Tech Geek Jay

Whats so great about the new iPhone 4s?

2011-12-18T12:37:00.001-08:00

Lots of people have posted lots of stuff about this infernal smartphone. But here I am going to cut to the chase. There are perhaps 3 major developments. And one of them in my opinion obsoletes all other phones.

1. Speed. This phone is blazing fast. Can you say instant? I mean, this thing is fast.
2. Camera. This is why my wife upgraded. Really, it rocks. The only camera I have that is better is my Canon digital rebel SLR.
3. Siri. If you haven't already heard, this is the near instant digital assistant you talk to. You don't just give her commands, you have conversations with her. It completely changes how you interact with your computer (the iPhone is a Mac computer if you didn't already know). This is science fiction cum science fact. The speech recognition is nearly flawless, and it not only recognizes commands, but responds to conversations and intelligently interprets intended meanings.

My prediction: within 2 years, Siri will reach the status of cultural icon. It will become so indispensable that iPhone market share will only increase as people grow into understanding how to use it.

So, Apple does it again: the hype for a product seems too good to be true, but the reality makes the hype an understatement. Damn them, now I have to buy some more Apple products! On the agenda for 2012: two MacBook Airs, Apple TV, and hopefully another (used) iMac or two. Anyone have a part time job I can take up?

How do you report Spam Text Messages?

2011-12-12T16:52:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been happily asleep, when you are awakened by the ding of a text message, only to find it is some gambling site trying to get you to log on? Now, there is something you can do about it! You know, sometimes it takes a while before the left hand learns from the right, but apparently phone companies have been learning how to handle SMS Text Spam. Finally!

FIRST TIP: DO NOT REPLY TO THE MESSAGE! Note the picture below, they say "Write NO to end" - yeah, right. I bet you anything that is a scam to get you to send them a message, which they can legitimately charge your cellular account any amount they deem. Plus, it confirms to them that your number is valid, and they can now sell your number to other spammers.

If you have AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint, you can "forward" the message to them. Here are the steps:

Select the message they sent to you - on an iPhone, hold your finger down on the message, and tap the "Copy" balloon that pops up.
Create a new message to 7726 and paste the message. (Double-tap in the text area, and tap the "Paste" balloon that pops up.)
Hit send. You will get a reply message that asks you to send them the number from which the message was sent.
Send the phone number.

That's it! Simple, and the more we do it, the cleaner the system will be.

(Since no other carriers have an iPhone, I didn't check - I mean, come on, just get an iPhone!! ;-) [Seriously, call 611 or your carrier's support line and ask.]

Error installing eFax Messenger Plus on roaming profile

2011-12-06T07:51:00.001-08:00

My work computer has a roaming profile with a Documents library on a network location. Apparently this doesn't work well with eFax Messenger Plus (the reader app to read your incoming faxes from eFax), I get the error: "The specified path is too long: C:\Users\Jay\My Documents\eFax Messenger 4.4" Retry/Cancel. The problem occurred on Windows 7 x64.

The solution turned out to be pretty easy. Windows 7 has a Documents library, which is a collection of folders it uses for "My Documents." You can specify a different folder - I would recommend changing it to a path that is shorter, for example create one. In my example, I create a folder under C:\Users\Jay, make it the default, then install Messenger Plus, then change the default back to resume normal Windows operation.

As you can see, I created a folder called JaysDocs and set it as the default location. The install worked fine.

Have you upgraded to Windows 7 or 2008?

2011-11-03T12:49:00.000-07:00

In This Post

What's Wrong with the latest Windows?
Taking Out The Trash
The Problem of Landfills
Solutions

What's Wrong with the latest Windows?
Here we are on yet another rant regarding the pathetic quality of the world's leading computer operating system. Yes, that's your warning! Why, what's wrong with Windows 7 or 2008? They are really pretty, everything runs great!

If you ever wondered what was so great about Steve Jobs and Apple's products, this is another key differentiator. Garbage. What do we mean by garbage? Garbage collection and taking out the trash. In specifics, with computers garbage collection pertains to collecting up unused "pieces" of computer memory - and cleaning up. What kind of garbage do computers collect?

Taking Out The Trash
First, there is RAM - that is, the memory computers use to "think" or process while running. This memory is relatively expensive (say around $10 per gigabyte), and only works as long as the computer is on. Chunks of memory are "allocated" to be used by your programs (say Firefox while you are surfing a web site), and are supposed to be "freed" (or marked available) once the program is done with it. All computers must manage RAM, and Windows does this in a fairly fragmented way. It has always done this poorly compared to other operating systems.

However, my big beef is with persistent storage (in other words a hard drive). Let's take for example, installing a new program. OK, so you know how you constantly have to keep updating your operating system in order to get the latest "security" updates? (Whose security is it anyway, Microsoft's?) How do you think it handles these updates? Well, these updates come in the form of system files. Your Windows system consists of many different files, and Microsoft sends updates to these files. What does it do with the old ones that got replaced? Delete them? No, because what if you want to go back and uninstall the update? (Who ever does, but that's beside the point - what if?) It keeps all these files in what it calls the "Windows Side By Side" directory (winsxs). All thus junk just collects. And collects.

What about the TEMP folder - did you know about that? On every system there is a temporary folder where files are stored - temporarily - on the hard drive. However, what is the definition of temporary? What really happens is files get put out there, a small percentage get removed when the computer is done with them. The large majority of these files just collect.

Windows has something else you may or may not be aware of - I call it the "trash" heap. The Heap, and the Hive, are where Windows stores all this various stuff that is not files, but it still "needs." Why the double-quotes? Really, it is only a Windows thing. The Registry is stored in the Hive, and provides a central database of installed applications and their settings. This Registry, the Hive, and the Heap which stores some things about RAM, constantly get written to, deleted from, and basically left like Swiss cheese - fragmented. (How does Mac do this? Instead of a central Registry, each application stores all of its settings within a bundle file which you think of as the application. When you launch it, the bundle is "unzipped" and the files within it are utilized. When you delete an application - the bundle is removed, clean, and simple - you are done.)

The Problem of Landfills
So, what's wrong with the way Windows does things? Guess what - it truly is antiquated. This is technology that was developed, and let's face it not really innovated upon, since the 1980's. Yeah, back when computers were 8-bit, and 16-bit were coming on the scene (not 64-bit...). The more the landfill collects, the harder it is for the workers to truck around all the waste that "needs" to be stored for future disposal. Oh, and who ever goes through their basement and empties out the stuff collecting in it? You just say "this computer is too slow, I need a new one" and just buy a new one - which is just what the computer manufacturers and Microsoft want because you keep spending more money. This landfill of the Heap, Hive, and Registry constantly build up - until you decide to move to a new city. When that city's waste disposal is full - move to a new one.

So, there are collateral damages coming out of this behavior. What happens to the old electronics? Are you guilty of this? Do you throw it in the trash - literally? Well, let's take a look at what is in these electronics, and are they safe for a landfill?

Electronic circuit board components are connected with solder. This is made primarily from lead. Lead, if you don't already know, is toxic to humans, plants, and animals in concentrated amounts. Furthermore, there are trace amounts of mercury, cadmium, and other heavy metals. Did you know that all computers have a lithium battery that keeps the clock running even when they are unplugged? This battery is a standard CR2032 about the size of a quarter, just like the battery in your bathroom scale or electric candle, that needs replacing every 5 years or so (unless like me you set up time synch with the Internet time servers so the clock is always in synch with Boulder, CO). Now, what about those old vacuum tube monitor screens? Many more nasty stuff there. In fact, in some states throwing these things in the trash is illegal. (It should be a federal EPA statute.)

Hopefully you enjoyed the allusion to literal and figurative landfills I talked about here - and hopefully I opened your eyes a little to the impact of your actions on the overall earth and your pocketbook.

Solutions
So how do we solve these problems?

Don't use Microsoft Windows on your computer. There are many alternatives to Windows, some free and work on your existing PC, some cost. Upgrade your Windows to Linux, or if you really are ready to buy a new computer, buy a Mac. Not only do Macs hold their performance throughout the years, but they also have - almost unheard of for a computer - resale value!! Yes, you can sell a Mac for a decent amount of money years after you buy it.
Tune Up Your PC - just like you tune up your car, you have to tune up your computer. You can try to do this yourself, or you can budget in a maintenance cost of taking it in once a year to your local service shop. Find one of those little mom & pop shops - and support local small businesses - the lifeblood of American enterprise.
Become a Mechanic - if you really do want to try to maintain it yourself, I will follow up my next Blog post with some tool recommendations. You can also find some recommendations here on an older post.

Who ever heard of Dennis Ritchie?

2011-10-18T09:38:00.000-07:00

When I was in college, my bible was the thin C primer by Kernigan and Ritchie. I just found out that Ritchie passed away a couple of days ago - with a lot less fanfare than Steve Jobs. However, the C programming language, and the resulting UNIX operating system, have perhaps had as great an impact on everyday life as Steve Jobs. So I want to delve a little into it, so we can all appreciate how incredible Dennis Ritchie's contributions have been.

First, let's look at C. After A and B (yes, really), C represented a huge leap in capability of writing computer software. The constructs were concise, yet powerful and flexible enough to represent anything. Over the years, C has evolved - and morphed (some might say polymorphed). (Yes, hold the groans.)

C represents the base language for C++, C#, Java, JavaScript, Perl, PHP...and the list goes on. In case you were wondering, what products run these? Just about everything. Almost every smartphone, of course every computer manufactured since, what, 1990? Many embedded devices (cable boxes, parking meters, stoplights, you name it).

The UNIX operating system was the first one developed in C. It is also probably the most widely used computer operating system in the world - if you include Mac OS X and all Linux flavors under the UNIX umbrella. You may not realize it, but handheld devices, even computer printers, and more often run some flavor of UNIX. The list is literally endless.

As one of the inventors of C and UNIX, it is extremely difficult to overstate Dennis Ritchie's contributions to all things electronic at this day and age.

So I think, in retrospect, that 2011 will go down in history as the true end of a large part of the second era of electronic computers. The first era, of course, is the vacuum tubes up until the electronic transistor and silicon chips - the second would represent the proliferation and "ubiquitization" of computing devices. As I look around my room, what computing devices do I have? iPhone, Macbook Pro, Comcast remote control, Motorola Comcast cable box, NEC TV, Sony iPhone dock clock radio, Panasonic VCR, and Toshiba DVD player, plus our Panasonic cordless phones. That's just in the bedroom. You would find that many such devices run an embedded UNIX, and even if not, that the software/firmware for the devices was written in a language with C roots.

The New iPhone 4S - Groundbreaking no matter what they say!

2011-10-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Although many people in the press are complaining that the new iPhone doesn't have a different shape, the truth is that this phone - again - totally changes the meaning of what a Cell Phone is.

First, about the kvetches. Why did it take Apple longer than usual to come out with this phone? Yes, it's true I am not an insider and not in the know, but with some knowledge of what it takes to bring a product to market, I can speculate.

New camera redesign - this is totally redesigned not only to perform, but to perform well. It is fast - the time it takes to snap 2 photos is less than to take 1 with the next closest competitor phone (in speed), with amazing clarity and beauty of picture. For example, what's the difference between my Canon EOS digital rebel with 6MB, that it can blow away pictures taken by a newer 10MB Panasonic camera? Optics - it's all in the optics.
Complete redesign of the interior - this means a LOT of testing to meet quality standards. It has to work, and work flawlessly, or they will catch a lot of flack. All the internal changes, means they have to test it out thoroughly.
Siri. In one word, this is revolutionary. Think about it. It is not just voice recognition ("command: Text Julie Come pick me up" ala Vlingo). It is speech recognition - it understands when you say "do I need an umbrella today?" to check and see if it is raining. Did you see the guy jogging, and saying to move the appointment to 12, no 2? This is not the spoken command recognition we've had up until now, this is truly futuristic technology.
Think about the advantages of NOT changing the shape - all the accessories built for the iPhone 4 will work with the 4S. Truly, what's wrong with keeping the shape? One little thing, I would like a bigger screen, but then again - pretty soon it becomes an "iPad Mini".

Terra Nova

2011-10-04T18:27:00.000-07:00

I watched the pilot and second episode of the new show Terra Nova. Have you seen it? A bunch of people from the future - where the world is dying from environmental disasters - travel 85 million years back into Earth's past and set up a colony? Cool idea - good characters, even a good plot, great special effects. However, there is one huge thing that sticks in my throat, prevents me from swallowing the whole thing.

The story follows a family - a cop who was imprisoned for breaking the 2-child limit law, a doctor, and their 3 children as they break their dad out of prison and sneak him into the 10th pilgrimage through the discovered time rift into 85 million BCE. There is an encampment all set up, housing built, and a good start - weapons, vehicles, self-generating power, etc. Did I mention weapons?

So the part that bugs me is this. Of course, they have to fight off the vicious dinosaurs that come looking to make humans their new repast. In the 2 hour pilot, I think I counted at least 5,000 rounds of ammunition fired - often point-blank - into the dinosaurs. A few times, the big one like Allosaurus did falter, but after firing a vast quantity of munitions, the score is Dinosaurs: 6, Humans: 0. That's right. 0. WTF? I mean, either these people are the worst shot ever, or dinosaurs are impervious to bullets (unlike all other creatures big and small throughout the 200+ year history of firearms). OK, cool, futuristic weapons. The machine guns were pretty heavy-duty. But you would think, if they are cut off from the mass manufacturing of ammunition, they would consider it precious and wouldn't waste it. If the dinos are impervious, then why bother? Dump them in a ditch!

