The Design and Implementation of laffer1

Caryn sent me this link:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9041959&intsrc=hm_list

It discusses a conversation between Ballmer and a woman who had to go back to XP after facing many problems in Vista. Her daughter wanted it because of a friend.

What I find interesting is the parallels between Vista deployment and Windows 95. Microsoft had trouble getting people to transition to WIndows 95 and later 98. (before SE) The difference is that Microsoft used their monopoly to push Windows 95 only feautres. With Vista, we don't see that. There are two Vista titles that I know about and one is Halo 2 which has been out for the xbox forever. Microsoft is backing off on IE7, Windows Media and many of the other enhancements. Then they go so far as to backport things to XP from Vista in SP3. I think Micorosft is hurting customers who have adopted Vista at this point. What is the value for us? I feel a little more secure in vista, but it's not the cancel/allow dialog boxes that do it.

Every new innovative release of Windows (not every release) breaks hardware compatibilitiy with some devices. It's just a fact. The same is true of Mac OS X. My sound card barely works in 10.4 and apple bought that compnay. There are many constants. Internet Explorer was back ported to Windows 3.11 eventually. Microsoft had develpers release direct x games with dos modes too. It rewarded waiting. On the other hand, Microsoft released office, works and many other apps only for windows 95. This time office is backards compatibile, visual studio will be backwards compatibile, etc. There is no forced upgrade happening. With Apple's latest release looking ugly, I think microsoft won't be out to many customers if they push things. Here's what I suggest.

1. Only ship Windows x64 vista on new pcs. Standardize on one hardware platform and go for the future. THen you're not asking for 2 drivers for the OS or games for both like they do now. Push 64 bit memory addressing. We'll need it eventually and WIndows 95 started the transition to 32bit really.

2. Lower the price on vista so that it is competative. Drop the lowend home basic version. Consumers need features and xp has more features than home basic. Consumers mostly get that option and that's why they think vista sucks.

3. Advertise software and features actively in the media, on tv and radio and print. Tell people why they want windows vista. Going on the daily show did not do it.

4. Don't try to compete with apple. Apple doesn't care about computers as much and Microsoft has a chance to get back into the game. People who use alternatives are not going to like them anyway. Many switchers at school are coming from linux to mac os. Microsoft never had them anyway. There are switchers but they are following trends. A positve msft trend will fix their issue.

I've been using Vista since january. I like it better than XP and I've suggested it to my mother. She couldn't use it as it didn't support her ancient modem (56k should die). Someday I hope my mother can use MidnightBSD.

Obviously as a BSD developer, I have motivations for vista to fail. However, I have a vista/bsd desktop and a Mac running tigert. I can tell you that vista isn't that bad and i prefer the use of transparency and menus in vista better than the leopard changes i've seen at work. Neither are good, but overally i think vista is an improvement. The new start menu layout annoys me but i'm getting used to it.

Finally, if someone is happy with windows, then they need to realize they asked microsoft to do this to windows and deal with it. People whined about security and now they get vista.

I should point out that i'm a bit hostile at apple right now since I didn't get a job in one of their retail stores. :)

The quake wars installation process is not pleasant on vista ultimate x64. I had to uninstall the demo, run with admin rights (right click on the setup on the cd) as the autorun didn't work. I had to clean the temp directory and wait forever only to find out it had a 1.1 patch ALREADY. The game just came out.

The two levels I played last night were lame. It was not as fun as the demo level. I'm quite disappointed especially after the long wait to get it from best buy.

I'm not telling people to give up on the game, just consider carefully. It looks great. I can say that.

I pre-ordered Enemy Territory: Quake Wars from Best Buy's website. The game tag registration came in the mail quickly. They shipped the game on the 28th as it was coming out October 2. I didn't get the game until today because they chose to use the UPS to USPS service. The post office sat on it it for 3 days in allen park!!!!! Best Buy did not give me an option for faster shipping and they held me back from gaming for several days. I'm unhappy.

Refer to the following interview (page 1) for my comments
http://games.kikizo.com/features/gabenewell_valve_iv_sep07_p1.asp

Valve claims that there are no games for the Mac. However, every id game is ported to the Mac that is shipped for Windows. EA has released all of their new titles on the Mac since June or so. World of Warcraft and every other blizzard game run on the Mac. Microsoft has even allowed third parties to port their games to the Mac. Age of Empires 1 and 2 and Halo have made appearances on the Mac. Many AOE engine games were ported. (star wars for instance) On that subject, often LucasArts games are ported to the Mac.

So, the pattern here is that most people port to the Mac eventually. Some do simultaneous releases. Valve is the only gaming company with a series of popular games that has not ported to the Mac. It's just them.

If they wish to argue how great DirectX is, I could live with that. I just don't see the blame should fall upon Apple. Obviously if everyone else can do it, then it's not Apple's fault.

