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Saturday, August 22. 2009Dr. Mercury's Computer Corner: Lesson 17 - Facts & Fallacies Lesson 17: Facts & Fallacies This is the wind-up to the series. I was reading some comments on RedState the other day and one of the commenters — an obviously very knowledgeable fellow — was clearly and concisely explaining to everyone what the word "bandwidth" meant. By the confidence with which he wrote, there was little doubt he knew precisely what he was talking about. And he couldn't have been more wrong. Nor am I criticizing him. There's a lot of confusion out there, often because a term has two different meanings depending upon context, and such was the case here. With other terms, it might be a matter of people believing the ad hype, or a word's meaning has simply evolved over time. With all this in mind, here's a Points of Confusion list I've come up with:
The goods are below the fold. You might bookmark the page so you can throw it in some blowhard's face the next time you see someone spouting nonsense. For example, it's amazing how many people think that computers "wear out" over time, like a car. In truth, your computer (the hardware part) is just as fast as the day it was made. It's the software that "wears out", but that's easily remedied. If you've found your machine slowing down over time, the solution might be below. Definitions 'Bandwidth' To someone surfing the web, bandwidth is a "per second" measurement. A piece of streaming video is coming down at X kilobytes per second and if you don't have the bandwidth, the player is going to stop to download more data before continuing. You don't actually use bandwidth; it's more like the size of a gate and how much data can get through at any one moment. To a webmaster and his web hosting company, bandwidth is a "per month" unit. It's the accumulated amount of bytes that has been downloaded from the site over the month. If 10 people watch a 10-meg video clip, that's 100 megs of bandwidth used. To a webmaster putting huge videos on his site, bandwidth can be a critical issue. In the old days, web hosting companies really squeezed us poor webmasters, but modern companies like BlueHost have broken down the barriers and are now offering unlimited bandwidth and server space per month, very cool. As a small side note, that's not just hype. I have over 25 gigs on my own site (1,055 pages, 2,205 pics, 303 videos) and at one point a while back I put the link to my 'The Day The Universe Changed' (an old British TV series) page on a blogsite and, according to the site stats, all kinds of people were watching it, yet no one complained of any 'stuttering' from the player. Not a bad deal for $6.95/mo. 'Image' This little rascal actually has five uses:
'Resolution' Like "bandwidth", this has two very different-yet-related definitions. Originally, it meant the "saturation" of a picture. Basically, how many little color pixels were crammed into a given space. The more pixels, the higher the quality. The pictures we see on the computer usually have a resolution of 72, which is the beginning of 'photographic quality'. The only place this definition is still used today is in the printing field. When monitors started growing in size, they needed a word for "screen size", and somebody deemed "resolution" to be the word, and that's how it's used today. As in, "My monitor has a resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels." 'Disc' & 'Disk' If it's round and flat — like a discus — then it's a "disc". CDs, DVDs, phonograph records are all 'discs'. If the disc is within a container, like a hard drive, then it's referred to as a "disk drive". Remember floppy disks? Although the flimsy platter inside was a 'disc', the whole thing was a "floppy disk", or diskette, because it was in a casing. There's really no such thing as a "disk". It's either a floppy disk or disk drive. If the item is round and flat and sitting there all by itself, it's a 'disc'. 'Web' & 'Internet' Picture a pie graph. The entire thing is the Internet. A big part of it is taken up by the Web. The address for this area of the Internet is "HTTP:", like you see in a browser address box. When your request gets to the Internet portal, the program sees that "HTTP:" and sends it to the Web area. Another part is taken up by Usenet, also known as "the newsgroups". The address for this area is "NNTP:". These are zillions of message areas where people chit-chat (via message) about whatever the topic of the group is. The downside is that Usenet doesn't have cute pictures and icons and such, but the up side is that it's totally unmoderated. You don't have to worry the power-hungry boss of some web forum or blogsite is going to ban your sorry ass just because you innocently called for the immediate beheading of all liberals. You want freedom of speech? You want Usenet. And another part is taken up by FTP, the "file storage area" of the Internet. It's address is "FTP:". This is a 'raw' file storage area, somewhat like a hard drive, where all you see is a listing of the files. It's to note that there is a large interaction between these areas. You can read and answer Usenet messages using a browser or email program instead of a newsgroup reader. You can access the 'raw' contents of an FTP site with a browser instead of an FTP program. You can put active links to Web sites in Usenet messages just like you do in email. As a webmaster, you view your web site with a browser but you upload new files to it via FTP. It all interfaces quite nicely. However... With all that said, you'd be completely correct by today's standards to refer to the Web and the Internet interchangeably. The Web is the area that gets all the press, and, as such, "the Internet" has entered the general lexicon as meaning "the Web." If someone asks you where you got that cool picture and you answer, "I got it off the Internet", it's assumed you mean the Web. The Internet Connection & Download Rates There are two general measurements of Internet speed; the rate at which you're connected to your ISP, and the actual rate of your downloads. The connection rate is measured in 'MB', or megabytes. The bigger the number, the faster your connection speed and the faster everything should work, be it downloading, uploading, or just browsing. How fast the connection rate is depends on which account ($$) you have with your ISP. The download rate is measured as "KB/sec", or "Kilobytes per second". If a little box pops open while you're downloading something, that's the rate to look for. If you know your connection rate and want to figure out your maximum download rate, divide it by 8,000. A 'meg' is a million bytes. If you have a 5-meg connection rate:
That's the maximum rate you should be able to download. If you're downloading two items at the same time, each download box should be approximately half of that. Four simultaneous downloads would each use about a quarter of the maximum KB/sec. Max bandwidth is max bandwidth. While you should be getting close to the maximum rate, there are a lot of factors involved and you may not get the absolute max. If you're getting significantly less than your max, then you've got a legitimate beef with your ISP and you should have them come out and check the line to the house. It's not unusual for the cable connection up on the pole to get a little crusty over time. Download Accelerators There is no such thing as "accelerating" your downloads on a proper-running machine. Your maximum download rate is determined by the connection rate to your ISP, and it's a finite, limited number. A 'gate', if you will. You can't get around it by being clever or sneaky. Max bandwidth is max bandwidth. If a "download accelerator" actually does improve your download rate, then it's re-tweaked some system setting that was out of whack to begin with. Just guessing, but installing it on machines that were purposefully put out of spec is probably how they put together impressive-sounding before-and-after numbers for their advertising department. Windows 98, ME, 2K, XP Users: If you want to make sure your machine is tweaked correctly, go to SpeedGuide, hover the pointer over the 'Broadband' menu on the left, then 'Registry Tweaks', then select your OS. When you get to the Downloads page, download both the standard tweak for your OS and the 'Web Patch' for your OS. That web patch might actually double your browsing speed in certain situations. Windows Vista Users: You probably won't want to touch anything unless you know you have a download rate problem (and you're sure it's the computer, not something like a bad cable connection) — at which point you should start going through the site's Vista tweaks one by one until you nail the rascal. On the subject, there's a big difference between a download accelerator and a download manager. A download manager queues up files and downloads a bunch of them together, just to make sure the download meter's pegged. They also can resume a broken or stopped download, a very handy feature. But there's no pretension that anything is "accelerated." I've used GetRight for years. Web Site "Hits" Not only is the terminology misleading, but there are easy ways to grossly inflate one's stats, which somewhat renders the entire subject pointless. The basic problem is the word "hits". Every item on a web page; every icon, picture, background graphic, etc, is considered a "hit" by the browser. In the old days of slow modems, you could actually see the browser saying "Connected to..." as it downloaded an icon, then it would go blank, then say "Connected to..." again as it downloaded the next icon, each 'Connected to' being a "hit". If you hooked up a site counter to a brand new site, you'd go to the site once and the counter would read something like "13 hits." Nowadays, speeds are so fast that you don't see that little 'Connected to..." message, but the browser's still looking at each piece of the page as a "hit". So if you hear somebody refer to the massive number of "hits" their site gets, take it with a boxcar of salt. The proper terms are "visitors" or "page views", and that's broken into two categories; total "visitors" or "page views" per month and the "unique visitors" the site gets; that is, how many new people came to the site that month. Unique visitors are the "fresh blood" of the industry and are probably more important than "page views" when it comes to getting people to click on ad banners. But as far as 'visits' or 'page views', these stats are very easy to inflate in a couple of ways, and the era of tabbed browsers has totally skewed the results because of the "auto-refresh" so many sites (Drudge, Instapundit, Townhall, etc) use. Picture this:
