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The Curse of a New Computer 2005-12-14 Let’s get the curse out of the way
first: I curse Bill Gates so that when he dies and goes to hell he has to
spend eternity installing Microsoft software. My old computer died two weeks ago. It was
a trusty, overbuilt, over-clocked DIY project that had its origins in 2000. I
was always fiddling with it, adding new or additional hard drives, upgrading
the optical drives, the mouse, the keyboard, adding new devices such as USB
and Firewire boards, installing new software, updating software… It was never
the same from month-to-month. I had devoted loads of time and effort to
customizing and tweaking the machine. But the motherboard died, so I needed a
new computer, immediately. I quickly examined the internet using
my lab machine to see what was locally available that would be an acceptable
tradeoff of features and price. Best Buy offered an eMachines model that
would do. I called them to make certain it was in stock and off I went. When
I got there the salesman dissuaded me from buying the computer I wanted
because if I bought a package, including that computer model, an LCD monitor
and a cheap printer, the total price after rebates would be less than buying
the machine alone. So that is what I did. I do not care for LCD monitors so I
gave the LCD monitor to my wife because she needed the desk space she would
recover by replacing her old CRT. As an aside, LCDs are still vastly
inferior to CRTs when it comes to display. Yes, they do take up less space,
and are more energy efficient, but as a display, the most basic function of
the monitor, they still are a distant second to CRTs in response rate,
quality of image and range of resolutions. CRTs may not be fashionable but
they are the better monitors. I had no immediate use for the printer
so it sits in its box in the basement waiting for the day I do have a use for
it or I throw it out. It seems wasteful to me, but the rebate for the printer
equaled its cost. So why not? Once I got the equipment home I began
the tedious and lengthy process of setting up the new machine. It took me
many hours over 5 days to get it to a reasonable level of doneness where it
would be useable day-in and day-out. It took 72 reboots to get to this point.
Yes, I kept count. This was a terrible waste of time and
effort. I blame Gates. He has cheated us all with his awful implementation of
the Windows OS, including the need to activate. What I should have been able
to do was install the old machine’s C-drive in the new machine. Then the
machine should have accessed the internet to download whatever drivers it
needed to accommodate the new machine’s hardware. This should have taken me
about 30 minutes total, to swap C-drives, download and install drivers, and
reboot, just once, to a fully functional, fully customized “old” machine. It
should not have taken me most of the week. I wonder when the last time Bill Gates set up a new computer, probably not in a decade or more. Intellectual Property – DRM,
DMCA, Patents and Copyright 2005-11-14 A recent Over the last several years technology
news services, bloggers and their readers have devoted a lot of attention to
IP issues. One of my favorite stories of the past week is Sony BMG Music
Entertainment’s troubles with their most recent music CD copy protection
scheme. When a user puts the CD into their PC, Sony BMG Music Entertainment
installs hidden software that limits ripping and copying the music on the CD
to another CD, computer, or MP3 player like an iPod. This is one of the
harshest attempts to enforce DRM (Digital Rights Management) that I know of.
Many other writers have noted issues with Sony BMG Music Entertainment’s
methodology, the lack of disclosure and the remedies they have offered to
remove the offending copy protection software. It has been reported that some
European countries are conducting criminal investigations into Sony BMG Music
Entertainment’s use of this software since it looks and acts like a virus or
Trojan horse. Several antivirus software companies have labeled Sony BMG
Music Entertainment’s efforts as malware. And there is a reported discovery
of a computer virus that utilizes the Sony BMG Music Entertainment hidden
software to its advantage. Further complicating the story, some writers have
suggested that any attempt to remove the offending software from the users’
computers is a violation of the DMCA (the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.)