Caryn and I had preordered Dance, Dance Revolution on Amazon.com.  I haven't felt much like playing the last two days, but I did get some time on it Friday night.  I thought it would be a lame chick game, but it's fun.  The pad reminds me of the old Power Pad add-on for the NES.  It uses the game cube ports on the Wii and then you use the wiimote + numchuck to do arm movements.

Today I had an interesting experience with a script kiddie.  They started attacking this site.  I've always hates captchas because they make it impossible for blind users to use websites.  A few offer audio clues, but that is very difficult to pull off in UNIX.   It's doable in Mac OS or Windows based servers.

I added a captcha to the signup page successfully.  It was a shock as I've got a terrible cold.  Cough medicine tends to make me very illogical.  I have great difficulty concentrating on programming work. 

I'm at least half way done with my programming assignment for Tuesday.  The server piece is almost done and the client requires very little modification.  It's a C based client -server messaging system.   The client connects via TCP to the server and then waits for the server to process the incoming message.  It's stateful.

Have you ever noticed the old adage "when it rains, it pores" is very true in the accumulation of work. My CS professor has assigned a programming assignment, two sets of problems and as of last night a test next thursday. If his course were the only one I had to worry about, it would be no problem. However, things don't work that way. I have three other courses to worry about.

To top it off, I've got at least three tasks at work to accomplish. I'm wondering when I can start that assignment.

I guess everyone likes a challenge.

I've played with Wii Play for several days now. For $50, you get a second controller and several mini games on one disk. The games are not the same level of quality as Wii Sports, but some of them are fun.

One game is a shooting gallery that is in some respects similar to Nintendo's Duck Hunt game packaged with the original NES. It does not let you pick your targets like the Duck Hunt game, but it instead gives you cans (Hogan's alley style), Ducks, and clay targets. There are also bonus items and pictures of your player. If you shoot your mii's face, you lose points.

Another game is a hockey like game with neon coloring. It is a bit difficult to aim at times, but still fun.

There is also a tank game where you try to destroy another tank. Ammo can bounce off the walls in some cases and you can move and aim with the wii controller.

My favorite mini game is a pool game. It is quite fun in two player. That game is worth the $10.

There are several other games in the package. Most are not very interesting to me. One is a where's waldo style finding/matching game.

I got a wacom tablet for my Mac. I'm not very good with it yet, but I'm trying. Here's a cat I drew earlier.

At work we've got a 20 inch Intel iMac with four gouges in the screen.  It looks like someone hit it.  On the Internet, people refer to the behavior as the "white screen of death."   By using the external video port, we proved the system is booting and the display is broken.  I'm very unhappy with that outcome.  I suspect my boss will be even more pissed.  I hope whoever broke it can pay for it.  The computer isn't very old. 

I haven't been blogging much.  Here's a brief rundown.

• Caryn and I went to Kalamazoo for our anniversary.  It was very nice.  We went to the chappel at K college where we got married, out to dinner at the Blue Dolphin (rehersal dinner location), etc
• Back to school.  I'm taking networking, stats and two English courses. 
  
• My computer flipped out on Friday.  The display was black.  Part of the problem was a lose cable as the connector isn't very good on the video card and it doesn't hold.  However, the card is also not initializing the display (two different ones) sometimes regardless of the cable position.  The fan was clogged and cleaning that has minimized problems, but not completely stopped them.  Once the computer is up, it works as expected.  Very strange. 
  
• The monitor on my Mac is cycling through blue, green and normal periodically.  The color is not consistent.  I'm waiting for a replacement.  It was bought in 2001.  15 inch displays suck anyway. 
  
• My father had a birthday this month.  So far I haven't done anything for it just as he didn't send me a card or acknowledge my birthday.  He sent me an anniversary card, but that has a sore spot with me for another reason.  I don't feel like talking about it.  I had a few drinks on Sunday night and actually prepared an iCard with a picture of my cat's ass for him.  I didn't send it though.  .Mac allows you to use your own pictures.  All I wanted at my birthday was an email.  That's free.  I realize he doesn't have money.  I know the anniversary card was a ploy to get a good birthday gift. 
  

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/18/student.tasered.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories

This student was tasered for asking questions.  How dare he!  I'll agree he was emotional and perhaps they did have to ask him to leave, but it was clearly excessive force when 6 police officers were there.  Even the miranda rights state that you have the "right to remain silent" not that you must remain silent.  He asked them what he did wrong and got a shock for it. 

This guy didn't commit a crime.  They could ask him to leave and that is about it.  If he refused that request, they could escort him out. 

In case you missed it, I was interviewed for bsdtalk. You can hear interview 126 at http://bsdtalk.blogspot.com/

bsdtalk is a podcast about and for the BSD community. This interview is about MidnightBSD of course.

