Hybrid Cars: With gasoline rushing past $2.00 a gallon it makes sense to have a car that is a miserly as possible with gasoline. That would be a Hybrid car! Each of my two sons owns and loves their Toyota Prius, the best selling hybrid car currently available.
I have been considering such a car, and also the long promised Ford Escape Hybrid. For three years it was six months off, then announced as available in August, 2004, but I never found a dealer that had received one. Can you say "vaporware"? This week, I finally got a phone call from the Ford dealer I had purchased a 2001 Escape at, and I stopped off at last September when the 2005 Ford Escape Hybrid was announced.

"We got one in" he said. "ONE ???", I responded quizically. "We're calling everyone who expressed interest" he said. "Trying to generate demand so you can charge over sticker" I asked. "It'll likely be $3 to $5000 over sticker. I haven't seen the paperwork, but it's likely to be a $30,000 sticker". "Naturally, Detroit sticks it to early adopters by selling gussied up pricey models", I responded. Then I reminded him that 4 years ago when we bought our Ford Escape, the same dealer was charging $3000 over sticker for Chrysler PT cruisers, essentially a Neon station wagon, which was the "in-demand" car at the time. "And they sell for what now?", I asked. "Probabally right at Invoice" was the answer. "I'll wait at least until you have 5 or 6 Hybrid Escapes on your lot, I prefer not to pay OVER MSRP" I finished with.

Tipping point for Blu-ray ? Two competing standards for the next generation of DVD have emerged. hd-dvd, and Blu-ray. With Dell and Apple now on board for Blu-ray, Blu-ray is starting to look like the winner before day one. The hd-dvd web site still says "...coming soon", as of March 11, 2005 anyway. And there is both a .org and a .com Blu-ray site, but no .org hd-dvd site.

Harvard redefines "Hacker": Harvard, caught with web software so poorly written that anyone can navigate to find things Harvard doesn't want one to find, redefines what here to fore would be known as web surfing as "hacking" in a failed attempt at CYA. All the details are here.

Better than Shredco: When Enron declared bankruptcy it was soon found out they they and their Accountants, the late Arthur Andersen had had many important documents illegally shredded by sending off to a commercial shredding service: Shredco. But don't just shred the documents, why not shred your shredder or your Xerox machine? Now that's possible.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY YAHOO: I remember going to a Mactivity Meeting in 1995, and being told by the presenter about this great new thing: Yahoo. Yahoo is now celebrating it's 10th Birthday.

More in the iPod economy: With more than 10 million iPods out there and the new iPod Shuffle now selling faster than Apple can manufacture them, the latest add-on is ipod skins. A business called "decalgirl" has 23 to choose from for the iPod shuffle, 36 for a new model regular size iPod or 20 for an iPod mini, in case one of the five colors Apple provides is not satisfactory.

Beat the iPod Shuffle shortage: Apple's new low priced iPod is in high demand, and backorderd. But if you want one today, and you live in Huntington, Long Island (or be able to use their Public Library), the Public Library will provide one for you. Presumably one could offload the Audio Book, and then fill the iPod with music, and return it to being an audio book before returning to the Library. Or one could "lose" it, and pay the library the cost of the iPod.

At least one lawyer needs to learn how to use Google?: In the news on Feb. 22 was a story how a lady was suing Hewlett-Packard as her ink jet's ink cartridges stopped working due to (the suit says) a secret expiration date encoded into the cartridge. Problem is Hewlett-Packard freely admits on their web site that they do this, so how can it be a secret? Their rational is the quality of the ink in the cartridge deteriorates with time, and so they assign (like your can of tomatoes or your container of milk) an expiration date.

See what outsourcing can cause: With all the reports of security breaches, I like to regularly check on my credit cards, which over the web I can do, at least until today. Citibank's webpage "Citicards", today gives one:

.

500 Internal Server Error

 /us/cards/index.jsp:  java.lang.NullPointerException  at allaire........

Don't let X-Box burn your house down: Microsoft has issued a recall for powercords for X-Box machines made before October 23, 2003. Sign up here for your new cord, if they ever get the web site working. This morning (2/17/2005) entry of a serial number does nothing.
.
FOLLOWUP: at 9:00 AM CST the web site is now taking orders.

Technology catching up to fiction: In one of my favorite TV Series (The Prisoner), a semi-autonomous Ball: Rover: would chase after attempted escapees. Now a robotic device very similar in form and function has been designed: here.

How cold is it? or put it another way "Do I need a jacket to go outdoors"? To find the answer if your mother is not available to tell you yes, go to this web site.

Honoring Arthur Miller: It has nothing to do with technology, but Arthur Miller was America's greatest playright of the 20th century, and I am saddened by his passing today. I remember the 1999 event of his getting a "Tony Award" for Special Lifetime Achievement. When a reporter asked if he had a secret for longevity, being so spry at 84, Arthur answered: "Yes, I don't eat vegetables". Others feel the same way that what is taught in Universities of "Public Health" about nutrition is solely based upon tradition. Read here: about "Vegetable Free Living".

Back from Vacation? On February 8, 2005, Microsoft released 12 Security patches for Windows XP (MS05-05 through MS05-15). Great that they're addressing security concerns but TWELVE? in one Day? Only makes sense if some anal-retentive manager refuses to release security updates until he personally approves, and he finally got back from vacation and approved updates that had been piling up on his desk.

What happens to your Blog if you die?: A Marine Corps. reservist wrote a widely read blog about his stay in Iraq. With his passing, his parents would like access to his computer files. The Marine's ISP is refusing, citing privacy concerns. Seems ours laws haven't caught up to our technology.

