Recent Code Releases
Uninstalling the Office 2010 Technical Preview
Posted by clifgriffin in Technology on October 6th, 2009
Today boredom and curiousity compelled me to try out Office 2010. It’s really slick. I like it a lot.
However, for my own reasons I found it desirable to uninstall. I did this and was troubled to receive the following error message:
This product installation has been corrupted. Please reinstall from original CD or source.
That’s paraphrased from memory. A quick Google search revealed a very simply solution from technet user Vikas Narula:
The Problem is a missing file in the installation folder of office 2010. Office 2010 has an Setup Controller directory and uses the directory to check the installed components. please check the directory “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\OFFICE14\Office Setup Controller\Groove.en-us\”. if you have no “Setup.xml” file there please copy the file from the “Groove.en-us” directory of the source files to this directory and test the uninstallation again.
I followed this advice and the uninstaller worked as expected. If you don’t have the file, you can download it here: setup.xml
$1 Movies At New Theater October 5-7th
Posted by clifgriffin in General on September 29th, 2009
That’s pretty rad.
Comcast Did Something Right
Posted by clifgriffin in Personal on September 25th, 2009
This qualifies as news in my book. My previous experiences with Comcast have fallen somewhere between “hell on earth” and “actual hell”.
Comcast has a monopoly on Internet services in my complex. We are unable get DSL through Verizon or anyone else, as far as I know. That leaves me paying 60 dollars a month to Comcast for a service that doesn’t seem worth quite that much. And like all cable companies, the next lower tier is a 30% saving for 30% of the bandwidth. Not very useful.
On a whim I decided to call them and ask to be placed on a promotion to cut my monthly bill down. The customer service representative went beyond my request and cut nearly 20 dollars of my bill each month with no strings attached. No promotion. No expiration. Just the same service I had for less.
I know. It’s shocking.
So, I submit this as a success tale. If you feel like you’re not getting a good value from Comcast, it may be worth calling them and asking them for a way to lower your bill. You just might find somebody willing to work with you.
Facebook Adopts @Mentions
Posted by clifgriffin in Technology on September 14th, 2009
Just learned via twitter (thanks @danportnoy) that Facebook has adopted @Mentions. That’s pretty cool.
The way this works is very simple. While updating your status pressing the @ key reveals a list of users that narrows down as you type, similar to other name lists. This effectively links to the user profile from your status and includes your status on their wall.
However, my most desired use of this system is apparently still impossible. I use a Facebook application called Selective Twitter Status to update my Facebook with my tweets when they include the hashtag #fb. It works well and prevents me from bombarding Facebook with my random thoughts.
For the sake of consistency, and out of habit, I also use the same username on both Facebook and Twitter. I have many friends that do the same. The connection should seem obivous. It would be fantastic if I could update twitter, include hashtag #fb, and the resulting Facebook post automatically link to mentioned usernames it finds.
Unfortunately I tested this just now and it does not work.
So Facebook, the ball is in your court. Let’s make this happen.
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