Caryn and I went to see the most recent Harry Potter film in the theater today. I know it's a bit late, but we finally got time to see it. I liked it, but it seemed different than the other films. Obviously the tone of the book is different, but there was something else I can't put my finger on.

Some asshole decided to cut in front of us at Meijers today. He felt it was OK because we looked young and he was much larger than me. He ordered his girlfriend to "cut in front of these nice people". There were a lot of U of M students buying cartloads of alcohol and he assumed we were part of that crowd. Regardless, it was uncalled for.

I've seen a lot of negative activity at Live Journal. They seem to be banning users for links to adult content in friends and private posts. That seems unfair. They used to have very loose rules about blogging material.

NBC and Apple are fighting about pricing structure and DRM. NBC does not want to allow users to keep content and they wish to charge $5 an episode. This will effect NBC content and Universal content. You will see no more Monk, Psych, The Office, or NBC News clips. They also partially own the History Channel and A&E. I don't know what will happen with that content. I'm mad because I buy Monk and Psych episodes on iTunes. I have every episode of Monk to date (season 2 is on DVD) and almost every episode of Psych. I don't want to wait for DVD sets nor pay the premium for DVD versions. I may get a PVR or just record on VHS or get a TV tuner working on my PC again. Screw them. Universal is the reason we have a format war. They support HD-DVD along with Toshiba.

I'd complain about this to NBC, but their contact forms are very selective. Perhaps I should complain to their parent company, GE.

I just cancelled my blockbuster online service. For several months, it was a very good service. They offered unlimited in-store swaps of DVDs and I had absolutely no problems with DVDs playing. Over the last two months, I've had nothing but bad DVDs. At least 5/9 discs have been cracked and glued back together. They won't play in any of my players or computers. I'm sick of reporting the discs and waiting for new ones to come. I'd complain to them, but they don't offer a lot of feedback options on their website. It's possible that it is just my service center (in lansing) or bad luck with the discs I'm renting. I may go back to netflix, but for a few months I'll just buy DVDs. At $10 a month, I can walk into best buy and just pick up a movie or two. I actually bought one movie for $4 recently there.

Caryn sold my original xbox on Ebay for ~$65. It included two controllers and 14 games. I found that I'm not playing games as much with mbsd. When I do, it is often the Wii now. We need a new tv stand anyway. We'll put the money toward that.

I saw this out of fortune today:
My mother wants grandchildren, so I said, "Mom, go for it!"
-- Sue Murphy

Nintendo has been promoting their new Metroid game for the Wii. They've put the original NES game and the SNES game "Super Metroid" on the Wii shopping channel. I really liked the original Gameboy game "Metroid 2: The return of Samus". A lot of people don't realize that Samus is a chick! It was one of the first games that had a female character in the lead role. Consider other games of the era like Zelda (link), Super Mario Bros (two male plumbers), etc. It was a big deal back then. Most of the games targeted at women were Barbie games. How lame.

My mother just got her financial aid so she can attend MCC. I'm so happy for her. It's hard to go back to school when you've been away. I know she is nervous about her age. She'll do fine.

I watched Sideways again.  I remembered why I found the movie interesting the first time.  It was very weird to see the cheap gas prices when they stopped for gas.  $1.71 in California! 

Caryn's set to teach an HTML course at the local community college this fall.  I talked to her about my experiences in my summer classes.  I'm sure she'll do fine. 

Just Journal was moved to a new IP address the other day.  I got a free SSL certificate from GoDaddy.  They offer them to select open source projects.  I doubt Just Journal would qualify, but MidnightBSD did.  It saved me some money and I can now offer SSL for certain operations like CVSWeb browsing.  I'm very happy about that. 

Our Wii is working great with the new television set.  It looks much better on a widescreen TV with component cables.  The two recent Wii updates were quite helpful in terms of network connectivity.  I've isolated that something upstairs is causing the random wireless disconnects.  I suspect I need to pick a different wireless channel.  I just don't know which one to use. 10 and 11 are saturated with five other networks.  There are advantages to owning a house.  You don't have as many neighbors very close to you.  Then again, I'd probably use wired connections in a house as I could run cat 6 through the building.

MidnightBSD 0.1-RELEASE has been released.  I've found a lot of issues with the ports collection included, but the actual release is pretty good so far. 

The semester is drawing near.  I need to go over my checklist of things to do before it starts.  Oddly, I'm very stressed.  I could talk about it, but somehow I don't feel it's a good idea tonight.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070814/ap_on_go_pr_wh/rove_resigning

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070814/ap_on_go_pr_wh/rove_quotes_4;_ylt=AtZEsHhWxmk5c75FD6TZaxwGw_IE

Great news isn't it.