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THE VIEW FROM CHAOS MANOR

View 147 April 2 - 8, 2001

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This is a day book. It's not all that well edited. I try to keep this up daily, but sometimes I can't. I'll keep trying. See also the monthly COMPUTING AT CHAOS MANOR column, 4,000 - 7,000 words, depending.  (Older columns here.) For more on what this place is about, please go to the VIEW PAGE.

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If you want to PAY FOR THIS there are problems, but I keep the latest HERE. I'm trying. MY THANKS to all of you who sent money.  Some of you went to a lot of trouble to send money from overseas. Thank you! There are also some new payment methods. I am preparing a special (electronic) mailing to all those who paid: there will be a couple of these. I am also toying with the notion of a subscriber section of the page. LET ME KNOW your thoughts.
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Monday  April 2, 2001

China crisis. Tax time. Column time. Work...

 

 

 

 

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Tuesday, April 3, 2001

Niven over at Noon for a productive working hike. Back was bad, better after hike. Can't neglect stretches and hiking, or the consequences are severe, and I blooming well ought to know that.

I think the China situation is severe, but like the Kzinti they attack before they are ready: the long term consequence of this will be renewed support for SDI. Since you can't have strategic defenses without economical access to space, the consequences of THAT can be highly beneficial to the US and the rest of the civilized world. Couple the energy crisis -- I wrote "America's Looming Energy Crisis" in 1978, and more on this in 1980 -- with the SDI crisis -- Possony and I coined the phrase and strategy known as "Assured Survival" in 1968 -- and maybe things will come together. Space solar power is cheap if access to space is cheap (and damned expensive otherwise). It's also environmentally benign. I wonder if I will live to see it? If it do, it's because of the Red Chinese tendency to scream and leap...

Roland says "So much for copy protection..."

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/17869.html 

And here is a note from Alex:

Dear Everyone:

For reasons obscure, I seem to have sent some people a "hello" ostensibly from Amsterdam on Friday last. My amused apologies. That was a full five days after I'd returned, but I would plead e-mail foolishness as the cause. In any case, I'm back, in the office, and humming a disgustingly happy tune. (Blame the French Roast.)

However, my coverage of the CeBIT show (and the trip) is in place, and available for your reading pleasure. Please check out these URLs: (Shameless adv't)

http://www.byte.com/column/cebit01/BYT20010326S0002  http://www.byte.com/column/cebit01/BYT20010328S0007  http://www.byte.com/column/cebit01/BYT20010330S0001 

For more on the collective trip, check out:

http://www.byte.com/special/cebit01 

for the entire range of coverage from Eric, Ernest and myself.

There will be one more article next week, the 4,000-word wrapup on the show, which you will also hear about... But this gives you something to read for now, no?

All the best, Alex

 

I didn't go to CeBIT. He did. Read all about it. I am preparing a WINHEC report but it's also column time.

 

 

 

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Wednesday, Aprl 4, 2001

This morning I will install Windows XP for real. See upcoming column.

I had the URL for the Wall Street webcam, the one focused on the best spot for jumping, but I lost it.

And China says it is serious about demanding an apology. I think the lesson ought to be clear now.

The question is, how much of that damage was done to the aircraft by the heroic Chinese highly competent pilot who unfortunately lost his life in carrying out his mission, and how much was done by the Chinese removing parts of the airplane?

From Trent Telenko:

The plane the Chinese lost wasn't an Su-27.

It was a Chinese J-8.

Think of a twin engined Mig-21 with Western electronics and you have it just about right.

See:

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/row/j-8.htm 

And over in mail is an inquiry about computer equipment for blind users.

 

And Microsoft backs off:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/18106.html 

 

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Thursday, April 5, 2001

Astonishing the number of responses, some vicious, to what I thought was a joke. Oh. Well.

Installed Windows XP "professional" on a Pentium 4 previously running Windows 200 Professional. It seems to work well enough barring a couple of very odd glitches in Everquest : there seems to be an interaction between rapid repeat keys and something else, and the sound "sticks". It fixes itself shortly thereafter. It's hard to describe.

The installation went smoothly, with only one minor glitch having to do with an automatic reboot before I could remove the CDROM so that the system booted off the CDROM; I stopped it before it got far by turning off the power switch, turned it on again, removed the CDROM, and let fly. After that it was extremely smooth. Some things work in XP that did not work in 2000 or Me (all having to do with old DOS programs).

Full report in the column I am writing now. I am also installing XP "home" on a formerly Windows Me Pentium III 933 system. It too has the automatic reboot without giving you a chance to remove the CD error, which I suppose is not surprising.

Both give a long list of software it doesn't like, almost all pretty standard like the 3dfx video drivers. Since it seems to actually install and run with those,  my guess is that this is part of the Microsoft certification system, and the problem is the nature of error messages; but we will see.

Well, I installed Windows XP Home and it is horrible. It is so filled with "helpful" "features" that it is nearly unusable, and there is no way to GET TO some of the "features." It wants to update things but while Internet Explorer can connect to the Internet, the update program can't find a way to get there. This thing is NOT ready for prime time. I make no doubt they will "fix" it, but frankly the philosophy is wrong. Most users will want the "professional" version of XP which is not so "helpful" but that brings out the question of why bother? Windows 2000 seems to work at least as well. 

