Rob Eberhardt

I don't remember who (for reasons explained shortly), but some blogger I read recently said “It's sometimes difficult to remember that Technology exists to make things possible.”

This phrase is echoing through my head right now, as I watch my primary work machine slowly image a backup of its hard drive onto another machine, since the hard drive just crashed.  First strange sounds, then periodic freezes, and an hour later my screen is vivid abstract art.

Of course the drive's S.M.A.R.T. status is still “OK”.

Better than this, it took about two hours to find the right combination of BIOS settings, network boot disk, and Ghost disk before I could even start the imaging process.

This has been a very bad technology year for me.  Ugly details below (including grammar, I'm sure), but here's the gist: 

• Computers do a lot less helping me these days, and I do a lot more helping them. 
• They are much more prone to problems.
• Even when they're working “by design,” they are configured with stupid defaults and limitations which I have to fix (e.g. Windows Explorer).
• They claim to be smart, offering to configure, automate, or fix themselves, but they create more problems, or actually worsen the problem in the process!

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In January, a previously stable workstation had its hard drive die, or so it seemed after 6+ reinstalls.  See, when I replaced the drive, the installation would freeze randomly.  Turns out the BIOS was misdetecting the replacement drive's geometry, so I got to find and manually input heads, cylinders, etc -- something I haven't done in at least 10 years, and not my idea of a “trip down memory lane.” 
    That fixed the install, but the same spontaneously corrupt files issue has continued with the new drive.  ....I know drives die (moving parts & all), but drive controllers??

In May, the problems with my file server started.  It has mirrored drives.  One drive had a problem, the mirror broke, and the other kicked in (hurrah).  When I let the HighPoint RAID manager software fix the mirror, it “fixed” it alright ...in the wrong direction! (since previously visible partition info disappeared afterwards). 
    Drive now non-bootable, with much research I restored the drive's partitions with BootPart, and (hurrah) it booted, but Windows wanted to “fix” all the errors on the drive.  I let it do so.  Not until later did I realize that it was disconnecting most every file and subfolder from its parent folder, making them all Now “lost”.
    Oh, and Windows just “fixed” itself out of working.  So, time for a reinstall, happy that I keep the OS on its own partition, and careful to leave the others alone.  Ah, something worked, now about those files...
    Half a dozen file-restoration utilities found nothing more than a big jumbled mess of files without structure (and often without names).  At the end of that track, and crossing my fingers, I remembered I'd been doing nightly backups of important data...
    Whadya know, the backups are corrupt!  Again, very much effort to restore (so glad it was a zip file), and hurrah, I see files.  In fact, I think I've restored most of them, but we've discovered at least one missing, and I'm still wading through the “lost” files for possible luck. 

In the midst of the file server's woes, my web server's Windows Product Activation spontaneously went nuts.  At login, it would insist on activating Windows (which I'd already done), but when I said go ahead, it would say it's already activated and boot me out.  Much research, booting to safe mode, fiddling with files, finally a Windows installation “repair” operation.  Success?  I login once, twice to check, and stuck again! 
    I gave up on it for a while.  A server mostly doesn't need console access, so I was able to do a lot of things by other means.  The repair had made it completely unpatched though, which worried me since it's by necessity exposed as a web server.  Eventually I did fix this, but only because of research on another machine's WPA woes...

See, I was doing some “quick” troubleshooting of a friend's laptop.  Windows search didn't work, and there were a few other quirks, so I quickly ran System File Checker to fix possibly corrupted files.  No idea if this worked, because the subsequent login gave me the required WPA re-activation dialog, and again WPA was broken!  (blank this time).
    SO, I ran another Windows “repair” process, and it asks for a product key?!   (Duh, it's a repair, not a fresh install, get it yourself!).  I got the key, tried it and it didn't work. 
    Turns out it didn't match the CD -- there are OEM CDs, Volume License CDs, Retail CDs, and probably other flavors.  They're all the exact same OS, but with different classes of keys.  I have no idea what this accomplishes for the licensing folks.
    So I restart the repair with a different CD & key.  It works, but then I get mysterious error dialogs with sentence fragments “could not complete the file copy operation, you may need to retry or“ -- yes, or what?   I check and clean both disc and drive, but with no luck.  Fortunately it let me cancel that specific copy but continue the rest of the install.  I got the same error about 5 more times, but it worked.  Much re-patching ensued.
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Aside: System File Checker is good.  Windows Product Activation is bad. 

I know drives fail.  I know software sometimes gets confused.  I could handle these much better if I still trusted the other software which is supposed to prevent, fix, or mitigate such problems. 

....And I'm seriously fantasizing about becoming a farmer. 

Have we reached the point of unsustainable complexity??

That's the actual title of a scribble note I made a long time ago. 

See, while I mostly love Outlook 2003, and it's greatly improved since v2000, it still has a bunch of annoyances and artificial limitations that really get my goat.  To finish dumping the note:

• Only 1 Exchange account setup is allowed per Windows (!) profile
• POP accounts can only go to default delivery location's inbox (unlike IMAP or Exchange accounts)
• "After Sending" rules are missing several action options (which "When Arriving" rules do have).  In particular:
  • No "Move To Folder" option (Copy only)
  • No "Mark as Read" option
• Tasks & Appointments which are outside the default delivery location are ignored (no reminders)
• Can't copy items from one PST to another (Move Items or Copy Folders only)
• Folder views spontaneously and regularly get messed up
• Subfolders can't inherit parent folder's view (an automatic option would be ideal, but manual would still be nice).

