Category: Computers and Internet

"There’s nothing we can do – it’s an automated system"

 

That’s a sentence that is guaranteed to raise my blood pressure. Having worked in IT myself, I know that it’s not the computer’s fault; the blame can be laid entirely at the door of the humans who designed, programmed and paid for the computer system.

 

The latest example that has been sent to try me is provided courtesy of my Internet Service Provider, XS4ALL.

 

Normally, when one moves house in the Netherlands, the telecom provider (KPN) and the Internet Service Provider work in tandem to ensure that the ADSL (Broadband) service is also moved at the same time. Alas, my experience has been been far from troublefree and seamless. My experience has resulted in an XS4ALL sales support person uttering that dreaded sentence at the beginning of this piece.

 

The seed of my misfortune lies in the fact that I used an ISDN line at my old address to carry the ADSL service, while here at the farmhouse we have a plain old Analogue line. KPN and XS4ALL are quite happy to move ADSL between two ISDN lines, or between two Analogue lines; but between and ISDN and an Analogue line? Unfortunately, "that does not compute", as I’ve found out to my cost. At first, I was told that it could be done, but then it was: "sorry, you’ll have to cancel the ADSL service on the ISDN line and then reapply for a new ADSL service on the Analogue line". This I did – and then found out that I couldn’t apply for the new ADSL service until the old service is stopped. This takes a month. Then, once the application for the new service is made, it takes a further two or three weeks before the new service is available. Going back to dialup speeds after ADSL is like watching paint dry on most modern web sites. Still, I resigned myself to being up to three weeks without my ADSL fix.

 

But now, a new wrinkle in this sorry saga has appeared. KPN have indeed stopped my old ADSL service, but XS4ALL are still insisting that I have it, and are still stopping me from applying for a new one.

 

According to KPN’s automated system, KPN stopped the old ADSL on the 31st March. Not bad, I suppose, considering that they were supposed to have stopped it on the 27th March, as had been agreed. Considering that they had a month’s notice, they really should have been able to hit the 27th March target…

 

Meanwhile, XS4ALL’s automated system is still stubbornly insisting that I am enjoying ADSL service on an ISDN line that is itself no longer operational (I also cancelled the ISDN line). Last week, an XS4ALL’s sales support person first claimed that this was a temporary abberation, and that all would be well on Monday 3rd April. Inevitably, Monday has come and gone with no change. A second sales support person claimed on Tuesday the 4th April that it would all be alright by the end of this week. It was she who could quite clearly see in her information system that something was wrong, but then cheerfully uttered the Dutch equivalent of "There’s nothing we can do – it’s an automated system". 

 

So the upshot is that muggins here has found himself trapped in a hell between two automated systems that appear to refuse to communicate with each other, with support staff who seem to be unable to do a damn thing about it. And until they do, I can’t order my new ADSL line. It looks as though I am condemmed to dialup for at least a month, if not longer. Meanwhile, XS4ALL’s marketing department’s ad campaign extolling the virtues of fast Internetting with ADSL rolls on. I am thinking uncharitable thoughts at the moment.

Mike Fullerton is having a little difficulty with his Toshiba laptop. I know what he means – I’ve had the misfortune to use machines like that. There are times when a little simplicity and a well-designed user experience would not go amiss. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been happening for Mr. Fullerton.

Interesting research video of a touch-sensitive screen. The harbinger of things to come?

Bruce Schneier, a computer security expert, has an intriguing posting in his blog. It purports to be a cryptogram that was found near the body of a suicide who had just murdered his wife and stepson. While there was some doubt at first as to whether the cryptogram is genuine, it appears that it may well be. The comments on Schneier’s blog entry are also worth reading. The most plausible explanation is currently that (assuming the cryptogram is genuine) it represents a cheat sheet for a series of computer passwords.

It seems that Sony’s robot dog – AIBO – has had its plug pulled. Damn, this puts paid to my cunning plan to reduce the running costs of a dog. Now we’ll have to get a real one.

That’s the question raised by Mano over at his blog. It’s a rhetorical question, because he lists 15 reasons as to why he thinks the next version of Microsoft Windows will be worth it.

 

Mmm, perhaps; but I’m afraid I’m much more cynical. I’ve got this sinking feeling that if I were to step up to Vista, then I won’t be just faced with the cost of upgrading my operating system, but also having to replace some core application software and related hardware.

 

For example, with the current Technology Preview of Vista that I have installed for test; the soundcard, the webcam, and the USB video capture devices all don’t work. While I realise that this is not totally unexpected in a beta, my point is that I really don’t have much faith in the companies behind these devices coming out with new versions of drivers or application patches for Vista.

 

Take the soundcard – it’s not a mass-market device, it’s the E-MU 1820M DSP, which is part of my home studio setup for musicmaking, in combination with Steinberg’s Cubase SX. Neither the E-MU driver, nor the E-MU application currently work in Vista. And then, Steinberg is notorious for releasing new versions of software and dropping support for older versions. I’m quite happy with my version 2 of Cubase SX – but Steinberg stopped support of this back in 2004. Based on their history, I doubt whether they’ll come out with a patch to make it work on Vista. And I doubt that I can afford to upgrade to a version of Cubase that is designed for Vista. I expect it will be a similar story for the video capture device (made by Adaptec, who have not updated the drivers or the application – despite the fact that it has bugs – since mid 2004).

 

The real question is not "do I need Windows Vista?", but "what is the cost of upgrading/replacing my complete system – applications, hardware, and operating system?. The cost of the upgrade of the operating system alone is not the point. I would like to be proved wrong – it would be great if all my applications and hardware continued to be supported under Vista. But somehow, I don’t think that’s going to happen, and I’ll resign myself to soldiering on with Windows XP for as long as I can.