As a replacement for Me XP may be a good thing and may not; but if you are in a networked environment, you do not want the edition they sent me. Perhaps the release candidate will be better.

Later: OK, it's not as bad as I thought. I can log on to other computers in my net as jerry@domainname and that works. Just plain jerryp doesn't. But this is acceptable once I know that you can do it.

It still doesn't seem to be able to get to the upgrade site although Internet Explorer works. Odd.

Running old DOS programs produces "Cannot load COMMAND.COM" or "Invalid COMMAND.COM". Fooling around with targeting backup copies of command.com helps but doesn't solve the problem. These are applications that WORK FINE under Windows 98, do not work properly with Windows Me, work I think with Windows XP professional...

Ah well.

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Friday, April 6, 2001

Dry winter in Washington means another power crisis, layoffs in the aluminum industry, etc. Exactly what the WPPS people wanted to prevent with the nuclear power plants that the "conserve your way out of your problems" group caused to be shut down through legal interventions and misleading the public.  So now Washington will feel the pinch too.

It may be possible to inconvenience your way to prosperity but in a democracy it's not likely. It takes a war to get people to "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without," which was the World War II slogan I heard daily as a teenager. It also takes a people more steeped in patriotism and self sacrifice than the products of our politically correct schools are likely to be.

 

Windows XP continues to frustrate me. This morning on both the HOME and PRO machines with XP the START task bar and tray were GONE, and nothing I could do would restore them. The machines were USELESS except to run programs whose icons were on the desktop; no others need apply. Eventually I did control-alt-delete and logged off. When I logged back on the system was usable again, in that I had a tray and taskbar. This is a "feature"? It's the same on both the Pro and Home editions. See the column for more, but so far my assessment of XP is UGH. Someone has been too clever by half.

I am sure I will be told how to deactivate this "feature", but what other surprises are there? Many user interface changes seem to have been made just to make it look different. Then there is a pop-up windows that keeps telling me that my DVD player software is out of date and offers to take me to a web site that will fix it. Of course it doesn't take me there. When I try to run my DVD player I get more dialog. Of course the player works, having worked with Windows Me. I presume they thing no one was idiot enough to install Me, and thus there was no need to take heed of Me software?

Once again I am sure it will all work out but I do not have a good feeling about this.

I have a reader who sent me email about XP and features, and I attempted to tell him about this before posting, but alas, all email sent to him is returned by postmaster. No explanation is given. I think I need an XP guru. Which means that if I do, Aunt Minnie certainly will. Continued next Monday.

Apparently everyone now assumes that all press people have T1 lines. To do press registration for conferences you have to endure the darndest collection of animated web pages I ever saw each one taking forever to download, and all they really need is a form to take data. I think most web designers are too clever by half. Remember this useful phrase. You will find yourself needing it again and again.

A reminder: if you don't have Irfanview, get it. If you do have it, go pay for it. Here's how.

 

Roberta was at a public school 5th grade class mostly Hispanic children, who can't read English. She was introducing the new test version of her reading program. It seems to be catching on. The kids like it. If you know kids who can't read English you really should have a look at her web site. Home schoolers in particular should look at this...

More fooling around with Windows XP. I have to say the more used to it I get the better I like some of it. Interesting. It will all be in the column. I will also put a WinHec report in the column, but since I have a lot more than can go in it, I will do a WinHec photoessay like the Internet World report and send that to subscribers.

 

Well one thing Windows XP won't do: you can't set the screen to 256 colors. There are some old programs that require it. Too bad. They won't run. Period.

Note that I could do that in Me and 98 and in Windows 2000 Professional (desktop). No more. I wonder why?  But that's a serious limit.

Conquest of the New World Deluxe, again an old DOS program, ran in 98 and Me. It blows up in Windows XP, and by blows up I mean that the system displays garbage and sits there a long time. Eventually I am told to close the program and the system has recovered, but it will not run it. Same machine ran CNW with same hardware in Windows Me just a couple of days ago.

You may find this interesting.

 

 

 

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Saturday, April 7, 2001

Windows XP has done it again. So has Windows 98.

With XP, the tool bar or task bar or whatever the devil they call that main thing down at the bottom that contains the START button and the tray vanishes. This only happens overnight. Control-escape will bring up the equivalent of pressing the START button, but it will not restore the task bar. If I bring the cursor down to the bottom of the screen it turns into a small up arrow, but that does nothing interesting. The only remedy I have found is to log out.

Windows 98 works sometimes, but then mysterious things happen. This last escapade goes in the column, but I am now about to conclude that Microsoft ought to be broken up: there should be one company whose total focus and job is to make the blasted operating systems WORK, and not to devise new ones to find new ways to extract money from the public by holding us hostage. Make them give Windows 98 to a separate company whose whole job is simply to MAKE IT WORK, not "improve" it.


You may find this interesting:

http://www.janes.com/aerospace/military/news/misc/lingshui_sat_pic_010404.shtmln 

Amazing what you can see with 1-meter resolution.

 

 

 

 

 

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Sunday, April 9, 2001 PALM SUNDAY

I am mildly late getting the column done and on the wire. There will be a lot of mail and stuff Monday. Tonight I finished the column and I am going to play Everquest.

 

 

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