For some reason, the auto-update feature of many software programs fails from time to time. On my computer, the number one culprit is the Thunderbird email client. I don’t think it properly tries to get admin permissions when it should and therefore the update doesn’t work. I think this is particularly true if Firefox (another Mozilla product) is already running. Whatever the recovery mechanism does, doesn’t work any better.

It gets so boggled that when I try and manually install it, from inside the program via the Help menu, or by downloading and re-running the installed from Mozilla, it STILL doesn’t work.

Ninite Review – Online Software Install Service

Enter Ninite. I can go to www.ninite.com and click Thunderbird (and a bunch of other software, if I want) and get an installer. When I run the installer, it checks to see if I already have the software, and if so, it updates the installation. Whatever process Ninite uses, it doesn’t get hung up in the same way as the official Mozilla installer, most likely because it does not bother with whatever version check or recovery file the original erred installation generated. It just goes in and updates all the files, without any checking or asking.

Which, brings me to the other amazing thing about Ninite. The installers are all fully automated. There is no user interaction required. The defaults are all used for a new install, or the update leaves all of your previous settings intact. Obviously, if you want to do some customizing, this isn’t the route for you, but in 90 percent of the cases when I install software, I just click Next, Next, Next, Finish, anyway.

There is one exception. When I install software with toolbars, or that wants to make Bing my default search engine, or whatever, I click NO. Sometimes, developers get tricky and that isn’t enough. Foxit Reader, a PDF reader, pulled a stunt like that a while back where you had to make some very unintuitive clicks to avoid getting some junkware toolbar with your installation. Fortunately, Ninite is run by good guys, for good guys. All toolbars and other extra software, no matter how “valuable” are automatically declined with a Ninite installation.

Ninite Tips and Tricks

At this point, Ninite is already a golden member of the Go-To online service club, but wait– there’s more

Ninite does more than just install one software program. Using the super simple check box interface, you can select one, two or even dozens of software packages to install. The file Ninite delivers will install all of the selected software with a single execution and not a single second of user intervention. This comes in very handy to install lots of software on a new computer or to re-install a ton of programs on a restored machine.

It gets even better. Remember how I said that if you already have the software installed then Ninite will just update it for you? Well that works for multiple software installations as well. So if Thunderbird is updating, but Spotify is new, Ninite knows enough to update Thunderbird and do a new installation of Spotify, again with no user interaction.

Now, here is the best software upgrade method you will ever use. Create a Ninite installer of all your usual software programs. Save that file to your desktop, or other handy spot on your computer. Now, just run that installer every so often to keep ALL of your software up to date, with no hassle and no junk toolbars other other garbage. Any software already running the current version is just skipped. You don’t have to create a new Ninite installer file. The installer automatically connects, downloads and installs the most recent version of software available.

For example, if you update Java via the package from Oracle, you’ll get a vampire process installed on your computer that runs at startup and keeps running 24 hours per day, seven days per week. It’s sole function is to occasionally check for Java updates. Turning it off takes a lot more than you might think thanks to a bug that prevents you from turning off the Java updater unless you manually launch it with admin privileges. The problem is, once you kill it, it will come back with EVERY SINGLE UPDATE. But, if you update via Ninite, they’ll keep that little junkware app from re-installing on your computer.

Obviously, Ninite only works with free or open-source software, but that covers a lot of ground on my machine, ranging from web browsers to email clients, to image viewers to developer tools. Unfortunately, Microsoft’s Windows Live suite isn’t available which means you’ll have to watch out for seaport.exe getting installed and then kill Seaport on your own.

Give Ninite a try, you won’t be sorry.

Easy Software Installation Online is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

Black Friday Tricks

The oldest Black Friday scam in the book is the super-limited inventory scam. This is the same scam that car dealers use in their advertisements. Sure, you can get a 2012 Ford F-150 for no money down and just $99 per month, the thing is, there is only one make and model and options package that gets you that price and there aren’t any of them left. How would you like a new truck for $2,500 down and $299 a month instead?