And for those not using tabs, consider that Drudge doesn't open a new browser window when you click on a link. That means you have to hit the browser's 'Back' button to get back to his site — and there's another 'visit'. Read a number of links and your one visit just became ten visits. No matter how you play it, the numbers are vastly inflated. In the meantime, Drudge touts the big numbers to his advertisers and charges accordingly. It's not an outright 'scam', but it's damn close. What You're Seeing Isn't The Web Not to put too fine a point on it, but as long as we're tackling computer misconceptions I suppose this should be briefly mentioned. When you're on a Web site, you think the files you seeing displayed are on the site, right? Nope. Every single file you see or hear on the Web has been downloaded to your computer first. Most of it's residing happily in your 'Temporary Internet Files' folder. The Web is actually a glossy coat over the FTP part of the Internet, its file storage area. A browser is a big interface that automatically downloads these files from the FTP area to your computer and then displays them for you. Realistically, it doesn't make any difference whether you're seeing files on your own computer or on a web server, but it does raise an interesting point about copyright law. Let's say you have an art gallery of pictures online and suddenly some company is claiming you "stole" a picture from their web site. Well, no, technically you plucked it out of your Temporary Internet Files folder. Nobody "stole" anything. And, if it's sitting right there on your computer, then you certainly should have the right to do with it whatever you want, right? How in the world, Your Honor, is poor little you supposed to determine which pictures in your Temporary Internet Files folder are copyrighted and which ones aren't? And, if a big company like Microsoft thinks it's perfectly legal to download the picture with its browser in the first place, who are you to argue otherwise?? I'm being (a tad) facetious here, but it's an interesting point. If the browser has automatically downloaded a file and it's sitting right there on your computer, it's a little hard to argue that you "stole" anything. Cookies It's amazing how many times I've seen supposed experts warning people about those vile, evil cookies. Yet, to the best of my knowledge, no one has ever gotten a computer virus from a cookie. If you read an article on the latest worm or virus to hit the scene, you'll see references to "Java" and "ActiveX", but you won't read the word "cookie" anywhere on the page. Cookies are tiny files that are sent to your computer by a web site. They have two main purposes:
The latter is why cookies have acquired the reputation of being 'invasive', and why almost every "Make Your Computer Secure!" article tells you to turn them off, but there's simply no justification for it. Login-wise, they're extremely helpful, and who cares what companies know about your browsing habits? Until you start seeing "Wild Cookie Runs Amok!" in the news, appreciate them for the good they do. Software Mac vs The PC When it comes to the ol' Mac vs Windows debate, it can be summed up with one simple question:
Quick: Which operating system are you using? What's that? Don't know? Can't tell? Well, doesn't that prove the point? People talk like they "use" the operating system whereas, in reality, they very rarely "use" the OS; they just use the programs that run on it. Once your browser or word processing program or whatever is up, the OS you're using is almost irrelevant, nor could you even tell which OS you were using outside of a few menu and icon differences. If you're talking about stability, that's a whole different story, and I'd match my PC against any Mac in the "stability" department, any day. It almost never melts down, and the few times it does it because I'm trying out some goofy video program written by some college kid that locked up the system's video drivers. But my Windows XP, itself, is solid as a rock. When it comes to programs, there is nothing the Mac can do that the PC can't, and vice versa. And most good programs these days have a version for both platforms. And both systems can run 'emulation' programs which can simulate the other platform, so even if there was some perfect program only written for one of the operating systems, you could still run it on the other. The one place where there really is a discernible difference is when it comes to hardware, but even that's something of a moot point. Yes, the computer store has a billion more things for the PC than the Mac, but the question is, how much of it do you really want? Once a computer's running and assuming it's got all the usual peripheral devices, you might want a little doo-dad or two in the future, but most likely there'll be a version for both platforms. There might be six versions for the PC and only one for the Mac, but as long as the Mac one does the job, who cares? The whole Mac vs Windows argument is blown way out of proportion. What many consider a matter of life and death rates an "almost inconsequential" in my book. Related (semi-humorous) article here. Firefox Measuring browser popularity is almost impossible. It simply depends on what type of site you're measuring. Taking a page out of Apple's playbook, Firefox has pitched its browser as the counterculture program of choice for those wishing to buck the Establishment, so both techies and left-wing bloggers (and some 'maverick' right-wingers) have glommed onto it. They praise it on their site and the bleating acolytes and drooling sycophants jump on board. As such, if you monitor a techie site or a political Lefty's site, it wouldn't be surprising to see over half of the users using Firefox. To counterbalance that, here are last March's stats for a (completely non-techie, non-political) company I used to work for. There were 34,934 'unique visitors' over the month:
So when you hear wild claims of how popular Firefox is, take it with a boatload of salt. Context is everything. By the way, before the pitchfork-wielding Firefox crowd comes after me because I've dared question their obamafication of Firefox, let me quickly point out that I'm using it right now. For online editing, it just blows the doors off IE. It's also quicker, more stable, and often does a better job displaying certain blogsites, like Maggie's. Just so you know. Macs, Firefox & Malware By the statistics, two things are certainly true:
Likewise, two other things are true:
Newer Isn't Necessarily Better There are certainly times when a program upgrade makes a real quantum leap, doing something noteworthy and is deserving of a fee for the hard work involved. But, overall, I'd say 90% of all updates are meaningless. If you actually look over the list of 'improvements', it's almost always fixing some bug because some geek discovered the program wouldn't work with his ancient video card made in 1987 — and other items of that magnitude. A user complains, the programmers rush to fix the bug, and, the next thing ya know, another "update" hits the market... for only $49.95. Another common tale is using some program and just having a great ol' time with it, then buying the upgrade and finding out they've eliminated your favorite feature. Or 'improved' it somehow, maybe by making it 'automatic', and you're simply crushed. It's the incomprehensibility of the situation that's so frustrating. Over the years, having tested hundreds upon hundreds of programs and updates, the most common question I have is, "Didn't they even use this thing??" It just seems so obvious that if they'd actually sat down and used the program like we do, they'd realize the way that favorite old function worked was just perfect — and certainly didn't need any "improving". I mention below how the computer price vs power story is a perfect example of capitalism at its best, but this is the downside of capitalism. Constantly feeling the pressure to compete and stay on the cutting edge, companies feel a moral imperative to continuously fiddle with things, often fiddling them right into nonworkability. Then their long-time customers abandon them in droves for a better product and they sit there scratching their heads thinking "I don't get it! What went wrong? We worked tirelessly to constantly improve our product!" Screensavers Screensavers, those cute effects that display when your computer has been idle for X number of minutes, haven't actually been necessary for over a decade. In the old days, when monitors were much cruder, if you left a page open for hours and hours that had a black bar running across a white background, the bar would actually 'phosphor burn' the screen pixels and you'd see a ghost of the bar on the screen for the rest of the monitor's life. Hence, screensavers hitting the scene so no hard black-white edge would have time to burn the monitor. These days, though, they're just a gimmick, albeit a harmless one. And, admittedly, some of them are pretty cool. But your monitor, itself, doesn't need 'saving' anymore.
