OpinIonAteD

(I sometimes randomly check “sex” as a category, to see how this affects traffic. I know, it is annoying - I’ll publish the results, eventually..

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So - we are where I have already bored you with tales of backing up and system temperature. Remember, the premise is:

You want to make sure you don’t lose your files;

You want to make sure you can still access them in 10 years time;

You want to make the backup process easy.

And the solution was that you have a home computer network - whether that is wired, WiFi wireless, or Bluetooth wireless doesn’t really matter - and you’ve got yourself an old PC - it does not matter what flavour of Windows it runs, from 98SE up to Vista penUltimate - and you stuck a large hard drive on/in it.

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And it is cheap - old PC you weren’t using any more, doesn’t matter even if it is running Windows 98SE, as long as you have the master disk for it, so you can reinstall; two of these Seagate drives, eSata RAID 0/1 controller (don’t worry about RAID 2 through 5, that is for data and hosting centers, which is why there are controllers on the market that do just RAID 0 and RAID 1), a couple of eSata cables, and you have your own data center for around $400 (if you have to buy an obsolete PC from Heartland America or someplace as well, say, $600).

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If you have followed some of my musings with regard to network drives, you’ll know I am trying to set up a backup capability that I can use over my home WiFi network. Generally a good idea, and especially those of you in families where there are multiple computers, or perhaps where you’re a professional couple, should really think about backups. One friend of mine has his “family” system, his wife’s laptop, his work laptop, his son’s Macintosh and PS/2, and his daughter’s laptop. The daughter had her laptop stolen from her dorm room, and lost everything, including the documentation and papers she had been working on for classes.

I have traditionally always backed up to high density backup devices, from DVD-RAM drives to (the latest I used) double layer DVDs, great, because they can take almost 10 gigabytes of data. But what I have found, over time, is that those writable and rewritable optical devices are not at all reliable. They will, one morning, preferably when you need the backup, refuse to read back. Part of the reason is that there are a gazillion different methods to master these disks, and those methods are often not completely compatible. One of my laptops, for instance, comes with the well known Nero mastering solution; for the others, I bought Roxio’s Easy Media Creator 9, partially because my HP laptop originally came with the Adaptec mastering solution that became Roxio, when that company was spun off as a software house.

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If you are into concealed carry, these sleeveless Tees I found at Sportsmansguide are great. I found especially that for as long as you make sure the T is a really tight fit, the pad/strap does a better job of keeping the gun tightly underneath the armpit than conventional holsters. I can’t say that I have really tested that many regular holsters, but the absence of straps and other keep-it-in-place aids make this a very comfortable concealed-carry tool.

Especially handy underneath a pullover, where I would not carry a regular shoulder holster. They probably won’t last that long, and I have not had them long enough to know how they hold up in the laundry, or how well or badly they fare when you’re sweating, and how that affects your gun - will let you know. The medium size, here with my CZ 75 D Compact 9mm Luger (this is the short magazine 10+1 round version, a terrific carry weapon), is a terrific fit, comfortable, no chafing. Available in black and white, I guess nobody thought anybody wanted them pink, or lime green. Or khaki, for that matter. Yes, I am a leftie.

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Hybrid cars have made up 3% of the total sales of cars in 2007, half of that, 51%, as Priuses. Three tenthts of one percent of all vehicles on the road are hybrids. And that reminds me of the resounding success of Apple’s iPhone: some 6 million units sold since June. Wow.

Until you put it all into perspective, the same way you can do with hybrid cars. Nokia makes and sells 6 million cellphones between Friday and Tuesday. And 14% of all cars are SUVs. So if I have to guess, I think I would buy Nokia shares. And Ford shares - they have good trucks, good SUVs, and even an SUV with a hybrid drivetrain, should you want one. I think I don’t need to massage the statistics, and ask evaporative “what if” questions, to come to that conclusion. I doubt very much, you see, that the Prius has earned the cost of its development. Or that it has significantly contributed to Toyota’s bottom line. The same as the Walkman never translated into significant growth of Sony Corporation - on the contrary, Sony never parlayed the Walkman’s success into more. It is not about whose success comes first, folks, it is about the last corporation standing. Look at the formula: Ford took an existing small SUV, took a German four banger (the Germans do those best) and a Japanese electrical drivetrain (the Japanese do those best) and cobbled it all together - no complete redevelopment for a completely new car. In the long run, that is much more likely to be a success formula, and other American manufacturers follow suit.

