The reason I am not ready to say that it is complete yet is that I want to make sure that there is no charge on the bill first. I am still disappointed that it was so difficult to get completed and that the process took as much complaining as it did. I am not sure if Comcast Cares on Twitter or we_can_help email made a difference or not, I wonder if they will follow up. That will be interesting and quite telling of their customer service commitment.

I have decided that it is just coincidence that that living room TV decided to stop accepting HD at the same time. That is not sarcasm that is the truth as the PS3 HD signal also does not work. I did all the proper troubleshooting of changing connections, cables, sources, etc. and the HD input seems to have decided to sync anymore.

Simplest answer “I would like Comcast to send me the modem as outlined previously in their letter.” I would also like a written correspondence sent via hard copy explaining their response policy and what time of reaction times a customer should expect. I would also like that correspondence to explain the situation and causes from their side and an apology. Notice I am not looking for money or renumeration; just an understanding.

I have two people following me via Twitter that work for Comcast so I believe that they are monitoring. Notice I do not say listening as their past history does not indicate that there is communication or reaction. Here is my list of actions that leaves me to come to that conclusion:

• In previous comment on my blog Comcast indicated that “… I just wanted to let you know that I’ve passed your comment/issue along to our digital outreach team. Someone from that team should be contacting you shortly …” Apparently shortly is measured against years not days as there has been no contact yet.
• After waiting for that “contact coming shortly” I followed the suggestion in the comment that I contact we_can_help. I did on Wednesday, January 6 at 8:32PM EST. Response came at 8:29AM EST Thursday, I replied to the question at 9:30AM EST. There has been no response so a few minutes ago (Friday, 6AM EST) so I sent a follow up. the question was could I provide a phone number so they could access the account; that cracks me up as I wrote that e-mail from my Comcast e-mail account – specifically for that reason.
• The comment on Twitter “ComcastMelissa: @BradfordBenn can i help?” While that is a nice question, and made me realize that I did not spell out what I was wanting it also appears that there is no coordination of effort of customer contact.

Part of this is my fault for not explicitly saying that I e-mailed “we_can_help” I did expect that if Comcast was truly putting forth effort that they would have checked their customer contact database that has Jennifer Benn’s e-mail exhcanges in there, looked at the letter to determine that we are located in the Chicago Region, or followed up with the previous comments made by Comcast on my blog or their blog. They could have used the Contact button on every page currently in my site to reach out directly. The biggest disappointments are the following:

• There was no communication of the error in the letter.
• The responses that Jennifer received indicate that there was no effort to responding to the comments made – just run the script. (If you want to incident numbers, feel free to Contact me.)
• A timely response to communications, even if it is just something as simple as “We are still working on your issue …. will respond with more info …”
• A basic acknowledgment when I respond to an e-mail query.

Oh the big thing that not all my readers might be aware of I teach audio networking technology, I am a “product expert” for networked audio products, I used to be a Novell Network Administrator. I think I am qualified to configure and swap a modem – if not I could call Comcast Tech Support….  oh wait that is like unicorns it doesn’t exist apparently.

Allow me to do a quick review of whether or not Comcast’s Comments were followed through. On Tuesday the 5th at 11AM EST a Comcast Representative posted on my blog:

I run Comcast Voices (where you left a comment detailing this issue last night) and first off I want to apologize for your trouble.

Secondly, I just wanted to let you know that I’ve passed your comment/issue along to our digital outreach team. Someone from that team should be contacting you shortly, but should you need more help with issues like these you can always email them directly at we_can_help@comcast.com.

On their blog I had posted a comment and the same rep posted this response:

Hey Brandford [sic],

Sorry about all the trouble you’ve had getting a modem self-install kit. I’ve forwarded your comment to our digital outreach team who should be contacting you shortly to resolve this issue.

Thanks!

I have no problem with that as they are answering both posts I made. But lets review it is now about 30 hours after the forwarding of the comments to the outreach team. Anyone want to guess … no contact yet.

However that is not the sharp stick in the eye, the sharp stick in the eye came when I went to the local office as they indicated we should. It is not possible to call the local office directly to make sure that they have the modem in stock or ask other questions. I went to the local office on the afternoon of the 5th, walked up to the counter (there was no wait which was better than expected). Gave the agent all my information and had the modem. Her response was that they would have to "roll a truck" to us and we had the choice of Friday between 1 and 4, Saturday between 10 and 1 or between 1 and 4. My first comment was, "Why?" Her answer was the letter was wrong. The letter we received in December and acted upon on December 12th was wrong.