Backing Things Up The problem with a normal backup program is that it works on a file-by-file basis, but some of Windows' files are "in use" and can't be copied. Thus, you can't make a complete backup of your system and, come the day it melts down, you've got to reinstall Windows. The backup program will have saved all of your personal files, but, unless you know how to install Windows yourself, it's going to cost a couple of hundred bucks at the shop and you'll lose your machine for a week while it's being done. And that's not to mention $250 for a new copy of Windows unless you've got your original install disc. It's not a pretty picture. An image file backup program works on a drive sector basis and doesn't even look at the files as "files". It just copies everything on the drive to one great big file. This is the pro way to go. I would suggest using Acronis True Image, and either get in the habit of running it once a week (takes about 3 minutes), or just tell it to back up the entire system automatically when you're not using it. If you just install the program and start making image files, you'll still lose any bookmarks, email, pics, etc, that drifted in since the last time you made an image file. There is, however, a way to put all of these items on a separate drive so you don't lose a single thing. More info here. Hardware Memory & Hard Drives Newcomers often have a hard time distinguishing between these two, and the computer ads are rife with misleading claims. A hard drive is a little metal box inside the computer that has a spinning disc inside, just like a CD. It can be written to and erased from. Memory is a chip on the motherboard and is like a 'work area' the computer has while it's turned on. When you run a program, it copies itself and a bunch of support files to memory. This is so everything will run faster since it's being read electronically from the chip, rather than having to physically be read off the hard drive. A big program might use up 15 megs of memory, a medium-size program about 10, a small program maybe 5. So, if you ran Internet Explorer, MS Word, Photoshop, and a bunch of smaller programs, you might use up 100 megs of memory. When computers got to 256 megs of memory, that was really enough at the time. But, under the heading "Bigger Is Always Better!", everything out there now has 1,000 megs of memory (1 gig), if not two gigs, and soon to be even more than that. As a small side note, Windows Vista is a huge memory hog (not especially while it's running, but it needs a huge overhead) and has been a big driving force behind the recent surge in memory on new machines. As far as hard drive space goes, a gig would probably last most people a lifetime. We're at the 500-gig threshold as of this writing, and the price of terabyte drives (1,000 gigs) is just now starting to fall, so that'll be the next big push in the ad biz. "You are nobody unless you own a hot new terabyte computer!" It just sounds cool. The one exception to all this is working with video. Unlike everything else (pics, text, emails, etc), videos can gobble up an immense amount of hard drive space, and you need a bunch of memory if you're going to work with video tools. They're also the one exception to faster CPUs, which I'll cover next. The amazing thing about what's happened over the past 20 years is, while everything was getting bigger and bigger and bigger, the prices got smaller and smaller and smaller. The dropping of computer prices while the units have only gotten more and more powerful over the years is really the quintessential example of capitalism at its best. Faster CPUs The CPU (Central Processing Unit) is a great big microchip that sits in your computer. It's what does all the 'thinking'. Along with bigger hard drives and more memory, the ads also demand you buy a faster CPU. Well, one thing is for certain: When you open that MS Word letter to Grandma with your hot new machine and its blazing "dual-core" processor, it is true that the document will open approximately 0.375 seconds faster than on your old machine. So you'll have that going for you. There is only one situation where CPU speed makes the tiniest bit of (real) difference, and that's converting a video from one format to another, known as 'rendering'. At that point, it's strictly numbers. If it takes two hours to render a movie with a 1 GHz machine, it'll take half that on a 2 GHz machine. So, that's an hour saved with a faster CPU, a discernible difference. While it's certainly true that a faster CPU will help speed up screen displays a microfraction, and copying large files from hard drive to hard drive might be a few seconds faster, and programs will pop open a tad quicker, for the most part the average person wouldn't even notice the upgrade. With that said, if you wanted to upgrade just one thing on your computer, I'd make it the CPU. At least that'll do some good — as referred to totally wasting the money on memory or hard drive space you'll never use. Computers Wearing Out No, computers don't "wear out". Not in the slightest. Your computer is exactly as fast as it was the day it was made. They do, however, slow down over time due to software bloat, and for three very understandable reasons:
If you want to verify how many background programs we're talking about, go to the Start Menu, 'Run', type in "msconfig", click OK. Click on the 'Startup' tab. Defragmenting Hard Drives When a computer writes information to a hard drive, it usually writes it in small chunks. If it sees an empty spot on the hard drive's disc that will hold 25 sectors of information, it writes the 25 sectors and then looks for the next empty spot. As such, by the time a large program is written to the drive, the pieces might be scattered all over hell and gone. When you fire up the program, the little arm with the magnetic pickup on the end (much like the tone arm of a record player) has to skip all over the disc reading the information and the program takes longer to load as a result. A defragmentation program rewrites everything on the drive in solid chunks so the info can be read in a single spin of the disc, taking less time to load and popping onto your screen just that much faster. At least, that's how it used to be. In the old days, hard drives were much slower than they are today. And I mean that literally, in the sense that they spun around much slower. When they got jacked up to 5,400 RPM, the whole 'defragmentation issue' somewhat went away, but when they hit 7,200 RPM, it became meaningless. The 'read time' of a modern hard drive is so fast that the extra micromilliseconds it takes to read from multiple spots on the disc simply can't be measured in human terms. A couple of years ago I decided to make the ultimate defragmentation test. I filled up a normal Windows system with programs, deleting and reinstalling them, making copies of huge folders and deleting the originals, even making a copy of the 'Windows' folder via DOS at boot-up, deleting the original folder and using the copied 'Windows' folder, so by the time I was through there wasn't an original file left on the drive. It was Fragmentation Heaven. Then, stopwatch in hand, I made a number of drive-intensive tests. I made a copy of a 4-gig file. I Zip'd a folder with 5,000 files in it. I frameserved a large video file and normalized a large audio file. That poor little hard drive arm was working as hard as any arm ever worked. I carefully scribbled down the exact times. I then defragmented the drive with Norton SpeedDisk. I rebooted and ran the program again, just to make sure the files were as defragged as possible. I then performed the drive-intensive tests again. The times were identical. I was actually surprised. I honestly expected the times to be a bit faster, at which point I'd take the stance that spending an hour defragmenting the drive wasn't worth saving a few seconds here and there — but the times were identical, right down to the second. Printer Ink Costs What's that? Printer ink's a rip-off? Not even. If you do much printing, you should get down on your knees and thank the Printer Gods for having the wisdom and foresight to include the print head in the ink cartridge and not the actual printer. Unless, of course, you don't mind buying a new printer every few months. The "print head" is a micro-small orifice or 'jet' through which the ink is sprayed. The friction of the ink eventually starts wearing the inside of the jet, widening it. Result? Blotchy printing. You want your printer to provide you with years of crisp, professional print? Then you put the print head in the ink cartridge, even if it doubles the price. ____________________________ If you can think of any other 'points of confusion' that should be on the list, let me know in the comments and I'll get to it ASAP. If you want to get a cool blog or web site going, check this out. __________________________________________________________ A few personal notes. Greetings to my old friends. Long time, no For you new arrivals who missed my posts of the past, you might want to give this page a once-over, just to see if anything looks interesting. Those are all just tips & tweaks. The heavy-duty stuff is here. If anyone's interested, my web site's back online. For you Mac users who are still gunning for me because of the heinous, scurrilous things I said about your beloved up above, I'll have you know that I spent approximately 1.2 zillion hours converting my entire web vids library over to FLV format so you can see them as easily as the PC'ers. Check this out. Regards to all,
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Though you must have either died or landed in jail, Dr. M.
Good to see ya. thanks! bd -
you must have either died or landed in jail Or both! It's such a common event these days. Well, unless you're the Lockerbee bomber, of course. Good to see ya. thanks! And thanks for the warm welcome. I'll have a couple of fun goodies to post over the next few weeks. We'll do "The Day The Universe Changed" series again, plus the great BBC series, "The Planets". At the moment, I'm feverishly stealing borrowing some of Penn & Teller's 'Bullshit' series for my site. The show has kind of disintegrated in the past few years, but the first season was chock full of neat stuff. (How "full" and "chock full" differ is beyond me -- but I'm sure there's a difference!) jma - Thanks to you, too. Nice to be back among such a bright group.
Listen, Merc, i paid good nothing for your column, and i DO NOT appreciate your just taking a vacation anytime you jolly well feel like it!
The administration will be contacting you for your papers. Dear Mr. Larsen:
Management appreciates your grief, just as much as it appreciates the hard-earned nothings you've paid to view this site with. There is, however, a technical problem. You're still speaking parenthetically. You remember how you used a starting parentheses mark about a year ago, but never used a closing one? That means you've been speaking parenthetically this entire time, as we are at this moment. As an master of the human condition, I'm sure you agree that it's hard to take anyone speaking parenthetically seriously. You're always thinking in the back of your mind, "Yeah, but what do you really mean?" The problem, as I'm sure you're aware, is that things have now snowballed to the point where your using a closing parentheses mark might not do much good. It may be that parts of you will be speaking parenthetically for the rest of your life. I'm sure you won't make THAT mistake again! And thanks for touching bases. I've always enjoyed your comments. I especially look forward to that mid-comment moment when the psychotropic drugs kick in. Combined with the caffeine, nicotine and booze, it's always a sight to behold. I believe there are at least six major universities where, for the psychology students' oral exam, the professors simply go to Maggie's Farm, point to the latest Buddy Larsen comment and say, "Explain that!" It's nice to have a place in life. Best regards, as always, Doc I'm sure you know best about the Mac vs. PC controversy, but from the point of view of an amateur user, all I can say is that Mac is just easier. The instructions for installing new devices on a PC are always 10 pages full of stuff I find incomprehensible, but a Mac is just "plug it in and turn it on." It also seems a lot easier to find things. It's true I use Parallels for those occasions when I'm stuck using a Windows program. That happens when I need to use the same program as someone else, so I didn't get to choose, or on the rare occasions when I can't find a Mac version of a program I want to use by myself. But every time I have to turn on Parallels and go into the PC side of my Mac, I'm reminded of how much I disliked the way Windows works. Also, PCs seem to lock up and crash a lot more often.
