Category: Computers and Internet

I see that I’m not the only person who would like to line up certain software developers against a wall and execute them. Diamond Geezer is having some trouble with software that won’t take no for an answer. Been there, done that, nearly took an axe to the system…

I blogged my disappointment with Creative Technology’s inability to write decent software last month. They released a new beta version of the Vista driver software for the Audigy soundcard yesterday. I downloaded it. I installed it on a mint-fresh installation of Vista RC2 build 5744.

 

The result? Another Blue Screen Of Death, and a non-working soundcard. Yep, Creative Technology are crap. I’m never going to buy any of their products again.   

…or the joys of being a software tester.

 

I’ve been using Beta 2 (and the Beta 2 Technical Refresh) of Office 2007 for sometime. When I installed it, it installed alongside Office 2003, and that was not a problem. A month or two later, Microsoft issued some security patches via their Microsoft Update system, and suddenly my Outlook 2007 stopped working. I got it working again by running "repair" on Office 2007. This happened a couple of times – each time Microsoft released patches for Office 2003, it would break Outlook 2007, and I’d have to repair it.

 

However, last night, some patches were installed, and this time Outlook 2007 remained resolutely broken. "Repair" had no effect. Neither did a complete uninstall and reinstall of Office 2007.

 

After four hours of trying one thing and another, I found the only way to get Outlook 2007 running again was to do a complete uninstall of both Office 2003 and 2007, and then reinstall Office 2007 only. It seems that the latest patches to Office 2003 are completely incompatible with Outlook 2007. I see from the message boards that I’m not the only one to have bitten by this bug, but I’m surprised that no-one inside Microsoft found it before the patches were released. This probably means that no-one in the testing teams of either Office 2003 or Office 2007 have dual installations anymore… Only us poor saps outside…

Ogle Earth reports that Google Maps now has The Netherlands properly covered.

At some point today, the page hit counter for my blog went over the 100,000 total as measured from when the blog began. Notwithstanding that a large proportion is probably down to me checking my deathless prose, or the totally disinterested checking by spambots, I feel that a milestone has been reached. Here’s to the next 100,000… 

Interesting little video about the use of computers to provide evolutionary design alternatives in, for example, drug design or civil engineering.

I see that Microsoft is gearing up to introduce its answer to YouTube – and it’s called Soapbox. The introductory video is suitably bizarre. God bless all who sail in her.

If you’ve been trying out the Beta 2 release of Microsoft Office 2007, you might be interested to know that a technical refresh of the software will be released tomorrow. If you are also playing around with Vista RC1, then you definitely need this technical refresh.

What’s real and what isn’t? So far as the internet is concerned, it’s a good question. The latest example of fantasy masquerading as reality is lonelygirl15. Ostensibly a teenager keeping a video diary unbeknownst to her parents, she turns out to be the creation of a group of filmmakers. Zephoria, over at Apophenia, has the story. And while she is excited about this and "loves the way people are using all of these new social technologies to create cultural experiments", I am less sanguine and confess to feelings of unease.

…about Windows Vista. OK, so we are still working with pre-release software, but there are five pieces of hardware in my system that the hardware manufacturers have so far failed to even produce beta device drivers for. And I’m not confident that in some cases they ever will.

 

Then there’s Creative Technology, which is in a class of its own. The hardware may be fine, but the software is dreadful. We are now just four months away from Microsoft releasing Vista, and yet the beta drivers for Creative’s products (when they exist, which is not usually) are a huge steaming pile of ordure. This is nothing new as far as Creative is concerned, it’s always had a shocking reputation for its inability to write decent software and release it on time. Just a quick visit to its discussion forum for Windows Vista shows that. My experience with Creative’s beta drivers for my Audigy 2 soundcard is mixed. After a BSOD and some other error messages, the soundcard limped into action. But the 5.1 surround sound is still just stereo, and many features of the hardware just don’t work. Ah, the joys of beta software.

So Microsoft has released a version of its Windows Vista operating system that is getting close to what the final version will be. Vista RC1 (Release Candidate 1) became available this week. Well, you know me, of course I downloaded it and installed it on a couple of the computers at home. So, what do I think?

 

Well, it’s pretty, I have to say that, but it behaves in different ways to Windows XP, and sometimes that bites me. Take, for example, the act of upgrading the device drivers and application software for my webcam. The first part of the installation proceeded swimmingly, then I was told the system needed to restart in order to complete the installation. Fine, but when it restarted, I saw this:

 

 

OK, I thought, I’ll click, and sure enough, I saw the setup program had been blocked. But even though there was an "enable" button (which I assume would "unblock" the program and let it run to completion), it was greyed out, and I couldn’t unblock the program. I tried several things to unblock the program, but nothing worked, and the device drivers remained uninstalled…

 

 

The balloon does not make it clear that the user needs to right-click on the icon to see a menu where it is possible to unblock the startup programs. Just clicking on the icon (as the balloon suggests) leads to the dialogue box where it is not possible to unblock the programs.