Let me understand this situation, the company knows that the information they sent was wrong. They did not try to rectify it or proactively communicate that fact. Now you might be saying, well it might not be fast enough or how would they know my contact information? Let’s see they provide my internet access, they provide my telephone service, and they have our address. So they have the following options to contact us proactively: e-mail, telephone, or postal system. They did not use any of them.

When Jennifer contacted them, both by phone and e-mail, they never indicated that there was an error in the communication and that they would have to come out to do the upgrade. So let me count the amount of times we contacted them with no indication of this problem one phone call and two e-mails. It have allowed us to schedule the service call at a more convinient time, such as when work had the holiday shutdown.

Jennifer wanted to close the loop if there was an open ticket still so she sent the following e-mail to them:

Just as a matter of follow up, my husband took time off of work to go to our local service center, as we were instructed. I had tried to call ahead of time to make sure there were modems available, but I could not call the store directly, only the customer service 800 number. When I did this, I was told to take the old modem and it would be replaced at the center. When my husband got to the service center he was told that the new modems could not be picked up, but must be installed by a service tech. He mentioned the letter we received, as well as the e-mails and phone call to customer service, but was told that they were incorrect. We now have to wait for a service call scheduled for this Saturday.

I trust that you can understand our complete frustration at this point. We have received conflicting information from the original Comcast letter, customer service (two different e-mail reps, and one by phone), and finally from the local service center.

At this point all we can do is hope that the service call on Saturday will go smoothly and this will finally be resolved.

Comcast’s response was:

Dear Jennifer,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your Comcast High Speed Internet service. My name is Marilyn. It is my pleasure assisting you with this matter.

Jennifer, I understand your frustration and I am sorry to hear that. I apologize for the inconvenience that it may caused you. Rest assured that I will look into your concern. However, for your security more account information is needed. You will need to chat with us to provide this information, and to get the assistance you need.

Asking for this account information is for your own protection and guards against someone changing your account information without your permission. This also helps our agents process your request quicker. Please remember that you must be the primary account holder to make any changes.

You can chat with one of our Online Customer Support Specialists 24 hour a day, 7 days a week at

http://www.comcastsupport.com/chat

Thank you for your patience. I know your time is important.

I am happy to inform that you can view and pay your bills online. All you have to do is sign up in http://customer.comcast.com/Pages/Help.aspx

To assure the proper tracking of this issue, we have created the following customer service ticket: XXXXXXXX. Please refer to this number should you contact us regarding this same issue. Thank you for choosing Comcast. We appreciate your business and have a great day, Jennifer.

Sincerely,

Marilyn
Comcast Customer Care Specialist

Let me see, the response was not applicable, there was no request for making any changes. Apparently the process of reading the customer’s thread that included the incident number is not part of the "The Comcast Customer Experience: working everyday to improve" process.

In December we received a letter (click here for an image of the letter) indicating that our Internet service would be upgraded from 16Mbps to 22Mbps, this upgrade does require an upgrade to the modem. The letter indicated that there were “three convenient ways this may be done”

• Exchange the modem at the local payment center
• Request a self-install kit be mailed at no charge
• Schedule a Comcast Tech to install it but there would be a service charge

On December 12 the L&T Jennifer called and requested the self-install kit. I am fairly technical savvy so I should be able to swap a modem. Also since the modem is also our phone connection it would minimize the downtime. Jennifer indicated that it took quite a while for the people to understand that they were supposed to send us one – as indicated in the ltter.

On Saturday, Jan 3, the L&T Jennifer sent the following follow up via the online form (the online chat was not available):

On 12/12/09 I requested, by phone, to have the new modem required for the updated internet service be mailed to my home. I was told it would take approximately five days. I know shipping gets slow during the holidays, but I just wanted to make sure that we would have our new modem by 1/5. Thank you!

She received the following response on Sunday:

Dear Jennifer,

Thank you for contacting Comcast High Speed Internet service. This is Gary. I understand that you are confirming the delivery of your modem.

