Category: Microsoft

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blog Microsoft Windows Live Writer WordPress

WLW is easier & faster than the web for blogging

I have found that for me at least it is easier & faster to write my post in Windows Live Writer, send it as a draft because it only has a very basic spell checker, then I ran it through After the Deadline in my blog.

I wonder if it would be possible to get After the Deadline to run as a spell checker in Windows Live Writer so that I can skip that step.

I have an idea as to why the spell checker sucks in Windows Live Writer here it is a direct quote from the help | about "Portions of International CorrectSpellTM spelling correction system © 1993 by Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition Copyright © 1992 Houghton Mifflin Company. Electronic version licensed from Lernout & Hauspie Speech Products N.V. All rights reserved.". That’s right it’s using spelling technology that’s over 10 years old, my only idea is that they did that to save on money. Well I just looked at my copy of Microsoft Word 2002 & I noticed they listed some of the same stuff other than word has a grammar checker. I’m not about to write the entire spiel from my install of Word 2002 so that is about as far as that is going to go.

I was happy to find out that I can edit posts & pages in Windows Live Writer. I wish I had known about it when I started blogging, as it does make it somewhat faster. I don’t have to wait for the browser to send it to the server I just have to check the spelling on the server at this point.

Categories
blog Microsoft Nintendo Wii Xbox Xbox Live

The Wii & friends codes

Well I really hate the way that the Wii does friends codes. Such a pain, oh well I guess I’ll deal with it.

My code is 0237 3199 4147 6328. The way you find it is by going to messages on your Wii to the address book. The directions are so long they get their own paragraph.

It’s the envelope in the bottom right corner, then to “Create message” in the bottom left, then you go to the address book on the right side & you should see your code, then to become friends with someone you give them that code & they give you theirs & you add it to the address book. You take the number you were given & go to the Address book & use the “+” & “-” signs to select a page, then select an entry you want to add them to (They just need to be in there somewhere.) You enter their cryptic code & add a nick name so you know who in the world that cryptic code belongs to. After they have done the same you are now friends. (Just like Xbox Live you are restricted to 100 friends, but unlike it you have a cryptic code instead of a name like my gamer tag “joecr”. My gamer tag is pronounced as you would Joker.)

Now I just need to get codes & get people to tell me theirs.

Categories
blog Free Marketplace Microsoft Zune

Errors downloading purchased content

For songs the error is “You’ve reached the maximum number of downloads for this item. Error code: C00D135C” which is kind of sad when the solution as I mentioned earlier is to close the Zune software & open it again. The other thing that makes me think that I might be wrong is that three of the four music files I downloaded didn’t give the error, I wonder if this issues requires more troubleshooting then I have done with it.

Now just waiting for one of The Guild videos to download in HD which takes what feels like forever, so I can get the error from a video. I understand HD videos are large so they will take longer to download then the “free” music. (See my last post for more on that.)

Dang it both episodes of The Guild that were released today downloaded without any issues, so I still don’t know what exactly the other error is. I just remember it mentioned something about a firewall, which is funny as the only firewall I have is the hardware firewall in my router.

I’ve found over the years that software firewalls released for consumers are nothing but a headache. I say that because the maker will release an update that will cause all sorts of issues for the end-user, causing them to call technical support of any company other than who made the firewall. I learned early on that those calls needed to be told in no uncertainty that they needed to talk to the company that actually wrote the program that is causing the issue.

Categories
blog Free Marketplace Microsoft Zune

Free isn’t always free on the Zune Marketplace

One of the songs on the “free playlist: nov. 24-30” costs 79 Microsoft points or almost one dollar, It is titled “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” the Artist is “Sinai Rose” & it was from the “Kidz Bop Christmas” album. I did try to let Microsoft know before making this post, here & here.

On the bright side this does give me the opportunity to get the errors I was getting trying to download files with a failed download. That can wait until after I post this. I guess another post is in order for that after I get the errors. I say errors because I remember getting at least two different errors.

Categories
blog Marketplace Microsoft Zune

Zune 4.0 issues downloading purchased items

From what I’ve seen so far it looks like if you have one or more failed downloads you can not successfully start a download of something you purchased through the Zune market place. The current work around, that I have found, is to close the Zune software, then after you are sure it is no longer running by checking task manager or rebooting the computer open it again & immediately before any downloads can fail go to your purchase history & start the downloads. You can find the “Purchase History” if you go to Settings in the top right, then go to “account” under that you should see “Purchase History” where it should list your purchases, & you should be able to download stuff again that you have bought but didn’t get downloaded for whatever reason.

This makes me hate that they keep the list of failed downloads even more. I figured this out after several times of being told that a firewall was blocking it from getting access to something from their side. (Sorry I can’t remember the exact error. When I get the error in the future I’ll note it in another post.)