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A solution to an annoying ScanSnap issue
I've now had my Fujitsu ScanSnap fi-511E0XM for less than a day now and one thing that I found quite annoying is that if I wanted to scan between scanning to ReceiptWallet and to another application, say preview, I had to go into the ScanSnap Manager preferences (sorry, settings), and change the app. The app has a dock menu, so it wouldn't have been rocket science to let me switch between apps from the menu. So, with a point in the right direction from a colleague, I present ScanHelper. ScanHelper is a small application that places a menu in the menubar that lets you select which application should be used for scanning. Simply tell the ScanSnap Manager to use ScanHelper and then ScanHelper routes the scans to the selected application. You can now easily select a destination right from the menubar. I'm releasing this as free software, but if you like it, please buy my ReceiptWallet application. You can download ScanHelper here.
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Digging up the past can sometimes be a good thing
I was contacted today by someone looking for a real early version of Eudora for Newton (prior to 1996) to prove that someone's patent claim of email on a handheld is invalid. That's pretty amazing to me that someone would actually attempt to claim email on a handheld so late as Eudora for Newton wasn't the first; there was eWorld and the Motorola Marco which pre-dated Eudora for Newton. As I was searching and digging up stuff, I came across a press release announcing that Eudora Pro for Newton won a CES Innovations award in 1997 (that's 10 years ago!). I either forgot about the award or no one ever told me about it. I wasn't at CES to receive the award (I've never been to CES, I was at Comdex for one day the prior year, I think), but I guess that's what happens in a big company. I was the sole author of the product, so I guess I can claim the award as my own.
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Let's Play "Find the UI issues in the scanner software"
Today I received the Fujitsu ScanSnap fi-5110EOXM that I ordered (I couldn't pass up the $100 Macworld discount and the $50 rebate). The scanner is great; it scans to PDFs and doesn't make me look at their ugly user interface too much. However, I thought I'd point out the issues (first off I had to find the version of the software that was Intel native as the CD didn't have it and it wasn't readily available on their website:
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Fed up with non-English speaking customer service reps
Last week my wife called me while I was at Macworld telling my that the credit card company called to tell us that our credit card number had been compromised and that we had to close the account. I waited until Tuesday to close it as I was out of town and didn't want to deal with it. I spoke to a customer service rep on Tuesday whose accent was very heavy and who didn't seem to be a fluent English speaker. She asked if I wanted new cards sent overnight; I asked if it cost more and she said no, so I said of course. Today is Thursday. No cards. I called again and spoke with another rep who was a native English speaker. After a few minutes (and him getting annoyed reading my record when he discovered a mistake), he apologized and said that the cards were sent via regular US Mail. Lovely, nothing we can do about it now except wait a few more days. Uggh.