It is illegal to advertise items that the retailer does not carry or never has in stock. These laws are the result of the old, now illegal, bait and switch scam where retailers would advertise an item that they did not ever have any intention of selling in order to get suckers customers into the store. Then, the shoppers would be offered a different, more profitable item in its place.

However, those laws are easily circumvented by having a very limited inventory of sale items. Some stores go so far — out of legal obligation or otherwise — to mention just how few of an item they have in stock. Many ads will say something like “Minimum of 4 per store,” or something like that. In other words, unless you camp out, get in the front of the line, go straight to the items without getting waylaid, and grab them right away, you cannot get that price. Some retailers only have ONE of those items in stock.

Here comes tax season. Check here for the 2011 standard deduction and other tax information.

When a store knows there will be demand for HUNDREDS of the item at that price, the only reason to have so few in stock is to ensure that only a handful of customers get the items. The next week, after the sale ends, there will be dozens in every store, or easy availability for ordering online. This turns the sale into a lottery where only the lucky few can “win” the sale price.

Crappy Black Friday Sales

Retailers know that customers want to nab great deals on Black Friday. Some shoppers are naïve enough to think that every Black Friday sale is a great Black Friday sale. Retailers prey on these unsavvy shoppers by advertising items at the normal sale prices, that is the sale price that was available last month, and will probably be available again within a few weeks.

Be sure to at least check the price of the item at a competing store or online at a major retailer like Amazon.com before leaping to buy that “cheap” television set on the front page of that electronics store ad. Chances are good that the price isn’t that great after all.

Black Friday Item Replacement Tricks

A favorite in the electronics and computer industry, with this scam retailers sell and item that is similar but very different from the item you think you are getting. Computers with less memory, or RAM, than would typically come inside of that level of computer are one good example of this scam.

Another favorite are television sets that have similar make and model numbers but that are just different enough to be cheaper thanks to inferior or missing components. Something like a 65″ Sony LCD TV  that has the previous model’s insides but the current model’s case and remote would be one example.

Some retailers and manufacturers go so far as to make different model numbers for each retailer in order to be as devious as possible. Instead of the highly rated and well reviewed MSC99381D model, store will offer a lower quality, cheaper MSC99381O model on Black Friday where unsuspecting customers will purchase and assume that they got the same item for a great price.

Avoid Black Friday Sales Scams

The best way to avoid Black Friday sales scams is to research before heading out to go shopping. Many retailers have released their ads online this year to avoid having them leaked by internet deal websites. Google your holiday items and be very careful to not the exact model numbers to avoid any surprises. Also, check the pricing on Amazon to be sure you aren’t getting a phony sale price. Finally, check out deal websites like slickdeals.net or gottadeal.com to find out what deals are really hot and which deals are no.

Black Friday Sales Scams is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

While Google’s hands may (or may not) be pretty clean in these respects, the company continues to press ahead with initiatives that may be more likely to generate the kind of legitimate, hard evidence, formal complaints that regulators will use to exert control over Google’s stranglehold on the internet search process.

Google Linking Product Usage

One of the things the legal system hates to see is when giant companies use their power to force services or products upon other companies or consumers. This not only limits innovation, it costs other potentially powerful businesses in ways that neither politicians nor judges approve of. Intel, for example, was forced to refine the way it sells computer chips after forcing manufacturers to accept terms that made it impossible to use AMD chips, even if they were better for a specific usage.

Google has made a subtle change to the way they handle results from their dominate search platform. Although the company claims it is making the changes for privacy reasons, there is an exception big enough to drive a truck through that points directly to the beginnings of tying less dominant products to the company’s monopoly product in order to stifle competition.

Users logged into Google will have their searches encrypted by default. On the surface, this sounds perfectly reasonable. However, what this means is that the owners of websites visited by users from searches will not longer be able to see what the exact keywords were that led to the visitor finding the website.

For example, these days, if someone searches for freelance writer and they end up on my freelance writing website at ArcticLlama.com, I get a report that says the user came to my website from Google and that the search that led him to my website was freelance writer. This is useful information for me, because it shows why and how people end up at my website. It can also offer a reason for unexpected things that happen.

