Jay's Blog

Small Vista Rant

Hello,

I have a small rant about how Vista was utterly useless to me today.  Usually, I am pretty objective when it comes to Windows Vista.  I have a small network at home, like most IT professionals, one part of which is run by an installation of Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2003 R2 (SBS).  SBS has an HP LaserJet 1018 printer attached via USB and shared out to local Windows clients.  I specified Windows clients, brcause I purchased the printer on err.  The 1018 is a 'GDI Printer', which uses the Windows Graphical Device Interface to print to the printer.  A result of this is that the printer ca nonly be used by Windows clients, no Mac, no Linux.  I purchased the printer for $79.99 on sale without doing my homework and on an impulse purchase.  So, anything that needs to be printed through there has to come from Windows. Ewww....

I wanted to simply print a document from Microsoft's Technet Web-Site.  Two things clue me into a foray with Windows.  The Technet web-site is best viewed with Internet Explorer, and 'document' means that it will most-likely be an Office Word document.  Microsoft does not always dispense pdfs from it's own web-sites.  The only Windows Install I have running at home, that is allowed on the Internet is an Installation of Vista Business.  The reason why that particular one is allowed online is because I have Eset's 'Nod32'  installed locally.  I am a bit of a cheapskate and I do not purchase antivirus for the server and other test machines.  Servers should not go on the Internet for reasons other than to download updates.  I start-up Vista, go online and get the document.  The Vista PC is not joined to the SBS server's domain, not for any particular reason other than I have not got around to it yet.  I had to install Word Viewer 2003 to even open the document.  MS Office licenses do not grow on trees, so I use them sparingly, besides it will get installed on the Vista PC eventually.  I send the document to the printer and Vista fires back a 'SubSpooler' error and asks me to 'please wait while it finds a solution to the problem'.  I restarted the print spooler, and the same error repeated.  Re-map the printer, and reauthenticate with the SBS' AD service, no luck.  Whatever...  I did not feel like restarting Vista, so I just printed it from the server.  I just wanted to print a simple document, and Vista couldn't do it. Good kit, Microsoft...

The Latest...

Hello,

Blogging with a baby is tough!  She is great fun, but very demanding on my attention...

Leopard...  

Dislikes - I have moved my OS X 10.5 install to an iMac 17" with 1GB of RAM, and a Core 2 Duo processor.  I certainly do not recommend running Leopard on a non-Intel Mac.  One thing that completely blew me away was the lack of support for my Apple wireless keyboard.  I bought the new Apple wireless keyboard, and use it with my MacBook Pro. My Mac Mini uses the older series wireless keyboard without any problems.  What gives with Leopard?  I let it sit there for thirty minutes, trying to connect, before I gave up on it.  The wireless network at work uses 802.1X security to encrypt the signal.  The setup is great under Tiger, with it's built-in 802.1X support.  Windows XP/Vista require a third party software package to even connect.  At this rate I can get Ubuntu to connect to the wireless network faster and more efficiently.  Once I do get Leopard connected, the connection is short-lived.  Upon reboot, the connection and all of it's settings are gone.  Worse, one new feature designed to authenticate the user through 802.1X, takes all precedence over server-based authentication. 

The new dock is not as irratating to me as it is to some others, but I can see their complaints.  The 'white glow' that has replaced the balck arrow under a running application makes it difficult to see which applications are actually running. 'Stacks' completely stinks.  Except, I was able to make my normal applications folder on the dock.  With stacks the folder opens a neat little list of all applications rather tha nopening up the folder in the finder. 

Likes - Time Machine backup is nice, at least better than the backup program Tiger shipped with.  Sharing resources with Leopard is much more refined and laden with options.  There are significant improvements to parental controls as well. 

Leopard needs some time to cook... It will come on my next Mac, and I'll deal with it then.  For now, my MacBook Pro and Mac Mini will operate with Tiger.  My desktop at work still runs Tiger's predecessor, 'Panther'.

 

Fluxbuntu...

I like this small-little OS.  Fluxbox is very basic, but provides a great avenue for customizing. 

Example;  Fluxbuntu does not provide automatic handles for file types like every other OS does.  If you wanted to open and view a picture, you would have to open the picture viewer and select the image from there. One picture viewer that Fluxbuntu ships with is 'xzgv' .  Ok, it is not as fancy as any other viewer out there, but it works just fine and very quickly.  To make xzgv open any picture I double-click, I right-click the image and assign a folder action.  The folder action is a command shell object, in this case xzgv, entered in the form of 'xzgv "$@"'.  From there on any picture I select will be opened in xzgv. Simple, quite the way I like it...

