August 2003 Archives

    As I was going through today's news, I came across the following article at news.com:
Symantec Adds Product Activation
I just went through a bout of dealing with product activation and Microsoft Windows XP that lead to me sending the product it was installed on back to the supplier. It made me quite sad. Over the past few years I have thoroughly enjoyed IBM's ThinkPad laptops. I have owned a total of three 770ED's and have prepped countless others for family members and friends. Unfortunately, after two reinstalls (of the OS) and other problems - and over 30 minutes on the phone with Microsoft to reactivate XP twice - I got sick of the process. I understand what draws companies like Microsoft and Symantec to add product activation into their products, but as a consumer, it is horrible. It is like having to call GM any time I make changes to my Tahoe in order to be able to continue driving the vehicle. This is nothing short of ridiculous if you think of the time involved in doing this - especially when it is part of a troubleshooting exercise.
    I think the idea of including product activation into software is a bad idea. I understand it, but it is still a bad idea. I hope to God that Apple doesn't come up with the same brainstorm. And save us if more companies think this is the next best thing. My advice, please notify those companies you do business (software- and hardware-wise) with what you think. I just wish I could find the link to contact Apple on their website... that's another story.

    I like giving compliments and credits where credit is due. This time around, Microsoft deserves a good amount of credit for being one of the only Tech players on the block who are offering Bluetooth devices like keyboard and mice combos (in fact, at this point, they were the only people I could find an available keyboard/mouse combo from - at this time). I just received my Wireless Optical Desktop (for Bluetooth) from CDW this morning and kept my fingers crossed while I tried to set up the device with my 17" PowerBook which has built-in Bluetooth. Within a matter of seconds, I was up and running. Click -> Set up a Bluetooth Device -> Keyboard/Mouse -> exchanging keys... etc. and I was done. This is the way wireless was meant to be! I have been waitin a long time for Bluetooth to actually make it mainstream with devices like this. I don't see it as a viable alternative to WiFi/802.11a/b/g because of the lack of bandwidth (from what I have read, Bluetooth is really only capable of 768kbps), but when it comes to headsets, keyboards, pda's, etc. I can't see a better way to get devices connected. This is light-years ahead of USB/FireWire and the sensitivity specifically relating to input devices is better than the current crop of USB-to-wireless (usually in the 900MHz spectrum) devices.
    Apple also deserves a decent amount of credit, considering I didn't need any drivers or have to do much that was counter-intuitive. For the fool-proof crowd, the setup process might be simplified in the future, but I don't know of any setup process as simple as this one. The installation of drivers for Windows requires that you install the software first and configure the device afterward. I don't know how involved it is and will likely comment when the time comes that I attach the keyboard to a Windows machine. Suffice it to say, Apple did a great job in incorporating Bluetooth into their newer machines and also making typical device/driver problems non-existent (as long as you don't need the extended features of the keyboard I have - for which I haven't tried the normal Intellipoint drivers for OS X - and probably will not do so because I don't need the extra buttons). Both companies deserve pats on the back for a great job done!

    A reader of the site asked the following question today:

I thought it would be simpler and also helpful for me to post the comments (that I already posted) as a short follow-up article to the original commentary that lead to the question.
    If you are uncomfortable with using XFree86, then it is unlikely you are going to want to try OpenOffice. Perhaps, however, you will get the I hate Office bug and insist on finding an alternative (I can also recommend AppleWorks, but only in passing because I have only written a notice with it to inform people working in my house not to urinate on the toilette seats). You are warned...
The commentary:
    I find the performance of OpenOffice more than acceptable on both my 12" PowerBook and 17" PowerBook (one is my wife's and the other is mine). I find the performance better than Office - without a doubt. Office is oddly sluggish when doing editing operations - I have none of these problems when using OpenOffice. I have both software products on my machine, however, as I have a lot of documents that are Word formatted that end up somewhat garbled in OO. I still would recommend trying it out. As the weeks pass, I am finding it less and less necessary to open Office/Word
    One caveat is that you cannot cut and paste between XFree86 programs and OS X native/Aqua programs. Therefore, you cannot cut-n-paste from TextEdit and Open Office. I forget this at times, but the inconvenience is worth the fact that I am slowly freeing myself of Office molasses.