My freelance writing business is named ArcticLlama, so when I found a funny joke in the form a Llama Font, I wrote a little post about it and put it up on my website. A month or two later my site got a lot of extra traffic. Since I hadn’t done anything, that I was aware of, out of the ordinary, I wondered why there were more traffic to my website. Had a popular website linked to me? Was there an article I wrote that went viral? Was there a serial killer our there with the same name? Had Brian Nelson just won a million dollars and people were desperately trying to find me?

As it turns out, it had nothing to do with me after all. Upon looking at my traffic logs and Google Analytics, I was able to see that one of the top keywords for users coming from search engines was "llama font". The joke font had gotten popular and people were finding my article about it on Google. It was good information to know so that I didn’t make wrong assumptions.

As a website owner I have no inalienable right to a person’s search keywords per se, and therefore, Google’s decision to encrypt outgoing traffic in such a way that I will no longer see why keywords bring visitors to my website isn’t something that I have any standing to complain about, except Google isn’t doing it properly.

Instead, Google has a very big exception to the rule. If you are a paying advertiser on Google and someone comes to your website from a Google search, then the company gladly hands over the keywords that brought that user to your website.

In other words, If you buy something from Google, then Google will give you something free that no one else can give you and that no one else gets unless they buy from Google AdWords.

Note to Senate committee: If you don’t want to look like you are just chasing after the biggest kid on the block for no reason, start paying attention to these kinds of things. Keywords are valuable SEARCH information and Google just locked them down so that only the people who buy from Google’s ADVERTISING group are allowed to see them. Vertical integration by monopolies is a no no.

Google Abusing Monopoly Power? is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

In 2008, however, things were different. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama took much longer than usual to sort out. By the time it was said and done, it turns out that Michigan’s delegates would have mattered, and might have affected the outcome. Of course, by then, nothing could be done because the candidates had skipped campaigning in the state with worthless delegates.

This year, it is the Republicans turn to be jackasses. The GOP apparently, isn’t tough enough to enforce its rules (or has learned from the Democrat’s mess less time) with any sort of penalties, so various states have taken it upon themselves to move up their primaries. This in turn makes the states that are “supposed” to have the early primaries move their elections up even further in order to stay in the front of the line.

The result of all this jockeying is that New Hampshire may end up having its primary in December, and thus, Iowa may end up having its in December, or even November, an entire year before the actual election, next fall.

Presidential Primary Reform

No politician is willing to talk about primary reform because there is always the chance that they may one day be running for President and there is no way quicker to lose Iowa or New Hampshire than to suggest that those states somehow are not entitled by God himself to be the first contests of any Presidential nominating process.

Of course, those claims are absurd. There is nothing special about Iowa or New Hampshire, or any other state, that makes them more entitled to being the first nominating contest.

It’s too late to do anything about it for this election season, but after the next Presidential election is over (well over a year away, mind you) it is time to go out and get real meaningful Presidential primary campaign reform.

A system where the first five slots are rotated among all 50 states would be the most fair. But, the most important thing is to get a drop dread, no nonsense start date. That start date should be no earlier than March of the same year the election is held. That is plenty of time for a real contest to occur and be settled before the general election.

The Democrat’s idea to strip states who start too soon of delegates seems like a good starting point. I’d go so far as to say that any member of the party in a state that moves its primary or caucus before the start date before the sanctioned start date will be barred until the next Presidential election from serving at the executive level of the national party. That might undercut the party votes that move these contests up.

In the meantime, some clever state (especially the bigger ones with more delegates) might want to consider the power lever that may exist near the end of the nominating contest. Imagine if in 2008, Michigan had moved its primary to the end of the nominating contest. The state would have been in the position of choosing the nominee, not just in position to “set the tone” as many of the earlier states are attempting to do.

Primary Election Stupidity is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

In Call Volume Too Loud After Update

The biggest issue for me was that the ear volume during a phone call was way too loud. I had to hold the phone away from my ear to hear properly and that meant that everyone around me was hearing my cell phone conversation too. This is both rude and embarrassing. Pushing “Down” on the incall volume button on the side of the handset did nothing. While Sprint and LG are working on an official fix for the Android update, I think I found a workaround that works for now.