 

Sigh. If I have to google in order to learn how to use software, then I would contend that it ain’t intuitive…

 

 

Google Earth has at last got around to using high resolution images in its coverage of The Netherlands – and what a difference it makes! No longer is our house just a fuzzy brown blob, but it can be clearly seen, as can the pond in the garden. Google Earth is a terrific application, and being used in mashups in a huge variety of ways.

I continue to be amazed at Google Earth and the uses to which it is being put. Here, for example is Frank Taylor waxing ecstatic over a series of stunning aerial shots of Africa. He’s right, they are worth exploring.

Microsoft have released a pre-RC1 build of Windows Vista (build 5536) to a wider audience than just their registered beta testers. The build is available here. Once 100,000 copies have been downloaded from that page, Microsoft will pull the plug. So if you’re interested, you’d better move fast before they are all gone. Apparently, you’ll need a license key from one of the earlier builds (e.g. Beta2). Now, where did I put that key?

…to spite your face. An English saying that means "this will hurt you more than it hurts me". The "you" in this case would appear to be Microsoft. And why? Well, the pricing details on their upcoming Vista operating system are showing on Amazon.Com as:

 

 

Robert McClaws, over at the Longhorn Blog is not impressed ("pure and total crap" are his words). His rationale is that the price reduction on additional licenses is not sufficient to act as an incentive for people to buy them rather than pirate the software. He goes into more detail in a follow-up post here. I have to say that I have some sympathy for his argument. We have three computers here, all running legitinate copies of Windows XP Professional. If I were to upgrade them all to Vista Ulimate edition, then I’m looking at paying out $725 for the privilege (one upgrade of $259 plus two additional licenses at $233 each). Frankly, that doesn’t seem worth it. I suppose I could just upgrade one computer to Ultimate edition and leave the other two at Home Premium. Even so, I’m still looking at an outlay of $561. Hmm, I might just as well stick with Windows XP for two of the three computers for a few years more.

Microsoft has announced that you won’t be able to play forthcoming HD-DVD media in your 32bit computer. You’ll need to upgrade to a 64bit computer for that.

 

While Microsoft may claim that they are doing this at the behest of the media companies (which very well may be true), the reaction from the computer-buying public is likely to be one of anger. It certainly doesn’t make me a happy camper.

When Robert Scoble says so, apparently. He takes issue with the claim that Windows Live Spaces is now the most widely used blogging service. The whole heated and ultimately pointless discussion reminds me of medieval philosophers discussing how many angels can dance on the head of a pin, and has the same relevance to reality, i.e. none whatsoever.

 

I really couldn’t care less if Windows Live Spaces does not have sufficient of what Robert considers to be a blog to make it number 1, or even number 100, for that matter. It offers me a free tool to use for my ramblings, and one that’s good enough for me. And the same technology platform is used by millions of others to use as they see fit, whether that is an online diary, a photosharing site, social networking, or a combination of all these things.

 

I think Robert is also forgetting Sturgeon’s Revelation – it should hardly come as a surprise that large numbers of the millions of Windows Live Spaces are crap or not populated with any entries at all. That’s human nature.

Let’s turn once again to the theme of new forms of user interface. I mentioned one last month from Microsoft Research, now here’s another one being demonstrated by Jeff Han of the New York University Media Research Lab. 

 

While some aspects of it are undeniably impressive, I have the nagging feeling that Han, like any proud parent, is overselling the device. He says, at several points in the demo, that the "interface just disappears" (meaning that it is intuitive to use). And, true, for some tasks – such as moving "photos" around on a "desk", and "resizing" them, it is. But, er, hang on – where did that keyboard appear from? There was a mode change here (e.g. I am no longer shuffling photos, I want to write captions on them) that he as the user would have had to signal to the computer interface. And how did he get rid of it to switch back to shuffling his photos?

 

Don’t get me wrong, I think the interface that he demonstrates is very compelling – as far as it goes. But I have the feeling that it doesn’t go very far. You’re stuck with the fact that mode changes in an interface are a necessary evil, and that without some form of standard interface conventions, every application will end up doing their own thing. That way lies, not a disappearing interface, but the tower of Babel.