(Some may wonder, why post about a Science Fiction show on a tech blog - well, it is techie...)

Whatever happened to the Second Party?

2011-09-20T09:03:00.000-07:00

For a long time now, I have been using First Party software. That is to say, software developed by the hardware manufacturer. I have also been using Third Party software - that is, software developed by someone else.

Third-party hardware as well - accessories you add on to your car, computer, what have you. There certainly do seem to be some parties going on here. Are they related to the political parties?

Now, my big question. In order to be the third party, you have to first have a second party (read that sentence several times!!). So, who is this phantom Second Party? Do they serve drinks? What exactly do they make, or do for that matter? I have never seen nor heard of a product made by them. Really, what's the deal? If anyone knows of this mysterious group, I will pay good money* for:

Their address
Some contact names
A list of products they make
Their Twitter, Facebook, or other social networking page link

* When I say "good money", I mean my definition of good money. Money I think is good. That may or may not be legal tender.

2011-09-14T18:07:00.000-07:00

iPhone 5 Release Date - You Heard It Here First
That's right, here is all the 100% guaranteed* information you have been waiting for on the iPhone 5. Release date, features, and more. Now, here's a rundown of the facts:

To be released on October 1, 2011 at 6:18:20 PM PST

Why that time? Apparently the number had significance to Steve Jobs
Hey, at least we know the exact moment it will be out in stores

A new camera will feature

100 megapixels for better-than-professional quality
30 x optical zoom lens
Wind-resistant boom microphone option
Face recognition technology will automatically tag the pictures for contacts in your address book

Instant coffee maker

Manufacturer Keurig has been hard at work making the new iCup (kind of like the K-Cup but smaller and more mobile)
Only caffeinated flavors are available from Green Mountain and Starbucks, but decaf will be coming within 6 months
Rumors say you can brew up to 3 cups on a battery charge
Stir stick can be inserted into the handy slot in the corner of the phone for storage (like a Nintendo DSi stylus)

Built-in AM/FM Radio tuner
High-gain antenna to avoid reception issues experienced in an earlier model - telescoping to an unbelievable 4 feet
8-Track, Beta, and VHS cassette tape adapters optional so you can listen to, and watch, your entertainment directly on your phone
Unisex Razor

That's right, built right into that slim top edge is a men's/women's razor screen with an easy dump tray
Battery life is good for one shave a day and normal 4 hour talk time; or 1 shave, 1 cup of coffee, and 1 hour talk time

Fold-out pliers
Large jack knife
Extensible toothpick

* Who makes these guarantees anyway? Aw, fuggeddaboudit.

So, are you buying it? I just couldn't resist - just saw a post in the iPhone Developer's Forum asking for the release date - oddly enough, it had no replies in 7 days! Can you believe it?

Windows. Mac. What else is there? Ubuntu!

2011-09-08T06:24:00.000-07:00

Intro
A few months ago, I was talking with a colleague about operating systems - and how much I loved the Mac. He offered another suggestion - and it cost just the right price. Ubuntu is a distribution (or distro if you want to use the hip lingo) of Linux. If you want a history lesson, it's at the bottom of this post - for those of you like me who are endlessly fascinated with how things came to be. Linux, to put it succinctly, is a "re-free" UNIX. (Why "re?" Why all caps? See History below.)

Ubuntu is offered by a South African company called Canonical Ltd., based on the African concept ubuntu (humanity towards others). I am so much impressed with Ubuntu, I hope you read this and figure out you can do it yourself. Much of what I did, I did it myself by simply installing from the CD or Software Centre included in Ubuntu. Some of the more technical points a standard person may not encounter, but it was easy enough to find answers in Google or the Ubuntu community forums.

About Ubuntu Linux
I have been using UNIX since the late 1980's. My parents had gotten XENIX (see History below), I had a job with it, and have been on and off using it for a long time. Its major problems, especially going to the fractionalization prior to Linux, were that it was a techie "hacker" operating system (not user friendly like Windows), software wasn't widely available because it had to be recompiled for each hardware platform, that had its own special version of UNIX.

So, I got ahold of a Ubuntu CD, and installed it on a spare computer (you know, us geeks always have a spare computer lying around for projects like this). Wow. That is what I have to say: WOW. Apple, with its vast resources, has come up with the ultimate operating system - fast, efficient, beautifully elegant, but you have to pay for it (yes, $30 or so to buy the OS, and the hardware to run it on is proprietary).

Ubuntu Linux is FREE. FREE. Read it again - free. The interface is just as intuitive as Windows, perhaps even more so. It comes with software, but most importantly it has something like iTunes App Store built into it. What's so great about iTunes? It is a single, simple place to find and download things you need or want - and it is filled with a ton of stuff. The Ubuntu Software Centre is built into Ubuntu, and has all of that. You search, and click Install, to get whatever you want.

Built into Ubuntu is multimedia (music, pictures, photos, etc.), instant messaging (or IM for those of you who don't know what instant messaging it), e-mail, and more. Firefox (my favorite browser), it used to have Open Office, but since Oracle took it over they switched to a knock-off called Libre Office. Anything you could want a computer to do, it does. Did I mention it was FREE?

And, it doesn't have the hangups of Windows - the slow performance most notably, crashes, etc. It is reliable. The only down side, really, is that sometimes software you want may not be in the Software Centre, so you may have to download and install it yourself. This, unfortunately, is not as simple as Windows. You will have to go to a command prompt and "hack."

What Have We Done?
COMPUTERS
The kids computers were constantly going down - freezing up, or just not working and I would have to reinstall Windows. Finally, I installed Ubuntu on them. What do they do? Play on the Internet (web browser), sometimes write documents. All done with Ubuntu now.

Using the Likewise Open utility I got from the Ubuntu Software Centre, I joined the Ubuntu machines to my Windows domain. Now the kids can log into Ubuntu using their Windows passwords. Basically, the only thing that changed for them, is that their computers just work now.

SERVER
A long time ago, I virtualized my Windows server. This is my domain controller that controls peoples' passwords, allows the computers to connect to the network and manages traffic, and performs backup. That is, I took my domain server, and made it run in VMWare in a window on another computer. This meant I could upgrade the computer, install VMWare on the new computer, copy the files over, and boot the same machine I had run earlier without having to reinstall. Big time saver.

So, I installed VMWare on Ubuntu, moved my Domain server over, and booted it up. Simple. Well, not exactly - I had to do a few UNIX configurations to make it boot up automatically - took about an hour. Still, I went from a Windows host machine, which every couple of weeks froze and would have to be powered off, to a Ubuntu host running the Windows server in VMWare. It is rock solid now, and by the way runs on an old computer about twice as fast as Windows in the same hardware.

History
In the early days of electronic computers, you got computers to do things by moving wires around. If you hooked up the wires just right, pulled the lever or pushed the button, it would do what you wanted it to do - within its limitations. As they got more sophisticated, and transistors evolved to Integrated Circuits (IC's, or Chips), the idea of a central processor unit (CPU) came about to do the bulk of the work. Along with this concept came a programming language to simplify the numbers you would have to type in to make it do things - this is called Assembly Code (the numbers being called Machine Code). Of course, assembly is just letters representing machine code, so it really isn't much more readable than machine. But things got better - until finally after the first two languages were imaginatively called A and B, the next language was developed, C.

Along with C, it became apparent that the computer needed to take care of some common housekeeping tasks like file management (data being organized into files, and stored somewhere), memory management, eventually printing, security, and more. An early operating system was called CP/M, or Control Program for Microcomputers. This introduced commands to perform these operations.

Based on CP/M, a telephone company (the only one at the time) had an extensive research laboratory into computers, because they thought computers could be a huge opportunity in telecommunications for automatic switching. This lab eventually became Bell Laboratories (named after the founder, Alexander Graham). The team there used C to develop an operating system they called Uniplexed Information and Computing Service or UNICS, later changed to UNIX (trademarked as all upper-case) sometime around 1970. Uniplexed, because it did one thing at a time, as opposed to multiplexed, which it later evolved to be. UNIX provided operating system services - memory management, security, printing, e-mail as the DARPA-net (or later the Internet) evolved, and more. And, AT&T developed and gave away all this, for free, including the C source code to modify it.

Along came University of California, Berkley. A group there developed their own version, called BSD UNIX. A whole bunch of commercial versions came out, including one from Microsoft trademarked as XENIX. HP, IBM, Sun, Santa Cruz Operations, and many more companies had their own version of UNIX. Much of it was proprietary. At this time, DOS, and then Windows, came out - capitalizing on the research of Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center, who developed the basics of a graphical computer interface. The various warring tribes of UNIX couldn't compete with a unified front presented by Microsoft Windows, and UNIX took a downward spiral.

Then, along came Linus Torvalds in 1991, releasing Linux - a UNIX operating systems for IBM PC's. Linux is a re-introduction, an updated back-to-basics if you will. At the core is a standardized kernel of an operating system. Even though there are several distributions of Linux, they all hail directly from this Linux core, and merely put their own wrapper around it. Linux was ported to pretty much all computer platforms thanks to its open source. Business models were built around a company packaging a distribution of Linux, to make it easy to install and administer. Among the more successful distros of Linux are SUSE, Red Hat, and Ubuntu. Ubuntu is free, while the others charge a nominal fee. Canonical charges for services and business server software - but standard Desktop Linux is free - and will work for pretty much anyone, whether desktop, laptop, or netbook.

Please exit all applications before continuing

2011-07-19T06:12:00.000-07:00

We've all seen this while installing software (at least on Windows). You run the Setup, hit Next, then it gives you this nice, friendly, "Pretend I'm the only thing that matters right now, and drop everything else in your life."

What exactly do they mean by exiting all other applications? What constitutes an application? Technically, any software executing in a thread is an application. Software drivers could constitute an app, strictly speaking - the driver for your camera, printer, microphone, network card. What? That means everything - all those little icons in your tray (or Notification Area as they call it now), what about Windows Services? So they want me to shut down Windows before continuing!?!? I don't get it.

Second, WHY?? Why oh why does it say that? I mean, really, if I don't shut down other applications, what will happen - is it going to make my computer run slower each month? (Already happens - it's Windows for God's sake.) Is it going to make it unstable and crash a lot? (Already happens - IWFGS.) Is it going to refuse to install the app? (Hasn't happened yet - IW...never mind.) Really, people, let's just get out of the dark ages 30 years ago when you were running only one program at a time, and you HAD to shut down all other programs in order to install.

By the way, who are "people"? These "people" are a company currently called Flexera (http://www.installshield.com), the company tasked with making the Windows Installer component. Let's start a campaign! Everyone, fill out their online contact form - ask them to rewrite the installer messages to be more up to date, and user friendly!

Flexera Software
1000 E Woodfield Road, Suite 400
Schaumburg, IL 60173
http://www.flexerasoftware.com/company/contact-online.htm

Backing Up Your Computer

2011-03-22T11:14:00.000-07:00

Nowadays, anyone who uses a computer probably has some awareness that it is important to back up your data. How many of us actually do this?

There are many ways to back up your data. So why is it that most people don't back up? And I mean from the layman to the professional? And what are the different ways in which you can back up?

Different Backup Methods
Hard drives are relatively cheap today, and you can purchase an external one. You can also back up your files online. Let's look at the various ways.

Manually - that is, you can copy your file to a different location. Now if you copy it to another folder on the same hard drive, that is just about as swift as having a backup house on coastal Japan, down the street from your primary residence.
Automatically - you have some software that keeps things backed up in the background.
Backed up to a hard disk (could be a USB drive for example, or across the network - I currently use both).
Backed up to CD/DVD.
Backed up online.

Why One Over The Other?
What are the problems with these that would keep you from backing up regularly?

Manual means you have to remember to back it up - big pitfall!
Online you have to pay a recurring fee, and typically have a size limit. They don't back up everything, by the way!
If it is automatic, you have to set it up. Usually the problem is not here, but in the interface for how you find and restore a particular file you need - one that was deleted, or a version from last week before it got messed up.
CDs and DVDs just don't have the capacity to back up like we need nowadays - photos, music, videos, and Virtual Machines.
Online means you are putting your trust for your most precious data in someone else's hands. Are you backing up your Quickbooks and Quicken data? Do you really want that stored on another company's system?

For me, what I want is this:

Automatic, I don't have to think about it
Very simple to find and restore the files I need
Locate the files in my hand - I don't want anyone else carrying around my data!!
Not incur YAMF (yet another monthly fee)!!

Now before we get any deeper into this post, let me warn you that some may have noticed that I have gone fruity. That is, I have gotten sweet on apples - Macintosh to be precise.

Check this out. The Macintosh has something that comes with it, called Time Machine. It backs up changes EVERY HOUR - that's right, as things go along! Further, you can flip back through the folder you are currently looking at, to see versions of that folder back in time. And there's nothing you have to do - except keep your external hard drive plugged in!!! I mean, is that cool or what? If that alone doesn't make you see the value of a Mac over Windows or even Linux, then what does?

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Texting while...

