Microsoft Mayhem

Once again, Microsoft does it to us… argh.

A while back I had written about the woes of being on a Microsoft machine and their new licensing models, suggesting instead that the best solution was to change to a Macintosh.

Well, yesterday, Tamara got bitten by the very problems I described in the article. She turned on her machine, and mysteriously it was acting slow; she ran virus checkers, anti-spyware, and registry checkers… all the normal things. It passed “clean.”

We rebooted. And when we did, we got a message that the system couldn’t be booted, to which I tracked down the error message as meaning the registry was gone or corrupted. I tried booting to the prior last working configuration, same message.

So, I used the recovery console off the main XP disc, and to my surprise there were no checkpoints. Furthermore, it claimed that the drive had noncorrectable problems with the file system. There was no way Microsoft was going to be able to recover, much less read this disk.

I moved the disk into my own Windows system, and Microsoft choked big time on it — Explorer froze. All my wife’s files, in whatever state they were in, were inaccessable.

That was they were until I connected with the Macintosh and moved them off the drive with ease!

Putting the disk back in Tamara’s machine, I went to reinstall XP using a total wipe of the hard drive — and in the process proving it wasn’t a physical problem with the equipment, but rather a logical scrambling of the data.

So, what’s the score so far:

  • Windows XP blows up
  • Windows XP can’t recover
  • Apple Macintosh saves the day
  • Windows XP needs to be totally reinstalled

And that takes us to the second problem, all that software which was licensed and ‘phoned home’ now thinks this is a new machine, because from the vendor’s standpoint, they don’t know the box went Tango-Unform and isn’t a new piece of equipment — just one of a number of problems with product activation.

It will be many hours before her machine will be up and many days before it will be totally usable.

I can only fathom the catastrophic data loss suffered by someone without the knowledge or resources to deal with a similar situation. Microsoft operating systems are a timebomb waiting to explode, and even well maintained ones will degrade to the point where they can’t be used. There’s no reason a multi-gigahertz computer takes 10 seconds to paint a rectangle menu when you click start or right click.

And, in the wake of anti-virus vendors taking payoffs to not reveal Sony’s rootkit, it’s no wonder that they aren’t protecting against Window’s latest flaw: where your machine can be compromised just by accessing, not necessarily viewing, a picture from a web site.

I suppose there’s no need to point out that Apple and Unix aren’t affected by this. And, at the time of this writing, there’s no fix. The next unfortunate soul of this tale of woe just may be you.

And you’re not using Firefox why?

Mike Wise (part III)

More on Mike, this time a face to face in Colorado.

As I mentioned in the prior post, I ended up going to Colorado for Christmas. It also turns out my old high school friend, Mike Wise, happened to have moved out there. He was kind enough to drive all the way out to where my sister lived and join us for a Mexican dinner and some games.

We got Mike and his wife Lara the new version of Flux (rules). Turns out the new version is more than just a reprint of the basic rule starting card, but that there are totally new goals, keepers, and some very clever new rules. Our personal favorite being inflation, which increments the numerical value of every rule in play; draw two, play two – etc.

Mike was kind enough to offer to come back and get us the last day of our visit in order to give us a ride to the airport. This saved us from having to get up between 3 and 4 in the morning.

So, on Tuesday he came and took us back to his place, and as an added treat, he took us out to his favorite Italian restaurant, La Dolce Vita. While the food was amazingly good, and the service great, I was totally surprised when I realized the soundtrack we were listening to was actually live. A young attractive lady was going around taking requests and, I tell you, she sounded exactly like the artists of the original songs.

I’m a total stickler when it comes to singing; if the tempo, key, or inflection is off, it grinds on my ears like fingernails on a chalkboard. That never happened, not once — even more complimentary, it look liked she was just doing an excellent job of lip sync-ing to the actual songs until she came over to our table, my wife made a request, and she stood right there and sung it.

All throughout the rest of the meal, I kept wondering why on earth she was working here and not professionally recording or doing a show in Vegas. She was that good.

I tried to find her website in order to post a link, but it appears she doesn’t have one. Luckily, I grabbed a business card. So, should you be in Colorado and have a wedding, dinner party, or special occasion and need one kick-ass female vocal singer to entertain, contact Carole McNeil of Sweet Sounds at 303-633-1234 or at sweetsoundsbycarole@yahoo.com. She also had two home-made CDs of high quality for sale as well.

Mike, you really surprised us and treated us to something very unique and special.

Colorado Christmas

Had a Colorado Christmas

My sister in Colorado recently reported she had her first baby, so Tamara and I flew up to Colorado to see our new nephew. The reason you didn’t hear any more about it at the time was that we were limited to a 16Kbps modem and Internet connectivity was slow and unreliable.

Colorado is beautiful, but I have a hard time comparing it to Virigina – it’s an apples and oranges problem.

There is literally nothing like the continental divide, with enormous snow-capped mountains that span the whole western horizon. The valleys are packed with everything from small historical gold mining towns to modernized cities with shops, malls, and amusement parks.

I’ve been in Colorado for the summer (hot and dry) and for the winter (cold and dry), and residents joke that fall and spring last only a week. Having a 4×4 is a mandatory requirement of residency, and the ability to drive fearlessly on ice doesn’t hurt either.

I have two favorite signs in Colorado: “Left Lane 55MPH Minimum” and “Speed Limit 75”.