One more BIG difference: Mac tech support actually offers technical support, unlike any PC manufacturer I'm aware of. You always get a nice young man with excellent English who answers the phone promptly and works courteously on your problem until it's fixed. It's like a time capsule. LOL--the vacation did you good, Dr Merc --"bet you won't do that again" (that thing one does for the rest of one's life, that is) is a scream! Not a 'good' scream, unfortunately, but what the hey!
Tex -
Excellent comments, all. Right from the get-go, one big blow-it on Windows' part was to put the Task Bar at the bottom of the monitor. I was an Amiga enthusiast for years and, like the Macs and Apples, the task bar ran along the top of the monitor, a much more user-friendly spot. They call them drop-DOWN menus, after all -- not drop-UP! So right from the start a PC feels a little more clunky than a Mac and harder to use. On the flip side, it would be unfair to blame Windows because a bunch of manuals are too techie. Windows has been at the forefront of "plug & play" from the beginning, and, indeed, coined the phrase. As far back as the Windows 98 days, Windows has been accused of being "bloated" because it brings with it a ton of drivers so plug & play devices can do just that -- plug in and start working without having to run some install disc or chase down the driver on some web site. So I'd say Windows is "as good as it gets" when it comes to plug & play devices, but the instructions -- yeah, they're usually pretty bad. As far as rigs locking up, that can only be based on individual machines. If I weren't a video nut and didn't run oddball video programs, I wouldn't even be able to remember the last time my machine froze up. As far as tech support goes, Apple has always shined. (hey, an apple joke!) My neighbor has one and said pretty much the same thing you did. He has a problem, he makes a phone call, he gets it solved by a person speaking actual English. I've watched him do it. Like you said, you feel like you're watching a rerun of 'Back To The Future', the gas station scene. T'anks for the feedback, Doc On bandwidth....
I am still and will forever be stuck on the true meaning of the word, regardless of who co-opts it next. The term means, hold on to your seats, the width of a band of frequencies. The bandwidth or a telephone and its associated circuitry is about 3,000 cycles per secondHertz. The bandwidth of a 100 megabits per second Ethernet connection is about 1000 megahertz. The underlying problem is that technical people have an inherently limited vocabulary and so they must recycle the words they know to mean completely unrelated things. Dr. Mercury,
As a semi-retired professional, I've stayed away from delving too much into "computer technology". It confused me. I've always lived by the thought that: 1/ the more I know the more I know I don't know and 2/ with so little knowledge I become dangerous ! (only to myself). I've always relied on knowlegable friends to advise me and this has worked out just fine....saves me from having to defragment my brain on a regular basis. My career (ATC) used a PC operating platfrom and I always made sure I controlled it (not the other away around). I was never a "techie". I have been a 'Maggie's subscriber' ( not unlike "pay good nothing Buddy") for some time now and only today read through your post for the first time, although I've seen them in the past. Thanks for a VERY informative read. I shall ensure I keep up-to-date with your future posts and will attempt to scour the archives for the knowledge I have missed. This could be scary though!! ?? Cheers, Garry To clarify, the bandwidth of a telephone circuit is about 3 kilohertz because it will pass tones whose frequencies are between about 300 Hertz (r a little more in poor circuits), and about 3300 Hertz (or somewhat less--3000 used to be a popular number because of signaling at 3500).
Larry -
The problem in the online world is that the two meanings are based in entirely different realities. On the user's end, it's a constant, second-by-second event that has no end or beginning. It's always part of the system. For the webmaster, it has a distinct beginning and end (the month) and the in between part is up for grabs. If no one goes to the site for 29 days, then 10 people watch a 10-meg video on the 30th day, that's 100 megs of bandwidth used. While they're both talking about "amounts", the actual meanings could hardly be any different. The underlying problem is that technical people have an inherently limited vocabulary and so they must recycle the words they know to mean completely unrelated things. That's what happened with "resolution". It was just sitting there, innocently meaning one thing, when suddenly somebody decided it meant "screen size". Daffy, but that's the way it goes. Garry -
Glad you enjoyed the post. Did you catch that link down at the bottom? Some of the tips & tricks are pretty cool. Just steer clear of the Lessons and you'll be fine. The problem with the Lessons is that it brings us back to this: the more I know the more I know I don't know You decide to master graphics, and do. But then you realize that that's pretty close to video, so you master that as well. But that means you also have to master audio, so you do that, too. But then you want to put them online so you post a video to YouTube and promptly get called a moron by the first 2,000 viewers. So you decide to put them on your own site, so now you have to learn webmastering. But now you're thinking about incorporating your new knowledge into a part-time business which means you have to learn desktop publishing in order to print a brochure. But that means- Et cetera. So, yeah, it's a real Pandora's box. Pry open a corner and get sucked in for years. On the other hand, you save a helluva lot of money on printing costs, webmasters, getting the rig fixed when it melts down, and all that. So it's not just a 'hobby'. This could be scary though!! You think that's bad, I've got to go evaluate Windows 7. :) Surely you would have gotten a "fatal error C1057" message from the compiler by now.
Bwah-hah! Very clever! I had to go look it up:
Visual C++ error messages: Fatal Error C1057: "The compiler reached the end of the source file while gathering macro-invocation arguments, probably due to a missing right parenthesis in the macro invocation." That's right, Buddy -- you could blow up at any second! Having worked with PCs and now owning a Mac, I still think much of the argument boils down to religious issues. Whatever you first learned was good and divine and the "other" is bad and evil. And I've spent more than my share of time in "DLL Hell".
Saw this sort of thing in the early(er) mainframe/mini days between IBMs and VAX/Unix/etc. And as you state, the PC gets a lot of crap because it DOES a lot of crap. Apple could have been in the M$'s shoes today but they wouldn't rush things out to market like M$ did, and thus were able to maintain more "control" of their OS design. While I admire the commitment to integrity, I believe that if the situation had somehow been flipped (yes, absurd due to what I just stated), there would be complaints about how stupid a one-button mouse is, and why can't Mac run this cool thing that my PC runs. Plus the damn things are ridiculously expensive, but you get what you pay for (analogies to health care and politics here that you could write a book about). Actually, rather than Mac/PC debate being flipped, they are probably be arguing Mac/Linux in some parallel universe right this very second. Dr. Mercury,
Thanks for the comments...I just tried the bottom link you mentioned and, both times, all I got was the "Program Not Responding" panel. You (or my computer) must have the "Garry Filter" activated...hopefully to protect me from myself ?? !! I'll try again later. Cheers P. s. 'enjoy' that Windows 7 eval ! G -
"You (or my computer) must have the "Garry Filter" activated...hopefully to protect me from myself ?? !!" Exactly. When BirdDog said, "So, what keyword can we use to try out the new spam filter?", I immediately responded, "I'd use 'Garry' -- just like everyone else does." And thanks for helping out! Try the links again. They just worked for me. The server must have been having a hiccup. P. s. 'enjoy' that Windows 7 eval ! (ptooie!) This is not a pretty picture. :[ These days I, like most people, use a PC to browse the web, watch video (including DVDs), and the like. EIther WinTel or Nac can do all that I want. Mac seems a bit easier to use.
