I’ve been laughing at my friends who were chosen, apparently at random, to be guinea pigs for what appears to be some kind of sick experiment for a left navigation on iGoogle. Today, I was hit with it. It sucks. I don’t like it… and while it did add some functionality to the Gmail widget, I don’t like the robbed screen real estate.

LET ME GO GOOGLE!!

Update: After reading the Google blog, it turns out everyone in the US now has this “feature.” I want the feature to turn it off.

Discovered on October 16th, 2008 by Justin Marty
Filed under: Discoveries, Stuff from the Interwebs, Undiscovered | 2 Comments »

This information should just be out there and readily available, but it’s not. So, I’m hoping this will help a few frustrated souls.

With Zune 3.0, Microsoft included 2 new games on the Zune player. What I like about what Microsoft is doing is that any previous hardware version of the Zune player can install a firmware update and get the same functionality as the new Zunes being sold in stores today.

The problem was, after installing the new Zune 3.0 software for my ol’ blackbox Zune 30, I found it didn’t include the two new games, Hexic and Texas Hold ‘Em. Upon searching the interwebs, I found instructions regarding installing games on the Zune through the XNA Game Studio software (which, if you’re a DIYer, I would recommend taking a look at), but nothing telling me where the heck where my new games.

I finally search the Microsoft Knowledge Base, limiting the search to just “Zune Digital Media Player,” and I found my answer:

If you have already updated your Zune device, follow these steps:
1. Connect your Zune device to your computer, and then start the Zune software.
2. Click Settings, click Device, and then click Device Update.
3. Click Install Games.

So, in other words, once you update to Zune 3.0, you gotta go back an update again.

Discovered on September 24th, 2008 by Justin Marty
Filed under: Shared Discovery | No Comments »

I haven’t been able to upgrade my Zune software installation over the last couple of updates because I kept getting the “Setup must stop because the required package ‘Zune’ failed to install,” Error code: 0×80070643.

Most solutions included downloading and installing the full Zune package which includes all of the other components required. I tried that, and nada. I tried a utility provided by Microsoft called “Windows Install Cleanup” which allows you remove a program’s Windows Installer configuration information so there’s no trace, or anything saved, from previous installs.

So, when the big Zune 3.0 update came around, I really wanted to upgrade. I decided I’d do the one suggestion I kept avoidng: a complete removal and reinstall. I avoided this because I’d lose all settings and *gasp* play counts. (I like them, okay?)

I completely removed the Zune software using a program called “Unzoone.” I also cleaned up the registry to make sure all traces were removed with “CCleaner.” Finally,

Okay. This HAS to work, right?!

Restart.

Start Install…..

ERROR!!!!! GAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

So, I began yet another quest of Googling for answers. Finally, I happened upon this Locker Gnome blog, Digged (?), where it was suggested that the Windows Firewall must be turned on (mine’s always off) for the installation to complete. Sceptical, I tried it. Sure enough! That was the ticket. Now why in HELL would the Windows Firewall need to be enabled for this reason!?

Discovered on September 17th, 2008 by Justin Marty
Filed under: Shared Discovery, Software | 1 Comment »

I found this comment over on USA Today on an article discussing the new edition of the Old Farmer’s Almanac predicting a global cool down.

Large Hardons, er, Hadrons Collide

No wonder naysayers are predicting the end of the world…

P.S. Since I can’t link a headline –> FAIL Blog

Discovered on September 11th, 2008 by Justin Marty
Filed under: Shared Discovery, Stuff from the Interwebs | 2 Comments »

I did a little self-indulgent searching recently using Google Blogsearch and came across a handful of blogs that have used the photos I share on Flickr. Of course, I would only be able to find the photos that were properly credited, but… meh. I’m not making any money off any of it anyway. (BUT THAT DOESN’T MEAN YOU GET TO JACK MY PHOTOS WITHOUT CREDIT!) Anywho, click past the break if you wanna massage my ego.

Read more…

Discovered on September 9th, 2008 by Justin Marty
Filed under: Discoveries, Stuff from the Interwebs, photos | 5 Comments »

AVG inserted this little advertisement into my copy of AVG Free 7 alerting me to all the GREAT things available to me if I were to upgrade to AVG 8.0.

New? Check. Better? Check. Faster? Oh, you betcha.

Discovered on September 2nd, 2008 by Justin Marty
Filed under: Discoveries, Software | No Comments »

[Note: I wrote up this draft MONTHS ago, but never finished. Now the Big Box Meal has been pulled from many menus and they don't offer the Bacon Club Chalupa with it, only some much cheaper, less filling standard menu item. So, yeah, it's a lot more of a rip-off now. But, for the sake of documentation - of a better time, one could say - here's my first impression of the ORIGINAL Taco Bell Big Bell Box Meal (as it first appear here on the West Coast USA).]

In traditional unboxing fashion, I present to you the unboxing of…

TACO BELL’s BIG BELL BOX MEAL!

I’ve been wanting to order this meal for some time after first seeing it on Taco Bell’s menu. Where I live, by the way, Taco Bell is a VERY popular fast food restaurant. I believe Taco Bell would have to be my second favorite place to eat, right behind In-N-Out, of course. The psudeo-Mexican food is also something good you can count on, but mostly, the prices are resonable while all the other fast food places have doubled theirs in the past 5 years making a meal price seem like the tab on a steak dinner look mild.

Anywho, the Big Bell Box Meal consists of a hard shell taco, bean burrito, Cinnamon Twists, the new Bacon Club Chaplupa and a large drink. The large drink, to remind you, is the standard drink size you’re given when you order any meal.

It’s not like the amount of food you get it amazing, and the box is nothing other than a gimmick (though, it is convenient!) the same food ordered individually VS. the price of one “Big Bell Box Meal” makes it worth it.

Calories? Who’s counting? I found one estimate at 1550 + drink.

Discovered on September 1st, 2008 by Justin Marty
Filed under: Discoveries | No Comments »