Random thoughts on Life, Music, and Beer.

Nice on Flickr & Google Maps

Sunday, August 26, 2007 - 04:14 PM

Well, I haven’t updated much since I talked about finally posing on Flickr - I’ve been a little busy.  First, I’ve added to the Flickr page, this time a glimpse of Carrie and my honeymoon in France, a few shots around the hotel where we stayed in Nice.

But, wait!  I’ve also been busy playing with Google maps, so not only do you have the photos on Flickr, but you can see exactly where these shots were taken:

Slowly Joining the 21st Century

Saturday, August 18, 2007 - 12:01 PM

George Krueger, now on Flickr.

In many, many ways, I’m way above the curve when it comes to the “interweb”.  I was online before there was such a thing as http://www - who here remembers dialing into a local BBS to access your email and usenet?

But on the modern web (I love how the young-uns, the “blogosphere”, and the ever clue-less media call it Web 2.0 - to some of us it’s more like Web 6.0), it’s taken me a while to adapt.  It took me forever to convert the old web page (which was hand written in straight HTML to the very end) to a content management “blog” format.  (It’s funny how my old site was like a blog in format way before there was such a thing - just, like I said, done by hand in HTML).

But I’m slowly progressing, I’ve finally got my Flickr account set up!  I do plan on eventually getting more up there besides Anubis, but for the time being, you’ll all just have to deal with looking at the most handsome cat in the world.

Network Problems

Monday, July 23, 2007 - 09:08 PM

It’s really amazing that whenever I’m running my bit torrent client (Transmission), my Earthlink DSL keeps dropping it’s connection.  I don’t seem to have this problem any other time, except when I’m running torrents.

Is Earthlink purposely doing this to discourage torrent users?  I know there are a lot of people out there who download copyrighted material using file sharing applications, and maybe Earthlink is trying to cover their asses when the RIAA or MPAA comes calling (or, more likely, their lawyers), but this is just ridiculous (and highly annoying).

The thing is, there are legitimate uses for any file sharing program, including bit torrent.  I don’t use it for downloading copyrighted material.  I only download live music, shared legally, by bands that allow people to tape and trade their shows.  (Yes, there are a lot of bands that allow this, not just the jam bands - check here if you’re unaware of this.)

Some open source software uses bit torrent as a distribution method.  These are just a couple of examples of legitimate uses of bit torrent (and other file sharing systems).

So why does Earthlink feel the need to kill my DSL connection when they notice I’ve got torrents running?  This isn’t something I can call up their tech support and say “My DSL goes out only when I’m downloading files via bit torrent.” “Unplug your DSL modem and shutdown your computer, then wait 30 seconds and reboot and plug your modem back in.” “Um, no.... This only happens when I’m downloading torrents.  I reset my modem, like, every five minutes.” “Sir, go to System Settings and click on Network...” “Arrrrggg!” CLICK!

I can’t be the only person this is happening to.  Who can I complain to about this?  I can’t call Earthlink, their tech support is useless, and their customer service is, too (both outsourced, by the way - regular readers will know my feelings on this).

Norton, how I hate thee, let me count the ways - Part Two

Monday, July 02, 2007 - 11:14 AM

In Part One I ranted about how I’m through with Norton, and a little bit about why.  Welcome to Part Two, wherein I recount my tale of woe at what should have been a simple update.  (Warning: This is going to be a long post!)

I was at a client site last week (the day of the rant) and was looking at this one computer that was having some minor Internet Explorer related issues.  While working on that system, I noticed that the antivirus software was out of date.  (Generally, I try to get my customers into the corporate level antivirus apps to make sure that everything is up to date and all of the client computers are updated from the server.  This office, however, is smaller and doesn’t have a server.  They also have a haphazard array of computers that were all purchased at different times and have varying software packages on them, including the antivirus.) Of course, I let the customer know that the AV was expired and no longer receiving updates, and that it would have to be upgraded.  I mentioned that we could stay with the Norton (which was what it had on there), or take off the Norton and install McAfee, which is what I was hoping they would opt for, since they’ve had issues with the computers running Norton in the past (particularly networking issues, thanks to Norton’s retarded firewall, which for some reason is now forced on you with the AV).

They opted to upgrade Norton.