2011-03-08T21:03:00.000-08:00

Texting while driving is, of course, the evil of the day. Admit it, how many of you do it? I am too afraid to try it! However, I have a few questions.

Do we really need a law specifically dealing with texting while driving? Existing laws govern save driving, so why do we need specific laws on this activity? It seems to me there are many more activities that are just as (or perhaps more) dangerous: putting on makeup, eating (e.g. a sandwich), fiddling with your radio, heck how about your GPS? I once was eating my sub while putting on makeup and talking on my cell phone in a stick shift car - but not in waking life!

So, now that I got that out of the way, what about other areas of life besides driving where texting permeates? If we need to ban while driving, we also need to ban during these times!! Are you with me on this, or what?

Toileting. That's right, you go into the corporate bathroom, and there's Johnny standing in front of the urinal, both hands occupied.
In a meeting. Hmm? It's my turn to speak?
Babysitting. Now where did Elliott get off to? What's that crash?!
Mowing the lawn. Snowblowing too - heck any yard maintenance (darn, where did that seed go while I was planting and texting??)
How about just plain interacting with other human beings? Isn't it rude to answer the phone while in a conversation with someone else? Why not texting?

Well, let's look for legislation soon regarding these important matters - and heck, if you don't see it, let's author some bills and get them in front of our lawmakers! God knows they need to legislate more of our ativities.

What Price, Convenience?

2010-11-17T09:03:00.000-08:00

What is technology, after all? Let's break it down to its simplest. I think technology falls into one of two categories:
1. New capabilities we didn't have before, such as breathing underwater or in space, or flying.
2. Convenience - doing things we always have done, but faster with less work.

There might possibly be a third category, that of entertainment, but I need to think more on it - perhaps it is some shading or blending of the other 2.

Most of the technology out there is of the second. Truly innovative and creative inventions can achieve the first - but they are few and far between.

In America, as in many other countries allowing some form of "free" enterprise, people are incented to develop new products and services - and hunt for markets for them - whether or not they really provide true benefit.

That begs the question about what is meant by "true benefit?" I would argue this is something that is generally agreed as a benefit, with little or no negative effects. DDT had a benefit, but the negative effects I would argue vastly outweighed, and gave it a net negative impact on our lives. So true benefit is something where the net impact is largely positive, that is to say the negative side is very small.

This balance of net effect can change over time, and change as the technology evolves. For example, when Mr. Bell invented the telephone, the negative side effects were relatively minor - unsightly wires strung up on poles everywhere, and perhaps some exposure to electrical radiative energy. With cellular phone technology, this can be argued to be a larger negative effect - larger amounts of radiation, and social impact of being able to be always reachable means it is hard not to interrupt socially important interactions for the call of the moment.

Let's look at the microwave oven. What are the negative effects of this? Many argue radiation exposure, many argue that the way it cooks the food, it destroys much of the nutrient value of the food. I would add that we also have what I like to call the "microwave effect."

The Microwave Effect is an increased social expectation of instant gratification. I would associate this with

A shorter attention span
Less patience (as we all know is a virtue!)
Less planning and therefore less wisdom
An "addiction" to convenience
Removal from a "connectedness" to the source of our products and the process of using them

With the microwave oven, not only is our food heated unevenly (which I always hated), and the nutrient value damaged, but we expect dishes to take less time to prepare. "What, you seriously expect me to cook something that takes 30 minutes to make?" (Come on, 30 minutes is too long??) It takes less planning - if it is frozen, you can still throw it in, so you don't have to think ahead. Thinking and consciously participating in our own lives is what makes us alive - rather than just floating from event to event or neurotically, anxiously keeping some hectic schedule.

This addiction to convenience removes us from the source of the food - did the food come from somewhere nearby, or halfway around the world? Or more likely, did portions of the meal come from multiple countries spread around the globe? What is the cost of this? In time, energy, fuel? What is the cost of putting the decision of our food sources in some corporate executive's hands, while the farmers in our own back yard are struggling to pay their bills, let alone buy the product your company makes?

However, the Microwave Effect is not just limited to microwave ovens - hence the name. One could perhaps argue that personal vehicles may have some of it, or the plethora of specialty TV stations.

Whenever we use technology, I would challenge you - think about the lesser-known negative impacts. Where was it made - and do you want your money going to them? How was it made - were they environmentally conscious? Was the packaging outrageously excessive, so that something you use once (to get the product from the factory to you) get thrown out, to last in a landfill for over 1,000 years?

Does this technology give a "true benefit?" That is, not only is the net benefit good, but is the negative impact small?

Windows 7 - I'm a PC!

2010-11-11T08:00:00.000-08:00

Folks, I've been using Windows 7 for a couple of months now, and I have to say - I am not impressed. The biggest 3 things Microsoft did with Windows 7 were:

Fix the stability issues introduced in Vista (seems like every other release of Windows is inherently unstable)
Pretty up the interface - a lot of graphical enhancements with very little real benefit
Completely move around all of the administrative functions, just to shake things up and make sure that the "experts" have to relearn it, while the "average joe" suffers and calls on the experts more

First, let's look at the "fixes" on stability.

Shoring up the House of Cards
We all know the score, especially those of use who have been using it since the first viable version (3.0). Windows for Workgroups, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows NT, Vista - all these versions were, let's face it, unacceptable for customers paying for a product.

Windows 2000 introduced the first version of Windows where I didn't have to reboot daily, and could still use it. Bravo. Windows XP was, actually, an improvement on 2000.

So, we all are aware of the egg-in-the-face that was Vista. Those of us who sprang for machines with Vista on it were burned, first by the operating system, and second by moving to 64-bit without waiting the requisite 5 years before stable drivers and software came out.

Now that Windows 7 is out, what's so great about it you ask? Well, remember Vista? Microsoft never admitted how bad it was, but they took a beating against the Mac and other Unix-based machines. They know it, so they changed up the naming convention again (marketing ploys do work against the masses). Enter Windows 7 - basically Windows XP with the Vista interface.

Except how good was XP really? It's Windows - crashes periodically (once a week or every few weeks), slows down the longer you use it, you know the drill. Kind of makes us wonder, why do we pay Microsoft for this stuff anyway? With that said, it was the most stable version of Windows workstation yet.

Well, Windows 7 returns us to the XP days of stability - with all those fancy special effects and completely rearranged interface.

Wow, it's Pretty!
One thing Microsoft has always done well is designing graphics - icons, pictures, menus, and user interfaces. Aside from the marketing thing. They know a good looking vehicle sells better than the rust bucket, even if the good looking one barely runs and can't go above 50 on the freeway. Especially if it's popular.

I have to admit, the styling is really nice, although the default window translucency is really really annoying. A few features they introduced make it a bit more usable, but barely.

First, is the drag-window-and-snap-to-screen. You drag a window to one edge or another, and it snaps to take up that portion of the screen. Big deal, it's not that great.

Second, multi-touch gestures on touchpads. Remember my article about the Mac? Apple knows how to do things right - the 2-fingered swipe to scroll, brilliant. So brilliant, Windows now offers this, but it is, as all things Windows, jerky scrolling and works moderately at best. Often times it scrolls too fast, or not at all, and is actually more frustrating than the old swipe in a reserved edge of the pad.

Lots of animations in previously non-animated things, but the Start menu is really annoying. Before when you hit Start and started typing letters, it would jump down to those choices. Now it does a search - perhaps useful, perhaps an innovation I'll grant them. I find it annoying, I hope there's a way to turn it off.

Administrative Confusion
In their never-ending quest to mix it up, Microsoft has again completely reorganized the administrative interface. That is, the Control Panel, all the little things in Windows you do to control the inner workings (services, scheduled tasks, etc.), even the installation and uninstallation of software. Just when things were stable from Windows 95 through XP, they went and pulled out the rug from under our feet.

What about the average Joe? Probably doesn't spend too much time on these things, so doesn't care. If you are a tinkerer, it would just piss you off. If you were an expert? You just gut it up and learn. The more gullible ones probably pay for training on it - like you need it? Us poor folks use Google a lot (I avoid Bing like the plague!), and good old-fashioned hunting around.

What about searching in Windows Explorer? In older Windows, you could avoid the Windows Search 4.0 installation and thus have a useful file search. Nowadays? No 2 ways about it, you have this simple (and dumb) search field in the upper right corner. How do you specify dates, how do you search contents of files? Yeah, it's dumb. There is a drop-down when you start typing, you can add a date or file size modifier - that's it. Haven't figured out how to search file contents yet - unless you use Google Desktop.

Ever wonder why there's no Google Desktop for Mac? Because Spotlight is built into the Mac, and does all that for you.

I'm a PC, and Windows is Mine
So, if like me, you're not buying this massive advertising campaign, I say my money's going to Apple. I never cared much for the first generations of Mac, but as of OS X (that's OS 10 for the layman), form and function unite in a perfect synergy - one that all the might of Microsoft still can't even come close to touching. Thanks to Windows 7 I came up with a new abbreviation - SOSDV (same old stuff, different version).

Whatever happened to the Turbo button?

2010-10-06T10:04:00.000-07:00

Does anyone remember the Turbo button they used to have on PC's? Did they ever really do anything? I used to sit there in front of the machine and press it so the light goes on, then press it again so the light goes off, but never noticed any difference in speed.

Of course, today's computers are leaps and bounds faster than the old ones. (Well, aren't they? So "they" tell us, but why is it the machines seem so slow after only a few months?) They don't really need a Turbo button.

But wait!! Like I said, I never really noticed that the Turbo button ever did anything anyway - except that it made me feel like I was doing something during that frustrating period when I'm waiting for that darned machine to finish what should have taken half the time. You know, kind of like if you keep pushing the call button for the elevator even though it is 5 floors above you, makes you feel like it is descending faster after you push it.

Is it only me, or do you all wish there was a Turbo button on the PC? Yes, even though it doesn't really do anything, at least you get the satisfaction of feeling like you did something - the turbo light is on, I am in high gear, and going as fast as the machine can - if I want I can turn it off and then it has an excuse for why it is so slow.

So, PC manufacturers out there, let's put the Turbo back into the PC! (Or at least the button.)

My Experiences with iPhone Problems and Updates

2010-08-13T11:52:00.000-07:00

I have an iPhone 3G. That's right, it's not the latest in technology, but I love it nonetheless. And I have another year on my contract.

Recently Apple released the iOS 4, the update to support the iPhone 4 functionality, as well as to deploy newer functionality to the older phones. I happily spent the several hours updating my phone from iOS 3 to 4 a few weeks ago, but was dismayed to discover a few problems. I wanted to share my experiences with you, in case you are a fellow Apple customer struggling with issues like these, or in case you are considering getting an iPhone.

First, let me say I have become a huge Apple fan over the past year. Second, I should also caution you that I think the iPhone is the cat's meow when it comes to smart phones. I have seen and used many others. While I like and can understand the desire for features like standard USB interfaces, ability to add SD cards, and other such open technologies (Flash, etc.), I think there are several things that have to be of primary consideration and put all the others into perspective.

First, is the device usability. Does it perform the functions for which you got it, does it do it well, and does it do it in a way that is easy to understand and learn? Better yet, is it so intuitive that you don't have to learn? The iPhone shines in all these regards - there is very little that I have to learn from a user perspective. It just works, and it works well.

Now, with the iOS 4 update. When I upgraded my phone from 3 to 4, that must have been a major upgrade because it did a complete backup, complete phone wipe, and complete reinstall / restore. It took a long time. When all was said and done, there were several new features I found quite attractive - especially the ability to drag icons and drop them on top of each other to create folders. I went from 4 pages of apps down to 1, and it made apps accessible by at most 2 taps, no drags. Literally and figuratively, no drag, man!

However, the first problem I noticed was the phone experienced may performance drags (OK, so some drag). Standard operations like unlocking the phone from standby or launching apps got really slow. Many apps started crashing, even the built in ones. It was frustrating.

I called AppleCare. Now when it comes to customer service, call centers, follow-up and such, Apple is probably an organization that could teach classes on how to do it right. (Do they?) Of course they answered my questions, and practically before I hung up they had sent out an e-mail follow-up (a personalized one, not just a computer-generated one) that asked for my opinion. First-rate!

The next week, iOS 4.0.1 came out, and this addressed much of my stability issues. However, there were some lingering performance problems - like when I try to unlock the phone, the unlock slider would hang the first time I try, and then work the next time I awaken the phone out of standby. Intermittent slowdowns when launching apps or doing things, etc.

Well, I bided my time, and I only had to wait another 2 weeks until 4.0.2 came out. Voila! The phone is back to perfect, in fact it is better than before - bigger faster stronger (well at least the faster part).

Now, I don't know about you, but I expect there may be issues with any product. Having made a few things myself over the years (things I built, software I wrote, etc.) I know unintended problems crop up. All I ask of any company is that they stand behind their products with genuine friendly customer service - and strive to help us solve the problem without trying to sell us more than what we need. Apple way exceeds that expectation. As far as I'm concerned, I don't care what other smart phones come out on the market, I'm sticking with iPhone and probably with AT&T - because Apple and AT&T have helped me many times thoroughout the years, especially when Cellular One, Nextel, and Sprint have screwed me over.