It seems that during the update, the value for setting the in-call volume on the phone is inadvertently linked to another volume setting on the phone. Unfortunately, that means that using the volume button to change the call volume does not work because it is changing a setting that is no longer being read properly. To fix, the volume issue, you need to fix the setting so that it can be updated. The following procedure worked for me.

1. Go into the Settings -> Sound menu and change every volume setting so that NONE of them are set to the maximum. (I don’t know why this matters, it just does.)
2. Make a call (to voicemail is fine) and push the UP button for the in-call volume so that the display reads at least one up from the lowest setting.
3. Pull the battery out of the phone and wait 30 seconds to get a full power off and reset.
4. Put the battery back in.
5. Make a call and use the button on the side of the phone to adjust the volume to a comfortable level.

No Spelling Suggestions While Typing

Another issue I had, along with many Sprint customers, was that the spelling suggestions, known as predictive text, did not work with the updated Android keyboard.

Sprint’s suggestion for a workaround is to use the Swype keyboard, which has a functioning as you type spell checker and suggestions.

As someone who had previously downloaded the much better free Gingerbread keyboard to my Froyo OS LG long ago, I simply re-downloaded that keyboard app. The predictive type on this keyboard still works.

Sprint and LG Android Fix Update

Until LG and Sprint release fixed update of Android, or issue a patch of some sort, these workarounds allow you to enjoy the better functionality and security of Gingerbread without losing important features on your phone. If, however, you prefer to go back to the old Android version on Sprint LG Optimus, Sprint has released a temporary solution that allows you to downgrade or revert back to Froyo from Gingerbread.

Sprint LG Optimus Gingerbread Update Makes Volume Too Loud is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

This online sports comic only started up this fall, but there are already plenty of funny strips. Go check it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Blood Runs Blue BYU Comic is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

Updating cell phones always makes me nervous. It seems that no matter which carrier you are on, sooner or later, a mobile phone update messes up your cell phone. And, cell phone providers being the customer unfriendly companies they are, they don’t offer a way to uninstall the update easily, since it is obviously your fault, or a problem with your specific phone. More specifically, it is a problem with your specific phone that is not covered in any way by your service agreement and any repair or service is entirely your responsibility.

On the other hand, maybe there are some good updates in the latest release, and I have heard that there are some potential security issues with older versions of Android. So, I bit the bullet and clicked update. I left it plugged in, which is apparently a good thing since some users are reporting that their phones won’t charge after getting the Android update from Sprint if the phone was not plugged in when the update occurred.

My phone is currently fully charged. In fact, one of the updates was to change the text displayed on the screen of my phone from saying, “Charged” to saying, “Charged. Please disconnect power supply to save energy.” Thanks, I guess.

The other obvious change is that the system bar at the top of my LG Optimus is now black. In fact, there is a new color scheme of black and electric lime green. Frankly, it looks nice. No complaints.

In the few seconds I have had to play with it, it seems faster and smoother. Furthermore, my LG Optimus S from Sprint now has the Gingerbread keyboard built-in, which means I get to save 1.5 MB or so by deleting the Gingerbread keyboard app that I had been using to get the better keyboard on my older version of Android.

What I would really like is the ability to take screenshots of my phone, but for some reason, that function is still not available in Android unless you root your phone and install a developer kit.

The one thing that hasn’t changed is that the Sprint ID button is still there instead of the infinitely more useful globe browser button that comes on the standard Android install. I know Sprint is proud of the Sprint ID concept and used it to market this particular phone, but the reality is that once you have a Sprint ID installed and customized, you pretty much never use the button again. If you do, you certainly use it less than you use the browser.

Maybe I’ll get around to rooting my phone this year and getting rid of the Sprint ID button. Of course, I’ll have to wait a while now, because each new update (deliberately or not) breaks the previous rooting of the phone so it will be a little bit before some hacker gets around to rooting the LG Optimus Android install again.

