I'm boycotting all HP products. Right now. All of them. I'm certain you find yourself asking why. Hp has the reputation of making the worlds best laser and print systems. I suppose they make decent computers and, of course, gave us the robust HP-UX system. But the reason I am boycotting them is that product support, by and large, is abysmal.
I began running Windows XP-64 since 2004. I love it. Its just like xp but MORE stable in my opinion. Of course, I knew there would be driver issues in the beginning. And some of the issues I had with drivers were very bad, such as the drivers for the sound blaster audigy, which caused all sorts of lockups and reboots. But even that, as much as I HATE to give creative labs credit, was resolved in a later update. I was given an HP Laserjet 1012 printer for christmas the year before. I loved the way it printed. Really. Then I upgraded to XP-64. And of course, there was no driver for Windows XP-64. That was okay, I had thought. EVENTUALLY they would HAVE to come out with 64-bit printer drivers for this printer. I mean its HP -- how could they not support a recent Microsoft OS?
It is now November 10th, 2008. XP-64 has been out for FOUR YEARS and now there is Vista64. No driver. Not a beta driver, not a preliminary driver, nada. There was some crap on the driver site about how 64-bit windows would not be supported by HP. Their answer, I kid you not, was that you can use a driver for a completely different printer. Ok, I thought, that must be it. What they failed to mention, was when you use the wrong driver not everything works. In fact, every time I tried to print anything with ANY formatting at all, the printer would spit out sheets that say "Unknown PCL Mode". Thats no mapquest maps, no pdf's, and bearly any word documents. And when it did print, the borders were completely screwed up.
In an attempt to track down the answers to WHY my printer was acting that way, I was told that the 1010 series (including mine) were "host-mode" printers, and that they had incomplete PCL code in the printer. All of that is supposed to get formatted from the drivers. And since I was not using drivers designed for my printer, I was always going to have this problem. That means that HP's great printer solution of using other drivers has NO HOPE OF EVER working with my printer under XP-64. So I figured, its just temporary. EVENTUALLY HP will get the message and relase some sort of 64-bit driver.
I still look at the internet about this issue from time to time. I hooked up the printer to my BSD server using cups and Samba, and all of my 32 bit windows and Linux machines automatically install the driver and print GREAT. My 64-bit machine? Nothing. Oh and not only that? There is a generic windows postscript driver just for printing to cups machines. It works great on my XP laptop. But guess what??? It only has 32-bit drivers as well.
Still, no driver. So I got a bug in my brain to search the internet about my problem, like I have every now and then for the last 4 years. I happened to find this post here.
Not only did the person trying to answer the question give him the SAME answer that was given 4 years ago, he thought it was VISTA. The post clearly states XP-64. So it looks like HP support reps don't know the difference between XP-64 and Vista, they STILL HAVE NOT WRITTEN A 64bit driver. It has been 4 years. And HP, supposedly one of the most technologicaly advanced IT companies there is, is apparently INCAPABLE of writing a 64-bit driver for this printer. Its not like someone wanting a driver for BeOS or Solaris or something. Its Windows XP-64 by MICROSOFT. Its got a bigger install base than FreeBSD. And yet it appears that HP just can't be bothered at all. Oh you can sell me that old line "well it doesn't say that its compatible with 64-bit, so they have no obligation to make drivers for that platform." Give me a fucking break. I expected better of a company like HP. There are no Vista drivers for this printer either apparently, and HP has no plans on writing supported drivers for this entire line of printers.
So I suppose according to HP, I'm just supposed to throw this printer away. I know that it is a "valu line", meaning I didn't have to take out a mortgage to buy it. And because of that, I suppose, HP would love for me to just throw my printer away. But here is the BEST part. Almost NONE of their printers have xp-64 drivers. True they have some, but most of those are just half assed drivers just so Windows would see the printer forget having full functions. And Apparently, their beautiful answer to how to get these printers to "work" in Vista is to install a completely different driver, that is CLOSE to the actual printer. The same crappy answer all over.
I had to buy a usb IR port for some testing. I was worried when I bought it because it was cheap, obviously chinese, and it was difficult to actually identify the manufacturer. To its credit, I put the driver cd in and right there was an XP-64 driver. Fully supported. If Joe-bob-chin chinese company can write 64 bit drivers, I fully expect HP to be capable. But clearly they just don't care enough about their customers.
I work in support and If I were to give these answers to my customers, my job would become a complaint department VERY quickly. And my customers would not accept the "use the driver closest to your printer" crap for a second.
Hewlett-Packard, your lack of drivers and support for your products to be used in modern, 64-bit environments, is INEXCUSABLE. And from this moment forward I vow NEVER to purchase any HP products again. Ever. This is the last straw. You have had 4 years and you can't even support Vista 32, much less any of the 64-bit OS's. Perhaps if I bought a professional line printer from you, I wouldn't have this problem. But clearly you don't give a crap about the little guy who cannot afford a thousand dollar laser printer. My father bought a laptop from you on my reccomendation. No more. I will never reccomend any HP products to anyone ever again. I honestly hope you go bankrupt and lose every customer that you have. Oh I know I'm just one pissed off techie, but there are plenty more of me.
If you happen to be running Vista or XP-64 and you have a Laserjet 1012 printer. Give up now. No amount of searching the internet will EVER give you a work around that works completely. You might be satisfied with limited printer support but I am not.
Monday, November 10, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
Will they Listen? Probably not.
I was just reading about Spore's recent crisis at Amazon.com. The much anticipated game was released to some fanfare. It seems however, that Spore implements the DRM scheme Securom. And take it from me, Securom causes more problems than it solves. I personally have had issues where Securom games refuse to work because I happened to be running the Daemon Tools virtual drive software.
For a game company to expect me to uninstall perfectly legitimate tools simply because those tools might be used for piracy, well let me just say that this is a slap in my face; an insult to my intelligence and my reputation. When I was first into computing, piracy was just as rampant as it is now, if not more so. First, there were "uncopyable disks" that could still be copied with the proper image software. The next reaction was to include a code wheel or code sheet, usually filled with esoteric symbols that correspond somewhere in the game. Usually red, or somehow otherwise protected from photocopying. This did not really work either, since code wheels could be taken apart, copied and reassembled, and you could get a copier to copy the red code sheets if the setting were just right. But the PC game market had a saving grace that both provided a means for them to produce more technically superior games AND reduce piracy. The CD-ROM. For about 6 years in the 90's, game manufacturers released many games on CD-ROM with absolutely no copy protection whatsoever.
The reason was, was that CD Burners were unheard of, and most hard drives were mostly no larger than 1GB. So copying a 600MB CD made little sense, and that is IF you could fit it on your hard drive. So at that point the only way to get a full game was to buy it. For a long time, copy protection was nowhere to be found. Then of course, came the advent of CD burners and the Internet. These two factors combined gave rise to a new era of piracy. So what did game makers do?
For a while, they did nothing. Burners were not that popular and most people accessed the internet through dial up and most people were unwilling to download entire cd images. But the threat had begun. Game manufacturers, taking a page from recent controversies from the RIAA about MP3 piracy, decided to implement DRM. They were just checks to see if the CD was in the drive, but it had begun. And so, with major piracy fears, game companies are more and more using the utterly draconian Securom protection. Never mind that it doesn't work on a large amount of computers for people who actually bought the title. So, more and more, users are turning to less-than-legitimate channels for these titles.
I had thought that computer software vendors would have learned a lesson long ago, a lesson that the RIAA is now just learning. There will always be pirates. The pirate has been an accepted stereotype in the computer industry since the early eighties. And these guys aren't going anywhere. Arrest them, confuse them, make everybody authenticate with thumbprints, they are going nowhere. This is the digital world now, and pirates are a fact of life. If you provide a digital product for sale, it will be acquired by a percentage of pirates. It is going to happen. Instead of trying to accuse every customer that buys your product of being a pirate, why don't you concentrate on the title. Make no mistake, you are calling every one of your customers a criminal, just like the RIAA. Oh you could be like them, track down a handful of pirates and sue them. Of course, this is futile as well, as there is no way you will catch even a fraction of the actual pirates, and you will just ruin a few dozen lives.
