Rubénerd!

Today's Twitter tweet of the day goes to Long Zheng in Melbourne:

longzheng: i'm sick of tech "reporters" labeling Vista a "train wreck". they're the ones who derailed a perfectly good OS http://bit.ly/41ngGM

He's absolutely right, Windows Vista didn't have any flaws whatsoever, it was the all the fault of the evil media! I guess it's true what they say, denial isn't the only river in Egypt ;).

To be fair, he sometimes posts some really good stuff. I was intrigued by this idea he posted on the 11th, partly because the problem he describes is one I've been talking about for a long time myself. I'd be interested to see what happens with it, it sounds like a great idea.

longzheng: toying with a new website idea to promote originality in online news and giving people the credit they deserve

Because I require some software for my studies that only runs on Windows I went ahead and installed Windows 7 in a virtual machine on my MacBook Pro, fairly run of the mill kind of setup. Despite it being somewhat of a moot point given how low Windows Vista set the bar, I do admit Windows 7 is more stable, less irritating and somewhat faster. Unfortunately the Windows 7 Explorer and Start Menu are still just as messy, cluttered and confusing as their Vista counterparts.

This got me thinking then: wouldn't it be great if it were somehow possible to merely swap in the explorer.exe file from Windows 2000 -- the last version of Windows I believe had a genuinely usable interface -- into Windows 7? You'd have the relative advantages of Windows 7 with the clean, uncluttered and classy interface of Windows 2000. Genius!

I figure though explorer.exe is probably a protected system file and requires any number of dll files and other dependencies that are scattered in that atrocious mess Windows refers to as the Windows and System32 folders, so it probably wouldn't be possible. Bummer.

This is another post that's been sitting in my Drafts folder since the 27th of November 2007. In trying to clean out this backlog I'm finishing and publishing these posts now, even if this particular story is somewhat outdated and I was much cockier back then than I am now! Cheers ^_^

Ed Bott on ZDNet has listed a set of optimisations you can perform to make Windows Vista boot faster. It seems even fewer and fewer people are impressed with this OS, and the fact the inferior experience starts even before it starts is ominous to say the least.

I was in a down mood this afternoon given my mum's latest poor medical test results, so I decided to break loose and post some flamebait!

rubenschade@ -- FreeBSD Flamebait

My 1.3GHz Athlon machine with 256MB of RAM, FreeBSD 6.2 and a fully decked out KDE desktop boots up significantly faster than Vista on every brand new state of the art machine I've tried, and I'd argue I'm just as (if not more) productive on it.

Saying Windows Vista doesn't take as long to boot is like saying that a snail is faster than an amoeba. It's probably true, but it's a pointless statement.

ASIDE: FreeBSD+KDE also boots up almost twice as fast as Debian GNU/Linux+KDE too wink

I was excited that it didn't take too long for someone to reply after all, though I was disappointed by it's crudeness. I was hoping for something more astroturfy!

done@ -- Thank Dog!

The pathetic Linux zealot has arrived.

I thought we'd have to wait longer.. but thank Dog - here he is!

When Linux runs programs people NEED TO WORK is when it will become a mainstream OS.. until then, it's a fun curiosity..

An ad hominum attack, followed by an fundamental mistake a quick glance over at Wikipedia would have prevented? I was all ready to pen my smiley face response but a few generous souls beat me to it.

bmerc@ -- Hey clueless...

If you're gonna trash talk someone for driving a Ford, take the time to make sure they're not actually in a Chevy before you open your yap.

BSD is not Linux. The fact that you don't know this tells me everything I need to know about your knowledge of Linux and OSes in general.

zaine_ridling@ -- I can vouch for that

FreeBSD is amazingly fast. Even on my 5-year old machine, it boots in 12 seconds, twice as fast as any Linux distro I've installed in the past 18 months.

In retrospect it probably wasn't a good idea to post about FreeBSD on a Windows blog, but I reckon it's important to let people know sometimes that a particular piece of software isn't the be-all end-all. Sure Vista can be made to boot faster... but it's still akin to rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic. Or claiming that I'm Bill Kurtis, which isn't true.

