Another version of this product is already installed. Installation of this version cannot continue. To configure or remove the existing version of this product, use Add/Remove Programs on the Control Panel.

I didn't want to uninstall and reinstall all of these products, losing all of my configurations, etc. Guess what?

No matter what I did, when I ran the installer, Outlook did not appear as an option - it was grayed out.

Fortunately, once again, Google provided a solution.

To resolve this problem, follow these steps: Install the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility.

290301 Description of the Windows Installer CleanUp Utility

Click Start, point to Programs, and then click Windows Install Clean Up.
On the Installed Products list, click the appropriate product(s), and then click Remove.

You receive a message similar to the following:
Warning - All items selected will be removed from the Windows Installer database. In order for the items to work properly, you must individually reinstall all items selected. Select OK to continue removing product, Cancel to abort.

Click OK.
When the process is complete, restart your computer.

After running the CleanUp Utility, I was able to run the install from the new CD image, but the Outlook option was still grayed out.

Back to Google I went.

Finally, I found a reference that seemed to indicate that I needed to update the Office msi file.

Fortunately, the reference indicated that this could be done with the Custom Install Wizard in the Microsoft Office Resource Kit which can be downloaded from here.

After using the standard msi file to create a new mst file, and then replacing the old mst file with the new mst file, I was finally able to install Outlook.

Yea

What I mean by this, is...

RIM (Research In Motion) originally introduced the Blackberry as an always-on wireless e-mail device. Cell phone functionality was an afterthought. So, the pricing model for the wireless service assumed that the user would always subscribe to the data service. Subscribing to voice service was an (additional) option.

Apparently, even if you don't subscribe, nor want to subscribe, to wireless e-mail, the Blackberry will establish a connection with the wireless provider every few minutes to see if there is any new mail. There is no configuration option on the unit to prevent this. And Verizon doesn't offer a service option to ignore these checks. So, if you don't sign up for the $44.95 per month data service, the Blackberry burns through your voice minutes in about a day and a half.

Seems to me like the Blackberry would make a dandy cell phone with basic PDA functions. Why either RIM or the carriers don't offer a plan that provides voice only service, with wireless e-mail available as a future option, is beyond me.

But, what do I know?

Oh, I know that after realizing that the Blackberry had burned through a month's worth of minutes in 1 1/2 days, that I needed to take Verizon up on their 15 day "no questions asked" return policy.

So, no more Blackberry.

I spent some time researching other phone/PDA options, both with Verizon, and with other carriers. Based on discussions with a number of co-workers, Verizon appears to offer the best wireless network, so I am going to stick with them. The Treo 600 appears to be a dandy little unit, but it is expensive, and Verizon doesn't offer it, so I ended up ordering a Kyocera 7135. I used to sell Kyocera printers, and I believe that Kyocera is a good company, so, maybe this try will be the charm...

More to follow...

The official Microsoft answer is to delete the Profile, and recreate it.

This didn't fix the problem.

I also tried deleting the mail account and recreating it.

This didn't fix the problem.

I did finally find a work-around.

In Tools, Options, Mail Setup tab, Send/Receive button...,

I added a new group, and clicked the boxes to include it in Send/Receive (F9), then selected the All Accounts group and unchecked the boxes to include it in Send/Receive (F9).

Unfortunately, you can't delete the All Groups group, so it is still sitting there (useless) but at least not causing problems.

Well,

The following definition comes from Mondegreens: A Short Guide

The term "mondegreen" was coined by Sylvia Wright in a 1954 Atlantic article. As a child, young Sylvia had listened to a folk song that included the lines "They had slain the Earl of Moray/And Lady Mondegreen." As is customary with misheard lyrics, she didn't realize her mistake for years. The song was not about the tragic fate of Lady Mondegreen, but rather, the continuing plight of the good earl: "They had slain the Earl of Moray/And laid him on the green."

And, the modegreen of the day?

I pledge a lesion to the flag, of the United State of America, and to the republic for Richard Stans, one naked individual, with liver tea and just this for all.

Here I am back on the road. Already working stupidly long hours. Poor pitiful me.