I am more than happy to assist you with your concern today. I apologize for the inconvenience. I know how important it is for you to have your modem delivered. Rest assured that I will do my best to address this concern. I am happy to direct you to the closest payment center in your area. Since it is likely there are several payment centers near you, you can determine which one is most convenient to you by following this link:

http://www.comcast.com/customers/contactus/paymentcenter/locatePaymentCenter.ashx

Once you access the site, enter your address and ZIP Code, and then click “Submit.” If the system cannot determine your payment center location by your address, you may be asked for more information to clarify your location. When you locate the center nearest to you, verify they offer services for High-Speed Internet. If you are presented only with a general mailing address, please click the View Map link to bring up a list of payment centers in your area. To assure the proper tracking of this issue, we have created the following customer service ticket: YYYYYYYY Please refer to this number should you contact us regarding this same issue. Thank you for choosing Comcast. We value your business. For further questions or inquiries, please visit http://www.comcast.com

Sincerely, Gary
Comcast Customer Care Specialist

Jennifer’s Response was:

Hi Gary,

Thank you for your quick response.

The problem with the local payment centers is that they have such restricted hours that I am not able to get to them, which is why I requested to have it mailed. I now have to take time off of work to get the new modem.

I am disappointed that the letter we received said the kit could be mailed, but when I called to have it sent, the customer service agent tried to dissuade me and have me go to a local Comcast center. I explained that it was very difficult and again requested it be mailed, as the letter offered. Now it appears that it was never sent, as the agent told me it would be, ensuring that I would have to go to the local office.

I hope that you will pass along my disappointment

Thank you,

Jennifer Benn

The response was:

Dear Jennifer,

Thank you for contacting us regarding your Comcast High Speed Internet service. My name is Diana and it is a pleasure to have the opportunity to assist you today.

I sincerely apologize for any unpleasant experience you had recently with your Comcast service and thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

We need to hear about any unsatisfactory situations in order to correct them and to enhance our level of customer service. I have forwarded your comments to the appropriate members of our development and management teams for further review and action. We appreciate that you took the time to help us keep our commitment to quality customer care.

I understand that you ordered a Comcast Modem and have it as a Self Install Kit. Also you are having problems picking your modem up on one of our local office. I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience this matter caused you. However, since you are on a Self Install Kit basis, you will really need to go the local office to get your equipment. This will ensure the security of your modem and you can directly inquire to them if you have questions about your new modem.

If you have further questions regarding this inquiry, or should any unpleasant experience arise regarding your Comcast High Speed Internet service, please do not hesitate to reply to this e-mail with a detailed description of what you are facing.

Or you can chat with one of our Online Customer Support Specialists 24 hour a day, 7 days a week at:

http://www.comcastsupport.com/chat

For additional information, we have now combined Comcast.com and Comcast.net accounts. We call this system upgrade Credential Migration. You will only need one log in information to access all of your Comcast accounts. For you to be able to access your billing account, you will need to log in to Comcast.net with the primary Comcast.net user name and password.

I appreciate you take time to write us about your inquiry. Thank you for your patience. I know your time is important.

To assure the proper tracking of this issue, we have created the following customer service ticket: XXXXXXXX.

Please refer to this number should you contact us regarding this same issue.

Thank you for choosing Comcast, Jennifer. We value your business with us. Have a great day!

Sincerely,

Diana

Comcast Customer Care Specialist

Jennifer’s Response was:

Thank you Diana,

It is fine if I have to go pick it up, the bigger problem that I have is that the initial letter we received from Comcast offered mailing as an option when it obviously was not.

Thanks for your help,

Jennifer

So guess what I get to do on the afternoon of the 5th? If the blog is off the air, you can probably guess why. I wonder how they are going to handle the guarantee that they keep advertising on Comcast that if they miss or are late to an appointment that they will provide a free service. Oh look there is a link to send an e-mail to Rick on the bottom of the page — false alarm it is just the same form. I also wonder if I should share this fun with the FCC as this is impacting my phone service as well. I will not even start about the fact that they provide different levels of support and services between Macintosh, Linux, and Windows.

