Jul

15

I want to say right out of the gate (no pun intended) that there is a lot of Microsoft software I use on a daily basis and like quite well. So, this is not a blog to bag on Microsoft.

Having said this the folks in Redmond need to do something about their word processor Word. Frankly, it is a nightmare with a user interface. I am by no means a word processing power user so I should not be encountering bugs and general product misbehavior. I have been using this product for close to 15 years and it has never been very good.

The final straw came in trying to build a simple template for our business. Nothing but problems. Fed up and frustrated I switched to Open Office version 2.2 and starting using “Writer”. I had never before used this product. In less than two hours I was able to create the document look and feel that I wanted. I spent ten times this time in Word and did not even get halfway there. ”Writer” has now become my new word processor.

Also the price of Open Office is quite affordable. It is free!!! Also, ”Writer” saves my work as a word file (does a pretty decent job of this for documents that are not too complex) in case I need to share a document with someone that only has Word.

Writer also can product PDF files from your documents directly in the word processor. It has many other nice features and is much easier in my opinion to understand and use. This is coming from someone that has used word for 15 years.

Jul

13

I am not sure what other than male ego prompted me to come out of retirement and play baseball again. I can tell you this with certainty, 50 year old men wearing multifocal lenses have no business on a baseball field.

There is nothing harder in sports than hitting a baseball. If you think about it most of the hall of famers barely hit over 300. This mean that the other 7 out of 10 times they made an out. I wonder how your self esteem would be or how long you would keep your job if you screwed up 70% of the time.

Next time you laugh at a big leaguer that swings at a pitch that is so ridiculously out of the strike zone get thy butt down to a batting cage and give the fast pitch cage a try.

All I know is I am looking forward to the end of the season where I can retire again.

 

 

Jul

11

I went to the recent Kenny Chesney concert in Seattle. It was a good lineup… Pat Green, Sarah Evans, Sugerland, Brooks and Dunne, and of course Kenny. All in all the acoustics at Qwest Field are not real great and do not do these artists justice.

I must say Kenny does give you your moneys worth. Seven hours of music is a pretty good deal for the ticket price. While I am not a huge fan of his it was clear that he was the reason most people came.

What struck me regarding the 55,000 or so fans in attendance was the fact that 30,000 probably could not have passed a breathalizer. I never have understood why one can buy beer at country music concerts but not and rock concerts. Also they had to post guards at the mens restrooms to keep the woman out. Apparently this is a common practice according to some die hard fans. Go figure?

 

 

 

 

Jul

6

I never understood why folks gave their quality stuff away for free. But my life has been quite easy since giving away our budgeting software.

If you use Excel we have a great deal of high quality spreadsheets you can download and use for free. http://www.everydollarmatters.com/ . I intend on keeping these up to date each year as I also use them as well.

Are there drawbacks to free? Of course. If I was taking your money I would need to be much more responsive to questions and support. With free comes a greater independence on your part. Yep, heres the software, here is the users manual. If you an independent sort it is a pretty good deal.

If you require support there are lots of other vendors out there whose product you can buy.

 

 

 

 

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