Ford and Microsoft SYNC

2010-07-01T18:58:00.000-07:00

While traveling this week, I had the pleasure of driving a new Ford Focus equipped with a Microsoft SYNC stereo system. This technology has been on the road for a little while, I think a couple of years now, so I thought it would be a good chance to give it a drive, so to speak. I'll describe the experience, then sum it up with a review of the products.

About Microsoft SYNC
My family has been avid viewers of American Idol for years now. Of course, there are a plethora of ads for Coca Cola, AT&T, and Ford, the cornerstone sponsors of the show. (Well, at least we give our money to one of those sponsors.) I believe that most Ford vehicles now offer Microsoft SYNC as an option.

First, let me explain what SYNC is. Built into your stereo is technology to integrate with various communications and entertainment devices. I've had my iPhone 3G for most of a year now, and am a huge fan. With SYNC, there are plugs in the dashboard that allow you to plug in a device like my
iPhone, an iPod or media player, and it also supports Bluetooth wireless technology.

So, what can you do? There are 2 plugs of interest: the Line In, which is a normal 1/8 inch audio jack, and the USB plug (a standard Type B flat connector). The first thing you can do, is to plug your device in. If it does not support USB (or SYNC doesn't support it via USB), then you can simply plug the Line In and listen to your music over the stereo. And boy, those speakers ROCK in the Ford Premium Sound System! Excellent reproduction, fantastic full-bodied

sound from bass to the high end.

Using the USB plug (which also charges the iPod/iPhone/iPad), you get even better integration. SYNC reads your music library, and "indexes" it. Then, while playing, you can see information about the track displayed in the digital readout on the stereo, your choice any two lines of song title, artist, genre, album, etc. And, oh yes, you can still use all your other apps while the music is playing.

Controls built into the steering wheel allow you to adjust volume, skip forward and backward tracks in the playlist, and push a button to make it listen to voice commands. Now, if only they have such a button for the kids, they would really make a mint!

However, the really cool feature of SYNC is the voice commands. Push the Listen button on the steering wheel, and you just talk. A few simple commands like "Play Track", "Play Artist", "USB", or "Play All" have it switch to USB, or play specific music from your library without taking your eyes off the road.

With the Bluetooth wireless, you can connect any Bluetooth phone, and have hands-free phone conversations (that of course mute the stereo, and pause your music if it is playing from your iPod).
Alternatively, you don't have to connect your toy with a plug - you can listen to the sound by pairing the Bluetooth to the stereo, and hear it from a Bluetooth stream. However, you don't get the track info
displayed on the display, and you can't push the pause button on the stereo and have it pause the music.

About My Experiences
Let me say right off, it is a cool idea - and a good use of technology. However, I have to say I was sorely disappointed. First, about the car. The Fusion is more my style, but the Focus is a very good car. Nice comfy leather seats (the car rental company didn't skimp on this one!), handles great, and the trunk is unbelievably gigantic for a small car. This is really nice - there's a good reason why Ford is paying down their debts now. I like the Taurus, Focus, and Fusion, I can get the appeal of the Lincolns and the newly redesigned Fiesta is cool. Another big thing for me is turning radius, Focus has that. Good fuel economy, and decent power in the engine (Fusion is better, and Taurus is best).

On Monday I got into the car from the car rental lot, and hooked my iPhone up with glee. The stereo spoke to me, said it recognized a new device, the iPhone, and that 911 enhanced assistance was not
configured. OK, I can live with that.

Then, the display said "Indexing", with the infamous progress bar. Not the one that creeps to the right and is done, no, the one that keeps starting over, indefinitely scrolling from left to right and over again.

So, I pushed the iPod app on my phone, and it said it was connected to an external device, and had no controls to start the music. OK, how about the stereo? I pushed the Play button, and nothing happened. Ah! Voice commands.

Push the button, the little lady says "Please speak your command." Of course I can speak "Help" and it takes me through a spoken menu. I notice that the stereo says "Line In" and not USB. So, I say "USB" and it switches to USB. No problem. (I also tried going through the menu system with the buttons on the stereo - no, not while driving, honey - still in the parking lot. I found I could do it through there too, but the buttons are really confusing and not ergonomically placed.)

Now I'm getting somewhere, right? "Please speak your command." "Play All." I get a gut-wrenching low-tone beep that probably indicates some kind of error, and "Indexing" is all the lady says. All the screen says too. I can't get music!

OK, so I have over an hour drive, and about 1,000 songs, perhaps it will take a little bit. With repeated attempts to listen to my music over the next 20 minutes, I finally got so frustrated I yanked the USB cord, plugged in my 1/8" headset cord, and voila! I had music the old fashioned way. Simple, but effective. The next time I plugged the USB cord in, the stereo was again switched to "Line In" - so I had to repeat the "Listen" button, say "USB", and then it began playing. Ah! Bliss. I can see the track info in the display, sound is awesome, I can skip forward and backward a track. So, push the command button, "Please speak your command." "Play Steely Dan." Error, not understood. "Help." Ah, OK, I need to say "Play Artist Steely Dan." "Indexing." What? I can't say the words and have it go? OK, it's still indexing. Over the next 2 days!! Come on.

Finally, Tuesday evening, my repeated attempts to speak a command works! "Play Artist The Smashing Pumpkins." Voila! "Bullet with Butterfly Wings" comes on - fantastic! "Play Artist The Cure" - Oh, I'm in heaven. This is cool. "Play Artist Boston." Wow. "Play Track You Give Love A Bad Name." Neat.

Now, I wonder how it does with partial names? "Play Artist Beethoven." It says to say the number after the matching artist, and comes up with a list of 3 or 4 artists that don't quite sound like Beethoven, none of them Ludwig. "Play Artist Ludwig Van Beethoven." Same list. "Play Artist Prokofiev." "Tchaikovsky." "Mozart." "Play Album Amadeus." I guess SYNC doesn't like classical music!

OK, now that it's "working," it's time for me to upgrade my iPhone to OS 4, get all the new features. Hmm, this is taking a while, almost 2 hours. Next day, I plug my phone in, it says it is recognizing a new device. Indexing... Nooooooo!!!!!

This time, it only took 1 day to index, with local driving (not the 1.25 hour freeway drive), so not too bad. Throughout this, I tried various different ways of hooking it up. Connecting the USB cord is great for music, but not for phone calls. If I want to make hands-free calls, I have to mate the phone to the stereo via Bluetooth. Now, I don't want to listen to my music that way, just make phone calls. So, I mate it via Bluetooth, and it switches the media input to Bluetooth Stream.

Not what I wanted - I have to hit Play in the iPod app. Push the button, "Speak your command," "USB", OK I'm in business. Since this is a rental car, I chose not to sync my contacts with the car. But, I dialed from my phone, and voila - music stops, sound is crystal clear, we can all hear each other great. Fantastic. Next time I get into the car, yes, it's back to Line In. Then the phone hooks up over Bluetooth, and it changes to Bluetooth Stream. No, I want USB, so I say "USB" and it says "No USB device detected." Come on - the phone says it is plugged in. I found that having both Bluetooth and USB connected, at least with an iPhone, is really buggy. Several times when I finally did get it to recognize USB by unplugging and plugging it back in several times, it acted like it was playing, timer kept counting up, but no sound. I finally gave up and turned Bluetooth off, and it worked great - a couple of times. Then, I get "USB not connected" again. Finally, I arrived at a combination that works every time, without hassle: Hook up the headphone jack to "Line In" and mate the Bluetooth to the Hands Free system. Yes, I discovered there are 2 Bluetooth subsystems, one for media input, one for phone. Just mate the phone. The Bluetooth media stream input is subject to static every now and then with radio interference.

So, I'm using an analog line in jack, and Bluetooth hands free (there are tons of non-SYNC stereos that do that). What's the point of getting SYNC?

All in all, it is a very buggy system. I don't know if it would be any better with another phone, such as a Windows Mobile phone or some other OS. I don't know what phone OS's it supports - possibly Palm, possibly Android, maybe Blackberry. However, with almost 50 million devices out there, the Apple seems like it should be the most supported.

The voice recognition worked pretty well with my Midwestern White Guy "no accent" American English, this really made me wonder what would happen if I were from another country? What if the artist, track, or album name were from another language? Just trying to play music from the classical Baroque composers gave me a hint of that - it didn't know who Hector Berliosz was.

The Pluses and the Minuses

PROS:
    * Way cool idea
    * Voice recognition on commands was quite good, it was just on the names from my music library that it had problems
    * The sound is absolutely fantastic, perhaps the best I've heard in a vehicle without going into some pimped out stereo system and dangling fuzzy balls around the windshield, black light underneath, and custom rims
    * When it works, it works well - that is, when I can get the Bluetooth working for the phone at the same time the USB cord is plugged in - but don't turn off the car or unplug, or it'll reboot
    * You are less likely to be pulled over for texting if you are playing with your stereo instead of your phone - now isn't that a hoot! It's just as distracting!

CONS:
    * It takes a while to "boot up" the stereo - well, what do you expect, it's Windows!
    * Really buggy, had to unplug & plug it back in. It even totally froze my phone just unplugging it so I can get out of the car, I had to hard power it down.
    * The indexing took way too long, and that damn progress bar - give me a percentage number so I can see how long it's going to take. Doesn't Microsoft learn anything after over 20 years of Windows?
    * It doesn't remember basic settings, like the USB input (Line In wasn't even connected, but it kept defaulting to that when I start the car).
    * The integration is spotty - it takes a few seconds of playing the music before the text info comes up, there was no (obvious) way to fast forward or rewind within a track (I tried holding the arrow buttons down, didn't work), and the whole Bluetooth thing was a major annoyance, not worth even using it.
    * The 2-line text display made it actually pretty difficult to navigate the menus.
    * The button placement and button labeling on the car stereo unit were confusing, distracting, and not at all clear (this from a tech guru who can figure out how to stop the 12:00 from flashing on any device in about 30 seconds!).

Bottom line, it's pretty cool and works kind of well, but I wouldn't spend money on the thing, at least not based on performance with the iPhone. Folks, it needs work. It seems most of the GM and Chrysler vehicles just have a line in jack, that works great. (What's that? What about other makes? What other car makes are there? Hey, I'm from Detroit, dammit! The only make I drive that ends in a vowel would be Dodge, and that's silent.)

Defragmenting a Mac Hard Drive

2010-05-13T20:41:00.000-07:00

OK, I just found out something disturbing, sick, and wrong! As a PC expert, I have gotten used to defragmenting the hard drives of all my PCs nightly to keep peak performance. Ever notice how your PC gets slower over time, until after a couple of years it is crawling along? So, as a computer expert, I know that file systems, as they write, delete, and rewrite files, end up putting pieces of files all over the hard drive, possibly degrading performance.

However, the sick and wrong thing? Apple has apparently, since OS X 10.2, been solving this problem by, can you believe it, making the operating system do the work for you! What? Yes, using technology, it keeps the files together, or utilizes the drive and caching technology so that you notice no performance difference. So, the IBM laptop I have had for 2 weeks - 27% fragmented, dog slow, had to defrag. The MacBook I have had for 7 months? As fast as ever, and I wondered suddenly how to defrag it when the Disk Utility had no such option.

How is this sick and wrong? That Microsoft, with all its resources, people, and technology, couldn't do it! Apparently they don't even care enough, they are too busy making their operating system stable enough so they don't lose customers in droves to UNIX, Linux, and Mac. Look at the massive global advertising for Windows 7 to overcome the Vista debacle. Massive advertising for Windows XP to overcome the Windows ME debacle. Windows 95 - Windows 3.x (remember Windows for Workgroups?). See a pattern?

A response to Steve Jobs "Thoughts on Flash"

2010-05-05T07:59:00.001-07:00

My screensaver was flashing the Apple News today, when I noticed an article by Steve Jobs about Flash. Since we have 3 iPhones in our family, this has been one of the few sore spots with that ownership. I'd like to share my perspective as a computer and iPhone expert, and longtime customer.

"Thank You"
First of all, Mr. Jobs, I think it is very important that you know I am a huge fan, ever since oh, sometime around 1981. What you and Mr. Wosniak have done is truly astounding, as an entrepreneur, inventor, businessman, and innovator. Truly, the products you have out on the market today have continued to push the envelope in reliability, usability, and giving consumers choices. However, I have to strongly take issue with your Thoughts.

"Open"
I understand being principled - I direct much of my spending based upon principle: if the company whose products I am considering (or purchasing) is against my principles, I will either go elsewhere or go without. However, the problem as an Apple customer here is not principle. The problem is ubiquity and access to content. Yes, you have a point that Adobe's format is proprietary. However, it is, unarguably, ubiquitous, and as such much content made available to users is in a format that is not available on the iPhone/iPod/iPad devices.

"Full Web"
Flash is not, per se, a video format. Flash is so much more than video - it is an application architecture. As such, you are not only depriving your iPxxxx customers of videos, but of much web content that is necessary to their lives. Things like banking applications, web tools, searching, even web site content are only available in Flash. It would be one thing if these were available in H.264 or any of the other standards, but much of it is authored and available only in Flash. Hulu, Fancast, and many other video sites are only Flash. Since iPxxxx supports PDF, why not also Flash?

"Reliability, Security, Performance" and "Battery Life"
OK, if these are such issues, let's do something. There are many technologies available here. Crashing - you can virtualize or thread the running process, to isolate it and handle crashes. You can isolate calls it makes to create, delete and access files or resources to enhance security. You can even make these options available in Settings to the user, so he can decide for himself (yes, with all your legal disclaimers for CYA).

