New laptop w/windows 8

On 2/25/2015 2:06 AM, "...winston‫" wrote:
Ron wrote:
On 2/21/2015 11:05 PM, R.H. Breener wrote:
I just bought a new laptop with W 8 and have a few questions. How do I
get rid of having to constantly put in a password to use it? It's
frigging annoying as hell. The other question is how do I hack in
WindowsMail like I did in W 7? WindowsMail works great in W 7 so I
moved the folder to W 8 but it wont open. How can I get it to open?
Please don't suggest other mail programs as I've tried most of the years
and can't stand them. Thanks.

I believe in one of your posts you mentioned something about returning
the laptop? Well, if you can return it and get the same computer with
Windows 8.1 you would be better off in the long run. Once you install
the Windows 8.1 update the laptops recovery partition will no longer
work. Along with some Windows 8 recovery options.

Which Windows 8 Recovery options would those be ?

Refresh your PC w/o affecting your files.

Fyi...once upgrading any pc including OEM units from 8.0 to 8.1 MSFT
provides free-of-charge the ability for all 8.1 users to create Refresh
and Reset Media

How do I create that media?

On 2/25/2015 2:23 AM, Ron wrote:
On 2/25/2015 2:06 AM, "...winston‫" wrote:
Ron wrote:
On 2/21/2015 11:05 PM, R.H. Breener wrote:
I just bought a new laptop with W 8 and have a few questions. How do I
get rid of having to constantly put in a password to use it? It's
frigging annoying as hell. The other question is how do I hack in
WindowsMail like I did in W 7? WindowsMail works great in W 7 so I
moved the folder to W 8 but it wont open. How can I get it to open?
Please don't suggest other mail programs as I've tried most of the
years
and can't stand them. Thanks.

I believe in one of your posts you mentioned something about returning
the laptop? Well, if you can return it and get the same computer with
Windows 8.1 you would be better off in the long run. Once you install
the Windows 8.1 update the laptops recovery partition will no longer
work. Along with some Windows 8 recovery options.

Which Windows 8 Recovery options would those be ?

Refresh your PC w/o affecting your files.

Fyi...once upgrading any pc including OEM units from 8.0 to 8.1 MSFT
provides free-of-charge the ability for all 8.1 users to create Refresh
and Reset Media

How do I create that media?


Just took this screen shot

http://i62.tinypic.com/30v0u95.jpg

On 2/24/2015 4:12 PM, (PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per R.H. Breener:
It didn't work anyway. I unchecked the box but still have to use my
password. I wish I could have found a LP with W7 but no one was selling
them. This W8 is the pits.

I don't know enough to comment on the PW situation, but would add one
more caveat: If your login is associated with a Microsoft account, get
rid of that association.

When I first booted up mine, I stepped through all the prompts and one
of them led me into setting up my own Microsoft account and the laptop
wound up being linked to that account.

Bad Idea.... later on, for whatever reason, somebody can decide that
something is not right with that account and you will get the dreaded
"Cannot log in..." (or somesuch)

At that point you may be SOL - either if you cannot recall the PW last
used to log in to the laptop when it was offline or for some other
reason I have no clue about.

Google "windows 8.1 how to remove Microsoft account" for instructions.

Maybe somebody who knows can comment on the benefit(s) of being
connected to a Microsoft account.... all I can come up with are
costs....

The only thing I've run across has to do with the microsoft store.
Somewhere on one of the screens is a choice to use the M account for
individual applications. That's the only option that seems to work.

Ron wrote:
On 2/25/2015 2:23 AM, Ron wrote:
On 2/25/2015 2:06 AM, "...winston‫" wrote:
Ron wrote:
On 2/21/2015 11:05 PM, R.H. Breener wrote:
I just bought a new laptop with W 8 and have a few questions. How do I
get rid of having to constantly put in a password to use it? It's
frigging annoying as hell. The other question is how do I hack in
WindowsMail like I did in W 7? WindowsMail works great in W 7 so I
moved the folder to W 8 but it wont open. How can I get it to open?
Please don't suggest other mail programs as I've tried most of the
years
and can't stand them. Thanks.

