It is time for me to do a review on this blog. I will review Roxio Creator 2009 (regular edition) and Roxio Creator 2010 Plus version. Creator 2010 Plus edition is selling for approximately $70 at Fred Meyer, Walmart, and probably other retailers. But price information should not be confused with telling people to go out and buy it so read on.
These products seem to work as advertised but not without some crashing of the programs.
That is the shortest review in history you are probably thinking right now.
Well the ordinary review about whether the products simply works or not is not the kind of review that I want to do. So read on because I am going to give an "honest review" of these products unlike your typical computer magazine.
First off Roxio has multiple versions of Creator 2009 and 2010. If that weren't confusing enough, they created a Creator 2010 Plus edition recently that I just bought as an "upgrade" to Creator 2009 regular edition that I bought earlier this year.
But if you look at Roxio's website, there is virtually no mention of a Creator 2010 Plus edition. Since I didn't find any good source of information about this Plus edition of Creator 2010, I made the decision to buy it and try it out which means you can't return it once you open it so you are stuck with a $70 program whether it works or not.
Note: From now on I will refer to Creator 2009 as 2009 and Creator 2010 Plus as simply Plus to reduce the typing.
I opened up Plus and it had just a small getting started type book included in it. Which makes sense because it comes in a DVD Case unlike the 2009 version which had a 200+ page manual. After installing Plus (I left 2009 on the computer for comparison purposes) and running Plus, it appears Plus is virtually the same as the 2009 edition which is a shame for me because I had spent $70 on it.
When I had to e-mail Roxio what the Plus Version is for in comparison to Creator 2010 standard and Pro editions, the Roxio people took a few hours to respond and could only tell me that it was the same as the other 2 editions of their Creator 2010 program which I knew that wasn't true because Pro has extra programs and a Blu-Ray Plug in included which the standard and Plus doesn't include.
So in conclusion let me list off all of the negatives about Creator 2010 Plus.
Poor Support from Roxio: If these people are that unaware of the differences of their products and what they are selling that should be a big red flag.
Poor Docs from Roxio: Yes, it is true that they have videos you can watch to learn how to use features of Creator 2010, but they falsely advertise that it is built-in to 2010 when in fact this features requires an Internet connection. The irony is on these videos is that you learn how to do stuff in 2009 that was poorly documented or completely ignored by Roxio in the 2009 manual and packaging. But why should you have to buy a 2010 version to see these videos when they provide some of them free on their website? Again they sort of forget to let you know about these videos if you already own 2009 so maybe you will get suckered into buying 2010.
No New Really Useful Features: Other than the videos which you could have watched online for free by looking for and clicking on their constant ads for 2010, there is really nothing that makes 2010 Plus worth buying if you already have 2009 version of Creator.
Finally a lack of Blu-Ray Support: Creator 2010 and 2010 Plus editions have no support for Blu-Ray until you buy a Plug-in thing online from Roxio. The more expensive Pro version has the Blu-Ray writing Plug-in but even Pro version doesn't have a Playback Plug-in for Blu-Ray so you still have to buy an extra thing online from Roxio. So there is NO complete version of Creator 2010 on the market.
The bottom line is that Creator 2010, Creator 2010 Plus, Creator 2010 Pro, etc. are not for owners of Creator 2009. Roxio should in good faith advertise this or have these products pulled from the shelves for making deceptive claims about their 2010 upgrades to 2009 product users.
Roxio's unawareness of their own programs, their lack of docs, their lack of blu-ray support, and their lack of new features for what should be a major upgrade in my opinion is a perfect example why software piracy exists.
Anyone think differently?
Monday, November 16, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Topic 3: Can you tell me WHAT HAPPENED to Sesame Street?
The number of the day SHOULD have been 40. But instead it feels like the number of the day is ZERO.
40 years ago today, November 10, 1969, a TV show called Sesame Street first aired on PBS. This show would become one of the most popular kids shows in the 70s and 80s.
Now in 2009, Sesame Street is just another show creative wise in my opinion. Nothing really stands out about this series anymore to me. The Today Show, Early Show, Good Morning America had nothing in their news about this important show turning 40 today even though the Sesame Street characters have been guests on these shows before. They obviously don't think Sesame Street is a very important show anymore.
Lets look at some of the muppets who appeared over the 40 years on the show:
Kermit the Frog ... GONE ... He was so good when paired up with other characters such as Grover.
Bert and Ernie ... NOW MOSTLY ANIMATED ... They were so much funnier as muppets.