If battery life is truly a concern, it is not a concern on the iPhone (for sure) just because of Flash - it is a concern regardless. We all want longer battery life, and some products offer such benefits, like extended batteries or solar cells.

"Touch"
I find it insulting to yourselves that you think the Cocoa Touch development team could not come up with a creative solution, such as a gesture or additional button to help with the problem of treating a touch/drag like a mouse move. For a team that came up with the most innovative devices of the past decade, I think you sell them short. And, I bet you could push Adobe to come up with a mobile touch-enabled version of Flash, and I bet they would be more than happy to! You are approaching 40,000,000 devices, I think they would have an interest in it.

"Sixth, the most important reason."
Touche. But, let me say you opened this can of worms - the App Store suffers the same problem, albeit you do have some say in what is released through it. Users have to accept the risks of using such things on their devices, but we also trust that the underlying architecture will handle such "questionable code" in a robust way. We trust that it will prevent security intrusions (like accessing your contacts, etc.), we trust that it will handle crashes without needing a full restart, and I think it's time that you trust us users to know what it is we want. We want the best mobile platforms on the planet, with access to the content we need and want.

in reference to: Thoughts on Flash (view on Google Sidewiki)

Wicked Cool VMWare Fusion

2010-04-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

Wicked Cool VMWare Fusion

Some of you may have picked up on my geekiness on the Mac. I am running OS X Snow Leopard on a MacBook Pro. Also, if you know my history, I have been a PC expert for 20 years, so I know a lot of things PC and Windows, but very little (relatively) Mac. So, in the course of business, home, and play, I occasionally have things that need to be done on a PC (especially since I don't have the money to replace all my home PCs with Macs yet).

In the computer industry, the thing that has taken it by storm over the past decade is something called Virtual Machines. This allows you to "simulate" running a computer - within a computer. What? Did that confuse you? Basically, within a window, you can create an environment that is isolated from, but hooked into, the main physical computer.

About Virtual Machines

What does this do for you? First of all, within the Virtual Machine (or just VM), you can install and run whatever software you want - including other operating systems. Say you have Windows XP on your laptop, but you need to install and run Windows Server (without messing up your laptop), install a bunch of software, and try it out. You can do this inside a VM.

Say you have this massive, beefy server that has all kinds of gigabytes, gigahertz, giga-whatever, and what you run only uses a fraction of its capabilities. You can create several VM's, and run them as if you had multiple machines - even though the electricity, space, and hardware are those of only one box. Oh, did I mention now you don't have to buy more physical machines to run more machines? Now you see the cost savings.

If you are an old mainframe hack, you may say, "That sounds like the time slicing multiuser stuff we did on the mainframes." But remember, a) this is on a PC, and b) this is not your daddy's time slicing - it is fully graphical, hardware abstracting, and integrated with all the devices for full virtualization.

Now, imagine that all this was free. What? Yes, free! Well, other than licensing. You have to own licenses for the operating systems - Windows, Linux, Ubuntu, what have you, and applications that you have installed within the VM. The VM is abstracted from the hardware on the physical host machine, that is say you have a 3Com network card, a NVidia graphics controller, and 2 GB of RAM. What happens if you move the VM to another machine with different hardware? No problem, within the VM it makes generic hardware, and maps them to the physical hardware, so that it just works.

Who makes this software? VMWare is the leader, but Microsoft, Virtual Iron, and many others have software that perform at least the basic functionality described above.

What else can you do? Well, the more advanced features allow you to instantly swap your VM from one box to another if the hardware goes down (a product called VMotion in VMWare). What about if you want to try something, like installing a new software or hardware, and if it screws everything up, you want to jump back to the way it was? VMWare offers a feature called Snapshots, where you click a button, wait about 30 seconds, and your entire system state is backed up. If you restore the snapshot, it takes about a minute or so, and voila - you are back to where you were.

As you can see, a whole new world of possibilities has opened up.

VMWare

VMWare, an EMC company, has been in the business pretty much from the beginning of the modern usage of VMs, about 10 years ago. I say they lead the market, mostly because a) they have the largest market share, and b) their software offers the most features and reliability. However, as far as wicked way cool factor, there is no one else who even comes close!

Personally, for work and home I have been using VMWare for about 8 years now. To run my network at home, I have my server on a VM. So, when I get a new machine, and want to transfer the server from one box to another, it is simply a matter of copying the (large) files that VMWare needs for the VM, and then booting it up on the new box. 20 minutes, and I have everything transferred and running on the new machine. Very convenient.

VMWare offers several products, some free, some for money. Let's talk about them:

VMWare Server - free. This is what I use at home for my server. It allows you to run as many VM's as you have hardware for, and for each VM you can take 1 snapshot. You can also create
VM's. Good enough!
VMWare Workstation - $189, for Windows. This allows you to run machines in a non-Production mode, meaning you are allowed to use it for testing and development purposes, but not to set up a bunch of servers and run an Internet store. This was my introduction to VMWare 8 years ago. You can take as many snapshots as you want
(as you have hard drive space for!). You can also create VM's.
VMWare Player - free. This allows you to boot and run a VM on Windows.
VMWare Fusion for Mac - $79. All the stuff you can do on the PC, on the Mac. Load your VM files, boot them, and voila - you are up and running.
There are other VMWare products, aimed at high-end servers for businesses. These are ESX, GSX, VMotion, etc.
All flavors of VMWare allow you to install virtually any operating system - from any version of Windows back to 3.1 and forward to the new Beta versions, to Unix, Linux, Ubuntu, Netware, and more. Cool!

What else does VMWare allow you to do? They have something truly ingenious (as if the above isn't ingenious enough!). This is called Unity Mode. So, running a VM is a lot like remote controlling another computer's screen - you can see all the applications running in windows, the start menu, system tray, etc. But, in Unity Mode, the applictions running INSIDE the VM are shown in the HOST machine as separate icons on your task bar. That is, you can press ALT-TAB, and you get a list of applications running both on the Host and VM as if they were unified in one! That's cool.

VMWare Fusion

So, now to the Mac. OK, you know how much I LOVE the Mac? Well, I've had a Mac now for some 7 months, and I never want to use a PC again! Well, that is how much better Fusion is to VMware Player or Workstation!

First, Fusion is totally redesigned using the Cocoa framework on the Mac. That is, it is a natively designed application, not a port from another computer environment. It works, and it works well.

Second, you know how Windows and Mac are slightly different look and feel? Well, Fusion does a fantastic job of exposing Windows to the Mac interface. For example, when you run a VM, you get your normal look and feel, but with the Mac wrapped around it.

You also get a menu in the top task bar, that gives you access to the VM's in your library. This lets you start, stop, and alter the view of the VM, but it also does something way way too sweet. You can access the Start menu inside of Windows in the VM!

Now, what about Unity? Yes! When you switch your VM to
Unity, the VM window disappears, and all the applications running inside of the VM appear as if they are running on your Mac! Command-Tab, and you get a list of all apps, including the ones in the VM. Hit the menu bar menu, and you get the Run command, Control Panel, My Documents, the Start menu, everything right from within OS X! That's right, you are not just booting your Mac into either Windows or OS X - you are
booting both! (Oh, and any other OS you want to install). Seamless hardware integration - network cards, sound, graphics, USB, CD/DVD drives, and more - make you no longer worry will my software work with my hardware. It just works, like magic.

Now, if that ain't enough, and if you are a savvy Windows user you might ask, what about those tray icons? The Windows task bar disappears in Unity mode. Look! See at the top of the screen? Those tray icons appear in the Mac menu bar! They thought of everything.

So, do you agree with me now - the VMWare guys are sheer genius? This is true magic if I ever saw it in the guise of software. And, it is rock solid. The only thing that ever crashes is Windows. I even ran multiple VMs at once, no problem on a 4GB RAM 64-bit laptop. Some of my VMs are on an external USB drive, and then I may notice some slowdown occasionally - but I am really pushing the system to its limits.

Genius! Bravo. This is simply the best software I have ever seen on any machine. For $99 I got Fusion and 1 year of support. Although, I am not sure if I will ever need the support - it just works. So far. I've only been using Fusion for 2 months now (heavily).

Now, my major dilemma here is what words do I use to describe the coolness factor? Wicked way, is way too lame. I think we have to devise some new words in the English language (slanguage?).

What About Google Chrome?

2009-12-11T10:06:00.000-08:00

You may have noticed that Google is pushing very strongly its browser, Google Chrome. I think almost everybody understands Google's business model - they are not an Internet search company, they are an advertising company. They make money by charging their customers to place ads, and they cleverly come up with inventive ways to do so (free e-mail, Google Maps, Google Earth, etc.). My question on the business side is, how does Google make money off of Chrome? I don't think they do.

So, I have been using both the Beta and Release versions of Google Chrome for over a year now. Or, rather, I should say I had been using them. If you were ever wondering, "Should I switch?" I will give you my answer.

What Is A Browser?

A long time ago (circa early 1960's), in a galaxy far, far away (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA), the Internet was invented (originally called DARPAnet - and who says the government doesn't do anything useful?). Back then, the Internet was only for geeks and hacks. There was e-mail, but no one except a few hundred people on the planet knew what e-mail was. In order to connect to something, like NASA for example, you had to know their IP address. And know UNIX. (Yeah, I downloaded a lot of cool JPeg pictures from NASA in the 1980's.) Then, you could connect - and do what? Download files. Communicate in "bulletin boards" called Newsgroups. That's about it.

Nowadays, it seems second nature. But, sometime in the late 1980's and early 1990's, a group of super-geeks invented HTML and the World Wide Web. In 1991 or 1992, when I first heard of it, my friend said, "You've GOT to see the World Wide Web. HTML - hyperlinks, embedded pictures - it's so cool!" We were mesmerized, by the fact that you could read documentation on software, and actually click to cross-reference a word. Cool!

Of course, today the Web (so-called because it is a complex web of interlinked and cross-linked documents and resources) is almost synonymous with the Internet.

A Browser, simply put, is the software that allows you to view this Web content of the Internet. Its basis is HTML, which is a formatting language developed to lay out textual documents with graphical components, but so much more has been built upon it. So, what's all this big deal about Browsers?

Back in the old days, there was only one - Mozilla (the original one developed back in the 1980's). This has morphed into the product now called Firefox. Eventually when the Internet took off (primarily because of the Web), Microsoft took note, and in 1995 included a browser with Windows called Internet Explorer. Now, there are a bunch of browsers out there. However, these 2 browsers really dominate the market, with a new contender that has grown very fast. The new contender? Google Chrome.

What Browsers Are Out There?

For a good review of browsers, see http://internet-browser-review.toptenreviews.com/

Microsoft Internet Explorer, or "IE" is the default with
Windows, currently on version 8
Mozilla Firefox, currently on version 3.5
Google Chrome, currently on version 4.0
Opera, currently on version 10.0

Not talked about in this article, it is blazing fast and its innovation is mouse gestures as shortcuts for the common browser buttons; however, it seriously lacks compatibility with many web sites

Apple Safari, currently on version 4

Not talked about in this article, it performs very nicely on Mac and PC, about the same as Chrome and Firefox

...and a bunch of small, relatively unknown browsers I have not evaluated nor heard of before I did research for this article:

Flock
Maxthon
Avant
Deepnet Explorer
Phaseout

What's So Unique About Google Chrome?

So, what's the big deal? As the years have gone by, IE has become Bloatware - that is, so huge and bloated, that it is both unstable (it crashes a lot - and always has, ever since version 2.0 / Windows 95), and it is a slow and ungainly application. It is huge! The latest invocation, Version 8, requires lots of RAM and a fast computer, otherwise you are really waiting a lot. Google Chrome is minimalist. There is only one field for entry - for URL's (the address you want to go to), as well as for searches. You have the tab bar, menus, toolbar, and that's it - the rest of the screen is devoted solely to browsing. Behind the scenes, it is small, lean, and fast. Of course, browsers nowadays have to be free to compete - no one will pay for a browser. Chrome gives you speedy performance, but at a cost, of course - albeit not a direct monetary cost.

Another really nice feature, is Incognito Mode. You can run Chrome in Incognito, and this will prevent cookies from web sites being saved to your system. It helps if you are browsing dangerous web sites, to protect your computer from damage by them. However, it is not a catch-all for these issues. Your computer's address is still known to the server you connect with, and you can still download and install executables.

What Are The Problems With It And Internet Explorer?

First, what are the problems with Internet Explorer, or simply "IE"? Heck, it comes preinstalled with Windows, so why would anyone switch? Believe it or not, not everyone who has a computer has Windows. There are a ton of UNIX, Linux, and Mac users out there. I hear a few of them even use Internet Explorer - perhaps it behaves better on UNIX-based machines, I haven't yet found out. As mentioned above, IE is Bloatware (with a capital B). It takes up a ton of memory, it takes a long time to load - especially if you have Plug-Ins (add-ons that add functionality to IE), and because it has so many features, it loads pages and displays them much slower than its competition. And, there is a lot of competition.

So, what's wrong with the top browser, and what's wrong with Chrome?