I believe in one of your posts you mentioned something about returning
the laptop? Well, if you can return it and get the same computer with
Windows 8.1 you would be better off in the long run. Once you install
the Windows 8.1 update the laptops recovery partition will no longer
work. Along with some Windows 8 recovery options.

Which Windows 8 Recovery options would those be ?

Refresh your PC w/o affecting your files.

Fyi...once upgrading any pc including OEM units from 8.0 to 8.1 MSFT
provides free-of-charge the ability for all 8.1 users to create Refresh
and Reset Media

How do I create that media?


Just took this screen shot

http://i62.tinypic.com/30v0u95.jpg

That is not the usual message received when running the Win8x Windows
Reset/Refresh media option. The usual message after an OEM 8.0 upgrade
to 8.1 unit fails to run a Refresh/Reset is a notice of missing files.

Your message indicates two primary possible reasons for failure
1. possible component image corruption that should have been repaired
prior to upgrading to 8.1. OEM units are notorious for having corrupted
8.0 component stores
2. Corruption or tampering with the OEM Recovery partition

You can try the MSFT 8.1 media download for refresh/reset media
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-refresh-media





--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

On 2/25/2015 9:47 PM, "...winston‫" wrote:
Ron wrote:
On 2/25/2015 2:23 AM, Ron wrote:
On 2/25/2015 2:06 AM, "...winston‫" wrote:
Ron wrote:
On 2/21/2015 11:05 PM, R.H. Breener wrote:
I just bought a new laptop with W 8 and have a few questions. How
do I
get rid of having to constantly put in a password to use it? It's
frigging annoying as hell. The other question is how do I hack in
WindowsMail like I did in W 7? WindowsMail works great in W 7 so I
moved the folder to W 8 but it wont open. How can I get it to open?
Please don't suggest other mail programs as I've tried most of the
years
and can't stand them. Thanks.

I believe in one of your posts you mentioned something about returning
the laptop? Well, if you can return it and get the same computer with
Windows 8.1 you would be better off in the long run. Once you install
the Windows 8.1 update the laptops recovery partition will no longer
work. Along with some Windows 8 recovery options.

Which Windows 8 Recovery options would those be ?

Refresh your PC w/o affecting your files.

Fyi...once upgrading any pc including OEM units from 8.0 to 8.1 MSFT
provides free-of-charge the ability for all 8.1 users to create Refresh
and Reset Media

How do I create that media?


Just took this screen shot

http://i62.tinypic.com/30v0u95.jpg

That is not the usual message received when running the Win8x Windows
Reset/Refresh media option. The usual message after an OEM 8.0 upgrade
to 8.1 unit fails to run a Refresh/Reset is a notice of missing files.

Your message indicates two primary possible reasons for failure
1. possible component image corruption that should have been repaired
prior to upgrading to 8.1. OEM units are notorious for having corrupted
8.0 component stores
2. Corruption or tampering with the OEM Recovery partition

You can try the MSFT 8.1 media download for refresh/reset media
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/w...-refresh-media


Thanks

"(PeteCresswell)" wrote in message
news
Per R.H. Breener:
It didn't work anyway. I unchecked the box but still have to use my
password. I wish I could have found a LP with W7 but no one was selling
them. This W8 is the pits.

I don't know enough to comment on the PW situation, but would add one
more caveat: If your login is associated with a Microsoft account, get
rid of that association.

When I first booted up mine, I stepped through all the prompts and one
of them led me into setting up my own Microsoft account and the laptop
wound up being linked to that account.

Bad Idea.... later on, for whatever reason, somebody can decide that
something is not right with that account and you will get the dreaded
"Cannot log in..." (or somesuch)

Oh sh*t! I only saw a choice for the one account. I'll be more careful when
it's replaced when setting it up.


At that point you may be SOL - either if you cannot recall the PW last
used to log in to the laptop when it was offline or for some other
reason I have no clue about.

Google "windows 8.1 how to remove Microsoft account" for instructions.

I will. This is totally new to me. I don't like the idea of having to sign
in every time I got on that W8 LT either. I did what someone said but it
would still pop up most of the time. There's no sensative info on the LT
that travels with me, that's on a PC at home that's seldom used for anything
but banking etc. If someone would bother to steal it they'd probably know
how to get past the password anyway.