After reading through some news this morning, I couldn't help throwing 2 Cents in on the continuing SCO/Linux case(s) and the infamous RIAA/music file swapping issue.
- SCO is going to have little recourse in the end. Sure, that is a simple, almost baseless statement in itself, but if you take time to look through the stories and try to boil things down to root statements, it is that simple. SCO wants us to believe that [after contributing to Linux development] they feel ownership of code was infringed upon and that software developers like IBM owe them royalties or damages based upon stolen work. SCO has yet to show what they mean by stolen code. Show me the proof that code was directly stolen from your intellectual property and then we can battle. Otherwise, the claims being made are still without merit. They apparently showed glimpses of the materials they feel are copyrighted at a Unix trade show recently. Unfortunately, they still have not been clear about what they believe to be the copyrighted material in question:

If you are not willing to give proof for your claims, then you have no ground to stand on. I don't know what kind of weed they have been smoking lately, but I'd love to try it if I could make claims without proof... what a wonderfully naive life I could live... (Rant via SCO Adds Twist to Linux Case by Displaying Code.)
- Trading copyrighted material is simply wrong. You are stealing. I understand that you don't feel that the prices for said material are fair, but that's life. If you are going to use music as part of a collection like you would for CD's, tapes, etc, then you are doing nothing different than someone would if they took a CD from your collection and didn't give it back. Just because the technology is there to copy the materials (easily, I might add), it doesn't mean that you have a right to copy the materials without paying for them. Just because you feel that the RIAA has used "relative, subjective terms", doesn't mean that you hold the right to copy copyrighted materials. (All this talk via Vague Limits Vex Music Traders.)
    Is the RIAA justified in invading your privacy, hacking into your computer, etc? Absolutely not. I think they are just as much idiots as SCO. These types of battles lead people to do exactly what you don't want them to do - i.e. copy copyrighted materials, use Linux, and the list goes on. These two groups are idiots. There, now I feel better - and I've gotten my 2 Cents in.

    As of last night, Steffi and I officially ended our move - the part of selling our old house, that is. Due to the move and other things going on in our lives, I have made some major technological changes. One huge one being the shuttering of my own web and email hosting operations. Thus far, I can still say that I am extremely pleased with the ease at which I was able to move everything over to Pair.com. I was also happy to see that none of the power outages that the east coast and parts of the midwest are experiencing (see NYTimes articles like Blackout Stretches Into Second Hot Night) have effected Pair's services. When I think of the sheer amount of money I will be saving by not doing the hosting myself, I get all giddy inside ;) While I would still love to pursue helping people set up websites and host them, this is certainly a better and more economic way of doing so. I just haven't figured out what I am going to do with 4 server-class workstations!
    The other technological test I have been running is the usage of an internet-to-phone service provided by Vonage. In one word, the service is fantastic. You wouldn't know that you are on an IP phone connected to some phone gateway elsewhere in the world. The price is awesome, the quality of the phone calls are awesome and the fact that it just works is exciting. Why did I decide to go this route for our main phone line? Cell phones don't work the greatest in our new house and we still have the issue that there is no "unlimited service" cell plan offered by Sprint PCS (or any of the other local carriers for that matter). Vonage's less expensive plan of $26/mo (plus the applicable taxes, of course) includes 500 long-distance (including Canada) minutes and the prices for calling Germany the lowest we have ever had in the US (5 Cents a minute). We still have local service provided by a local carrier I really like (Sharon Telephone Company - yes their website is horrible, but I could care less because their service is outstanding), but everything except for two exchanges is a local-long-distance call or simply long distance. On top of that, Vonage provides caller ID, call waiting, call forwarding, call redirect, etc. as part of the base plan. For $26, that is not bad. The same service with SBC would have been close to $45/mo and that didn't include any long-distance calling minutes (on top of that, the rates to Germany through other long distance carriers were not nearly as good). Considering that broadband is a way of life in our household, why not use it for one more thing and save some money? If you are looking for better phone service and already have broadband, I would highly recommend it. By the way, if we ever move, we don't need to change the number (even if it was back to Germany - as long as we had DSL/broadband)... another nice little feature.