Archive for the 'Geekish' Category
No, I can’t hear you now (’cause Bono’s got my attention)
I meant to post this a little while ago, before it became a moot question:
College choice?Harvard, for the anti-competitive atmosphere – 6
Yale, for the excitement of New Haven – 2
Princeton, for the school colors – 2
Columbia, for the calm, peaceful surroundings – 8
Dartmouth, for the weather – 6
Brown, for the conservative student body – 2
Total votes: 26
So that’s that. New poll, coincidentally enough related to the subject matter of this post.
So a month or two ago I got a text message from Sprint, informing me that I was eligible for a free upgrade for my cell phone. Since my old phone was (according to the review sites I checked out, anyway) an utter piece of shit by most standards, I was eager enough to upgrade to a phone that would offer some added useful functionality: mainly a speakerphone, but I thought an externally-visible screen would save me the trouble of opening my phone whenever I wanted to see who was calling.
After some prodding of Sprint’s website I managed to get a look at the phones up for view. After some painstaking research, I ended up narrowing my choice down to two: the Samsung A640 for nothing, or the Motorola RAZR V3m for $50. Although I had previously vowed to never spend money on a cell phone when one could be had for free, I decided that the generally poor public reception of the speakerphone on the former made the latter the more functional choice and thus the better value.
So as it so happens, my current cell phone is now the same one often hailed most for its fashion than for its solid operation. Yet, its purpose in my pocket is entirely functional in nature–I need a phone that makes phone calls first, and the rest of it (or perhaps none of it) later.
Yet, products like the iPhone continue to pervade the mobile device marketplace, which leaves me somewhat confused. Perhaps people are secure enough in the battery life of their respective devices to shamelessly use their cell phone as their iPod one moment and as their communications device the next. I, however, remain in the camp that believes that the integral purpose of a cell phone is to act as a phone, and that the extra fluff does more to endanger that purpose than it does to enhance the value of the device.
But maybe that’s just me. My cell phone doesn’t see much use, anyway.
No, really, I seriously hate (most) technology
Besides being consumed by life, the College Application Process, and other endeavors that have demanded a bit more of my attention than a lowly blog, I’ve also been back fighting the zombies of cyperspace, who seem to have something against me being able to actually use any computer I want to call my own.
On Friday, as I was trying to enjoy my newly-installed copy of Windows Media Player 11 (don’t ask me if I did or not, I didn’t really get far enough along to pass judgment), I started encountering a number of “Delayed Write Failed” errors on my C: drive. Because I don’t care to dwell on the subject, suffice it to say that no amount of rebooting would fix the problem, and for the second time in a little over three years, Linux came to the aid of a succumbing Windows.
Stalkers and eagle-eyed readers will remembe my experience in 2003 when Windows refused to start due to a “disk read error,” which turned out to be caused by a bug in Windows that wasn’t fixed until SP2 came out in 2004. (Googlers who may have encountered a similar error and want to know how I fixed it, try putting the drive in question in another computer as a slave and see if chkdsk will patch things up for you. In my case it did, which made the disk readable and let me back up the files to another drive. Then I reformatted and moved on. Let me know if that helps.)
Of course, the last time I had this kind of problem, I was running the venerable Red Hat Linux 9 on my other hard drive (I think, maybe I was using Fedora by then). Though it helped me out in my time of need, it also was clunky, confusing, and hard to use. When I got my new computer in October of last year I made a point of installing Ubuntu this time around. While perhaps my Linux-loving, Gentoo-worshipping friends would mock this selection, I frankly just don’t care. I appreciate the ability to customize and such that I get with Linux (I never did manage to get my camera to act as a webcam in Windows, though in Linux it wasn’t hard at all), and while I probably could keep trying to get my system running in tip-top shape by doing a lot of Googling and hacking, it’s really just time-consuming and not terribly rewarding.
Ubuntu is a much nicer experience on the whole. While it may be frustrating that software updates aren’t always prompt, and systems may not be quite as stable as they should be, I do want to point out that upgrading my outdated version 5.06 to 6.10 has proven to be one of the most foolproof experiences I’ve ever had on Linux (and on an operation on which Fedora would’ve left me screwed). It’s easy, it’s satisfying, and it gives me the impression I’m actually getting stuff done without killing my weekend in the process.
Granted, my Windows problem continues to annoy me (and likely will for the future as well–see my off.Root post on why I hate technology). The last attempt to boot it into safe mode failed miserably, which may have been a fluke, or may happen the next time I try it as well.
But in the meantime, I have a system that’s basically functioning. Those who remember previous complaints about this computer will also note that that statement appears to be a lie, but I did manage to identify a faulty RAM module about a week ago that’ll be RMA’d once I can find the opportunity to get it sent out. And I’m also working on backing up the contents of the drive that’s giving me problems in case it is a hardware issue, but until I get a diagnosis I’m very hesitant to declare my problem solvable by a reformat and reinstall. Suffice it to say I’ll be polling a few tech support forums to see if they can vet my complicated and confusing case, and hopefully tie everything together into some scenario that doesn’t end in “so cross your fingers and hope it doesn’t happen again”.