Maybe somebody who knows can comment on the benefit(s) of being
connected to a Microsoft account.... all I can come up with are
costs....

I don't remember seeing that and it's gone so I can't look.


--
Pete Cresswell

""...winston‫"" wrote in message
...
R.H. Breener wrote:

""...winston‫"" wrote in message
...
brevity snip

If the Win8, upcoming Win10, WLM, Outlook MSFT *available* email
clients aren't one' choice cup-of-tea then test other 3rd party email
clients until finding one that is acceptable.

I've tried several and none are as easy to use as WM. I can't even get
Agent to send mail. They all seem to have all kinds of bells and
whistles that I don't need or want. It just makes them more complicated
to set up and use. Not all of us are savvy techies. I've been using
Outlook Express and WindowsMail since 1996 and really don't care to
switch. I wish I could find a really basic email program with the
minimum amount of choices and things to have to deal with.


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

WLM is as close to OE as it gets for the available and supported MSFT
email clients.
You must have used something else in 1996, OE first appeared in 1997. My
first use was in the beta of MSN 2.6 which also included IE4.0. Shortly
thereafter, it was included in the public release of Internet Explorer
4.0.

I'm sure it was called OutlookExpress. Maybe it had another name. I got the
first computer in Nov of 1996 w/W95 on it. It was made for us by a guy at
work, now long gone. Lots of BSODs. That's going back aways. I remember
that old OE News/Mail program, but can't recall anything before it.

That tech built W95 PC was replaced by a HP W98 upgraded to W98SE. When XP
came along, by that time there was more RAM, improved CPUs, larger HDs, more
stability so I bought a HP XP and used it until the day it died. (W95 and
W98SE were given away still running.) I'm sure OE was on XP. I took it to
a tech at one of the office type stores after my friend at work also failed
to get it booted, and the tech also failed to get it running again. None of
us could get to do a SystemRecovery on it. No one knew what was wrong with
it. Maybe a bad mother board or some other hardware problem... I never
knew. I went home with a HP Vista 32-bit with WindowsMail. But like the XP
before it, one day it wouldn't load - exactly like the HP XP PC. To make a
long story short I salvaged the HD from the dead Vista DT to save music and
images on and bought the HP W7 64-bit desktop or DT. That had a horror
called WindowsLiveMail. Gimme a break! I was able to get WindowsMail to work
on it and it's still working without a hitch.

Changing the subject for a minute; what's making me a bit leery of another
HP PC, a LT this time is I read/heard that other people are having the same
problems with HP PCs. They "die" almost like they have a software program to
kill the OS after a certain period of time, at 2 to 3 yrs old. Nothing
makes them boot up. Have you heard or read anything about this? Maybe it's
just rumor. Lots os BS goes around. I hope so, but I never had a problem
with W95 and W98SE not booting to a boot disk so a SystemRecovery could be
done. Both ran great until the day there were given away.

This LT is Vista 32-bit, a Gateway I bought back in the summer of 2008. It's
gotten plenty of use and never had one problem with it until this new email
compression issue mentioned in the new thread. A SystemRestore didn't
help.........








--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

(PeteCresswell) wrote:

When I first booted up mine, I stepped through all the prompts and one
of them led me into setting up my own Microsoft account and the laptop
wound up being linked to that account.

Bad Idea.... later on, for whatever reason, somebody can decide that
something is not right with that account and you will get the dreaded


Somebody ?


At that point you may be SOL - either if you cannot recall the PW last
used to log in to the laptop when it was offline or for some other
reason I have no clue about.

MSFT Account passwords are resettable in the MSFT account web UI.

Google "windows 8.1 how to remove Microsoft account" for instructions.

Maybe somebody who knows can comment on the benefit(s) of being
connected to a Microsoft account.... all I can come up with are
costs....


Synchronization across all devices using the same o/s (pcs, laptops,
phones, Xbox, tablets, etc.)

- Don't be surprised in the future if you'll need a MSFT account to
use a consumer (non-Enterprise) version of Windows to receive program
and security updates and with Win10, as previously made known by MSFT,
support for the life of the device.

i.e. Before you delete that MSFT account, it might be prudent to learn
what it's (for).