AOL to drop USENET: USENET, the discussion groups that were an important part of the Ineternet Experience before Blogs will no longer be carried by AOL. AOL claims only 1000 users regularly use their USENET section. This is probably more a commentary on the poor job AOL did of maintaining its USENET service and its lame job of censorship than a lack of interest. Luckily Google provides USENET access for free. And actually the more targeted, moderated discussion boards (like those of PHP-NUKE) remove the noise, scams, spam and chain letters of USENET. One such Php-Nuke board is here (on cellular phones).

Even more scoops here: Apple has sued a web site for releasing information it would rather have kept secret. I see more secrets (Apple's and others) revealed on engadget. How about the secret on how to hack TiVo's new TiVoToGo's encryption? It's just hard to keep secrets in a free society.

Better late than Never: Microsoft, literally three years late, has come up with an answer to the problem of Spyware attacking Windows Systems. This has been a major problem for three years now, with systems being ground to a running stop by nasty Spyware (Kazaa, Comet Cursor, Gator, etc and other programs installing myriad program secretly that mess up ones computer).

Microsoft has made available for Free, a download of a "beta" of its Spyware detection and removal software, and based upon preliminary testing, it's EXCELLENT.

I highly recommend every Windows System user download it, install it, and run it. I like it because it will automatically update, automatically run, and proactively catch spyware.

FOLLOWUP 1/23/05 - The Spyware checker is so good, it catches Microsoft's spyware, so far its' found them in MS Money, and MS Media Player 10 installer.

THUNDERBIRD - I finally got around to using Thunderbird, the new FREE email client from mozilla.org; and I like it. Good thing too, as I was just about forced to use it after my MAIL program from Apple OSX decided it wouldn't pop email from Earthlink anymore. Dont know if I had too many messages in it (3500), or its a glitch with OS 10.3.7; or just my copy got corrupted, but now I don't need to find out.

Go to Jail for exercizing free speech in France: Turns out in France, a software security researcher published his findings about a buggy antivirus program. As a result he's been sued and threatened with jail. Am I liable to go to jail in France now for reporting on the report?
The French Court will issue a final ruling on March 4, 2005.

Vanity can cost you - Literally - CNN reports that if one goes to Google and searches on "Ken Lay", former head of Enron, a paid hit for his personal page (telling Ken's spin on things ("kenlayinfo")) is produced, and if one clicks through, Ken Lay is charged by Google. So now his oponents in Houston are going to Google.

Engineering for prosperity Many manufacturing firms (whether it be automobiles or computers) only support a new model for 3 or 5 years (answer questions from users), and parts availability has a defined lifetime also. See one such notice from IBM here. This is done to encourage customers to buy the newests models to assure continued sales and profitability. After all Earth Shoe stores went out of business when they didn't get enough repeat customers because their product lasted too long. And 53 years ago there was a great movie about a product that would last forever and what the consequences could be. So it's no great suprize the the folks runing "The TUBE" in London are trying to find the pieces/parts they need for 20 year old computer equipment on ebay as a last resort.

Managerial coverup : In Great Britain a major crash of the computer system controlling one major banks' Cash Machines that left them unavailable for 24 hours, has been labeled as due to a "Glitch". More likely a system upgrade performed at the wrong time, without fall back procedures in place with a shrunken staff due to "right-sizing".

New Computer aided Border Security: The newspapers are full of Homeland Security's next new thing. Computer database matching of entrants to the United States.

Seems I remember Switzerland having that in 1985 when I flew into Zurich for a scientific conference.

911 Lines get tied up on Christmas - The California Highway Patrol reports that their 911 lines get tied up with nonemergency calls every Christmas.

My hypothesis is that it is because more new cell phones are unwrapped that day than any other, but the carriers are closed and aren't available to activate phones. So folks (often teenagers) call 911 to verify their shiny new Nokia is working. They can't call a friend as Verizon recommends because the phone wont complete any call not to 911 until it is activated.

AT&T Wirelsss used to sell phones on the web that were activated before you received them, with the nasty side effect of AT&T Wireless starting billing the day they activated the phone, 2, 3, 4 or more days before you received the phone. At Christmas time, that could be weeks one would be paying for service never used.

Thunderbird - Another success for Mozilla. First Firefox, now Thunderbird. Firefox was the new better than Microsoft Internet Explorer Browser, now Thunderbird is a better than Microsoft Outlook email client. Rave reviews are pouring in. Like this one.

Sizzle without substance: So I read this "news" story today about TV on your cell phone, and it's a perfect example of marketing hype gone bezerk. Tiny screens with not enough pixels showing programming when there's not enough bandwidth, even with so-called 3-G networks, and they are hardly ubiquitous. Current attempts at TV on cell phones give 2 frames per second, as compared to home TV at 30 frames a second.
I think I am the one to coin the term for this. "Squintavision".

TiVo : Like most TiVo owners, I love mine and have a hard time remembering life before TiVo, and am happy to sing its praises. Judging by the armpit high stacks of TiVos at my local BestBuys and other stores, TiVo should sell double this year what it sold last year. Whether that means you should buy TiVo stock is a decision you'll have to make on your own.

However if you, like David Letterman use "tivo" as a verb, the company may get upset at you, as often folks "tivo" a show, but in fact are just recording it in some fashion, maybe still using videotape, or some other (inferior) type of Digital Video Recorder (DVR). Thus TiVo has started writing to TV Networks warning them not use use "tivo" as a verb.

Help Niagara Falls: Go to this site, where each click helps plant trees around Niagara Falls, even if it's the Canadian side. It sounds like a typical Internet Hoax, but isn't. If you get email (especially if it's a dire warning and been forwarded from a nonauthoritative source, like your aunt on WebTV) always check here to check whether its real or not.

