It is amazingly difficult to turn off Microsoft Narrator, but it is possible.  Here are the steps to turn Microsoft Narrator off!

8 Steps to Turn Off Microsoft Narrator on Vista

1. Go to Control Panel –>
2. Ease of Access –>
3. Ease of Access Center –>
4. Explore all Settings –>
5. Click Use the computer without a display
6. Uncheck the checkbox by Turn on Narrator
7. Click Apply
8. Click Save

Graphic Designers can’t wait to get their hands, mice and stylus’ on the new Adobe Photoshop CS5 coming out in a few weeks on April 12th.  Last October the new PatchMatch technology getting incorporated into the Content-Aware feature upgrade was pretty cool for those following Adobe developers, but now that the super feature set is ready for primetime, People can’t wait to start saving zillions of pixels of time deleting wires from pictures, camera flare and your extra buffalo or leaf too.

Original Content Aware Patch Match Video from Adobe Development

Official Preview of CS5 with Content Aware running Patch Match technology

The technology makes it super easy to remove an object from a picture without having to do a lot of ‘photoshopping’ after wards to patch up the blank holes in the picture or the blurred coloring of an image that was never quite right in Adobe CS4 Extended.

CS5 Content Aware Removes a Tree and fixes the background by Hitting the Delete Button

If you have been waiting to upgrade an older version of Photoshop this feature in the upgrade may be reason enough alone to justify the super high expense, possibly even pulling in some open source users on Gimp back into the Adobe fold.  Afterall, if you can automate something that used to take hours or days, that rapidly starts to pay for itself in savings (or extra billable hours).

One of the few gratifying things that Windows users have always felt they could rely on was Defrag.  Your PC getting too slow?

• Defrag your hard drive.
• Programs not running quite like they are supposed to?
• Defrag your hard drive.
• Think you have a virus on your machine?
• Defrag your hard drive.

Sure Defrag isn’t necessarily going to help in most situations, but it has always been a bit gratifying to watch all that scary red stuff turn blue.  There’s a sense of accomplishment that users feel after they have ‘successfully’ defragged their computer.

So its not surprising that many computer users running Microsoft Vista are wondering where the hell did that great defrag program go?

When you try to run Defrag now, you get an ugly gray box that doesn’t give you any gratification.  Its the equivalent of eating chocolate by letting the chocolate rest on top of your head, or having sex with out touching anyone.  Sure defrag was never a sex on wheels kind of experience, but at least you felt like you were doing something, now you don’t even have that . . .

Unless you go into the command line and type that good old faithful dos like command defrag.exe!

Just start typing it in the search box above the goofy windows icon circle thing, and the wonderfully sexy defrag program icon that we have all lusted after since windows 3 shows back up, like an old sports illustrated magazine with Elle McPherson.

But even then, when you push on the defrag.exe button, you still get the gray window of tension. 

Windows Vista is about as wanted as a Catholic Nun with a ruler at the AVN convention (well, I suppose some people might like that), but its not really my cup of tea.

• Show me that the program is doing something.
• Show me some whiz bang colors and graphic movements(or graphics moving not necessarily graphic movements).
• Show me some indicator of progress so that I know when the defrag is complete.
• Show me anything!

So you have read all the way to the end of this article and still haven’t figured out how to see the Defrag program running on Windows Vista, Welcome to Hell, where even the good Microsoft programs don’t work!

I just upgrade to Outlook 2007 and a couple days after the upgrade started receiving the following error on my pop3 account. 

Your message did not reach some or all of the intended recipients.

Subject: RE: Thanks for the call today

Sent: 6/29/2009 4:53 PM

The following recipient(s) cannot be reached:

‘My Client’ on 6/29/2009 4:53 PM

503 Valid RCPT command must precede DATA

‘my@gmail.com’ on 6/29/2009 4:53 PM

503 Valid RCPT command must precede DATA

Never saw that before and found the following solution that seemed to fix things (note the solution offers additional steps if these don’t cut it for you, but I was able to stop after step #6.)

If using MS Outlook, please try the following:

1) Open outlook

2) Go to Tools/Email Accounts

3) Select the Account with the trouble and click Change

4) Click on More Settings

5) Click on Outgoing Server Tab

6) Click "Outgoing Mail Server (SMTP) requires authentication" and make sure "Use same settings as incoming mail server" is selected (see attached image)

Outlook email error: 503 valid RCPT command must precede DATA (outlook)

OK, let me warn you, this is a pain in the butt!  Most Microsoft haters right from go will probably tell you not to do it, but after using Thunderbird for a year, I chose to go back to Outlook because Thunderbird just isn’t as good as Outlook (unstable file sizes and all)

While it was easy and fast to export email from Outlook to Thunderbird, going in the other direction is not easy, because Thunderbird apparently doesn’t want to help anyone export out of their software.

I had to download a program called IMAPSize which happens to include an exporter that converts Thunderbird Mbox files into .eml files which can then be dragged and dropped into either Outlook Express or Outlook Expresses replacement, currently called Windows Live Mail and formerly called Windows Mail.

It was pretty easy getting the emails from .eml format into Windows Live Mail, simply go select the files within windows file explorer and then drag and drop them into the live program folders (ergo crank up windows live mail like you are going to write an email and drag and drop those computer files into the windows live mail folders).

It may take a while to process so do not panic if you see the circular spinning icon of purgatory, YOU ARE NOT DEAD YET Vista is just waiting to determine your fait. 