The somewhat psychedelic after dealing with difficult people episode!

Spending more time dealing with people not problems, university folks moving from Windows to Linux and Mac, university assignments, compulsive fanboyism, SQlite, Microsoft C#.NET, squeaky clean OpenBSD, actually finding someone who likes Windows Vista, skies getting dark really fast, comments from Rubenerd Show 241, too many interesting people on Twitter, Twitter traditional news sources (Aussie ABC, BBC News, BBC SciTech, Reuters, Channel News Asia) and personal nuclear missile silos.

Download MP3 to listen ↓ 33:38, 15.5MiB

You can also stream this episode and view its Internet Archive page.

On April fools day I had noticed many people on Twitter were saying how they hated news stores and blog posts that were blatantly fabricated in a vein attempt to be funny. As I never like to irritate people, especially with fake blog entries, I tried my hand at posting a fake blog entry review of Windows Vista. Dave Wares and Sharon in Singapore saw right through me, but I did get one serious post!

Anyway to make amends and restitution for that post that made me feel downright ill after reading, I thought I'd post a screenshot and a brief summary of the only remaining Windows version and machine that I do actually still use: Windows 2000 Professional in a virtual machine on my MacBook Pro!

Unfortunately as resilient as the Wine compatibility layer is becoming, there are some Windows applications that just don't like being run on anything other than Windows. Surprisinly a lot of this stuff I get comes from my uni (argh), sometimes they're small utilities that only run on Windows... and then there's Solitaire.

The advantage of running Windows 2000 instead of XP (or heaven forbid the Vista trainwreck!) in a virtual machine is that you can reserve a tiny sliver of RAM for it and only 1 CPU core and it will still perform very, very well. This is especially useful when you're on a laptop: running XP or Vista alongside Mac OS X on battery power is not very fun or pratical!

Another consideration with Windows that makes 2000 useful is the commonly known fact that Windows installations degrade in performance over time to the point where it's just better to reformat your machine and reinstall Windows. With a Windows 2000 virtual machine file, the entire operating system is contained in a disk image thats only a few hundred megabytes. Compared to 1 or 2 gigabytes for Windows XP or the ridiculously bloated size of a Windows Vista install, it means it's a cinch to backup a fresh install of 2000 and restore it whenever you want.

Even Windows2000-tan admits Firefox-tan is better!

As someone who grew up using various flavours of Windows from 3.x to XP before I made the final switch to Mac OS X, FreeBSD and Linux, I say without reserve that the Windows 2000 interface is still the best that Microsoft came up with. Luna on Windows XP looked childish and the Vista interface can cause serious eye damage for a laundry list of reasons.

And the final reason why Windows 2000 is more bearable than XP or Vista? No product activation! That's right, as a legitimate licence holder I'm not treated like a criminal every time I have to restore an image! It's so refreshing!

In my next post I'll be listing some of the software I use to make Windows 2000 more bearable and feel more like a real OS, such virtual desktops, snapping windows, SSH clients and whatnot, if you're forced to use a flavour of Windows at some point.

With all my talk on FreeBSD and Mac OS X, as well as my generally unfavorable attitude to Microsoft's operating systems, I decided today to finally install Windows Vista on my primary desktop to do a more in depth review and to see if Service Pack 1 has fixed some of the more irritating problems.

This morning with my paycheck I marched down to Best Denki at Ngee Ann City and purchased a copy of Windows Vista Home Premium. I figured there was no point getting the Ultimate version seeing as I don't really play many computer games, and the Ultimate Extras offerings have been less than stellar. I bought the upgrade version because I already had a copy Windows XP Home Edition already from 2002; the one I had for less than a week before I wiped my machine and reinstalled Windows 2000 Professional.

Beforehand I used my trusty older copy of PartitionMagic 8.0 (the last version released by PowerQuest before they were bought out and destroyed by Symantec) to resize my FreeBSD partition down by 64GiB to allow space for Vista to install. FreeBSD really doesn't like sharing hard disk space with other operating systems, so it's usually a good idea to have it installed first before you start installing Windows, or Linux for that matter.

