Windows Vista Experiment v2.0
The Following is an email I sent to my computing buddies. They already knew I was installing Windows Vista RC1 on my spare hard drive. I thought this would make a good blog, but I'm sorry you, the reader, are getting let in a little late. Shortly after writing the following I switched back to XP.


Just a quick update. I've been running Vista for a couple days or so now and have no major gripes except for the thing about it asking me, "did you mean to do this?" all the time. (paraphrasing of course)

I hooked up the cannon printer and it works although it has tried to default so something called like XPS. I think that's print-to-file thing that it installs if you have no printer. Earlier I tried to print something thought and it came up with the "Select a printer" dialogue, and it wouldnt let me select one, although it was clearly displayed. I'm gonna ignore that goof for a while because what I was doing, a customer support chat thing, didn't seem all that stable to begin with.



I guess what I miss the most, and this would be no different had I bought a Mac, is Nero. It just does too many things that I use. I ripped Aeon Flux (liked that one!) and had no way to burn it. Windows will now play and record DVD's but the option to burn a DVD-Video with your own video_ts files. You can MAKE your own video, as in from other sourses, photos, videos, whatever, but I had to resort to burning files to the DVD. I put the Video_TS folder and the Audio_TS folder on a disk, but it wouldnt play in either of my players. I tried to install version 6.6 that I paid for and Windows told me it had known issues with Nero. I tried to install the trial of 7 and the Nero installer told me it didn't work with Vista. So fix it, I say! I looked around online a bit and the impression I got was that you could get 6.6 to work if you ignore the Windows message. I haven't taken it that far yet because I lost my damn serial number. I had it saved in my email. But it's not there! The last time I checked it I must have somehow deleted that mail? Dunno, but it's agrivating. I emailed Nero and they replied that if I had some sort of proof of purchace then they could get me a new number. Not worth it, I have it working in XP and the number is in the registry. Sooner or later I've got to remember to write that down before XP goes bye-bye.

My games are working, although I was pissed when I installed Half-Life Episode 1 and found out is has an account manager thing that runs all the time if you let it. No biggie and nothing to do with Vista. Then when I tried to play the game I had to turn down the goodies. I thought that game wasn't tooo bad on a system, but apperantly I was wrong. Of couse I'm running it at 1280x1024 wich makes everything that much harder. I could have turned down the resolution, as was reccomended, and turned up some of the other stuff, but I cant stand that blurry look of running a non-native resolution on a LCD. Still, nothing to do with Vista except for the lower system resources leftover for doing ANYTHING except running the OS.

I'm gonna have to fire XP back up and check it, because someties when I'm ONLY using 350MB of memory for the system, I can't imagine XP is that much lower. Of course like those guys at the Inquirer said, it sometimes gets upto 700 megs when you'd sware you were doing nothing. There are some wierd processes going on sometimes. A little more time with Vista, and I think I could disable enough stuff to get it running like XP. (which was never thought to be speedy)



All this being said, I can see no reason besides spiffy interface (not THAT spiffy) and maybe (?) better security with all those wierd processes getting in your way all the time, to switch for good. Not alot of reasons not to switch, but for me less reasons to switch. Eventually when systems get faster, and mines not the fastest, nor slowest by any means, and they work out the Admin stuff I imagine Vista will be OK. Not good, not bad, OK, and that's about the status quo for Microsoft.

JT  ¶ 12:39 PM 1 comments

  What a buncha DRM DRMs! Funny how everyone wants Apple to open iTunes so it will work with any player when MS DRM does work with many services and players, and nobody wants it???

XXX

I don't see how making iTunes work with other players would be in anyway giving anything away. They'd only rake in more dough from sales....Well, maybe not so much iPod sales, but I don't think they have anything to worry about there. Nobody wants MS DRM because nobody uses it. I'm pretty sure MS sells music, but who's buying? Other services are using WMA,but I don't have to remind you that they don't hold a candle to iTunes, as far as sheer volume. If it was the reverse and Microsoft was winning the mobile music wars, then everybody would be wanting apple to play secure WMAs. And they problaby would, too, for the same reason iTunes works on Windows, but none of the other Windows stuff works on a Mac.

On that...iTunes will import WMA nowdays, right? but not DRM ones? That's how Sony is doing it anyway. The PSP will even play WMA, but not DRM ones. WMA....Why would My Ass bother!