 

Update: Out of curiosity, I tried installing Cubase SX2 and the Steinberg Midex 8 interface onto build 5270 of Vista. Neither would install properly. For Cubase, Vista announced: "Application blocked due to known Compatibility issues. This version of Windows Media Technologies is incompatible with or has been superseded by this version of Windows". Not entirely unexpected, I suppose, but without proactive support by Steinberg, then Cubase SX2 on Vista is dead in the water.

There’s an increasing use of digital techniques to encode analogue signals all around us. Despite what I wrote about Digital Radio, it doesn’t necessarily have to be worse than the analogue FM broadcasts – it all depends on what the broadcaster does. And while there are plenty of Hi-Fi buffs who detest digital per se (“CDs can never sound as good as LPs”), I’m not one of them. I’m quite happy to buy CDs instead of continuing with analogue LPs.

In preparation for our move to the farmhouse in April, I’m currently transcribing my old LPs and tapes into digital form and storing them on computer hard disc and DVDs. This will have the twin benefits of saving us some precious living space and allowing subsequent archive copies to be made without further degradation of quality.

It’s been a fascinating wander down memory lane during the transmutation process. I’m hearing things that I haven’t heard for years. For example, yesterday I heard radio plays from the BBC from the early 1970s – Penthesilea (by Heinrich von Kleist, adapted by Robert Nye), The Hero Rises Up (with Paul Daneman and Fenella Fielding) and Cries from Casement as His Bones Are Brought to Dublin (by David Rudkin). And I came across some tape recordings that I made some 35 years ago of organ pieces played by a university colleague. l made the recordings on my trusty Revox A77 recorder, which, when I fired it up yesterday for the first time in 20 years, performed as well as ever. The Swiss built those machines to last.

Here’s another gadget that, if I had the money, I would definitely get. It is huey, manufactured by Pantone, a device that will help calibrate your computer display(s) for proper colour balance. If you’re serious about your photography and use your computer as a digital darkroom, then this is definitely a device to consider. I have two LCD displays on my main computer, and even to my untrained eye I can see that the colour balance on the two screens is not the same. It’s tricky, though, to correct it by hand. That’s where a device like huey comes in.

If I had the money, this is a gadget that I would probably waste it on…

Google Earth is out of beta status as of yesterday. What’s more, there is now a version for the Macintosh. So those of you who are Mac users can download this amazing free program and find out what you’ve been missing out on. Frank Taylor, over at the Google Earth Blog has some navigational tips for new users.

I see that the Guardian carried an article earlier this week on the Microsoft Research project: MyLifeBits. Gordon Bell, a computer pioneer, is the guinea pig who is having his every waking moment recorded for Posterity – although whether Posterity will be pleased is probably a moot point.

 

The article carries a sentence that seems to me to put its finger on the weak point of the project:

"Picking one’s way" through reams of information hardly seems to me to be the most efficient manner of information retrieval. What I think the MyLifeBits project is so far is a "write-only" data vault. Until ways can be found to retrieve information quickly from all that data, then I would classify this as an interesting, but so far a sterile, piece of research.

There’s apparently a vulnerability in the graphics rendering engine of Windows that’s being exploited in a new series of attacks. No fix as yet, but a security warning has been published by Microsoft. Be careful what websites you visit.

This concept Tablet PC by Lenovo has won an award. I hope that the award spurs Lenovo on to actually manufacture and sell it. I’m already lusting after it.

I mentioned one virtual world – WoW – a couple of days ago. Now comes news that another virtual world – Asheron’s Call – is about to die. The game’s owners will pull the plugs on its servers at the end of the month. Wired has a bittersweet article about the demise of the world.

 

Wired has another article on the theme of "all things must pass" – the Bay Area NeXT Group is closing its doors. The NeXT computer was a machine that was ahead of its time – too far ahead as it turned out. It was a computer that I lusted over, but could never hope to have. Still, the ghost of NeXT lives on – in the Mac OS X operating system.

Nope, not Homer’s epic poem, but an electronic book reader due to be released in 2006. Could be interesting to watch out for.

I’ve mentioned Bill Hill before. He’s a typographer who works for Microsoft, and is always fascinating to listen to. He’s back again on Channel 9 with other members of his team talking about the new fonts that are being designed for Vista – the next version of Windows.

 

Bill makes the point that for 500 years, font design has been dictated by the practicalities of the printing press. Now we are at the stage where people will increasingly read text from a screen, rather than the printed page. That change in medium will influence the design of fonts. Interesting stuff.

Well, one answer comes from this catchy little number… I’m afraid it’s got an earworm that will ensure that you probably find yourself humming the tune despite yourself. (hat tip to Gizmodo UK)

 

The World of Warcraft is an amazing Internet-based phenomenon in its own right. There are supposedly 4.5 million players in this virtual world. Personally, I have enough difficulty anchoring myself in my own reality without wanting to spend hours/days/weeks pretending to be in another. The attraction seems to have passed me by. Mind you, some people apparently insist on dragging more of their world with them into WoW, and this has been a step too far for some.

If you put any faith in these sorts of things, then it’s official: The meaning of the Mona Lisa’s smile has been defined. Personally, I liked the theory (was it expounded by Sister Wendy Beckett?) that she’s smiling because she knows Leonardo’s a poof.

There’s a very good history of the personal computer written by Jeremy Reimer over at Ars Technica. Worth checking out if you are interested in PCs. It strikes me that many of today’s geek youngsters don’t know the history. Those of us who lived through it tend to get all nostalgic, like me.

Interesting to read that Microsoft has announced that it will be submitting the XML formats of Office to the standardisation body of Ecma International together with other companies.

 

Even more interesting to read that the companies include BP and Statoil. I am a bit disappointed that Shell was not in the list.