Bruno ... GONE ... In case you are wondering who this is he was the guy who hauled Oscar the Grouch around in the old days.
Biff and Sully ... Rarely seen these days ... These were construction guys kind of like Penn and Teller where one guy talked and the other guy was usually silent.
That list could go on and on. There is one exception to the rule. That is Elmo. According to the Sesame Street people, Elmo is 3 and a half or something like that age wise. Yet they give a good latter portion of the show to Elmo. The problem with Elmo is that the show seems to be geared at very young kids (probably preschoolers). Back when Sesame Street started it was geared towards older kids too.
Maybe Sesame Street should have evolved into 2 shows now, one with Elmo for all the Elmo lovers out there. And a second show to appeal to us older people who liked the older Sesame Street format back in the 1970s and 80s. Tell me what you think of that idea.
40 years ago today, November 10, 1969, a TV show called Sesame Street first aired on PBS. This show would become one of the most popular kids shows in the 70s and 80s.
Now in 2009, Sesame Street is just another show creative wise in my opinion. Nothing really stands out about this series anymore to me. The Today Show, Early Show, Good Morning America had nothing in their news about this important show turning 40 today even though the Sesame Street characters have been guests on these shows before. They obviously don't think Sesame Street is a very important show anymore.
Lets look at some of the muppets who appeared over the 40 years on the show:
Kermit the Frog ... GONE ... He was so good when paired up with other characters such as Grover.
Bert and Ernie ... NOW MOSTLY ANIMATED ... They were so much funnier as muppets.
Bruno ... GONE ... In case you are wondering who this is he was the guy who hauled Oscar the Grouch around in the old days.
Biff and Sully ... Rarely seen these days ... These were construction guys kind of like Penn and Teller where one guy talked and the other guy was usually silent.
That list could go on and on. There is one exception to the rule. That is Elmo. According to the Sesame Street people, Elmo is 3 and a half or something like that age wise. Yet they give a good latter portion of the show to Elmo. The problem with Elmo is that the show seems to be geared at very young kids (probably preschoolers). Back when Sesame Street started it was geared towards older kids too.
Maybe Sesame Street should have evolved into 2 shows now, one with Elmo for all the Elmo lovers out there. And a second show to appeal to us older people who liked the older Sesame Street format back in the 1970s and 80s. Tell me what you think of that idea.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Topic 2.5: Elizabeth Lambert is not the only guilty party at Univ. of New Mexico
Note: This is topic 2.5 rather than 3 because it kind of has to do with topic 2.
I saw on Good Morning America and Today show this morning a University of New Mexico soccer player named Elizabeth Lambert. She was in the news because in my opinion she "sucker-punched" a couple of BYU Womens soccer players.
From the clips that were shown on TV, you can't see what happpened before the incidents to see if she was provoked into doing what she did. But from what I could tell it was highly unlikely she was provoked by the BYU soccer players.
Now going back to topic 2, once again NBC's Today show does a very lousy job reporting this story. We get comments from various young girls and Soccer Moms from other places saying that Elizabeth Lambert was wrong for what she did. This is not news because we all know that she did inappropriate things from the video such as punch a woman in the back and pulling another woman's ponytail causing her to fall down on the field.
After watching one of the videos on her, I happen to come upon something that was not really in the video which should have been reported by NBC, ABC, etc. That is where is the teammates of Lambert at and why did they not attack their fellow teammate or come to the rescue of the BYU player that was thrown down?
In fact after watching that incident again online, I noticed a New Mexico teammate of Lambert's turning her head around to see part of the incident of the BYU player getting thrown to the ground. And what does the New Mexico teammate of Lambert's do? She walks off as if nothing happened!! What happened to good sportsmanship??
Is good sportsmanship dead in this country? Please let me know what anyone out there reading this post including people I don't know thinks about whether the other team's player should have gone to help the BYU player after being what I call "sucker-punched" to the ground.
I saw on Good Morning America and Today show this morning a University of New Mexico soccer player named Elizabeth Lambert. She was in the news because in my opinion she "sucker-punched" a couple of BYU Womens soccer players.
From the clips that were shown on TV, you can't see what happpened before the incidents to see if she was provoked into doing what she did. But from what I could tell it was highly unlikely she was provoked by the BYU soccer players.
Now going back to topic 2, once again NBC's Today show does a very lousy job reporting this story. We get comments from various young girls and Soccer Moms from other places saying that Elizabeth Lambert was wrong for what she did. This is not news because we all know that she did inappropriate things from the video such as punch a woman in the back and pulling another woman's ponytail causing her to fall down on the field.