JT

I think they would just lose sales of iPods, and I don't think increased sales of music would make up for that. iPods are very competitively priced, and they work very well. Why would anyone want something else?? If they do then there are plenty of other music services that will sell, or rent, them music. iTunes will import ripped WMA music, if there isn't MS DRM on it, but as we both know Winders ships with DRM turned ON by default. My sisters HP that I worked on had almost 2500 tracks, ripped from CDs, on it, and none would play on an iPod because they were all ripped with MS DRM turned on!!!! You can't even rip a CD on a Mac with ANY Apple DRM turned on. MS sucks...

XXX

That's true about the WMA DRM. But it's super easy to turn it off, I mean when you are selecting what type of compression you want to use WMA or WMA, then there's a box right there to check. Who really cares if it's DRM'd or not once you've paid for it and if it works on your stuff. That's MS's thinking. They are sneakily planning the end of free music. I don't know what kinda deals the RIAA made with them. Probably agreed not to sue them for having software that could aid in piracy. It's a sad thing.

JT

The point with the DRM that comes with Winders is that it is turned ON by default, and how many Winders users, such as my sister will bother to go into any settings to turn something off??? You stick in a CD to rip, there should not be ANY DRM on that file, and the user shouldn't have to turn anything off.. My sister didn't know all her music had DRM in it, until she tried to put that music on an iPod. That's just more MS BS in my book. Screwing the customer..

XXX


It's all a matter of how you view the copyrights. Apparently MS is taking the RIAAs postition that you don't have the right to rip a CD to anything that may some how be shared. And apparently Apple still thinks it's your CD and if you want to put it on your iPod, or someone elses, like your wifes, then you should be able to. It's not right to force people to obey any laws. If you want to rip a CD to non-DRMed files, then it's your right. That's my thinking anyway. It's not Apples, or Microsofts fault if you share your music. They should have no resposiblity to make thier software do DRM. But unfortunately, they are in the business of selling music and the record industry won't allow them to sell their music without it. Luckily there's usually a work around. So far. They don't put speed limiters on cars that keep you from going more than the speed limit. You have the right to break the law, if you think you can get away with it. It's the "establishment"s job to catch you. Not to physically make you. Some how this thinking has been lost with this whole Millenium Copyright Act. I cant believe it was ever past. A fine example of messed up polotics.

All that aside, I still haven't heard anybody ask the right questions. Like, "doesn't an MP3 wich has less sound quality technically have less value?", or, "If I download a CD from filesharing, how is it that I stole it? Somebody paid for it. Why do you assume that I would have bought it just because I downloaded it?" Stuff like that. There's some things that are going unsaid, and more and more time is going by and it seems the Big Dogs are winning. It seems like people are giving in and forgetting these important issues.

JT  ¶ 7:43 PM 0 comments

  New Blog at Yahoo! 360 No, not a new gaming system. In the interest of all things Yahoo! being geven freely to me for being a SBC DSL subscriber I started a blog at Yahoo!360. The addy is http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog/ . I'm having a problem getting a user-specific address...In the meanwhile you may have to look for me by my name, wich there is Hyperu71. This really is a cooler, more customizeable platform for blogging, but right now Yahoo!360 is new and I thought I'd give it a run for a spell. So check it out. If I get a better address, or if you do. We'll put it here. Til later - JT  ¶ 1:34 PM 5 comments

  I'm not dead yet! I just wanted to drop a quick line so that I can say I did. I've been busy lately with new PSP features wich include the ability to listen to streaming audio from an RSS feed. That's pretty cool, but you have to been around a hotspot to take advantage of it. However, I paid Sony $20 for some new software that in my opinion should have been included for the $250 price of admission. It allows me to subscribe to video blogs and such in the same manner. It will automatically download whatever I subscribe to and encode it to the proper format while I'm asleep, if I want. Right now I do it all manually. There are just so many interesting vlogs out there as well as audio-only feeds. The other feature - and the one I've been spending the most time on it the encoding of movies to what is called AVC format, also known as h.264. Ive been having problems converting my DVD's to this format with the new software without getting the audio out of sync. It's a little more involved than that but I'll spare you the tech talk for now. Happy Hollidays, and Mary Christmas (I mean that) and hopefully I'll write again soon.  ¶ 8:01 PM 1 comments

  Proof the Right is Wrong




I recieved this little article from my NRA loving buddy. I cant link to it directly for some reason, but look in "Free to Web" and find the ignorant.rtf. It starts out ok, but I knew there would be a rightward swing sooner or later. It doesnt really hook till the end. Read it and then we can discuss it. I'll tell you what I told my buddy in a reply. That while I agree with it on some fronts, to assume the people of New Orleans are subhuman was proposterous and the the author was probalby racist.