Nov. 21 - ABANDONWARE - Software from companies that have gone out of business may end up in the public domain. One such game is "Solitaire's Journey" perhaps the best solitaire game ever made for a PC. It's Windows version is available for free!
at : http://www.freeoldies.com/download.php3?game=Solitaires%20journey
I apologize for the attached pop-up ads.
The program being from 1992 wants to be installed from a floppy disk, but installs fine if one extracts it to (or moves the extracted files to) a folder named Disk1.


UPDATE 12/8 for unknown reasons the freeoldies site no longer has a link to:
http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?name=Solitaire's+Journey
or to
http://free-game-downloads.mosw.com/abandonware/pc/strategy_games/games_so_sy/solitaire_s_journey.html

IBM leaving the PC business ? Not at all, too many mainstream news agencies seem to have the story wrong. In fact IBM sold it's "manufacturing business" which consists of part ownerships and contracts with many Taiwan and Chinese companies. This deal is mainly a way for one Chinese manufacturer (Lenova) to buy another Chinese manufacturer (Great Wall). IBM laptops will continue to exist for the forseeable future and with the IBM name on them. IBM's press release says : "IBM will continue to provide our clients with outstanding IBM- and Think-branded PCs through our alliance." The biggest difference may be for the 2,300 IBM employees in the U.S. who will become Lenova employees.

Why are SCSI Hard Drives still so expensive? IDE hard drives have gotten bigger, better and faster over the years such that performance difference is just about zero now. Some background. Indeed IDE drives can be put into Raid arrays for use with Servers that require reliability and performance. Oracle tested Hard Drive Raid arrays and discovered that the low price Apple XServe Raid was the best and have proceeded to buy many.

Make Love Not Spam (MLNS) lives?: The Lycos screen saver (MLNS) that attacked Lycos identified spammers web sites is now not functional. Its no longer downloadable from Lycos (but available elsewhere on the Internet), and is no longer attacking "spammers" as Lycos has shut down its feed of "bad guys" to the screen saver.

While Lycos had a change of heart, relative to ethical concerns or fear of lawsuits, others may not, and likely a "modified" version of MLNS, or a Patch program to provide new life to MLNS is likely to appear from other sources before the week is out.

Lycos pulls the plug on its "antispam" Screensaver - Others have reported
as I have that one can no longer download the screen saver that bombards spam advertisers web sites. What they omit is that already deployed screensavers are now deactivated. They required access to a Lycos database of "badguys", and that's been turned off.

Help stop SPAM, be a vigilante: Lycos in Europe has developed a FREE pretty screen saver, which also sends traffic to spammers' web sites, and with thousand of folks running it, it may over whelm a SPAMers web site. Lycos claimed 66,000 downloads. They have Windows, Macintosh (both OS X and Mac OS 9) and Linux versions available. You'd have to say you were in England to download it, but if you're on the edge of legality being part of a DDOS what's mistating your country of origin? Download it here at your own risk. And for added effect the Windows version could be run minimized to be hitting SPAMers 24/7.
I don't advocate any of this, I'm just reporting it.

UPDATE: The screensaver is not available currently at the Lycos website of:
http://makelovenotspam.com/intl/mlns.html?lang=en&region=en

I expect a quick Google of MLNS.exe or use of Kazaa could still find it. Another view of all this is here:

Networking a DirecTv Tivo : DirecTv doesn't support that functionality, even though stand alone TiVo units can be networked. Luckily TiVo is a Linux system, so by adding some extra Linux software and Ethernet drivers to ones' system, Networking is possible. And enough folks have done it already that full instructions and Install CDs are available on the web. Instructions are here. And all the software to Install; scripted to just semi automatically do it all for one is here. I'm about to attempt all this "programming", and will report back.

FOLLOWUP - I couldnt get it all working with 3.1.1e (the current DirecTiVo OS), but with 3.1.0 OS software (leftover from a replaced OEM hard drive), it all worked. http://tivo.lightn.org/ has the details on the TiVoWeb program, that allows controlling ones DirecTv TiVo from a Browser.
Next is to try the tytools.

Don't buy promises -
Major mistake some folks make is to be swayed by product announcements for products that don't exist yet. Don't buy promises, many do warn. All too often products never exist, or exist in altered format, or come in to being way later than originally planned for. One should always make technology decisions based upon what is on the shelf today, not what ==> may <== appear Real Soon Now. Two cases in point about newly promised products that may or may not appear as expected when expected. A new DirecTv DVR, possibly to replace TiVo. A new faster CPU for computers and gaming systems, like Sony's Playstation 3, said to use the IBM "Cell" chip.

WARNING - Do not upgrade MS Windows NT 4 Server to Windows 2000 or 2003 Server !
Many folks are in a hurry to do an upgrade. Support for NT4 server is supposed to end with the close of this year. However an upgrade can have disastrous consequences. The safer method is to do a clean install of MS Windows Server 2000 (or preferably 2003 which requires fewer patches and has many insecure features turned off by default). Sure it will take far longer to reinstall all the other software, and move over the data, but it will be far more stable with a clean install than with an inplace upgrade. Others have weighed in on this subject. The title of this blog clearly states my belief. Remember, I warned you.

EVEN FASTER 802.11 Wireless Networking is here: I just upgraded from 802.11b to 802.11g painlessly, but there's an even faster standard on the horizon: 802.11N, and Belkin isn't waiting until 2007 when its offically formalized. You can now buy Belkin 802.11 pre-N equipment and it already got a good review for having higher speed and better range. Being prestandard, it might not be compatible with the 2007 products of other manufacturers.

