Alan Kleymeyer

Deleting Premier Elements Projects

I use Premiere Elements 3.0.  I've created many projects to edit footage from my DV camera.  I just discovered that PE creates cached media files, autosaves and other files that take up a lot of space!  Incredibly, PE doesn't give you a way to delete projects you have saved so these extra files accumulate on your hard drive.  I found this thread on how to delete a Premier Elements project. 

You go to where your project files are being saved and delete the folders:

Adobe Premiere Elements AutoSave
Adobe Premiere Elements Preview Files
Encoded Files
Media Cache Files

Customer Service

Eric has a posts about Absurd Customer Service.
In larger companies, support is hit or miss.  With smaller companies there is a good chance you will get the best support you've experienced.  At DVFilm, if there is a serious problem with our software we are even able to release an update within a few days of discovery.  We also do our best to respond to all support requests within 24 hours but often response within just a few hours.  I know for me, there isn't a better feeling than sending a support email and getting a response within minutes!  We use Google Mail so that multiple people can monitor the support emails.  The threaded structure of GMAIL, the labeling, search capability, and the client notification tool makes it ideal for support.  One thing I wish worked different, however, is how Google keeps track of the last account signed in.  We have multiple accounts in various Google properties, such as GMAIL, Blogger, Docs, and I want to be able to login to one account without changing the currently logged in account in all the other services.

Windows Desktop Search and shortcuts

I guess the shortcuts feature of the XP Windows Desktop Search was too geeky to carry over to Vista?  It was what I liked most about it.  The ability to type in a short acronym to bring up a  file, run a program, navigate to a website or many other actions, from a small area on the taskbar was awesome!

Thankfully, Brandon has made his Start++ program available that gives you the same functionality in Vista.  If you are developer, it is a must have.

iPods and Zune

My first MP3 player was a Creative Muvo. It only lasted a year.  Then I got some generic MP3 player with a small one line screen.  It supports playlists and generally works pretty well but the design is not very friendly.  It's David's now.  Then I bought an iPod shuffle for Jane followed by a shuffle for Cassidy. A few months ago we upgraded Cassidy's shuffle with an iPod 4gig Nano.  I've "inherited Cassidy's shuffle, Jane is still happy with her shuffle (Jane wants me to include that she ROCKS because of this).

My next portable music player will probably be a Zune.  It may or may not match the experience and design of an iPod, but I bet it will at least come close.  The least expensive Zune compares favorable with an iPod Nano.  They both cost the same at $149.  The Zune has a built  in FM tuner and can sync wirelessly.  The screen can also display in both portrait and landscape.  Although in recent years I've split my allegiance between Apple and Microsoft (Jane's mini, our 3 ipods), we are an XBOX family and the Zune has some nice integration features with XBOX and Windows Media Center that I'm eager to play with.

Yeah, my next portable music player will probably be a Zune, unless I opt to go with the Apple iPhone!

Here are a few interesting articles regarding the Zune:

Zune vs iPod
Zune vs iPod specification smackdown

8 Zune Myths

Zune vs iPod, the final word on who should get your money

Can't remove jobs in spooler

I was unable to print today because there was a job that was pending and I couldn't delete it.
Ralph explains you can restart the spooler in a command prompt window by typing net stop spooler, net start spooler.  In Vista you must start the command prompt window as an administrator.

Thanks Ralph!

Digital Picture Frame & Photo Sizes

My in-laws received this Westinghouse DPF-0802 Digital Picture Frame for Christmas.

They also received a 1Gig card which came preloaded with 512mb of family photos. 

The frame has a resolution of 800x600 pixels and has 128mb of internal flash memory.  It supports the following memory cards: CF I,II / MD / MS / MS Pro / MS Duo / MS Pro Duo / SD / MMC / XD.

I located a very nice free image resizing program called VSO Image Resizer and promptly went about resizing all photos stored on the 1g card; some up to 5mb in size.  I  reduced the disk usage from 512mb to 30mb !

I wanted to copy some photos to the internal memory but they didn't have an appropriate cable (USB to mini-USB).  I went shopping and a basic mini-usb to usb cable cost $27. Rediculous.  Fortunately I passed by the console accessories aisle and found a mini-usb to usb and charger combo cable for the PSP for $4.95.  I bought it and it worked fine.

Though with the Image Resizer program, the internal memory was sufficient to hold all their photos, it became clear that the easiest workflow would be for Sue to simply pull the 1gig card from the Picture Frame, plug it into her laptop which has a camera card slot, copy over the photos she wants and plug the card back into her Picture Frame.

I've been keeping my eyes open for a universal card adapter to  buy.   The  Picture  Frame  with it's support for numerous cards could actually serve as an adapter to move files from one card to another.  I  was able to copy photos from Jane's new Sony Cybershot camera.   She didn't have her USB pc cable but I was able to read her Memory Stick Pro  Duo 2g card from the Picture Frame and connect my laptop using the cable I bought to download them.

Technology gets more accessible but remains as hard for normal  folks to use.

Inksmile, my online ink replacement company

Back in June I wrote this post sharing my research on ordering replacement ink online.  I chose to try InkSmile. It wasn't the cheapest but with other factors taken into consideration (money back guarantee, discount coupons, referral program, free shipping, reviews) it felt like the best choice.  I'm happy to report that my experience has been excellent and I highly recommend it.  If you give it a try and need a referral number (I get 5% credit) use mine: 52786.

Yahoo Online Status

My Online Status for Yahoo IM is suppose to display along the left column of my home page here.  It has never worked.  I finally wrote TypePad technical support but the response did not lead me to a solution (make sure you aren't logging in as invisible, make sure your status is available to all).  I investigated further and came across this post.  I viewed the source of my weblog home page and compared the code that is suppose to show status with the example in that post.  I recognized that the screen name that was being used on my weblog included @yahoo.com and it should have only been the screen name.  Updating my Typepad profile with only the screen name did the trick.    Another example of how computers are still way to hard for a normal person to navigate, and how great technical support is hard to come by.

I'm starting to provide technical support for DVFilm.com.  Hopefully, my experience on the other side will help me provide the type of technical support I have come to expect.

Top 10 Wi-Fi Boosts, Tweaks and Apps

Article here

No doubt you've got a home wireless network or you've connected to hotspots at the local coffee shop or airport—but are you getting the most out of your Wi-Fi? Whether you want to strengthen, extend, bridge, secure, sniff, detect, or obscure your signal, today we've got our top 10 best Wi-Fi utilities and tweaks for the power wireless user

What I don't like about my new MacBook Pro

Not much, but since I'm being real:

I prefer to use an attached mouse when I'm working at the office.  An inexpensive USB optical 3 button mouse with a scroll wheel will do nicely.  Please, no 1-button Apple mice.  The convenience of a right button for context menus, and scrollwheel for scrolling can't be beat.

My workarea arrangement has just enough space for a mousepad to the right of the MacBook.  I also must have a second screen attached.  I don't like the connections along the right side of the MacBook.  Attaching the DVI/VGA connector interferes with my placement of the mousepad and use of a mouse.  I actually attach the mouse to the USB port on the left side and bring it around the back to the right side.  The ethernet port is on the right side too which also gets in the way.  If the connections could have been placed in the back, all cabling would have been hidden and would have allowed for more work space.

That's basically it. Certainly a lot more to like then not like.