from this, is actually one that I learned a long time ago with IE 6 (yeah I actually had used this beast before, but tried to block it from my memory).  You need to back up your Favorites and Bookmarks to separate special files and folders on a regular basis.  If you add lots of bookmarks often, then you may want to back up more often, if not, maybe quarterly is good enough.

How to back up Firefox Bookmarks

This is pretty easy.  Just go to the Bookmarks button on the Firefox menu, click on the Bookmarks manager.  This will open up a new window and you can now select the export option under the file menu of the Firefox bookmarks menu.  Make sure you send it to a safe place!

The first thing that I realized when I cranked open my computer today is that three tools I rely on very heavily are sadly behind the times.

1. Outlook – Email
2. Task Manager
3. Popup blockers

The first is Outlook.  I have been stumbling along thinking about converting from Outlook to Thunderbird (Gmail is not a useful option, and frankly I do not trust Google with my correspondence given their actions lately.)  However, Thunderbird seems to be a viable alternative and Outlook is getting to be so flaky that its probably time for the switch.

The second thing is the Task Manager in XP.  I do not know if this program exists in Vista, but the program today is really junk.  All the file names are gibberish and therefore make the program mostly useless.  If I have a program that needs to be shut down or shouldn’t be there, I might as well be reading binary code or randomly generating prime numbers to determine which program needs to be shut down or blocked.

The third program is popup blockers.  I use several layers of popup blockers from the blockers that come built in to Firefox to third party applications.  The problem is that they sometimes block things that should not be blocked.  Getting those things to reque correctly so that you can see what you missed is not always possible and that can result in the loss of information.  Plus, I find software program subscriptions for tools like popup blockers to be very annoying.  I realize that they have to keep the library’s up to date, but I’d rather just upgrade every 18 months. 

That’s the end of my little rant.  Its something I have meant to mention a few times.  If anyone has a good solution or suggestion esepcially in the task manager area, I’d love to hear it.

Quest to Build an Entertainment Empire

I am on a quest to build an entertainment empire.  The world of entertainment cannot fulfill the demand for programming on TV.  Most every network rely significantly on reality TV and the quality of entertainment has dropped dramatically. 

Consumers meanwhile have developed more sophisticated tastes and demand better entertainment.  So I’m working to grow and entertainment empire that can fulfill that demand with hundreds of thousands of writers and actors and comedians and musicians.

2 Point 4 Children Case Study

I’d like to give you an example of a great British televeision program that was taken off the air after running for about eight years.  The show was called 2Point4 children and it aired from about 1991 until 1999.

I know of the show because a good friend of mine married one of the actresses from the show.  Her name now is Kim Dodge and she goes by the nickname K T Dodge and even has a blog of the same name. 

K T Dodge is Kim Benson from 2Point4 Children

On the show, 2Point4 Children she was known as Kim Benson and worked as a British Comedy actress for many years playing on Grange Hill in the late 70’s and working on many more shows since.

Today, many TV shows end before their time, due to the fact that the writers often times extinguish their effort on working the same material.  I believe that with an army of many more writers from all around the world, shows could enjoy a much longer life span and characters such as Kim Benson’s Christine could even be expanded out more to get people interested in the different angles and twists that character development could take when a cadre of writers really puts their best foot forward.

Kim Benson as Christine – A Character that Could have Been Developed More

Kim Benson appeared as Christine starting in season 2 and running through the end of 2Point4 Children, but those appearances like many other actors and actresses on the show could have been grown out even more, developing a number of twists and plot opportunities that a typical linear television program has been limited to in the past.

That linear thinking surrounding television programs is rapidly going to come to an end as more people demand more television programing of high quality.  Developing television character universes following characters like Kim Benson’s Christine and others from 2Point4 Children will enable multiple groups of writers to work on the same universe of related shows, co-mingling ideas and plot opportunities and greatly expanding the potential of a television franchise.

Example of 2 Point 4 Children Excerpt (doesn’t included Kim Benson’s Character)

So iPhone users are starting to experience the joy that comes from doing business with the worlds oldest phone company, at&t.  Their iPhone web surfing and texting transactions are itemized and printed out on detailed pages.

One user put together this short little video showing her 300 PAGE phone bill from at&t.

She posts a nice message at the end of the video encouraging people not to kill forests with their iPhone and change their default billing format to something that won’t require a back brace to move from the mail box to the house.

Disclaimer: I refuse to do business with at&t on principle. They slammed me into a $2.50 per minute calling plan in 2000 when I relocated from Illinois to Florida. They didn’t ask me nor did they tell me that they had slammed me into a higher rate. I didn’t learn about it until I received a long distance bill for $1,000+ Their response to their practice was almost as bad as the bill. As a result I will never do business with at&t again. I’m sure at&t will win over the hearts and minds of iPhone users across the US in similar fashion.

Its not exactly a problem I could call a product liability attorney about, but it sure did raise my blood pressure for several months as I had to deal with customer support on hold for about a total of 50 hours. (unsuccessfully I might add, I had to pay their trumped up bill in full and on time or risk having thems sabotage my credit for their thieving business practice.)

In case you find it as difficult as I did to find the Bug Reporting page for MindManager software from Mindjet, I’m posting the link here.  Its not listed in their site map nor on any menus that I could see. 

However when I did a search of their site with their search tool on the keywords bug report, the second or third option was the right place.

Here is where you report MindManager Software bugs to Mindjet

For those of you that have been following, I did report the potential bugs I found in MindManager Pro 7

Article 1 with video

Article 2

I included the urls for these articles in my bug report.