--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

R.H. Breener wrote:

""...winston‫"" wrote in message
...
R.H. Breener wrote:

""...winston‫"" wrote in message
...
brevity snip

If the Win8, upcoming Win10, WLM, Outlook MSFT *available* email
clients aren't one' choice cup-of-tea then test other 3rd party email
clients until finding one that is acceptable.

I've tried several and none are as easy to use as WM. I can't even get
Agent to send mail. They all seem to have all kinds of bells and
whistles that I don't need or want. It just makes them more complicated
to set up and use. Not all of us are savvy techies. I've been using
Outlook Express and WindowsMail since 1996 and really don't care to
switch. I wish I could find a really basic email program with the
minimum amount of choices and things to have to deal with.


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

WLM is as close to OE as it gets for the available and supported MSFT
email clients.
You must have used something else in 1996, OE first appeared in 1997.
My first use was in the beta of MSN 2.6 which also included IE4.0.
Shortly thereafter, it was included in the public release of Internet
Explorer 4.0.

I'm sure it was called OutlookExpress. Maybe it had another name. I got
the first computer in Nov of 1996 w/W95 on it. It was made for us by a
guy at work, now long gone. Lots of BSODs. That's going back aways. I
remember that old OE News/Mail program, but can't recall anything before
it.

That tech built W95 PC was replaced by a HP W98 upgraded to W98SE. When
XP came along, by that time there was more RAM, improved CPUs, larger
HDs, more stability so I bought a HP XP and used it until the day it
died. (W95 and W98SE were given away still running.) I'm sure OE was
on XP. I took it to a tech at one of the office type stores after my
friend at work also failed to get it booted, and the tech also failed to
get it running again. None of us could get to do a SystemRecovery on
it. No one knew what was wrong with it. Maybe a bad mother board or
some other hardware problem... I never knew. I went home with a HP
Vista 32-bit with WindowsMail. But like the XP before it, one day it
wouldn't load - exactly like the HP XP PC. To make a long story short I
salvaged the HD from the dead Vista DT to save music and images on and
bought the HP W7 64-bit desktop or DT. That had a horror called
WindowsLiveMail. Gimme a break! I was able to get WindowsMail to work on
it and it's still working without a hitch.

Changing the subject for a minute; what's making me a bit leery of
another HP PC, a LT this time is I read/heard that other people are
having the same problems with HP PCs. They "die" almost like they have a
software program to kill the OS after a certain period of time, at 2 to
3 yrs old. Nothing makes them boot up. Have you heard or read anything
about this? Maybe it's just rumor. Lots os BS goes around. I hope so,
but I never had a problem with W95 and W98SE not booting to a boot disk
so a SystemRecovery could be done. Both ran great until the day there
were given away.

This LT is Vista 32-bit, a Gateway I bought back in the summer of 2008.
It's gotten plenty of use and never had one problem with it until this
new email compression issue mentioned in the new thread. A
SystemRestore didn't help.........








--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

In '96...it was not called Outlook Express. Nor was the Win95 included
news/mail program called Outlook Express. Outlook Express was released
for use with Internet Explorer 4 in ***1997***, and not before.

If you've Vista as long as mentioned above...then compacting on closing
Windows Mail has occurred after every 100 program openings. Vista's
Windows Mail or Vista's operating system is not capable of compressing
Windows Mail email.



--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

Per ...winston?:
i.e. Before you delete that MSFT account, it might be prudent to learn
what it's (for).

I do not think anybody is talking about deleting the account. Instead,
breaking the link between laptop and account.
--
Pete Cresswell

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
Per ...winston?:
i.e. Before you delete that MSFT account, it might be prudent to learn
what it's (for).

I do not think anybody is talking about deleting the account. Instead,
breaking the link between laptop and account.


The link won't be broken between the laptop and the account. The account
is a Windows logon account.

Converting it to a local account will still link it to Windows on the
laptop.


--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

Per ...winston?:
The link won't be broken between the laptop and the account. The account
is a Windows logon account.

Converting it to a local account will still link it to Windows on the
laptop.

That one zipped right over my head.

Maybe "link" was the wrong word.

What I have experienced is that after I followed the instructions that I
followed (can't supply the URL... lost), my Microsoft account no longer
appears in the logon screen and the PC accepts whatever password I have
defined locally.... and I can change that password locally anytime I
want.

