I am so happy I don't have TomTom

I truly do not understand how companies think that we're quite so stupid as to let them get away with these things. The below is reprinted WITH PERMISSION, so don't go all copyright ballistic on the IP lawyer, k? TomTom: When a paid upgrade is a downgrade:
Stick this one in the extremely shady business practices category. In order to add more revenue to the coffers, a paid upgrade from existing TomTom 910 and 510 maps that currently include locations of Starbucks will result in losing the locations of said Starbucks! Hey, that's darned good service for all us long-standing customers.It wasn't until after the map upgrade that my folks told me that they could no longer find any Starbucks when they did a POI search. What's the cause of this? TomTom has decided that these POIs are now a Paid For option. And, to make matters even worse, after calling support, I was informed that:

• The web-based online store is down (due to a planned upgrade that was supposed to take 21 days and is now taking much longer)
• The Windows-based version of TomTom home has access to it, but the Macintosh version does not
• This change was intentional and not based on any licensing fees

The total lack of warning for customers is the most abhorrent portion of this problem. At least with a warning, I could have considered that I wouldn't be getting my POIs when I upgraded.

What's the solution?

For me, I think the solution is going to be getting the POIs from someplace else. I'm not sure how up-to-date they are, but the POIs available from POI Handler seem to work fine and many are free. There's a database of over 7000 Starbucks available. You may need to register for the site (I had already registered previously), but I have yet to receive anything annoying from them. Once there, follow the Download POI link to get to the screen where you can get your POIs. They're tailor made for a bunch of the common GPS devices and have pretty up-to-date data.

Continuing the fight....

After technology kicked my ass the last few days, I received another kick in analog form through a certified letter from the Virginia Bar that somehow decided I was not in CLE compliance despite them telling me I was. Luckily, I have all the class certificates which I will dutifully send yet again to them.

Next fun - continuing the fight with Final Cut Pro and the Sony HC7. My research led me to believe that the only way to capture video appropriately would be on an Intel based mac running FCP. Knowing Gaige to have one, I asked for his assistance. Once again we had the same connectivity issues regardless of what settings we used. He, however, found an obscure reference I had not, that tells you that you must not ONLY tell the main menu to use firewire and output HDV, but you must also find a secondary and tertiary menu and do the same, only you must also remove the firewire cable and re-insert it at the proper time or it would not work. This routine must be repeated any time you lose connectivity.

Uh... what? Doesn't Sony have any user interface people? Human factors? Anything like that? And why didn't they bother to TELL ME this obscure ridiculous fact when I got hold of their tech support? Hmmmm?!?!?!?

However, despite getting that part working and happy and functional, and leaving Gaige's house with the camera and computer happily speaking to each other and capturing video, soon as we all left, it burped and failed yet again. Gaige is about to now pull HIS hair out as well, and since he knows just about everything technical about firewire protocols and video codecs etc., the fact that he is stymied as well underscores that something is WRONG with this picture and Apple and Sony need to get off their collective asses and fix it.

Next - vanquished the DVD technology problems. Hooray.

Next - Downloaded Photoshop CS3 30 day trial so I could get finished the photos I needed to process RIGHT NOW. Will continue looking for the 7.0 code so I can upgrade without having to buy the whole package over.

Next - The dogpooh is still trying to dry out the rug using fans and space heaters. It is not looking/smelling so good. I am not happy about any of this. It looks like we will have to take up the carpet and replace it. Perhaps stone tile would be useful given that the room is utility minded, the way to the pool, and where the doggies live.

And now to return to my regularly scheduled psychosis.