Archive for December 2004

Yesterday, I wrote a review of the single-brewer coffee machine. Got a few comments about these don’t compare to the old fashioned coffee makers. I agree. More at Old Coffee Makers Are Still Cool!

Happy New Year!

Two people wrote to me and said they won’t give up their old-fashioned coffee maker for the pod-style ones just yet. Ah, I should’ve mentioned that the review
wasn’t about replacing those, but a review of the single-brewers without comparing them to the good ol’ machines. Should’ve thought to mention that.

I love my Braun FlavorSelect KF-187. Sadly, it’s not made anymore. I’ve yet to see it appear in eBay or anywhere else on the Internet. I figure someone has a new one sitting and collecting dust somewhere. I don’t know how long I’ve had it for, but its base is wearing out from Paul leaving coffee on the burner for too long, too many times. I even contacted Braun and the rep said to look for the KF-180. No way. Uh-uh. The 187 has a couple of features I use all the time that’s not on the 180.

This morning I tried Cool Beans’ San Francisco Blend, making a 9 oz. cup. Shoulda made a 7 oz. cup as it was too weak for my taste—it tasted exactly how I used to drink my coffee 10 years ago. It’s perfect for Paul. So far, the pods are striking out. I can’t put two Cool Beans’ pods in it because remember my friend tried that and coffee went everywhere other than the cup. Maybe the Starbucks pods will work… if I find them.

Since Paul and I drink coffee at different strengths, I’m always making one cup in the morning, rarely more than that. So that’s where the single-brewers have an advantage. But on the flip side, I can control the strength of the coffee far better with the Braun and make a full pot when company is here.

I didn’t start drinking coffee until after I graduated from college. I never pulled in an all-nighter—geeky, I know. Now, I can’t start my morning without a good cup along with the newspaper. Between the single serve coffee brewers and the single-serving coffee can heats itself, coffee has been given a fresh look.

I just got a Home Cafe. At first, I didn’t like it because when I filled up the water reservoir, it leaked everywhere. Learning from that, I started filling up a glass with water and pouring it into the resvoir, which stayed in the brewer. My mom has the same coffee brewer and hers doesn’t leak. So I contacted Black and Decker and a replacement is on its way.

The brewer came with 18 Folgers pods. I don’t like Folgers period, so I didn’t like the coffee even though I made it strong. You can make it stronger by putting two pods into it and brewing 7 oz. or 9 oz. instead of 14 oz. But Paul likes Folgers and he’s happy with the coffee it brews. You have to drink it right away as it’s at the right temperature, but it takes no time for it to get cold. It’s not as hot as my regular coffee machine. It’s no problem to heat it in the microwave.

The best part about the machine—EASY to clean! If you use a regular mug (6 – 9oz), it splashes, which is another reason I wasn’t crazy about it in the first place. But we started using taller mugs and it worked better. However, I prefer my regular-sized mugs as I have a nice Disney movies collection and a Charmed mug.

The instructions say you can only use Folgers or Millstone coffee with the machine and any other will damage it. Bull! That is just a ploy to ensure we buy its partners’ brands. Starbucks (Yes, I am a big coffee shop h0.) and Cool Beans make coffee pods and their packaging indicate they’re compatible with the Home Cafe, Senseo, Melitta, etc. I almost bought the Starbucks pods online, but shipping cost almost as much as the package! So I’ll have to hunt them down at every corner Starbucks.

My friend has a Senseo and she has been using Cool Beans with it. She said when she put two espresso pods in it, coffee spilled everywhere. So when using a pod that is heavily packed, it’s wise to use just one. I haven’t tried the Cool Beans yet, but my friend and I have similar tastes in coffee unlike Paul (weak coffee drinking wimp). My mom has seen the Senseo in action at a cousin’s house and thought the Home Cafe was better. I haven’t met anyone who has the Melitta.

A friend’s company uses Flavia S350. It sounds awesome. I wouldn’t buy the SB100 because it doesn’t use pods. It uses a different type of packaging. There needs to be a standard for these single brewers. I know the companies want to make money and force you to buy their brand… but which is better? Not buying it at all due to lack of choices as opposed to offering an appliance that works with many brands? I’ll take a little profit over none.

