Comments for dwelle.org http://www.dwelle.org As Sandy used to say: Day's Events Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:33:05 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=abc hourly 1 Comment on Pompelmo-cello by bowen http://www.dwelle.org/archives/2008/12/21/pompelmo-cello/comment-page-1/#comment-264531 bowen Wed, 20 Jan 2010 14:33:05 +0000 http://www.dwelle.org/?p=693#comment-264531 You only need 3 or 4 large grapefruits You only need 3 or 4 large grapefruits

]]> Comment on Pompelmo-cello by Larry http://www.dwelle.org/archives/2008/12/21/pompelmo-cello/comment-page-1/#comment-264527 Larry Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:55:54 +0000 http://www.dwelle.org/?p=693#comment-264527 How many Grapefruits do you use when using 2 .750 bottles of 153 proof grain alcohol? How many Grapefruits do you use when using 2 .750 bottles of 153 proof grain alcohol?

]]> Comment on FireFox slow, slower, too slow by al igor http://www.dwelle.org/archives/2007/09/18/firefox-slow-slower-too-slow/comment-page-1/#comment-263440 al igor Mon, 07 Sep 2009 19:52:19 +0000 http://www.dwelle.org/?p=614#comment-263440 I am having same problems too. It's so bad FF is unuseable, switched to chrome and loving it BUT man is that browser basic. In the end for me speed won out over the features. I am having same problems too. It’s so bad FF is unuseable, switched to chrome and loving it BUT man is that browser basic. In the end for me speed won out over the features.

]]> Comment on I hate Quicken by AC http://www.dwelle.org/archives/2005/06/11/i-hate-quicken/comment-page-1/#comment-262164 AC Mon, 16 Feb 2009 17:27:07 +0000 /?p=491#comment-262164 I've used Quicken for years and NOW it wants to give me error codes when I backup. I tried Quicken 2009 and it was the same. Let's see if the refund my money as fast as they answered my email to tech support. I tried everything that tech support told me to do and it made the problem WORSE!!! As for the "alternatives", they claim they can import the data from Quicken but I have yet to find one that actually does! I’ve used Quicken for years and NOW it wants to give me error codes when I backup. I tried Quicken 2009 and it was the same. Let’s see if the refund my money as fast as they answered my email to tech support. I tried everything that tech support told me to do and it made the problem WORSE!!!
As for the “alternatives”, they claim they can import the data from Quicken but I have yet to find one that actually does!

]]> Comment on I hate Quicken by John B. Kalla http://www.dwelle.org/archives/2005/06/11/i-hate-quicken/comment-page-1/#comment-262016 John B. Kalla Thu, 29 Jan 2009 14:35:08 +0000 /?p=491#comment-262016 I use a Mac and let me tell you, Quicken on the PC is 50 times better than Quicken on the Mac! I've hated Quicken for years, but am always hopeful that the next version of Quicken will be somewhat acceptable. Unfortunately, it never is. Now all I have to look forward to is "Quicken Financial Life for Mac," due (supposedly) in Summer 2009. Of course, all the reviews of the beta product are even worse than the latest Quicken 2007 for Mac. Every few years I try Quicken alternatives, but they never seem to have the internet connectivity I need. It's very disappointing! The market is so ripe for competition, yet nobody seems to have the skill needed to make a better product. Hell, most Mac users would accept a product that even gets close to equaling Quicken, as I haven't met a single Mac user that doesn't hate Quicken! Is it really that hard to make something that slightly betters an Excel spreadsheet? I use a Mac and let me tell you, Quicken on the PC is 50 times better than Quicken on the Mac! I’ve hated Quicken for years, but am always hopeful that the next version of Quicken will be somewhat acceptable. Unfortunately, it never is. Now all I have to look forward to is “Quicken Financial Life for Mac,” due (supposedly) in Summer 2009. Of course, all the reviews of the beta product are even worse than the latest Quicken 2007 for Mac. Every few years I try Quicken alternatives, but they never seem to have the internet connectivity I need. It’s very disappointing! The market is so ripe for competition, yet nobody seems to have the skill needed to make a better product. Hell, most Mac users would accept a product that even gets close to equaling Quicken, as I haven’t met a single Mac user that doesn’t hate Quicken! Is it really that hard to make something that slightly betters an Excel spreadsheet?