Turn yourself in: Microsoft has a new "offer" for you only if you live in Great Britain. Turn yourself in if you have a pirated copy of Windows XP. Fine Print includes submitting only "preinstalled" copies of Windows XP, and executing a witness statement document. They also include the caveat: "If you are unclear about anything in the witness statement, please obtain independent legal advice". Further: "If your copy of the Windows XP Home or Professional Operating System is not genuine we will retain it along with the documentation you submitted. If we retain your submission, we will replace your software with a genuine copy of Microsoft Windows XP Home or Professional Edition (as appropriate)". and " The project will allow Microsoft Ltf to collate intelligence quickly and work with the authorities to act decisively against illegal traders."

A Safer Browser: It seems not a day goes by with out warnings from inside and outside Microsoft about security concerns with their Internet Explorer Browser . Some folks may feel they need to use it as once in a while a web site might not work correctly in Netscape Browser. I've said a proper website should work equally well in any browser, and I always recommend web authors visit here.

Now we have a new Browser freely available - its FREE - no cost. Firefox it's available for Windows, Linux, and Macintosh, it's a quick download and it's received nothing but glowing reviews. One typical one is here. Or Google can find you many reviews.

I suggest everyone start using Firefox and only Firefox as their Browser.

Gotta love a Mac. I took the next step for my wireless networking. I bought the Belkin 802.11g PC Card ($24.88 after rebate) from J and R Music, and got a demonstration of why Macs are so great. Earlier in the day I had removed the 802.11b Airport card from my Pismo laptop. After UPS delivered the Belkin card, I opened the box, took the card out, slid it in the PC Card slot of the laptop, and within 10 seconds the laptop was again connected to the Internet. No questions about drivers, where the files are, or whether its safe because its not approved by Microsoft like Windows XP would give you. It just worked !
I did take a minor reception strength hit as the built in antenna in the PC card is apparently not as good as Apple's antenna wrapping around the screen that had plugged into the airport card. No big deal.

Higher speed Wireless Networking: After 4 + years, my PC's wireless networking reception with a PCI Orinoco 802.11b card in the PC, was getting less and less, even though my Pismo (2000 Firewire Powerbook) reported strong signal from my original model Apple Airport Base Station (M7601). It should be noted that the Orinoco Silver card is 100% functionally identical to an Airport Card, and also made by Lucent (now Agere). So I switched out my Airport Base Station, and the PCI 802.11b card; with D-Link hardware. Last week with rebates at Best Buy, the 802.11g Base Station with Router (model DI-524) was $29.99, and the 802.11g PCI card (model DSL-G510) for my PC was $29.99 (plus $5 of sales tax that won't be refunded on the rebate amounts). It may be cheaper elsewhere (check cnet.com) but I prefer to buy locally, to enable quick refunds if something goes wrong. Only slight problem I had was to change the IP # of the Base Station since it defaulted to same IP (192.169.0.1) as my Netgear Firewall/Router. I also changed the default broadcast channel, and told it to default to a 54 mbps broadcast rate rather than "Automatic". This was done with a nice platform independent web based configuration program (not fully compatible with Netscape 7.2 on the Mac) by directly wiring a computer to the new basestation. One can configure the basestation to Broadcast its name or not, and have WEP or WPA security or none. It all took about much less than an hour, including mounting the base station 6 feet up on a wall.

Now my PC has 5 bars of signal, instead of 1, and its 54 mbps, rather than 11 (or more commonly 5 or 3 or 1 or 0); and my Pismo with its 802.11b Airport card still works anywhere in the house. That's the Pismo that gave me a scare with a discharged PRAM battery. (See Sept. 27 Macintouch.com report). I was able to cut back the basestation's signal to 25% strength, and its still better than the original Airport.

I have my dsl modem, router and wireless base station on a separate circuit with wall mounted switch, so I can turn it all on easily if I need to get the Dell PC to the Internet and all is powered down.

(Aside - 2 years ago I had tried Netgear 802.11a and it's range was pitiful)

MORAL: You don't have to get an Apple Airport Extreme to upgrade your wireless Network to 802.11g. If its WiFi certified, it should (as mine did) also be fully backward compatible with any 802.11b equipment. There are perfectly good, much lower priced alternatives than Apple.

NEXT STEP? - Get a Belkin 802.11g PC Card (their part #F5D7010) (Street price under $50) for the Pismo. Apple doesn't make such a piece of Hardware, and most brands (including D-Link) don't have Macintosh compatibility
or drivers. A July 7 note to Macintouch.com by James Cotton points to a compatibility list for 802.11g equipment. If it has a Broadcom chipset, apparently OS X 10.3 just treats it like Apple Airport Extreme hardware. Belkin, like Apple has Broadcom inside, D-Link doesn't.

Whither SOLARIS:

So Sun (www.sun.com) now has Solaris 10 in both a Sparc and x86 version available for a free download. 5 CD images, took a while with over taxed servers on its first day of availability. A nice touch Sun provided COlor CD labels, sized in a PDF to fit Neato label sheets.

One problem: The Installer is not ready for prime time. Compare and contrast to Mandrake Linux 10.1 which also has CD images available for download. Those Cds work and flawlessly lead one through setup. Not so for Solaris which repeatedly hangs and gets myriad error messages with OEM hardware that Mandrake Linux has zero problems with.

The three most important things to know about Desktop computing: Backup, Backup, Backup

Trivially simple these days with low costs for Hard Drives and DVD-Writers. Using either a 2nd Internal Hard Drive or an External Firewire Hard Drive, Total backups can be made on a Mac using Restore function (Applications, Utilities, Disk Utility), and on a PC with Backup (Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools).

Then data can be separately backed up to a DVD and stored offsite.