I couldn't post any screenshots of the installation given that it didn't have an OS on it to do so (for obvious reasons!), but not having the kludgy DOS screen like messages was certainly a fresh and welcome change from previous versions of Windows; no doubt the FreeBSD sysinstall folks could learn something from it. It detected all of my hardware flawlessly, including a troublesome 64-in-one card reader that even my MacBook Pro with Leopard had difficulty with.

Within a few minutes of finishing the install, activating online and adjusting the resolution to fit my widescreen 1680x1050 Samsung display, I was firing up Internet Explorer to download Mozilla Firefox, The Gimp, Inkscape and OpenOffice.org. I still find it thrilling that Windows has such a fantastic assortment of powerful, capable, reliable and high calibre Free and Open Source software available for it that's completely unmatched on any other platform.

My fresh Vista desktop, with Mozilla Firefox installed in the Quick Launch bar

As excruciatingly painful as it is for me to admit this; using Vista for a few hours, checking out the new Windows Explorer, the new layout of the Start Menu and the Control Panel... I must begrudgingly say that I'm enjoying the experience (pun intended!) more than I thought. The new Aero interface is quite pretty and leaves KDE 4.0's and Compiz Fusion's graphical effects in the dust; Mac OS X Leopard still looks better but it just uses so many system resources in comparison to Vista's visual effects I figure it's just not worth it.

Because this isn't a laptop I can't comment on Vista's battery life or wireless connectivity capabilities, but from a desktop perspective it's pretty good. I'd be hesitant to say I'm ready to give up FreeBSD on all my desktops, but I'm sure I'll keep Vista around on this primary machine.

Stay tuned for more screenshots and compatibility reports.

If you read CNET's News.com you may have seen they've added a separate news bar along the top of all their pages that link to their partner networks. In particular they give TechRepublic a lot of coverage, which I guess targets similar people.

Some of the headlines and their corresponding articles though I think have been funny :):

Windows Services That Can Be Disabled
One of the most effective ways to secure a Windows XP workstation is to turn off unnecessary services.

I know an even more effective and bulletproof way to secure a Windows XP workstation... uninstall Windows!

Apple's new keyboards stink
As you can see, I don’t have much good to say about the new keyboards. Just about everything with them is bad. Apple is putting form over function with the new design and for something as critical as a keyboard, it’s a grave error.

I've been using one for two weeks now, and it's been a real pleasure to use. I don't know if the reviewers have been throwing dead fish on theirs which would make them stink ;).

Alien Vs. Predator 2 invades FilmSpot
The intergalactic battle continues in a sleepy Colorado town. The Aliens inhabit a small town and the predators arrive to sanitize anything that can come in contact with them.

Argh I can't stand movies that are lifted from computer games, and the first AVP movie was the worst of the lot!

How to disable 10 annoying Word features
f you've gotten more than your share of support calls from users trying to wrestle Word into submission (or pulled out your own hair on a few occasions), this list will help you quickly cut Word down to size.

That's nothing, I know how to disable ALL of Microsoft Word's features... uninstall it and install KOffice or OpenOffice.org!

Vista DRM: wrong, wrong, wrong

Headline is half right. Vista itself is just wrong ;)

Being a (generally) open source advocate and user I shudder when people say that they can't kick their Microsoft addiction (Windows, Office, SQL Server, Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd) because either they're so dependent on it and have developed infrastructure that can't easily be replaced with alternatives, or they're just so accustomed to Microsoft stuff they can't see themselves changing.

The truth is you don't need to ditch everything Microsoft you use in one go, it can be a gradual processes. Just like an addiction to illicit drugs or tobacco the best way to kick the habit is through a gradual transition process... my German uncle quit cold turkey but most of us don't have the ability!