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Dec 21
Pompelmo-cello

After some success last year making arancello, I decided to branch out a bit more this year with some pompelmo-cello, made from the white Sicilian grapefruit that John showed me at the Civic Center market. I used the same process

  1. Zest the fruit and infuse in alcohol. This time I found Everclear at BevMo, and so I used that instead of 100-proof vodka. I made about 1.25 liters of “mother” alcohol, at full Everclear strength. 
  2. After the “mother” alcohol has infused for a month or more, strain it and mix with simple syrup and water to dilute to desired strength. I diluted it down to about 3:1, so I got 3.75 liters of finished product from 1.25 liters of “mother.”
  3. Throw it in the freezer for a little while, and then start drinking it and giving it away!

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    2 Responses to “Pompelmo-cello”

    1. Larry says:
      January 19, 2010 at 9:55 pm

      How many Grapefruits do you use when using 2 .750 bottles of 153 proof grain alcohol?

    2. bowen says:
      January 20, 2010 at 7:33 am

      You only need 3 or 4 large grapefruits

    Leave a Reply

    Sep 18
    FireFox slow, slower, too slow

    I’ve been using FireFox for a few years, but in the last few months I’ve noticed it getting slower and slower. Opening a new tab often takes several seconds, navigating around and loading pages is also slow, and there are often sub-second hangups while typing in textareas and such. After re-visiting CyberNotes: Firefox Extensions cause Memory Leaks and Crashes, I have disabled Google Browser Sync again – that had caused problems in the past.

    Of course, saying that “FireFox has still become too slow” is mostly a perception issue. Apps don’t get slower over time; usually it’s that we’re trying to do more with them – and that is exactly the case with FireFox (or whatever browser). Whereas it used to be just that, a browser, now it’s email, word processing, calendar, task list, maps, news, and whatever else – usually all open at once in multiple tabs, plus various add-ons and GreaseMonkey scripts. So on one hand it’s no surprise that the whole thing appears slower – although you’d think 3Gb of RAM would mitigate that to a large degree. Makes me wonder if FireFox can be configured to use more memory…

    3 Responses to “FireFox slow, slower, too slow”

    1. Binh Nguyen says:
      January 12, 2008 at 8:25 am

      Hi Dwell,

      You are describing the problem as exactly what I’m having with FireFox. I don’t really know what’s going on too. Now switching tabs not only slow, but it’s freezing for few seconds. Sometimes it freeze for over 10s and cause me frustrating.

      I’m suspecting the FireBug and Alexa plugins. I am going to disable them now to see what happen next.

      Regards,
      Binh

    2. A says:
      January 18, 2008 at 6:54 am

      I’ve had similar problems especially when typing. I sometimes type a sentence and have to wait a good 10 seconds for it to appear.

      This often happens when I leave firefox open when I go into hibernate mode or leave firefox on for long periods of time.

      Usually, deleting the cache and restarting firefox and getting rid of unnecessary plugins does the trick

    3. al igor says:
      September 7, 2009 at 12:52 pm

      I am having same problems too. It’s so bad FF is unuseable, switched to chrome and loving it BUT man is that browser basic. In the end for me speed won out over the features.

    Leave a Reply

    Jun 11
    I hate Quicken

    Boy, does Quicken bite the big one. It’s UI is so overburdened with years of cruft and multiple layers of menus and buttons. Just looking at one screen, I count the main menu, a horizontal row of buttons, a vertical row of buttons on the left side, then a row of tabs below which is another row of buttons. Many functions are buried in seemingly random, multiply nested menus. The download/sync feature is broken, again, and has rarely worked in the past. I don’t have time for this crap. Can anyone suggest a good side-by-side review of Quicken, MS Money, and alternatives like Moneydance?

    12 Responses to “I hate Quicken”

    1. Doug Anderson says:
      June 19, 2005 at 10:45 pm

      I HATE QUICKEN!!!! I was forced this year to “upgrade” in order to keep being able to download transactions via the internet. I think Intuit is the biggest POS company ever. Just try calling their customer service. What a joke. I could go on for hours about Quicken. I wish someone would either come out with an alternative product or file a class action lawsuit.

    2. Ann says:
      October 6, 2005 at 4:16 pm

      And the alternatives are???

    3. Doug Anderson says:
      October 22, 2005 at 8:58 pm

      I HATE QUICKEN TOO!!!! I hate so many things about Quicken. Please… someone start a class action suit. PLEASE!!!