If you buy a Home Cafe before January 31, 2005, you can get a $20 rebate. The reviews on Amazon gave it an average of 2 1/2 stars. Not good, I agree. The leaky reservoir is one of the problems, but my mom has had no problems with hers and the company is sending me a replacement. Yes, the machine is full of plastic, but it works. I have had no problems with the lever. Just make sure when using two pods to use the two pod side of the pod holder otherwise the leaver won’t close when two pods are on the single side.

I believe every single brewer system has its good points and its bad points. Read the reviews and look at its set up. The Senseo can make two cups and add a froth while the Home Cafe and Melitta only do one cup at a time. The Home Cafe has come out with capuccino pods to use with its specialty pod holder. Unfortunately… it’s Folgers.

Have you seen or used any of these brewers? Share your experience. What pods do you like best?

I’m a member of International Virtual Womens’ Chamber of Commerce and Kim Bloomer interviewed me. It was strange to be on the other side of the interview.

Last week, I reported that I had trouble accessing Marqui‘s CMS help file because it keeps asking me to login. Er… I am logged in, CMS… as a guy named Dave, remember? Support has been corresponding with me on this. The first one indicated the browser may need refreshing and to:

* Confirm that you are using a recent version of Internet Explorer.
* Confirm that you have Cookies enabled.
* Confirm that you have IE Privacy set to Medium-High or less.
* Clear IE’s cache (Tools > Internet Options > Delete Files).
* Try again

Check, check, check, check, and check. Still not cooperating. I wrote a reply and got an immediate response of Marqui’s tech support holiday schedule. Closed today. I am cool with that, many businesses are closed (not mine, of course) for at least one week. However, I got a reply from tech support today. I appreciate Richard Robinson going the extra mile to respond on a day off.

He indicated there will be new and improved help documentation available on the demo accounts in January. So I will give it a look-see when it’s up.

Hello? Anyone home?

I haven’t heard from Marqui or seen someone blog on its site until Janet posted this brochure and a breakfast discussion on innovative and risk-taking marketing appeared. That’s jolly good. Still need more food… more content… more fuel.

I looked around the Marqui site and it’s well-organized. I don’t feel lost or overwhelmed. Some of the content loses me. Not sure why—lack of white space? Lack of indents? Some sentences are long for online reading. The site has headers to help with scanning, I think it needs more. The bulleted list isn’t indented.

The clients page has an impressive list, but only one has a case study. Please, sir, could we have some more? I’d like to hear more from the Marqui staff. When I started this paid blogger program, I got the impression we would hear from them and have a virtual conversation going across blogs. Instead, I feel isolated except for the few emails floating around the group.

Janet has been responsive and gave me a couple of contacts to discuss the product, but one is out celebrating a new arrival (good for him) and the other has not responded. I guess things will hop in January after the partying is over and everyone is back at work.

The others

Alan has regularly posted good stuff on the CMS. He shared a post by another feller who has questions about any CMS in general. If I worked for the company, I’d get them answered. That is the advantage of working with the blogosphere. A company gets the opportunity to see what questions need answering and clues on what needs improving.

Jon, a fellow Texan and Marqui’s pointed to Jack‘s post that is the most creative one I’ve seen to date. Like Jon says, I’m not going to spoil it.

I just posted that I changed some stuff on this site and have a few more coming. Part of the changes are thanks to a person’s feedback along with a few insults (but I focused on the fact she took the time to show the weak spots) after her first visit. I’d be thrilled if I could get more honest feedback as I can’t improve things without it. I know my site too well and don’t see the puzzles first-timers see.

I’ve made minor changes to some of the pages (content and logo) to give it a lift. Sometime soon, I plan to move the navigation to the left side since most users expect to find it there. Navigation will be simplified as the site has two parts: meryl.net – the business and meryl.net – the content. Also, the home page has been rewritten (not up yet).

A site map is coming… it’s short, but a recent first-time visitor was confused (which prompted me to get off my duff and clean house) and I’m trying to simplify. Otherwise, it looks like I am not walking the talk. I would appreciate comments—positive AND negative. I’ve been married to this site for over 10 years (gasp!) and know it too well.

Thanks to A. Non for letting me know the PDA Your Movable Type Blog entry needed updating. I just tested it and it still works. Thanks to AvantGo’s changes, there are fewer screens and steps.

For WordPress users, there is WP Mobile Edition from the talented and prolific WP’er, Alex King (details also at WP Support). Also, WP has a discussion on a posting through a PDA blogging client. Another option is to use BlogMail (not limited to WP).