Bloated, slow, and unstable. In a Wisconsin Public Radio show earlier this year, I heard that the 2 most unstable software in the computing industry (most crashes) are IE and Windows Explorer (the core component of Windows). I can vouch for that by firsthand experience.
User Interface has become, well, not so great. I used to say Microsoft is the king of user interfaces, making their software intuitive. However, they have fallen, to the folks at Google and Apple.
Resource hog - it grabs lots of memory, and generally slows down the entire computer while using it.
The plus side? It is compatible with all the web sites out there.

Chrome

Compatibility - there are quite a few web sites, some of them very important for my work, that do not function correctly with Chrome
Lack of plug-ins - there are many excellent add-ons you can get for Firefox and IE, that are just like Apps for the iPhone. They make the whole user experience. They are just coming on line for Chrome, and very limited.
No Google Toolbar - yes, the one completely addictive gadget Google has come out with in the past few years, Google Toolbar, doesn't work with Chrome. This really bites.
Up until the end of October, 2009, another problem with Chrome is no Mac version; however, they now have one, so take that one off the list.

Should I Switch?

Obviously, only you can decide. For me, there is one overriding, all-important feature - Compatibility. If the web sites I frequent don't work correctly on the browser, I can't use it. Chrome falls into this category. For me, it really bites. Yes, it is fast - but Opera is faster. Firefox is just as fast - and has the compatibility with probably 99% of the web sites, and an IE plugin that covers web sites that it don't work with. Second most important, is speed - Firefox, Chrome, and Opera all have that. So, I use Firefox every day.

Slow Computer Frustrations

2009-12-01T17:53:00.000-08:00

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that there are probably a few people out there who get frustrated with computers from time to time. I'm going to also go way way out, and guess that most of these are Windows users. Just a guess. Why, aside from the sheer market penetration?

Well, I just tried to reboot my laptop by doing Start, Shut Down, and pick Restart. What happened? It hung for 10 minutes, no activity. Everything stopped responding, no hard drive light, nothing. Finally I had to power off. They used to call it Plug and Pray back in the days when Windows 95 came out (notice the "r"?). This high-end Dell laptop, with 4 Gigabytes of RAM (heck, my Amiga 2000 had 5 MB and it was a lot!), a Core 2 Duo CPU, and supposedly a big I/O bus, but oy does it spend a lot of time hanging waiting for the hard drive.

So, I've been contemplating, in all this time I have to wait, what is it exactly that gives me the impression that, no matter how fast the computer is, it is still too slow? Have you thought the same? I mean, you know, back in the 1980's there was the DOS PC, the old Mac, the Apple IIe, Commodore 64 and Amiga, Atari 800 and ST, and so on. They were slow by today's standards, but back then they seemed, you know, fast enough but after you got used to them, you wished they were faster. Each new generation of machines got "faster", but they seemed, you know, fast enough but you wished they were faster. Heck, if you took the same machine and used it for 6 years, it was slower than when you got it. This is particularly a Windows phenomenon - I have noticed it because, being the miser I am, I like to recondition old equipment and use it for other purposes, so I have reformatted and reinstalled Windows many times on old equipment, only to find - hey, they run a lot faster after a reinstall, almost as fast as a brand new machine!

So, what's that all about?

First, Windows itself is a behemoth operating system that is built upon older versions upon older versions, with a mandate to maintain certain levels of compatibility all the way back to DOS 3. 1984. Remember the old IBM PC? In fact, Windows is itself very much like the Internet. The Internet as it stands today rests upon some basic standard protocols called TCP and IP, which were developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), and several universities including my alma mater, U of M. By the way, these protocols were developed back in the 1950's-1960's to withstand a nuclear holocaust and still route data between defense and university facilities. Not really designed for efficiency in communication, nor were they designed for anything other than simple text files, data files, e-mails, etc. Nowadays, upon those basic protocols, we have added rich Web (developed in the late 1980's and deployed in the early 1990's), streaming media, mobile apps, voice and fax virtual phone lines, virtual networks, rich e-mails with formatting and embedded media - it's amazing what they do with 1's and 0's. However, notice that the Internet doesn't work very well for these things - why? Because the basic foundation, that of self-routing packets split up and finding their own way so they can arrive in spite of a nuclear blast, is not designed to work well for them.

Windows is just like this - a simplified PC hardware architecture with a CPU, 640K of RAM, a text monitor, and a keyboard. Oh, you want graphics? Sure, we can do that - we just make a patch here. Oh, you want a mouse too, sure, another patch, and one for sound, one for USB devices. Put it all together, you end up with a patchwork built upon an ancient design.

UNIX, on the other hand, has had quite an interesting series of rebirths. It did start out in similar times, but with different bent and direction. As opposed to Bill Gates and his cadre of executives and lawyers, UNIX started out an open operating system (without the avid goal to make money). AT&T Bell Labs published their source code. Much UNIX software has remained like this, generating such institutions as the GNU Public Library, and influencing Sun Microsystems and others. Its openness extends to the design and handling of new constructs. Take, for instance, the famous decision made at Microsoft in the 1980's. Most computers had a max of 64K of RAM, so they multiplied it by 10, and said "That's the most memory we'll ever need," and proceeded to design their operating system under that limitation. UNIX (AT&T), on the other hand, said, OK, the largest number we can address in a number of X size is Y, so Y is the maximum RAM (turns out, the maximum number addressable depends upon the processor you run it on, so as the hardware gets bigger, UNIX addresses the memory no problem).

The bottom line is, we are all limited not by the resources at hand, but by what we imagine to be resources. The decisions we make, the actions we take, and more importantly, the assumptions we make without realizing those are merely assumptions, become the box that sets the limits.

So, fast forward to today, at the end of the first decade of the 21st century. The fact that Windows works as "well" as it does, is pretty much a miracle! Anyhow, a long digression on the history of computers, but I think it's quite interesting that this Dell, which basically has the exact same hardware as my Macbook Pro, runs so slow. But the Macbook Pro is insanely solid and fast.

The only time in the past month I have had to reboot the Macbook, is when it downloaded a software update from Apple that said "you should reboot". That's twice. In fact, when I close the lid, it goes to standby in, no kidding, 3 seconds. When I open the lid, no kidding, it comes out of standby and connects to the WiFi network in 3 seconds. I don't know how they do this magic - and that speed is truly magical. I suspect that a) the UNIX-based Mac OS X is a well-designed OS, well-organized, and b) the lack of real-time monitoring "security" software like antiviruses and antispyware really give it a boost, whereas they probably cause as much or more problems than the software they protect me from!

So, how do I solve the problem when the Dell won't reboot? I give it a nice, hard, satisfying jab on the power button, hold down for 20 seconds, and it turns off. Bam. Almost as instantly as the Mac shuts down normally. Well, at least there's the satisfaction that I have some level of control after all.

Second, what slows machines down is called "garbage" collecting. Windows is notorious for this, but to be fair, I guess all computers are susceptible to it to some degree. For example, central to Windows operation is an internal database called the Registry. This registry is a central location where settings are stored - settings for your hardware, Windows, software and drivers installed, and more. As you can imagine, it can get huge. Also, there can be things left behind by upgrades, uninstalls, and normal usage ("garbage"), that slow the overall system performance. There are utilities out there to clean up this stuff, my favorite is Glary Utilities. However, I find it interesting that the old UNIX way of doing things for the past 40 or 50 years, works better than the new Registry (introduced in Windows 95).

Third, of course, is the file system. By this, I mean the way in which the computer organizes files on hard drives and storage media. Old Windows and DOS used to use FAT and FAT32 (yeah, there are jokes about it), Windows now uses NTFS. However, there are many inefficiencies with the Windows file systems. First, if you have a lot of files in a folder, operation is very slow. Especially if you have a lot of small files. Second, is inefficient use of hard drive space - the block size is 1K, so if you have a file less than 1K, it uses 1K on the drive - the rest is wasted. Drive size is allocated in 1K blocks, so file sizes in between 1K are rounded up on the drive, leaving wasted space. UNIX seems to again do much better in drive use - one very interesting example is my MP3 players. I had a Sansa Fuze with 8GB memory, and my 1,200 songs pretty much filled it up. However, the same songs stored on my iPhone take up much less space - somehow, they fit with the iPhone OS leaving much less than 8GB free to start with, and I still have room. (The iPhone runs a mobile-modified version of Mac OS X.)

Coupled with the File System, is the collection of "garbage" files. These are typically temporary files created by software for a few moments' or hours' need, then they usually "forget" to clean up after themselves. (Hmm, does that sound like my daughter?) These collections of files slow the machine down (remember, the Windows file system gets slower with larger numbers of files stored within it). The true marvel here, is that UNIX UFS/HFS/NFS have been around for so long, and don't slow down with more entries thanks to the ingenious indexing and entry location system. In Windows, temp files collect everywhere, especially in the Windows Temp folder. Glary Utilities can help identify and clean these, improving system performance. And, it is good practice to clean stuff you no longer need. However, I admit that a) you don't always know what you have because a lot of it is done behind the scenes, and b) you may not know when or if you need it again, so you may want to hang onto it.

I have found that archiving files off onto CD or DVD for later use is good, and I have made a utility (MediaCat) that indexes these files into a database that can be searched to later locate the file and disc. Surprisingly, there doesn't seem to be a lot of other utilities that do this - there are a few, but none of them told you where you put the disc, only the name of the disc. Kind of useless if you have 300 discs!! Hmm, what was that I was saying about garbage collection??

So, much like my Chrysler Town and Country, the longer I have this Macbook, the more I like it.

The Big Storage Lie

2009-11-30T12:43:00.000-08:00

What's This About?

Long story, but I just bought a new 1.5 Terabyte drive for my server. Once it was formatted, how big does it say in Windows? 1.32 TB. So, what happened to 180 Gigabytes of space?

In fact, this phenomenon is rampant now throughout the computer industry. And remember, everything is a computer - from your cell phone (no matter how simple it is, it is still a computer with its own Operating System, CPU, and memory) to media players (MP3, video, etc.), to USB jump drives, to flash memory sticks (SD, MicroSD, CompactFlash, Sony Media Stick, etc.), car stereos, GPS devices, and to, of course, hard drives.

I traced this discrepancy down once, to a white paper by James Wiebe, in which he explains exactly why we have this discrepancy. It basically boils down to the fact that the hard drive / memory manufacturers use a different standard to compute the size, than the standard that computers use to report the size. What!?!? That's right. Somewhere, someone decided they would redefine what has been in place some 60 years, and arbitrarily say that a 1 GB hard drive means 1,000 MB, which by the way each mean 1,000 KB, each of which is 1,000 Bytes. You may know that electronic computers since their inception have used a binary system to compute storage size instead of a decimal system, therefore using powers of 2, 1KB is 1,024 Bytes, 1 MB is 1,024 KB, and 1 GB is 1,024 MB, and so on.

Somehow, all of the manufacturers started following suit - probably as storage capacities became so large they figured no one would care. So, basically we are all being cheated! That's right, I paid $105.95 for 1.5 TB, but I only got 1.32 TB. They stole 180 Gigabytes from me - by the way, my roommate in college had a 5 Megabyte hard drive, so that would be, oh, some almost 37,000 hard drives from college they stole from me! Or would it be only 36,000 because you multiply by 1000 instead of 1024? Oh, to heck with it!

A Call To Action

Sometime in 2003, some of the hard drive manufacturers were sued, successfully, on this point. However, in a settlement, it turns out the end result is this stupid statement on the bottom of my Seagate box:

When referring to hard drive capactity, one gigabyte, or GB, equals one billion bytes and one terabyte, or TB, equals one thousand billion bytes. Your computer's operating system may use a different standard of measurement and report a lower capacity. In addition, some of the listed capacity is used for formatting and other functions and will not be available for data storage.

Hooey! Horse hockey! Is anyone else mad as hell about this? First of all, your computer's operating system may use a different standard??? There is not a single operating system in the world that doe NOT use a different standard - the original power-of-2 standard. All flavors of UNIX, Windows, Mac, you name it. Second of all, I mean really, what would it be like if the US gas stations started listing prices in Liters, without labeling it as Liters? That's right, now it's $2.59. Times 3.8 liters per gallon, oh, but we didn't tell
you. If you wonder why your gas fillup now costs you $120 instead of $35, it's just because some cars made for the US market may report a different capacity! Yeah, that's exactly what they said on the bottom of my Seagate box.

I say enough of this lie - if it is 1.3 TB capacity, call it that. Fine, I'll pay the $105.95 (did I multiply by 1,000 or 1,024???). But call it like it is - don't lie and say it is 1.5 TB, because it isn't.

We tried the legal route - it's either way too limited (suing a company or several companies), or just forget about the mountain to climb (getting Congress to pass a law - besides, do you really want Congress passing a law regulating technology?).

Contact your manufacturers and complain. Have them spend the time to explain it to you - hopefully as well as James Wiebe did (did you follow the IBM/Hitachi computation?). If they find they are spending so much time answering complaints, and explaining, maybe that will hit thim in their profitability, and they will begin listing the TRUE capacity.

That's my 2 cents worth.

What’s this Mac thing all about?

2009-11-20T20:12:00.000-08:00

Computers have become a huge part of our lives. Especially mine. The first time I laid eyes on my parents’ TRS-80 Model II at 8 years old, I was hooked. Over the years, I have done a lot with computers - and managed to avoid mainframes (except for one excruciating class in college). I have worked on machines from the Commodore 64, Apple II, Atari 800, all the way through half a dozen implementations of UNIX (including the Microsoft Xenix - remember that one?).