But... Things were not always thus. When I first bought a personal computer I was tech-support for my company's mainframe, and wanted to be able to connect to it from home. First up: instead of the then-standard 300baud (!!!) modem, I could get a 1200baud for a WinTel (OK, IBM-lookalike) PC. And I could get a package (freeby, yet) that emulated the type of terminals the mainframe supported - for WinTel. I never bought one, but there were even hardware add-ons that could simulate the company mainframe - for WinTel. These were not only unavailable for Apple - if they had been, using such third-party harware voided the Apple warranties. So... An IBM-AT clone. Now, I just do not see a need to switch. Unless someone offers a straight-up trade, which I might consider. KRW -
While I'd disagree with you about it being "religious" (I'd view it more as 'cultural'), I'd certainly agree with this: "Whatever you first learned was good and divine and the "other" is bad and evil." That's what made Apple's massive donations to schools back in the 80's such a brilliant move. It could be argued that if it weren't for that, it'd be a cute telephone company today. Handing them out to schoolkids raised a whole generation viewing it, as you said, us-against-them, good-against-evil. Or evil-mongers, to stay up with today's parlance. John -
"...instead of the then-standard 300baud (!!!) modem, I could get a 1200baud" 1200 baud? Awesome. And I know exactly what you said when you go it: "Well, that's it! I'll never need to buy another modem! When you get up to 1200 baud, you're in the stratosphere, baby! No one would EVER need to go any faster." I know, because that's what I said. Of course, we also said the same thing about hard drives. When I got my big 30-megger, it was "That's it! I'll never have to buy another hard drive! I can't even conceive of having more than 30 megs of files!" Such innocent times. :) Dr. Mercury,
No need to waste more of your time but I tried 2 more x and it continued to freeze...hasn't frozen-up for months! I guess a name change is in order...I'll apply on Monday. I'm a northern neighbour so hopefully it's not international in nature? The Canuck Garry -
and it continued to freeze...hasn't frozen-up for months! Frozen? Easy for a Canuck to say! Well, Garry, I'm sorry to give you the cold shoulder, and I hate being frosty with you, but you really give me the chills! If you snow what I mean! I'll have to talk to BirdDog about this. I'm quite sure he's aware that anti-discrimination laws apply to both Canadians and regular people equally, and, by law, we're forced through Affirmative Action programs to allow at least one (1) Canadian visitor a month. I'll lobby on your behalf for September -- that's the best I can do. In the meantime, what browser are you trying it with? And, if I may ask, do you -- or do you not -- feel any remorse for breaking Maggie's Farm? The way I see it, it's kind of a "you touched it last" story. Worked fine for me, then not for you. Ergo, you broke it. Simple logic from a simple mind. :) My problem is this--the term tells us how wide the highway is, people use it tell us how mqany cars use it--and how man slots there are in the parking lot.
I have no hope of changing anybody's mind. Nice work and necessary, by nthe way. I'm glad I no longer have to deal with the Fieldata COBOL compiler that told me on occasions "Statement is vacuuous."
Dr. Mercury,
Guilty?...as charged! Remorseful?...hell yes! Plse pass along my regrets and apologies to Maggie. "I'll See You In September" is playing in the background. I've a Windows XP Professional platform using Internet Explorer (6 I think). As soon as the Phishing Filter activates it stops. All the other links worked fine. The Canuck Larry -
"My problem is this--the term tells us how wide the highway is, people use it tell us how many cars use it--and how many slots there are in the parking lot." Exactly. And good of you to sum it up in such a concise manner. To a user, it's how wide the highway is which, in turn, indicates how fast he can drive on it. More lanes means there's more room to swerve around the slowpokes. The webmaster is the parking lot owner. If your ISP says you can only fill 150 slots that month or pay dearly for the extras, then you only fill 150 slots. I knew we'd work this out. :) "I'm glad I no longer have to deal with the Fieldata COBOL compiler that told me on occasions 'Statement is vacuuous.'" True, but now you have to hear it being said about the White House. (thu-dump!) First 'puter I persuaded my wife to let me buy (time has mercifully dulled the memory of the price) for the house (read: me at home) was an XT clone put together by a foreign-born person working in a small store-front in the old Hillsdale Shopping center. In later years he had a name-plate made up--mine had none.
But it had a 20 megabyte hard drive ("full size"). People told me I had bought a crippled machine, the XT would never sell because it only had one real (read "floppy") disk drive and there was no way in the world that I would use up 20 megabyte of space. (The machine I am working as has a gigabyte of RAM!) Garry -
"Guilty?...as charged! Remorseful?...hell yes!" That's an excellent attitude, good friend. Now, if you'll just leave your credit card number and expiration date, we'll get this baby working again! That repair shop isn't cheap! "'I'll See You In September' is playing in the background." Ya know, you just don't see a lot of Tempos references these days! "As soon as the Phishing Filter activates it stops. All the other links worked fine." Hum. Okay, that means you're using IE v7 (or 8), because v6 doesn't have a phishing filter. And neither of those two links at the bottom of the post worked? How about the ones to my site and other sites on the page, like True Image? Let's figure out if it's a Maggie's-only problem first. Larry -
"People told me I had bought a crippled machine, the XT would never sell because it only had one real (read "floppy") disk drive and there was no way in the world that I would use up 20 megabyte of space." Well, discounting my amazement that you thought you'd ever fill up a gigantic drive like a 20-megger, the people were wrong. Before hard drives came out, yeah, one definitely needed two floppy drives or you couldn't do shit. Me, I was smart. Seeing the writing on the wall and knowing it would only be a matter of years before I filled up an almost-unbelieveable 20 megs, I bought the 30-meg drive, absolute top of the line and state-of-the-art at the time. And it only cost a mere $925. "(The machine I am working as has a gigabyte of RAM!)" And what's really sobering is, with Wnidows Vista, you now need a GIG of memory -- just to boot up! Dr. Mercury,
All links (including your site) except the very last one (right above your "Regards to all" closing) activated immediately. And Explorer 7 it is. Certainly don't want to waste your valuable time but I've quite enjoyed the comments, advice and the chuckles. But, you have work to do. If my situation makes it to the 'Maggie's Kitchen Table Review Committee' stage please let BirdDog (and all attending members) know I do have a family connection to the Allston, Mass area (you know...right around the corner from "Havad Yad") and Tom Rush is an extreme favourite. I know one must be cautious when one reverts to name dropping (the wife's uncle was a District Court Judge, Majority Whip in the Mass State Legislature and a friend to 'Tip" O'Neil) but, when all else fails.....go big or go home!! Continued good health to you and yours, I remain... The Canuck P. s. not invoking closure...merely freeing you to TCB...all suggestions/help greatly appreciated. Garry -
Now that we're friends, can I call you by a nickname? How about "Canucky"? Or just "Nooky" for short? Thanks. Dear Nooky: "All links (including your site) except the very last one (right above your "Regards to all" closing) activated immediately." So, all the Maggie's links work and one of the links to my site doesn't? That last link goes to a page of Flash videos, but I can't see why a filter would block them. Open IE 7's Internet Options and glance over the 'Security', 'Privacy' and 'Advanced' panels, looking for some "Allow videos, you assholes!" box you can check. If that's the only link that's not working, then it must have something to do with the videos. "But, you have work to do." Now, let's see. If I were Dr. House, I'd say that actually you have work to do. No? House is big on armchair psychology. I, myself, wish I had work to do. My "work" consists of sitting around and praying the phone will ring for one of my two businesses. "If my situation makes it to the 'Maggie's Kitchen Table Review Committee' stage please-" Not to get hung up in details, but the actual name is the "Whose Worthless Ass Can We Ban THIS Week?" committee. But please, continue. "-let BirdDog (and all attending members) know I do have a family connection to the Allston, Mass area (you know...right around the corner from "Havad Yad")" Christ, Canadians are lame. It's Hahvad Yahd! That 'h' is essential when trying to convey the true context of inbred English. "I know one must be cautious when one reverts to name dropping-" No, no! I think it's absolutely essential when one has massive minus points against him from the outset (male, really old, Canadian) to utilize every resource at his fingertips. You're only doing what you have to! "I remain..." And our deepest condolences, of course. Personally, I think you're very brave to tough it out. The long, bitter winters. The ice melting from the igloo during your three days of summer, making a real mess of things. The constant mockery from the world because all you can turn out is maple syrup and comedians. The fact that your biggest accolade is that you're our closest northern neighbor. Brave, indeed! Were we talking about something? Oh, right -- the links. What happens if you go to my site, click on 'Media', then 'Short Web Vids'? Does everything work fine until you get to that page? In reverse order:
1/ I checked your site and it wigged out @ "Short Web Vids". 2/ Everything works fine 'til I attempt to activate the last link. 3/ Not in the market for condolences (yet)...maple syrup is the best; comedians only so-so. As for "the biggest accolade " comment...I have recently seen some "Let's make the US our 11th province" campaign posters appearing on front lawns...(lol) 4/ "really old"...nah! 5/ "Christ, Canadians are lame!"....never did master spelling 'Boston-American English'. I had a teacher, once, who did ask me "Don't you know the Queen's English?" To this admonishment I respectfully replied.."I always thought she was". I do "knower" where I "pahked the cah" though! 6/ now...the nickname...careful now...someone might just clip your Nike flight feathers!! Your advice is greatly appreciated. I'll check out the "Internet Options" route and see what happens. I do have 'Pop-ups" blocked so that may be it. I'll take my homework to heart. As noted I checked your site and it shorted out @ "Short Web Vids". It must be my settings. They are queuing behind me for computer access so I'll say "Ciao" for now. I've enjoyed the banter and the advice. Cheers, Garry Dr. Mercury,
Not bad for a young feller. Hey, I worked on vacuum tube machines. An observation on program upgrades. I've seen hundreds, maybe thousands, of applications evolve over the years. The good to great ones are conceived and written by either a single person or a small, cohesive group. They use the lessons learned to produce the best version that will ever be - Version 2.0. That's when the maintenance programmers and the marketing guys take over. The maintenance programmers are the the third string. They play whack-a-mole with reported bugs, often creating five more bugs for every one they fix. The marketing guys bring on feature-itis - you know, a football attachment for your basketball glove. It's just the way of the world - or as the classical physicist would say, "Entropy". Regards, Roy Dr. Merc,
Don't usually reply to myself but, can you confirm I need 'Adobe Reader' to open that link. I just realized I have Adobe Reader 8 but not 'Flash Player' (I used to but it's been erased (by my sons). Garry Dr. Mercury,
This may be the fault: I don't have "Active X Control" installed. It was removed (not re-installed) over a year ago when the 'youngins' helped to invite a virus upon us and my 'puter doctor described the malware, spyware and adware security problems associated with its use. I've researched the security problems (on Google) and it suggests that, since Microsoft supports Active X and, when combined with Internet Explorer, security problems (can) abound. Am I on the right track here? We've split the thread here so don't forget to check responses to #15 below. Cheers Garry Agree completely about version 2.0. And a good bit about small, cohesive groups, which is part of why I'm a big believer in Agile programming. Having been on both sides of the maintenance issue, I gotta say a huge part of the whack-a-mole problem stems from poor (read: non-existent) documentation. Sure, it's clear as day to the guy who wrote it, and he would probably have little difficulty adding the new feature that marketing wants. But from my experience, even the best designed systems have flaws that are glaringly exposed when a new feature needs to be added. And from what I can tell, that is the way it always will be, so good, readable documentation is extremely important if the product is ever going to adapt to the changes in the marketplace.