As if being treated like a criminal by default wasn't bad enough, the worst part is that the DRM functionality does not work on a growing number of systems. This is inexcusable, especially when the customer is being called a criminal even though he purchased the product. Now, the advantage of piracy is not only to make the game free, but for some people who bought the title, this is the only way for them to actually play it. And the activation part of securom? Three activations and then you have to call??? What happens if I feel nostalgic and want to load up Spore in 10 years? Are those activation servers still going to be functioning? I highly doubt it. Which means that your game will have a limited shelf life. As far as I'm concerned, the minute those activation servers are offline, every customer who purchased that product should get a refund. Because then it becomes impossible to install this title legitimately.
Software companies, I truly am sorry. Piracy is not going away. In my opinion using lesser draconian DRM measures like Safedisc is OK, but do what you can and then accept what happens afterword. If its a good game, it will sell. Sure some people will pirate it, but again, this has been going on for the last 20 years. One day, when these games requiring activation are forgotten because there are no more authentication servers, software companies will listen. But until then the gaming public seems to be speaking. Treat paying customers like they are criminals and they will, invariably become them. And you have no one to blame but yourselves.
For a game company to expect me to uninstall perfectly legitimate tools simply because those tools might be used for piracy, well let me just say that this is a slap in my face; an insult to my intelligence and my reputation. When I was first into computing, piracy was just as rampant as it is now, if not more so. First, there were "uncopyable disks" that could still be copied with the proper image software. The next reaction was to include a code wheel or code sheet, usually filled with esoteric symbols that correspond somewhere in the game. Usually red, or somehow otherwise protected from photocopying. This did not really work either, since code wheels could be taken apart, copied and reassembled, and you could get a copier to copy the red code sheets if the setting were just right. But the PC game market had a saving grace that both provided a means for them to produce more technically superior games AND reduce piracy. The CD-ROM. For about 6 years in the 90's, game manufacturers released many games on CD-ROM with absolutely no copy protection whatsoever.
The reason was, was that CD Burners were unheard of, and most hard drives were mostly no larger than 1GB. So copying a 600MB CD made little sense, and that is IF you could fit it on your hard drive. So at that point the only way to get a full game was to buy it. For a long time, copy protection was nowhere to be found. Then of course, came the advent of CD burners and the Internet. These two factors combined gave rise to a new era of piracy. So what did game makers do?
For a while, they did nothing. Burners were not that popular and most people accessed the internet through dial up and most people were unwilling to download entire cd images. But the threat had begun. Game manufacturers, taking a page from recent controversies from the RIAA about MP3 piracy, decided to implement DRM. They were just checks to see if the CD was in the drive, but it had begun. And so, with major piracy fears, game companies are more and more using the utterly draconian Securom protection. Never mind that it doesn't work on a large amount of computers for people who actually bought the title. So, more and more, users are turning to less-than-legitimate channels for these titles.
I had thought that computer software vendors would have learned a lesson long ago, a lesson that the RIAA is now just learning. There will always be pirates. The pirate has been an accepted stereotype in the computer industry since the early eighties. And these guys aren't going anywhere. Arrest them, confuse them, make everybody authenticate with thumbprints, they are going nowhere. This is the digital world now, and pirates are a fact of life. If you provide a digital product for sale, it will be acquired by a percentage of pirates. It is going to happen. Instead of trying to accuse every customer that buys your product of being a pirate, why don't you concentrate on the title. Make no mistake, you are calling every one of your customers a criminal, just like the RIAA. Oh you could be like them, track down a handful of pirates and sue them. Of course, this is futile as well, as there is no way you will catch even a fraction of the actual pirates, and you will just ruin a few dozen lives.
As if being treated like a criminal by default wasn't bad enough, the worst part is that the DRM functionality does not work on a growing number of systems. This is inexcusable, especially when the customer is being called a criminal even though he purchased the product. Now, the advantage of piracy is not only to make the game free, but for some people who bought the title, this is the only way for them to actually play it. And the activation part of securom? Three activations and then you have to call??? What happens if I feel nostalgic and want to load up Spore in 10 years? Are those activation servers still going to be functioning? I highly doubt it. Which means that your game will have a limited shelf life. As far as I'm concerned, the minute those activation servers are offline, every customer who purchased that product should get a refund. Because then it becomes impossible to install this title legitimately.
Software companies, I truly am sorry. Piracy is not going away. In my opinion using lesser draconian DRM measures like Safedisc is OK, but do what you can and then accept what happens afterword. If its a good game, it will sell. Sure some people will pirate it, but again, this has been going on for the last 20 years. One day, when these games requiring activation are forgotten because there are no more authentication servers, software companies will listen. But until then the gaming public seems to be speaking. Treat paying customers like they are criminals and they will, invariably become them. And you have no one to blame but yourselves.
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Review of Jim Butcher's Dresden Files
One of the things that I still do on a regular basis is read fiction. I love to read. I have loved to read since I could read. So many of my peers and colleagues have admitted to me that while they may code, or play video games, or work on their networks, almost none of them read.
Literacy, or as I like to say, “the art of reading”, is one of the best measures of both a person’s intelligence and wisdom. I know it carries a stigma of being geeky or nerdy or something that shut-ins do to pass time. But some of the best stories are still written in books. Some of the books have been mad into excellent movies, such as The Lord of the Rings. Some of them have been made into very bad films. But the romance of the printed word still retains a large majority of a tale’s impact, and in most cases popular media has ineptly failed to adapt said tale to modern media.
A few months ago, looking for something to read in the darker parts of literature, I stumbled upon a set of books by an author named Jim Butcher. I had never heard of him before, but the blurb on the back of some of his books, as well as the cover art, piqued my interest. So I picked up a copy of Storm Front, the first book in Jim Butcher’s Dresden files. I had some reservations. Modern horror novels all seem to look like they are about tragically-hip wanna-be vampire punks who are hopelessly tormented and crying and blah blah blah. Either they were copies of Anne Rice’s vampires or straight out of the World of Darkness. I was getting very sick of those horror novels.
Jim Butcher has totally breathed new life into the horror/occult literature arena with The Dresden Files. Needless to say, my expectations were totally wrong. While vampires ARE a part of the Dresden Files, Butcher’s take on them is very different. There are elements of the previous vampire ideas there, but Butcher manages to give them a different identity, making them his own unique creations. And they are not the only focus of his novels. Not by a long shot. The magic and wizardry of the novels combined with the brooding “White Council”, the demons, faeries, werewolves AND vampires create absolute page turning details in the whole of The Dresden Files.
There are, so far, 10 different Dresden Files works. I am going to try to write a review of the series and perhaps one or two lines about each book. I am going to try my damnedest not to give away any spoilers. But if I have convinced you already, hit up one of the links below and order yourself some of them. Those of you who need more convincing please, read on.
Harry Dresden is Chicago’s only professional “Wizard for Hire”. I sort of got the impression “what if Harry Potter grew up to become Sam Spade?” Your take may be different, but he is by far one of the most complex literary characters that I have read in the last five years and he is hard to place an exact analogue. He has an office, a dingy apartment and a car that barely runs. He wears a black leather duster, something I myself wear when weather permits (Though I have been wearing mine since the mid 1990’s). His clients are often boring, looking for lost items and the like, but the novels document some of Dresden’s more strange and dangerous clients. The stories are rife with magic, conjurings, thaumaturgy, and the supernatural. My skin crawled more than a few times.