 

Later

Fun with Fluxbuntu

Hello,

Thanksgiving was great!  I hope everyone else's holiday went smooth and without incident.

Being a cheapskate, I tend to hang onto computers for longer than I probably should,  I also procure older technology if the price is right.  Many of these machines are barely suitable to run Windows XP, let alone Windows Vista.  My primary computing platform is the Mac, but I also keep my hands in the Linux/Windows realm too.  I love using Linux and consider the work-horse for my network computing tasks.  One machine I use to surf while at home is a Dell Optiplex GX240.  The computer has a Pentium 4 1.7GHz processor, 256MB of RAM, 20GB HDD, and an OEM license for Windows 2000 Professional.   I replaced the CD-ROM drive with a DVD/CD-RW drive, everything else is 'stock'.  Don't get me wrong, I love Windows 2000, but Microsoft does not develop security updates for that platform any more.  I cannot feel safe running it to surf the web.  No more Windows 2000 for me, or my clients.

I installed a variant of the Ubuntu operating system called 'Fluxbuntu', basically Ubuntu with fluxbox as the default desktop environment.  Fluxbuntu is designed for low-end equipment, and comes freely downloadable on a 300MB CD-ROM.  If you have never used fluxbox before you are in for a treat.  The desktop is clean and sports only four icons.  Installed software is minimal, consisting of Abiword for word processing, Claws for e-mail, Pidgin for chat and Kazehakase for web-browsing (No, I did not spell that wrong).

Check it out...

Happy Turkey

Hello,

Life with baby is great!  We have tonnes of fun, and learn new things every day.

Tech Lately...

The Leopard install I last wrote about did complete successfully.  It was just too much for my iBook to handle.  The clincher was the lack of support for work's 802.1X wireless network.  I need to use wireless with my laptop, and without that it is useless.  I was able to install Leopard onto a newer iMac 17" in my office.  That Mac has an Intel processor and a 'gig' of RAM.  The biggest issue I had was an I/O problem that precluded it from copying an 8.5GB file from one location to another.  That issue may not be completed due to Leopard, but has not sub-sided.  Until a fix for the 802.1X issue becomes available, I will be holding off on Leopard.

I upgraded my Ubuntu desktop/server from 7.04 'Feisty' to 7.10 'Gutsy'.  The computer is an old Dell GX400, with a 1st generation Pentium 4 (1.4GHz), 640MB of 'RAMBUS' and an 80GB hard drive.  I have an installation of 'MediaWiki' along with the usual 'AMP' programs.  My biggest reservation against upgrading was any adverse effects on the wiki and it's software.  I did some tests with MediaWiki on a clean install of Gutsy and then decided to upgrade.  The whole process took about three hours and went off without a hitch.  I do not use Compiz or Fusion with the desktop component, and did not mess with any of those settings.  All of my desktop, gnome, and bash preferences were retained post-upgrade.  The only thing that did not happen was my custom shortcut for Thunderbird, on my gnome toolbar was not migrated. Not a real show-stopper, like some of the Vista/Leopard migration horrors I have heard.

Apple replaced my iPhone within five days of me sending the original back.  I am telling anyone who considers getting an Apple product, buy the AppleCare, it will pay for itself the first time used.  My 5th gen iPod with Video has a horrendous battery memory issue.  I just went online and filled-out a service request form and they sent me a box two days later.  I put my iPod in the box, and sent it to California.  Five days later a brandy-new iPod came back in the mail, hooray!  I am a giant idiot.  I left my 2nd gen iPod Nano (8GB) in my pants pocket. One can probably figure out that it was washed throuoghly. It did not get into the dryer, so I will let it dry out for a few days and see what's happens.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

10.5

Hello,

Leopard is installing and it is taking it's time.  The projected install footprint is 11.4 GB.  Wow!  I remember when Windows 2000 Professional took 650MB for the basic install.

iPhone issues... Argh !!!