Garry - don't mean to putz out on you but a couple of Netflix discs drifted in today that I'm dying to get to. We'll pick this up in the AM.
Not a problem and no 'putzing out' detected on this end.
Thanks for your time. Garry Roy -
"Not bad for a young feller." For someone your age, I believe the proper term to use would be "whippersnapper". Nonetheless, as a 59-year-old, I revel in your comment. :) "They use the lessons learned to produce the best version that will ever be - Version 2.0." That's really a brilliant statement. Version 1.0 is a great tool, and much appreciated, but it's lacking a few things. Feedback from the users produces v1.1, v1.2, etc, then the programmer gives it a much-needed facelift, adds in those last few goodies, and v2.0 is released. It looks great, works perfectly, and you figure there's just no way it could ever be improved. Ha ha ha. Then, as you said, the next thing you know the Marketing boys get hold of it and it's New Feature City from there on out. And who doesn't need a football attachment for his baseball glove? Thanks for the excellent comments, old codger. Garry -
First off: "I checked your site and it wigged out @ 'Short Web Vids'." I'd like to heartily congratulate you for doing your part to prevent global warming. The way you saved precious pixels by using "@" instead of "at" is the quintessential example of someone who cares about the planet. Sure, it seems a little odd for someone who lives in the frozen tundra to want the earth to be cooler -- but never mind that now! What's important here is that you're a "man of action", leading the way for others to follow. Good work, big guy. "where I 'pahked the cah'" Pefect! Notice how well the h's convey the effete, elite snobism so richly merited by the Bahston crowd. Good job! In regard to the page not opening, no, it's not ActiveX, no, it's not the lack of Adobe Reader. If you've had Flash removed, that's the prob. Those are all Flash videos and if it's not on your system, something's confused and is sending up warning flares. As far as ActiveX goes, yes, it's a doorway to hackers, but a properly protected system shouldn't have any problems. And, if you download many files, I believe it's ActiveX that pops open that download bar that runs across the top of the browser. Plus (to complete the circle), it's required for both Adobe Reader and Flash installations and updates. As far as Adobe Reader goes, there's nothing potentially harmful about it and you need it for the occasional PDF file. I believe there was a hole in Reader that was exploited a few years ago, but that's long been closed. And I (almost) can't believe you don't have Flash installed. Don't major news sites look a little, uh, bare without it? Almost every animation or video you see on major sites these days is in Flash format because it can be viewed by any operating system on any platform. As far as I know, there's no security issue with Flash. If there is, we're all in a heap o' trouble. Suggestions: 1. Put in ZoneAlarm Internet Suite, Flash and Reader. 2. Go to the local flea market and buy the kids their own rig. 3. Use the BIOS to password-protect your system so the little imps can't even get it to open Windows. That "logging in" business is fine when it comes to cosmetics, but (as is obvious) they can still screw up the system by deleting or disabling things. 4. Enjoy your computer as it should be enjoyed. You should also be using a drive image program like Acronis True Image to back up your system once a week. As I said in the lesson, regular backup programs aren't worth dick. Then, when the little imps mess it up next time, one quick routine and everything's back to normal. Another benefit of True Image is that you can purposefully mess up your system, then return it to normal. For example, I'm going to be posting a video here in a few days that was an absolute bitch to get. There were crappy YouTube-quality versions around, but I wanted a high-quality copy. I finally found one on some video site, but in order to get it I had to install THREE programs on my computer: a special video codec, the special player, and the special download manager. Plus I had to join the site and a few other hassles. I first made an image file of the system, then installed all the garbage and finally got the video in my hot, grubby little hands. Then I used True Image to put the original system back in. It's far better to do it that way than to trust that Add/Remove will completely get rid of all the crap the three programs put in. With an image file, it's simply as if the entire sordid event had never taken place. BTW, did you happen to click on the "Bag O' Clips" link below it? Those are all WMV vids and should play just fine. Back to you, Doc KRW -
"even the best designed systems have flaws that are glaringly exposed when a new feature needs to be added." The funniest thing I've seen in the past year was when Mozilla was hyping the release of v3.x of Firefox. On their web site they had a big graphic saying: OVER 15,000 IMPROVEMENTS! Of course, what that's really saying is, "This piece of shit had 15,000 bugs!!" Apparently, someone at Mozilla saw it the same way and the graphic was removed the next day. I've been kicking myself ever since that I didn't make a screen-grab. It needed to go in some "Great Moments In Advertising" pictorial. Dr. Mercury,
Thanks for your comprehnsive response. I'll sift through the advice and proceed accordingly. The lack of Flash has caused me no concern to this point. I'm not looking for 'bells & whistles' on the news sites I visit...just the meat. The youngins are now beyond the Limewire stage and McAfee is performing well. We stick with one computer as the youngins (late teens...not tenteen or eleventeen) get enough online and X-Box time as it is. We were late in having a home setup as we used the library for our early computer needs. From the time they were 4, an hour or so a day sufficed and the deal was they came home with a book. Once they hit highschool the home site appeared. The result...2 teens who are computer savy and enjoy reading books (and continue to) at a level well above their ages, with excellent comprehension skills. All in all things have worked out just fine. When I brought up the Adobe Flash download site last night it indicated that I needed Active X to proceed and that is why I stopped (as mentioned I removed Active X some time ago). I do need a good backup system, though, and I take that one to heart. And I'll visit your early lessons and gleen what rings with me. Again, my thanks Cheers, Garry Garry -
"and McAfee is performing well." With all due respect, if you're removing ActiveX and Flash because of troubles, then I think it's apparent that McAfee is NOT performing well. Here's the skinny: McAfee was one of the very first anti-virus companies and for a decade it and Norton were always at the top of some tester's "Best Anti-Virus Programs" list. The last time I perused such lists, about four years ago, neither McAfee or Norton were even in the top ten. Panda, AVG, ZoneAlarm, BitDefender, et al, had all passed them by. And, again, if you're making such radical changes to your system as removing integral components, then that makes a statement unto itself. I know you're not laced with bucks, but ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite is only 50 clams, and well worth it. It's a 3-way combo; firewall, anti-virus and anti-spyware. I take it you didn't look at the "Bag O' Clips"? Keep it in mind for the next rainy day horrific sleet-driven arctic snowstorm. It's pretty cool. Back at ye, Doc Thanks, Rosie. Stay tuned for some fairly interesting things coming your way. Next up is the coolest "airline disaster" special I've ever seen. After that, some examples from one of the cleverest web sites in town. Lotsa fun stuff on the agenda.