Butcher seems to have either written these books with a male audience in mind, or at least an open-minded female audience. This is fantasy, bear that in mind. Every woman has huge boobs and most of the female characters seem to border on nymphomaniacs. But instead of feeling “cheap” or “sleazy”, the adult themes of these novels end up being very sexual, and very arousing. Sure it’s not reality, but this novel is “fiction”. And I’ll tell you, I loved every last minute of it. I WANT to read books where girls are literally tearing their clothes off all the time. Some scenes are the most erotic things that I have read in quite a few years. Make no mistake – these are not books for the majority of the Harry Potter crowd.
These novels are not just fear and sex either. The magical system that Jim Butcher has created for the Dresden Files is intricate and interesting. It combines many ideas of traditional magic, some fantasy elements and just a subtle hint of Hollywood flair. Harry Dresden has an array of spells and magical artifacts, including several spiritual items. This approach to magic is has the effect of feeling realistic, or at least as realistic as magic can be. There is a bit of religion in the novels as well, and Butcher handles this perfectly. He isn’t preachy, he doesn’t offend, and some of the most thought-provoking aspects of these novels pertains to Dresden’s view of the almighty and how it relates to others around him. The magic is also not overused. Dresden is not just some spell-slinging whitebeard that is powerless without his books. Far from that; Dresden has little hesitation to pull out his revolver when the need arises.
Butcher is also careful to include lots of humor as well. Downright funny events happen and there are small nuances that get the reader smiling every time, such as an army of unseen Faerie cleaning servants called brownies that Dresden cannot talk about or they will stop cleaning his apartment. There are also plenty of pop culture references, especially if you were a child of the 80’s as Dresden, Butcher and myself likely all are. (Though how Dresden was able to watch Star Trek TNG without a television is a mystery to me)
Harry Dresden is a fantastic character. Often broke, cursed by bad luck and bad women, he is easy to empathize with. He is a character that you want to root for. The other characters in the book are quite unique as well. Every person detailed in the books is interesting. Every enemy, every ally, and many of the creatures are all finely detailed. I’ve stated that the setting is Chicago, but that isn’t really true. With the Spirit world of the Nevernever, the jaunts to various night haunts and forgotten places, Butcher’s attention to detail doesn’t just create a story – he created a world. Some characters have hidden and mysterious lineages, others have ongoing personal challenges, yet others are members of secret societies like the Order of the Blackened Denarius. The story is rich indeed.
I am also amazed at Butcher’s talent for writing epic scenes and encounters. The climax of almost every book is a page-turner. Without giving too much away, one ending involves two magic users fighting in a house that becomes a giant, blazing, inferno, while trying to avoid being killed by summoned scorpions. The end of my favorite of the series, Death Masks, leads Dresden and company on a chase after a demon that spans the entire length of a moving train. Adrenaline filled, I read those pages at a blinding pace in an effort to reach the ending. Butcher also is unpredictable. Several times I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen, and of course, I was wrong. The writing is filled with creativity and style. If you have any imagination at all, you will love these books.
Now here is a list of the novels including a small mini review
Storm Front
Literacy, or as I like to say, “the art of reading”, is one of the best measures of both a person’s intelligence and wisdom. I know it carries a stigma of being geeky or nerdy or something that shut-ins do to pass time. But some of the best stories are still written in books. Some of the books have been mad into excellent movies, such as The Lord of the Rings. Some of them have been made into very bad films. But the romance of the printed word still retains a large majority of a tale’s impact, and in most cases popular media has ineptly failed to adapt said tale to modern media.
A few months ago, looking for something to read in the darker parts of literature, I stumbled upon a set of books by an author named Jim Butcher. I had never heard of him before, but the blurb on the back of some of his books, as well as the cover art, piqued my interest. So I picked up a copy of Storm Front, the first book in Jim Butcher’s Dresden files. I had some reservations. Modern horror novels all seem to look like they are about tragically-hip wanna-be vampire punks who are hopelessly tormented and crying and blah blah blah. Either they were copies of Anne Rice’s vampires or straight out of the World of Darkness. I was getting very sick of those horror novels.
Jim Butcher has totally breathed new life into the horror/occult literature arena with The Dresden Files. Needless to say, my expectations were totally wrong. While vampires ARE a part of the Dresden Files, Butcher’s take on them is very different. There are elements of the previous vampire ideas there, but Butcher manages to give them a different identity, making them his own unique creations. And they are not the only focus of his novels. Not by a long shot. The magic and wizardry of the novels combined with the brooding “White Council”, the demons, faeries, werewolves AND vampires create absolute page turning details in the whole of The Dresden Files.
There are, so far, 10 different Dresden Files works. I am going to try to write a review of the series and perhaps one or two lines about each book. I am going to try my damnedest not to give away any spoilers. But if I have convinced you already, hit up one of the links below and order yourself some of them. Those of you who need more convincing please, read on.
Harry Dresden is Chicago’s only professional “Wizard for Hire”. I sort of got the impression “what if Harry Potter grew up to become Sam Spade?” Your take may be different, but he is by far one of the most complex literary characters that I have read in the last five years and he is hard to place an exact analogue. He has an office, a dingy apartment and a car that barely runs. He wears a black leather duster, something I myself wear when weather permits (Though I have been wearing mine since the mid 1990’s). His clients are often boring, looking for lost items and the like, but the novels document some of Dresden’s more strange and dangerous clients. The stories are rife with magic, conjurings, thaumaturgy, and the supernatural. My skin crawled more than a few times.
Butcher seems to have either written these books with a male audience in mind, or at least an open-minded female audience. This is fantasy, bear that in mind. Every woman has huge boobs and most of the female characters seem to border on nymphomaniacs. But instead of feeling “cheap” or “sleazy”, the adult themes of these novels end up being very sexual, and very arousing. Sure it’s not reality, but this novel is “fiction”. And I’ll tell you, I loved every last minute of it. I WANT to read books where girls are literally tearing their clothes off all the time. Some scenes are the most erotic things that I have read in quite a few years. Make no mistake – these are not books for the majority of the Harry Potter crowd.
These novels are not just fear and sex either. The magical system that Jim Butcher has created for the Dresden Files is intricate and interesting. It combines many ideas of traditional magic, some fantasy elements and just a subtle hint of Hollywood flair. Harry Dresden has an array of spells and magical artifacts, including several spiritual items. This approach to magic is has the effect of feeling realistic, or at least as realistic as magic can be. There is a bit of religion in the novels as well, and Butcher handles this perfectly. He isn’t preachy, he doesn’t offend, and some of the most thought-provoking aspects of these novels pertains to Dresden’s view of the almighty and how it relates to others around him. The magic is also not overused. Dresden is not just some spell-slinging whitebeard that is powerless without his books. Far from that; Dresden has little hesitation to pull out his revolver when the need arises.
Butcher is also careful to include lots of humor as well. Downright funny events happen and there are small nuances that get the reader smiling every time, such as an army of unseen Faerie cleaning servants called brownies that Dresden cannot talk about or they will stop cleaning his apartment. There are also plenty of pop culture references, especially if you were a child of the 80’s as Dresden, Butcher and myself likely all are. (Though how Dresden was able to watch Star Trek TNG without a television is a mystery to me)
Harry Dresden is a fantastic character. Often broke, cursed by bad luck and bad women, he is easy to empathize with. He is a character that you want to root for. The other characters in the book are quite unique as well. Every person detailed in the books is interesting. Every enemy, every ally, and many of the creatures are all finely detailed. I’ve stated that the setting is Chicago, but that isn’t really true. With the Spirit world of the Nevernever, the jaunts to various night haunts and forgotten places, Butcher’s attention to detail doesn’t just create a story – he created a world. Some characters have hidden and mysterious lineages, others have ongoing personal challenges, yet others are members of secret societies like the Order of the Blackened Denarius. The story is rich indeed.