Once all your emails are loaded into Windows Live Mail you may be flumoxed, confouned, annoyed and left searching Google for an answer to the question, Where the hell is the Export button in Windows Live Mail???

This definitely left me confounded and annoyed, until I realized that the first question I should have asked is Where the hell is the menu system in Windows Live Mail.  My default installation of the program left the menu system hidden, so I had to unhide the menu then I quickly found the Export button in the File menu item.

Once you click export you may be confounded anew, when it FAILS to give you an option labeled ‘Outlook’ instead you get Microsoft Windows Live Mail (the stupid program you are actually in already!) or Microsoft Exchange which is the right choice in this case, and which is promptly proven after you click it on an educated guess.  The pop up menu then tells you that Microsoft Exchange and Microsoft Outlook are the targets for the export.

But don’t hit that OK button until you check the tip at the bottom of this article! 

who says the most important content in any article should go towards the top?  we’re saving the good stuff for the very end, don’t miss it or you will waste some cycles

Then you are almost there, just wait for your messages to export

Note I’m not sure but the export might go faster if you make sure that Outlook is closed before you do this step.  It might also help if you send out negative twitter messages about Steve Jobs and his tendency to buy livers out from under poor people in Tennessee.  Not saying its right, just saying it might speed the program up under the Schroedinger’s Cat Principle.

Now don’t fret if it doesn’t show the true number of emails in your folders at first, mine initially showed just 1k email, then it caught up a bit later

If you have a butt load of emails, don’t expect a fast export.  Fortunately, you can select multiple folders so you will not have to repeat this for every stupid folder that you want to export to Outlook, so just sit back and chill, or go find something better to do. 

As you are working on a desktop application, your browser should be free so this would be a great time to surf around the internet, gossip on Facebook, update your LinkedIn profile talking about your Outlook expertise, or hide under your desk and take a nap.

Just to let you know that Windows Live Mail did not completely screw up, you should see this message when the export is done.

Read This Tip Before you Export from Windows Live Mail

If you were smart enough to setup the same folder structure in Windows Live Mail and in Outlook before the export (aren’t you glad I’m telling you now, instead of when it might have been useful?  leave your comment complaints below) then when you open up Outlook the emails will magically appear in the right folders automatically and you are done!

Aren’t You Glad that is Over?

Now don’t you ever think about leaving Outlook again!

BTW

here are some resources that I used to figure this out.  Some of them helped a little bit, none of them helped with the full solution, and a few may have lead me astray . . . .

http://email.about.com/od/mozillathunderbirdtips/qt/et_export_to_oe.htm

http://www.broobles.com/imapsize/th2outlook.php – would have been perfect a couple years ago

http://www.vistax64.com/vista-mail/114559-export-wlm-emails-outlook.html

http://email.about.com/od/hotmailtips/qt/et072804.htm

http://www.freeemailtutorials.com/windowsLiveMail/addressBooksAndContacts/exportContacts.htm

http://download.com

http://microsoft.com

A lot of people have been trying to get access to the new Google Voice service.  People have even auctioned off their existing accounts for as much as $1,000 according to some reports, but today may be the day when things open up to the rest of us!

The Today Show takes a look at Google Voice this morning (as we did three months ago), with correspondent Janet Shamlian offering a very generalized overview of its call filtering/forwarding and voicemail transcription features. We’re keeping an eye on it, but Google Voice’s login page is still pegged with "Coming soon" and "Existing GrandCentral users." Still, Shamlian confirmed that Google Voice would be "available today, nationwide," so stay tuned if you’re eager to grab a number and try it out. Thanks Pat!

Lifehacker – Google Voice May Open to All Today – Google Voice

Live one camera, one take video.

allicette’s Mobile post sent by 001brettbum using Utterz. Replies.

I’m blown away by David Ford, here’s State of the Union, dating back, oh, two years or so

Chris’s Mobile post sent by 001brettbum using Utterz. Replies.

Yeah, definitely very cool. Just curious, but do you know what technique he’s using to pull this off?Does he have certain inputs feeding into a loop and others (like the mics he’s using for lyrics) that are not getting fed into the loop?

Answer - There is Software and Hardware (looping Pedals) that can help with this technique.  See Electronic Music 411

As I watch him do this, it reminds me a great deal of Trent Reznor. Don’t get me wrong the performance is evolutions apart, but that’s kind of the point. This would appear to be a performance that has evolved from the loops and samples of the 80’s and 90’s to the point where one person can create them all live.
Regardless of whether I am right or wrong, still very cool.

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Beside Photoshop and Acrobat, my other Adobe favorite tool is Illustrator 13, better known as Illustrator CS3. The CS reflects its integration with the Adobe Creative Suite. It is available for both the Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows operating systems. It has been awhile since I used this program.

After 3 hrs of test driving it Illustrator CS 3, this Global360 Chief Architect likes its 3- dimensional capabilities that enable the user to extrude or revolve shapes to create simple 3D objects.

Some of the my favorite features of Illustrator are: Live Trace, Live Paint, a control palette and custom workspaces.

While the Live Trace feature allows the user to convert bitmap imagery into vector art, the Live Paint allows users more flexibility in applying color to objects, specifically those that overlap.

Another feature that I like is the Live Color. It provides tools for creating color harmonies based on color theory, and the ability to dynamically apply colors to selected objects and shift the tone of an entire illustration at one time.  Remapping controls are also provided for reducing the numbers of colors in an artwork.

There are more to touch on. Will talk about it in a later entry.

If you are a graphic professional, this Global360 Chief Architect recommends this software program quite highly.