Bottom line: the Microsoft account seems to be totally out of the
picture when it comes to that PC.
--
Pete Cresswell

""...winston‫"" wrote in message
...
R.H. Breener wrote:

""...winston‫"" wrote in message
...
R.H. Breener wrote:

""...winston‫"" wrote in message
...
brevity snip

If the Win8, upcoming Win10, WLM, Outlook MSFT *available* email
clients aren't one' choice cup-of-tea then test other 3rd party email
clients until finding one that is acceptable.

I've tried several and none are as easy to use as WM. I can't even get
Agent to send mail. They all seem to have all kinds of bells and
whistles that I don't need or want. It just makes them more complicated
to set up and use. Not all of us are savvy techies. I've been using
Outlook Express and WindowsMail since 1996 and really don't care to
switch. I wish I could find a really basic email program with the
minimum amount of choices and things to have to deal with.


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

WLM is as close to OE as it gets for the available and supported MSFT
email clients.
You must have used something else in 1996, OE first appeared in 1997.
My first use was in the beta of MSN 2.6 which also included IE4.0.
Shortly thereafter, it was included in the public release of Internet
Explorer 4.0.

I'm sure it was called OutlookExpress. Maybe it had another name. I got
the first computer in Nov of 1996 w/W95 on it. It was made for us by a
guy at work, now long gone. Lots of BSODs. That's going back aways. I
remember that old OE News/Mail program, but can't recall anything before
it.

That tech built W95 PC was replaced by a HP W98 upgraded to W98SE. When
XP came along, by that time there was more RAM, improved CPUs, larger
HDs, more stability so I bought a HP XP and used it until the day it
died. (W95 and W98SE were given away still running.) I'm sure OE was
on XP. I took it to a tech at one of the office type stores after my
friend at work also failed to get it booted, and the tech also failed to
get it running again. None of us could get to do a SystemRecovery on
it. No one knew what was wrong with it. Maybe a bad mother board or
some other hardware problem... I never knew. I went home with a HP
Vista 32-bit with WindowsMail. But like the XP before it, one day it
wouldn't load - exactly like the HP XP PC. To make a long story short I
salvaged the HD from the dead Vista DT to save music and images on and
bought the HP W7 64-bit desktop or DT. That had a horror called
WindowsLiveMail. Gimme a break! I was able to get WindowsMail to work on
it and it's still working without a hitch.

Changing the subject for a minute; what's making me a bit leery of
another HP PC, a LT this time is I read/heard that other people are
having the same problems with HP PCs. They "die" almost like they have a
software program to kill the OS after a certain period of time, at 2 to
3 yrs old. Nothing makes them boot up. Have you heard or read anything
about this? Maybe it's just rumor. Lots os BS goes around. I hope so,
but I never had a problem with W95 and W98SE not booting to a boot disk
so a SystemRecovery could be done. Both ran great until the day there
were given away.

This LT is Vista 32-bit, a Gateway I bought back in the summer of 2008.
It's gotten plenty of use and never had one problem with it until this
new email compression issue mentioned in the new thread. A
SystemRestore didn't help.........








--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

In '96...it was not called Outlook Express. Nor was the Win95 included
news/mail program called Outlook Express. Outlook Express was released for
use with Internet Explorer 4 in ***1997***, and not before.

Then what email program was on w95? I remember it as OutlookExpress. I
remember the guy who made it sitting there with me showing me how to add the
info to get my email. And he also showed me how to use Usenet. How to add
NewsServers. He spent over 2 hours that day setting it up.


If you've Vista as long as mentioned above...then compacting on closing
Windows Mail has occurred after every 100 program openings.

If it was compressing them I was not aware of it.


Vista's
Windows Mail or Vista's operating system is not capable of compressing
Windows Mail email.

Well it compressed or compacted or whatever with them after the popup window
asked if I wanted them compressed/compacted - whatever the word was.
WindowsMail came on this LT with Vista 32-bit.