I am also amazed at Butcher’s talent for writing epic scenes and encounters. The climax of almost every book is a page-turner. Without giving too much away, one ending involves two magic users fighting in a house that becomes a giant, blazing, inferno, while trying to avoid being killed by summoned scorpions. The end of my favorite of the series, Death Masks, leads Dresden and company on a chase after a demon that spans the entire length of a moving train. Adrenaline filled, I read those pages at a blinding pace in an effort to reach the ending. Butcher also is unpredictable. Several times I thought I knew exactly what was going to happen, and of course, I was wrong. The writing is filled with creativity and style. If you have any imagination at all, you will love these books.
Now here is a list of the novels including a small mini review
Storm Front
This is the book that got me interested in the series. If you aren’t prepared, (I wasn’t) the beginning has lots of information, and the story heavily builds in the beginning of this one. You get introduced to things like the White Council and the Wardens, plus there is a lot of information about officer Murphy,
Fool Moon
Werewolves, werewolves everywhere. Great climax, begins building an interesting relationship with resident mobster Marcone.
Grave Peril
Introduces Michael Carpenter, God’s own Knight of the Cross. Without a doubt my favorite character aside from
Summer Night
My least favorite of the series. That doesn’t mean it isn’t good! Lots and lots of Faerie intrigue, culminating in a battle that shakes the heavens themselves.
Death Masks
Easily my favorite of the series. Michael Carpenter takes more of an active partnership with
Blood Rites
I’m afraid I can’t say anything about this one without spoiling the plot and the Thomas character. I enjoyed it immensely, however.
Dead Beat
A real mystery.
Proven Guilty
Molly Carpenter, daughter of Michel and Charity carpenter, becomes a mail character in this book. I don’t want to give away any spoilers, but man, the whole Goth thing that Molly has going on. Dude. Hot. REAL HOT.
White Knight
This one starts with a mystery and ends with a bang. The mystery part was the best aspect of this novel. It really seemed to take
Small Favor
In the first few pages of the book,
Read these books. They are superb. I can’t wait for Turn Coat.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Panvamp's back! And talking about subnotebooks.
Hello friends, Panvamp is back. Many of you are wondering what happened to me...
Alright. Lets be realistic. Not many people read my little snippet of geek heaven, so if you are reading this, you probably were not wondering what happened to me at all. As it stands I have 19 posts and ZERO comments. I was going to make up a whole lot of excuses as to why I haven't posted all that much. But that is one advantage of not having any readership at all: I don't have to explain myself.
So, on to today's topic is the newest, hottest, greatest trend in mobile computing - Subnotebooks .
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years, most of you have probably noticed the recent trend of small, light and extremely portable notebooks popping up all over. With Asus's EEPC and of course the ubiquitous OLPC project, subnotebooks look like the next lucrative mobile market. Intel is dropping mega money on its new Atom processor. In your mind you can see armies of the ultra-hip carrying these subnotebooks in trendy bags over their shoulders, while riding their Segways, through vast, friendly, urban outdoor settings, each tipping their designer hat at each other.
In actuality, however, one wonders exactly what the heck these people are really going to do with these tiny masterpieces of mobile technology. I really think that subnotebook products that are marketed as "personal learning devices" to children (such as the aforementioned OLPC) are seriously underestimating the devastating effect that children have on technology. It isn't only OLPC, I saw an article about a similar machine here today. The author of this article clearly states "so it’s not up to Panasonic ToughBook levels of ruggedness, but it should be able to survive life in the hands of a primary school student." I'm betting that the author has never seen primary school students and technology mix, but believe me, it isn't pretty. And giving them a computer with an LCD in it? That ALSO has a rotating touchscreen? I'm willing to bet that they get roughly half of them back with cracked LCD's, and the other half swiveled so much that the screen breaks off. Heck, half of the adults that I know can't even handle their full size laptops without breaking them.
I think that on a marketing level, subnotebooks will never be more than a niche market. Many of the people that I know ( including my wife ) have said that they wish that they had a really portable machine that they can take anywhere, and just plop down and open up and start working. Of course, none of them even considered how FREAKING SMALL a 7 inch or 8 inch display is. Oh sure, its totally usable for reading documents and writing documents, playing some music or watching a video. However... my T-Mobile wing can do all of that and more. And with a GPS module, its a pocket GPS. Oh I know what you are saying, "well the cell phone screen is even smaller!" True. But alot of people are looking to use these as a desktop (or laptop) replacement. Use it for a little bit. Many of them only have a resolution of 800*600. Yeah, have fun surfing the web on that. Because most sites are going to look like HALF sites and you are going to be scrolling left, right, up, down... the thought of browsing the web like that makes me sick to my stomach. I can use my phone to browse the web if I have to, but it is always by necessity. It is not enjoyable at all. But for music, videos, even email I find myself using my phone far more.
Right there, I am not a good candidate for a subnotebook. I mean, if I am going somewhere and I know I'll need my laptop... I will take my full size laptop and not have to bother with the Lilliputian screen. Do these marketers really think that this is going to work in the corporate market? Can you just see walking into a business meeting and taking out your pink, Willy Wonka styled EEPC and people are going to take you seriously??? I can see meetings now "Ok, everyone follow along with this spreadsheet... except for CHARLIE who can only see three lines at a time!" Also, I spend my days in a support center and I am constantly looking at people's machines over their shoulder. Making a 14 inch screen into a 7 inch screen is not going to make anyone's job any easier. Trying to share that is going to be a nightmare.
I just don't see the need for this product. Especially if you have an ipod/iphone or smart phone. If you want to make notebooks more portable, make them thinner, or use different materials that make them lighter. Solid state storage is a good idea as well. But making a laptop the size of a paperback book just seems unnecessary. You want to make a classroom computer? You want it to be wireless and a touchscreen? Make a tablet system that students pick up when they walk into the room - preloaded with today's lesson. There is no need to give them a whole computer that they can browse the porn sites with and hang out on youtube.
Of course I have been wrong before... but this really smells like a passing fad.
Alright. Lets be realistic. Not many people read my little snippet of geek heaven, so if you are reading this, you probably were not wondering what happened to me at all. As it stands I have 19 posts and ZERO comments. I was going to make up a whole lot of excuses as to why I haven't posted all that much. But that is one advantage of not having any readership at all: I don't have to explain myself.
So, on to today's topic is the newest, hottest, greatest trend in mobile computing - Subnotebooks .
Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of years, most of you have probably noticed the recent trend of small, light and extremely portable notebooks popping up all over. With Asus's EEPC and of course the ubiquitous OLPC project, subnotebooks look like the next lucrative mobile market. Intel is dropping mega money on its new Atom processor. In your mind you can see armies of the ultra-hip carrying these subnotebooks in trendy bags over their shoulders, while riding their Segways, through vast, friendly, urban outdoor settings, each tipping their designer hat at each other.
In actuality, however, one wonders exactly what the heck these people are really going to do with these tiny masterpieces of mobile technology. I really think that subnotebook products that are marketed as "personal learning devices" to children (such as the aforementioned OLPC) are seriously underestimating the devastating effect that children have on technology. It isn't only OLPC, I saw an article about a similar machine here today. The author of this article clearly states "so it’s not up to Panasonic ToughBook levels of ruggedness, but it should be able to survive life in the hands of a primary school student." I'm betting that the author has never seen primary school students and technology mix, but believe me, it isn't pretty. And giving them a computer with an LCD in it? That ALSO has a rotating touchscreen? I'm willing to bet that they get roughly half of them back with cracked LCD's, and the other half swiveled so much that the screen breaks off. Heck, half of the adults that I know can't even handle their full size laptops without breaking them.