When I first posted the entry, my blog was using .html files. Now it uses .php and all went well. So, I’ll use the php name in this version. If you use .html or .htm, just substitute php with whatever you use.

If you run a weblog using Movable Type, then you can easily make it available for PDA readers. It takes under 30 minutes to set it up. For me, it took 10 minutes max.

Select the weblog to convert to PDA format. Click on LIST & EDIT TEMPLATES > CREATE NEW INDEX TEMPLATE (just above the gray boxed area that lists your existing templates) .

In the NAME box, enter a name for the weblog. Mine says, “Portable meryl’s notes.”

In the OUTPUT FILE box, enter a name for the file with a .html extension. Here I enter, “pdanotes.php.”
Copy and paste the following and change the <TITLE> and the <DIV> right after the <BODY> tag.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN”

“DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd”>

<html>

<head>

<meta http-equiv=”Content-Type” content=”text/html;

charset=iso-8859-1″ />

<TITLE>meryl’s notes on the go!</TITLE>

<style type=”text/css”>

<!–

body {

color:#333;

background-color:white;

margin:20px;

padding:0px;

font:11px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;

leftMargin=0

}

h1 {

font:bold 12px/12px verdana, arial, helvetica,

sans-serif;

margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;

padding:0px;

}

p {

font:11px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;

color:#333333;

margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;

padding:0px;

}

.Content>p {margin:0px;}

.Content>p+p {text-indent:0px;}

.tinyfont { font:8px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }

.smallfont { font:9px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }

.titlefont { font:14px verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif; }

a {

color:#000000;

font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;

text-decoration:none;

}

A:link { color: #09c; TEXT-DECORATION: none }

A:visited { color: #07a; TEXT-DECORATION: none }

A:active { TEXT-DECORATION: none }

A:hover {

FONT-WEIGHT: normal; FONT-STYLE: normal

BACKGROUND: #eee;

}

#Header {

margin:50px 0px 10px 0px;

padding:17px 0px 0px 20px;

/* For IE5/Win’s benefit height = [correct height] +

[top padding] + [top and bottom border widths] */

height:33px; /* 14px + 17px + 2px = 33px */

border-style:solid;

border-color:black;

border-width:1px 0px; /* top and bottom borders: 1px;

left and right borders: 0px */

line-height:11px;

background-color:#eee;

/* Here is the ugly brilliant hack that protects IE5/Win

from its own stupidity. Thanks to Tantek Celik for the

hack and to Eric Costello for publicizing it. IE5/Win

incorrectly parses the “”}”" value, prematurely

closing the style declaration. The incorrect IE5/Win

value is above, while the correct value is below. See

http://glish.com/css/hacks.asp for details. */

voice-family: “”}”";

voice-family:inherit;

height:14px; /* the correct height */

}

body>#Header {height:14px;}

.Content {

margin:5px 5px 5px 5px;

padding:2px;

}

.dateheader {

position:relative;

width:auto;

min-width:120px;

margin:0px 0px 0px 0px;

padding:5px;

z-index:3;

}

–>

</style>

</HEAD>

<BODY>

<DIV id=Header>meryl’s notes on the go!</DIV>

<div align=”left”>

<MTEntries lastn=”15″>

<MTDateHeader>

<div class=”dateheader”><H1><$MTEntryDate format=”%A, %B %e,

%Y”$></H1></DIV>

</MTDateHeader>

<br>

<DIV class=”content”>

<span class=”titlefont”><i><$MTEntryTitle$></i>

(<$MTEntryDate format=”%I:%M%p”$>)<br /></span>

<$MTEntryBody$>

<MTEntryIfExtended>

<p><$MTEntryMore$></p>

</MTEntryIfExtended>

<MTEntryIfAllowComments>

<p>:: Comments left behind ::</p>

<MTComments>

<$MTCommentBody$>

<span class=”smallfont”>:: <$MTCommentAuthorLink$>

<$MTCommentDate$></span><br /><br />

</MTComments>

</MTEntryIfAllowComments>

</div>

</MTEntries>

</div>

<HR width=”75%”>

<P CLASS=”tinyfont” align=”center”>

<a href=”http://www.movabletype.org”>Powered by

MovableType</a></P>

</body>

</html>

Hit SAVE and do a REBUILD (can just rebuild the indexes if no other templates are updated).

