The Nanny Diaries *** I actually read the first few chapters of this book but wasn’t interested enough to finish it. This is the first time I’ve seen Scarlett Johansson. This didn’t quite show off what all the hoopla over hottie Johansson is all about (for that see HJNTITY) but I did like her in the role and enjoyed the movie.
Defiance **** This is a story of a group of Jews hiding in a forest from the Germans starting Daniel Craig (latest Bond actor). It’s based on a true story. By the end of the war 1200 had survived. I was surprised how much action was in the movie. It was so great to know of a group of Jews that actually resisted the Germans. Recommended.
I should have protected my friend, Lee better. He was eager to update his iPhone with the just released 3.0 software. I don’t own an iPhone but am becoming somewhat familiar with the device and software due to Cassidy and David each buying for themselves an iPod touch (it’s not the device that breaks the bank, it’s the service plan -$70 minimum).
We downloaded the latest iTunes to Lee’s laptop since he has never used iTunes or hooked up his iPod to a computer! We then started the update. Once downloaded it began to install. We left it working to have dinner and when we returned we found that his laptop had turned itself off. First lessson: Never do a significant software install/update on a laptop that is not plugged in! I recently upgraded Windows Vista on my laptop and it didn’t let me continue until I had plugged in the laptop. Now that’s a nice touch! Too bad Apple didn’t think to protect the user in the same way.
When we powered the laptop back on we found the iPhone in a recovery state. We had no choice but to select restore (to factory settings). That looked really bad. Lee had no known backups and he had over 300 names that he has collected over the past 10 years. His iPhone is only a few months old and he had originally synced his blackberry to it with a SIM card. After the restore had completed and we confirmed that he did in fact have his contacts completely wiped, Lee was as low as I’ve ever seen him. We called Apple but the technician had no good news for him. Although the iPhone appeared to do a sync when we first plugged it in to his laptop after installing iTunes, there was no backup (right click the iPhone device in iTunes). The technician said that iTunes performs a backup before each sync. That seemed to be strike two against Apple in looking out for the customer. We did realize that Lee should be able to download his contacts from an old SIM card as he had done originally. The Apple technician said we would have to go to AT&T to do this.
Well, not wanting to give up yet, I did a google search and found others in the same predicament. I found out that in the iPhone Settings….Mail page at the very bottom there is a button to Sync from SIM card. That did it! There were some numbers missing that Lee had added which apparently saved to the iPhone memory rather than the SIM but most of his lost numbers had been recovered. Fortunately, Lee didn’t have any music or other data that was lost. He actually uses the iPhone as a phone! Go figure!
I uninstalled the Google Desktop Search Outlook add in, however, it didn’t appear to have cleaned up completely. Starting Outlook, I kept getting “The add-in “Google Desktop Search Outlook Addin” …cannot be loaded and has been disabled by Outlook. Please contact the Add-in manufacturer for an update. If no update is available, please uninstall the Add-in.”
What worked was to locate and remove the following file:
C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Outlook\extend.dat
Build issues can be extremely aggravating and hard to track down. I spent quite a bit of time tracking down a link error where everything seemed in order. Function declaration and implementation of a library function matched the call in my application. After much trial and error I decided to get forensic on the compiler. I looked at the mangled function signature of the library file (dropped the .lib file into Visual Studio) and compared it with the mangled function signature in the output window where it was reporting an unresolved external. I used the command line program undname to show me the user-friendly function signatures and the difference was one used __cdecl and the other used __stdcall. I was then able to find that my application was using the C/C++…Advanced…Calling Convention…__stdcall (/Gz) whereas the library was using __cdecl (/Gd). Comparing file signatures between what was actually compiled into the library and what is expected in the application can expose several inconsistant settings. Another one might be the General…Character Set settings.
Body of Lies *** Leonardo DiCaprio seems lately to be typecast as a tough street-wise/undercover agents. His roles in Blood Diamond, The Departed, and now Body of Lies come to mind. Though I enjoyed this one, I felt the other two movies were better.
…with a close play at home!
Not kid friendly but fairly entertaining. This blog publishes postcards received of people revealing their innermost secrets.
Last time I got an oil change at Lamb’s they told me I needed new brake pads on my rear wheels. They said I may not make it to my next oil change, said they were about 80% worn. It would cost just over $200 for them to replace them. I passed thinking I would get a second opinion or see if I could get it done cheaper. 1100 miles later, and after several weeks of nervous driving, I searched online for a brake place in Austin and decided to stop early this morning on my way to work at this Just Brakes store: Just Brakes on 183 N.
It was a rainy morning, traffic was bad but I was the only one there when I arrived at 7:20 (they open at 7:00). They were situated between a Lube & Oil place and a full service car repair shop. All three shared the same parking area!
Well turns out the store manager Jason said that Lamb’s probably exaggerated and that I wasn’t in dire need to replace the break pads. My car lease was up in two months and there really wasn’t any reason to spend even the $99 for all 4 wheels that Just Brake offers.
How refreshing to deal with an honest repair shop. Jason showed me the break pads and made me feel good about his assessment. He stated they find the problem in the car not the customer, which addressed what I’m sure he knows is a common fear people have of dealing with car shops.
If you search Google for “Just Brakes” you will notice some hits for consumer complaints or rip-off reports related to Just Brakes. You’ll find similar hits on other car shops like Brake Check. I read these reports with a grain of salt. I know that in ANY business there will be complaints and that the complainers are the most vocal. But still, it made me a little nervous this morning as I headed to Just Brakes without a reservation (Break Check advertises 20% off if you have an appointment!).
I am happy to report that I had a terrific experience with Just Brakes and am thankful that Jason was there to greet me.
I work with some nutty creative folks at DVFilm. Here is the latest in-house promotional video produced by Andy, Dave and Marc. You can view all our videos here on our YouTube channel.