What Colorado seems to lack is the very dense job market of opportunities that are available in NoVA, the wide variety of foliage that changes colors during the seasons, and humidity to prevent your skin from cracking. Other than that, it is like living in a post card.

XM Radio

XM Radio via the web… didn’t know you could do that.

I’m a subscriber of XM Radio, the competitor to Sirius radio.

As I understand things, XM Radio has the better technology, while Sirius has the better programming; that is, the music is put into specially categorized “buckets”, where as on XM Radio all the channels sound pretty much the same.

Anyhow, I just realized that XM Radio allows you to play XM content online. That’s a big plus for me, as my only receiver is usually at home or in the car with the wife.

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone told me Sirius did the same thing, but at the moment, I can’t even get their home page to load.

Alphonzo

Alphonzo the Elf

Last night I’m given to understand that a young girl, an indirect friend of the family, got a call from the North Pole. She’s six years old, and after talking with various elves, having a special present put on order, and talking with Mrs. Clause herself, she’s now firmly a rigid believer.

Pete Kallan can provide more details…

Mike Wise

Got a surprise call from Mike Wise

Got a very happy surprise this afternoon. Mike Wise, a friend from highschool gave me a call today!

Aside from the usual, “what have you been doing the last 20 years,” we discovered that he now lives minutes from where I’ll be taking a vacation. We’re going to try and use the opportunity to catch up with him and his wife. Should be fun!

Under the Hood: Telemarketing

Had a very interesting talk with a supervisor at Dytel, a telemarketing service.

Given that I telecommute and my wife has her own business, we have a lot of phone lines. In fact, in order to manage them all, I had to purchase a PBX box, though now it seems that you can home-brew your own solution using a PC and Asterisk, a full-featured open source PBX software package.

Anyhow, lots of phone lines means lots of telemarketing calls. And, while we’ve registered with the National Do Not Call List, it seems that some telemarketers disregard this. Unfortunately, the law has a couple of loop holes. First of all charities, political organizations, and telephone surveyors are exempt, as are companies you’ve done business with.

About every other day, we get a call from the caller id of Alabama, and it’s always the same thing. Would we give money to the police, to needy children, to needy police, to needy children needing policing, and so forth. It’s getting old, and it’s getting very, very annoying. I don’t think I should have to install call block just because a single company wants to harass us for handouts.

The script is pretty much the same, “thank you for your previous support, can we count on you again this year?” Your gut instinct is to think that if you gave before, then you already worked through the thought process, and you might as well give again.

This time rather than hanging up, I asked to talk to the supervisor; which, legally, they’re required to do, but many will just hang up on you. It always helps if you can come up with a question the guy at the phone can’t answer. I asked what organization was calling, and he told me the cause he was dialing for, and I said that no, I wanted the organization name of the call center. Poof, supervisor.

Once I had him, I asked three questions. One, “why is it you guys say I gave, because I know I didn’t — has someone stolen my credit card and I should investigate fraud, or is this just a script?” His answer was that no, they don’t take cedit cards, they mail directly to the house and ask for a check with for deposit only written on it. And, that yes, sometime in the past I gave to one of their organizations.

He clarified that they call for a number of programs, and that if you give once, you’re tagged as a giver, and they hit you up for all programs. Ah ha!

Turns out nearly 10 years ago, we did give once, when we thought it was the local police department calling. We later learned that it was an organization that had gotten the classification of charity, because they donated 1% of profits to the police. The rest was kept as overhead. Very slimey. Even the police themselves say not to us them. As such, I don’t donate anymore unless it’s a cause that has direct meaning to me or impacts my local community, no matter what sob story they tell or heart strings they try to pluck. Even so, I’ve also started looking at how organizations behave, between the paid cop who sets up a speed trap on an empty road to meet a quota to fill state coffers versus the unpaid volunteer firefighter who’s given up family time to rush into a burning building risking personal injury to save an unknown person, I know where my extra dollars will go. If I felt safer, saw less evidence of gang activity, or read that meth-houses were being shutdown, I’d whole heartedly alter the priorities.

Anyhow, I next asked what the call center was, and he identified them as Dytel. A quick search on the web shows that Dytel makes autodialer equipment, so there has to be a little more to the story. And so there is, check out this article. Things sounding familiar?

Finally I asked the guy if there was a way that I could be put on a permanent Do Not Call list, and ideally removed from the database. That I had no intention of ever giving in the future, and that their repeated calls to me were just going to jack up their overhead and be less effecting at target marketing. And, eventually, the supervisor said he would remove me from the list.

We’ll see, as the article above points out, that often does little good. However, the article points out that the next stop should be to Secretary of State the next time the phone rings and says it’s from Alabama and a telemarketer begins a pitch.

Mike Henderson: Aeon Flux

Mike got off work, we went to see a movie.

Got to see Mike today! He managed to get off work, and so we skipped out and went to see Aeon Flux this afternoon.

Turns out the Regal canceled it’s afternoon showing due to a fault with the climate controls in the theater. So, we skipped lunch and headed to the Tyson’s AMC. Turns out we bought tickets, bought snacks, and walked right in and the movie started. No waiting.

I understand why the reviews of this flick are mixed. It’s a fairly complex story as far as PG-13 movies go, and while it’s pretty, there could be more action. Better reviews would fall out if it had an ‘R’ rating. I only encountered two clear points where I thought the characters acted out of character for themselves. All in all, it was an entertaining story. Would I buy it on DVD? Strangely enough, no — not unless it had gobs of extra features and deleted scenes.