I think that on a marketing level, subnotebooks will never be more than a niche market. Many of the people that I know ( including my wife ) have said that they wish that they had a really portable machine that they can take anywhere, and just plop down and open up and start working. Of course, none of them even considered how FREAKING SMALL a 7 inch or 8 inch display is. Oh sure, its totally usable for reading documents and writing documents, playing some music or watching a video. However... my T-Mobile wing can do all of that and more. And with a GPS module, its a pocket GPS. Oh I know what you are saying, "well the cell phone screen is even smaller!" True. But alot of people are looking to use these as a desktop (or laptop) replacement. Use it for a little bit. Many of them only have a resolution of 800*600. Yeah, have fun surfing the web on that. Because most sites are going to look like HALF sites and you are going to be scrolling left, right, up, down... the thought of browsing the web like that makes me sick to my stomach. I can use my phone to browse the web if I have to, but it is always by necessity. It is not enjoyable at all. But for music, videos, even email I find myself using my phone far more.
Right there, I am not a good candidate for a subnotebook. I mean, if I am going somewhere and I know I'll need my laptop... I will take my full size laptop and not have to bother with the Lilliputian screen. Do these marketers really think that this is going to work in the corporate market? Can you just see walking into a business meeting and taking out your pink, Willy Wonka styled EEPC and people are going to take you seriously??? I can see meetings now "Ok, everyone follow along with this spreadsheet... except for CHARLIE who can only see three lines at a time!" Also, I spend my days in a support center and I am constantly looking at people's machines over their shoulder. Making a 14 inch screen into a 7 inch screen is not going to make anyone's job any easier. Trying to share that is going to be a nightmare.
I just don't see the need for this product. Especially if you have an ipod/iphone or smart phone. If you want to make notebooks more portable, make them thinner, or use different materials that make them lighter. Solid state storage is a good idea as well. But making a laptop the size of a paperback book just seems unnecessary. You want to make a classroom computer? You want it to be wireless and a touchscreen? Make a tablet system that students pick up when they walk into the room - preloaded with today's lesson. There is no need to give them a whole computer that they can browse the porn sites with and hang out on youtube.
Of course I have been wrong before... but this really smells like a passing fad.
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Geez... not this crap again...
Hello all. Just saw an article over at the NYT which discussed how chic it is to be "geek". While I'm glad that the computer pastime is no longer something in and of itself to laugh at, I'm really not sure what to think about the social consequences of "the age of the geek". I would honestly be happier if geeks were just a accepted part of society and not placed in the arena of dictating fashion, trends and pop-culture. To be honest, there are FAR too many wanna-be geeks.
Many of you don't know that I have a theory about the dot com bubble that burst some years ago. The theory is called "bubba got a book". And it, in my opinion, is EXACTLY why the IT industry has most of the problems it has today. The theory, in a nutshell, is that towards the close of the 20th century, more and more businesses were finding a need to have computer and network support. Everyone had an office network, EVERYONE was on the internet, and there was alot of opportunity for "geeks" to find work doing what they liked. Only, regular lay people started hearing about the "technology boom" and how much money that good computing professionals can make. Unfortunately, these people did not REALLY understand anything about computers and the internet, (of course most of them thought they were computer experts because they knew where the "Start" button was) and most of them had not even used a computer until well into their adult life. Well, the industry saw this coming and in its infinite wisdom, decided that they should make classes and tests about each company's technology. These were called "certifications". But what they really were giving was a glorified how-to manual and multiple choice test, charging a metric ass-load of money, and giving certs.
Of course the problem is that most of these "paper MCSE's or paper SCNE's" started getting job based on their certifications, but most of them had never acuallty done any IT work, Half of the Cisco certified people had never touched a router. And the industry got screwed a few times. They learned quickly and now if you don't have 10 years experience already doing an IT job you apply for, they won't even look at you. 'Course, you still had all these paper MCSE's running around thinking they are computer gods. And many of them had experience -- it was just BAD experience before they got fired.
I'm thinking that these "geek life" throwbacks are a symptom of this problem. Many of these paper cert people figure, "hey I am not a geek but if I act like a geek and talk like a geek"...
I just can't figure out why I'm a geek, I always was a geek, and I'm STILL a pariah. Damnit. That just pisses me off.
Many of you don't know that I have a theory about the dot com bubble that burst some years ago. The theory is called "bubba got a book". And it, in my opinion, is EXACTLY why the IT industry has most of the problems it has today. The theory, in a nutshell, is that towards the close of the 20th century, more and more businesses were finding a need to have computer and network support. Everyone had an office network, EVERYONE was on the internet, and there was alot of opportunity for "geeks" to find work doing what they liked. Only, regular lay people started hearing about the "technology boom" and how much money that good computing professionals can make. Unfortunately, these people did not REALLY understand anything about computers and the internet, (of course most of them thought they were computer experts because they knew where the "Start" button was) and most of them had not even used a computer until well into their adult life. Well, the industry saw this coming and in its infinite wisdom, decided that they should make classes and tests about each company's technology. These were called "certifications". But what they really were giving was a glorified how-to manual and multiple choice test, charging a metric ass-load of money, and giving certs.
Of course the problem is that most of these "paper MCSE's or paper SCNE's" started getting job based on their certifications, but most of them had never acuallty done any IT work, Half of the Cisco certified people had never touched a router. And the industry got screwed a few times. They learned quickly and now if you don't have 10 years experience already doing an IT job you apply for, they won't even look at you. 'Course, you still had all these paper MCSE's running around thinking they are computer gods. And many of them had experience -- it was just BAD experience before they got fired.
I'm thinking that these "geek life" throwbacks are a symptom of this problem. Many of these paper cert people figure, "hey I am not a geek but if I act like a geek and talk like a geek"...
I just can't figure out why I'm a geek, I always was a geek, and I'm STILL a pariah. Damnit. That just pisses me off.
Sunday, May 18, 2008
The Obsession with the "Desktop"
I saw an interesting article over at Linux.com that talks about Linux being ready for the desktop. According to the author, he thinks that the phrase "ready for the desktop" should be retired as it is overused and no longer relevant to modern Linux. While I agree that this phrase is far overused, the author comes to the conclusion that the reason it is no longer relevant is because it is subjective; because different people use computers for different things, there is no "One-size-fits-all" easy OS.
This is where the author and I disagree. The subjectivity of the desktop is a valid point. Of course, that does not excuse Linux from having serious desktop-related problems. First, The availability of any kind of entertainment software including games on the Linux platform quite frankly, blows. In addition, sometimes changes do require use of the command line, and I think it is pretty clear that average users are daunted by these tasks. I mean, that is what the GUI was invented for. For Linux to have problems like these and try to market itself to the average user is inexcusable. Not for Linux itself, mind you, but for the people who are convinced that Linux should be on everyone's desktop by any means necessary. Gee, ravenously wanting to take over the desktop of every user's computer in the world... where have I heard this before... Oh yeah from MICROSOFT. Only they DID have gaming and entertainment as parts of their products for a very long time. Say what you will about Microsoft but they make one HELL of a user interface.
I'm not saying that this is impossible to accomplish with Linux. Far from it. But one thing I often see is people's faces when I show them the video of LinuxMCE in action. Now THAT is a user interface. And it has lots of extras, but lets be honest. The core is not exactly the easiest thing in the world to get going properly, but once you do and put terminals next to every tv in the house, you will wonder how you ever got along without it. But users don't equate the UI for LinuxMCE with a regular desktop computer. After all, its on your TV, there is no keyboard and they navigate with their remote control. But there is the rub. There are PLENTY of other ways for people to use Linux, far more than can be used with Windows.
Windows is, in my opinion, a one trick pony. But give them credit, its a pretty damn good trick. Windows dominates "the desktop." I understand why corperations use Windows servers, but I really think that the stability of *nix on servers, and the multitude of configuration options and support for scripting and its better use of system resources sells Linux for servers every time. But lay people know Microsoft products. They know Windows. And I don't care what any IT staff tells you, the fact that more people ar familliar with the OS is a LARGE consideration for customers to choose Windows servers over Linux servers.