After watching one of the videos on her, I happen to come upon something that was not really in the video which should have been reported by NBC, ABC, etc. That is where is the teammates of Lambert at and why did they not attack their fellow teammate or come to the rescue of the BYU player that was thrown down?
In fact after watching that incident again online, I noticed a New Mexico teammate of Lambert's turning her head around to see part of the incident of the BYU player getting thrown to the ground. And what does the New Mexico teammate of Lambert's do? She walks off as if nothing happened!! What happened to good sportsmanship??
Is good sportsmanship dead in this country? Please let me know what anyone out there reading this post including people I don't know thinks about whether the other team's player should have gone to help the BYU player after being what I call "sucker-punched" to the ground.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Topic 2: GE is becoming a less reliable news source
For the second major topic of this blog, I have chosen GE who happens to be the parent company of the NBC TV Network. For some time I have felt this news organization to sensationalize news inappropriately.
This morning on their NBC Today Show, right out of the gate at the very beginning of the show, the first so-called story they mention is about Wall Street people getting Swine Flu Vaccine before hospitals. They are quick to point out that the hundreds of doses these New York companies are getting should go to hospitals instead.
Let me bring up something that I uncovered after this so-called news story aired this morning on Today. It was actually Business Week who broke this story a few days ago. This is important because in NBC's Today Show report, they mention one of the companies that applied to get the doses is GE who owns NBC. Not only did NBC not break the story, it would appear to me they were going to keep quiet on these companies getting their own doses until well after GE got theirs if they mentioned it all.
Only after the story picked up steam by other news organizations, NBC felt they had to sensationalize it at the top of their own news to keep people watching their news in my opinion.
Anyone out there want to slam or defend GE and their NBC Subsidiary? Please feel free to comment.
This morning on their NBC Today Show, right out of the gate at the very beginning of the show, the first so-called story they mention is about Wall Street people getting Swine Flu Vaccine before hospitals. They are quick to point out that the hundreds of doses these New York companies are getting should go to hospitals instead.
Let me bring up something that I uncovered after this so-called news story aired this morning on Today. It was actually Business Week who broke this story a few days ago. This is important because in NBC's Today Show report, they mention one of the companies that applied to get the doses is GE who owns NBC. Not only did NBC not break the story, it would appear to me they were going to keep quiet on these companies getting their own doses until well after GE got theirs if they mentioned it all.
Only after the story picked up steam by other news organizations, NBC felt they had to sensationalize it at the top of their own news to keep people watching their news in my opinion.
Anyone out there want to slam or defend GE and their NBC Subsidiary? Please feel free to comment.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Update on Maybefrugal blog
I feel it is extremely important to give an update on this "Maybefrugal" blog that I mentioned in my last post. So still no new topic.
It turns out that that the story on the Maybefrugal blog I posted comments to has over 100 comments. Surprisingly not one comment appears to be negative towards Safeway. I have a pretty good feeling that this blogger Maygan is deliberately deleting any negative posts about Safeway.
What is worse is the admission in her blog in a more recent post that Safeway sent her a $250 Gift Card to check out their store's new lower prices. So Safeway is likely paying her off to blog good things about their store. Highly unethical if not illegal. Because I don't believe Safeway could afford to hand out many $250 Gift Cards to people or they wouldn't be making any money.
This blog was not originally intended to be a criticism blog of retailers but if I keep finding evidence of this kind of stuff going on, I am going to report it on this blog. People have a right to know if someone they meet on the internet are being paid off by a certain retailer or if a certain retailer is trying to undermine the government.
Again feel free to comment your opinions.
It turns out that that the story on the Maybefrugal blog I posted comments to has over 100 comments. Surprisingly not one comment appears to be negative towards Safeway. I have a pretty good feeling that this blogger Maygan is deliberately deleting any negative posts about Safeway.
What is worse is the admission in her blog in a more recent post that Safeway sent her a $250 Gift Card to check out their store's new lower prices. So Safeway is likely paying her off to blog good things about their store. Highly unethical if not illegal. Because I don't believe Safeway could afford to hand out many $250 Gift Cards to people or they wouldn't be making any money.
This blog was not originally intended to be a criticism blog of retailers but if I keep finding evidence of this kind of stuff going on, I am going to report it on this blog. People have a right to know if someone they meet on the internet are being paid off by a certain retailer or if a certain retailer is trying to undermine the government.
Again feel free to comment your opinions.
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