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(Umm, let me get this straight. Egg yolks aren’t good for you, too much cholesterol, so somebody invented Eggbeaters, just egg whites, good for you. And did I just see a commercial for new Eggbeaters with yolk? You mean, like, uh, eggs?)

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There is in fact very little you can predict. The iPod became a predictable success because it repeated the Walkman concept in a space that is just a bit larger than a matchbox. The Blackberry became a predictable success because it let you send text messages using a full keyboard on a cellphone.

Much of the effort that is made to do surveys, and mass market products, and mass advertise, is completely wasted. I like to think of it as an act of desperation. Flood people with advertising, and there will be one sucker who buys your product. Yeeeeeeah!! Success!!

You can see it in the supermarket. People run through the aisles looking for bargains. They buy things that are on sale. They don’t go buy Colgate Total because the ad says it has triclosan. Do you honestly think that all these consumers spend 100 hours a week reading and watching advertisements, just in case there is a better widget out there? Joey sitting in front of his game snarfing Budweiser and popcorn has a notepad by his side so he can jot down the really interesting products he wants to buy? Anna is going to call Geico to switch her insurance from Allstate, paying $200 a year more, immediately after the Martha Stewart show because these cute Neanderthals give her the hots? It is laughable… Why was that funny again? Ah - it’s so easy a Caveman can do it. You couldn’t say: “It’s so easy a Hispanic can do it”, because that would be discriminatory. But if you discriminate against a fictitious ethnic group, that’s hilarious. So discriminating is funny. Thank you, Geico.

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An interesting article from Reuters, the other day, discussed how everybody got it wrong, when marketing hybrid vehicles, and only Toyota got it right. I think it omits a couple of things, but that is not what I wanted to talk to you about. It is the following quote that attracted my attention:

“One complication for car makers has been inaccurate market research. In research groups, car buyers have said they would consider buying a car that looked just like established models, with just a badge on the back to identify it as a hybrid.

But George Peterson, president of consulting firm AutoPacific Inc in Tustin, California, said that is where everyone except for Toyota have missed the mark.

“Our respondents are lying through their teeth,” Peterson said.“

In particular, I would strongly advise anybody who believes Mr. Peterson, or whoever wants to do business with AutoPacific, to think about that.

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At a dating site, I saw a notice that I have seen so many times: “I do not play with married men. Sorry, but I’m no homewrecker”. I tend to find that somewhere between amusing and stupid. If a married man has a relationship with you, he is the homewrecker, not you. And if he is going to have a relationship with another woman, and you are not playing, he will find somebody else. But, most importantly, a married man will generally lavish attention on you, you won’t have to do his laundry, he will likely be “generous”, he will make much more of an effort to keep you happy than a “regular” lover would, and if he eventually decides to pay more attention to his wife, there is an endless supply of other available men for you.

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I am going to soon revisit London - it only recently dawned on me that I have friends living there, sort of had an unexpectedly homey feeling last year, when I stopped by them on my way back to the U.S. Sitting on a Metropolitan Line train into the West End from Uxbridge, stopping by the newsagent’s to buy a packet of fags, it brought back a flood of memories I suppose I suppressed all this time. Although I do watch East Enders every week, something I definitely did not do when I was living there. Living and working in London - a number of years I actually lived in ‘ackney, in the East End of London - you’re in East Enders, it’s all around you.

I got a jolt when watching Top Gear, the other day, when the lads were planning to traverse all of London, inside the North Circular Road, and they started the episode off smack in the middle of Kew Green - around the corner from where I used to live when I first came to London, on the Mortlake Road. The jolt came from actually recognizing the pubs Clarkson (the growth out of his ears is nothing to worry about, it is natural, it’s his ego looking for more space) was standing in front of, in Summer, that’s where you get your pint, and then watch the cricket being played on the Green.

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Gas up while you can.. A full tank for the Durango set me back $60 - the lady next to me in the store said she had spent $100 filling up her F150 full size truck. If we’re not in a recession now, the gasoline prices are going to stop people from shopping, going out, and going on vacation - three airlines folded in one week? Do we really have to wait for a new president for this to get taken care of? Making nice with Putin isn’t going to do it - he has all the gas in the world.. $60.. that is what a full tank for the big Renault cost, while I was living in Monaco, twelve years ago. We’re catching up.

