Hey, it's not. It's Theresa, How are you doing You know I have never one entirely new england. It'll be and If you are so I can. Maybe tomorrow tomorrow because I am here for 2 nights now and tomorrow until tomorrow. So. Please call me. If you if you need to me if you can. Okay thank you bye.
December 5, 2010
WWGS?: Tomorrow until tomorrow
That's peculiar, I have never one entirely new england either.
November 3, 2010
The Morning After, 2010
This November 3, 2010, the day after the Congressional elections, I have been pondering what took place, the reactions of so many, and what it all means in the big picture. I did my duty as an American, and played my part in the Grand Charade, then went home and didn't think much more about it until right before going to bed. This morning, I checked in on several news sources to see the results that we once again have a bipartisan Congress. I skimmed through all the emails I got from conservative sources talking about how great this turn of the tides will be... etc... etc... yada... yada. The more I thought about it, the more I just couldn't help but feel strongly ambivalent [oxymoron intended].
As I pondered, I thought through some logical reasons for my general indifference. Despite how the GOP managed to co-opt the Tea Party movement right out from under the independents, I have a hard time believing this was anything more than business-as-usual, using any tactic necessary to try and stay relevant. Change? Yes, some of the names changed, but I am not naive enough to expect much to come of it. My inbox was loaded with messages from Pro Life groups talking hopefully about the possibility of the abortion scene changing. Apparently, they've forgotten that nothing changed when we had Republicans in control of the presidency and both parts of Congress, or else I am not sure why they would expect much to happen with Republicans in control of only one of the three pieces of the Triforce of Power.
The reality is, government and law can not solve the problems we face as a people. Government and law are only necessary in the first place because men choose to live in the squalor of their fallen natures rather than rise above to follow the Golden Rule. Every time a government is formed, and every time a law is passed, it is an inherent admission that men are failing to love their neighbors and are choosing their own selfish desires over the just good. Government and law are a desperate attempt to put the reigns on man's fallen nature. These means almost never effect a change in man's behavior. Instead, they merely give us a means to punish and put a temporary stop to the selfish acts of a single individual or group of people. The bigger government gets, and the more laws we pass, the more we inherently admit that human sinfulness is getting worse, not better, and that we are powerless to do anything about it.
Why, then, do men of good will still make the foolish assumption that we can make the world a better place by government or law? Government and law belong to the domain of human sin, and therefore cannot effect true good. Law, despite our foolish hopes to the contrary, can not bring about "the greater good of humanity", it can only minimize "the greater evil". Law really is the wrong tool for the job of changing men's hearts, just as a glass vase is the wrong tool for hammering nails into boards.
The only thing that can truly effect good in this world is the transformation of men's hearts. When people truly desire goodness and justice and are willing to set aside their own selfish desires for the sake of others, then, and only then, can we begin to hope for "the greater good of man". Law has never, and will never, bring about this change in men's hearts. Only the love of God can bring this change to a human heart.
And when a man has been instilled with this love and chooses to seek the good and the just in all his actions, he will not need government and law to tell him what to do... he will know inherently from the law that is written in his heart. All the more reason that men of good will should see the vanity in placing any hope at all in the governments and laws of man. If these things are only needed where sin abounds, why should we hope for them to solve our problems? If we spent more of our time working for the conversion of men's hearts, and less time chasing the false hopes of a government to save us all, perhaps real change could begin to take root.
I think of Moses in the wilderness. At first, God only gave ten simple laws that were already written in the heart of every man who was honest enough to recognize them. If men had lived in love, these simple laws would have sufficed in showing each how to do unto others as they would have others do unto them. Rather, since sin abounded, a more elaborate Mosaic law was proscribed in an effort to reign in the wandering hearts that were following the selfish desires of the flesh.
I think of St. Augustine's command to "Love and do what you will". Wow, how bold a statement. To those whose hearts are weak, this sounds frightful and dangerous. It is so obviously true, though, to anyone who governs their actions with an honest effort to love beyond oneself. When you truly love someone, you don't need laws or governments to tell you how to treat that person.
So, I will continue to do my part to help put limits on the general sin of society, but I will never again be foolish enough to put my hopes in the vain structures and laws of man. If you must, then be my guest, but while you are hoping for the tools of man's sin to bring about the promised land, I will be hoping for the day when there is only one law needed to govern man, that which is written in every heart.
Peace,
Todd Russell
November 3, 2010
As I pondered, I thought through some logical reasons for my general indifference. Despite how the GOP managed to co-opt the Tea Party movement right out from under the independents, I have a hard time believing this was anything more than business-as-usual, using any tactic necessary to try and stay relevant. Change? Yes, some of the names changed, but I am not naive enough to expect much to come of it. My inbox was loaded with messages from Pro Life groups talking hopefully about the possibility of the abortion scene changing. Apparently, they've forgotten that nothing changed when we had Republicans in control of the presidency and both parts of Congress, or else I am not sure why they would expect much to happen with Republicans in control of only one of the three pieces of the Triforce of Power.
The reality is, government and law can not solve the problems we face as a people. Government and law are only necessary in the first place because men choose to live in the squalor of their fallen natures rather than rise above to follow the Golden Rule. Every time a government is formed, and every time a law is passed, it is an inherent admission that men are failing to love their neighbors and are choosing their own selfish desires over the just good. Government and law are a desperate attempt to put the reigns on man's fallen nature. These means almost never effect a change in man's behavior. Instead, they merely give us a means to punish and put a temporary stop to the selfish acts of a single individual or group of people. The bigger government gets, and the more laws we pass, the more we inherently admit that human sinfulness is getting worse, not better, and that we are powerless to do anything about it.
Why, then, do men of good will still make the foolish assumption that we can make the world a better place by government or law? Government and law belong to the domain of human sin, and therefore cannot effect true good. Law, despite our foolish hopes to the contrary, can not bring about "the greater good of humanity", it can only minimize "the greater evil". Law really is the wrong tool for the job of changing men's hearts, just as a glass vase is the wrong tool for hammering nails into boards.
The only thing that can truly effect good in this world is the transformation of men's hearts. When people truly desire goodness and justice and are willing to set aside their own selfish desires for the sake of others, then, and only then, can we begin to hope for "the greater good of man". Law has never, and will never, bring about this change in men's hearts. Only the love of God can bring this change to a human heart.
And when a man has been instilled with this love and chooses to seek the good and the just in all his actions, he will not need government and law to tell him what to do... he will know inherently from the law that is written in his heart. All the more reason that men of good will should see the vanity in placing any hope at all in the governments and laws of man. If these things are only needed where sin abounds, why should we hope for them to solve our problems? If we spent more of our time working for the conversion of men's hearts, and less time chasing the false hopes of a government to save us all, perhaps real change could begin to take root.
I think of Moses in the wilderness. At first, God only gave ten simple laws that were already written in the heart of every man who was honest enough to recognize them. If men had lived in love, these simple laws would have sufficed in showing each how to do unto others as they would have others do unto them. Rather, since sin abounded, a more elaborate Mosaic law was proscribed in an effort to reign in the wandering hearts that were following the selfish desires of the flesh.
I think of St. Augustine's command to "Love and do what you will". Wow, how bold a statement. To those whose hearts are weak, this sounds frightful and dangerous. It is so obviously true, though, to anyone who governs their actions with an honest effort to love beyond oneself. When you truly love someone, you don't need laws or governments to tell you how to treat that person.
So, I will continue to do my part to help put limits on the general sin of society, but I will never again be foolish enough to put my hopes in the vain structures and laws of man. If you must, then be my guest, but while you are hoping for the tools of man's sin to bring about the promised land, I will be hoping for the day when there is only one law needed to govern man, that which is written in every heart.
Peace,
Todd Russell
November 3, 2010
October 4, 2010
Free to be weird
Recently, I overheard a friend tell a joint friend of ours that he and I are the weirdest people she knows. This was all in jest, of course, but I wanted to go interrupt their conversation and thank her for the best compliment I have received in quite some time. I call this a compliment because I have always taken great pains to be as weird as possible, as often as possible. And now, some of you who know me well may say that I jest, for you have known me to be normal enough over the years.
The context of the statement, and the sphere in which I exercise the trait, both refer to likes and dislikes, mannerisms of speech, and style of humor. This friend called me weird for being a fan of something that only a true geek can possibly appreciate. She laughed as she said it because she recognizes in herself a healthy dose of that same "weirdness". It takes one to know one, they say.
I must admit that my interests include things way outside the realm that our current American culture considers "normal". For instance, how many people do you know that would sit in a coffee shop and type a blog post like this one in a computer programmer's text editor while listening to Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells II Live"? Not many, I'll wager. Then there are other oddities like wearing my SAS half-dress / half-casual black shoes with white socks, cargo shorts, and an Empire Strikes Back t-shirt... and, yes, in public. I'm sure people must look at me at such times and think I am quite the dork. The great thing is that I really don't care because my feet are comfortable and that is more important to me than someone's comparison of me to the "norm".
Growing up as a teen, I tried the whole "fit in with the cool kids" game. Like most, I found it to be quite painful. What was cool one day was lame the next. I could never seem to keep up. By high school, I had given up on that and decided to figure out who I am, not who others expect me to be. I found it quite freeing.
The problem with being "normal" is that society's definition of that changes routinely. Sometimes in less than a week's passing. I'm sure the Facebook era must speed that process up. Thankfully, I wouldn't know because I haven't participated in popular culture in more years than I care to count.
I do observe people, though, who attempt to be normal and fit in with society's expectations. I also remember the stress of it all. Since the definition of normal changes so often, a normal person must constantly redefine themselves. They must change their wardrobe, add to their music collection, see movies they might otherwise care less about, arrange their schedule around the weekly new episodes of the "in" tv shows, and keep tabs on what their friends are liking and disliking in an effort to stay aligned with current styles.
This can wreak havoc on the psyche. Normal people can never truly "Know Thyself", for they are ever-changing, a ghost of the culture around them. I see the emptiness in their eyes, and I can feel their pain, for I remember it well despite the years that have passed. How can our culture be anything but shallow when its members are slaves to the process and can never dig deeply enough inside to discover more meaningful ideals?
Then there are the counter-cultural, who, in their attempts to reject the prevailing culture, become the flip side of that same coin. They spend too much of their time becoming familiar with what is normal so they can mock it and become the opposite. They put themselves in the same slavery to change as the people they are trying to contradict. In so doing, they often end up even more emotionally scarred, but in ways they may never realize until they have wasted a great deal of their life.
The weird ones, on the other hand, can truly know peace because we have stepped outside that storm and have spent enough time in the silence to know ourselves and appreciate ourselves for who we are. We seem weird to others because our interests are not confined to categories, but span all areas of human creativity and interaction. We seem to be weird because we wear things that are out of style, but we are ignorant to the styles and we are just content wearing clothes we find comfortable and interesting.
There is great freedom in choosing a haircut because it is comfortable and easy to manage, in listening to music which few of our peers are familiar with because it moves us, in watching a movie for the fifteenth time that makes us laugh while missing out on the movie everyone else is talking about at work, in choosing a car that fits our practical needs despite what "everyone else" is driving, etc....
Yes, being weird is highly underrated. If you are feeling unsure as to who you are, insecure, insignificant, lonely in a crowd, confused, or tired of life, I recommend you give it a try. Jump out of the maelstrom and analyze who you are. Go see a movie that you think sounds interesting regardless of whether the people around you think it sounds stupid. Spend some time sampling music on a site like last.fm, pandora.com, or grooveshark.com, and ignore the "Most Popular" lists. Buy some clothes or shoes that you find comfortable and appealing to you, and ignore what others around you are wearing.
In short, find yourself... and stay there. You will no longer have to redefine who you are every other month to keep up with the crowd. You can experience the joy of being just the person God made you to be, as you finally have the time to discover who that is. And when someone laughs at you for wearing "that dorky t-shirt with old Nintendo Zelda graphics on it", you may just find yourself laughing with them, but with the laughter that comes from the joy of being free.
P.S. As I finish this, I realize how fortuitous that, despite having planned to write it for about a month, I am just now getting to it on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, who embodied the ideal of rejecting what society considers normal and becoming who God has made us to be, no matter how foolish that might appear to those around us. St. Francis, pray for all of us that we may experience the freedom of this foolishness.
Todd
October 4, 2010
The context of the statement, and the sphere in which I exercise the trait, both refer to likes and dislikes, mannerisms of speech, and style of humor. This friend called me weird for being a fan of something that only a true geek can possibly appreciate. She laughed as she said it because she recognizes in herself a healthy dose of that same "weirdness". It takes one to know one, they say.
I must admit that my interests include things way outside the realm that our current American culture considers "normal". For instance, how many people do you know that would sit in a coffee shop and type a blog post like this one in a computer programmer's text editor while listening to Mike Oldfield's "Tubular Bells II Live"? Not many, I'll wager. Then there are other oddities like wearing my SAS half-dress / half-casual black shoes with white socks, cargo shorts, and an Empire Strikes Back t-shirt... and, yes, in public. I'm sure people must look at me at such times and think I am quite the dork. The great thing is that I really don't care because my feet are comfortable and that is more important to me than someone's comparison of me to the "norm".
Growing up as a teen, I tried the whole "fit in with the cool kids" game. Like most, I found it to be quite painful. What was cool one day was lame the next. I could never seem to keep up. By high school, I had given up on that and decided to figure out who I am, not who others expect me to be. I found it quite freeing.
The problem with being "normal" is that society's definition of that changes routinely. Sometimes in less than a week's passing. I'm sure the Facebook era must speed that process up. Thankfully, I wouldn't know because I haven't participated in popular culture in more years than I care to count.
I do observe people, though, who attempt to be normal and fit in with society's expectations. I also remember the stress of it all. Since the definition of normal changes so often, a normal person must constantly redefine themselves. They must change their wardrobe, add to their music collection, see movies they might otherwise care less about, arrange their schedule around the weekly new episodes of the "in" tv shows, and keep tabs on what their friends are liking and disliking in an effort to stay aligned with current styles.
This can wreak havoc on the psyche. Normal people can never truly "Know Thyself", for they are ever-changing, a ghost of the culture around them. I see the emptiness in their eyes, and I can feel their pain, for I remember it well despite the years that have passed. How can our culture be anything but shallow when its members are slaves to the process and can never dig deeply enough inside to discover more meaningful ideals?
Then there are the counter-cultural, who, in their attempts to reject the prevailing culture, become the flip side of that same coin. They spend too much of their time becoming familiar with what is normal so they can mock it and become the opposite. They put themselves in the same slavery to change as the people they are trying to contradict. In so doing, they often end up even more emotionally scarred, but in ways they may never realize until they have wasted a great deal of their life.
The weird ones, on the other hand, can truly know peace because we have stepped outside that storm and have spent enough time in the silence to know ourselves and appreciate ourselves for who we are. We seem weird to others because our interests are not confined to categories, but span all areas of human creativity and interaction. We seem to be weird because we wear things that are out of style, but we are ignorant to the styles and we are just content wearing clothes we find comfortable and interesting.
There is great freedom in choosing a haircut because it is comfortable and easy to manage, in listening to music which few of our peers are familiar with because it moves us, in watching a movie for the fifteenth time that makes us laugh while missing out on the movie everyone else is talking about at work, in choosing a car that fits our practical needs despite what "everyone else" is driving, etc....
Yes, being weird is highly underrated. If you are feeling unsure as to who you are, insecure, insignificant, lonely in a crowd, confused, or tired of life, I recommend you give it a try. Jump out of the maelstrom and analyze who you are. Go see a movie that you think sounds interesting regardless of whether the people around you think it sounds stupid. Spend some time sampling music on a site like last.fm, pandora.com, or grooveshark.com, and ignore the "Most Popular" lists. Buy some clothes or shoes that you find comfortable and appealing to you, and ignore what others around you are wearing.
In short, find yourself... and stay there. You will no longer have to redefine who you are every other month to keep up with the crowd. You can experience the joy of being just the person God made you to be, as you finally have the time to discover who that is. And when someone laughs at you for wearing "that dorky t-shirt with old Nintendo Zelda graphics on it", you may just find yourself laughing with them, but with the laughter that comes from the joy of being free.
P.S. As I finish this, I realize how fortuitous that, despite having planned to write it for about a month, I am just now getting to it on the feast of St. Francis of Assisi, who embodied the ideal of rejecting what society considers normal and becoming who God has made us to be, no matter how foolish that might appear to those around us. St. Francis, pray for all of us that we may experience the freedom of this foolishness.
Todd
October 4, 2010
October 2, 2010
WWGS?: Speaking clear enough
Here's what happens when someone deliberately tries to speak clearly enough for Google Voice to transcribe. Thank you Google for keeping it real!
Mr. Russell, This is is Josh, common. Speaking clear enough for That's cool, voicemail. System, to pick up. What I am, saying He, but hopefully it's not garbled like all the other W W to be Adams, messages you've gotten. That's all. Have a good day. And come on plus bye bye.
September 23, 2010
Poetry section added to my site
I was inspired to write my first poem in years, so I decided to add it to my site along with a new section for my poetry. As I have time, I will post some of the few older poems of mine that might possibly be worth reading. Enjoy!
http://groovechickenstudios.com/Poetry/ComeLight.html
Update: I just added a few more from years past.
http://groovechickenstudios.com/Poetry/ComeLight.html
Update: I just added a few more from years past.
August 31, 2010
Review: Arcade Fire
There was once a time when people would ask me what new music I had been listening to. This was because I was known among family and friends to have a knack for discovering music that they would like. I finally reached a point, though, where I stopped keeping up with new music. In the midst of a drought of decent music, I went back into the catalogs of the bands I already liked and found enough music that I no longer needed new music. And this is my excuse for being late to the parade on hearing of Arcade Fire.
I heard them mentioned by someone I know recently, then they did the crazy HTML 5 web music video with Google, then a friend mentioned how much he liked them. I thought the song in the video was not bad, so I decided to check them out. I headed to grooveshark.com and searched for them, then started picking songs from the list to listen to.
The first song I listened to was "Wake Up". It reminded me right off the bat of the band Plankeye. It wasn't a bad song, but as the song progressed, I realized I'd rather be listening to Plankeye.
The second song I chose was "No Cars Go". It was different. I appreciated their attempt to use odd instruments and samples throughout. It sort of reminded me of Jars of Clay and their use of interesting sounds and instruments. The rhythm reminded me a little of old school Sixpence None the Richer. As the song progressed, though, I realized I'd rather be listening to Jars or Sixpence.
The third song was "My Heart is an Apple". Not bad. It reminded me, though, of Death Cab for Cutie, and maybe a little Waterdeep, possibly with a dash of Blind Melon thrown in... or maybe Belly. And again, as the song progressed, I realized I'd rather be listening to Death Cab or Waterdeep.
Last up was "Rebellion (Lies)". Even though there is not a direct correlation, it reminded me of old school Peter Gabriel, and a touch of Death Cab... and maybe a heavy dose of Coldplay on the repetitive instrument loops. You guessed it... as I listened, I realized I'd rather be listening to Peter, Death Cab, or Coldplay.
So, the music isn't bad, and I do appreciate the fact that they are different from a lot of other mainstream bands, but different has been done before and by bands with more musical talent than these folks have. If the music just keeps reminding me of other bands, why not listen to those bands instead? I hope none of my Arcade Fire lovin' friends take this as a dis to them. In a world without all these other bands, I'd probably be just as stoked as they are. From what I heard, though, I'd rather spend my precious music listening minutes in the week on other music I like better.
If I am missing something, I am willing to be proven wrong. I did consider while listening to these songs that they could be the kind of band you have to listen to several times to really "get". This has happened to me a number of times throughout the past, to the point that I now consider that while going into a first listen. I can now, usually, spot that effect on the first listen and realize that if I listened a few more times it would grow on me. The second listen through these songs for this post didn't convince me of that being a probability in this case.
My final analysis... if they are on, I won't turn to something else, but if I am in a specific music mood, there are other bands that nail my specific moods much more precisely. If you like any of the bands mentioned above, though, at least listen to them.
I heard them mentioned by someone I know recently, then they did the crazy HTML 5 web music video with Google, then a friend mentioned how much he liked them. I thought the song in the video was not bad, so I decided to check them out. I headed to grooveshark.com and searched for them, then started picking songs from the list to listen to.
The first song I listened to was "Wake Up". It reminded me right off the bat of the band Plankeye. It wasn't a bad song, but as the song progressed, I realized I'd rather be listening to Plankeye.
The second song I chose was "No Cars Go". It was different. I appreciated their attempt to use odd instruments and samples throughout. It sort of reminded me of Jars of Clay and their use of interesting sounds and instruments. The rhythm reminded me a little of old school Sixpence None the Richer. As the song progressed, though, I realized I'd rather be listening to Jars or Sixpence.
The third song was "My Heart is an Apple". Not bad. It reminded me, though, of Death Cab for Cutie, and maybe a little Waterdeep, possibly with a dash of Blind Melon thrown in... or maybe Belly. And again, as the song progressed, I realized I'd rather be listening to Death Cab or Waterdeep.
Last up was "Rebellion (Lies)". Even though there is not a direct correlation, it reminded me of old school Peter Gabriel, and a touch of Death Cab... and maybe a heavy dose of Coldplay on the repetitive instrument loops. You guessed it... as I listened, I realized I'd rather be listening to Peter, Death Cab, or Coldplay.
So, the music isn't bad, and I do appreciate the fact that they are different from a lot of other mainstream bands, but different has been done before and by bands with more musical talent than these folks have. If the music just keeps reminding me of other bands, why not listen to those bands instead? I hope none of my Arcade Fire lovin' friends take this as a dis to them. In a world without all these other bands, I'd probably be just as stoked as they are. From what I heard, though, I'd rather spend my precious music listening minutes in the week on other music I like better.
If I am missing something, I am willing to be proven wrong. I did consider while listening to these songs that they could be the kind of band you have to listen to several times to really "get". This has happened to me a number of times throughout the past, to the point that I now consider that while going into a first listen. I can now, usually, spot that effect on the first listen and realize that if I listened a few more times it would grow on me. The second listen through these songs for this post didn't convince me of that being a probability in this case.
My final analysis... if they are on, I won't turn to something else, but if I am in a specific music mood, there are other bands that nail my specific moods much more precisely. If you like any of the bands mentioned above, though, at least listen to them.
Why I still hate Windows
Those who have discussed computers with me over the years know all too well my vehemence towards Microsoft. Those who were in my circle of Mac-using friends have been, perhaps, a little dismayed by the fact that my vehemence had lessened a great deal in the last year. Several factors contributed to this:
I must admit, given my many frustrations with the lemon MacBook Pro I had and the annoyances that have crept into Mac OS X, I was becoming predisposed to going easy on Windows 7. After having installed it on a number of machines at work and dealt with it on a regular basis while helping others out, I have actually come to like Windows 7 a good deal.
In terms of general annoyances, Microsoft has done a splendid job of cleaning up the user interface and organizing things in a way that is more rational than it has been since the beginning of Windows. They have added handy features that actually make using Windows sometimes pleasant. I can appreciate the window management they have implemented, and I think I even like it better than Apple's handling of multiple windows on OS X, though not quite as much as the straight-forward approach offered by Gnome on Ubuntu Linux. The window previews while hovering over the taskbar and the window snapping were much needed additions to Windows.
Getting to configuration options in Windows 7 has been more natural to me, now that I have adjusted to the changes. Image previews are better than ever before, and I like the Windows approach better than the gimmicky Cover Flow that Apple employs. Networking is only mildly improved over the past, but the addition of preset firewall configurations that you choose from when connecting to a new network makes me feel safer about showing a novice how to connect their laptop to wireless networks.
Microsoft's having finally owned up to their responsibility for the virus problem in giving away Security Essentials for free goes a long way towards reducing the many years of ire I have held towards the company. I find it to be the least intrusive virus software I have used and it tends to do a better job of staying up-to-date than a lot of the other options. In a world full of novices, this is essential (no pun intended).
With all these in mind, I can actually say that I like Windows 7 (in some ways, better than even Mac OS X). File management is great, window management is finally some of the best around (at least for the way I think), and security has improved to the point of actually being viable.
So, by now you must be asking, "Wait, I thought you said you hate Windows?" Well, yes, despite the fact the I may like Windows 7, I do still hate the Windows ecosystem. The distinction is likely to be lost on those of you who do not work in technology, so I'll explain.
As I said, Microsoft has improved security to the point that it is mostly viable... well as long as you ignore the evidence of the August Patch Tuesday... and the DLL loading order exploit... and the recent icon preview vulnerability... ohhh, right. Hmmmm. So, they still have a lot of work to do. How much we will never know since the exploiters (I refuse to use the word hackers because I am old school enough to remember what it originally meant) seem to keep finding new vulnerabilities every time Microsoft patches the known ones. Admittedly, Windows security is better than it has ever been. If you install the 64 bit version, run as a Standard user for daily use, and use Microsoft Security Essentials, you have a reasonably secure machine. At least until the next vulnerability is found. If you are careful about where you visit on the internet, though, you might make it through unscathed with such a system. This is the first time I feel confident in saying that about Windows, with the caveat that you must run your updates regularly.
Left at that, I could almost like the Windows ecosystem. The chink in this armor, though, is one that Microsoft has no control over: 3rd party software. Sure, run the system I described above and you are fairly safe. Oh wait, you want to use Adobe Flash? Bad news. And Adobe Reader? Sigh. An old version of Corel Draw? Groan. HP scanning software? I feel the tears welling. Some freeware game that you downloaded from the internet? Okay, I quit.
Seriously, though, if it weren't for all the 3rd party applications, Windows could be pretty secure. At work, there is a financial package that requires us to disable User Account Control or else it will not function. Why? Because it was written for DOS and has been dragged along into the Windows world along the way, always several generations behind whatever Windows is current. So, great, we upgraded all the machine in the business office to get the better security that Windows 7 brings, and we just threw most of that out the window to get the financial software to function.
Despite Microsoft's best efforts, it will never be able to secure its ecosystem because so many companies are still writing their software to support old versions of Windows, and are dragging a lot of legacy baggage along with them. The same issue is also responsible for many of the stability issues of the platform. Poorly written drivers, poorly written services that hook into the kernel, tools that replace built-in Windows functionality with their own decrepit attempts, etc..., all combine to make Windows the Sanford and Son junk collection pickup truck that it is.
Even though I am becoming disillusioned with OS X to some degree, and Linux never seems to properly support the Apple hardware that I am stuck with, I just can't bring myself to go to Windows as my daily OS. I honestly wouldn't mind giving it a try, but there is no escaping the frustration of dealing with incompatibilities, bugs, crashes, and security issues. While I may know enough to be able to reduce my risk of getting a virus to the low, single-digit percentile, the fear of absent-mindedly clicking a bad link early one morning while I am half asleep and ending up at a site that is hosting some new virus that has not yet been added to the virus definitions keeps me far away. No amount of reward is worth that risk for me. I don't have the patience.
I admit that I like Windows 7, but I can't help but continuing to hate Windows in general. Having to put up with the stuff I do every day in my day job keeps me reminded that it takes more than good intentions, and even strong efforts, to clean up an entire ecosystem. Unfortunately for Microsoft, there doesn't seem to be a lot they can do to remedy the situation themselves. Perhaps one day I will be able to write another post entitled "I can finally love Windows", but don't hold your breath waiting for it.
Todd Russell
August 31, 2010
- My love for XBox Live
- Windows 7
- Accepting my fate of never being able to move people away from Windows at work
- Microsoft Security Essentials
- The Kin phone debacle (it's no longer fun to make fun of a company that is beginning to look less evil and more mentally handicapped)
- Declining software quality assurance in Mac OS X and other Apple software
I must admit, given my many frustrations with the lemon MacBook Pro I had and the annoyances that have crept into Mac OS X, I was becoming predisposed to going easy on Windows 7. After having installed it on a number of machines at work and dealt with it on a regular basis while helping others out, I have actually come to like Windows 7 a good deal.
In terms of general annoyances, Microsoft has done a splendid job of cleaning up the user interface and organizing things in a way that is more rational than it has been since the beginning of Windows. They have added handy features that actually make using Windows sometimes pleasant. I can appreciate the window management they have implemented, and I think I even like it better than Apple's handling of multiple windows on OS X, though not quite as much as the straight-forward approach offered by Gnome on Ubuntu Linux. The window previews while hovering over the taskbar and the window snapping were much needed additions to Windows.
Getting to configuration options in Windows 7 has been more natural to me, now that I have adjusted to the changes. Image previews are better than ever before, and I like the Windows approach better than the gimmicky Cover Flow that Apple employs. Networking is only mildly improved over the past, but the addition of preset firewall configurations that you choose from when connecting to a new network makes me feel safer about showing a novice how to connect their laptop to wireless networks.
Microsoft's having finally owned up to their responsibility for the virus problem in giving away Security Essentials for free goes a long way towards reducing the many years of ire I have held towards the company. I find it to be the least intrusive virus software I have used and it tends to do a better job of staying up-to-date than a lot of the other options. In a world full of novices, this is essential (no pun intended).
With all these in mind, I can actually say that I like Windows 7 (in some ways, better than even Mac OS X). File management is great, window management is finally some of the best around (at least for the way I think), and security has improved to the point of actually being viable.
So, by now you must be asking, "Wait, I thought you said you hate Windows?" Well, yes, despite the fact the I may like Windows 7, I do still hate the Windows ecosystem. The distinction is likely to be lost on those of you who do not work in technology, so I'll explain.
As I said, Microsoft has improved security to the point that it is mostly viable... well as long as you ignore the evidence of the August Patch Tuesday... and the DLL loading order exploit... and the recent icon preview vulnerability... ohhh, right. Hmmmm. So, they still have a lot of work to do. How much we will never know since the exploiters (I refuse to use the word hackers because I am old school enough to remember what it originally meant) seem to keep finding new vulnerabilities every time Microsoft patches the known ones. Admittedly, Windows security is better than it has ever been. If you install the 64 bit version, run as a Standard user for daily use, and use Microsoft Security Essentials, you have a reasonably secure machine. At least until the next vulnerability is found. If you are careful about where you visit on the internet, though, you might make it through unscathed with such a system. This is the first time I feel confident in saying that about Windows, with the caveat that you must run your updates regularly.
Left at that, I could almost like the Windows ecosystem. The chink in this armor, though, is one that Microsoft has no control over: 3rd party software. Sure, run the system I described above and you are fairly safe. Oh wait, you want to use Adobe Flash? Bad news. And Adobe Reader? Sigh. An old version of Corel Draw? Groan. HP scanning software? I feel the tears welling. Some freeware game that you downloaded from the internet? Okay, I quit.
Seriously, though, if it weren't for all the 3rd party applications, Windows could be pretty secure. At work, there is a financial package that requires us to disable User Account Control or else it will not function. Why? Because it was written for DOS and has been dragged along into the Windows world along the way, always several generations behind whatever Windows is current. So, great, we upgraded all the machine in the business office to get the better security that Windows 7 brings, and we just threw most of that out the window to get the financial software to function.
Despite Microsoft's best efforts, it will never be able to secure its ecosystem because so many companies are still writing their software to support old versions of Windows, and are dragging a lot of legacy baggage along with them. The same issue is also responsible for many of the stability issues of the platform. Poorly written drivers, poorly written services that hook into the kernel, tools that replace built-in Windows functionality with their own decrepit attempts, etc..., all combine to make Windows the Sanford and Son junk collection pickup truck that it is.
Even though I am becoming disillusioned with OS X to some degree, and Linux never seems to properly support the Apple hardware that I am stuck with, I just can't bring myself to go to Windows as my daily OS. I honestly wouldn't mind giving it a try, but there is no escaping the frustration of dealing with incompatibilities, bugs, crashes, and security issues. While I may know enough to be able to reduce my risk of getting a virus to the low, single-digit percentile, the fear of absent-mindedly clicking a bad link early one morning while I am half asleep and ending up at a site that is hosting some new virus that has not yet been added to the virus definitions keeps me far away. No amount of reward is worth that risk for me. I don't have the patience.
I admit that I like Windows 7, but I can't help but continuing to hate Windows in general. Having to put up with the stuff I do every day in my day job keeps me reminded that it takes more than good intentions, and even strong efforts, to clean up an entire ecosystem. Unfortunately for Microsoft, there doesn't seem to be a lot they can do to remedy the situation themselves. Perhaps one day I will be able to write another post entitled "I can finally love Windows", but don't hold your breath waiting for it.
Todd Russell
August 31, 2010
August 26, 2010
Pre-Review: The Facebook movie
"Pre-review? Don't you mean preview?", you ask. No, I am very deliberate in my choice of words whenever I write, and even more so when I choose words that aren't really words. By pre-review, I mean that I will review the upcoming Facebook movie, "The Social Network", before it comes out. To answer your question... no, I haven't seen a pre-release copy. Nor have I read the script. What am I, Creskin the Time-Travelling Magician? Not exactly. Although I like to think of myself as "often prescient", I'm not even relying on those skills for this review. Pure logic will suffice.
Before you get too irritated with my banter, I suppose an explanation is in order. In regards to "The Social Network", I have no more direct knowledge than any of you readers have at the time of this posting, which amounts to having viewed the movie trailer. From that trailer, however, it is pretty clear that "The Social Network" follows closely to the book, "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook". And that is where my pre-review is coming from... sorta.
I listened to the audiobook version of "The Accidental Billionaires" about a year ago, and watching the trailer for the new movie incited flashbacks to listening to the book. If you are starting to think it sounds interesting to read a book about how Facebook was founded, let me assure you that doing so would be one of the worst mistakes you would ever make. Perhaps you think that sounds a little exaggerated, but it is rather difficult for me to put into words the pain, sorrow, and misery you will feel while reading (or listening). The thing is, though, these are not feelings that will be created in you by a gripping tale that makes you identify with characters who are experiencing sadness or loss. Nor will these feelings be created by entering in to the events of a great modern tragedy. No, these feelings will be created by what must be the most sophomoric writing I have ever had the displeasure to experience.
I literally hated this book. There were times when I actually yelled out loud in my car at the author for his pathetic attempt to describe scenes that "might have happened". The level of writing made me feel as if I were grading papers for a 9th grade English class and stumbled through the manuscript of a teenage boy who has just "discovered" that his calling in life is to become the next great author. Ugggggggh. The dialog was often ridiculous. His filling in the gaps in the story by pondering what "might have happened" as Mark went from one screw-up to the next annoyed me so badly that I wanted to throw the iPod out the window of my car and drive back and forth over it to make sure those bits would never be transferred to another storage device again. The over-abundance of adjectives and needless words drug the story out at least an additional hour or two in total. The whole experience was almost as pleasant as being kicked repeatedly between the legs by a giant, red, Bozo the Clown shoe. Incidentally, the last time I felt that my intelligence was so insulted was probably the last time I watched Bozo the Clown on cable tv in the eighties.
"So why did you listen?", you ask. Believe me, I asked myself that same question every time I pressed play. I felt I needed to know the story, though, so that I could better understand the motives behind the constant abuses of private information being added to Facebook as "features". I was pretty sure I already knew the reasons, and this would be a good way for me to confirm or deny my suspicions. In the end, it did confirm for me what I believed... that Mark Zuckerberg has no concept of the rights or concerns of others... that he is either autistic or has narcissistic disorder (or even a little of both). The story clearly showed this to be a fairly accurate read. It was good for me to know this so that I would be reminded to be very judicious about what personal info I let out into Facebook, even through such features as the supposedly-private messages.
I have heard a lot of comments about this book and it appears to be the general consensus that it is roughly historically accurate. By extension, I will assume that the movie will be as well. The trailer seemed to connect with a lot of the scenes from the book.
After watching the trailer, it is pretty clear to me that watching this movie will be every bit as painful as reading (or listening to) the book. The dialog will be terrible. The acting will be laughable. The script will be disjunct and fail to tell a deeper story beyond simply retelling what happened on a surface level. On top of that, people with moral sensibilities will be routinely scandalized by the events and their portrayal. There will be almost nothing redeemable about this movie... with one exception. Like the book, it will probably at least give you a poorly rendered portrait of Mark Zuckerberg, the self-centered social misfit who is dealing in the private info of millions of average people.
For that alone, I will recommend that everyone who uses Facebook see this movie. Yes, I know I just trashed the movie and assured you that it will be the most painful experience of movie-going you are likely to ever experience. However, if you want to continue to use Facebook, you should know who you are trusting your info to. I would like to hope that you will walk out of the theatre a little scared, even.
If you would rather not spend $9 at the theatre to see this atrocity to mankind, just wait for it to hit DVD. I am pretty sure that, within a month or two of its release, it will be in the $1.99 bin of your local Wal Mart. You can buy a copy, watch it, then smash it into tiny pieces and throw it away. At least that way, you can feel like your participation in this travesty brought some good to humanity by reducing the watchable copies in existence. Or, just watch it on hulu.com for free when the studio gives up on trying to market it and just settles for the advertising money.
Though your time will have been wasted whichever route you take, at least you will have reason to think twice about every click you make on Facebook from that point on... and that can only make the world a better place.
Todd Russell
August 26, 2010
Before you get too irritated with my banter, I suppose an explanation is in order. In regards to "The Social Network", I have no more direct knowledge than any of you readers have at the time of this posting, which amounts to having viewed the movie trailer. From that trailer, however, it is pretty clear that "The Social Network" follows closely to the book, "The Accidental Billionaires: The Founding of Facebook". And that is where my pre-review is coming from... sorta.
I listened to the audiobook version of "The Accidental Billionaires" about a year ago, and watching the trailer for the new movie incited flashbacks to listening to the book. If you are starting to think it sounds interesting to read a book about how Facebook was founded, let me assure you that doing so would be one of the worst mistakes you would ever make. Perhaps you think that sounds a little exaggerated, but it is rather difficult for me to put into words the pain, sorrow, and misery you will feel while reading (or listening). The thing is, though, these are not feelings that will be created in you by a gripping tale that makes you identify with characters who are experiencing sadness or loss. Nor will these feelings be created by entering in to the events of a great modern tragedy. No, these feelings will be created by what must be the most sophomoric writing I have ever had the displeasure to experience.
I literally hated this book. There were times when I actually yelled out loud in my car at the author for his pathetic attempt to describe scenes that "might have happened". The level of writing made me feel as if I were grading papers for a 9th grade English class and stumbled through the manuscript of a teenage boy who has just "discovered" that his calling in life is to become the next great author. Ugggggggh. The dialog was often ridiculous. His filling in the gaps in the story by pondering what "might have happened" as Mark went from one screw-up to the next annoyed me so badly that I wanted to throw the iPod out the window of my car and drive back and forth over it to make sure those bits would never be transferred to another storage device again. The over-abundance of adjectives and needless words drug the story out at least an additional hour or two in total. The whole experience was almost as pleasant as being kicked repeatedly between the legs by a giant, red, Bozo the Clown shoe. Incidentally, the last time I felt that my intelligence was so insulted was probably the last time I watched Bozo the Clown on cable tv in the eighties.
"So why did you listen?", you ask. Believe me, I asked myself that same question every time I pressed play. I felt I needed to know the story, though, so that I could better understand the motives behind the constant abuses of private information being added to Facebook as "features". I was pretty sure I already knew the reasons, and this would be a good way for me to confirm or deny my suspicions. In the end, it did confirm for me what I believed... that Mark Zuckerberg has no concept of the rights or concerns of others... that he is either autistic or has narcissistic disorder (or even a little of both). The story clearly showed this to be a fairly accurate read. It was good for me to know this so that I would be reminded to be very judicious about what personal info I let out into Facebook, even through such features as the supposedly-private messages.
I have heard a lot of comments about this book and it appears to be the general consensus that it is roughly historically accurate. By extension, I will assume that the movie will be as well. The trailer seemed to connect with a lot of the scenes from the book.
After watching the trailer, it is pretty clear to me that watching this movie will be every bit as painful as reading (or listening to) the book. The dialog will be terrible. The acting will be laughable. The script will be disjunct and fail to tell a deeper story beyond simply retelling what happened on a surface level. On top of that, people with moral sensibilities will be routinely scandalized by the events and their portrayal. There will be almost nothing redeemable about this movie... with one exception. Like the book, it will probably at least give you a poorly rendered portrait of Mark Zuckerberg, the self-centered social misfit who is dealing in the private info of millions of average people.
For that alone, I will recommend that everyone who uses Facebook see this movie. Yes, I know I just trashed the movie and assured you that it will be the most painful experience of movie-going you are likely to ever experience. However, if you want to continue to use Facebook, you should know who you are trusting your info to. I would like to hope that you will walk out of the theatre a little scared, even.
If you would rather not spend $9 at the theatre to see this atrocity to mankind, just wait for it to hit DVD. I am pretty sure that, within a month or two of its release, it will be in the $1.99 bin of your local Wal Mart. You can buy a copy, watch it, then smash it into tiny pieces and throw it away. At least that way, you can feel like your participation in this travesty brought some good to humanity by reducing the watchable copies in existence. Or, just watch it on hulu.com for free when the studio gives up on trying to market it and just settles for the advertising money.
Though your time will have been wasted whichever route you take, at least you will have reason to think twice about every click you make on Facebook from that point on... and that can only make the world a better place.
Todd Russell
August 26, 2010
August 18, 2010
Dreams Do Come True
Flashback... 1979... I'm standing in Kmart, staring in awe at the 12" Boba Fett figure on the shelf which is gleaming like the Holy Grail of toys. I'm sure I must have been drooling. This was the most wicked toy I had ever seen in my life, and I could only think of one thing... Christmas. I was already a Boba Fett fan, having been one of the lucky few kids to get an original Boba Fett figure in the mail after sending in the requisite number of Proofs of Purchase and money. I still remember the picture of the Boba Fett figure on the packages of the figures I owned, even though I was only 5 at the time. He could shoot a missile out of his back!!! Admittedly, getting the real figure in the mail, while very exciting, was a bit of a letdown. He looked different than the original picture and his missile wouldn't shoot, no matter how many ways I jammed a butter knife into his back. It took my mom a while to finally convince me that they must have changed the design and that this figure was not going to be doing any shooting. Once I finally let go of that, I quickly realized that this was the coolest figure in my collection. I only had him for a short time because I decided to slide him up a guy-wire at recess during kindergarten to simulate flying, and he flew off at some random angle when he hit the knuckle of the guy-wire anchor, landing on top of the breezeway cover. My poor kindergarten teacher tried desperately to help me find it for what must have been at least a half hour (I'll always love you Mrs. Crowell!). I'm not sure how many tears I cried that night, but I was sure that I would get a replacement for Christmas.
So there I was, standing in Kmart, staring at the 12" version of Boba Fett, who looked so much cooler than the small figure I had lost. I thought for sure that this was to be my reward to replace the lost object of affection. As I stood there, a family came along and grabbed one of them and moved on. There were now only 3 left. I realized that the remaining 3 might disappear while I went looking for mom, so I resolved not to leave that spot until she came looking for me. And if it came down to only 1 left, I would simply grab it and carry it with me throughout the store. In hindsight, I don't know why I didn't do that in the first place, because it might have been easier to convince her to buy it if she thought about the nuisance of having to go back and find the place on the shelf to replace it. So I waited what felt like an eternity.
When mom arrived, somewhat irritated that I hadn't come to find her first, I began my excited pleas and begging. Her immediate "no" almost left me crushed, but I reminded her of my lost Boba Fett and that Christmas was coming and this was the only thing I wanted for Christmas. She wasn't convinced. "We're not buying that now. If you still want it at Christmas, maybe we'll buy it then." "But mom, they might all be gone by then! There are only 3 left! What if you can't find one later?" None of my begging, whining, or bargaining worked, so I sulked away, turning to give what would be my last look ever at an original 12" Boba Fett figure. I hoped beyond hope that there would be more near Christmas time, but Christmas came and went, and Boba Fett never made it back to the shelves of any store I entered again after that.
Flash forward... 2010... I'm standing in Target looking at the new line of Star Wars figures that had just been released with the reproduced "original" Empire Strikes Back backing cards, and having flashbacks to many years ago. As I'm wandering through nostalgic memories, I hear my oldest daughter say, "Daddy, look at this cool Boba Fett helmet". My heart leapt into my throat, but I didn't want my kids to see me acting like an excited 5 year old, so I replied, "I'll see in just a second after I finish looking through these figures", in as nonchalant a voice as I could fake. After scanning the rest of the figures, I looked down and saw a full-size Boba Fett helmet much like the recent Clone Trooper helmets that had been released over the last few years. I'm sure my jaw must have hung open, because my kids laughed when they saw my reaction. I picked it up and looked at it and immediately had a flashback to 1979, looking at the Boba Fett toy in Kmart. Now this was truly the coolest toy I had ever seen, even better than the figure I never had. "Wow, this is really cool, maybe I should get it", I said. I looked at the price... $34.99. Not too bad for an item this cool, but did I really need it? Should I spend that money? I looked at the shelf and noticed that there were only 3 left. Another flashback... "But mom, they might all be gone by then! There are only 3 left!"
I decided right then that it wasn't going to happen to me again, so I tucked the package under my arm and said, "Okay kids, let's go." At the checkout counter, the lady asked if my son had his eye on this and I said, "No, this one is for daddy. I've wanted one of these since I was 5 years old." She laughed and smiled. On the way to the van, I must admit that I felt like a 5 year old on Christmas and couldn't wait to get home to open it and check it out. Of course, my wife just laughed and kind of rolled her eyes when she saw the addition to "Daddy's collection", but once I told her the story, she got into the excitement of opening the prize as well. The kids were huddled around, waiting impatiently to see it in action, and I was trying my best to hide the childlike surge of emotion I felt as I restrained myself from just ripping the packaging to shreds. Once it was out and put together, I immediately put it on and modeled it for my wife and kids. We all had some good laughs and my son ran off to get his Clone Trooper helmet, thrilled to join his daddy in the fun. So, we chased the girls around the house for a few minutes, then I placed my new toy in a prominent place in my office so I could see it clearly every time I entered.
After having it for over a week, I still haven't tired of staring at it every time I pass it, and I don't regret the purchase for even a moment. It's my little reminder that dreams can come true, even if they sometimes take 31 years to do so. It also reminds me how good it is to never entirely lose the simple excitement of childhood and the laughter and joy that can bring. I hope that when I am old and retired, I can still find moments of childhood laughter in the midst of the seriousness of daily life.
And now, for some pictures so that you can revel with me in all the glory of this story:
Todd Russell
August 18, 2010
So there I was, standing in Kmart, staring at the 12" version of Boba Fett, who looked so much cooler than the small figure I had lost. I thought for sure that this was to be my reward to replace the lost object of affection. As I stood there, a family came along and grabbed one of them and moved on. There were now only 3 left. I realized that the remaining 3 might disappear while I went looking for mom, so I resolved not to leave that spot until she came looking for me. And if it came down to only 1 left, I would simply grab it and carry it with me throughout the store. In hindsight, I don't know why I didn't do that in the first place, because it might have been easier to convince her to buy it if she thought about the nuisance of having to go back and find the place on the shelf to replace it. So I waited what felt like an eternity.
When mom arrived, somewhat irritated that I hadn't come to find her first, I began my excited pleas and begging. Her immediate "no" almost left me crushed, but I reminded her of my lost Boba Fett and that Christmas was coming and this was the only thing I wanted for Christmas. She wasn't convinced. "We're not buying that now. If you still want it at Christmas, maybe we'll buy it then." "But mom, they might all be gone by then! There are only 3 left! What if you can't find one later?" None of my begging, whining, or bargaining worked, so I sulked away, turning to give what would be my last look ever at an original 12" Boba Fett figure. I hoped beyond hope that there would be more near Christmas time, but Christmas came and went, and Boba Fett never made it back to the shelves of any store I entered again after that.
Flash forward... 2010... I'm standing in Target looking at the new line of Star Wars figures that had just been released with the reproduced "original" Empire Strikes Back backing cards, and having flashbacks to many years ago. As I'm wandering through nostalgic memories, I hear my oldest daughter say, "Daddy, look at this cool Boba Fett helmet". My heart leapt into my throat, but I didn't want my kids to see me acting like an excited 5 year old, so I replied, "I'll see in just a second after I finish looking through these figures", in as nonchalant a voice as I could fake. After scanning the rest of the figures, I looked down and saw a full-size Boba Fett helmet much like the recent Clone Trooper helmets that had been released over the last few years. I'm sure my jaw must have hung open, because my kids laughed when they saw my reaction. I picked it up and looked at it and immediately had a flashback to 1979, looking at the Boba Fett toy in Kmart. Now this was truly the coolest toy I had ever seen, even better than the figure I never had. "Wow, this is really cool, maybe I should get it", I said. I looked at the price... $34.99. Not too bad for an item this cool, but did I really need it? Should I spend that money? I looked at the shelf and noticed that there were only 3 left. Another flashback... "But mom, they might all be gone by then! There are only 3 left!"
I decided right then that it wasn't going to happen to me again, so I tucked the package under my arm and said, "Okay kids, let's go." At the checkout counter, the lady asked if my son had his eye on this and I said, "No, this one is for daddy. I've wanted one of these since I was 5 years old." She laughed and smiled. On the way to the van, I must admit that I felt like a 5 year old on Christmas and couldn't wait to get home to open it and check it out. Of course, my wife just laughed and kind of rolled her eyes when she saw the addition to "Daddy's collection", but once I told her the story, she got into the excitement of opening the prize as well. The kids were huddled around, waiting impatiently to see it in action, and I was trying my best to hide the childlike surge of emotion I felt as I restrained myself from just ripping the packaging to shreds. Once it was out and put together, I immediately put it on and modeled it for my wife and kids. We all had some good laughs and my son ran off to get his Clone Trooper helmet, thrilled to join his daddy in the fun. So, we chased the girls around the house for a few minutes, then I placed my new toy in a prominent place in my office so I could see it clearly every time I entered.
After having it for over a week, I still haven't tired of staring at it every time I pass it, and I don't regret the purchase for even a moment. It's my little reminder that dreams can come true, even if they sometimes take 31 years to do so. It also reminds me how good it is to never entirely lose the simple excitement of childhood and the laughter and joy that can bring. I hope that when I am old and retired, I can still find moments of childhood laughter in the midst of the seriousness of daily life.
And now, for some pictures so that you can revel with me in all the glory of this story:
He was almost mine!
My prize, just before it was opened.
I am Boba Fett!
Todd Russell
August 18, 2010
July 31, 2010
WWGS?: I hope you get to see you
Dude morning to you to. You're on your way from where? And yes, I did see myself today, so all is well in that regard.
Okay, my love. It's 8 after 11, and we're on our way from ass out of meet at the we couldn't make it at 8:30. I felt so awful. Dude morning, but I just even as bad as I'm feeling now. I really feel compelled to go to Madison. The kids are excited too. So and lunch is ready, because it's damps left over from last night and part of that of children's choir so I'll be able to do so. Anyway, I hope you get to see you at some point. The well, we're out here. I love you bye.
July 18, 2010
Why you pay more for an Apple Mac
"You pay for what you get" in the words of Dave Matthews. I always liked that phrase. I don't remember the context in the lyrics, but it always reminded me that when we buy things, we often pay a price in blood, sweat, and tears well beyond whatever bargain we thought we were getting. If your time is money like mine is, you are very familiar with the hidden cost of products in terms of the time that gets wasted when they do not work as expected. This factor can make it worth spending much more on a product if it will save you more time or last a lot longer than a cheaper competing product. However, it can become quite galling when you pay more for a product expecting to reduce the wasted time only to end up with a lemon that blows this strategy up in your face.
Those of you who talk computers with me or have folllowed my previous posts know that this is exactly what happened to me with the purchase of a MacBook Pro as my work computer. At the time of the purchase, I was still very much the Apple fanboy. This MacBook Pro was the first straw on this camel's back which sent me on my exodus outside the land of Apple.
It was the first MacBook Pro with an LED backlit screen, and it was a lemon right out of the box. To make a long story short, there were build quality issues like I had not previously seen in any Apple machine I had owned. Then there were the bugs. I chalked it up to OS X bugs for 2 years and my friend kept claiming his machine didn't have the same problems. I did not listen to his theory that my machine had issues because I knew that the quality of OS X had begun declining rapidly anyway late in the 10.4 life cycle.
When the dreaded nVidia graphics chip death hit me just prior to the 2.5 year mark, though, I began to consider that perhaps it was the case that this could have been the source of some of my previous woes. Graphics cards get hot and this could have been overheating nearby components.
I had not purchased AppleCare with the machine because I had not anticipated needing it. I knew that Apple tends to be good about extending coverage of known build or design flaws, and, aside from such flaws, their machines tended to last a long time. I was right and Apple did own up to this and cover the nVidia problem for 3 years, which meant this would get fixed for free. When I got the newly repaired MacBook back, I began to experience a lot of the same problems I'd had before, especially with USB drives. I thought this proved my theories about the bugginess of OS X and moved on to using Ubuntu on the machine full time. I had already been using it a little less than half time, but this was a clean break. I only booted into OS X when I really had to after that. This was fine for a few months, then I began having a lot of weird bugs. At first I assumed it was just poor linux drivers for the Apple components, but after a few complete lockups caused when using USB drives, I realized there was a common thread with what happened in OS X on this machine.
I then started doing some cross reference testing and realized the same problem occured in OS X, Ubuntu, and Windows 7. Now I knew it had to be hardware. Runnnig Apple Hardware Test on it confirmed that there was a problem with the temp sensor on the graphics chip. Research showed that others with this problem also experienced weird issues with USB. I haven't researched this further but I assume that the USB chipset must be in the near vicinity of the graphics chip and was getting overheated as well.
I contacted Apple and explained the situation and they were very helpful and sent me a box to send it back to them. They say they replaced the logic board, temp sensor, and fans. When I got it back, I ran the Apple Hardware Quick Test on it. At first I thought all was finally well, but I decided to run the extended test. Then I got the same error again. I then ran the quick test to see if it would show there now. It did. I shut down, waited a few minutes, turned it back on, and ran the quick test again. It tested clean. I let it sit there idle for a few minutes, then ran it again. Clean. I waited a few more minutes and ran it a third time. Now it showed the error. This confirmed that when the chip gets to a certain heat, it must be causing the temp sensor to malfunction.
I called Apple and talked them through the scenario. The guy said that though they were puzzled as to how this could still be happening, this was the third strike and they would simply replace it with a brand new MacBook Pro of the current model that was as nearly equivalent as possible to the old one.
I have been fairly critical of Apple lately, but that, folks, is how you do customer support and I can only give them praise for this. Granted, my work originally paid $2000 for a machine that ended up being a piece of crap by design, and it took three years of pain, but at least we are finally getting the machine we paid for.
And that is the moral of this story... that with Apple you do pay more for hardware than you would pay for similar PC hardware and you are not getting hardware that is necessarily better since they are all made in China by the same few manufacturers, but what you are getting for that premium is pretty good support and some assurance that the company you are dealing with generally makes an honest effort to take care of problems when it is proven that they produced a defective design.
So, you pay for what you get, and boy have I ever paid for this one. I am appreciative, though, that Apple was willing to make good on the purchase in the long run, even though this machine was within 1 month of the 3 year cutoff for coverge on this issue. I will be buying 3 year Apple Care on the new machine as soon as it arrives now that I have a better hands-on experience of what level of support to expect for the investment. Hopefully, this machine will be rock solid enough that I will be able to use it without all the problems I was having in OS X. So, yes, this will get me to give OS X one last chance and I can finally confirm whether the USB drive problems I was experiencing are bugs in OS X or were just caused by the hardware in the other machine.
If the hardware ends up not being properly supported by Ubuntu and Windows 7, I may have to pass it on to a coworker and get me a new PC laptop anway, but I'm at least willing to try after seeing Apple's support in action.
To further prove my point, contrast this to HP. Someone brought me an HP laptop at work that was showing the beginnings of the nVidia graphics failure. It was already known that several brands were affected by this, so I was not surprised. The machine was just over 1 year old, and just out of warranty. I had heard that HP was covering this issue responsibly, so I called them expecting to get this fixed for free on nVidia's dime. Imagine my surprise when the tech support rep told me this model was not covered. Other models in the same series were covered, but he insisted this model "was not affected by the nVidia problem". After getting off the phone and doing some further testing, the graphics died completely. Hoping to have better chances with a different rep, I called again. I was told the same story. "Now let me get this straight. This machine has the same graphics chip, the same symptoms, and is even in the same series as some of the machines you are covering, but you are claiming this model is not affected?" "Yes, this model is not affected." Unbelievable.
HP had a web page that listed the covered models, which I kept open in a browser tab for several months hoping HP would eventually own up to this one. They never did. This was a $1300 laptop and if only lasted for 1 year. For the Apple, we paid $2000 and it had slightly better specs but lacked many of the cool features of this laptop. One could argue that the HP was better hardware for $700 less. Even though the Apple cost us $700 more, we actually got our money's worth in the end as Apple was willing to replace the machine at the eleventh hour, just before the 3 year extended coverage expired. HP wasn't even willing to cover their laptop beyond the 1 year warranty.
In the past, you paid more for a better machine when you bought an Apple. These days, when you pay more for an Apple, you don't necessarily get more reliable hardware or more features, but you do get better support. The "time is money" value equation could go either way depending on whether it is more inconvenient for you to just buy a new machine and move on or whether it is more inconvenient to make a trip to a local Apple Store and possibly be without your machine for a few days. At least you know now what you are in for and can decide how you will "pay for what you get".
Todd Russell
July 17, 2010
Those of you who talk computers with me or have folllowed my previous posts know that this is exactly what happened to me with the purchase of a MacBook Pro as my work computer. At the time of the purchase, I was still very much the Apple fanboy. This MacBook Pro was the first straw on this camel's back which sent me on my exodus outside the land of Apple.
It was the first MacBook Pro with an LED backlit screen, and it was a lemon right out of the box. To make a long story short, there were build quality issues like I had not previously seen in any Apple machine I had owned. Then there were the bugs. I chalked it up to OS X bugs for 2 years and my friend kept claiming his machine didn't have the same problems. I did not listen to his theory that my machine had issues because I knew that the quality of OS X had begun declining rapidly anyway late in the 10.4 life cycle.
When the dreaded nVidia graphics chip death hit me just prior to the 2.5 year mark, though, I began to consider that perhaps it was the case that this could have been the source of some of my previous woes. Graphics cards get hot and this could have been overheating nearby components.
I had not purchased AppleCare with the machine because I had not anticipated needing it. I knew that Apple tends to be good about extending coverage of known build or design flaws, and, aside from such flaws, their machines tended to last a long time. I was right and Apple did own up to this and cover the nVidia problem for 3 years, which meant this would get fixed for free. When I got the newly repaired MacBook back, I began to experience a lot of the same problems I'd had before, especially with USB drives. I thought this proved my theories about the bugginess of OS X and moved on to using Ubuntu on the machine full time. I had already been using it a little less than half time, but this was a clean break. I only booted into OS X when I really had to after that. This was fine for a few months, then I began having a lot of weird bugs. At first I assumed it was just poor linux drivers for the Apple components, but after a few complete lockups caused when using USB drives, I realized there was a common thread with what happened in OS X on this machine.
I then started doing some cross reference testing and realized the same problem occured in OS X, Ubuntu, and Windows 7. Now I knew it had to be hardware. Runnnig Apple Hardware Test on it confirmed that there was a problem with the temp sensor on the graphics chip. Research showed that others with this problem also experienced weird issues with USB. I haven't researched this further but I assume that the USB chipset must be in the near vicinity of the graphics chip and was getting overheated as well.
I contacted Apple and explained the situation and they were very helpful and sent me a box to send it back to them. They say they replaced the logic board, temp sensor, and fans. When I got it back, I ran the Apple Hardware Quick Test on it. At first I thought all was finally well, but I decided to run the extended test. Then I got the same error again. I then ran the quick test to see if it would show there now. It did. I shut down, waited a few minutes, turned it back on, and ran the quick test again. It tested clean. I let it sit there idle for a few minutes, then ran it again. Clean. I waited a few more minutes and ran it a third time. Now it showed the error. This confirmed that when the chip gets to a certain heat, it must be causing the temp sensor to malfunction.
I called Apple and talked them through the scenario. The guy said that though they were puzzled as to how this could still be happening, this was the third strike and they would simply replace it with a brand new MacBook Pro of the current model that was as nearly equivalent as possible to the old one.
I have been fairly critical of Apple lately, but that, folks, is how you do customer support and I can only give them praise for this. Granted, my work originally paid $2000 for a machine that ended up being a piece of crap by design, and it took three years of pain, but at least we are finally getting the machine we paid for.
And that is the moral of this story... that with Apple you do pay more for hardware than you would pay for similar PC hardware and you are not getting hardware that is necessarily better since they are all made in China by the same few manufacturers, but what you are getting for that premium is pretty good support and some assurance that the company you are dealing with generally makes an honest effort to take care of problems when it is proven that they produced a defective design.
So, you pay for what you get, and boy have I ever paid for this one. I am appreciative, though, that Apple was willing to make good on the purchase in the long run, even though this machine was within 1 month of the 3 year cutoff for coverge on this issue. I will be buying 3 year Apple Care on the new machine as soon as it arrives now that I have a better hands-on experience of what level of support to expect for the investment. Hopefully, this machine will be rock solid enough that I will be able to use it without all the problems I was having in OS X. So, yes, this will get me to give OS X one last chance and I can finally confirm whether the USB drive problems I was experiencing are bugs in OS X or were just caused by the hardware in the other machine.
If the hardware ends up not being properly supported by Ubuntu and Windows 7, I may have to pass it on to a coworker and get me a new PC laptop anway, but I'm at least willing to try after seeing Apple's support in action.
To further prove my point, contrast this to HP. Someone brought me an HP laptop at work that was showing the beginnings of the nVidia graphics failure. It was already known that several brands were affected by this, so I was not surprised. The machine was just over 1 year old, and just out of warranty. I had heard that HP was covering this issue responsibly, so I called them expecting to get this fixed for free on nVidia's dime. Imagine my surprise when the tech support rep told me this model was not covered. Other models in the same series were covered, but he insisted this model "was not affected by the nVidia problem". After getting off the phone and doing some further testing, the graphics died completely. Hoping to have better chances with a different rep, I called again. I was told the same story. "Now let me get this straight. This machine has the same graphics chip, the same symptoms, and is even in the same series as some of the machines you are covering, but you are claiming this model is not affected?" "Yes, this model is not affected." Unbelievable.
HP had a web page that listed the covered models, which I kept open in a browser tab for several months hoping HP would eventually own up to this one. They never did. This was a $1300 laptop and if only lasted for 1 year. For the Apple, we paid $2000 and it had slightly better specs but lacked many of the cool features of this laptop. One could argue that the HP was better hardware for $700 less. Even though the Apple cost us $700 more, we actually got our money's worth in the end as Apple was willing to replace the machine at the eleventh hour, just before the 3 year extended coverage expired. HP wasn't even willing to cover their laptop beyond the 1 year warranty.
In the past, you paid more for a better machine when you bought an Apple. These days, when you pay more for an Apple, you don't necessarily get more reliable hardware or more features, but you do get better support. The "time is money" value equation could go either way depending on whether it is more inconvenient for you to just buy a new machine and move on or whether it is more inconvenient to make a trip to a local Apple Store and possibly be without your machine for a few days. At least you know now what you are in for and can decide how you will "pay for what you get".
Todd Russell
July 17, 2010
June 3, 2010
Forecast: Would the real OS X please come forward?
I've been pondering the state of OS X on Apple computers, Apple's shifting focus, and some obvious signs in developer land, and I think I have solved the riddle regarding the fast downward spiral of code quality in OS X.
Many of us have lamented what happened to NeXT when Apple bought it and morphed it into Mac OS X. NeXT was beautiful in all the ways that any OS aficionado wants an OS to be. Granted, the visuals were a little "industrial", but that's easy to fix with a few graphics designers and several weeks of man-hours. The underlying design of the system, however, was really amazing for its time, and was a good deal ahead of Windows or Macintosh. I remember being blown away by the NeXT 3.0 demo video I watched a few years ago and wondering why OS X had apparently lost some of the features that were in its predecessor. Ironically, if you were to take the pre-Apple code-base of NeXT and update the graphics, then re-release it, it would probably get a lot of praise for being a well-thought-out OS... even after all these years.
Apple's attempt to force Macintosh compatibility into NeXT pretty well destroyed its potential as a real contender to become THE operating system of the next several decades. As I have pointed out elsewhere, OS X has gotten worse and worse in terms of stability and bloat as time has gone on. For a while, I just assumed that when Avie Tevanian left, all the good programmers went with him and the new guys just weren't up-to-snuff for something so complex. That would explain some of the brain-dead bugs and bad decisions that went into the implementation of new features (you can go to rixstep.com to find a long laundry list of complaints about these). Although this was the obvious conclusion on the surface, I found it hard to believe that a company like Apple could really be so inept as to trust their OS to such rookies and let it fall apart. It didn't make sense.
I don't know why it took me so long to think of this more probable explanation, but it all makes sense to me now, and there is even precedent in Apple's history to back up this theory. Perhaps others have already put this theory forth, but I haven't heard it put exactly the way I am about to.
Another Apple switcheroo
When the iPhone was released, Apple went on about how they simply took OS X, removed the irrelevant parts, and put it right onto the iPhone. Many of us were skeptical, but, looking through the file system and OS, there appeared to be support for this claim. It still seemed somewhat implausible, though, given how bloated OS X was becoming at that time. Like other times when Apple twists the details to hide what they are really doing, though, I think this was a hint of the future of OS X.
When Apple bought NeXT, they put the Classic OS on life support. They fixed some of its problems to buy them some time, but it is obvious in hindsight that they did no more than they absolutely had to in order to keep from losing their loyal customers. I wasn't an Apple user at that time, even though I did use OS 9 a good bit in the first year or two of OS X, so I can't say from experience whether the Classic OS got progressively worse through 8 and 9. My impression of the situation, based on many conversations with old-time Mac users, however, is that this is precisely what happened.
I bring this up to show the precedent for my theory, namely, that Apple is moving to a new OS, and is leaving Mac OS X to die on the vine. We already know the OS, even though we've been told the opposite story... Touch OS. "Wait a minute!", you may be saying... "Touch OS is just a stripped down OS X." Is it? As I mentioned before, there were many who looked at the "OS X" on the iPhone when it was released and strongly questioned Apple's claims that it was merely a stripped down OS X. While there are some code overlaps that might seem to back up that story on a superficial level, I believe this is a typical case of Apple telling us one story to throw us off the real one. (Similar "stretches of the truth" would include "No one wants to watch video on a small screen", "We're not doing a tablet", and others)
If you think it through, it makes a lot of sense. There is a lot of legacy baggage in OS X, even in version 10.6. Now that Apple has officially killed off Classic support and PowerPC processor support, it must surely want to make a clean break from the past. Does it make sense to continue weeding old code out of a system that is so complex? There comes a point where you just have to take what you have learned from your years of mistakes, and start over. This is often the only practical way of moving forward without wasting untold amounts of effort in bug tracking.
Probable cause
iPad and iPhone when there are plenty of companies who make very nice ARM chips that they can buy in mass quantities.
iPad proves this to some degree, as it has taken the core Touch OS and added some functionality that brings it closer to desktop usability... USB and Bluetooth keyboard support, USB Mass Storage access through the card reader, support for larger resolutions, and the beginnings of video output. It is always easy to add features to a solid core, so they should be able to extend this out to full desktop duty more easily than fixing all the problems in OS X. Of course, that is assuming that they designed this new OS well enough to handle the growth. [Note: Yes, we know that Apple first intended to make a tablet, but Steve Jobs decided to make a phone instead after seeing the prototype. In his own words, though, the tablet was just a display with some mock-up scrolling functionality at that point. They then shifted gears and built out the iPhone and iPod Touch first, only going back to the tablet idea after these were settled in.]
The second advantage they gain is a shortcut to simplifying computer use at the desktop level. Apple has been attempting to simplify things in OS X, making it more accessible to the average tech neophyte, but there is only so much simplification you can do without breaking existing software. They tried with the Simple Finder, which could be enabled to make machines more kid-friendly, but even that never felt like anything more than a kludge; and it certainly didn't simplify the applications any, just the means of getting to the applications. With the Touch OS, Apple truly has simplified computing in a way that no one has in recent times. There are still some UI problems in the general inconsistency between modes of interacting in different apps that people develop, but that hasn't seemed to stop the very young and very old from figuring it out anyway. I have watched my 4 year old figure out, pretty much on his own, how to get to the Lightsaber app on my retired iPhone, and how to get around in the app. I have shown him how to manage some of the finer points, but even that is simple enough that he easily remembers after having been shown only once. I have watched a man in his late 60s (who has the early stages of Alzheimer's setting in) figure out how to get around fairly well in the parts of the phone that matter most to him: address book, calendar, and email. While my second biggest complaint about the iPhone is the limitations it places on what I can do with it, I can also recognize that these same limitations make it more approachable to Apple's newfound core audience: the average human. If they can keep things simple while building this core functionality back out to a more work-focused desktop use, they very well could win over a large portion of the people who hate computers and only use them because they have to. They may lose the prosumers and geeks in the process if they refuse to put in that much-begged-for "I am an advanced user, stop treating me like a moron" switch, but, at this point, it is pretty clear that they have already lost a lot of us anyway, and they are making more money than ever.
The third advantage is that they remain a moving target in the security world. Just as the first bits of trojan software are starting to hit the major download sites for Mac software (MacUpdate and Softpedia being two of the known ones), they could be in the process of shifting to a new architecture, forcing malware writers to start over. While this is not a real strategy against malware, it is at least an advantage of shifting the underlying OS architecture every 10 years or so. Granted, there have already been some major security flaws found in the Touch OS, but malware authors have tended to stick with sitting ducks up to this point in the game. By not being afraid to break backwards compatibility with every major OS shift, they at least are spared the problem Windows has with untold amounts of security flaws in legacy software support.
The fourth advantage is the potential of extending the platform out to build the kinds of desktop machines that never would have been profitable for them in the past, such as small netbooks or thin client computers. Having this new compact OS gives them the advantage of running on more efficient ARM processors which they can build in-house. As they showed us with the iPad, they can build and sell some stunning machines at prices lower than the competition when they are no longer forced to buy parts from Intel or the graphics chip makers. They can save money on cooling and materials by building smaller machines. Of course, no one will want to do movie production on these machines, but they will be plenty fast for the majority of what the "average human" wants to do on a computing device.
The fifth advantage (and probably the one that most excites the people on the inside at Apple) is the ability to focus on a single OS for all their devices. The current state of OS X shows us how pathetic Apple can be at supporting more than one platform simultaneously. This was also evident in the overlap days of OS 9 and OS X. While they sort of claimed they were already only working on one OS when they first showed the iPhone, very few of us believed them. In a dishonest sort of way, though, they may have been speaking the truth only insofar as they weren't really focused on OS X anymore and were in the process of this transition already. Apple hasn't shown much acumen in supporting an array of hardware in their past efforts with OS X (don't get me started on model-specific bugs with each OS X release), but I would like to assume the situation would be a little better if they begin building their own processors for all the machines at every level of their product line.
Reading the tea leaves
Some of the points I've mentioned included hints from Apple that things may be heading this direction. There are some other hints that we have seen that give some support to my theory. The one that stands out strongest in my mind is that there is no category for Mac OS X apps in the Apple Design Awards this year. Many others in the tech press have pointed this out as well. We have all seen this as Apple giving a not-so-subtle hint to the developers that OS X is not the future and they would be wise to begin looking at the Touch OS if they plan to continue making a living in the Apple software world. The conclusions many others have drawn from this is that Apple will simply abandon the desktop market in favor of the iPhone and iPad money-makers. I think my theory makes more sense, however. As I mentioned, if Apple is able to do all their design and building in-house, they can still make interesting laptops and desktops and not have a need to sell them in high volume in order to still make a profit off that division. Steve Jobs recognizes, and has stated clearly, that the old model of computing is fading fast in favor of portability and more personal devices. If Apple is able to reduce the cost of product development drastically, though, it can still service that shrinking portion of the market without sinking the ship like many other PC makers will.
The missing pieces to my puzzle
While all of this seems very feasible to me, I will admit there are some big pieces of the puzzle that are missing for which there seems to be no clear replacement in this course of action. First and foremost is the current need to use Mac OS X to develop software for the Touch OS. While it is true that a Touch OS version of XCode could be built to replace the Mac version, I can't imagine any developer in their right mind wanting to sit through code compiling on an ARM processor numerous times a day during testing. Apple would need a good replacement for the current development workstation before this theory could become reality.
Second, there is no way that real movie editing, compositing, or even advanced graphics work could ever be done on ARM-based machines in the foreseeable future. I suppose a 48 core ARM tower could conceivably begin to approach usability, but we are a long way from that possibility. So, unless Apple just decides to give up that segment of the market to Windows and Linux, we are a good ways out from a total replacement of OS X on the desktop.
Third, I am tempted to mention servers, but, in all reality, those of use who have attempted to use Apple servers in environments with mixed platform clients would say that they have already given up on that market anyway. I'm sure that those of you running Mac-only businesses with Mac servers will tell me how wrong I am on this point, but I will just leave it at this and let you continue to live on your little fantasy island outside the hell of the "real world" that the rest of us face. For some of you, though, this third reason might be valid.
Conclusions
Aside from those few caveats, I think they could make a pretty good run at it with such a plan. While it would only further cement the hardcore Windows and Linux users into their particular parts of the computer world, I do believe it would cause a mass exodus within the general public, making Apple far-and-away the market leader in desktop computing among home users and possibly even small businesses.
While I would not be a part of that new, easy-to-use future myself, I think the contribution Apple would make to the computing world would be very valuable. It might even force Microsoft and Google into competing on that level, which would give people options at every level of computing. Although I have grown beyond the borders of Apple's vision of computing myself, some part of me still can't help but hope that they do go this route. Who knows, perhaps if they did, they might even change my mind about the shiny, locked-down world of the Touch OS.
[With Apple's 2010 developer conference coming up next week, perhaps my theory will soon be confirmed or obliterated. If anything revealed at the conference affects what I have stated here, I'll add an addendum to the bottom of this article.]
Todd Russell
June 3, 2010
May 24, 2010
Apple... you have failed me for the last time
Those of you who discuss technology with me on a regular basis know that this has been brewing for quite some time, but I have officially forsaken Apple software and hardware. I know I will get a lot of questions from people who I have helped switch over to Apple in the past, so I am writing this now before the word gets out. Hopefully, I can just refer people to this post when they ask, which will save me from having to repeat myself on a regular basis.
There has been a steady collection of little annoyances that have built up over the past few years, to the point I'm just not willing to deal with them anymore. I'll summarize these down to the big issues to spare you from an exhausting (yes, I meant to choose that word) list of nitpicks. I do recognize that the issues are not all important to the average user, so I'm not necessarily recommending that people follow my lead here... this is just to answer the inevitable questions.
Software
Apple apparently has some of the worst programmers in the industry. How they could have taken something that was so well-built under Avie Tevanian's guard and turned it into the buggiest OS this side of beta Linux builds is beyond me. I suppose they pulled all the programmers with any real chops off their projects and put them on the iPhone OS, leaving all the interns to work on OS X and the desktop software. Life was pretty good with OS X 10.3, despite a few bugs here and there. With 10.4, things got a little worse, but the OS was still mostly tolerable. With 10.5, I started referring to it as Mac OS X Vista. Seriously, on this MacBook Pro, it was terrible. I tried hanging on for a few revisions and finally had to go back to 10.4, only to face the keyboard bugs all over again. When 10.6 came out, I thought everything would be solved... they did promise, right? So much for that. 10.6.1 didn't solve a single one of the problems I was facing either. 10.6.2 came out, all the SD card reader problems persisted, the keyboard bugs reappeared, and I finally gave up. I installed Ubuntu Linux and Windows 7 alongside OS X and have been happy in Linux ever since. When 10.6.3 came out, I updated, spent a few hours with it to give it one last chance, but after having to do a hard power down within 3 hours, I had seen enough. I'll keep it around for the occasions when my open source tools aren't getting the same results as Adobe CS3, but I have not missed it much at all. To think that I am experiencing fewer bugs and daily annoyances on a free, open source operating system that supports hundreds of thousands of hardware configurations says a lot about Apple software quality. They only have to support a few hundred hardware configurations, which they know inside and out, and they can't even get that much right?!
Security
I have been telling people for years not to run antivirus software on OS X. I still believe that the problem will never be widespread on OS X to the extent that it is on Windows, even if OS X does get significant market share. However, in the past few years, there have been so many serious security flaws in Apple software that I fear for the average user. It is only a matter of time before a major exploit hits the wild that will likely result in Apple users having a significant portion of their private info stolen. I am now having to recommend that people not use Safari if they care at all about their system security. This is exactly the kind of thing that led me to flee Windows back in the day before the problem exploded.
Hardware
I never liked the fact that all Apple's hardware solutions were proprietary, even at the time I switched. I had decided, though, that I would just make that compromise to avoid the other nuisances I was looking forward to with the coming release of Windows XP. I managed to put all this aside to the point of liking Apple hardware design and just accepting that a complete solution requires compromises. As the epidemic hardware problems began cropping up, though, the compromise was becoming rather annoying. Having to waste almost 2 hours tearing apart and rebuilding iBooks for people when the hard drives failed got old fast. Meanwhile, I could change a hard drive in a Dell in literally 5 minutes. The first time I had to pull a hard drive out of a dead iMac G5 Rev. 2 was when the frustration grew to anger. From that point on, each successive computer design became more and more ridiculous to change hard drives in. Changing the drive in MacBook Pros, trying desperately not to bend the flimsy aluminum top half of the body was where my anger finally grew to hatred. This has been festering for a few years now. The cracked glass on my original iPhone, the design of the aluminum iMac where the hard drive is just not worth the effort of getting to, the cheap plastic on the white MacBook that falls apart and stains, the graphics chip problems of many MacBook Pros, and the list goes on. All little thorns in my sides. So remind me one more time why we are paying such a high price for Apple hardware? I thought it was supposed to be for quality?
Servers
Well, I just hit my last straw last week. We have an XServe at work which has been collecting dust for over a year. I recommended against buying it originally, but the previous Director of IT before me ignored my pleas. When I took over, I switched things over to Linux servers, which are better in every way than OS X Server in mixed environments. In a Mac-only environment, the XServe has a home. In a mixed environment, it is an albatross. Well, we had some hardware issues after a really nasty lightning strike, so I decided to try and repurpose the old XServe. I quickly discovered that the XServe's EFI does not contain BIOS emulation like the other Intel machines... meaning that running Windows or Linux on it is more trouble than it is worth. I thought about giving OS X Server one last chance... to do a very simple task... basic file-sharing. I knew better, but I needed another machine, so I tried anyway. After trying a solid state drive in it, then a new 1TB hard drive, I did some searching to find out why they might not be working... and I discovered that Apple has designed the XServe to ignore drives that do not have Apple's custom firmware on them. So, if a drive dies, there's no option to run to Best Buy and pick up a replacement in an emergency, and there is no option to pick the brand and model of drive you want to use for performance and reliability. Instead, you have to pay Apple triple the going rate for a drive and just hope that they are using a good brand and model of drive. Some people may think I am over-reacting. "Just buy a spare and keep it around for the day something fails", they'll say. They just don't get it. After all that, the file-sharing didn't play as nicely with Windows 7 as the file sharing I am running on our Linux file server.
Lock-in
In the past, the DRM on songs purchased through iTunes didn't bother me... I thought I'd be using iTunes forever. Then they started releasing DRM-free versions of everything and I thought all would be well. I sucked it up and paid the extra $.30 per song to get the new versions as they came out. Somewhere along the line, iTunes stopped telling me when the DRM-free versions of my songs were released. When I had reached the point where I was ready to move on from Apple's ecosystem, I went looking to see what the deal was with these songs... only to discover that they had, in fact, been updated. I was never notified, but no problem, I'd just upgrade them now... ummmmmmmm, where is the upgrade buttom in the iTunes Store? Yes, this little convenience disappeared and now I couldn't just pay $.30 per song to get the "plus" versions of these remaining songs. I'd have to buy them again... so I spent many hours having to do manual conversions of everything to DRM-free songs. Sigh.
Slave devices
As a techno-geek, I just got to the point where I could no longer tolerate having devices that were "attached" to a computer, much less a single computer. If you use an iPod, iPhone, or iPad, you know what I am referring to... "This device is already being synced with another computer. Would you like to delete everything and start syncing it to this computer?" This one really makes me want to punch someone at Apple. What year is this? Did I just have a weird dream? Are we still in the late 90s? Or maybe it is actually 1984? Here's a clue Apple: many people have more than 1 computer. As nice a device as the iPad may be, I will never even consider one for this very reason. I don't want devices that are tied to a computer, nor will I recommend them except in very narrow cases where I know the person has a single computer and isn't likely to stop using iTunes. With the other phones I have had since the iPhone, a Nokia E71x and now an android-based Samsung Moment, I never need to connect them to a computer. I can go to librivox.org and download the next chapter of whatever audio book I am in the middle of, while on the go, without having to wait until I get home to "sync" it to a computer. Thanks to Google Listen, I always have the latest episodes of my podcasts and don't have to plan ahead before leaving the house. It's great. Yes, I know there are workarounds to get the same end-results on the iPhone, but they are cludgy and frustrating. I guess this is Apple's desperate attempt to keep people buying computers in a world where they are becoming increasingly less necessary. It just annoys me to no end. They may come around at some point, but I'm not waiting.
Conclusions
While these are just a few of the many reasons I have lost my patience with Apple, I think this list makes the point that I'm not just leaving the Apple world on a single issue or because I'm just having a bad day. This has been growing, and, for the ways I want to use computers and devices, Linux and android are making me happy in all the places Mac OS X and iPhone were driving me crazy. When I replace the current hardware I am stuck with, rest assured it will be PC hardware and not Apple. I like my Acer netbook and it is tough as nails, which is more than I can say for the MacBook Pro I am running a triple-boot setup on. Granted, I'm not not about to replace my full-sized laptop with that little netbook, but at least I know that it is possible to find decent PC hardware that will last as long or longer than Apple's when this thing dies.
Again, I'm not saying everyone else should bail on their Apple products. I don't expect most of you to whom I have recommended Apple in the past to switch to Linux. Linux has improved to the point that a lot of you probably could, but I am enough of a pragmatist to admit you're probably better off where you are... for now. I can safely say that Windows 7 is not any more buggy than OS X at this point from my experience of running both extensively at work. The only real advantage OS X has over Windows 7 anymore is the lack of constant virus issues. Microsoft is actually making some progress in this area, and with the 64 bit version of Windows 7, coupled with the free Microsoft Security Essentials, and running as a Standard user, the situation is at least manageable. Those who switched to Apple to get away from the virus problem, though, may as well stay there... for now.
In the world of technology, nothing is sacred, and nothing is perfect. Each of us has different levels of tolerance dealing with the annoyances inherent in the solutions we are stuck with. For me, Apple was stabbing a knife in every pain point I have. Linux is only cutting in a few areas, so it wins for me. I am a realist, and will still probably recommend Apple machines to many people, just not to tech-savvy people who care about these issues. At this point, I am even recommending some Windows users just stay where they are and get a new machine with Windows 7 64 bit. To those of you who know me well, that should say a lot about how things have changed in the past 5 years in Apple's ecosystem. We'll see what the next 5 years brings, but I'm seeing a lot of Linux in the forecast.
Todd Russell
May 24, 2010
There has been a steady collection of little annoyances that have built up over the past few years, to the point I'm just not willing to deal with them anymore. I'll summarize these down to the big issues to spare you from an exhausting (yes, I meant to choose that word) list of nitpicks. I do recognize that the issues are not all important to the average user, so I'm not necessarily recommending that people follow my lead here... this is just to answer the inevitable questions.
Software
Apple apparently has some of the worst programmers in the industry. How they could have taken something that was so well-built under Avie Tevanian's guard and turned it into the buggiest OS this side of beta Linux builds is beyond me. I suppose they pulled all the programmers with any real chops off their projects and put them on the iPhone OS, leaving all the interns to work on OS X and the desktop software. Life was pretty good with OS X 10.3, despite a few bugs here and there. With 10.4, things got a little worse, but the OS was still mostly tolerable. With 10.5, I started referring to it as Mac OS X Vista. Seriously, on this MacBook Pro, it was terrible. I tried hanging on for a few revisions and finally had to go back to 10.4, only to face the keyboard bugs all over again. When 10.6 came out, I thought everything would be solved... they did promise, right? So much for that. 10.6.1 didn't solve a single one of the problems I was facing either. 10.6.2 came out, all the SD card reader problems persisted, the keyboard bugs reappeared, and I finally gave up. I installed Ubuntu Linux and Windows 7 alongside OS X and have been happy in Linux ever since. When 10.6.3 came out, I updated, spent a few hours with it to give it one last chance, but after having to do a hard power down within 3 hours, I had seen enough. I'll keep it around for the occasions when my open source tools aren't getting the same results as Adobe CS3, but I have not missed it much at all. To think that I am experiencing fewer bugs and daily annoyances on a free, open source operating system that supports hundreds of thousands of hardware configurations says a lot about Apple software quality. They only have to support a few hundred hardware configurations, which they know inside and out, and they can't even get that much right?!
Security
I have been telling people for years not to run antivirus software on OS X. I still believe that the problem will never be widespread on OS X to the extent that it is on Windows, even if OS X does get significant market share. However, in the past few years, there have been so many serious security flaws in Apple software that I fear for the average user. It is only a matter of time before a major exploit hits the wild that will likely result in Apple users having a significant portion of their private info stolen. I am now having to recommend that people not use Safari if they care at all about their system security. This is exactly the kind of thing that led me to flee Windows back in the day before the problem exploded.
Hardware
I never liked the fact that all Apple's hardware solutions were proprietary, even at the time I switched. I had decided, though, that I would just make that compromise to avoid the other nuisances I was looking forward to with the coming release of Windows XP. I managed to put all this aside to the point of liking Apple hardware design and just accepting that a complete solution requires compromises. As the epidemic hardware problems began cropping up, though, the compromise was becoming rather annoying. Having to waste almost 2 hours tearing apart and rebuilding iBooks for people when the hard drives failed got old fast. Meanwhile, I could change a hard drive in a Dell in literally 5 minutes. The first time I had to pull a hard drive out of a dead iMac G5 Rev. 2 was when the frustration grew to anger. From that point on, each successive computer design became more and more ridiculous to change hard drives in. Changing the drive in MacBook Pros, trying desperately not to bend the flimsy aluminum top half of the body was where my anger finally grew to hatred. This has been festering for a few years now. The cracked glass on my original iPhone, the design of the aluminum iMac where the hard drive is just not worth the effort of getting to, the cheap plastic on the white MacBook that falls apart and stains, the graphics chip problems of many MacBook Pros, and the list goes on. All little thorns in my sides. So remind me one more time why we are paying such a high price for Apple hardware? I thought it was supposed to be for quality?
Servers
Well, I just hit my last straw last week. We have an XServe at work which has been collecting dust for over a year. I recommended against buying it originally, but the previous Director of IT before me ignored my pleas. When I took over, I switched things over to Linux servers, which are better in every way than OS X Server in mixed environments. In a Mac-only environment, the XServe has a home. In a mixed environment, it is an albatross. Well, we had some hardware issues after a really nasty lightning strike, so I decided to try and repurpose the old XServe. I quickly discovered that the XServe's EFI does not contain BIOS emulation like the other Intel machines... meaning that running Windows or Linux on it is more trouble than it is worth. I thought about giving OS X Server one last chance... to do a very simple task... basic file-sharing. I knew better, but I needed another machine, so I tried anyway. After trying a solid state drive in it, then a new 1TB hard drive, I did some searching to find out why they might not be working... and I discovered that Apple has designed the XServe to ignore drives that do not have Apple's custom firmware on them. So, if a drive dies, there's no option to run to Best Buy and pick up a replacement in an emergency, and there is no option to pick the brand and model of drive you want to use for performance and reliability. Instead, you have to pay Apple triple the going rate for a drive and just hope that they are using a good brand and model of drive. Some people may think I am over-reacting. "Just buy a spare and keep it around for the day something fails", they'll say. They just don't get it. After all that, the file-sharing didn't play as nicely with Windows 7 as the file sharing I am running on our Linux file server.
Lock-in
In the past, the DRM on songs purchased through iTunes didn't bother me... I thought I'd be using iTunes forever. Then they started releasing DRM-free versions of everything and I thought all would be well. I sucked it up and paid the extra $.30 per song to get the new versions as they came out. Somewhere along the line, iTunes stopped telling me when the DRM-free versions of my songs were released. When I had reached the point where I was ready to move on from Apple's ecosystem, I went looking to see what the deal was with these songs... only to discover that they had, in fact, been updated. I was never notified, but no problem, I'd just upgrade them now... ummmmmmmm, where is the upgrade buttom in the iTunes Store? Yes, this little convenience disappeared and now I couldn't just pay $.30 per song to get the "plus" versions of these remaining songs. I'd have to buy them again... so I spent many hours having to do manual conversions of everything to DRM-free songs. Sigh.
Slave devices
As a techno-geek, I just got to the point where I could no longer tolerate having devices that were "attached" to a computer, much less a single computer. If you use an iPod, iPhone, or iPad, you know what I am referring to... "This device is already being synced with another computer. Would you like to delete everything and start syncing it to this computer?" This one really makes me want to punch someone at Apple. What year is this? Did I just have a weird dream? Are we still in the late 90s? Or maybe it is actually 1984? Here's a clue Apple: many people have more than 1 computer. As nice a device as the iPad may be, I will never even consider one for this very reason. I don't want devices that are tied to a computer, nor will I recommend them except in very narrow cases where I know the person has a single computer and isn't likely to stop using iTunes. With the other phones I have had since the iPhone, a Nokia E71x and now an android-based Samsung Moment, I never need to connect them to a computer. I can go to librivox.org and download the next chapter of whatever audio book I am in the middle of, while on the go, without having to wait until I get home to "sync" it to a computer. Thanks to Google Listen, I always have the latest episodes of my podcasts and don't have to plan ahead before leaving the house. It's great. Yes, I know there are workarounds to get the same end-results on the iPhone, but they are cludgy and frustrating. I guess this is Apple's desperate attempt to keep people buying computers in a world where they are becoming increasingly less necessary. It just annoys me to no end. They may come around at some point, but I'm not waiting.
Conclusions
While these are just a few of the many reasons I have lost my patience with Apple, I think this list makes the point that I'm not just leaving the Apple world on a single issue or because I'm just having a bad day. This has been growing, and, for the ways I want to use computers and devices, Linux and android are making me happy in all the places Mac OS X and iPhone were driving me crazy. When I replace the current hardware I am stuck with, rest assured it will be PC hardware and not Apple. I like my Acer netbook and it is tough as nails, which is more than I can say for the MacBook Pro I am running a triple-boot setup on. Granted, I'm not not about to replace my full-sized laptop with that little netbook, but at least I know that it is possible to find decent PC hardware that will last as long or longer than Apple's when this thing dies.
Again, I'm not saying everyone else should bail on their Apple products. I don't expect most of you to whom I have recommended Apple in the past to switch to Linux. Linux has improved to the point that a lot of you probably could, but I am enough of a pragmatist to admit you're probably better off where you are... for now. I can safely say that Windows 7 is not any more buggy than OS X at this point from my experience of running both extensively at work. The only real advantage OS X has over Windows 7 anymore is the lack of constant virus issues. Microsoft is actually making some progress in this area, and with the 64 bit version of Windows 7, coupled with the free Microsoft Security Essentials, and running as a Standard user, the situation is at least manageable. Those who switched to Apple to get away from the virus problem, though, may as well stay there... for now.
In the world of technology, nothing is sacred, and nothing is perfect. Each of us has different levels of tolerance dealing with the annoyances inherent in the solutions we are stuck with. For me, Apple was stabbing a knife in every pain point I have. Linux is only cutting in a few areas, so it wins for me. I am a realist, and will still probably recommend Apple machines to many people, just not to tech-savvy people who care about these issues. At this point, I am even recommending some Windows users just stay where they are and get a new machine with Windows 7 64 bit. To those of you who know me well, that should say a lot about how things have changed in the past 5 years in Apple's ecosystem. We'll see what the next 5 years brings, but I'm seeing a lot of Linux in the forecast.
Todd Russell
May 24, 2010
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