My favorite of the year is one I took a few weeks ago in Las Vegas. I received a gift from the wife in 2007 of a Digital SLR after I wore out my Canon P&S. Up until recently I was still using it as a very expensive P&S. I would try things with the settings, but I did not know what the end result would be of the changes I was making. I did lots of reading on DGrin to learn about it more and more. Then in December of 2009 the “penny dropped”; things made sense I understood the controls and how they interact with each other. Not going to say I am an expert or fully fluent with them, but I finally internalized how they interacted and was able to start predicting how things would turn out and what changes to make after looking at the preview display. I still had to take many photos to get a few good ones, but the success rate went from 1 in 20 on a good day to 1 in 3 or 4.

I was in Vegas for two weeks for work, I wanted to take some photos of the architecture and landscape at night. So I went out on a Saturday night after a rain shower and took pictures. I posted the straight out of camera keepers to SmugMug and sent a link to the L&T wife. She really liked the images and indicated that one was her favorite, not of the batch but as art not just my photo. So I got it printed on metal, as suggested by a friend, and turned around very quickly by SmugMug and gave it to her as a gift on December 25. I think that it is very cool that I was able to use her gift to me to create a gift for her.

So while it might not be perfect, the image and experience is my favorite of 2009.

Click for larger image

What is yours?

It is time for some sleep.

Image (noun) a representation of the external form of a person or thing in sculpture, painting, etc.

• a visible impression obtained by a camera, telescope, microscope, or other device, or displayed on a video screen.
• an optical appearance or counterpart produced by light or other radiation from an object reflected in a mirror or refracted through a lens.

Picture (noun) a painting or drawing : draw a picture of a tree.

• a photograph : we were warned not to take pictures.
• a portrait : have her picture painted.

Photograph (noun) a picture made using a camera, in which an image is focused ontofilm or other light-sensitive material and then made visible and permanent by chemical treatment.

However I believe that there are different connotations to these annotations. A different value placed on each in relation to digital photography and drawing. To me an image is a drawing or illustrative picture. It is not meant to be art (emotional or visceral), it is meant to convey meaning or definition. An example of my concept of an image would be a screen capture that shows what is being discussed, this screen capture that highlights the problem I was having with Outlook would be an image

It could just as easily be an image of damage to a motorcycle such as this

It is for documenting and clinical to some degree.

A Picture on the other hand is something that is designed to help one remember, not just clinically but also the time that was being had while the picture was being taken. It can also be used to share an experience with others. This is not to say that a picture canʼt be dramatic, inspiring, or artistic it is just not a formal process to create the image it is often just taken quickly. An example would be a picture of a bunch of friends going tubing.

The picture took a little while to pose and frame, but not a whole lot of thought of composition, just a quick can everyone be seen? Yup, snap a couple and letʼs get back to having fun.

Now a Photograph is a little more difficult, often times pictures can become photographs but in my definition a photograph is more precisely set up and composed than taking a picture. This does not mean that a dSLR has to be used, it can be an inexpensive point and shoot camera, or even a cell phone. What it does mean is that while looking through the viewfinder the “operator” is thinking about the composition, is projecting the way the finished image will look and preparing for that. It is more studied. It does not mean that it canʼt just be taken quickly, it just means that the “operator” is more carefully weighing the composition and meaning of the picture.

Some what arbitrary terms, but I use them for classifying my images, pictures, and photographs. A diagram (image) might help to explain my thoughts and connotations a little more.

The fact is that at times one might snap multiple captures (image) while trying to get the right photograph or picture, how should that be categorized? Are they photographs or pictures or images? I am not sure it really matters what they are called, typically one would delete the ones that donʼt work. I call them images.

Seems like an awful lot of parsing words but I believe that it is important to know the goal when taking action or considering something. An example would be a common question such as “What camera do you recommend?” My first response, “What are you wanting to do with it?” I went through these thoughts when looking at books about Photoshop. Doing a search in Amazon there are quite a few options; 922 to be exact if one limits the search to Photoshop CS3 in Books. Here is a sample of titles, tell me which one is the right one to purchase:

• Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended for 3D and Video
• Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended: Retouching Motion Pictures
• Adobe Photoshop CS3 for Photographers: A Professional Image Editor’s Guide to the Creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC
• Adobe Photoshop CS3: Web Design (ILT Series) (Student Manual)
• Adobe Photoshop for Textile Design – for Adobe Photoshop CS3
• Adobe Photoshop for Underwater Photographers
• Believing Is Seeing: Lighting On A Laptop II: How to Light Like a Sunbeam
• Black and White in Photoshop CS3 and Photoshop Lightroom
• Creative Photoshop: Digital Illustration and Art Techniques (Digital Workflow)
• Digital Character Painting Using Photoshop CS3 (Graphics Series)
• How to Cheat in Photoshop CS3: The art of creating photorealistic montages
• Mastering Photoshop CS3 for Print Design and Production
• Nighttime Digital Photography with Adobe Photoshop CS3
• Photoshop CS3 for Forensics Professionals
• Photoshop CS3 for Nature Photographers
• Photoshop CS3 for Screen Printers
• Photoshop CS3 Portrait Retouching Techniques
• Photoshop CS3 Restoration and Retouching Bible
• Photoshop for Architects CS3 Extended Edition DVD-ROM
• Scientific Imaging With Photoshop Cs3
• The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers

I could of course list them all, but figure that this list is a good enough illustration of why it is important to define things carefully. So that is why I decided that there are differences between images, pictures, and photographs.How would you define them? Do you always take photos? Are you just taking pictures and every so often get a photo in there? Are you just making images? It doesnʼt matter if it makes you happy.

Coming soon, my favorite image/picture/photograph of 2009…

Does this mean I have to stop using the phrase, “A picture is worth a thousand words”?

The comment came in response to the post “Offline Writing“, I have gotten a comment or two from people I do not know, but this one looked a little too generic to be a real response. The response was

“Well, the post is actually the greatest on this worthy topic. I concur with your conclusions and will thirstily look forward to your upcoming updates. Saying thanks will not just be adequate, for the exceptional clarity in your writing. I will directly grab your rss feed to stay privy of any updates. Gratifying work and much success in your business endeavors!”

The e-mail was from Gmail, the author’s IP address was from France and the URL for their website is from Czech and about money transfers and advances. So I think it is spam, and marked it as such. The reason that is seems to be spam to me is, They commented in December saying they were looking forward to my upcoming updates, from a post in March that I have already made follow up comments on. That plus the fact that the last sentence does not apply to a personal website. The approach is unique and a new way to get the website links up. Just something to be aware of. for those of you out there.

After getting this spam, I decided it was time to update my purging of my Twitter spam followers. I then thought about it, do I want to have it still be public of should I make it private. The main concern is the privacy and security for the physical world by people knowing where and when I am, but then I shoot a big hole in it by having a website with a blog on it. I guess I could simply make my blog password protected, and only have invited people know about it. The thought spoils the aim I had in starting it in the first place, to share ideas, thoughts, events… etc. Then I thought about making it so that one has to register and then once registered the blog is open. I think anyone who has administered anything with a password knows that there will be an additional effort as people constantly lose them. The logic starts to wrap itself up pretty well in a circular form. What to do? I started thinking about perhaps having some blog posts protected, and others not. I wanted to look to see if WordPress can do that, however I am in a place with no internet access as I alluded to previously. (see, a little vague as to where I am; eh?)

I am still trying to figure an easy way to virtualize a LAMP server so I can travel with it and run it as a virtual machine under VMWare Fusion. I do this for the Windows OS I still use for a few applications that don’t work under Mac. I do not want to become an expert at installing and configuring a LAMP server, I want to be able to have a testing server that can travel with me. I do not want to simply turn on the server in the Mac, as there may be some idiosyncrasies between the Mac OS and the LAMP server. It has not been easy to find a simple solution for this one yet, but I have not given up yet. I am going to wander over to the VMWare forums and see if anyone has a solution.

I have both Parallels and Fusion to allow me to virtualize an OS for my Mac, and have found that the VMWare forums have better signal to noise most of the time, however I like the way that Parallels has decided to handle USB Human Interface Drivers a little better. I also do like that when I called Parallels about a work issue I was troubleshooting, Parallels connected me with a real program that worked through the use case process with me and called me back with answers and contact information if I hit the issue again. Then again, I have not had to call VMWare yet. So you may ask, which is better? I can’t tell you, I can tell you to try both and decide for yourself. Mine came down to the fact that VMWare ran a little faster and I knew more people who use it if I get stumped.

