Break's Over

Slashdot linked to an interesting article about the reliability of software, and the futility of the short upgrade cycle in technology.  While I understand those who get frustrated at having to upgrade every 3 years, I think we're starting to hit a plateau right now.  If you've got a Pentium II CPU or better, your computer still does e-mail and the web just fine, not to mention all the word processing you'll ever need...

I did, however, enjoy this little tidbit, part of the section that suggested software companies should be liable for the shortcomings of their software:

"Essentially, people are selling business software that is no more reliable than creative software," says Lanier. "It crashes all the time -- it's totally unpredictable. There's not sufficient benefit to justify that unreliability. If each new version of Windows offered incredible ways of enhancing our lives, then we'd accept bugginess. But the current system, left to its own devices, will lead to eternal crap. I don't see any force in the current system that creates motivation to give people not-crap."

I saw over at ActiveWin that Yamaha has introduced a 20X CD-RW drive.  Now that's what I call fast, you can burn an 80 minute CD in only 4 minutes....

 I watched Almost Famous yesterday, on DVD.  This was really an excellent movie, and I have to agree with Roger Ebert when he says it should have been nominated for best picture of the year.  The phrase "love letter to rock and roll" really describes this movie well, and it's a movie that everyone should see.  I really liked the note Ebert put at the end of his review, which reads:

Why did they give an R rating to a movie perfect for teenagers?

And then I wondered the same thing, the brief nudity is so brief that I wasn't sure I saw it.  The drug use isn't glorified, you can find much worse on television. The language certainly isn't over the top, or shocking in any way...

Spring Break is now over, so I've gone from having very little to do at work to being overwhelmed, all in the course of three hours.  I've also been chewed out for not having one of the multi-media stations in a classroom ready to go for class today.  This is because a new podium was installed to house the computer and VCR for the classroom, but the doors that came with it were not the correct ones.  I didn't want to leave the computer there unsecured, so I didn't install it last week, hoping that the doors would be in soon.  They aren't here yet, so I get chewed out for it, of course.

It's one of those lose-lose situations, I could either not have the station ready, in which case I get chewed out.  Or, I could have put it in there, and risk having it stolen, in which case I'd really be in hot water.  My co-worker and I have tried numerous times to convince the faculty that they really don't need the computers to teach their classes for a day or two, and that they shouldn't rely on them 100%, because hard drives fail, servers crash, zip drives go bad, projector bulbs burn out, etc. 

Yet, you'd be surprised at the number of people who cancel class if the computer isn't working.  I guess they don't grok blackboards and overhead projectors...

Root Canal Part II

I had the second part of my root canal done this morning, I've got to go back in April for part three.  It turns out that I'm a mutant, and have four roots to my tooth, rather than the normal three.  Lucky me...

A friend's mother passed away Tuesday night, completely without warning.  Amy's dad woke up, and found his wife dead of a heart attack in bed next to him.  Pretty scary, as my friend is two years younger than I am , and people my age (24) don't generally expect our parents to suddenly die in their sleep.

Radio killed the video star

As expected, Radio Userland doesn't work quite right for me.  I set it up at home last night, got subscribed to a few channels, and then left it running when I came to work this morning.  I logged in to it, read a news story, then clicked "delete" on the home page, to remove it.  All I get is an HTTP 500 error message.  Right now, I wouldn't pay anything for this software, so it's a good thing that it's free...

Time has an article comparing TiVo to Microsoft's new UltimateTV system.  Since the author didn't, I should point out that the DirectTiVo models will have dual-tuner capability, just like Microsoft's box. 

Many thanks to Al, who this evening helped me find a phone number for Saint Johns Tire, in Saint Johns, Oregon.  Information couldn't find it, I couldn't find it on the web either.  It turns out, it's a district within Portland, so Al just had to crack open the phone book.  He's my hero...

I'm playing around with the new release of Radio Userland. It's progressed a great deal since the last time I tried it. Now I need to figure out how I can run it as a service under Windows, so it's always on...

So far, I'm underwhelmed by editing my weblog in this manner. It's not obvious how you create subject lines, as you'll notice above on the left side, all I get is the date. Also, the editor box lacks the WYSIWYG editor that I've come to know so well...   10:08:09 PM

Warning: Easy CD Creator 5.0 can kill!

I've spent most of the day battling the problems that Roxio's Easy CD Creator 5.0 can cause with Windows 2000.  By performing a complete install, you can render your operating system unbootable.  I've also discovered that uninstalling Easy CD Creator 4.0 can leave your CD-ROM drives unusable to Windows.  In short, I've had a frustrating day, but I've learned quite a bit.  I've also come to loathe Roxio, and I wish a plague on upon their programmers, their tech support people, and their Quality Assurance people, if any actually exist...

I've detailed the problems, and the fixes, that go with this new product.  As far as I can tell, I'm the only place on the web that has the info about this new product, as even Roxio's pages don't have any support information for version 5.0.  You may want to spread this information far and wide, for I predict there will be a great many others who will have these problems...