Stopping Junk Phone Calls If you don't like coming home from work and finding junk phone calls on your answering machine, there is a cure: Start your recorded message with the wailing sound one gets when calling a disconnected number. That sound is called a SIT, and the sound file for it can be found by doing a Google search for "sit.wav". This week the first good hit is here. Automatic dialers that junk callers use "hear" that sound, and conclude your line is disconnected, and don't leave a message, and may remove your phone number from their database.

The Washington Post is Guilty of using spyware:
Come to find out if one goes to the Washington Posts' Crossword puzzles page, you get some spyware installed also. Ran Lavasoft's Adaware before and after and BINGO: Spyware gets installed.

SHAME on the Washington Post.

IBM's Great commercial : "If Linux were a person, he would be growing, fast. Taught by the best. Gaining wisdom beyond his years. And sharing. He would be in business, education, government and homes. He would be a nine-year-old boy changing the world."

The Network is not secure. An organization can spend many thousands of dollars and many months perfecting a firewall to secure its computers from Ukranian hackers, and yet have a total lack of security. Who inside the organization has access to the spreadsheet with next years budget?

I don't recall any problems being an IT Patch Master.
Who can happily be a IT Patch Master???

It's a Microsoft Windows CE OS in the fancy new BMW 7 Series.
That's the car where the computer crashed, and the occupants were locked inside.

iLoo - At least Microsoft was trying to be creative rather than just introducing what Apple did 3 years ago.

WINDOWS 2003 - I now have a Windows 2003 page.

Even if no one in China can now read this.
Since I last blogged, I unloaded my XBox Live, and obtained 2 DirecTv Tivo units. More soon

65th Time this year Microsoft has issued another security alert. Why do companies insist on putting themselves at risk using this stuff?

X-Box Live Works quite nicely thank you. I bought me a Linksys Wireless Bridge to plug into my XBox, and it "connects" to my Airport, which connects to my Netgear Router, which is fed by my Earthlink dsl modem. Just wish the Bridge had an on-off switch.

Apple is pushing too hard It is one thing for Apple to promote OSX, and to encourage people to use it, it is another to leave OS9 slowly twisting in the wind with no support. Luckily others feel the same way I do, and I just discovered a great web site for the rest of us. http://www.os9forever.com/

ANOTHER new version of Microsoft Office Its reported here that a new version of Microsoft Office (version 11) will see the light of day soon. The current version: Office XP SR-2, aka Office 10, aka Office 2002, is a big yawn as far as having any significant improvements productivity wize. Years ago (1996?) Microsoft asked for suggestions for additional features. 80% of features asked to be added were already included. Of course with the "Typical" install leaving out many features, but installing many extra dlls to run at bootup to make Office Applications seem to load "fast" you have to wonder about Microsoft. Then again every new version has promotional material about the great new wizard (actually there since before Office 95) for doing a Mail Merge. Apparently so few people use it, Microsoft can always pretend it's a great new feature.

Windtunnel Macintosh Replacing fans in the power supply, contrary to published reports has no appreciable affect on the Windtunnel noise on System 9 reboots of the DDR G-4 Macintosh. That Windtunnel noise is caused by intake of air for the larger fan blowing on the Heat sink on the dual Processors.

A true Switcher story Read This !

Apple's Rebates and Promotions While some are reporting horror stories with Apple rebates, I apparently am having good fortune. I sent in get get a free copy of Adobe InDesign and in less than 4 weeks, it's being shipped to me. Apple has a web site one can use on checking on rebates.
Then Apple has a promotion where K-12 teachers can get a free copy of "Jaguar" OSX, so naturally I had my wife apply.

A Quieter G4 DDR Macintosh - Tonight I went to Fry's here in Houston to pick up the parts I need to make my Macintosh quieter. Apparently Apple cut corners in 2 places on these new models. First cheaper noisy cooling fans in the power supply, secondly, OS 9.2.2 does not have the firmware/software to control the fan speed, so they rev up to max for no apparent reason. These Macs have therefore deservedly been nicknamed the Windtunnel Macs.

Microsoft Lies and gets Caught - Microsoft put up a web page that was a blatant lie about someone switching from a Mac to a PC. Now it's all been documented. Whats even more amazing is the lengths Microsoft went to to cover it up. When my workplace had a confidential web page not properly secured we took it down, only to find out it had been cached by Google. It took us 3 weeks of effort to get Google to uncache it. Microsoft, it took them 12 hours.

DUDE - You're getting a Dell : That Dell campaign has been so successful that Dell has a web site for Steven. Of course when HP says its sales are down because of the economy, one wonders then why Dell's sales are up?

Yellow Meteorology I live in Texas and the local weather stations always want to scare you with how bad a hurricane is (or could become) and likely it is (or might possibly be) that it will hit where you live. No matter the National Weather Service is forcasting it 300 miles away. Reminds me of the 1974 Xenia tornado I narrowly escaped. Next year everytime sky turned gray, TV stations were scaring folks with how likely it was more tornadoes were on their way.
They have all lost their credibility with me.

Apple Promotions As part selling new Macintoshs Apple has a new promotion. If one has bought a new Power Macintosh since September 10, and they mail in the UPC and a copy of their Invoice, they get a free copy of Adobe's InDesign. Sofar, so good. Now the gotcha's. Apple has apparently been scammed before and has draconian measures in place to make sure only legimate requests get filled. You must have the Original UPC and all layers of cardboard its attached to. Makes for fun if you also bought an Apple Monitor and want the $200 rebate on that and have to mail one UPC to two places. My dealer sent me a packing slip, not an Invoice, and I needed an Invoice with the Serial Number on it for the terms of the promotion. I called up, and they said "All our computers come with Invoices" - "Mine Didn't" I replied, "Sure we'll send out an invoice" they agreed. Over a week later no Invoice. "We have no record of such a request, we'll send it out". Finally I agree to let them FAX me an Invoice, and sure enough they get the serial number wrong. One more nastygram email, and finally a proper Invoice. Now, we'll see how long six to eight weeks takes. I never did figure out why such promotions took 8 weeks.

