I killed some software last night

-

It was Roxio Easy CD & DVD Creator 6. I had been using if for a little over a year, and it was the buggiest program I ever used, not to mention one of the most expensive.

 

My computer came with Adaptec Easy CD Creator 4. It was an excellent program, very easy to use, reliable and stable. Adaptec became Roxio somewhere around version 5, and I got version 6 because I needed its new video making capabilities for a wedding video project.

 

For making videos, version 6 was a bust. The DVD maker had a bug in the audio video synchronization which made it impossible to see beforehand how the finished product would look and sound. A downloadable upgrade, which was supposed to fix the bugs, rendered the entire thing useless, by preventing video burning entirely! Technical support was nonexistent. They told me to uninstall the whole thing, and reinstall it without the patches, which of course put me right back with the problems I started with. I ended up buying a different video program altogether, which worked fine for half the price.

 

The CD burner in version 6 worked well enough for making data CD backups, and the sound editor was kinda nice. But when it came to making music CDs the program was a dismal failure. It had a nearly identical interface as version 4, but it worked very differently. For starters, whenever I loaded a commercial CD to grab a few tracks, the program raised a fuss because it couldn’t access the internet to search a massive database in order to tell me what CD I had just inserted. Dammit! I know what CD I just inserted! Just let me USE it!

 

Once I wrestled together a custom CD, it would usually abort halfway through the burn, ruining the CD. Two nights ago I spent two hours and never did get what I wanted.

 

Last night, I tried again, and error messages kept popping up. I’d had enough. I uninstalled Roxio’s version 6, and reinstalled Adaptec’s version 4. I then made the CD I wanted in a short time, with only one glitch: it wouldn’t recognize one WMA music file I wanted to include. Otherwise it was perfect, the first time.

 

If anyone from Roxio is reading, let it be known I will never buy another Roxio product, and I would encourage others to avoid it as well.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Three Political Puzzles

-
Puzzle #1 Who in heck is behind Prop 29? The same measure was on the California ballot the last two elections. Both times it went down in flames and it is expected to fail again. But that's not the weird part. The weird part is that while the NO campaign has been reasonably convincing, there has been no visible campaign supporting it. Not this time nor the first two times. You'd think that after thrice going through the time, effort, and expense of gathering signatures to qualify for the ballot that they'd want to give people a reason to vote yes, but they haven't. So what's the point? Prop 29 is a phantom measure with no visible means of support. Puzzle #2 I can't help but wonder if the abrupt conversion of KGO radio from a news talk station to a sports talk station with an emphasis on betting has some connection to Propositions 26 & 27 which are all about sports gambling. An attempt to drum up interest in sports betting before the election, perhaps? The bi
Read more

Things I've learned

-
At 45 I guess I'm officially at middle age. That means I'll live to be 90. Anyway, it seems like a good time to reflect on some of the things I've learned over the years, listed in no particular order: If you hear or smell anything unusual, find out what it is right away. Meals seem to be more satisfying when potatoes are somehow involved. Cultivate your friendships. Time spent with friends and family is never wasted. (See Tiffany ) The time to buy drain opener is before you need it. Read the owners manual. Don't trust Mapquest. You can never win a political argument. However, in the company of those who have open minds, you can have some very interesting political discussions. Ditto for religion. At the grocery checkout, always put the bread on the conveyor last. This keeps it from getting squished by other items at the bagging end. There’s nothing wrong with sex. When you get onto the freeway, keep plenty of space between you and the car ahead. It makes it much easier
Read more

Oh, Nikki, you're better at math than that.

-
Image
And then there were two. Earlier tonight I watched part of the debate between Republican presidential candidates Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis. DeSantis is a jerk, and I can't take him seriously. Haley, on the other hand is a smart gal, and offers some hope for bringing some level of sanity back to the Republican party. But she often dumbs things down to appeal to the simple-minded (mostly Trumpers), and that drives me nuts. Case on point: Haley promised that if elected she would eliminate the federal gasoline tax to reduce the tax burden on working class Americans. Moderator Dana Bash pointed out that the federal gas tax raises over $50 billion annually and is used build and maintain highways and bridges. She then asked Haley how she would pay for those things without it. Haley responded first by evading the question and talking about taxes in general. But eventually she got back around to the gas tax. She employed a classic Republican talking point saying the states collect the
Read more