So, I had them go through the online order process and began my journey.  The entire process took two hours, which I’ve broken down into steps:

1. Download installer file.  No big deal here, quick connection equals quick download.  I actually love this as an option for software delivery.  There are some minor flaws with this, which I’ll touch on in the next step.
2. Run installer, receive error that the Windows Installer needs to be updated.  In the past, when software primarily came on CDs, if the software you were installing required version X of some other software that happened to be a redistributable software package, the CD would include it.  Now, any dependencies have to be worked out seperately.  So, on to the next step...
3. Run update for Windows Installer.  (Luckily the Norton installer was kind enough to include a link to download the Windows Installer package.) Receive error that you don’t have permission to update the software and to contact your administrator.  WTF?  Okay, I can’t in anyway fault Norton for this, but it was a part of the ordeal, so it’s being documented here.
4. Reboot to see if it fixes above error.
5. Run update for Windows Installer, this time successfully.
6. Reboot.
7. Run Norton installer again.  Receive error that there is an older version of Norton that needs to be un-installed first.  Okay, this I have a major problem with.  Most software will update an older version without complaint, but not Norton.  Even if there is some technical reason that’s beyond my grasp as to why the old version needs to be un-installed first, why in the world can’t the Norton install program do this for me!?!  Seriously, every other software installer that I’ve used that needs the old version removed first does this step for you.  It may ask you to proceed, but it does it for you.  Symantec has this same problem with the System Center Console on their Corporate product.  Not only does it need to be separately un-installed first, but it requires an additional reboot to do so (which can be a pain if you’re working on someone’s server during business hours).
8. Un-install old version of Norton.
9. Reboot.
10. Run Norton installer again.  Receive error that another installer is currently running.  What’s happening here is that the reboot you just did was not the final step in un-installing the previous version, and the un-install is running more tasks in the background without telling you.
11. Wait a few minutes while the un-install continues in the background.  Monitor running processes until all MS installer processes to exit.
12. Run Norton installer.  Receive error “Setup has detected that one or more Norton Antivirus device drivers have been marked for deletion.  You must restart Windows before continuing.” So, not only did the un-install continue after the reboot without telling me, but it’s not even complete yet.
    
    (It’s worth it at this point to mention that, each time the installer is run, it has to decompress the files as it’s first step.  Every time.  If it exits, it doesn’t leave the temp folder with the decompressed files and provide you a link to continue installation, like I’ve seen with some installers.  Nope, every stinking time you have to sit and wait for it to decompress those files.)
    
    
13. Reboot. Again.
14. Run Norton installer again.  Yeah!  It’s actually installing.  (The actual install takes 11 minutes to complete.)
15. Register software with Norton.  Really?  Why?  There’s no technical reason for this, the software already has the subscription information, so why force me to go through this?  I should be able to chose whether or not I want to register the software, yet there’s no way to cancel or exit out of this screen.
16. Run LiveUpdate.
17. Sit while LiveUpdate runs, only to realize several minutes later that LU has actually locked up and is hogging the processor.  Try to cancel LU - no luck. Try to end the process through the Windows Task Manager - says access denied.  Wait to see if it frees itself....
18. Force reboot.  Yep, manually power the computer down because there’s no way out at this point.
    
    (At this point I installed Sysinternals Process Explorer, in case LU locked up again, so that I could see what it was actually trying to do at that point.  I don’t include this as a separate step, as it’s something most people wouldn’t have even thought to do.)
    
    
19. Run LiveUpdate again.  This time, when it locks up, view processes with Process Explorer to see what’s going on.  It turns out that the update for the Norton firewall (which shouldn’t even be a part of this product, or should at least ask you if you actually want it installed instead of forcing it on you) is the update that’s locking up.  Let it sit for a very long time until it actually completes the update (LiveUpdate took 20 minutes to completely finish).

So there you have it, that’s how something that should take 5-10 minutes actually ends up taking two hours.  There are several very unnecessary steps in all of this, and things (like LiveUpdate) that should just work better.  But, the unnecessary is forced upon you, and the you just have to live with the things that don’t work like they should.  (Unless, of course, you learn from your mistakes.)

Hello, Darkness, My Old Friend…

Friday, June 29, 2007 - 10:22 AM

Say goodbye to the internet as we know it.  Say hello to outrageous fees to do the things we take for granted everyday.  Say hello to AT&T and Comcast limiting your ability to do what you want, go where you want on the internet.  Say goodbye to the internet startups that end up changing the world, ‘cause they don’t stand a chance now.

FTC Nixes Net Neutrality

Is it really any shock that they sided with Big Business on this one?