Now far be it from me to suggest closing X.org and shutting down Gnome and KDE. Those projects have been around for decades and they are not going anywhere any time soon. But its time for Linux desktop evangelists to give up. The reality of the matter is most of the users that are going to use the Linux desktop as a desktop already do. Grandmothers who can bearly run windows are not going to want to learn Gnome. PC gamers are not going away either, and like it or not, they drive a LARGE part of the industry. You didn't REALLY think that people actually buy SLI 8800GTX's for spreadsheets do you?
But Linux has MANY strengths, far more than any of Microsoft's products. The failure of the Linux evangelists is that they don't play to the OS's strengths. Forget the desktop. Thats right forget it. There are many more options that are evolving that are going to change people's idea of a "desktop" anyway. There are more devices with their own ui that are going to become more of people's computing devices (iphone). And there will be less of a need for desktop applications when everything is going to be web applications soon. So forget the desktop. It is the greatest server OS there is (with the exception of FreeBSD of course.) It's capabilites as an embeded OS are miles greater than anything Microsoft has. In my opinion, the server market is more lucrative anyway. Lets get Windows off of servers. Let them keep the desktop until it turns into a dumb terminal that runs all of its apps of some Linux server through a browser.
If Linux dominates in the server market (where I know it can), and the embedded market, I will guarentee that those of us who do profit by having Linux widely distributed will be rolling in the hay. There are companies that run evrything on Solaris Servers. But you don't hear Sun complaining that Solaris "isn't ready for the destop" do you? (Granted Sun is not really happy that Linux is getting more shares of the server market, but that isn't really the point is it?) So everyone out there who wants Linux to succeed, look for different places for it to do so. The desktop battle was won long ago. Cry about it, or move on to something else.
This is where the author and I disagree. The subjectivity of the desktop is a valid point. Of course, that does not excuse Linux from having serious desktop-related problems. First, The availability of any kind of entertainment software including games on the Linux platform quite frankly, blows. In addition, sometimes changes do require use of the command line, and I think it is pretty clear that average users are daunted by these tasks. I mean, that is what the GUI was invented for. For Linux to have problems like these and try to market itself to the average user is inexcusable. Not for Linux itself, mind you, but for the people who are convinced that Linux should be on everyone's desktop by any means necessary. Gee, ravenously wanting to take over the desktop of every user's computer in the world... where have I heard this before... Oh yeah from MICROSOFT. Only they DID have gaming and entertainment as parts of their products for a very long time. Say what you will about Microsoft but they make one HELL of a user interface.
I'm not saying that this is impossible to accomplish with Linux. Far from it. But one thing I often see is people's faces when I show them the video of LinuxMCE in action. Now THAT is a user interface. And it has lots of extras, but lets be honest. The core is not exactly the easiest thing in the world to get going properly, but once you do and put terminals next to every tv in the house, you will wonder how you ever got along without it. But users don't equate the UI for LinuxMCE with a regular desktop computer. After all, its on your TV, there is no keyboard and they navigate with their remote control. But there is the rub. There are PLENTY of other ways for people to use Linux, far more than can be used with Windows.
Windows is, in my opinion, a one trick pony. But give them credit, its a pretty damn good trick. Windows dominates "the desktop." I understand why corperations use Windows servers, but I really think that the stability of *nix on servers, and the multitude of configuration options and support for scripting and its better use of system resources sells Linux for servers every time. But lay people know Microsoft products. They know Windows. And I don't care what any IT staff tells you, the fact that more people ar familliar with the OS is a LARGE consideration for customers to choose Windows servers over Linux servers.
Now far be it from me to suggest closing X.org and shutting down Gnome and KDE. Those projects have been around for decades and they are not going anywhere any time soon. But its time for Linux desktop evangelists to give up. The reality of the matter is most of the users that are going to use the Linux desktop as a desktop already do. Grandmothers who can bearly run windows are not going to want to learn Gnome. PC gamers are not going away either, and like it or not, they drive a LARGE part of the industry. You didn't REALLY think that people actually buy SLI 8800GTX's for spreadsheets do you?
But Linux has MANY strengths, far more than any of Microsoft's products. The failure of the Linux evangelists is that they don't play to the OS's strengths. Forget the desktop. Thats right forget it. There are many more options that are evolving that are going to change people's idea of a "desktop" anyway. There are more devices with their own ui that are going to become more of people's computing devices (iphone). And there will be less of a need for desktop applications when everything is going to be web applications soon. So forget the desktop. It is the greatest server OS there is (with the exception of FreeBSD of course.) It's capabilites as an embeded OS are miles greater than anything Microsoft has. In my opinion, the server market is more lucrative anyway. Lets get Windows off of servers. Let them keep the desktop until it turns into a dumb terminal that runs all of its apps of some Linux server through a browser.
If Linux dominates in the server market (where I know it can), and the embedded market, I will guarentee that those of us who do profit by having Linux widely distributed will be rolling in the hay. There are companies that run evrything on Solaris Servers. But you don't hear Sun complaining that Solaris "isn't ready for the destop" do you? (Granted Sun is not really happy that Linux is getting more shares of the server market, but that isn't really the point is it?) So everyone out there who wants Linux to succeed, look for different places for it to do so. The desktop battle was won long ago. Cry about it, or move on to something else.
Friday, May 9, 2008
Full porn downloads anywhere in the US?
Hey just read this article and I wanted to pop my $0.02 in on it. Its at the NYT and its called Technology Group Plans Wireless Network. Its about the consortum who are getting together to build a wide broadband wireless network. Now I don't know about you, but unless you live under a rock, you hadto be expecting this ( oh I know with my previous article I said that nobody can predict tech trends but this one is a real no-brainer.) With the penetration of wireless devices like cell phones and PDA's this was inevitable. However, it claims that they are trying to match speeds of current broadband providers. Which I suppose is a good thing, and by the time they actually do implement this broadband wirless network, the wired infrastructure in the country will be mostly fiber (hopefully).
However i'm wondering what exactly the effect this will have on the structure of the current internet. I mean, I have a mobile blog . But trust me, posting via mobile is a whole lot different than READING blogs mobile. Sure instead of actually hitting the blogger page, you can hit my feedburner feed, and it looks ok on a mobile, but REALLY, if mobile is going to be king, it needs to have alot of changes. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. From the article though it kind of sounds like they are actually hoping to replace all internet connections with this wide broadband network ( on the consumer level at least ). I'm not sure this is going to work. I mean I have wi-fi on my laptop and I love it, but if there is a wired connection, its much faster and far more stable. I mean there is nothing wrong with my Wi-Fi access point, but wired still delivers data beter than any wireless. I know that the spectrum is different but wireless is wireless. FM radio's are wireless and they still don't get pure connections on the fringe ranges. It will turn into "who is lucky enough to live under a wireless tower?" versus "the only internet I can get is wireless broadband, but out in the styx it maybe works every other day."
I suppose my question is: are people ready for a change like this? Maybe they are maybe they are not. I for one will still be holding on to my wired service provider (hopefully fiber by then). I may consider this as a secondary option for my mobile stuff, but I'm not sure I would be comfortable paying what I pay now for service that gets disrupted during sunspots.
However i'm wondering what exactly the effect this will have on the structure of the current internet. I mean, I have a mobile blog . But trust me, posting via mobile is a whole lot different than READING blogs mobile. Sure instead of actually hitting the blogger page, you can hit my feedburner feed, and it looks ok on a mobile, but REALLY, if mobile is going to be king, it needs to have alot of changes. There are no ifs, ands, or buts. From the article though it kind of sounds like they are actually hoping to replace all internet connections with this wide broadband network ( on the consumer level at least ). I'm not sure this is going to work. I mean I have wi-fi on my laptop and I love it, but if there is a wired connection, its much faster and far more stable. I mean there is nothing wrong with my Wi-Fi access point, but wired still delivers data beter than any wireless. I know that the spectrum is different but wireless is wireless. FM radio's are wireless and they still don't get pure connections on the fringe ranges. It will turn into "who is lucky enough to live under a wireless tower?" versus "the only internet I can get is wireless broadband, but out in the styx it maybe works every other day."
