Here’s the e-mail home page.
They’ve got a little announcement, technical specs, even a blog with annoying, cutesy music.
Category: Opinion
Free Software for Your New Computer
If you’ve bought a new PC or Windows laptop recently, it probably came “bundled” with a bunch of free software. It is a near certainty that the bundled software you got is awful. Most people I know who make their living from computers (the ones who use Windows instead of Mac OS X anyway) reformat the hard drive and install only what they need to avoid this junk. Why this software is on your computer in the first place is another story. This post is about where you can find free software you actually want on your computer.
The Google Pack (http://pack.google.com) is a great place to start adding software you actually need. As of this writing, the pack contains 14 applications. This includes applications like Adobe Acrobat Reader, Firefox, Picasa, Skype, and RealPlayer. The biggest benefit of adding these applications to your new computer via Google Pack is the updater software. You can configure it to automatically update applications when there are new versions.
Open Source Windows is another great source for free software. Unlike the Google Pack offerings, none of the software you’ll find at Open Source Windows is offered by Google. The types of software are broader in many ways as well. They include instant messaging (IM) clients, RSS clients, video playback, sound recording, graphics/photo editing, even games.
So if you’ve got a new Windows machine you need to get running, get rid of the bundled software and pay those sites a visit. It will only cost you a little time, and the quality of the software you’ll get in return makes it a worthwhile investment.
Recommended Listening: Derivative Dangers
If you want to know how long ago the seeds of the current financial crisis were sown, definitely listen to this episode of Fresh Air. Terry Gross’ interview of Frank Partnoy reveals not just how derivatives came to be unregulated, but who some of the players were in making it possible. What may disturb you is how many of the people who made the current situation possible are playing key roles in trying to fix it. Partnoy also authored F.I.A.S.C.O.: Blood in the Water on Wall Street. He first wrote this book 12 years ago–before the collapse of the internet and telecom bubbles, before Enron, and the subprime mortgage meltdown that triggered our latest financial calamity.
Alternative PDF Readers
According to an article I got from my boss, there is a flaw in Adobe Acrobat and Adobe Acrobat Readers that will allow hackers to take over your machine if you open a PDF file they send you. The article only mentions Windows XP Service Pack 3 as a vulnerable OS, so it’s unclear whether Vista can be taken over this way as well. Despite how serious this flaw is, a fix for it won’t be available until March 11. Between now and then, you can either swear off the opening of PDFs entirely, or use an alternative PDF reader.
Those of us using Mac OS X (which understands the PDF format natively) need only make sure that Preview or Safari is the default PDF reader.
Microsoft Gets It Wrong Again
According to this story, there’s no direct upgrade from Windows XP to Windows 7. Given all the stories of people “downgrading” from Vista to XP, or not upgrading at all, it seemed obvious to me that Microsoft should make upgrading as smooth as possible. Instead, XP users will have to backup data, re-install programs, and restore data.
Having used the Windows 7 beta on a spare laptop for awhile, I can say it’s a distinct improvement over Vista. It’s just a shame that Microsoft has decided to make the upgrade experience more difficult for XP users.
The rest of the inauguration day story
The group of us that went down (my sister and I, plus two of our friends), secured our spot on The National Mall (close to 12th St NW and Madison Drive) before 9 AM. They replayed some of the concert from Sunday while we stood or sat in the cold and waited. What you may not have caught on TV was the big laugh we in the crowd made the first time an announcer told everyone to take their seats. The other bit the broadcasts may not have shared was the booing from the crowd when George W. Bush was announced.
Getting out of DC took us longer than getting in. The police and National Guard personnel were not very helpful at all. We spent a lot of time stuck in a confused crowd at L’Enfant Plaza because they decided to change one of the entry points to exit only and didn’t tell anyone. We saw uniformed National Guardsmen standing on top of escalators who did and said nothing. I still haven’t figured out how all that law enforcement managed to not have a single bullhorn or PA system to direct crowds. The four of us managed to find our way to the other L’Enfant Plaza entrance by worming our way through the crowd. We might have seen it sooner, were it not for the fleet of tour buses parked on D Street. They were tall enough to block the other entrance from view, even when I got a chance to stand on a low wall. The commingling of people trying to get on tour buses and those of us trying to get into the Metro station (each of us going in different directions) contributed to a lot of gridlock. There was at least one ambulance trying to get through part of the crowd we were stuck in, and they weren’t having much luck.
The Metrorail folks definitely get an A for today’s performance. We didn’t wait more than a minute or two for a train the entire day. They had enough cars that we didn’t have to let a single train pass in order for all four of us to get on. Law enforcement in the L’Enfant Plaza area gets a D. No crowd direction or control, no information or conflicting information.
Even with these minor hassles, I’m glad I went down there. I had great company with me and a good time as a result.
So close, but so far away
We were making great time until we tried to get to L’Enfant Plaza. Even though we caught the first train that showed up, we spent over 20 minutes waiting in the tunnel because of another train.
On the train to downtown
We got on the train at Wheaton around 6:40am. There was a bit of a crowd on the platform, but we all got on the train with no problem. Once we got to Silver Spring Station, the train was packed (even with 8 cars).
By 7:06, we got to New York Avenue Station, the last time I could post before we went underground (and out of reach of the AT & T network).
Headed downtown
Of course it’s crazy for me to brave the cold and the crowds to see Obama’s inauguration on a jumbrotron far from the actual swearing-in–but I’m still going to do it. He’s the first (and only) candidate I ever donated money to, so I’ve got to be at least somewhere in the vicinity. I’ve got my route picked out, my wake-up time, cold-weather gear, pocket-friendly food, and enough memory cards for the camera to last all day.
Windows 7 Beta
Here are my brief impressions of it so far:
Installation
Requires that Vista be on the machine in order to upgrade to Windows 7 Beta. Otherwise, you have to do a clean install. Unfortunately, you have to attempt the illegal upgrade before you get the message that tells you this. If Microsoft is trying to get people to let go of XP, letting them upgrade from XP directly to Windows 7 might be a good idea. Otherwise, the install was pretty straightforward.
IE8
Disappointing. It can’t render http://www.vmware.com correctly, so I couldn’t download VMware Player from the site. I had a copy on a flash drive fortunately, and was able to install from there. Firefox works just fine (so far).
Virtual Machine
It looks like there’s some sort of permissions thing preventing me from running them. Adding the VMWare Player created an additional user on the machine. When I tried to open the VM I already had, I got some odd sort of permissions error.
Drivers
Windows 7 Beta detected the biometric scanner on the Lenovo T61 I’m using and directed me to the most current driver. Once I “enrolled” my fingers, it worked just fine. It didn’t have any trouble at all with the SanDisk Cruzer Micro 2GB I’m using either.
Miscellaneous
The way Windows 7 handles active program icons in the start bar is rather clever, though it still retains the unfortunate multi-function button for logging out, switching users, shutting down, etc.
More impressions later as I play with the operating system more. This version of the beta doesn’t expire until August 1, 2009.