That’s it for the Movable Type portion. Next step is to go to AvantGo and log in.

Click on MY ACCOUNT (upper right side of the screen) > CREATE A PERSONAL CHANNEL (under Subscriptions) > in CHANNEL LOCATION, enter the URL to your new .php or .html file that you just created. For this, it is: http://www.meryl.net/blog/pdanotes.php.

Click on VIEW to make sure it takes you to the page you have just created to verify it is the correct URL. Once confirmed, close the window and you’re back at AvantGo.

Modify the CHANNEL SIZE and CHANNEL REFRESH as you desire. Remember, PDAs holds various amounts of data depending on the user’s PDA. Some are as small as 16 MB and others have 624 MB. When you’re done, click SAVE CHANNEL.

Return to the MY ACCOUNTS tab. Select EXPORT SUBSCRIPTIONS. COPY the new channel you just have created by highlighting the entire URL and pressing CTRL-C. PASTE it in an email or word processor by pressing CTRL-V. This is the URL you give to others or put in your Web site for others to access your pages through the PDA. Here’s the one for meryl’s notes.

Consider yourself portablized!

Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2010 Meryl Evans

I’ve bent Excel over backwards doing things that it’s not meant to do. I believe I’m an average user, maybe a notch above. This means knowing some of the lesser known tricks, but not a pro at pivots or creating elaborate financial spreadsheets. I have used pivots, but nothing heavy-duty.

This book is 820 pages, but half of it has room for notes on the left page that has Notes, My Tips/Shortcuts, and Related Tips for finding similar tips like the one on the current page. You can see what these look like in Amazon’s “Search inside” feature. The book has 322 tips and even with as many pages as it has, it’s surprisingly lightweight. I have books that are half its size and weigh more.

I also like the bookmarks on the side of the pages. Finding the part of interest is easy. The first page of a part lists the subjects covered and their bookmarks. These subject bookmarks appear with their related tips for quick referencing. You can use the index to find what you need.

Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003 are covered. Each tip lets you know which versions of Excel can use it. In a majority of the tips, all versions are covered so no one with a specific version of Excel gets fewer tips than others.

Part I addresses the new features in Excel 2002 and 2003. It’s very brief, so those who have it already won’t feel like they’re paying for useless information. The price is appropriate for a book of this size with the tips provided and the Excel versions covered. I won’t rehash what each part covers as Amazon’s “Search inside” also lists them and the complete index.

The writing is formal and stiff, but easy to follow. I had no trouble understanding the directions… most of the time. The screen shots fill in the gap when the tips aren’t clear. Newcomers and seasoned users of Excel will benefit from the book. Those who are pros will need to study the table of contents using “Search inside” and decide whether or not the book meets their needs. The quick referencing guide, the format, and the screen shots provide the extra boost.

Title: F1 Getting the Most out of Excel
Author: Joseph Rubin, CPA
Publisher: Limelight Media
ISBN: 0596005768
Date: August 2004
Format: Paperback
Pages: 820
Cover Price: USD$13.57
CDN: 19.57
UK: 10.49

I found a good deal on a Sidekick II so I can better keep in touch with folks while away from my PC. However, it came with an ugly case—looks like something my dad used in the ’60s with its thick clip on the back. The front is not bad, it’s the thick clip that’s bulky. T-Mobile Sidekick II accessories page doesn’t offer much. Bellagio makes nice cases. NYCPeach is too peachy for me with its rhinestones look. Checked eBay and a few others—nothing grabs me. Maybe it’s best to stick with the original.

When I first started using it, it frustrated me because the conneciton didn’t hold at home or the office. We took it to the store and they looked it over. It’s been working better and I like it more each day.

Why did I pick Sidekick II over RIM’s Blackberry? Two reasons: the monthly fee is cheaper (gotta watch the cash) and the Sidekick II has application to connect me with the relay service.

It took little time to get the hang of it. Now I’m working on learning the shortcuts. I might invest 10 bucks in a sync application so I can sync Outlook with the Sidekick II. Been trying to figure out how to sync the PalmOS with the Dell Axim x30 AND the Sidekick II. Why so many? The PalmOS is my baby. The Axim is a Pocket PC that I needed for writing my PC Today column. The Sidekick II is for staying in touch when I am away or even when Paul’s away and I am home. He’ll email me or chat with me using it.
I’m also looking for a proggy that syncs the PalmOS and Pocket PCs. I have used Yahoo’s Intellisync, but it’s only good for one time (loading PalmOS into it and then updating Outlook. Next time I try to sync my PalmOS, it doesn’t work because of a conflict and I can’t turn off Intellisync in favor of a local PalmOS hotsync. This screwed up things big time.).