Apple Store in Houston Galleria Apple Computer opened a store in the Houston Galleria at 10 AM today. Promo said next to Saks 5th Avenue. NOT. Around the corner in a low traffic area, actually. By getting there at 6:20 AM I was first online. I wouldn't do that again. They had zero opening day specials. You'd think maybe free ingraving with iPod purchase. Maybe instant rebates for monitor and computer purchase. NOPE: none of that. T-Shirts for first 1000 customers, with about 150 online when store opened. What did I get for being first? I got to shake the store manager's hand, the same store manager that later wouldn't come to telephone. I got to high-five all the employees as store opened. Was anybody in a position to sell anything? NOPE. Did the Genius come to talk to me as I sat down first on the middle chair? NOPE. I wanted to ask why DVD's burned on a SuperDrive can't be read on DVD drive in my Pismo. I gave up inside 10 minutes and left the store. No one asked to help me, no one asked if I wanted to buy anything, just one lady to give me my T-Shirt as I left. 20 + employees, zero salespeople. I had gone planning to buy an iPod, but I didn't. I did get to surf the Internet while waiting inline, as they had a basestation with Public name of "AppleStore" live at 6:20 AM. Very secure that. Also a printer online with the name of "Genius Bar". Sure saves energy, to leave a printer on all night. NOT.
All-In-All very underwhelming. Reminded me too much of a 1983 IBM store.

OS X 10.2.1 I just upgraded to this puppy yesterday. No problems or other observations yet. I did Install Netscape 7 for OS X, and had a minor problem, it was default configured to go through an AOL proxy server (perhaps because it saw AOL installed on my Mac). I connect to the Internet through a Netgear Router that connects to an Earthlink dsl modem, so after I deleted the proxy setting, all was well. I downloaded and installed iCal, and it asked to be registered as if I had bought it. No problem, I did that. Apple sends me an email thanking me, and giving me a link to a free 1 year subscription to MacWorld; which I quickly signed up for. Strange they don't offer this anymore for when you spend thousands on a new Macintosh, but do for a free download.

Microsoft Hardware - So I hit my local CompUSA last night and buy a Microsoft Optical Mouse and a Microsoft Business Keyboard for my new Macintosh, already added to with extra memory, hard drive, TV Card and SCSI card, and connected to a Dell P991 monitor. I ask CompUSA what their reaction is to Apple opening a store in Houston (literally across the street) and they profess no concern. "We have our great technicians here". I comment in passing: "They have more turnover than a mixmaster".

New Mac for the TeraBlogger Knowing that Apple will configure new Macintoshs to not be able to boot into OS9 starting January 1, 2003; I figured I better bite the bullet and buy one of these new mirrored door Macintoshs. I couldn't buy the 1.25 Gig Hz model, they're still vaporware, so I bought a dual 1 Ghz model. With ATA 100 support, it does feel faster. I bought it over the Internet from ClubMac to save sales tax. Then I bought a 120 Gig HD for $150 at MicroCenter to drop into it; and an extra 256 Meg of DDR PC2700 SDRAM from DataMem.
So far its woking like a dream, until the cooling fan kicks in. NOISY !!

Whither Sprint Vision A USA Today review of Sprint Vision,
basically pans it; as I have done.

PowerMacs still vaporware A call to various authorized Macintosh dealers indicates they don't expect to have any dual 1.25 GHz Power Macintosh computers available for at least another month yet. Even the Apple Store optimistically says 3 to 4 weeks.

TSA Charade I got to fly across the country and back this past week, and got to see the Transportation Safety Administration rookies in action. Randomly choosing folks to hand search carry ons and take off shoes and socks. You know how they chose someone? A first boarding frequent flyer gets grabbed first, usually; some 70 year old man. The next one is just who is presenting their ticket 7 minutes later when TSA agent finishes the first poor flyer. A 27 year old 8 month pregnant 200 pound lady in a couple of cases, another a clean cut 120 pound high school senior. Such a total waste of time and money.
The right way to do it. The way it was done at Heathrow in 1989 a year after Lockerbie made more sense. All folks transfering planes had to pick up their luggage on the tarmac and recheck it. One carry on bag strictly enforced. Every carry on bag hand searched. Either you check all, or you don't play games grabbing random folks on the line at the wrong time. FAA stopped asking if you packed your bag. El Al still asks it. In 1985 Switzerland was already checking every Passport of every entering person against a computer database. It took the United States 14 more years to catch up. INS still hasn't.
All in all a charade to make it look like something is being done when nothing is being done. Last week folks from the New York Daily News got contraband past screeners and onto flights 14 out of 14 tries.

An RMA for my Treo 300. I just got tired of having to push the reset button many times a day in order to make this thing decide to try to connect to Sprint. Makes me feel like an Alpha tester. I got a chargeback from my credit card and an RMA from Handspring. Then the battery won't last two full days, and is sealed internally so you cant carry a spare. The screen is illegible outdoors in daylight. All in All, a great idea, but not ready for Prime Time.

Whither OS X 10.2 - The same CompUSA with no PowerPC Macintoshs for sale, and a too small Treo case had a new pretty sign promoting "JAGUAR" today. and lots of copies of OS X 10.1 for sale at $129. No copies of 10.2 however; maybe they had sold the one copy they got in.