By the way, my cell phone charger and PDA cradle are both broken. Kind of unfortunate. Still frustrating.
On an only somewhat related note, some day I’m going to just make use of the computer and make note of all the times it doesn’t do something I either want it to do, expect it to do, or just really would appreciate it doing because it would save me time and/or make a lot of sense. Then maybe I’ll post my list here and we’ll see if we can figure out what’s holding the world back, eh?
Easy Fixes
In a previous rant I posted about a chronic freezing and crashing problem with my computer. I had long suspected that this was a heat issue, and that for some reason my computer couldn’t handle running around 50 degrees Centigrade, and that the only real solution would be to invest in a new, loud, potentially not-that-effective fan.
I wanted to put this off as long as possible, of course. But the issue of turning on my computer and having to hard reboot it just a couple hours later didn’t work for me, nor did it work for my buddy list and index of e-mail messages, both of which suffered from the OS suddenly crashing while they were being accessed. But first, just in case, I decided to try a somewhat less intensive solution–say, updating the BIOS for my motherboard.
Well, that was a few days ago, and I’m pleased to report that since then, I haven’t had a single sudden freeze. Either my fortune has coincidentally turned on a dime, the BIOS update did its job and solved my issue, or the new CPU driver I installed held the secret to success. In any event, I’m not questioning it, but will be pleased that I’ll be able to get my homework done without fearing for my sleep should I forget to save every 30 seconds.
Other technological issues continue to evade solution, however; I sent an e-mail to the company that made my GPS device about the fact that the device, well, doesn’t work, and after about a week and a half there’s been no response. I’ll have to look into other means of contacting them.
And I thought I had a serious partisan around here after looking at the poll results, but a check of the site logs reveals that there haven’t been nearly enough votes to account for that kind of lead. So I’ll have to look into that, too.
Uh, and by the way, school starts in less than a week. I’m kind of behind.
Cleaning House
Recently I’ve come across a few lists from people listing the software that they find essential to their lives. While I could probably put together a list of the go-to programs I use on a routine basis, my experience trying to free a bit of disk space on my computer has prompted me to take a slightly different course.
In the course of migrating from computer to computer, hard drive to hard drive semi-regularly over the past few years, I’ve found it most important to ensure the longetivity of my data. The result, of course, is a lot of waste: leftover program files, Windows installations, duplicated documents, and the like all gather up. Ultimately, so long as there is no way to ensure that I will not lose anything of my creation, I am unwilling to delete things.
I’ve also been trying to keep track of a budding collection of digital pictures. Yet, again, I can never seem to keep things in the same place, and with my tendency to copy new pictures whereever I can fit them, sorting them later, and then not knowing whether the pictures were ever copied in the first place, a number of copies have built up on my various hard drives.
Enter Duplicate File Finder. A quick adjustment of default search filters and it’s off, and less than an hour later I have a list of a bunch of copies of files I don’t need. What’s left is to check off the files I don’t want kept. DFF, as it happens, lists smaller files first, so the running tally of space you’re freeing up grows exponentially as you progress. (I don’t think that was intentional, but still.)
Unfortunately, DFF isn’t a perfect solution. The big snag I hit was that once you’ve selected all the files you want to delete, there’s actually no way to just delete those files–you have to move them to either the Recycle Bin or a folder of your choosing. As it so happened I didn’t have any drive with the ~20 gigs free that I needed (all stuff I was deleting, and there were about 10 more gigs of stuff I could have wiped) to move my files, so I just chose my biggest drive and deleted the first round of files before the drive could fill up. Problem solved.
There were some other issues I encountered, too, though. While it’s convenient to mark an entire folder as a duplicate, it would be truly incredible to be able to include subfolders in that–that alone probably would have saved me a fair bit of time. And I’m not sure that there’s any check to see if you’re mistakenly deleting all instances of a file–I probably would have felt a bit more confident had I known that, even if my copies were being left in different places, that at least one copy of each file was left somewhere. There are a number of things that could be changed to make DFF a more friendly, more effective application, but as it is it seems to get the job done.
Of course, the next step for me is probably to start duplicating files again–but hopefully in a controlled setting, in order to keep separate, automatically-synchronized backups on separate physical disk drives. (The magic of home networking will hopefully extend this to separate computers, as well.) It was nice to free up some needed space, though, and to identify some of the unnecessary and redundant backups I had lying around.
MSN Remote Record: for when you didn’t really care, anyway
Awhile ago I downloaded MSN Remote Record, a little utility that essentially promises you the ability to set up recordings on a Media Center PC via the Internet, even when you don’t have direct access to the computer (hence, “Remote Record”). Seems straightforward. I guess.
When I first installed it–or, tried to, anyway–I had some issues getting through the whole process. You need to authenticate yourself with your Passport/Live ID (whatever you want to call it) so that the system can contact your PC, but it seemed I was having issues completing the online setup: I would finish it, but my system would tell me I still had to complete setup, and the web setup was more than happy to forget about the first time it told me I was done.