I have had my iPhone for just under three months now.  I DID NOT wait inline like a fanboy, but purchased a 4GB model a week later.  A month later, when AppleCare was released for the iPhone, I bought that too.  Two weeks ago, the battery on the device started showing extensive battery use.  I would normally charge the phone every other day or when necessary.  However, the iPhone was going through a fully charged battery within the span of twelve hours.  At six AM the battery was indicating 100%, and around five PM it would just die.  Lithium-Ion batteries should never be drained to 0%, and I would never all that to happen.  I do not as of yet have a car-charger for the iPhone, but I do have an iPod car-charger.  Hmm, it would be really cool if both devices could use the same charger. 

Twice I needed to make a call with the phone and it was dead.  I do not use the phone that much during the day.  I do not use the iPod features too often, nor the Internet.  All of the wi-fi around is locked and EDGE is, well, useless.  The wi-fi at work is secured with 802.1X, which is uncompatible with the iPhone.  I do not use a bluetooth headset, so I disable the bluetooth functionality and wi-fi all together.  Like the web-site suggests, I sleep the phone whenever not in use.  I am also not one of those folks whom spends all day on the phone.  Typically, I make three to four calls A-DAY, that's it... I thought, initially, that the iPhone had an endurance close to the iPod Nano, but there are more technical variables involved with the iPhone. 

I called up Apple and explained the situation to the service rep.  Without a single question, the rep offered to send me a loaner phone and have my original shipped back.  There was an issue of a $29.95 service charge for the loaner.  The rep was kind enough to waive that given the situation.  I had explained to her that I did not really do anything outside of the normal operating parameters, and I bought AppleCare. Isn't that what AppleCare is supposed to provide?  Two days later a FedEx box landed on my door with the loaner iPhone and a return label.  Apple gave this nice printed pamphlet instructing how to remove the SIM card and pack-up the original iPhone.  They even gave me a paper-clip and tape. Not that I am not capable of looking up the number for FedEx, they made it so I do not have to.  Last apge in the pamphlet is FedEx's number along with a return airway bill on the box.  I cannot say Dell offered that level of support on any scale.

OS X 10.5 'Leopard'

I was able to install Leopard in under four hours.  My guinea pig Mac is an iBook G4 1.33GHz with 512MB of RAM.  I am not touching the MacBook Pro with Leopard just yet... The iBook is within Apple's described hardware requirements, just within.  Installing is straight-forward, boot to the DVD, and run the setup program.  I chose to erase the HDD and perform a clean install.  This option is not that readily apparent, and must be chosen from the 'options' button near the bottom of the window.  I am quite sure the install would have been faster if performed on my MacBook Pro or newer Mac. 

The welcome screen features some different music and a starry background instead of the 'blue curve' background.  It makes me think 'Close Encounters III'.  The O.S. was a bit slow after the initial reboot.  Activity monitor was showing between 85%-100% utilization from 'Spotlight' performing the initial index of the HDD.  I turn off spotlight to save CPU-cycles and because I do not use it.  I tend to keep track of where I put things on the HDD and do not need a background app to keep track of them for me.  This action really gave the poor iBook a break, but the RAM was still under siege.  The menu bar at the top of the screen is now translucent instead of gray.  The dock is 3D rendered, but still functions the same way as it did in Tiger.  I turn off the animation and visualization on the dock.  Bouncing icons do not do much for me any way.  Icons in Leopard are identical to those on the iPhone, a la System Preferences and Safari.  Of my 512MB, there are 20-50MB available at any given time.  Clearly, I need more RAM, but Leopard is cutting it thus far.

Prelude to Leopard

Hi,

Well, like an idiot, I am waiting at the local computer store to get my copy of OS X 10.5 'Leopard'.  I plan to install it on my older iBook and see what it does or doesn't do.  I'll follow-up in a day or so with a full report of my initial findings...

:)

More Fun With Vista...

Hi,

So... I have Windows Vista Home Premium running on a PC in my office.  As much as Vista is being thrown around in the tech press, I don't mind it that much.  I certainly like it much better than Windows XP.

I installed iTunes on Windows Vista and configured it to synchronize content with my iPod Shuffle. Almost immediatley, iTunes was unable to update itself and Quicktime via the Apple Software Update function.  The only way to clearly update iTunes was to reinstall it.  I should not have to do that.  Apple only lets iTunes customers activate iTunes installations 5 times each year.  Activation/deactivation would have followed me reinstalling iTunes.  I was not totally surprised, having ran iTunes on Windows XP with very similar results.  iTunes would not uninstall, throwing an error from Vista saying that VBScript was disabled and needed to be re-enabled before iTunes could be removed.  I did not disable VBScript, I actually use it quite often along with the Windows PowerShell

I made sure the dll for VBScript (vbscript.dll) was registered with Windows Vista, and after that uninstalled iTunes.  Phew...  Not over yet!