Amsterdam newspaper Het Parool reported on Wednesday that a group of non-denominational 7th graders recently visited a local mosque in the interfaith learning program, were received very cordially, given a tour of the mosque, and were addressed by mosque chairperson M’hammed Guennoun. When, back at school, their teachers asked them what they had learned, one pupil said: “We’re dogs”. Guennoun had concluded his speech to them by saying that “non-believers are dogs”. Of course, Mr. Guennoun now says he was misunderstood because of his rudimentary Dutch, and his interpreter had not been available. Which begs the question why someone would raise the issue of Islamic Extremism, which is what he says he wanted to address, with a bunch of school kids. Not much to do with interfaith and Islam, right? I am glad I took the trouble to learn Inglis before I moved to the United States, Brother Guennoun.

If you are wondering why Zimbabwe freedom fighter veterans have now occupied a number of the remaining white owned and -operated farms there, and evicted the owners and their families - I have a sneaking suspicion they’re aware that Mr. Mugabe’s days are numbered, and are grabbing what they can, while they can. How a country that was once Southern Africa’s breadbasket has been allowed to slide into the depth of despair defies reason…

A couple of additional tales about my Vista install I have to share with you. I do not know why or how, but the Vista install cured two ills my HP nx9008 had, and though I do not want to suggest Microsoft is going to magically repair your computer, it happened to me, and may be related to Vista drivers that work better with hardware than XP ever did.

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“Also identified was Alejandro Castano, whose remains were found in the Liberty Street area, the medical examiner’s office said.

The 35-year-old from Englewood, New Jersey, was in the area that day to deliver pens and paper to a brokerage firm on the 97th floor of the south tower, his family told The Record of Hackensack, New Jersey.“

New York Newsday, 4/8/8

Rest in Peace, Compadre. May you never be forgotten.

I suppose the lack of Vista compatible drivers is what I ran into when I installed it on my old 2003 HP Notebook, which I have not been using for some time, other than to manage an uninterruptible power supply. The drivers HP makes available at its website are all for XP and earlier versions of Windows, logical, considering this laptop has long been out of production.

Indeed, some drivers installed, others did not, notably the ATI graphics drivers - ATI has no Vista drivers for this older chipset at its website either. The audio drivers were even more problematical - they began to install, but never returned with a success or failure, only to come back after reboot, reporting a successful install of - nothing.

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I tend to have a problem with David Pogue’s posts in the New York Times - it is beyond me how someone with such a lack of technical and historical expertise can educate the public on matters technological. A recent Circuits posting is a good example; it discusses, once again, the iPhone, which David has been touting as if it is the best thing since sliced bread. David, if it were, I would own one.

Here is what I posted in the Times, as a response:

snipsnipsnipsnipsnipsnipsnipsnipsnipsnipsnipsnip

Ok, David, Apple sold 4 million iPhones in 200 days. In a worldwide market that consumes, at the present time, some 1 billion mobile phones a year. You clearly weren’t around when the Macintosh was introduced - a journalist at the time, I sat in the press conferences, looked at the thing, and - guess what, the story was exactly the same. Stunning design, well manipulated media, superb human factors design, lacking technology, obfuscated shortcomings. That Apple had to drop its “own” microprocessor, having been unable to continue development on Motorola hardware, having been unable to convince IBM there was a future in the processor they were building, escapes you, David. You haven’t sat around in Hong Kong, Beijing, even Manila, where anything that doesn’t have 3.5G (3G has been obsolete since sometime 2007) is a joke.

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Awright, I am going to try and write this online. At the risk of losing my work and having nobody to complain to. I mean, I can call them, but they don’t come back with anything meaningful, anything at all, really.

In my last dispatch I mentioned that Windows Vista is running fast(er). On my Intel Centrino Duo machine it is actually flying. You need to realize that the Vista you are working on today is a very different animal from the one you were on a year ago - which is when I first switched to a cheap Everex laptop with Vista preloaded. Everex does make XP drivers available to those wanting to run that, by the way.

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Over the weekend, I kept checking this blog, and only found a single instance where /cgi failed - twice. But as the technical support folks have not been in touch - “you’ll receive an email” - I have no idea whether this means they have finally fixed whatever was broken, or not. And that means I can’t use Wordpress to create blog entries, which means I can’t see my formatting, do $pecial characters, bold, or any of that other good stuff.

Why is that important? I don’t really know. I began my writing career on an IBM golfball typewriter, with nothing but a blank sheet of copy (as in “press copy”) paper, you’d count out the number of words, created sidebars, indicated illustrations, and that would then go to one of the designers in the art department. Next time you saw your work is when you’d be asked to go over the proofs. So it should really be easy to do the same, and split the publishing process in its two constituent parts, considering I was actually trained in those.

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