All in all, it’s been a debacle for the purchasers of the The strange world of software patents
has also been a major story in the technology world for the past several
years. Many applicants are receiving patents for what appear to be obvious
ideas, often based upon prior art in the public domain. A recent example of
this is a company that claims to have a patent on XML, a public standard for
transmitting hierarchical information, even though XML is derivative of SGML
and HTML and pretty much everything about XML is obvious. Seems the Patent
Office takes an application and if the correct fee is attached issues the
patent, leaving IP attorneys to wrestle with the consequences. The attorneys
are happy to litigate the matter since they are handsomely rewarded for their
efforts. Of course the larger part of the population is screwed by this inept
government performance. The most amusing recent development in the IP world is the patent application for a story with a plot. It reads Process of relaying a
story having a unique plot Abstract A process of
relaying a story having a timeline and a unique plot involving characters
comprises: indicating a character's desire at a first time in the timeline for
at least one of the following: a) to remain asleep or unconscious until a
particular event occurs; and b) to forget or be substantially unable to
recall substantially all events during the time period from the first time
until a particular event occurs; indicating the character's substantial
inability at a time after the occurrence of the particular event to recall
substantially all events during the time period from the first time to the
occurrence of the particular event; and indicating that during the time
period the character was an active participant in a plurality of events. I am hopeful that the applicant
receives a valid, enforceable patent, which would really help those lawyers I
mentioned above. So where am I going with this? It has
been said that information wants to be free. I agree. I believe we should
change the IP laws in the N.B. The
foregoing is copyrighted. Exploring 2005-10-24 We’re
all swimming in information. We have too much information about too many
things that we don’t need to know about. You can see the stats on how many
times a professional baseball player sneezed last season or in his career.
You can see his sneezes-at-bat percentage and you can find out his ratio of
sneezes to rbis. Okay,
so there’s too much data for most things in our lives, but the opposite
applies when it comes to Microsoft’s view of what a computer user should know
about their computer’s file system. Microsoft thinks you shouldn’t see your
hard drive’s directory structure, and maybe it’s okay if you see the files
and folders in “my documents”. They also think you shouldn’t see much
information about a file, just its name attached to a super-sized icon that
represents the type of file it is. And you only get to see this if you choose
“File Open” from an application’s menu. Once
upon a time Windows Explorer was prominently featured as a way to navigate
the directory structure of a computer. As time progressed and Windows version
numbers evolved, Windows Explorer became less and less prominent until in the
current Windows XP the wise marketers at Microsoft hide it under the “Start,
Programs, Accessories” menu. When
I help a client find a file, and yes, people lose their files on their
computers all the time, I first walk them through finding the trusty Windows
Explorer application. The default settings for Windows Explorer hide the file
extensions and system files, thereby complicating matters. So we need to
change Explorer’s settings to show those things that should be shown by
default. Then we need to change Explorer’s view to the details view from
large icons view. Now the user can be smart about files rather than left in
the dark. Now we’re ready to work some file magic. Some
knowledgeable users may ask why I use Explorer in all its glory rather than
the search function from the start menu. It is because I do not like animated
dogs on my computer. It is troubling to me that Microsoft thinks we are
children who need eye-candy to use their software. Some of you may wonder why
I want to expose the system files to the user and risk damaging the operating
system. Well I think it’s important for a user to have an understanding of
the organization of their computer’s directory structures so that when file
problems arise they have a chance at successfully and efficiently dealing
with them. Microsoft disagrees with me. Most
people are pretty smart, but they lose confidence when they are seated at
their computers. In my experience people are more cautious in using their
computers than they are behind the wheel of their cars where they could kill
someone, even themselves. This doesn’t seem rational to me. I don’t think I
can change driving habits, but I can influence computer habits. So I want to
build confidence by informing them about their data, what it’s named and
where it’s located. If
a user shows signs of proficiency, I’ll even recommend a Windows Explorer
replacement application like xplorer² Pro
that ramps up the user’s power to manipulate their files and directory
structure to an expert’s level. But even if you stick with Windows Explorer,
you’ll be much better able to cope with file-mania than without it. So
go out and find Explorer. Play with it. Change its settings to show file
extensions and systems folders. Put the full directory listing in the address
bar. Explore the Byzantine directory structure that is Windows. Look in the
“Document and Settings” directory. Spend a few minutes looking through the
“Program Files” folders to see what applications are installed on your
computer. You may be surprised at how many folders and files reside on the
average Windows computer. The number on your machine can easily exceed
100,000. If you want
to see a really easy navigation system I recommend checking out Google’s
Gmail. It‘s easy to search and find items, which you would expect from
Google, and it is a snap to organize, unlike Microsoft’s approach. It is too
bad Google doesn’t make operating systems. |
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