I noticed most of these while trying to maintain multiple accounts in Outlook, and keep their contents separate.  I used to use Outlook profiles, but switching is way too slow for that to be convenient.

Googling just now, I found a couple similar ruminations on the same subject: Limitations of Outlook (without Exchange) at inluminent.com, and Outlook Limitations at outlookwise.com

More as it bugs me.

Apparently MSN Spaces is now much more customizable, thanks to their new "Tweak UI PowerToy".

Hey wait, though, Doesn't Microsoft already already have a "Tweak UI Powertoy"?!  Ah, so they do!  (An indispensible Windows customization program, BTW).

Well, that's ok, because MSN says to load it by typing "&powertoy=tweakomatic” on the end of the URL.  So perhaps we can just call it "Tweakomatic"...

Whoops, Microsoft already has a program called "Tweakomatic" too!  It writes scripts to programmatically accomplish what Tweak UI does.

...I can understand if the Spaces team really wants to be like the Scripting Guys (heck, I do!), but the name confusion has got to go!

That's a Windows registry key, found under HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Terminal Server (at least on XP and 2003 Server).

There are Terminal Server registry reference docs out there, but no explanation what that one does.  Hello world, any ideas?

So a couple weeks ago I actually did a little wardriving for about three miles, just to see how many wifi networks I'd find.  At a stop, I connected to one, loaded Slashdot to test, and what do I see? Oh My!, Man Arrested for Using Open Wireless Network.  Hmmm, whoops?

Great quote: "worrisome as it seems, wireless mooching is easily preventable by turning on encryption or requiring passwords."

Yeah, kinda like putting doors on a building is a good way to keep people (and raccoons) out.  Maybe I should start asking before I use water fountains and public restrooms too.

These annoying hand dryers are multiplying lately.  Well I've hit my limit, and I gotta debunk (or at least deflate) their labels' claims.

Yes, I grant they are very well marketed, but the actual advantages for the user/patron and the environment are exaggerated, and the disadvantages are skipped (of course). 

World Dryer's main claims:

Dryers are good for the Owner, because they're cheaper and create no paper waste to clean up.

I won't second guess their electricity-vs-paper supply cost comparisons, and dryers certainly keep the paper waste to a minimum.  So no problems here.

Dryers are good for the Patron, because they're more sanitary

The "more sanitary" claim is mentioned in World Dryer's Waste Reduction PDF and references a report comparing hot air and paper for killing germs.  Problems with this:

1. Who kills germs with a dryer? (If you washed your hands right, the germs should already be gone!)
2. "Hot air" is not the same as a Dryer, which requires pushing a button with wet hands, thereby picking up the germs of previous, less-thorough patrons.
3. Busy bathrooms.  The 1 minute/person process stacks up patrons (making it all the more inconvenient), and patrons end up drying their hands on their (surely less sanitary) pants.

Dryers are good for the Environment, because they don't use up trees.

Sure, dryers don't use trees, but guess what: Trees are a renewable resource! We won't run out! (responsible logging companies act like tree-farmers, planting more trees).
    In contrast, dryers do use electricity, which comes from Coal, AKA "not-a-renewable-resource" (so we will run out of that).     Besides electricity, we get something else from Coal: Pollution! (World Dryer also claims that "paper towels cannot be recycled!" -- they never substantiate that, though.  Any ideas?)

To summarize the problems:

1. Convenience:
   • World Dryer's own Waste Reduction PDF says "the fact is, it does take a few seconds longer to properly dry your hands with warm air."
   • Dryer inconvenience is further compounded by multiple patrons.  Using a paper dispenser is a 3-second process.  Using a Dryer is a 60-second process, which stacks up patrons.
2. Sanitation:
   • Dryers create another "touch" surface to spread germs.
   • Dryers are inconvenient enough to skip in favor of pants or other unsanitary clothing.
   • There are plenty of no-touch (motion-sensing) paper-towel dispensers.
3. Pollution:
   • Dryers use Electricity.  Electricity is made from Coal.  Burning Coal pollutes the air. 
   • Waste Paper fills landfills, but quickly biodegrades.
4. Natural Resources:
   • Coal is a non-renewable resource and will run out.
   • Paper is renewable and will never run out.

So, I can't believe I actually just thought through and typed that all out, but I guess I hate feeling "marketed at" when I'm already annoyed by the inconvenience.  That the marketing claims are mostly unsubstantiated or spurious makes it all the worse.

The genius of it, though, is that they propaganda itself is an attempt to make the process seem less inconvenient -- you get something to read while you dry, instead of a blank wall.

For more entertainment, how about an address-label sized sticker saying something like:

Or perhaps:

Seems like 5 or 10 would easily fit in a wallet...

Ah, if only the CSS Zealots would admit it's really "Anti-Table" design.  Use the right tool for the job, I say.

Speaking of Vacations, during my 400-mile drive I noticed several semis/trailer-trucks with this bumper sticker:

I wondered why I've never seen anything like the opposite sticker, which of course would be

Then I realized, that's the basic difference: Pro-Choice folks prefer to avoid addressing the larger issue of What it is (a life).  The two sides aren't having the same conversation. 

I've heard it said that we have the right to "Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness", in that order.  This means my right to Pursue Happiness stops at the point when it would interfere with someone else's right to Liberty, which in turn stops at the point when it would interfere with someone's right to continue Living.

So it's an easy call to me: prove it's absolutely not a human life, and Sure, do what you want.  But if there's even a slight chance that it is a human life (and Biology 101 makes me think so) ...do I want to risk taking it?

Hm, maybe there's a bumper sticker idea: