Chausse.org

At least one person has successfully run Groove on Linux, via CrossOver Office.

Screenshots: one, two.

Now, we just need someone to port CrossOver Office to Mac OS X Volunteers?

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Looks like Linux has a ripoff of Exposé available. Now can I puhleeeeze get one for Windows?

Or, heck, can someone rip it off for Mac OS X, so I don’t have to buy Panther just to find stuff on my desktop?

Update (11/10/04): Check out “Winplosion 2“. It’s a pretty decent rip-off of Exposeé for Windows, for 10 bucks.

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Pud, of Fuckedcompany is doing exactly what I want to do with my Sony Ericsson T610 cameraphone, on his AskPud site… Hopefully I can find time to set it up. I’ve been ridiculously busy lately… Ack!

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Hey, I’m not the only one with a “[Something] Labs” website, with only a garish orange background and a centered logo… Biz Stone has one, too. I swear something will come of that site sometime soon… really…

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There has been a lot of talk from the technorati about Google’s technology starting to lose its luster. I’m starting to see what they’re talking about. Google’s PageRank technology is clearly losing the war against “Google-spammers”, who create “link farms” which distort the Google search index. The other day I was looking for a tool to edit a MIDI file. I just wanted something simple so I could modify a ringtone for my phone. I did a search for “free midi editor“. If you follow that search link, you’ll find that practically all of the links go to “junk portals”. For example, the 11th result goes to the URL: www.travelspecialistgroup.com/uk1/oversandstravel/ i-q-test-score.htm - which, ironically, has nothing to do with: A) Free MIDI editors, B) travel, or C) IQ tests. It just pops up a couple ads on a garish green page.

Come on, Google, we all know you can do better than that. One can only hope you’re not so obsessed with fun new toys, and the impending IPO, that you’re letting your core technology wither and die.

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A “real” employee from D-Link called me up last night. He provided an accurate description of exactly what the situation was, but really couldn’t offer any solution to the situation (which, as I explained at the very end of my last post, I didn’t even really need).

What D-Link is doing with the DBT-120 and Apple makes perfect sense, in a way. Mac OS X has a built-in Bluetooth stack, and Windows does not. Therefore, D-Link provides two packaged products - an adapter WITH Bluetooth stack software (licensed from WIDCOMM), and an adapter WITHOUT software included (what Apple sells). And the kicker is that the software is “tied” to the MAC address of the device. Therefore, an Apple-sold DBT-120 will NEVER work with the WIDCOMM software.

The irony here is that the version sold by Apple actually costs about $10 more than the “standard” DBT-120 WITH the WIDCOMM software - but hey, that’s Apple for you…

Anyway, I have no real problem with this sort of product line-up, except (for the gazillionth time), they should NOT be selling two different product offerings with the same model number!

Incidentally, the DBT-120 works great on my iBook, though I did manage to lock-up the system somehow when I first tried to “pair” the devices…

I now have a BELKIN Bluetooth adapter on the way for my PC. I’m really anxious to use the well-designed PC-based image editor/uploader Sony Ericsson bundles with the T610. You can upload images from the Mac, but you have to manually resize/crop them in another program first. That’s no fun.

Update (11/10/04): See the update to the previous post.

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Having just received the fantastic Bluetooth-enabled Sony Ericsson T610 phone, I was anxious to get Bluetooth working with my PC. I had heard good things about the D-Link DBT-120 Bluetooth adapter. The only nearby store with this product available was the Apple Store in the nearby mall. I noticed in the store that the packaging didn’t say anything about the device working for Windows, but it didn’t specifically say it DIDN’T either, so I figured it was just special packaging designed with the (erroneous) assumption that someone in the Apple Store doesn’t care about Windows compatibility. However, as a smart consumer, I used a nearby web browser to surf to D-Link’s website to make sure I had the product number correct. I quickly found this page which says, very clearly:

Compatible with USB 1.1, the DBT-120 supports Windows XP/2000/Me/98SE and Macintosh OS X 10.2 and installs quickly and easily to a desktop or notebook computer with an available USB port.

Pretty clear, isn’t it? “The DBT-120 supports Windows XP.” This package says DBT-120.

Upon bringing the device back to my office, I downloaded the Windows XP drivers, and attempted to install the product. Late in the installation process, a mysterious dialog pops up asking me to insert some sort of Security Code before I can do anything useful with this device. I had to resort to a Google Search to figure out what this dialog was looking for. This led me to this mysterious page. I filled out the form, and after submitting the form, I received the following error code:

Thank you for using a Widcomm Bluetooth Solution

Bad Request Logged. Make sure you have a legitamate [sic] BD Address

* Note: If you purchased your DBT-120 through Apple, it did not come with WIDCOMM software on a CD and is therefore not upgradeable to run on a PC.

Excuse me? I purchased a product called a DBT-120. The D-Link website says (allow me to quote this again) “the DBT-120 supports Windows XP/2000/Me/98SE“. This is the equivalent of purchasing a Ford Explorer, finding out it has no steering wheel, and then being told that it has no steering wheel because I purchased it at Herb Chambers. This is misleading packaging, false advertising, and one sure-fire way to irritate (former) customers.

Surely enough, when I viewed their support page AFTER THE FACT, there is a message reading: “Note: Customers who purchased the DBT-120 from Apple must contact Apple for support and software” and on this page, I am told that “If you purchased the DBT-120 from Apple, you will not qualify for a security key.” It also makes a vague reference to something called a “DBT-120M” (”M” for “Mac”, one can only assume).

If this product was simply labeled as “DBT-120M”, I would have made NO assumptions regarding its Windows compatibility. However, let me say, for the third time — as written on a D-Link’s own web site: “The DBT-120 supports Windows XP“.

Though the web site already basically informed me that I was screwed, I decided to call D-Link anyway, at 1-877-45-DLINK. I decided to try “sales” since I was already told Tech Support couldn’t help me. After 15 minutes on hold, I got some moron who knew FAR LESS than their own web site. After explaining my entire situation, his only response was “did you say “B” as in “boy”?”. This was going nowhere so he transferred me to tech support. Another 20 minutes on hold, someone named “Maria” answered the phone. I highly doubt that was her real name because clearly my phone call had been transfered to Mumbai (but that’s a whole other issue).

Another 20 minutes of talking with someone ELSE who knew less than their own web site, she offered to transfer me to her supervisor. Her supervisor seemed a fairly reasonable person, aside from his explanation to me that Apple invented Bluetooth (funny, I thought Ericsson did). From this guy, I got a sympathetic ear (he agreed that they shouldn’t sell two different offerings with the same product name), but no real solution to my situation, though he did “escalate me to level 3″. Huzzah. I told him to have “level 3″ email me if they had anything to offer, but I was sick of sitting here on the phone. And that’s where things stand, and that’s why I’m blogging about this ridiculous situation. And that’s why D-Link will never get another dime from me.

…

The real irony here is that I had planned on using this dongle with my Mac all along, and was planning on getting another one for my PC later on. But my Mac was at home and I REALLY wanted to play with my new phone right away. The lesson, folks? Woe be to the company that screws with a geek’s ability to play with a new gadget.

Update (11/10/04): Someone named Jim informed me of the following, for those stuck in a similar situation:

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