Upon rebooting, Windows Vista would only load a VGA video driver for the display.  Yes VGA only...  Vista does not work with VGA, and according to my system properties, the driver was 'working properly' .  The only recourse was to use System Restore to roll-back Vista to the state it was in before I removed iTunes.  Why in the Hell did an iTunes uninstall, trash my video driver system on Windows Vista?  Answer = DRM, 'digital rights management', Vista is loaded with it. In collusion with the entertainment industry, Microsoft rigged Vista with all kinds of DRM protection at the handicap of the end-user.  Peter Guttman published a great paper on DRM in Vista.  I have no direct proof that DRM is the culprit, but the facts lean in that direction.

7.10

Hi,

It's been awhile.  Fatherhood has got me busy along with work, consulting, and teaching.

Ubuntu 7.10 'Gutsy Gibbon' was released last week.  The latest release from Canonical has seen an improved version of the Debian-based distro.  More and more, Ubuntu is forming the backbone of many other Linux distributions such as 'Linux Mint', 'Mepis', and 'Linspire'. 

New stuff

 New desktop wallpaper:  The 'brown' theme remains, but a newer icon set and wallpaper accompany Gnome 2.20.

 A 'fast-user switching' element in the taskbar at the top of the screen allows multiple users to be logged into X simultaneously.

Apart from those aparent change 'Gusty' is very similar to 7.04 'Feisty'.  Great work Canonical, keep it coming!!!

 

iPhone Update...

It has been almost four months with the iPhone.  Despite all of the hoola, I have been able to keep the device running at it's best.  Unlike the vocal minority,  Ihave not installed any third party apps on my iPhone, or tried to unlock it.  I understood the idea of moving to AT&T and what it contained.  The idea of unlocking the phone to use it on another carrier never appealed to me.  Third party apps never appealed to me either.  I'll wait until the 'approved' crop of apps filter through iTunes this summer.  What I would like is the ability to remove the 'YouTube' and 'Stocks' icons on my phone's desktop.  I don't use either feature, so why can't I remove them and replace it with something else?  The wifi capability is great, but let's face it, wifi is not prevalent where I am. Ninety percent of public wifis are locked-down, and I would not be foolish enough to connect to the other ten percent.  EDGE is a freaking joke, and hardly viable for broadband activity. So, if I wanted to use YouTube or the iTunes store, I really couldn't.  Another really irratating feature is the automatic spellcheck and forced correction.  I am not a great typist, so I type in my own little shorthand. The iPhone does not jive with my shorthand and as a result I end up typing most notes or messages twice.  I don't expect iPhone to get my shorthand, but I should be able to turn it off...

I don't regret buying my iPhone and I would do it again, but I know that the latest round of Apple iPhone ads are completely full of crap.

October & 90F

Hello,

G-L-O-B-A-L W-A-R-M-I-N-G !!!

It was 90F today, October 9th 2007. That was a first for me.  It is like the damn tropics outside with near 60% humidity.  I really really really want winter to come so I can stop sweating and having to water my flowers...

Jammy & the RIAA in what has to be the example case of the century, caught a $220,000.00 fine for illeagally distributing 24 songs.  This idiot and her lawyers should have settled with the RIAA and the default settlement amount.  She was counting on the jury to side with her against the evil litigators of the RIAA.  Stealing is stealing and she got caught. However, 220K is a little steep a fine.  The Judge and jury are just trying to make an example out of Jammy, the fool.

Apple bricking iPhones - Well, I think the right to unlock your phone, or do whatever you want to a device that you own is yours.  The amazing constraints given into iPhone ownership a well told and understood.  Why a consumer would buy an iPhone with the express purpose to unlock it and place it on another network is beyond me.  If you hate At&T, if you hate no 3rd party apps, if you hate a forced subscription model, then DON'T BUY THE IPHONE.  The knack to tinker and fiddle will always be around, but get upset if your device fails to operate afterwards.  I think Apple crossed the line when they issued an update that rendered unlocked phones useless, that is not within their rights as a provider.  To the idiots that applied 1.1.1 to their unlocked phones, you knew this was going to happen, now take your medicine.  My iPhone works just fine....

/N

Vista Answers

A while back I wrote a apaer detailing the options one should weigh when considering a move to Windows Vista.

Check it out...