I suppose my question is: are people ready for a change like this? Maybe they are maybe they are not. I for one will still be holding on to my wired service provider (hopefully fiber by then). I may consider this as a secondary option for my mobile stuff, but I'm not sure I would be comfortable paying what I pay now for service that gets disrupted during sunspots.
And here's Carnac the Magnificent !
I was reading Slashdot this morning and saw a link to a Geek.com story entitled The x86 evolution will lead the revolution. Now I'm not exactly sure what "revolution" this is talking about. There are so many these days. But one thing that I have learned in all my time in the industry is that technology ALWAYS changes, and trends can NEVER be predicted with 100% accuracy. How many of you bought a PhysX by ageia? How many of you would have 5 years ago predicted that AMD would get consistently spanked in performance by Intel's LOWER end processors? For many years in this industry people try to make predictions that they are SURE are going to come true. I can't tell you how many predicted that ATI would dominate the graphics card market. But they ended up in trouble and got bought by AMD. Now neither AMD or ATI has a leading product in their market (and it is not for lack of trying).
Or 3dfx? They REALLY dominated the graphics market in the late 90's. EVERYONE said that the 3dfx cards were far better than that Riva or Rage products (by Nvidia and ATI respectively). After the company released its Voodoo 3 card it seemed to disappear into a puff of smoke. Nobody predicted that with 100% accuracy. This industry is one of the most dynamic industries I have ever observed. Even in the retail support market, which I heavily work in, technology turns around at the drop of a hat. First its capacitive touchscreen technology. Then it is resitive. Then, infrared touch rings around the screen. Then back to resistive. And every time the new tech is touted as the answer for all of the design problems in the units. And it will be something else next month. I can't tell you how many times the IT and computer industry has flip/flopped. Its the nature of high tech.
Now don't get me wrong. It is a fantastic feat of the x86 architecture to have survived as an industry standard for so long. Heck, I remember when "x86" architecture was known as "IBM compatible". And even that nomenclature lasted for a long time. So lets give the platform its due. The above article cites the use of increasingly smaller nm production processes, thinner substrates and better power efficiency like in Intel's new mobile chip the Atom. He mentions the 64-bit x86 technology extensions. However, he uses that for evidence of the platform's dominance. Personally, though 64-bit capable chips are well dispersed through the market, MOST of them are not taking advantage of the 64-bit extensions i.e. running a 64-bit OS. I'm sure they will, when they discover that they can't see all 4GB of their system memory in 32-bit mode, but that has yet to happen.
From a distance, one could see how the author made the assumption that x86 will continue to dominate. It has a track record of success, and it was even recently adopted by Apple for its Macs, abandoning the PowerPC market. (Who could have predicted THAT 5 years ago?) But believe me folks, it can all turn around in an instant. Let me lay out this scenario. What if I bring to the market a new, RISC based processor? It doesn't run any native x86 apps. It DOES, however, have a complete Virtual Machine. Virtualization is new and hot, and especially in server environments, it is the answer to alot of issues. Many people are using it. It runs virtual machines far better and more efficient than an x86 based machine. It would be very easy for a product like this to dominate the server market, especially if that customer is using virtual machines as an exclusive infrastructure. They could care less what kind of instruction set the physical cpu has, just so long as their virtual machines are solid. Virtualization may make all hardware platforms as we know them totally interchangeable. You could then run the VM on any hardware you chose. The second you make something faster and cheaper then -- Boom. Server x86 use goes out the window. Now this hasn't happened but it EASILY could.
Also, the author states that x86 will dominate in the mobile and embedded market. Again I have to say this is MASSIVE speculation by the author, almost to the point of being laughable. The future does look bright for embedded x86. But it is difficult at best to hold on to that market. Just ask Motorola. Or Transmeta. Or Palm for God's sake! Or any of the people who were going to change mobile computing for years to come. Perhaps x86 will evolve into a standard instruction set for all VM's in the future, leaving its legacy not in silicon chips, but in an idea, a multi-platform programming standard. That does not invalidate the author's point, but it isn't anywhere near the hardware dominance that he predicts.
The moral of this story is that its ok to speculate, but don't be surprised if those far touted theories crumble. Other than the history lesson, which I might add is very good work by this author, this article is more speculative than the psychic hotline. I encourage people to think about the future, but the main thing about it is that no person on this planet knows for certain what the future holds. Especially in the computer industry.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Who own software? Why does it matter?
I just saw an article over at Slashdot. In the article apparently Blizzard is suing MDY industries over the creation of the World of Warcraft (WOW) glider program. Check it out here.
Now, I understand Blizzard's point of view. I have written several bits of software here and there. Something great, especially something that has had a lot of time and effort put into it, means something special to the creator. Its almost like a child to them. It must be difficult to see people doing things with your creation that you did not intend for them to do. I imagine that Edison and Tesla had similar reactions when the heard of the invention of the electric chair. A rather grim image, but I imagine that these electrical pioneers did not have death by electrocution in mind when they created their inventions. OK, its a more brutal implication than the unauthorized use of software, but I think it drives the point across. Another good analogy is Oppenheimer's reaction to the atom bomb.
I in no way wish to trivialize the emotions felt by Blizzard when they learned the discovery of the Glider program. However, there is one thing that the creators of the above technologies learned, that clearly Blizzard has yet to learn, is that when you give something to the world, it cannot be taken back. People still get the electric chair, and there are MANY nuclear weapons, much to Oppenheimer's chagrin.
Once Pandora's box has been opened it cannot be closed again; Prometheus cannot return the fire he stole. Blizzard, you created a large and prosperous virtual community, you need to know that there will always be people that are successful in subverting the rules in any society. And sometimes there is nothing you can do to stop them. I will say one thing to Blizzard. Don't take a note from the RIAA, keep this out of the courts. Ban the offenders, kill accounts, patch the software, but mark my words, legal action will not stop people from abusing your software.
In my opinion, ownership is not the question. It does not matter to me who owns the software, Blizzard would not like it even if the abusers DID own the software. And it isn't up to the government to enforce rules in YOUR virtual world. That is your job Blizzard, not the United States government's. Not to point fingers, but clearly the folks at Blizzard have the liberal, half-baked idea that the government should be used as the answer to EVERYTHING. Frankly, and I'm sorry if I'm alone on this but Blizzard needs to man up a little. Sometimes its better to beat the crap out of a bully than run and tattle to Uncle Sam. You should have learned that around age ten. This lawsuit is a waste of my tax dollars. Enforce this from the inside Blizzard. Don't make it a legal issue.
Keeping with the child analogy, eventually, you have to come to terms with the fact that the world is a very dangerous place and there is nothing that you can do but eventually let them go. You should have known that this was an acceptable risk the minute you decided to put WOW on the shelves.
Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile
Now, I understand Blizzard's point of view. I have written several bits of software here and there. Something great, especially something that has had a lot of time and effort put into it, means something special to the creator. Its almost like a child to them. It must be difficult to see people doing things with your creation that you did not intend for them to do. I imagine that Edison and Tesla had similar reactions when the heard of the invention of the electric chair. A rather grim image, but I imagine that these electrical pioneers did not have death by electrocution in mind when they created their inventions. OK, its a more brutal implication than the unauthorized use of software, but I think it drives the point across. Another good analogy is Oppenheimer's reaction to the atom bomb.
I in no way wish to trivialize the emotions felt by Blizzard when they learned the discovery of the Glider program. However, there is one thing that the creators of the above technologies learned, that clearly Blizzard has yet to learn, is that when you give something to the world, it cannot be taken back. People still get the electric chair, and there are MANY nuclear weapons, much to Oppenheimer's chagrin.