Go for it see if it fires you up any.  ¶ 7:50 PM 3 comments

  Supreme politics - Business as Usual
I received an email recently from Vern via MoveOn PAC (or whatever they're calling themselves now)protesting Bush's nomination of John Roberts for the Supreme Court. I knew it was coming, not the email, but the nitpicking and onesideness that always comes with everything political. I watched the little speech the president gave when he made the announcement, and I thought to myself, "well, he looks like a decent enough guy." Also on the two or three TV stations I watched for democratic responses no one seemed too put off by this nomination. But I knew there would be some that would dig up everything they could and cry "foul" every way they could. It's the name of the game. The game can get real old.

So in the interest of factual research and to not just take somebody's word for it (a.k.a. being a good citizen) I went to MoveOn.org and of course it was all over the place, "Oppose John Roberts!". I knew they would surely say why we needed to oppose him, somewhere. It actually took some clicking around, which disappointed me, but I finally found a page where they went into a little bit of detail. They had several points listed, most of which ending in a link where you could go to an outside site somewhere so you could see what they were talking about. I didn't have all day, so I picked just one. (so far) "As a corporate lawyer, Roberts threatened: Workers' rights by helping Toyota to successfully evade the Americans with Disabilities Act and fire workers for disabilities they suffered over time because of the requirements of their jobs." I liked this one, because following the little subscript number after this point to the bottom of the page led to an explanation that had no link. Nonetheless I was able to search the Supreme Court case in question and actually read the ruling. I'm sorry, and keep in mind this is buy one of several points they were making on the site, and that it may be the only one like it, but I had to agree with the court/Roberts this time. I wont go into detail, because there's lots of it, but after reading the facts, etc., It was clear to me why the supreme court is called "supreme". Hehe, maybe I wont agree with them everytime, but when they rule, we have to go with it. Chances are they know more about the subject than we do, it's their job.

So, although this is but one in many complaints against John Roberts, now that in my mind it has been sorta debunked, it casts a shadow of doubt on the other ones. Now a good citizen would research as many points they could about something, but I'll have to find the time again sometime. Since I'm not gonna be doing the voting and congress always votes party lines, I'm gonna stick with my first impression, "he looks like a decent enough guy."

My point is that polotitians are out to fool you. They will twist the facts to become their truths, and the funny someone else can take the same facts and make up an opposing truth. Never believe everything they say, regardless of whether or not they are on the same side of the room as you.  ¶ 8:30 PM 7 comments

  What of Patriotism? Last night I watched a vaguely interesting DVD called "Saints at War". Based on the book with the same name, it is a glorified slideshow, about an hour long, with interviews of some LDS veterans of WWII. The LDS thing is just one of at least two aspects of the video. I think any non-Mormon could get out of it the patriotic aspect. It led me to think about patriotism and what is it exactly. I've always thought of myself as a patriot, but the older I get the more I believe patriotism, in itself, is empty. No matter what side of a conflict a person falls, they are always patriotic to their side. One WWII survivor got all teary eyed as he told his story of being in a prison camp in Germany and from a distance he could see the American flag being raised as Allied troops gained control of the city and he knew freedom was at hand. I don't doubt for a minute the impact that would have on a person. I think I would cry too. But why?

There is a bond between humans that has nothing to do with location. It makes no difference if you are American, German, Vietnamese, or Iraqi, you always want to see your side win. Almost always. I'd like to believe that there were some Germans that knew the direction that Hitler was taking them was not right. In fact the one German guy on the video mentioned that his father said of the war, "this is the beginning of the end". His mother was more of a Hitler supporter, though, so you wonder, in that household, after their son had gone to war, did they wish that the Germans would lose the war? Not likely. Still the wise ones among us have the ability to see when they are not right. Sometimes it is not enough to overcome this phenomenon called "patriotism", but I'd argue that sometimes it is. I like to think that sometimes people see that even their team can be the bad guy, an stand up against it, even thier own friends and family. The Civil war would be a good exapmle. There was all kinds of that going on during the Civil war.

I'm really going nowhere with this. I think what I was trying to say is that it is not national "pride" ("pride" is a bad thing, but that's another blog - or maybe it's not)that really links us. It is really some sort of basic Sociology 101 impulse that gives us, and those whom we see to be in the same group to win. Right or wrong sometimes gets in the way, but as long as we can convince ourselves that we are the ones who deserve to win, we will always feel good when our team wins. This holds true for national patriotism as well as religious groups, and is particularly true in sports. We always root for the home team, or "our boys".

Im not saying it's all bad either. I'm just trying to call it what it is. Do you see where I'm going with this. I hope so. Maybe I can refine my thoughts a little and continue this subject in a future post. I'd also like to hear your thoughts on the matter. How important is patriotism to you?  ¶ 10:41 AM 5 comments