I must think about

something other than the Pats...

so to change the subject I am having two computer issues and one other random issue:

First: I have a computer with XP - it's about a year and half old or something. It's always worked fine - no issues. I have an Epson Stylus CX5000 printer/scanner combo plugged into it. It's worked beautifully since I got it. I also have the JBL "creature" speakers plugged into the computer - they have worked great too.

So last weekend, or the weekend before I got a new USB 2.0 hub, and upgraded my itunes (it prompted me when I opened it so I accepted the upgrade). Right after I did these two things my computer got screwed up.

My computer makes no sound now - EXCEPT itunes - itunes plays just fine - speakers sound excellent. BUT no other app has sound coming out of the speakers - and if I go to the control panel and to sound it says "there are no speakers plugged into this computer" UM YES THERE ARE, and I am hearing a song out of itunes on them. So I know they are plugged in and working. Why are they only being recognize by itunes and not the OS / other apps????

The second thing wrong with my computer is that I can no longer scan photos. My printer will still print - I can send anything to it - prints just fine. However, if I try to run Epson Scan, or try to call the scanner from within Photoshop - it says this device is not properly installed (code 39) it may be corrupted. But the printer from the same device works!! If it was busted wouldn't the printer not work? how can the printer work and not the scanner that is part of each other.

So I tried to allow windows to fix the printer/scanner automatically. didn't work. tried to get the latest driver - already had it. disabled/enabled - nothing. uninstalled/reinstalled - still nothing. tried to roll back to the previously installed one - there wasn't one. So I totally uninstalled the printer and downloaded the latest scanner software from Epson. Went into the registry - deleted the printer driver entries. Shut off the printer, rebooted the machine. Turned everything back on and reinstalled the printer. Printer still works fine - scanner is still hosed. WTF!!!!!!!!! I don't know what else to do and it's driving me crazy - this thing used to work.

I thought it was the hub, so I unplugged it and rebooted the computer. No change. Plugged it back in still nothing.

I really hope some random technical person reads this and can give me some advice how to fix this.

Now for the random issue: Didn't Digg used to update dynamically? I SWEAR I remember the newest post being added to the top - like fading in, and pushing down the previous posts - with a really nice transition using what I assumed was AJAX. But now it's not updating. It just sits there status until I manually hit F5. Maybe it was DZone? But that site is also not updating dynamically. The only site I use that is updating their news feed dynamically is Newsvine, but I know there was another site that did this. I liked the technique and I wanted to show it to my developers, but now I can't find an example. Crap!

Sweet New UI

So I was looking at some of the new web based products from Demo '08, and there is some cool new stuff out there in beta.

The product I liked the best (and I haven't even gotten to use it yet) is blist. I may change my mind once I use it, but right now I love it. They are in beta right now and I signed up to be part of their beta, why haven't they let me in yet?? Hurry up! LOL

I like it for a few reasons:

First, the product looks so much like a design I did for another web based product I designed the UI for. They (other product) utimately used the overall design of my ui, but changed from a black color scheme to gray. But I love the edginess of the black, and I'm so glad to see a product out there that isn't afraid to use it! WTG! And since it looks so similar to something I designed of course I'm partial to it.

Second, as a user interface designer we need to figure out how to make using things fun, easy, intuitive, and also look nice. But if it only looks nice and isn't easy or fun - well who wants to use it? And really who wants to use something ugly either? Sometimes it takes several interations to get it right, but I like to see web apps pushing the limits. And blist is a web database application (snooze right?), but wait there's more: it's so cool looking I actually want to use it. It appears (from the screenshot) that it makes using databases easy. DBs are difficult to use, and if these guys have figured out how to make it easy (and fun?!) - well then kudos to them.

Oh and love the logo - it's really cute and friendly. It makes databases seem less scary as well. So hurry up blist - send me an invite to beta!