These type of questions come up very often and there is often no one answer that applies to everyone. An example I use is a question that came up a few days ago on the Digital Grin Forum, which is better for running Adobe Creative Suite; Mac or Windows? The answer is that of course it varies on your needs and other things to consider, but people often expect there to be a definitive answer. I wonder if people are looking for reassurance or an answer when they post some of these questions.

The Adobe Creative Suite issue is still causing me heartburn, as the speed at which they ran from supporting a product is disappointing. From a technical standpoint, I understand how they decided to not update previous versions of Creative Suite (anything before CS4) to support Mac OS X 10.6; a.k.a Snow Leopard. But the fact that when CS3 was the current version they had some challenges when one updated the Mac OS X to 10.5, a.k.a Leopard. I was patient and waited for them to fix the issue. I was disappointed but understand how it can happen. Under Snow Leopard, I cannot use Adobe Acrobat Distiller, basically the printer emulator, at all. (Acrobat was the package that had trouble under Leopard.) This coupled Couple this with the fact that the “Updater” that Adobe launches each time the application is launched, it is extremely frustrating. Luckily Mac OS X has the ability to create a PDF built in.

I did the searches to try and figure out how to turn off the “Updater” under Mac OS X; as there is not a simple preferences box to check or uncheck; one has to create a custom file and place it in the proper location. The directions are less than helpful. The directions are as follows:

1. Using a text editor or plist editor, create a new file named “com.adobe.AdobeUpdater.Admin.plist” in the folder /Library/Preferences
2. In this new .plist file, create a child at the root named “Disable.Update”
3. Set the Class of this new child to Boolean with a value of “Yes”

I was stumped, so I asked a programmer friend of mine, HanClinto, who is actually doing development of a gaming tool on his Mac. He was stumped as well. even once we got it figured out, it was to functioning, so I once again asked at DGrin and they suggested another location.

What truly irks me about this situation, is it is not an inexpensive software suite. I have been a customer with them since Aldus Pagemaker, Macromedia Freehand, and Adobe Type Manager – early 1990’s. I have tried to keep up when I can afford to. However I have not seen any real reason for going up to CS4 and a very steep upgrade price. Couple this with the fact that in my opinion Mac OS X going from 10.5 to 10.6 is not a major revision, that would be going from 10.5 to 11. This is akin  to a service pack in my mind. One should not expect this to be such a faster turn over rate nor so expensive. I believe that Adobe, as is many other software developers, to a subscription approach, keep updating the software to keep the revenue coming in. That is understandable; however the pricing structure is not. It is more expensive for me to upgrade my existing package (Adobe Creative Suite 3 Web Premium) to the current version of it, than it is to purchase the Complete Package (Adobe Designer Premium) as a student.  So I am very much stuck. Being that I don’t use these tools professionally (I do use them at work under Windows XP SP 3 and a different license) I have a hard time paying as high a fee for an upgrade. The reason I got the suite is that I want to work in the same software environment at work as I do at home. It is advantageous in both directions, I hone my skills and can apply what I learn in my personal time at work. Our official graphics artists and I have even been trading tips and tricks, so it does work.

I will say that I do like how similar the environments are in both OS’s for Adobe’s products. Microsoft among others could learn a lot from them. I have stopped using Microsoft Office for Mac as it is so different from the Windows version. I am still disappointed with iWork under Mac, there are some features (pivot tables for example) that just aren’t there. I even tried to do the trial of the updated version iWork 09; however I could not see if it addressed just the basic thing of working with Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows better as I am some what of a power user in there. However that even failed. It can open an Office 2007 format document, but it can not save into one – you have to export it. If I do the same thing in Microsoft  Office 2007 opening a 2004 document, it allows me to save it in the older format and tells me what the problems will be, it allows me to work with it just fine.It also does not support many features I use often. So I can’t really interchange my work easily with others from Mac and once again, a different environment. Good thing I got Appzapper, time to get rid of iWork ‘09.

It seems cranky, I know, but these are the things that have been kind of irksome over the last few weeks to me. Aren’t computers supposed to make things easier? I have no problem with people making a profit, I have a problem with people gouging. I have no problem with wanting things to be a little different and unique between application, but if you advertise that one can exchange files with other applications, do not have some many problems; make it transparent to the user.