    4. Paul says:
      November 10, 2005 at 9:48 pm

      Alternatives to Quicken and MS Money:
      http://www.moneydance.com/

      http://www.simpleplanning.com/

      http://www.simplejoe.com/

      http://www.felitec.com/ax.html

      http://www.justapps.com/

      http://www.snowmintcs.com/products/budgetmac/

      http://members.aol.com/wadesoftware/products.htm

      http://www.othersoft.co.za/

      http://www.gnucash.org/

      http://www.keepsoft.com/

      http://www.homemoneymanager.com/

      http://bellsouthpwp.net/c/l/clknoxjr/HomeWorks.htm

      http://www.maxprog.com/iCash.html

      http://jgnash.sourceforge.net/wiki/index.php/Main_Page

      http://www.liquidledger.com/

      http://www.empowers.com:8080/empowers/jsp/index.jsp

      http://www.mjksw.com/

      http://www.thezeal.com/software/manager/

      http://www.moneybox.ai/

      http://www.rsisoft.com/Products/money.html

      http://www.mybudgetplanner.com/

      http://www.myfinancialsoftware.com/

      http://www.pcbcheckbal.com/

      http://www.personalaccounts.co.uk/

      http://www.shortcutsoft.com/personal-finance-software/

      http://www.idiogensoftware.com/smartmoney/

      http://www.waverlystreet.com/ezmoney.html

    5. Dave says:
      March 4, 2006 at 3:12 pm

      Huh? I have used Quicken since version 2.0. It ROCKS…my finances would be in ruins without it. Now…this all assumes you have it setup correctly. I am currently downloading a bank acount, savings account, AMEX, two credit cards, brokerage account, two ESA accounts and an IRA from eight different banks! It works perfectly every time. You guys are doing domething wrong…perhaps Quicken for Dummies would help? :P

    6. JTR says:
      February 4, 2007 at 5:47 pm

      I hate Quicken too!!! God, I’m fed up of reading manual to find functionality I need in this garbage heap of buttons, menus and windows.
      I like Visual Money ( http://www.visual-money.com/ ). It is SIMPLE!

    7. Vern says:
      April 2, 2007 at 9:45 pm

      Quicken is the biggest POS company there ever was. Their customer service is non-existant, their program is so mired in crap that I swear out loud everytime I try to use it. Someone out there, please, make something better. The world will beat a path to your door…

    8. Rhys says:
      September 25, 2007 at 12:08 pm

      Check out http://www.easy-budgeting.com for a simple, straightforward and easy to use budget planner based in Excel.

    9. JOHN says:
      March 7, 2008 at 9:18 pm

      I hate Quicken so much that I Googled a “I Hate Quicken” thread to post on….

      Man, this is the clumsiest code and most infuriating interface known to humanity. The problem is that converting to something else almost seems like the lesser evil.

      What a piece of total incompetence ARRRGGGH

    10. Jack Garvey says:
      April 17, 2008 at 5:49 pm

      I can’t believe that there’s only nine entries on the “I Hate Quicken” post. After being forced to upgrade to Quicken 2008 because Intuit says they don’t “support” Quicken 2005 anymore, I had a problem with Quicken and tried to contact Intuit/Quicken for service. Well, NO NUMBER is posted on their website, AND, the website said that if I wanted a call back, I would have to pay for it. I’ve used Quicken for over 13 years, and have NEVER called Customer Support. As far as I’m concerned they don’t support Quicken 2008 either!! I am so sick of this product… there was NO reason to upgrade and spend $40, but they KNOW they have the online bankers by the balls. Once you get hooked, it’s hard to extract. My next note is to the FTC and the NJ Attorney General.

    11. John B. Kalla says:
      January 29, 2009 at 7:35 am

      I use a Mac and let me tell you, Quicken on the PC is 50 times better than Quicken on the Mac! I’ve hated Quicken for years, but am always hopeful that the next version of Quicken will be somewhat acceptable. Unfortunately, it never is. Now all I have to look forward to is “Quicken Financial Life for Mac,” due (supposedly) in Summer 2009. Of course, all the reviews of the beta product are even worse than the latest Quicken 2007 for Mac. Every few years I try Quicken alternatives, but they never seem to have the internet connectivity I need. It’s very disappointing! The market is so ripe for competition, yet nobody seems to have the skill needed to make a better product. Hell, most Mac users would accept a product that even gets close to equaling Quicken, as I haven’t met a single Mac user that doesn’t hate Quicken! Is it really that hard to make something that slightly betters an Excel spreadsheet?

    12. AC says:
      February 16, 2009 at 10:27 am

      I’ve used Quicken for years and NOW it wants to give me error codes when I backup. I tried Quicken 2009 and it was the same. Let’s see if the refund my money as fast as they answered my email to tech support. I tried everything that tech support told me to do and it made the problem WORSE!!!
      As for the “alternatives”, they claim they can import the data from Quicken but I have yet to find one that actually does!

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