I tried Resync, but it didn’t work even though I followed these instructions. I looked at Intellisync, but it doesn’t do what I am looking for.

SwitchSync Ex looks like it might be the answer, but it wouldn’t work since I don’t have PocketMirror installed. The T3 doesn’t come with PocketMirror, however, my old m515 did (I think). I plan to investigate this one further as nothing has worked so far.

Why don’t I use PalmOS with Outlook instead of Palm Desktop? I’ve done it both ways and simply liked Palm Desktop better. It won’t work with a Pocket PC, which I now have for a column. Just found DoubleLook. Will have to take a look.

Time for a visit Marqui’s CMS specifically the Console and Calendar Events tabs. I logged into the demo account as an administrator. It thinks I’m some guy named Dave, but I took care of that in the screen shot. Notice it has five tabs and five buttons in the Console tab. I start with Task Manager and wow, I had no action items. That’s a first!

Note: when you move around the interface, a line appears following your cursor. No, the browser police isn’t after you. At first, I thought it was annoying. It didn’t take long for me to realize it’s usefulness. It helps me ensure I click the right place. Tough to put in words – see the screen shot. If I want to add a new page for Human Resources, I can be sure I click the right “Add Page” rather than end up adding a page for About Us.

Settings allows you to modify the skin (English or German – danke), language (English is the only choice), time zone settings (it’s on GMT +0, so I changed it to GMT -6 and ticked on auto adjust to daylight savings time (annoying – you hear me up there in DC?) since I’m on Central Daylight Time), and finally my availability status (available, busy, away, on vacation (I wish!).

In Release, I need to release, discard, or cancel four new subscribers. I ignore them. Don’t do this in the real world if you want to keep your clients, professional drivers were used in this test.

I am not good enough to access Analyzer. I’ve shot off an email begging the powers for permission to play with it. To be continued…

I’ll skip Web Pages this time since it’s got a lot happening there and I’ll address it another time. I need to comment, however, that it wasn’t readily clear where to create news releases. I thought Web Pages was the place, but it’s under Calendar Events. I believe if you want to add articles or general content, it is done through Web Pages. I have not quite figured this out and can’t access the Help file at this time as it says I need to login (I am logged in).

Let’s go write and schedule a News Release to go out after the New Year. Switching to the Calendar Events tab, I change the calendar to January 2005 and click on January 7. That looks like a good day to make a big announcement.

I select “News Releases” and the interface changes to automatically select subscribers who are assigned to receive news releases. I leave the expiry date as “Never Expire” as news releases stick around for a long time and click the “Create Event” button.

Though I’m entering a news release, the page calls it “Event Content” as this content will go online on the date I selected—January 7, 2005. This page is straightforward. Give it a title, write a smashing release using the Word-like toolbar to help with formatting, let it appear in the “What’s New” section (yes), the date is already set, and then enter magic keywords for search engine optimization. Employees who know HTML can switch to view the HTML markup or stick with the WYSIWYG layout. [ This is a big screen shot of the event content page ]

Now refer to the buttons at the bottom. Submit saves the release and it goes through the approval process and then awaits for its magic date to appear online. Task allows you to create a to do item much like an email with priority included and an action type of N/A, request review, request page deletion, and page submission rejected. The originator can be notified when the task has been executed.

I sent a test email to myself (you can enter whatever email address) in both HTML and text formats. Both emails arrived in my inbox within a minute. Looks good. Save Draft means not ready for publishing and I will finish it later. Preview shows you the page as it would appear in a browser. Cancel… well, you changed your mind and decided not to publish a release smearing your boss’ name.

Subscribers shows a nice and simple chart of new subscribers. Oh man, no one has subscribed during the period from August to present. You can view the stats in your browser or export the data in HTML or Excel formats. This page is also for managing subscriber groups. This is a nice and important feature. If you’re looking for a job and you’re interested in National only for its jobs, you can subscribe to their career openings list to receive related notices. Create groups for people who want stock and financial data, tip of the week, news releases, and everything.

That’s it for our tour today. Thank you for visiting meryl.net’s Marqui Tour.