Archive | July, 2009

CardStar

July 9, 2009

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Like many people, I have quite a few membership cards attached to my key ring. Recently, I discovered that that the bar code on my Food Emporium card had rubbed off enough to be illegible to bar code scanners and barely legible to the naked eye. So I photocopied the code on my wallet-sized card, taped it to the key card, and covered it with clear library tape. Voila! She scans again. But I do hate the extra thickness the cards add to my keyring.

Today I discovered an iPhone app called CardStar that might help me with that problem. I got an iPhone to reduce the number of gadgets that I customarily carry around, and CardStar promises to help with keyring heft. Quite simply: it allows you to enter in the number on your loyalty card and it generates a bar code on your screen that can be read by a bar code scanner. The app’s database contains a number of common vendors and organizations found in the US, Canada, and the UK, but you can also enter in numbers for organizations that aren’t in the database. For stores that are in the database, there is a locator that will show you the nearest location on a Google map. (It revealed ten Duane Reade locations in the general vicinity of Union Square.)

In addition to lightening my keyring, CardStar also lets me keep various numbers on file that I don’t normally carry around (for example, frequent flyer numbers and reward cards for places that I visit infrequently). I know, I could just keep a list of numbers in the Notes app, and I could just enter “Duane Reade” into Google Maps myself, but what fun would that be?

CardStar is currently free from the iPhone app store. Eventually it’ll cost 99 cents.

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Installing Vista Programs under Windows 7

July 8, 2009

I’ve been using Windows 7 on several machines since the beta first came out, and now I’ve upgraded those installations to the Release Candidate, which is still available for a preview that will expire next spring. (The official expiration date is June 7, but the operating system will start shutting itself down every two hours starting on March 1.)  I used the beta-to-RC upgrade trick that Microsoft has made available to enterprise customers and haven’t had any problems.

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I’ve taken advantage of the pre-order special on upgrades available until July 11: you can get the Home Premium upgrade for $49 and the Professional upgrade for $99. It’s available, among other places, at amazon.com and newegg.com (generally my preferred site for computer gear, but they’ve imposed a limit on the pre-orders). I’ve ordered three Home Premiums and two Professionals. I know, I know …

I’ve tried Windows 7 on a number of different machines. It didn’t work very well on my old Inspiron 3500 because of an inadequate graphics processor, but it works like a charm on my Dell Inspiron Mini 9s — yes, I have two, because after I installed OSX on my original white mini in place of the Windows 7 beta, I picked up a refurbished black one and loaded up the Windows 7 RC in place of the Ubuntu it came with. (In case you’re interested, Windows 7 has a much smaller foot print than OS X and fits on a 16GB SSD; OS X gets the 64GB Runcore.) Tomshardware.com (one of my favorite tech sites) has a good article on using Windows 7 on netbooks.

Windows 7 has also been working smoothly on my HP tablet. But I haven’t installed Windows 7 on my Vista desktop, primarily for one reason: the HP software for my Officejet 7590 refused to install on Windows 7, claiming it was an incompatible operating system. Windows 7 would recognize the machine as a printer, but not as a scanner.

And then I discovered a tip while browsing around on the net: run the setup program in Vista compatibilty mode. Specifically, once the installer file is on the Windows 7 system, right-click, choose “Properties,” then “Compatibility,” and select Vista (probably SP2).

The HP software installed without a problem on both the netbook and the tablet, and Adobe Acrobat Professional sees the 7590 scanner just fine. So I think I’m going to take the plunge on the desktop.

And why, having professed that I’m the process of switching to Macs — in fact, I’m writing this on the MacBook — do I need all that Windows 7? Well, in addition to not yet knowing how to manipulate video sufficiently on a Mac, I also have a Windows Home Server with about 4 terabytes of storage. And you need a Windows machine connected to it to make it work well. And my wife has not intention of switching to Mac.

So I won’t be abandoning Windows. Far from it, if my upgrade pre-orders are any indication.

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