When I upgraded from Vista to Windows 7, I discovered that my bluetooth headphones (Backbeat 903) no longer worked on my Sony Vaio computer. It turns out that Windows 7 doesn’t support something called A2DP, which is required for stereo headphones to work. After some research and work, I discovered that the solution is to download and install a new Bluetooth Stack from Broadcom. I uninstalled my Bluetooth headset from Windows 7, then installed the new drivers. Then, I rebooted and set the headset to be rediscovered by Windows 7. I then opened the Audio panel, and set the headset as the default audio. It now works well.

As Cable and Satellite bills continue to rise, an increasing number of people are abandoning these in favor of streaming their entertainment from the Internet. I recently got a Blu-Ray player that streams NetFlix, and am finding that it’s wonderful. I just finished watching the first season of Dexter, which I missed because I don’t get Showtime. With Hulu on my computer, I’m beginning to wonder if cutting the cords from my Directv isn’t possible.

Here’s a blog post with a list of five ways to watch Tv over the internet.

Hulu

Cast TV

Streamick

Tioti

Just as people are cutting their land lines in favor of mobile phones, I see a day not too far in the future when cable and satellite packages become a thing of the past. If each of my dozen or so favorite channels would offer streaming for a dollar or two a month, I’d drop the satellite in a heartbeat. There are just so many channels on the package that I have no interest in.

With all of the grief Sprint customer service takes, I thought it only fair that I pass on a couple of good words.

Last month, I purchased a Spint USB wireless internet card. I spend a lot of time waiting on boys at their various activities, and with that and a netbook, I plan on being more productive.

At any rate, when the device arrived, I couldn’t get it to work. So I called Sprint, got a representative within a couple of minutes and he was quickly able to get me up and running. As it turns out, I wasn’t doing one of the procedures in the correct fashion.

Yesterday, I noticed that my current bill had a couple of charges on it from an unknown third party. I called Sprint, and after poking through an automated menu (about thirty seconds worth), immediately got through to a customer service rep. She found the charges on my bill, reversed them, and blocked the third party from any further activity. I was done in no time.

The third party charges apparently came from something Mrs. GolfBlogger clicked on in Facebook. So a warning to FaceBook users: there’s some shady business on that site.

Sprint has been my carrier for a couple of years, and I’m really very pleased with the company overall. Prices are good and the service in my experience has always been excellent. Even better: I have never, ever had a dopped call, and even “Up North” in sparsely populated areas have always had a signal.

Next on my wish list: a Sprint Palm Pre. I’ve been a Palm (Pilot) user for more than a decade, and am ready to make the move to gadget that will combine my Palm with a phone (one less device to carry). What’s sold me on the Pre is that it actually will run all of my Palm OS software through something called Motion Apps. There are tens of thousands of mature, useful and fun applications for the Palm OS, of which I am running a couple of dozen on my current device. This backward compatibility puts to the lie the Apple propaganda that the Pre is short on applications. And the fact that you can write a Palm Pre application with just HTML and Java means that there are far more coming in the near future.

One Palm app that I can’t live without: Documents to Go, which lets me use my Palm work with Word, PowerPoint and Excel files in their native format.

Note: FlashDriveBlog is gone—I lost interest—but the page that everyone wants to see on what do do when your Windows XP computer won’t recognize your flash drive will reside here on my main blog—http://www.golfblogger.com

If your Windows XP computer is not recognizing your flash drive, its likely that you computer simply is confused as to what drive letter to assign to the memory stick. Fortunately, the fix is a simple one. This trick also works when your computer refuses to recognize a USB drive or other removable storage device.

First, hit Windows+E to open an Explorer window.

Select “My Computer.”

Right click and choose “Manage” from the contextual menu. This will open a window called “Computer Management.”

Select “Disk Management”, which is under “Storage”

On the bottom right side of the window, you’ll see a list of all of the storage devices currently attached to the computer. If your flash drive is listed there, that’s great—you can fix the problem. If not, this solution won’t work.

Right click on the drive listed in that window. This will bring up a contextual menu. Choose “Change Drive Letter and Paths.”

This will bring up yet another window, which will show your “missing” drive. Choose “Change” at the bottom.

Another window will pop up. This one will have a drop down menu on the right hand side. Choose a letter “higher” than the one currently assigned to the drive. If it’s “E”, for example, choose a letter between “F” and “Z.” Its probably best to pick one toward the end of the alphabet.

Once you’ve selected a drive letter, a warning message will come up saying that “Changing The Drive Letter of a Volume Might Cause Programs No Longer To run.”

That’s OK. It’s likely that all you’ve got on the drive is data. Click on Yes.

That will return you to the Computer Management Window.

Your drive now should function properly.

As we switch carriers to get a better deal, or upgrade to the phone with the latest gadgets, our old phones end up on the shelf gathering dust. The phones don’t have a service plan, so they’re useless, right?

Wrong. Even without a service plan, there still are a few things you can do with an old cell phone.

First, remember that even if you don’t have an account for a phone, you can still make 911 calls on them. The FCC requires that all cell phones be able to dial 911—with, or without a service plan. So you could keep the phone in you car, or by your bedside for emergency purposes.

Depending upon the phone, you also could possibly still use it to make regular phone calls. With many phones, if you don’t have a plan,you can still make regular calls with a credit card.

If you want the phone out of your life entirely, you could donate it to your local battered women’s shelter. Our local shelter takes old phones, which they then give to endangered women so they have an easy way to call for help.

Your donation also is likely to be tax deductable.

A final idea is to sell the phone to an outfit like
Old Cell Phone. They offer a couple of bucks for each phone you send them—as much as $15 or $20 for newer or more popular models.

Old Cell Phone also has a really neat fundraising program. They’ll send you the flyers and information that you need to get started, but basically, you collect phones for your group, and send it to Old Cell Phone (they pay the postage). Your group then gets a check for the value of the phones.