Once Pandora's box has been opened it cannot be closed again; Prometheus cannot return the fire he stole. Blizzard, you created a large and prosperous virtual community, you need to know that there will always be people that are successful in subverting the rules in any society. And sometimes there is nothing you can do to stop them. I will say one thing to Blizzard. Don't take a note from the RIAA, keep this out of the courts. Ban the offenders, kill accounts, patch the software, but mark my words, legal action will not stop people from abusing your software.
In my opinion, ownership is not the question. It does not matter to me who owns the software, Blizzard would not like it even if the abusers DID own the software. And it isn't up to the government to enforce rules in YOUR virtual world. That is your job Blizzard, not the United States government's. Not to point fingers, but clearly the folks at Blizzard have the liberal, half-baked idea that the government should be used as the answer to EVERYTHING. Frankly, and I'm sorry if I'm alone on this but Blizzard needs to man up a little. Sometimes its better to beat the crap out of a bully than run and tattle to Uncle Sam. You should have learned that around age ten. This lawsuit is a waste of my tax dollars. Enforce this from the inside Blizzard. Don't make it a legal issue.
Keeping with the child analogy, eventually, you have to come to terms with the fact that the world is a very dangerous place and there is nothing that you can do but eventually let them go. You should have known that this was an acceptable risk the minute you decided to put WOW on the shelves.
Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile
Sunday, May 4, 2008
The Geek Budget
I've been having some money problems lately. I'm sure that this is a pretty common problem these days. My wife doesn't work. She is trying to get a job, but I don't need to tell you that the job market is less-than-stellar lately.
Sure, there is the fear of losing our house, our cars breaking down, not having enough money to pay bills. That stuff I try to take in stride. We can handle it. Being a geek however, might have resulted in a unique problem. No friends, I am not worried about the things that I should be worried about.
I have an AMD Athlon 64 Fx 51 as my main machine at the house. It has served me well, but it is getting a little long in the tooth. First, it uses REGISTERED MEMORY. So adding more than the current 1GB of ram is very cost-prohibitive. It has an Nvidia 7600 gs, which is ok, but the motherboard only has an AGP slot. So that's pretty much the end of the line as far as that goes. The socket is 940, so a CPU upgrade is pretty much out of the question.
My home server, which I have bragged about on this very blog, is a 1Ghz celeron with 384M of ram. It has a bunch of smallish IDE drives. It runs ok for a headless box, but it doesn't quite do everything I want.
I don't even have any dedicated *nix boxes anymore. They have either been sold or broken or just plain too old to use.
So what does this have to do with my money situation? Well I have plenty of financial issues hounding me, but I have no money to upgrade equipment. And its killing me. I mean, it really makes me depressed. Its kind of sad and sick in a way, that I am more worried about buying new hardware than losing my house. I wonder if any other geeks have had similar experiences. It is well documented that geeks often develop addictions; just look at the WOW zombies, the porn junkies, the guys that would rather code than have sex with their girlfriends (or FIND girlfriends for that matter).
Is it possible to be addicted to computer hardware? Have any other geeks craved upgrading their old stuff so badly that they cannot get it out of their heads? I constantly think about the cheapest ways to build a new box, but I just can't seem to find the money.
Do non geeks do this too? Do normal people have similar desires? How do they deal with it? I tell myself that I won't be broke forever, but I just keep getting more and more broke. Even my wing phone and my psp were given to me by my parents and my sisters. You know what I gave them? Framed pictures of my little boy. We just couldn't afford anything else.
How does one shake the nagging feeling of failure; of longing every time I stare at my old dusty hardware? How exactly does one be a broke geek? Does anyone have any advice?
If you are feeling generous, you can hit the donate button on this page. It doesn't have to be a lot, a buck will help and clicking some of the sponsors would be appreciated as well. Thanks for listening to this rant.
PV
Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile
Sure, there is the fear of losing our house, our cars breaking down, not having enough money to pay bills. That stuff I try to take in stride. We can handle it. Being a geek however, might have resulted in a unique problem. No friends, I am not worried about the things that I should be worried about.
I have an AMD Athlon 64 Fx 51 as my main machine at the house. It has served me well, but it is getting a little long in the tooth. First, it uses REGISTERED MEMORY. So adding more than the current 1GB of ram is very cost-prohibitive. It has an Nvidia 7600 gs, which is ok, but the motherboard only has an AGP slot. So that's pretty much the end of the line as far as that goes. The socket is 940, so a CPU upgrade is pretty much out of the question.
My home server, which I have bragged about on this very blog, is a 1Ghz celeron with 384M of ram. It has a bunch of smallish IDE drives. It runs ok for a headless box, but it doesn't quite do everything I want.
I don't even have any dedicated *nix boxes anymore. They have either been sold or broken or just plain too old to use.
So what does this have to do with my money situation? Well I have plenty of financial issues hounding me, but I have no money to upgrade equipment. And its killing me. I mean, it really makes me depressed. Its kind of sad and sick in a way, that I am more worried about buying new hardware than losing my house. I wonder if any other geeks have had similar experiences. It is well documented that geeks often develop addictions; just look at the WOW zombies, the porn junkies, the guys that would rather code than have sex with their girlfriends (or FIND girlfriends for that matter).
Is it possible to be addicted to computer hardware? Have any other geeks craved upgrading their old stuff so badly that they cannot get it out of their heads? I constantly think about the cheapest ways to build a new box, but I just can't seem to find the money.
Do non geeks do this too? Do normal people have similar desires? How do they deal with it? I tell myself that I won't be broke forever, but I just keep getting more and more broke. Even my wing phone and my psp were given to me by my parents and my sisters. You know what I gave them? Framed pictures of my little boy. We just couldn't afford anything else.
How does one shake the nagging feeling of failure; of longing every time I stare at my old dusty hardware? How exactly does one be a broke geek? Does anyone have any advice?
If you are feeling generous, you can hit the donate button on this page. It doesn't have to be a lot, a buck will help and clicking some of the sponsors would be appreciated as well. Thanks for listening to this rant.
PV
Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile
Testing moBlog
Hey Everyone! I know, I know I have been very bad lately. You haven't heard from me since before Christmas.
However, I have a new lease on things and am going to be trying to turn over a different leaf.
This post is intended to re-announce this site. So consider this a re-grand opening of Panvamp's Digital Palace. This post is being made from my T-mobile wing phone. I always have it with me and I hope it will help me post more often.
I also have in the works a plan to post a new blog about my new found tech love-gadget, Sony's INCREDIBLE PSP. I will be sure to link back here so you know just where to find it. I have videos planned and tutorials. I even have one or two of my own little programs to post.
I am planning to have a fully MMS capable mobile blog as well, so those who care can catch little snippets of my life from time to time.
And if I can possibly produce those projects, I have in mind another special blog that probably has been tried before, but I am sure I can do it better. But that is in the future and will remain a surprise until then.
So Happy new year, April Fools, or anything else I missed.
Panvamp is back.
Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile
However, I have a new lease on things and am going to be trying to turn over a different leaf.
This post is intended to re-announce this site. So consider this a re-grand opening of Panvamp's Digital Palace. This post is being made from my T-mobile wing phone. I always have it with me and I hope it will help me post more often.
I also have in the works a plan to post a new blog about my new found tech love-gadget, Sony's INCREDIBLE PSP. I will be sure to link back here so you know just where to find it. I have videos planned and tutorials. I even have one or two of my own little programs to post.
I am planning to have a fully MMS capable mobile blog as well, so those who care can catch little snippets of my life from time to time.
And if I can possibly produce those projects, I have in mind another special blog that probably has been tried before, but I am sure I can do it better. But that is in the future and will remain a surprise until then.
So Happy new year, April Fools, or anything else I missed.
Panvamp is back.
Posted from moBlog – mobile blogging tool for Windows Mobile
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