One of the things that I have been trying very hard to follow is to “eat food, not food stuff”. This quote is probably an overly simplified version of Michael Pollan’s statement, “Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” he talked about it on NPR’s Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me. The other rule that I use quite often from Mr. Pollan is  “If You Can’t Say It, Don’t Eat It“. So while Oreo’s are vegan, they are not healthy and these two guidelines make that very easy to tell that fact. Even some salads have that same issue.

However I digress from the impetus of this post in the first place. While shopping tonight, I found something that I truly don’t understand and I think can be seen as a pure example of “Food Stuff”. Why would one every want lemon flavored cherries? I can see mixing cherries and lemon together for interesting flavor profiles. However do we really need to be able to purchase in a jar, lemon flavored cherries. I did not get a chance to read the ingredients, but I did snap a quick picture to prove I am not making this up.

Click for larger image

So I decided to do a quick google search on these to see if there was a recipe that called for these. I did not find one. I did however find them for sale elsewhere and it describes them as

“Will remain shelf stable for up to 2 years if held in ambient temperature. Refrigerate after opening to retain freshness. These are 20-22 mm. which is the diameter of the cherries. At least 90% are with stems. All whole cherries, no blemishes or crushed pieces.”

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Let me explain a little. I was thinking of posting a humorous post about the magnet that was distributed during the health screening at work. I understand that they are trying to have some fun and to make sure that we have all the pertinent numbers. I wanted to scan the fun part of it. I placed it on the scanner section of my Canon MP600, and pressed the buttons on the control panel as, nothing happened. I tried a few different things; nothing worked. I figured I had Windows XP SP 3 running under VMWare Fusion already, I will try it in there. Connected the printer/scanner to the Windows OS and it popped up asking if I wanted to install the new driver; it did that three times: printer, scanner, and card reader. After that was complete I simply clicked on the scanner in Explorer and started scanning. It cropped to the proper area, asked me where to save the scan and that was it.

I still wanted to get the drivers installed into Snow Leopard, I figured that perhaps I did not update the drivers when I did the installation. Sure enough when I went to the Canon website I found that the drivers I had installed were out of date. Wait, I had to manually go there and look, Windows prompted and asked me about drivers. Then the Canon website navigation approach was more complex than needed. One could see on the download page that there were four things to download; they were not available as one download. When one clicked on the link, it actually spawned a new window via Java so that one could accept the user agreement, then download it. However it also navigated you aware from the page, so I had to keep going back to it. Not very fast, not an Apple issue, a Canon issue.

After that I figured I would read through the documentation for the things I downloaded to see what I needed and what was superfluous. So I opened up the read me files. The one for Easy-PhotoPrint EX was not very helpful or even worth including. Here it is in its entirety:

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Canon Utilities
Easy-PhotoPrint EX Version 3.0.5 for Mac OS Instructions
Copyright CANON INC. 2007-2009
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——————————————————————————
CONTENTS

Before You Get Started
Introduction
About Trademarks
Product Contents

*******************************************************************
Before You Get Started
*******************************************************************

Introduction —————————————————————

Thank you for using Canon Utilities Easy-PhotoPrint EX.
This product is a handy application program that allows you to create and print your own album, calendar, and stickers using the images you recorded with your digital camera. And furthermore, you can easily print borderless photos and so on.

About Trademarks ——————————————————–

- Macintosh and Mac are trademarks of Apple Inc., registered in
the U.S. and other countries.
- All brand names and product names mentioned in this document are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

Product Contents ———————————————————

This product includes the following items.

- Canon Utilities Easy-PhotoPrint EX
(hereafter called Easy-PhotoPrint EX)
Easy-PhotoPrint EX is an application program that allows you to create and print your own album or calendar, etc. using photos and other images.

- ReadMe
This file. It provides important information about Easy-PhotoPrint EX.

I am still looking for the important information. I also had to do two restarts of the Mac as part of the process of installing the Canon drivers. Did I mention yet that doing it under the Windows XP environment under VMWare Fusion it simply connected and worked? The buttons still don’t function under either OS, but I can now scan under both environments. To make things even more fun, the auto cropping and color is different between the two.

Macintosh Scan (Click for full size):

Macintosh Scan - Click for Larger

Windows Scan (Click for full size):

Windows Scan - Click for larger