The case for a Treo Hard finding these. Handspring wants $25 for a $5 quality canvas padded case, that fits so tight it activates the buttons. Not wanting a discharged Treo every afternoon, I got a refund, 2 minutes after I bought it at CompUSA today. I found 2 that work. An $8 leather Targus case at Target, and a $15 Canvas and Leather case by Samsonite for Palm Pilots at MicroCenter. Same kind of issue with handsfree kits. The Treo comes with an ear bud, which always seem to fall out of my ear. I read on Usenet that Handspring uses a unique plug that only their handsfree kit works with. Not so. Any Nokia 8000 series handsfree kit works great. BestBuy wanted $29.99 for one, but I found one at Target for $5.90 on closeout, and it has a microphone and an over the ear hook.

You can't buy a Power Macintosh So there I was in CompUSA in Sugarland, Texas; and like the MicroCenter I was in on Thursday and the Fry's I was in on Friday, there are no new Power Macintoshs for sale. Just a single dual 867 MHz model on display at CompUSA. I was considering buying the prior model dual 1 GHz which benchmarks faster than the new dual 1 GHz. So at Fry's I ask if they have any at the new $2199 price. The salesman says yes, they just got one in from the Austin store. I say "New in a sealed box?", He says: "yes". So he goes off for 5 minutes, comes back and says "Let me try the other side"; 5 minutes later: "Let me try up front"; 5 minutes later "Yes it's up front in the Service Department, its an open box, but we'll sell it to you." I say "I wouldn't touch an open box at Frys unless I got 25% off"; he declined my offer, and I left the store, buying only an ADS Firewire enclosure.

Is AOL the next MCI or Enron ? AOL stock price, below 10 recently after being above 50 last year, takes another pounding after it was reported today that they may take another huge (11 figure) writedown of assests.

New DDR Macs are slower : It gets worse every day. Today its reported that in real world tests the "new" DDR Dual 1 GHz PowerPC Macintosh is slower than the "old" SDR 1 GHz PowerPC Macintosh. Could it be that halfing the amount of L3 cache is making itself felt, and offsetting the "faster" RAM ??

Apple selling Overclocked Macs? Another good reason not to buy a new PowerPC Macintosh has now been divulged. Apple is using 1 GHz chips and overclocking them where it thinks it can get away with it.

PopUp Stopper = Browser Stopper: Earthlink got some free publicity from Reuters this morning, in an alleged news story that looked more like a cut and paste of a press release. Earthlink will now provide Free PopUpStopper software. On paper a good idea. This example in practice is not ready for prime time. PopUp Stopper's web page, like Real Player hides the free version, and tries to sell you a pay version, and other software too. The default is to get on their SPAM list. Then the program doesn't work too well. My default Start up page in Netscape http://finance.yahoo.com/q?s=^IXIC&d=c&k=c4&t=1d won't load. Thus I give the program the moniker of Browser Stopper. PopUp Stopper also stops Blogger's Spell Checker from showing up. Time to uninstall !
P.S. I do like my Earthlink dsl service, so much more reliable than Warner Cable.

Treo 300: As I already stated, I'm not buying a Macintosh anytime soon, in January I'll re-evaluate the situation when again new PowerPC Macintoshs come out.
I did buy a Treo 300 to replace my Samsung I300. I like the Samsung I300; I love the Treo 300. Its lighter, smaller shape, but bigger brighter screen, and the neato keyboard. I've had a few folks tell me "Nahhh you're not really on a cell, you sound so clear", so apparently it does better than the Samsung on that regard also. Sprint has a new system for what had been their "Wireless Web". now that they are rolling out their 3G, they have a "Vision" Plan, that charges you (IMHO) way too much on a per Byte basis, so I won't be using that until the price comes down. I assume Sprint is trying to stick it to early adopters. When I ordered the phone on the Handspring Web Site it said the phone came with 3 free months of Vision. I guess Sprint has a different idea, as they refused to give it to me.

More on the missing OS 9 Double talk in an email just received from Steve Jobs. "We do supply Mac OS 9 on every hard disk." Yes, but you are not saying I can boot into OS 9. Maybe the story about not booting into OS 9 is "Simply true".

No new Macintosh for the Terablogger Maybe my expectations were raised too much by the rumor mills, but too many features I know to be technologically possible are missing from these new Macintoshes. No 8x AGP; no faster SuperDrive, no faster Firewire, no USB 2, no faster Airport, and I still don't know for sure about OS 9. I'm still upset that Apple pulled AV capability 3 years ago. The Apple Store says about OS 9 "Does not come with it, that will be $99 extra". The Apple Web site is horribly vague about OS 9.

Email to Steve Jobs: How does the new PowerPC Macintosh boot into OS 9, if you do not supply OS 9 with it. As far as I am concerned you lied to me, and you have LOST an Apple Evangelist. Thanks for saving me over $3 Grand.

Microsoft: End of Summer = November 15 Microsoft, never known for keeping to promised introduction dates, has just announced a delayed introduction date for XBox Live

Netgear 802.11a Equipment Review. I'll give it (NetGear HE102) an A for functionality and a C for setup. It works just fine and gives me upto 50% faster download speeds than my 802.11b equipment it replaced. It probably could have gone faster but bumped up against the limit of my dsl connection. Same ftp source on a 22 Megabyte file: 802.11b 88 KB/sec; 802.11a 118KB/sec.
I've set it up to only accept the Mac address of my Netgear PCI card (HA311), so drive by hacking is ruled out. I am disappointed in Netgear because the Access Point defaults to the lowest frequency in the 5 GHz range that it operates in. By changing the frequency to a higher one, the Access Point broadcasts with 5 times the power, a fact not explicitly stated but buried in a table on page 8 of the 30 page manual. No tips on the 180 degree rotatable antennas either.
Anyone want to buy a "gently used" Apple Airport and a Lucent Wavelan/Orinoco PCI card setup?