Eventually, however, the rouge setup plan conceded defeat, and the Remote Record service finally decided it would try to work for me. The only real recurring issue was that, at times, I would start my computer and receive a message bubble (those bubbles need to die, by the way) that the service had stopped, and to click the bubble to restart the service. A bit puzzling, but okay.
Then a few days ago I notice not only is the service stopped, but I’m getting messages that my version is out of date, and I should upgrade. In case I didn’t get it the first time, I get one of those bubble that demands you click them to visit the site, and at least one dialog box that essentially says the same thing. I download the installer, but then forget about it.
Then comes today, and when I start my computer I’m reminded again that I need to download the update. Of course, in truth I just haven’t run the installer yet, but I notice the service still refuses to run. All the same, I’m bombarded with demands to update, and even trying to restart the service via the bubble (as it says should be done) fails. The only result is a reminder (or two) that I’m old school and need to get with the times, or else.
Hmm. Now, what exactly would happen if I were away from home, didn’t know Remote Record had suddenly refused to work, and had no capacity to perform Microsoft’s required update (which probably also installed any necessary security updates that I’ve yet to retrieve)? Would any shows I desperately needed to record (not that there’s much in today’s society) be lost forever? Best I can tell, they would. What use is a “life saving” service like this if it’s prone to suddenly quit on you, and when there’s nothing you can do to fix it?
There has been one instance of remote recording that I have been involved in, and it was fairly successful. Once, away from home, it was decided that no one in the family recorded a certain show that would be airing that night (don’t ask what it was, because honestly I don’t remember). Remote Record didn’t offer me the ability to delete a show I no longer needed stored, but another program did: Orb. It came with my router, and from what little I’ve actually used it (Cablevision has this thing against using their precious cable for anything that might be remotely considered a server, i.e. anything that needs any sort of upload capability, i.e. any game ever created, VOIP that isn’t Optimum Voice, and streaming media) it seems to be more fully featured than Remote Record.
Oh, and it won’t stop working at Microsoft’s say-so. So I guess next time I need to record something from afar, I’ll probably be using Orb to do it.
(Side note: in searching for a link to something WGA-related, I came across this message on Microsoft’s site:
This page requires Macromedia Flash Player 5 or greater to be viewed properly.
Click the button below to upgrade flash to the most current version.
Shame, I only have Adobe Flash Player 9.)
On Blogging and Writing
Slashdot posted yesterday a story about an informal study comparing the writing abilities of bloggers and high school students. Being a member of both groups, I feel particularly qualified to comment on the subject.
First: the means of comparison here was the writing portion of the new SAT, a section which I feel compelled to point out is not weighed particularly heavily (if at all) by a number of colleges compared to the critical reading and math sections of the test. And this perhaps is the most important point to consider. I hardly think that the SAT writing section is capable of telling me whether or not I’m a “good” writer, and I certainly don’t need an 800 to validate my own ability to compose sentences and make points in writing.
The SAT, like all standardized tests, judges the student (or blogger, as the case may be) on his ability to provide to the grader what the grader wants to read. Typically this takes the form of a position on some vague human ideal or absurd philisophical question, which is then supported by equally absurd “concrete examples” either from personal experience, historical examples, or readings, the last two of which typically come from what’s been studied in school that year. The SAT does not care whether you have any actual interest in the topic, or whether you have any fitting “personal examples,” or even whether your paper has any semblance of fact in it. The grader essentially takes each paper through a vague rubric that places emphasis on using concrete evidence to argue abstract ideas, creating an argument designed exclusively to please one’s audience, and preparing a piece of writing to meet these goals in a span 25 minutes.
In short, it’s no wonder that the high scoring essays from students weren’t particularly astounding, or that bloggers didn’t score particularly well. The essay on the SAT is just like any section of any standardized tests: those who perform best on the test are not necessarily those who are most qualified at the subject matter. The College Board chooses as exemplars the essays that most clearly address the points that graders have to check off on their rubrics, and those who fail to meet these points explicitly are left by the wayside.
I enjoy blogging for a simple reason, if nothing else: it gives me the opportunity to write. I can’t blog unless I actually decide that I have something to say–it just won’t happen. I write about things that interest me, and things that I have an opinion on (and yeah that’s a preposition at the end of a sentence, but I don’t care). Without a blog I’d be left with no writing experience other than a few formal papers on the changes in women’s roles in Chinese history or the effect of friction on the speed of a rolling ball, or something similarly useless. One of the most important things I felt I was able to do in my English class last year had to do with voice, and being able to actually write something informal while injecting some personality into it. I’m rather pleased, and this very blog is the one place where I have the most opportunity to practice it and take advantage of it.
Besides, I could sure as hell spend 25 minutes writing something out on my blog when I already know what I want to say, and I don’t have to worry about saying what some robot in Princeton wants to hear.
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