Step One

If you're in a sinking ship you don't bother re-painting the staterooms! This means you should stop adopting even more Microsoft products. Don't upgrade your expensive software to the latest versions (Windows, Office, SQL Server, Phua Chu Kang Pte Ltd) which inevitably will deepen your dependence on Microsoft.

Step Two

Develop some form of roadmap that you want to follow, not what Microsoft wants you to. Your software should adapt to what you want to do, not the other way around.

Step Three

Start using alternative programmes where it's feasible or appropriate. Use Mozilla Firefox instead of Internet Explorer, OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft Office and so forth.

Understandably, if you don't want to take the plunge of installing new software that you're not used to on your production machines, consider trying out a memory key toolkit that has open source software on it: this way you can try the software before you commit to it.

Step Four

When you're comfortable using alternative open source programmes, you'll realise that Windows is not actually necessary any more! Take a look at some of the very polished alternative operating systems such as Ubuntu Linux or PC-BSD! Again take it slowly and try before you buy, so to speak.

For programmes you must run such as Adobe Photoshop, there's always Mac ^^. Although they can be just as expensive as Microsoft products, and aren't entirely open source, it's still a good platform and much more trustworthy.

Step Five

Take a nice long holiday with the money you've saved from paying expensive Microsoft taxes, and with the reassurance you've gained from the improved reliability and quality of the software your business is using. And send a check for 10,000 Singapore Dollars to Ruben Schade. Hey, it can't hurt right?

While I must admit I am a fan of Mac OS X and Apple computers in general, I was for over 10 years a Windows user: our family's first computer had Windows 3.0.

That said, I read an article titled Five Things Apple Made Up on CNet Asia today talking about Apple's controversial television advertisements (you can watch them on the Apple website). Now granted I think the advertisements aren't perfect, and I do agree that they are a bit one sided and lacking in detail, but all that aside, I still think Apple was right.

These were the "five things that Apple made up":

Ad #1: Which Vista
In this advert, Mac laughs as PC tries to choose a version of Vista to install. PC claims the six different versions make picking one really hard. Of course, the truth is picking a Vista is easy--there are three versions for home and three for work. We can rule out the work ones because your IT department will take care of that. The three that remain are Basic, Premium and Ultimate. Basic is useless, so forget about that, and Ultimate is too expensive, so that just leaves Premium. See, that wasn't so hard now, was it?

The number of versions of Windows Vista is ridiculous, pointless and serve no purpose other than confuse consumers. I still have people ask me what the differences are between Windows XP Home Edition and Professional! With Mac OS X you don't have to pay extra to get a version that isn't deliberately crippled, there's one version with all the world class features, and that's it. There's no ambiguity.

Choosing a version of Windows is not clear cut. First of all with the amount of time people spend on their computers these days people don't just use their computers for home use or just for work. Also I think the author is forgetting that Average Joe or Jane computer user really don't know much about the computers they're using, let alone their operating system. They just want something that works.

See, that wasn't so easy now, was it?

Ad #2: Security
Here we find PC with a hefty bodyguard--anything Mac asks him has to be confirmed by this man in black. Now, my problem with this advert is that for years the whole argument from Apple has been "PCs aren't secure, buy a Mac". Now its argument seems to be "PCs are too secure, buy a Mac". So which is it Apple, do you want security or not?

Irritating pop up messages that appear so often that people just get used to hitting "Allow" without reading what they say is no argument for security. The advertisement in question is not saying that Windows computers are too secure, the advertisement is saying that because Windows computers have so many security problems, Microsoft had to take drastic action. The result was a poorly implemented warning system that did everything to irritate end users and nothing to improve security.

Ad #3: Tech support
Today, PC is having a Webcam fitted. This is apparently a huge deal, because IT has to come up and install it. We are then told by the IT guy that "Macs come with webcams built-in". What he fails to mention is that many PCs, such as the Sony VAIOs and ASUS various sportscar themed machines, have had built-in webcams for ages. And if you never want to make an arse of yourself on YouTube, wouldn't it be nice not to have to pay for it?

I partly concede this point; it is true a few PCs come with webcams. A "few", not "many".