Update: Sigh. Looks like my fears were not unfounded. Apparently so many users are having trouble with the Sprint LG Optimus Gingerbread update that they have stopped the rollout. Fortunately, my problems are minor so far. My in-call volume is too loud and I cannot adjust the incall volume down. Also, the keyboard no longer does any sort of auto-suggest. I’m assuming the keyboard needs a dictionary update but haven’t looked into how to do it yet. Instead, I re-installed the Gingerbread keyboard from the app store that I had before the update. It auto-suggests and auto-corrects as I type now.

Sprint LG Optimus Android Update is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

Essentially, I use HubPages as the place where I publish stuff that doesn’t fit on any of the other websites I write for, or occasionally, to post something that links to content I want to provide a little boost to.

In other words, despite a HubPage Author Rank consistently over 90, I am not a big HubPages users, nor would anyone consider me a power publisher there. You can check out my HubPage Profile if you are so inclined.

HubPages Rise in Google Search Rankings?

What is interesting is not how I do or do not use the HubPages platform, but rather what has happened to the traffic there over the last few months. It seems as if HubPages may be recovering in Google’s rankings.

Like most other content mills, HubPages got hit hard by Google’s Panda algorithm update. One of the interesting things about writing for HubPages is  that they allow you to include your Google Analytics information, and thus, get similar analytics to those that you get from your own websites. I noticed a substantial decline in my HubPages traffic when the Google update hit earlier this year. Traffic to my hubs dropped about 50 percent.

Keep in mind that I don’t get a ton of page views at HubPages so this is hardly definitive, but it does match up with what was reported. Lately, however, things have picked back up.

I haven’t published a new hub in a quite a while, so there has been little or no change made by me on my end. Whatever HubPages is doing, however, might be working.

On July 24th, my traffic was at the same reduced level it has been since early this year after the Panda update. On July 25th, traffic increased substantially and has stayed at the new higher level ever since. Traffic has doubled, back to where it was originally. The former high peaks on my analytics graph from March to July are now the low points on the graph since July 25th.

Again, I don’t have enough traffic or hubs to say anything definitive, and it is entirely possible that HubPages overall is still down while my own content has been judged worthy, but the most likely explanation is that whatever HubPages did to “fix” things after the Google search update is working. Either that, or Google changed the algorithm again and HubPages is out of the dog house.

Anyone else have any experience with this? Is there a domain-wide HubPages recovery going on?

Update: Thanks to the reader that pointed out that there was a confirmed update to the Google Panda search algorithm at about the time of my HubPage traffic improvement. Have other HubPages users seen the same improvements in their overall traffic?

Google Search Update or HubPages Improvement ? is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

The "reform" in the weak patent legislation that limped out of Congress changes the system from a first-to-invent system to a first-to-file system. This essentially favors big corporations with a bunch of patent lawyers on staff.

Here is how the new patent system will work. If an inventor in Colorado invents a new kind of ski in January and submits a patent application in March, but another company submits a patent application for the same technology in February, the company wins, even if the other guy invented it first and can prove it. The only exception is if the first inventor can PROVE that the company copied his technology. Smaller companies or inventors who don’t race to the patent office could lose out.

On paper, this hurts small inventors, however, it also eliminates one bothersome aspect of the patent system where a company like IBM spends years developing a new technology and the files for a patent and then someone shows up out of the woodwork CLAIMING that they invented it first. Now, those companies won’t have to deal with those kinds of claims.

Failed Patent Reform

Of course, none of the real patent reforms necessary to fix the system were included. Patent trolls are still free to file their claims in the District of East Texas no matter how ridiculously tangential the connection to that area is. (Patent trolls keep a single, empty, office on record so that they can file a case where no one, not the defendant, not the plaintiff, and not the attorneys, actually has a real reason to file there.) For whatever reason, the courts in Eastern Texas have turned themselves into mindless lapdogs for patent troll attorneys, probably because it provides something interesting to do and a little bit of job security, even if it leads to a gross miscarriage of justice. The so-called reform does nothing to address this issue.