--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

R.H. Breener wrote:

""...winston‫"" wrote in message
...
R.H. Breener wrote:

""...winston‫"" wrote in message
...
R.H. Breener wrote:

""...winston‫"" wrote in message
...
brevity snip

If the Win8, upcoming Win10, WLM, Outlook MSFT *available* email
clients aren't one' choice cup-of-tea then test other 3rd party email
clients until finding one that is acceptable.

I've tried several and none are as easy to use as WM. I can't even get
Agent to send mail. They all seem to have all kinds of bells and
whistles that I don't need or want. It just makes them more
complicated
to set up and use. Not all of us are savvy techies. I've been using
Outlook Express and WindowsMail since 1996 and really don't care to
switch. I wish I could find a really basic email program with the
minimum amount of choices and things to have to deal with.


--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

WLM is as close to OE as it gets for the available and supported MSFT
email clients.
You must have used something else in 1996, OE first appeared in 1997.
My first use was in the beta of MSN 2.6 which also included IE4.0.
Shortly thereafter, it was included in the public release of Internet
Explorer 4.0.

I'm sure it was called OutlookExpress. Maybe it had another name. I got
the first computer in Nov of 1996 w/W95 on it. It was made for us by a
guy at work, now long gone. Lots of BSODs. That's going back aways. I
remember that old OE News/Mail program, but can't recall anything before
it.

That tech built W95 PC was replaced by a HP W98 upgraded to W98SE. When
XP came along, by that time there was more RAM, improved CPUs, larger
HDs, more stability so I bought a HP XP and used it until the day it
died. (W95 and W98SE were given away still running.) I'm sure OE was
on XP. I took it to a tech at one of the office type stores after my
friend at work also failed to get it booted, and the tech also failed to
get it running again. None of us could get to do a SystemRecovery on
it. No one knew what was wrong with it. Maybe a bad mother board or
some other hardware problem... I never knew. I went home with a HP
Vista 32-bit with WindowsMail. But like the XP before it, one day it
wouldn't load - exactly like the HP XP PC. To make a long story short I
salvaged the HD from the dead Vista DT to save music and images on and
bought the HP W7 64-bit desktop or DT. That had a horror called
WindowsLiveMail. Gimme a break! I was able to get WindowsMail to work on
it and it's still working without a hitch.

Changing the subject for a minute; what's making me a bit leery of
another HP PC, a LT this time is I read/heard that other people are
having the same problems with HP PCs. They "die" almost like they have a
software program to kill the OS after a certain period of time, at 2 to
3 yrs old. Nothing makes them boot up. Have you heard or read anything
about this? Maybe it's just rumor. Lots os BS goes around. I hope so,
but I never had a problem with W95 and W98SE not booting to a boot disk
so a SystemRecovery could be done. Both ran great until the day there
were given away.

This LT is Vista 32-bit, a Gateway I bought back in the summer of 2008.
It's gotten plenty of use and never had one problem with it until this
new email compression issue mentioned in the new thread. A
SystemRestore didn't help.........








--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

In '96...it was not called Outlook Express. Nor was the Win95
included news/mail program called Outlook Express. Outlook Express was
released for use with Internet Explorer 4 in ***1997***, and not before.

Then what email program was on w95? I remember it as OutlookExpress. I
remember the guy who made it sitting there with me showing me how to add
the info to get my email. And he also showed me how to use Usenet. How
to add NewsServers. He spent over 2 hours that day setting it up.


If you've Vista as long as mentioned above...then compacting on
closing Windows Mail has occurred after every 100 program openings.

If it was compressing them I was not aware of it.


Vista's
Windows Mail or Vista's operating system is not capable of compressing
Windows Mail email.

Well it compressed or compacted or whatever with them after the popup
window asked if I wanted them compressed/compacted - whatever the word
was. WindowsMail came on this LT with Vista 32-bit.







--
...winston
msft mvp consumer apps

Compacted, not compressed.
- fyi compaction in the case of Vista Windows Mail is more closely
related to defragmentation.

--
....winston
msft mvp consumer apps

In the last episode of , "...winston?"
said:

Compacted, not compressed.
- fyi compaction in the case of Vista Windows Mail is more closely
related to defragmentation.

True. But it does free up disk space in doing so, whereas
defragmentation doesn't.

--
"And the information superhighway showed the average person what
some nerd thinks about Star Trek"
-- Homer