At times, as I am sure you can relate, it has been a love-hate relationship. The Commodore Amiga, way ahead of its time, was burdened with a company who wasn’t very interested in marketing it against the PC and Macintosh (that was at the same time as the PC with DOS 4 and 5, Windows 3.0/3.1, Mac 512, Mac SE, Mac II). Later sold to Gateway, the Amiga became a set-top-box environment used for cable boxes. PC’s and Windows - well, I think we all know why we hate them. The biggest gripes I had about the Mac, was that it didn’t let tinkerers into the inner workings very easily - no command line interface, the GUI (that’s Graphical User Interface) was too simplified, and the darned thing crashed a lot with that annoying bomb.

So, I began my career selling PCs and Macs, then transitioned into a job programming on a UNIX environment. I kept up with UNIX for 10 years, doing lots of work on various environments. When Apple announced that their operating system, Mac OS, was transitioning after OS 9 to UNIX-based OS X (X for UNIX, X for 10...), I was pretty piqued. However, by then I was deeply immersed in the Windows world.

For those of us who were around when Windows ME came out, we remember what a fiasco that was. That version (somewhere between Windows 98 and Windows 2000) was so overly bug-ridden, we thought for sure Microsoft had learned their lesson. And so it seemed - Windows 2000 was very stable: the first version I could leave running for more than a couple of days without rebooting. (My 1989 Commodore Amiga 2000, I would leave running without rebooting for weeks, by the way.) Windows XP came out, and I was wary of upgrading - until I was issued a new laptop from work with XP on it, and I was again impressed.

Then what happened? Vista came out. Mac OS X came into its own. Ahh, Vista - Windows ME all over again. All the big promises Microsoft made about stability, new environments to help us avoid all the problems with older Windows (DLL Hell, to name one). The biggest cheese - the “security”. I loved the Mac ads - “Asking the user to Cancel or Allow isn’t security - it is simply annoying. I either have to allow every time, or if I allow all, then I drop the new security altogether.”

Fast forward. It is now toward the end of 2009, and as promised when Vista came out, I did not buy another PC. An opportunity came up, and I ordered a Macbook Pro.

Wow.

Let me say it again. Wow. After using this thing for a month, I have realized that the Macintosh is how I’ve always thought computers should run. UNIX to its core, but a nice, friendly interface. That is the power.

But what about software? Think about it. Think really hard. What is it you need to do on a computer? Web? E-mail? Address books? Word processing? Spreadsheets, presentations, convert to PDF, print, transfer files. Oh, what about video editing, photo management? You know, every time I tried to hook my Windows machine up to my Comcast cable box to record the video, it gave me a blue screen and rebooted.

Well, the Mac comes with all that! Comes with it - the Office document suite, from Apple, is $40 if you buy it bundled with the machine. Or you could get Microsoft Office for the Mac for 4 times the price, but I’ve had it with Microsoft stuff. I mean, the Mac is just so - elegant. But really, that’s not fair. It comes with a ton more. Garage band lets you arrange music, take lessons for instruments (comes free for guitar and piano), and more. iPhoto lets you manage photos - and really well. FrontRow gives you special multimedia watching capability. iCal is a calendar integrated with the operating system, and all applications. The address book is part of the Mac, not just some afterthought (oh, it’s in the e-mail package, or if you buy Office you get Outlook). No, it’s at the core of everything. And iTunes comes built into the Mac, and it works flawlessly - fast, integrated into the keyboard - and it doesn’t crash like Windows Media Player.

Let’s talk about the touchpad. Laptops come with a touchpad, but the Windows ones are pretty basic. Move the mouse around, tap to click. Woo hoo. Oh, now you can slide certain regions in the margins to scroll the screen. Useful - but a pain in the hand.

The touchpad on the Macbook I instantly took to! First there’s scrolling. Put down 2 fingers and move around. No confinement to the rightmost 1/8 inch if you can get your fat finger to touch it right! Just drag 2 fingers, and it scrolls. Effortless. And, the buttons are not simply a tap - the whole touchpad is a button. Just push down, and you can feel it click. Simple, tactile response.

The Mac has Exposée - no, I don’t mean something the newspaper does. I mean this is a sweet feature of the Mac. By swiping 4 fingers up or down, or pressing the function key, all of my open windows fly out from behind each other, and I can see and click on any one of them to locate the window I want. Waaay too useful - now I hate using Windows!

But, something I had on the Amiga and UNIX CDE was workspaces. You can divide your screen up into workspaces. Each workspace takes up the full screen, but you can put windows in it, and switch between workspaces, so you don’t get too cluttered. The Mac takes that to the next level. By pressing F8, all my workspaces fly out, and I can see, interact with, drag windows between, and click on a workspace to switch to it.

If that weren’t enough - I’ll throw a few other facts out. First, the Mac doesn’t dog. My “brand new” Dell Core 2 Duo with 4GB of RAM often gets into fits where the system freezes while it writes big files to the hard drive. I have to reboot it often (Windows XP of course), and every so often a blue screen. Second, I don’t need antivirus, antispyware, firewall - from 2 or 3 different vendors just to protect myself. There are currently no known viruses for Mac OS X. Third, there’s the software that comes with the Mac. I mean, just comes with it. Video editing, audio editing, multimedia, movie watching, music, and more. Fourth, this computer is a programmer’s paradise. XCode, the free package from Apple for writing software for the Mac and iPhone and other platforms, blows away Microsoft Visual Studio. Fifth, if you really, really want to, you can run Windows. Of course, you need to buy it and install it.

So, the biggest 2 things I have noticed about the Mac are, 1) the Mac really lives up to the advertisements, and 2) it exceeds what they say in the ads. How often nowadays do you get a product, and are happier with it months after the purchase?

De-Teching

2009-11-10T10:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is a difficult thing to imagine, since technology and gadgets are such an integral component in our lives, but there are (believe it or not) actually times where technology is a hindrance, bother, annoyance, or downright dangerous. That last remark may seem a poignant reference to texting whilst operating machinery, but it extends beyond that.

So, what is a Tech Geek like me doing talking about de-teching? Once years ago, someone put it to me like this: if you have to choose between a critical after-hours work involvement, and a critical family involvement, think about this. When you are lying on your death bed, will you regret missing work, or will you regret missing that family event? That helps me put things in perspective.

There are times when cell phones, PDA's, computers, even telephones are inappropriate. This is different for each person, but there is also an aspect of considering the feelings of others. A friend posted on her Facebook yesterday what I thought was a really nice survey of what types of coworkers people found annoying - and I really thought about the "Tappers" - people who sit in meetings in which the are supposed to be participating, but are tapping on their Blackberries/iPhones/etc.

So, am I to preach what you should and should not do? That is not my intent. What I want to do with this article, is to trigger that little-used "thought" app that you downloaded when you were a kid, but haven't used much in relation to technology. Ignore the article if you wish! I cannot advise you on when you should or should not use your cell phone (heck, nowadays the law will tell you that!), but I can share with you some of the tools I use to help me choose.

Why De-Tech?

Since the dawn of time, mankind has become a tool maker. We use our smarts and the stuff around us to develop technology that gives us an edge, makes tasks easier to accomplish, and even entertains. From stone knives to the iPhone, we have a plethora of stuff available to us every day. However, overuse or over-reliance on a tool, or tools beyond the ones God gave us (brains & hands), can foster a disconnect between our lives (soul if you will) and our experience of our lives.

For example, if you want to tell someone something, modern technology gives us an unbelievable number of ways to do it. We can text them, we can e-mail them, we can call them, send a letter, heck we may even be able to video conference. However, have you ever heard the phrase "there is no substitute for face-to-face?"

E-mails and text messages (and in a way phone calls) cannot convey nuances of inflection, facial expressions, and body language that communicate syntax that is just as important as the spoken words themselves. If you rely mainly on these forms of communication, you may find that the quality of your relationships has dimished to the point of simple message/reply, or have statements misinterpreted and have things blow up out of proportion to what was intended.

If you are watching your daughter's playoff basketball game against the rival team, and it is a close game, but you are in the middle of texting or talking on the phone, what is your experience and the quality of connectedness between you and your daughter?

I think what is missing in the technology, is a cultural context in which to determine when and if we should use that technology. In fact, exactly because of this line of thinking, this is why at home we do a lot of food preparations and food processing manually - with the kids when they want to help out. Pickles, drinks, beef and chicken stocks, tomato sauces, growing and harvesting our own foods - these all give us a connectedness to each other, and to God's creations - oh, and by the way, they are healty.

How to De-Tech?

So, how do we do it? I mean, we have all these neat stuff because, well, they are neat. They are useful, and make our lives easier in many ways. However, as with any tool, there are certain things these tools do well, and other things that other tools are better at. For example, a screwdriver is great at turning a screw. Not so great at hammering a nail, or at pulling a nail. You could do it, but a claw hammer is better.

The first tool I use to help determine if I should use a gadget or not, is Stop And Think.

Is the tool the best way to communicate what I want to communicate? For example, e-mail and text messages have one big shortcoming. They are prone to misunderstandings. So, is the message I am sending simple enough to be clearly communicated in this way, or if it is complex or perhaps emotionally charged, a phone call or face-to-face would be better.
Is the use of the tool disturbing to others? If I am a Tapper, then it obviously is. My family can attest, since I have had an MP3 player, I am prone to walking around with earbuds in my ears - even if the sound is off, people are not sure whether or not I am able to hear them.

Sometimes, it's not so easy to Stop And Think.

The next tool, is the Deathbed question. Will I regret using the tool / missing out on other things, or will I regret not gaining the functionality the gadget gives me?

Also, I have another tool called Do I Really Need To? This one I sometimes use to justify my use of a gadget. For example, if I am on vacation, but the sales guys really need to tap my knowledge for an hour to close a big deal - heck, in this economy we have to do whatever it takes, so I will leave my cell phone on, check my e-mail, respond to the call from work.

Finally, there is an I Need A Break tool. Sometimes, I need a break from it all! Turn off the TV, get away from the computer, no MP3 - just hang out on the porch in the folding chair with a beer in my hand. Hey, you're allowed - and you deserve it!

Computer Security for the Home User

2009-11-02T12:28:00.000-08:00

At work, where you have a "full-time" paid employee handling your computers, they have the luxury of time and knowledge to set up a secure environment. However, those of us at home either don't know enough about security, or don't have the time to research and figure out what to do. Or, perhaps we most likely don't even know we have a problem.

So, what is meant by security? Many different things - some of which are products we install, some of which are behaviors which we exhibit. I think at a gut level we all "know" that we need to be careful with our computers. However, it is often not at the forefront of our thoughts - until it is too late. The computer is crashed, or perhaps someone steals your identity and runs up charges in your name. All of these happen way too often.

Why would you need to secure your computer? Well, think about what is on it. If any one of these apply to you, you need to do something to protect yourself - or become a victim.

E-mail with personal information, like address, phone number, user names, maybe even passwords
Contacts in your e-mail
Financial documents, like Quicken or QuickBooks accounting files, or tax calculations, bank account info
Passwords and logins
Medical information
Personal information you don't what just anyone finding out

The good news is, some of this is just "common sense". My mother always used to say, "If it sounds too good to be true, it isn't." This is a good rule of thumb. Let's look at all of the ways in which we use computers, and the different ways in which they are vulnerable to attack - and what we can do to protect ourselves.

In this article, I discuss:

1. Viruses, Spyware and Malware

Malware is simply a generic term for little software programs that do bad things (mal=bad), and comes in 2 major forms. Computer Viruses are similar to real viruses. A computer virus is a program that installs itself (or gets installed) on your computer, and does one of two things. It copies itself, perhaps to other areas in your computer, or to other computers via your e-mail contacts or your network. It also does somehthing malicious. Where do they come from? There are thousands of people out there who make these for fun, just to cause people trouble. Some are tinkering around teens and pre-teens, learning computer programming by playing. Some are criminals looking to make money. And some are idealogues, thinking they can fight the Western infidel capitalists by attacking their computer systems. What kinds of bad things can they do? They can do simple things like slow down your computer, pesky things like make your mouse not work, or really nasty things like crashing your hard drive and wiping out data. Typically, they do it sneaky so you can't detect it until too late.

Spyware is software that, while perhaps not as intentionally damaging as a virus, is perhaps just as bad. Typically it does not "reproduce" and spread itself like a virus. It is so-called "spyware" because it is usually installed along with something else, like that cool little utility you downloaded because it did something you need. But then, it "spies" on you, either hijacking something on your computer (like your web browser, forcing it to display advertisements from somewhere), or perhaps even trying to find personal information to help criminals make money off you. A lot of "spyware" comes bundled with other software, and is simply undesirable because it slows down your computer or makes it do annoying things.

Note that for Macintosh users, there are currently no known malware for Mac OS X. However, it probably would be courteous for you to get some protection software, to at least scan the files and e-mails you send to those less-fortunate PC/Windows users you communicate with!!

So, how can you protect yourselves? There are several free and paid software packages that help. But, keep in mind that no one package is the end-all be-all solution. It is better to have several tools in your shed. Understand some VERY IMPORTANT facts:

These software packages have to keep up with the new stuff that comes out, so
you may need to configure them to automatically download updates every day. Every day is recommended.
Each software package has a different way of fixing the problems, some may be more effective than others with various malware. So you should have several of these.