Ad #4: Surgery
PC is getting Vista installed, and needs to have a hardware upgrade to make Vista work. Of course, there are risks to an upgrade--PC might not make it. What this advert fails to mention is that most PCs built in the last two years, with 1GB of RAM, will take to Vista like a duck to water. At least a PC is designed to be upgraded--and that's a good thing. With a Mac you can add more memory, and that's about it, meaning when Photoshop needs more power, you have to buy a whole new cheese grater.

I would encourage the author of this article to look up the "Windows Vista Capable" public relations disaster in Google. The fact of the matter is that most PC's built in the last two years don't come with 1GB of RAM and certaily won't take to Vista like a duck to water. Windows Vista is a bloated, inefficient operating system built on top of a crumbling kernel that does little more than Windows XP managed to do with a fraction of the system resources.

While I agree Mac computer upgrades tend to require new machines, notebooks are the fastest growing segment of the computer market and what this author fails to mention is you can't really upgrade notebook computers, and these are the machines people will be trying to shoehorn Vista on.

The point of the advertisement he was discussing was that the PC had to go for surgery to get an operating system upgrade that was going to put a lot more demand on his resources with little to no improvement in his productivity.

Ad #5: Pie chart
This is our favourite, because it's here that Apple claims PC is no fun, that all he's designed to do is work. Of course, Apple totally fails to mention games. There was one Mac-only game, back in 1996: It was called Marathon and entertainment-starved Mac users went mad for it. Oh, and it was developed by Bungie, so all the Mac fans cried tears of blood when Microsoft bought the company and set them to work developing Halo for the Xbox. For us, this one is the nail in the coffin of these adverts. PCs are great all-round computers: They do office stuff and fun stuff. And they do it without complaining and without being smug.

PCs are great all-round computers? But wait a minute... the author said in point #1 that you need to choose between a home based distribution of Vista or a work one! He just reinforced the argument I was making about only having one version of Mac OS X that does everything! Whoops!

I do agree though that the gaming selection on Mac is crappy at best, but the whole point of the advertisement is not that PCs are no fun, it's that you can buy a Windows machine and get a bunch of cheap, sub-par programmes, or you can buy a Mac machine and you get all these polished media tools that let you make some really amazing stuff easily and have fun while you're doing it.

So that's my take on Ian Morris' article. I've since mostly moved on from Mac OS X (I use FreeBSD with KDE now instead) but I still stand by most of Apple's comments in the aforementioned advertisements. It also shows Apple has a sense of humour, something that perhaps Microsoft should be trying to get.

Having searched for months for a good Bluetooth laser mouse and not finding one from my all time favourite manufacturer Logitech, I finally caved today and got a Wireless Apple Mighty Mouse... and I love it!

For one, the packaging and design of the box was of course what I expected from Apple: clean and minimalist. I'm still dumbfounded that no other company, especially Microsoft, has figured out that out for themselves yet.

As for the mouse itself, I can't get over how nice it is. The problems I've read on the internets' series of tubes about the left/right buttons not being detected properly haven't happened to me in the last few hours I've been using it. Perhaps if I was a hardcore gamer and not a programmer or designer this may happen but so far I've had a 100% success rate. Typing that is asking for trouble I'm sure.

When I plugged in the provided Lithium AA batteries (yes, they came with Lithium batteries... most mice you'd be lucky just to get any batteries to start with!) I went ahead with the detection. I just clicked on the Bluetooth icon in my menu bar, chose "Mouse" from the menu and it was detected on the spot. Then I could navigate to the Keyboard/Mouse panel in the System Preferences app and configure the button actions, sensitivity and whatnot.

I'm hesitant to give this a 5 star rating because I've only been using it for a few hours, but the fact I'm even contemplating that rating should give you an idea of how impressed I am with this. And no, I didn't even get paid by Apple to say this!

How easy do you reckon it would be to get this working on my FreeBSD partition? ;).

I'll be doing a full review of it on my next Rubenerd Show podcast episode, so stay tuned.