Best regards, Doc KRW,
You are absolutely correct about the documentation. Over the years I have seen hundreds of thousands of pages of systems documentation. It invariably stinks. Unfortunately the very best all time methodology for systems design and documentation was passed over years ago. I met Ed Yourdon in the early 80s in NYC when his company was working on one of the first C compilers for the PC. Under his tutelage and collaboration Tom Demarco introduced the world to "Structured Systems Analysis" and he and Larry Constantine layed the foundations for the formal analysis of coupling and cohesion in a system. In the mid 80s I acquired the "Visible Analysts Workbench" from Visible Systems Corporation. and used it to design and build a number of large systems. One experience in particular might be illuminating. About 6 or 7 years ago the company I worked for contracted with the University of Washington Capital Projects Management - essentially a huge general contraction operation- to introduce them to the Visible System product. I spent three days doing an analysis of the whole shebang, conducting interviews guided by the tool. On the afternoon of the third day I presented the work in progress to a meeting of the department managers - about 30 of them. The first comment I got at the end of the presentation was "Wow, I learned more about how this outfit works in two hours than in the five years I've been working here". The other essential tool, the command and control side, is State Transition Diagrams. These are also part of the workbench. The Structured System tool integrates the data stores and data flows with a more than adequate data dictionary. It mathematically analyzes the data elements, picking up dangles and missing elements. Each element in the system can link to external documents. For example, in the process specification you can immediately display scanned copies of the hard copy documents and relevant policies and procedures. This tool is used by many of the largest shops in the world, AT&T amongst them. I got it for $800. Roy Merc,
Actually I added McAfee abt 3 yrs ago when I had the virus problem and nerry a problem since. I had been using a freebee (can't recall which one) but you get what you pay for. As I now recall I never had Flash (only Reader) and the Active X was needed for what the youngins were into. No radical changes per se as I upgraded from Windows 95 to Windows XP (at the time of virus removal) for update purposes and future work possibilities after retirement. The money per see in not a problem but I look for value vs cost. I've heard of both AVG and ZoneAlarm and, at $50 for the Internet Security Suite it sounds like a good deal. I'll investigate that when the current McAfee runs out (just renewed Aug 14th). The reason I mentioned Active X occurred when I went to dwnld Flash last night and it said I needed Active X...thence the reason I didn't proceed until checking with a higher 'puter power (that's you!). Your thoughts would be appreciated...... I'm about to 'grub down' so "Bag o' Clips" will be my dessert. I'll report back ( I assume it's on your site). Cheers, Garry Garry -
Well, if McAfee is doing a good job, then what's the hesitancy to reactivate ActiveX? (I assume you didn't actually "remove" it -- you just disabled it in IE's Options, 'Advanced' panel) As I implied earlier, ActiveX isn't just some 'option', it's an integral part of the system. Downloads, installations, updates; all kinds of things rely on ActiveX. It's what makes IE functional, rather than just being a 'web displayer'. And remember, if you're using something like True Image and suddenly you do get some nasty on your system -- so what? Just fire up True Image and put in last week's image file. Bingo, you're back in business. And if you do the tricks in the page linked to in the above Lesson, you won't lose a single bookmark, email or whatever in the process. Hope you enjoyed the Bag O' Clips. Great section, eh? Did you have any favorites? Back to you, Doc Merc,
Checked the "Advanced" panel but no ActiveX. Also looking for JavaScript). Wasn't aware it was part of the XP download. It was "removed", I thought, dumping the 95 and upgrading to XP. Previously, when the youngins wanted to download a video game (yrs ago) I believe a panel popped up and 'said' to dwnld ActiveX to use the video. Oh well...back to Doc Merc's Lesson #1. A computer is simply a tool, for me, that I use occasionally during my day. I don't get very deep into the technical end of things. I spend more time on my Larrivee. I'll probably just fireup a Flash dwnld (with ActiveX) and see what it do!! As for dessert...I'm still hung up on the ni**le. Didn't check out much...not a Carrey or Martin fan...Carrey's just one of our bad exports IMO. Steve plays a fine banjo though!! Favourites??......YES! Again, thanks for the info. It will be applied as I move ahead with my advancing computer knowledge. It's in your court..... Cheers Garry Garry -
And a happy Monday to ya. (oxymoron?) "Checked the "Advanced" panel but no ActiveX" Whoops, I meant the 'Security' panel. Click "Custom Level", make sure the little drop-down menu says "Medium", then click "Reset". That brings everything back to stock settings. "Also looking for JavaScript" That's the 'Advanced' panel, about halfway down, the "Java (Sun)" entry. Should be enabled. Plus, you need to put in the Sun Java plugin, if you haven't, if you want to see all Java applets. (basic Java applications will run without it, but not the fun stuff, like on my web site) "Wasn't aware it was part of the XP download. It was "removed", I thought, dumping the 95 and upgrading to XP." You can't "remove" ActiveX, just disable it. Nor is there any way to keep XP from installing it during an install or upgrade. The thing about ActiveX is that it isn't just one program. Like, when you do a Flash upgrade, it says it wants to install ActiveX, but (I believe) if you look closely, it's a specific type of ActiveX they want. The 'core' ActiveX is already in the system. Ditto the first time you do a Windows Update manually. It wants an update to ActiveX installed. "I spend more time on my Larrivee." Hot licks! I have a 40-year-old Guild 12-string sitting about five feet from me. "As for dessert...I'm still hung up on the ni**le." Did I lie? Professionalism does show! Let me know what happens with the ActiveX/Flash hunt, Doc Doc,
Actually 2 Larrivees (L09 + L19) & Washburn (narrow body) 12 string...(only use Elixir med-light Nanowebs) good to hear you pick a tune or two!! (are you a Tom Rush enjoyer?). Found the 'disabled' ActiveX settings under "Security" last night. Was never much of a 'panel popper' but it's all good. I can't recall if my original 'comp doc' disabled it when he set up the machine or if this a default position. Either way, I shall probably proceed. My only hesitation is the "cautions" I continue to read as I Googled ActiveX again...some were from MicroSoft as well but related to older IE's I think. I hope Maggie doesn't begrudge the extended threads of my education here...I don't want to bore anyone. All the best and thanks for your patience...something about 'an old dog and new tricks' (easy...the "old" is only part of the expression!). Again, my thanks. Garry Garry -
First off, I felt guilty the other day after saying all those bad, heinous, cruel, evil (however justified) things about Canada the other day, so I decided to make up for it by saying some good things about your great principality, or township, or whatever it is you call that thing up there. Unfortunately, a Google search for "good things about canada" only yielded three hits, and they were just the usual accolades your "nation-state" (wink-wink) gets. "Most igloos in the world". "Famous for being just north of the United States." "Great place for sport snowshoeing." The usual stuff. So I went over to that last bastion of reason and sanity, Wikipedia, and, while they didn't actually have an entry for "Canada", you did merit two whole paragraphs on their "Fourth-World Countries" page. Quite the accolade, that, and I can see your chest swelling with pride. Two! Plus, the two paragraphs had nothing but good things to say about your fair land. Let me quote: "The best thing about the Canadian province is its size. There are roughly 38,360 square miles of room for every resident, so you never have that closed-in feeling." Sounds pretty good, buddy! Plus: "And then there's the cold weather. There are advantages to living on top of a glacier! With global warming and the earth to reach the boiling point within 5 years, think of all the money we'll make with 300 million desperate Americans clamoring to get in! We can charge those bastards anything we want! Muah-hah-hah!" So, assuming you won't mind parting with some of your personal 38,360 square miles, it looks like your financial future is assured. Finally, and I shit you not -- I actually did a Google search and found this said about Canadians: "Quieter than the average European." Now if THAT isn't a feather in your cap, I don't know what is! "are you a Tom Rush enjoyer?" Not particularly, although he does some nice stuff. On that level, I'm more of a Lightfoot fan. Of the 200-odd songs I do, probably most of them are Dylan, followed by Lightfoot, a handful of Elton John, bunch of Beatles and Byrds, some of Donovan's best, half-dozen country-western tunes, etc. Not 'eclectic' by any stretch. All of them folk-rock, country-rock, pure rock, or rock & roll. "I can't recall if my original 'comp doc' disabled it when he set up the machine or if this a default position." Whichever, set it to 'Medium' and hit the 'Reset' button. You're good to go. The next time that little bar running across the top says it needs an ActiveX plugin, do it (as long as you trust the company). "some were from MicroSoft as well but related to older IE's I think." Correct. Any ActiveX issues were resolved with version 7. It's still a focus of hackers, but as long as you keep your Windows Updates up to date, you should be fine. And keep your latest True Image backup file safely tucked away, of course. "I hope Maggie doesn't begrudge the extended threads of my education here." Of course not. Your Visa card number (obtained via your email address) and the subsequent charges have already proven that you're a man of means, and we look forward to doing further business with you. Your motto is obviously "Spend! Spend! Spend!", and that's the kind of customer reader we like. "I don't want to bore anyone." Too late. :) Seriously, Maggie's, located in what's generally referred to as The Frozen Hinterland, welcomes and embraces global warming, so you're encouraged to blatantly waste as many pixels as you can. And I'm happy to help on this end. "the "old" is only part of the expression!" So you say. :) So, got that 'Short Web Vids' page working yet? Doc Doc,