In addition, while Congress gleefully carved out exceptions in patent law for those industries willing to pay lobbyists and campaign contributions, they made no effort to fix the issue of overly broad patents of dubious value being used to force companies to pay up simply because it is cheaper and less hassle than to actually be correct.

In other words, things will only get worse as more patent lawyers use dirtier tricks and file broader patents just so that they can go to court and squeeze money from actual businesses. Patent law already has started to resemble the old Mafia extortion scam where a company is forced to pay, "or something bad might happen." Someday, years from now, when the patent system and all of lawsuits clogging the courts is even more of a laughing stock than it is today, Congress might get around to actually doing something meaningful for the U.S. economy and commerce, but until then, nothing substantial changes while Senators and Congressmen can pretend that they did something by pointing to this useless bill and saying, "I voted for patent reform."

Patent Reform Fails in Congress is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC

The 1976 Winter Olympics were originally awarded to Denver. However, building everything to actually hold the Olympics in Denver required a citizen approved bond initiative that went down in flames. (One of the leaders of the campaign against the Olympics was Richard Lamm, who leveraged that notoriety into becoming Governor of Colorado.)

Denver remains the only city to ever give up the Olympics once having been formally awarded them by the International Olympic Committee.

Winter Olympics in Denver 2022

Every so often, some folks in Denver decide that it would be a good idea to have the Winter Olympics in Denver. This time, they are shooting to have the Winter Olympics in Denver in 2022.

On paper, having the Olympics in Denver sounds like a great idea. The reality, however, is a different story.

Colorado and Denver sound like wintery, snowy, places to the rest of the world. The reality is somewhat different. While it does get cold and it does snow, it doesn’t reliably do it all that often. Denver is a semi-arid climate, and that is true in the winter as well.

Denver gets big snow storms, that is true. Denver does not get snow every day. In fact, the Denver tourism office likes to tout that the city gets 300 days of sunshine per year. Do a little math and you’ll realize that means it isn’t sunny only 65 days each year. Throw in some cloudy days in Spring and Summer and you’ll see that it just isn’t actually snowing all that often in Denver. Storms come and go quickly.

Of course, none of that really matters because Denver isn’t in the mountains. The city’s well publicized moniker Mile High City is true. There are specially colored steps at the Capital Building showing exactly where one mile (5,280 ft.) above sea level is. Likewise, a row of purple seats at Coors Field, where the Colorado Rockies play, also denotes where one mile high is. But, the entire city of Denver and the surrounding metro area are relatively flat. No luge or skiing tracks are going to work around here.

The catch is that the slopes and snows in Colorado take place in the mountains. Weather forecasts regularly call for a chance of snow, but only above 7,000 feet or above 10,000 feet. The ski areas that Colorado is so famous for are well above that. In other words, fully half of the Winter Olympics won’t even take place in Denver, they’ll take place somewhere up in Summit County. The ski resorts in Utah, for example, are much closer to Salt Lake City.

In order for any of the Olympics to actually take place in Denver, you would have to have a split venue scenario where the indoor events, mainly those that take place on a skating rink, are in Denver, and all the outdoor events are up in the mountains somewhere.

Unfortunately, Colorado’s premier ski areas are more than two hours away from Denver, and that’s  in good traffic, which brings up the next catch.

The average winter weekend clogs I-70 with people heading up from Denver and Boulder for a ski weekend or day trip. Imagine adding the traffic of Olympic spectators and Olympic teams heading up for various events. And, I-70 isn’t the easiest highway to add lanes to. Another lane of traffic through the Eisenhower Tunnel would require another bore, a decade long project.

Again, in order to be even remotely practical, there would have to be two Olympic Villages, one in Denver and one up in the mountains.

Denver is a great city, and it is a wonderful place to live. Unfortunately, it just isn’t a very reasonable location for the Winter Olympics.

Denver Olympics – Where Bad Dreams Won’t Die is a post from Best Hubris. All content exclusively written by Freelance Writing Business of ArcticLlama, LLC