Wireless Networking 2002 I gave up waiting on the vaporware Linksys and rumored Apple 50 megabit wireless Networking gear, Linksys is 802.11a; Apple supposed to be 802.11g. I have ordered (due to arrive today) Netgear 802.11a Basestation and PCI card. Will report back tomorrow on how it compares to
Apple's 802.11b Airport / Lucent wirelsss at 11 megabits/sec maximum speed.

Bumper Sticker Spotted in Houston on 8/11/2002:

If they outlaw teaching Evolution
Only Outlaws Will Evolve

Who is Lying to me ? I've been trying to find out about these early morning pornography infomercials on TechTv. I enquired of DirecTv and was told they merely pass on the program and do not slip in these infomercials. TechTV writes me: "Local carriers or satellite providers have segments of the schedule for their own use. We tend to stick with tech associated paid commercials and have no control over the other. ".
So each one blames the other, but seems not to care how bad it looks their carrying this slime.

EMAIL from Steve Jobs: This rumor is simply not true. (Can't boot into OS 9 in coming Macintosh computers)

Steve

I hope Apple isn't this arrogant. I've been waiting already 6 weeks for August 24, when Apple is to introduce new Power Macintoshs. Now I may not buy one. E-Week is reporting that Apple will fix its new Macintosh Computers so they can't boot into OS9.
If they do that I won't buy one until a couple of weeks later when a hack is developed to allow that. I love OS X and version 10.2 is supposed to be great. But there are cases when one will still need OS 9. How about using my Apple Scanner? I'm sure others can quickly identify many other situations that still require a full fledged (read boot into) System 9 for functionality.
Apple: No System 9, No SALE.
You know my 2GHZ DDR Dell 4400 is starting to grow on me. Microsoft Windows XP doesnt require I pay extra to use Backup Software, or to optimize my Hard Drive, and it doesn't greatly prefer OEM Optical Drives, or make it hard to use floppy drives.

TECH-TV gone BAD I often like to watch TechTV on DirecTv being somewhat of a nerd. I especially like their "ScreenSavers" show in the evening, which has new stuff and useful tips. However it is obvious to me that Tech-TV (formerly ZDNET) is not long for this world. They (or did DirecTv do this without telling them) must be hurting for money in a bad way. They're running informercials in the middle of the night (i.e. 4 AM CDT). Today it was for videos from a softporn distributor that it would serve no useful purpose for me to name. Terribly sad to see them descend into the morass.

A push for HDTV ? It's reported today that the FCC may start requiring TV makers to include HDTV tuners in their HDTVs, as a means to help speed the move to HDTV. Me, I'm all for that! The manufacturers are complaining about the increased cost, but with everyone equally affected it will be a level playing field. These are the same manufacturers that 30 some years ago complained about having to include UHF tuners in their TVs. That hurt no one.

Bye-Bye HOTMAIL For the past few years my wife has had an email address on HOTMAIL, which served her well as I changed ISPs from dialup to Cable, and finally (happily) with dsl on Earthlink. The SPAM level on HOTMAIL finally got unacceptable, and no amount of diddling with their filters seemed to help, so I created an Earthlink address for her (free) and that is now working great. Earthlink (last year?) added a web interface connection to email. She can use a POP client at home and any Browser away from home, and Earthlink's spaminator does a credible job of elimianting junk email (ie 1 per week, instead of the 10 per day at HOTMAIL). Did I mention that one of the SPAMMERs on HOTMAIL is HOTMAIL/MSN which you are not allowed to filter?

MASS TRANSIT My employer will pay for a bus pass for me to Bus to work, as my parking lot is going away. I live a mere 6.5 miles from my office, I have always worked close to home, or lived as close to work as possible. No transit plans take that into account; one seems to be rewarded for living 30+ miles away from ones office. So I filled out a form for the bus company and they suggested a route. Coming home: 3 buses, 2 transfers; one hour 10 minutes total, about the same time a fast walk of 6.5 miles might take.

New Macintoshes The new Macintosh's I had half expected to be intoduced on July 17, are now rumored to be coming out on August 24. Apple says they will work in a Windows Centric World. For me that boils down to "Can it load a Verisign Digital Certificate to be used by a Cisco VPN?"
If the answer is no; I may not buy it.

YAHOO EMAIL If you have a Yahoo email account; Yahoo may be changing your email, and in ways that could embarrass you.

MACWORLD CONFERENCE I was very disappointed by Steve Jobs keynote speech at MacWorld today. No new Desktop Macintosh was announced; so I'll save $3000. Lots of vaporware, and at least 2 failed demos, and another time it looked like Steve reached under the desk to throw a switch to switch which Mac was displayed when one failed to respond. What was probably the worst for Apple is that Steve seemed to go out of his way to be picking fights with Microsoft. That has proven suicidal for others. I do love that iCal will work with my "Palm Pilot". Maybe I'll get a new iPod at CompUSA with one of their extended warranties, the internal Hard Drives apparently are not as rugged as one might hope judging by comments at Macintouch. I'll certainly wait until after August 24th to buy a new Mac so OS X 10.2 will come preinstalled and on CD. Now if only I can remember my iDisk username and password so I could save $50 on .Mac.

Microsoft Makes An Offer You Can't Refuse - Thanks to Richard F. Forno for this latest piece of Microsoft arrogance. Microsoft sets its self up as Judge, Jury and Executioner for Digital Rights.