The instinct for brevity plays out in this response...thanks thanks thanks...on the computer end. 'ppears I can help you on your continuing education on all things Canadian...1/ Canada is NOT a province...et al ! There...that's done... I'll let you know how my downloads work out. I'll have to incorporate True Image before I proceed. Cheers Garry P. s. LIghtfoot (of course), Dylan (when you could understand the lyrics), early Donavan and many you probably haven't heard of (some are canadian eh!). Garry -
"The instinct for brevity plays out in this response...thanks thanks thanks...on the computer end." We thank you... Your Visa card thanks you! "Canada is NOT a province...et al!" How about "Backwoods Collective"? No, wait -- I got it. Colony. You've got the Queen on your money, right? Colony. But thanks for playing, just the same. :) "I'll have to incorporate True Image before I proceed." Smartest thing you've said yet. And go ahead and do the full routine, just so you won't be unsure when-, I mean IF the day comes and the whole thing melts down. - Install program. - Burn a boot-up CD or DVD. - Make an image file of the C Drive. - Slip the disc in the drive, reboot, let the True Image boot-up program load (use the "Full" selection, not the "Safe" one). Takes a minute or two so be patient. - Click "Restore", find the image file, pick the C Drive from the list and write the image file to it. - Remove the disc, reboot, and pray to God I know what I'm talking about. :) If the machine doesn't boot from the disc, do this: - Right after the machine is turned on, if it's a black screen, look for instructions on how to enter the BIOS. It'll usually be the Del key or F10. If no black screen pops up (it's just a picture for the first few seconds), hold down the Del key and see what happens. If nothing, try F10. If still nothing, try F1 and F2. One of those should get you into the BIOS. If not, do a Google search for "(your computer brand and model) enter bios". - Use the arrow keys to navigate, Enter key to enter a highlighted area, ESC key to go back up a level. There should be a panel labeled "Boot-up" or something similar. What you're looking for is a "drive order" function. You want the ROM drive to be listed above the hard drive. That is, the system first looks to see if a bootable disc is in the drive, and, if there isn't, it turns to the next item, the hard drive, and boots from that. To reorder the list, look at the bottom for instructions. My BIOS uses the Page Up and Page Down keys to push the entries around. When-, I mean IF the machine melts down, you're going to be in a state of panic, so do the above once, just so you'll know the routine. If it isn't booting from the disc, you want to solve that now, not then. "some are canadian eh!" Eh! While it's fun to pick on colonies and the like, I have nothing but respect for Canadians as people. As evidenced by the great number of Canadian actors, comedians and musicians, they're obviously an inately talented people. IMHO, the only people to rival them on the comedic level are the Aussies, whose sense of humor I just adore. When-, I mean IF you ever get Flash installed, one of the best skits on the Short Vids page is titled "Shades of Monty Python", an Aussie production. Brilliantly done. (pulling up Visa AutoCharge™ program, hitting 'Pause' button) Back to you! Garry,
Here's an early Dylan that I've renamed "Anthem for a Tea Party" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgECKj9LSH4 Roy Roy -
Did you happen to read the poster's comment? It was quite revealing. Normally, you'd post a Dylan tune and expect a bunch of comments on both the song and the musician, himself. But not with the Obamaniacs on the loose. Can you say "thread highjacked"? I've been asked a few times why I've disabled the comments to this video. In fact I've been accused of being close-minded. The bottom line is, I really don't have the patience, or - in truth - the mental fortitude to deal with people who think Obama is anything more than another puppet on the stage that is the New World Order. I really don't. So much for talking about Dylan songs! Dear Doc,
Sorry, had no intention nor even gave any thought to hijacking the thread. I've been a Dylan admirer since the first cut on his first album. I often go to the web page that has all the lyrics to all his songs. Late in the evening, good brandy and a fine cigar, pick songs at random and read the poetry. I have to agree with a bunch of folks that he is the finest poet in the English language of the twentieth century. "The Times They Are A Changin'" always struck me as somehow discordant - seemed to be a bit disconnected with the world as it was then. You know, one of those early throw-aways that he used to break into the Greenwich Village "scene" of folk singers. He was just 50 years early - ever The Prophet. I think it is now compellingly relevant to the political mood in this country today. Again, I apologize. Roy Roy -
I didn't mean YOU had highjacked the thread -- I was talking about the YouTube thread! The poor girl merely uploads a fave old Dylan tune and apparently (according to her statement), the Obamaniacs came out of the woodwork. I woulda shut the thing down, too. Sorry for the misunderstanding, Doc Doc,
De nada. I have an inordinate understanding of misunderstandings. I was married three times. On another note - I have been experiencing a great deal of difficulty navigating web pages of late. For example, I can access this page from bookmarks but the "reply" link doesn't work. I have to reenter from the original home page. Same for both IE and Firefox. Same thing is happening on a number of other sites. Perhaps I've been infected by an entirely new species of virus - one that can reach out and blap the session context on the server side. Gotta admit that once I see a virus or malware I can figure out pretty quickly how it's done but this one puzzles me. Roy Roy -
Thanks for the great Budweiser post. Goddamn chill went down my spine. Re: the browser problem -- that's a toughie. If you go to the comments via the email notification, the Reply often doesn't work but once, but a bookmark isn't the same thing. Plus, as you said, it's not a Maggie's-specific problem. Nor, for that matter, does it sound like a virus symptom, which only leaves the core system. Although it's after-the-fact, you should investigate True Image and the image file backup routine. Garry and I have been talking about it in this thread. The is the perfect situation for it. If it were me, I'd first run a fix-it program like Norton WinDoctor, but, granted, if one doesn't have SystemWorks, it'd be cheaper just to buy a WinXP 'update' disc -- since chances are you'll end up buying one anyway. WinDoctor is good for 'easy' problems, but it doesn't like digging into the system files very much. If you already have a Windows installation disc, you could always do an 'overinstall' and see what happens. You can't break anything -- it's already broken! A few programs might not work afterward and may have to be reinstalled, but at least the system would be fixed. Let me have a few more particulars and let's see if we can work it out. What OS, amount of mem, browser versions, whatever you can add to the mix. "I have an inordinate understanding of misunderstandings. I was married three times." Best damn line of the day. :) Thanks Roy,
I'll check it out. I do like early Dylan. And he is a true poet. Been hearing about a lot of 'Tea Parties' down there...good to see. The whole issue seems as if it's becoming an 'Obamination'. Garry Doc,
I've got the whole damned MSDN development kit - over 100 CD's. The virus thing was a bit of a joke. I've done a bunch of server side web development and have hooked the Windows file system deep in the guts of the operating system. Bye the bye, the Windows OS looks just like the Xerox Data Systems UTS (Universal Timesharing System) I lived inside of 40 years ago. Same thing - message loop, interrupt handling, NTFS, on and on. I'm tempted to employ my favorite old time trick for intermittents in a mainframe - use a hammer. That's not a joke. I spent many an hour using one of those large plastic handled screwdrivers rapping on rows of circuit cards to find the finicky little bastard that caused the system to crash every 20 minutes or so. Maybe I'll just go play golf or get in some fishing for a couple of days and the problem will solve itself. If that doesn't fix it I'll load my old copy of CPM (Digital Research OS, original competitor of DOS), hook in the Model 35 Teletype machine I have in the garage and see if the old Compuserve telephone number still works. If that doesn't do the trick there's always cheap gin. Doc, thank you very much for offering to help. I really appreciate it. I'll probably do like I do with wives - just get a new one. Roy |
Tracked: Aug 22, 15:29
Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-screen mode every time it opens, and for small programs that tend to open wherever they want (like Calculator), it will make them open righ
Tracked: Nov 29, 10:03
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-s
Tracked: Jul 10, 11:25
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-s
Tracked: Jul 10, 11:28
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-scr
Tracked: Jul 22, 19:51
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-scr
Tracked: Jul 22, 21:41
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-s
Tracked: Jul 23, 13:09
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full-s
Tracked: Aug 28, 08:33
Here's an index of my Maggie's Computin' Tips. I can't guarantee all of these will work on every Windows operating system, but most should. Programs AutoSizer — This has two great uses. It'll pop open the browser (or any program) in full
Tracked: Jan 08, 20:00