So far, while not nearly as bad as it could have been, this week has been less than stellar.

No major disasters, but a long string of little annoyances and mis-haps. Poor pitiful me.

Oh, and my BlackBerry adventure turned into a fiasco. Long story short - it's on its way back to Verizon.

Oh well.

Back to the drawing board as far as what cell phone to get and which carrier to get it from.

Well, the rain seems to be slowing, so maybe I'd best scoot before the next downpour.

Well, it's sort of a cell phone - it is a Blackberry.

Part cell phone, part PDA, part wireless email appliance.

One of the factors that led me to the Blackberry was that it combined a number of functions that are important to me in one device. In addition to the cell phone, it has a good contact list / address book, and a memo pad feature. And, it is much lighter and somewhat smaller than my PDA or any of the new crop of Pocket PC / Palm phones. Most of the important "stuff" that I need to "remember" is kept in a series of text files on my PC that I (now, used to) replicate to my Jornada PDA. I used to keep this information in the sticky notes feature of MS Outlook, but somewhere along the line, I decided that I would have more functionality keeping the information in individual text files. Individual files worked fine with the Jornada as I could use the folder replication feature in MS ActiveSync to keep the information synchronized between the desktop and the PDA.

Well, the Blackberry can't handle individual text files, but it can synchronize the sticky notes from Outlook with its memo pad application.

The question was - how could I import the individual text files back into Outlook sticky notes?

I looked at the import feature in Outlook, but it didn't have an option to import a directory's worth of individual files.

I searched with Google for an application to do the import, but couldn't find one that fit the bill.

After a number of different Google searches, I finally found a hit that looked promising.

Imagine my surprise when I clicked on the link and was taken to an old Blogdom entry!

The solution I had used almost two years ago to transform the sticky notes into text files could (relatively) easily be "turned around" to transform the text files into sticky notes.

I installed Perfect Keyboard, but found it to be a little too cantankerous. After a little bit of trial and error, I found Kra-Tronic's "Mouse and Key Recorder" which fit the bill just perfectly. It's keystroke record was much more accurate than Perfect Keyboard, and it had just enough programmability and edibility to allow me to "tweak" the macro and add looping capability to really speed / ease the process.

One thing that would have sped the process would have been if I had saved the macro so I didn't have to "re-invent it." So, to avoid making the same mistake twice, here it is:

{{' Created at: May.12.2004, 23:00 (MKR Version: 5.2 ) {{'' before running the Macro, an Explorer window with the directory {{'' containing the text files must be open, as well as Outlook with the Notes folder open {{'' these must be the only two windows open, and the Outlook window should be active {{'' prior to invoking the hot-key

{{SetVarCounter 0 {{'' initialize counter
{{Label Start
{{IncVarCounter 1 {{'' increment counter
{{Mouse 1, 1, 677, 10, 0 {{'' position the mouse to activate the Outlook window
%f {{'' alt-f to open file menu
{ENTER}
{ENTER} {{'' create new note
{{Switch D:\My Documents
{F2} {{'' edit file name
^c {{'' ctrl-c to copy file name
{{Switch Untitled - Note
^v {{'' paste file name into top of new note
{BACKSPACE} {{'' erase .txt from file name
{BACKSPACE}
{BACKSPACE}
{BACKSPACE}
{ENTER} {{'' drop down two lines
{ENTER}
{{Switch D:\My Documents
{ENTER} {{'' open text file
{{Delay 300}
^a {{'' alt-a select all
^c {{'' ctrl-c copy
% {{'' alt-space to open window menu
{{'' the line above contains the percent sign followed by a space
c {{'' close window
{{Switch Untitled - Note
^v {{'' paste text of file into note
% {{'' alt-space to open window menu
c {{'' close window
{{Switch D:\My Documents
{DOWN} {{'' move down to next file in the list
{{Switch Notes - Microsoft Outlook
{{Mouse 1, 1, 677, 10, 0 {{'' make sure Outlook is the active window
{{Delay 300}
{{If {{VarCounter} < 50 ;{{Goto Start;