McAfee Virusscan (http://www.mcafee.com) is offered free to Comcast subscribers, and works OK. However, it sometimes may be just as bad as some malware, as it may slow your system down. It typically protects from viruses pretty well, but not so great at spyware.
Norton Antivirus (http://www.symantec.com) is similar to McAfee - same advice. If you have access to either, at least have that installed!
Avira Antivirus (http://www.free-av.com) is a free antivirus software that gets good reviews, however the free version displays ads constantly - can be annoying.

The above 3 packages both offer a scanning solution that looks through your system periodically, and cleans viruses, as well as a real-time protection that identifies files and e-mails that are bad as soon as you get them, and prevents them from getting to your system.

Malwarebytes (http://malwarebytes.org/) has a great (and free) software that removes malware, and especially spyware.
Spybot Search & Destroy (http://www.safer-networking.org) is also free, and not only removes spyware, but also has a real-time protection that helps prevent spyware infection by checking and preventing the kinds of bad things spyware does to your system.

These are the software I use on a daily basis on all of my PC's. For my Mac, I have iAntivirus, which does tend to slow down the Mac, so I don't keep it running - only when I want it to check certain things I send out to PC users.

2. E-Mails and E-Mail Contact Lists

Some e-mails are just annoying - either because you get bombarded with meaningless ones, or because they are scammers trying to take your money, or perhaps because they lead you to viruses or other malware. Remember: IF IT IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, IT IS NOT TRUE. Messages from some diplomat in Africa who will pay you $250,000 to move his $4 million into another account - yes, you guessed it - a scam. Believe it or not, a lot of elderly people fall for this scam, according to MSNBC and the FBI.

But, beware!!! These scammers are getting very clever. We had one hit our company recently, where they sent a message supposedly from our e-mail administrator, saying that the system would be upgraded over the weekend, and to click a link to verify your password information. IF YOU EVER GET AN E-MAIL THAT ASKS YOU TO VERIFY A PASSWORD, THAT YOU DID NOT SOLICIT, IGNORE IT, OR AT LEAST CONTACT THE ORGANIZATION. For example, if you forget your password on a web site and click the "forgot password" link, then you should expect to get an e-mail from them. Otherwise, especially if it looks like it is from a bank, you should contact the company immediately. Banks and other financial institutions do NOT conduct account information over e-mails - they do it by mail, or by phone.

So, getting the software I recommend above, or other similar software that provides real-time protection from viruses and spyware, is essential to protecting yourself from the occasional e-mail that you fall victim to. An EXCELLENT resource for many e-mails you may receive claiming to warn you about some dire emergency or terrible luck that will befall you if you don't
forward "this e-mail to everyone you know", is About.com's Urban Legends division (http://urbanlegends.about.com/). About.com pays people to research these, and expose them as bogus hoaxes or authentic notices. You can type in the subject line into the search, or some key words in the e-mail.

TRUST ME, BEFORE you forward an e-mail you got telling people to be careful not to use your cell phone while the charger is plugged in because it will catch on fire (or some other such warning, like Microsoft will track all the e-mails you forward), look it up on About.com's Urban Legends and see if it is true before you look like the fool for passing it on.

3. Web Sites and Web Surfing / Browsing

There are many web sites out there that trick you in various ways. "Phishing" is so-called because they fish for you by giving you bait - if you mistype in a popular web site, like a banking web site, they set up one that looks "just like" the one you thought you were logging into, until you already have entered your personal information. If you have been stung by this, immediately call the organization you were "phished" from (like your bank) and let them know, they can take measures to protect you. Meanwhile, to prevent this, you should activate the "Phishing Filter" in your browser. Internet Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/security/filters/smartscreen.aspx) has such security, so does Firefox (see http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/phishing-protection/). That should handle most of the browsers out there - the other relatively popular ones being Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome. However, I would say to stick with the top 2 - Firefox being the more secure and faster one, the better choice (and they have it on
the Mac).

Another popular trick is to get you to click on a link to a web site, which then either gets personal information from you, or downloads malware to your machine. Just be very careful what you
download and install - if you have the real-time protection installed (Spybot and McAfee/Norton), you will be better off but not still 100% protected.

Finally, popup windows have been a nagging hazzard for many years - there are still no really good preventative measures for these, as web developers always find ways around these, but beware of popup windows.

4. Network Security at Home

Now, here is an area most people ignore or are unaware of. One really easy way for people to hack into your system and get personal information, is to hack into your network. You don't have to be a computer guru to take some simple precautions.

Do you have a wireless network at home? If so, then you have what is called a Wireless Router (or WiFi Router). This is a box (maybe with an with antenna sticking out) and blinking lights connected to your cable modem, DSL router, or other Internet connection. Pretty much all Wireless Routers have some administration built in, and they come from the factory with default settings like a default address and default login and password. If you have never followed the instructions that came with your router, and changed your administration password, then it will take hackers about 2 seconds to hack into your network and have whatever they want. At the very least, follow your router's instructions for setting up the password. Typically, you connect to your router with a wire, and go to the router's address, which is usually 192.168.10.1, and log in usually with a blank login and "admin" as the password, or "admin" as the login and no password.

If you lost your router's manual, you can simplay go to Google, and search your router's make and model (for example, my router says "Cisco" on it, and on the bottom of the unit is the model number).

Do that at least! Another thing you can do that will add a double-layer of protection, is to enable secure access (which of course is not enabled by default). This will lock down the communication between your router and its wireless "clients" (laptops, your Wii, your cell phone, whatever other device uses your WiFi). You create a password, and then use that password to connect your devices to the WiFi. If you don't have the password, you can't get in, and it takes a lot more effort to hack in and get your password - probably too much effort so any hacker will simply give up.

Follow the instructions in the manual to turn on Wireless Encryption - WEP is the recommended protocol to use (there are others, like WPA, and more). Use WEP, and you get to enter any password you choose.

Hopefully you learned something new, and these simple measures will
help to keep your computing safe. Good luck, and feel free to
comment below.

Backing Up Your Computer - What You Need To Know

2009-10-13T16:17:00.000-07:00

Several people have recently asked me about online backup services. First let me say that if you don't back up your computer now, just imagine what would happen if one day you found that you could no longer use it (for one reason or another). Does that send your heart racing? If so, then you rely on your electronic friend, and you owe it to yourself to take care of him or her.

There are many things you need to back up, and many ways to do it, including online backup. What's the best way? That may be hard to say for sure, but if your backup has the following aspects, it will work for you.

1. So easy to do, you don't give up.
2. Automatic so you don't have to think about it.
3. Complete. I can't tell you how many times I have seen backups get everything except one crucial file - invalidating the whole backup.
4. Restorable. This is what most people don't think about. A file backed up while being written to may be no good. A backup solution that is unreliable, or difficult to obtain as quickly as needed for a restoration is a false sense of security - worse than not backing up because you expect it to be handled.

So, for most home and small business use, what should you do?

Start with asking yourself these questions:
1. What do I need to back up?
- office documents, legal document scans, pictures, videos, emails, databases like financial data or contacts or sales/inventory.
2. How big is it? Pictures and videos can get big - many gigabytes.
3. How much money can I spend to make a solution? This indicates how important the data is to you, and how much commitment you are willing to give to ensuring you suffer the least.

OFFLOAD AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE
If you can store your data on someone else's (a company's or organization's) server, that is typically better because they have professional IT staff that manage the hardware. For example, using an e-mail service such as Google Mail, all of your e-mails are stored on the Google servers. If you lose your computer, it does not affect your e-mail at all. Other online systems, like Google Docs, also offer the ability to store documents online. This will help to make you more resistant to point-in-time losses. Plus, the Google services like mail, docs, calendar, etc. work extremely well with sharing with others and synchronizing with mobile devices (see my other article).

LOW VOLUME DATA, LOW COST
This equates to you doing most of the work. Most computers come with CD or DVD burner drives. Of course you have to buy disks, burn them, keep them...

HIGH VOLUME DATA
If you are like me, you have many gigabytes of data to be backed up. There are really two good options.

Maxtor makes USB hard drives called One Touch. Plug them in, press the button, and your system is backed up. As of the time of this writing, a 1TB (1,000 gigabyte) drive is about $100.
Online backup services back up your data over the Internet. There are a few out there, including Amazon S3, Mozy, Norton, and SugarSync. However right now, the best features are available for the lowest price, at Carbonite for $55 a year (http://www.offers.com/f/software/online-backup/compare/).

The down side of buying a hard drive, you need to replace it when it is too small or stops working. However there was a scandal in March 2009 where Carbonite lost customers' online backups (http://infosecurity.us/?p=8133). Under the assumption that they have learned their lesson, I would bet they are better prepared perhaps than their competition now after suffering that debacle. The truth is we never really know how well a company takes care of their business without going there and researching ourselves, so barring that, online backups in general tend to be more reliable. This would be a similar phenomenon to that of airplanes - there are much fewer accidents with air travel than ground travel (e.g. online backups vs. personal backups), but one accident affects a greater population.

If you want to avoid monthly/yearly fees, and control your backups more closely, you should opt the hard drive route. Otherwise, trust in the professionals and let them manage the hardware, while you just manage which files get backed up.

SYSTEM BACKUP
Finally, we get to an aspect of backup that few people consider. Backing up data files means you can get them back - in the event you accidentally delete or otherwise lose them. But, what happens in the event your hard drive fails, and you have to get a new one? Your whole system is gone, and you need to get your apps, perhaps your e-mail. Much of what you need resides in the applications installed, the licenses enrolled, and the configuration settings - many of which are typically not stored in the normally-backed-up paths on Windows systems.

One way to back up your system is to use software that creates an image of the hard drive - basically a snapshot of the entire hard drive. You can store this image on another hard drive, or on CDs or DVDs. Then, using the same software, you can restore it later to another hard drive. Software ranges from Norton Ghost, which costs money, to SelfImage, which is free. BartPE is a free bootable CD that you can build to restore a computer whose hard drive is gone. It boots into Windows (you need your Windows CD to build a bootable CD), and allows you to run software like SelfImage to restore the hard drive from an image.

This takes technical knowledge - some talent at teasing the hobbling system to work, fixing the broken hardware, and more. At worst, you can pay someone else (or guilt them into it if you have leverage!) to repair your system and get it to the point where you can restore the files you backed up using the advice above.

ELEMENTS OF A SUCCESSFUL STRATEGY
You have to take all of these into account to put together something that works for you.

Use CD/DVD burners to back up relatively small amounts of data infrequently
Use a One Touch hard drive to back up your data if you want to control the hardware
Use a backup service to back up your data if you believe they will do a better job of maintaining the data, and this can be automated to happen daily, or even instantaneously
Set up a system image periodically, perhaps once or twice a year - you can do Google searches on BartPE and system image software, or contact me for some advice

Hope this helps - and happy backing up.

Family Productivity with the iPhone

2009-10-08T10:06:00.000-07:00

My wife and I just upgraded - she from the iPhone to the 3G, and me from a junky old beat-up Samsung to the 3G. At the AT&T store, they told us about Mobile Me, a Blackberry-like push service that allows you to get e-mails, etc. live - for a $100/year fee. We decided we would put it off - and that turned out to be the best decision.

I am a Google junkie. On any given day, I use Google search, Google voice for all incoming calls and many outgoing calls, Google Chrome, Google calendar, GTalk, sometimes Google Docs, Google Mail, Google Maps, occasionally Google Earth, and more. Hey, when the stuff just works, and it's free, you can't beat it.

So, when I found out that they have Google Sync, I was all over it! With Google Sync, Google set up a Microsoft Exchange server that you can configure your iPhone to receive pushed updates for Mail, Calendars, and Contacts. That's right! Since all of the Google apps use a common Contacts list, and you can sync that with your iPhone, you can have all of your contacts in one place!

Now, here comes the really cool part. If you have ever used Google Calendars, you know that you can have multiple calendars, and you can share them. So I had my own personal calendar. I quickly created one for my family. And Google Sync synchronized them both to my iPhone, so that entries in different calendars show up with different color dots next to them.

OK, now the out-of-this-world cool part. I shared my personal, and the family, calendars with my wife, and added Google Sync to her iPhone. Now she can see hers, mine, and the family calendars merged. Oh, and since she uses Outlook for her calendar, she downloaded the Google Sync app that synchronizes the Outlook calendar with her Google calendar, so everything is only entered in one place. If I ever want to know "can I schedule a business trip next week, what's the family up to?" - one tap on my Calendar app, and I can see at a glance! Now that is cool.

Steps to set up:

Get a Google GMail account if you don't already have one.
Set up your contacts.
Set up your calendar. Create new calendars if you wish - use the Share options to determine whom to share with, and what they can do to the calendar.
Follow the Google Sync link to set it up (yes, Google Sync works for more than just the iPhone - but I am a techie geek. What other kind of phone should I have?).
Lather, Rinse, Repeat - for each family member.

Do you need to have a GMail account for this to work? Yes. My wife initially had a Google login using her Comcast e-mail. She was able to set up the calendar, but the iPhone sync didn't work. When she created an actual GMail address and put everything under that, it worked great. Because of the push feature, updates to the calendars show up on all phones in a minute or so. Awesome!