Category: Technical

Christmas, a Time for Family

It was about this same time last year that I was preparing to shut down for the holiday season. Every year I look forward to this time of unplugging myself from all of the technology that entangles me the rest of the year. In fact, I wrote about it last year in Learning to Unplug. Taking time off provides a change of pace, makes life more enjoyable, and gives you purpose.

I was also looking over the poetry I’ve published in my blog in the past. I hope that you’re able to take time to read Christmas Remembrances and that you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Christmas truly is a time of remembrance—a time to think of what is past, what is today, and what may come tomorrow.

For the first time in a long time, Rebecca and I will actually be able to travel a bit this holiday (day trips, but travel anyway) and we plan to see some of our family during the holiday season. It’s my sincere hope that during this time of Christmas that you’re able to spend time with family and friends—that you take time to reflect a bit and unwind from your work. If you’re traveling, as we are, please travel safely and don’t be in rush to get wherever you’re going. Your family will wait and will most definitely want you to arrive safely, even if it means arriving late.

I’ll be back online on January 3rd this year, which is a bit sooner than normal. If you send me any e-mail, please be assured that I’ll answer it as quickly as possible when I return. In the meantime, please be patient and check out the blog posts for your book. It may be that my blog already has the answer you need.

Thank you, one and all, for the support you’ve lent me this past year. Writing technical books wouldn’t be very enjoyable without caring readers. You’re the reason I continue to work as hard as I do. I look forward to working with you on some amazing new ideas this upcoming year!

 

Help for Quadriplegics One Step Closer

One of the main themes in my writing has been helping people with special needs in every way that I can. I encourage developers to add as many accessibility features as possible into applications. In fact, I wrote Accessibility for Everybody with that specific goal in mind. It shouldn’t surprise you that I keep track of developments in robotics that could potentially help those with special needs. My last post on the topic, The Bionic Person, One Step Closer, discussed the use of new technology to give sight to those without it. I recently read an article on an entirely different plane of the topic, those who can’t move their own bodies much, if at all, quadriplegics.

The article, “Paralyzed Mom Controls Robotic Arm Using Her Thoughts,” tells of a mother who would just love to be able to feed herself a bar of chocolate. A new robotic setup can read the required movements directly from her brain and direct a robotic arm to perform them. I find this amazing! Imagine not being able to do anything for yourself one day and then being able to perform little tasks that we all take for granted the next. Can you imagine what this woman goes through every time her nose itches? The thought has entered my mind more than once.

This technology has been in the works for quite some time. However, engineers are steadily getting closer to making the technology more natural to work with. Before now, people who could master the techniques and had the money could use voice controlled robotic arms. However, these devices are incredibly clumsy and difficult to work with. You can even try one out yourself for the low cost of $55.00 (check out “How to make a voice-controlled robot arm for $55“). This particular device is limited when compared to robotic arms used by those with special needs, but it would be enough to give you the idea.

The most important part of this new technology is that it keeps the user involved. Even when robotic arms of the past achieved their goals, they often left the user feeling out of control or possibly out of the picture entirely. The article, “Quadriplegics Prefer Robot Arms on Manual, not Automatic” explains the issue. These older technologies are advanced enough to get a glass of water, feed the user, and even scratch that itchy nose, but the user needs to be involved. Mind controlled robots can keep the user involved in his/her own life.

We’re living in an incredibly exciting time. It’s a time when it’s becoming possible for everyone to participate in life more fully. People who would have lived diminished lives in the past are now starting to become engaged to activities that everyone else performs. The playing field of life is becoming more level, which helps humanity as a whole. Let me know your thoughts on robotic technologies at [email protected].

 

Computers as (Non-)Appliances

I’m in a rare category of computer user-a category that gets smaller with each day. I actually enjoy building my own systems, mixing and matching parts to obtain the results I want, and repairing my systems as needed. In fact, I started out as a hardware guy in the Navy 36 years ago. At that time, you really needed to know about the hardware in order to do anything practical with a computer. I still build and maintain my own PCs. However, the day of the home computer builder is ending. I don’t actually see myself enjoying a computer I can’t fiddle with, but I know that I eventually will end up with one. If you aren’t so comfortable with computers as I am, it is better to trust a professional with repairing computer and servers.

The computer as a non-appliance is becoming a reality. In fact, I daresay that most people would never consider opening their computer to look inside, much less do anything with it. All that they want to do is start the computer, do some work on it, and then shut it down. As far as they’re concerned, the computer is like any other device they own-a television, refrigerator, or toaster. The problem is that a computer can’t be an appliance like any other appliance you own. One of the more useful opinions on the topic comes from John Dvorak in his “The Computer Appliance Myth” post. As small as they have become, computers are still complex multiuse devices that fulfill myriad tasks for the owner.

Even so, the days of repairing computers are coming to a close. For example, the most recent version of the iMac is pretty much unrepairable, even by a guy with my skills. This actually makes computers different from appliances. When my wife’s steam vacuum fails, I go to MarBeck.com and buy the parts to repair it. Over the past 25 years, I’ve bought about $60 in parts and managed to keep the machine operating without problem. The fact that I can do the work myself means that it’s more economical for me to repair the unit, than it is to buy a new one. I’ve made repairs to most of the other appliances in our home at one time or another. Even the VCR has a belt I can replace and I recently swapped the VCR in one machine with the VCR in another machine to build one complete VCR/DVD unit.

In my mind, an appliance is a single purpose device that is easy to operate and repairable for someone with the required skills. Computers don’t fit this definition and with the loss of the ability to repair them, they won’t ever fit the definition of an appliance. No, computers are becoming something different. Perhaps we’ll have to coin a new word to define them because I’m sure we’ll have a host of other devices in the same category. Actually, when you think about it, we already have a few other devices in this category. A smartphone isn’t actually a computer, but it’s definitely not an appliance either. When it comes to things going wrong with a mobile device, repair and iphone data recovery is still possible through specialist services available.

I do have limits when it comes to appliance repair. When our water heater went out, we decided not to repair it because calculations showed that we’d pay for a new water heater with savings on propane in just three years and after that, we’d actually earn money (in reduced expenses) by having the new unit. We went online to a site similar to Waterheaterreviewssite.com to find the best water heater for our home. I’m also not inclined to repair the furnace-failure could cost us our lives. However, these devices are still repairable by someone with the proper skills. When I have a problem with these devices, I make a call and an expert arrives to turn a non-working unit into something that’s useful again.

With the release of computers, smartphones, and other devices that aren’t repairable by a skilled home user under any circumstances, we need to come up with a new term to describe them. There isn’t any way you can convince me that computers have become appliances, especially not now that they’re unrepairable. Let me know your thoughts on computers as unrepairable multiuse devices at [email protected].

Virus Scares and Hoaxes Galore

It seems as if the holiday season can bring out the worst in some people for whatever reason-I have never figured out why. My inbox is sometimes packed with e-mail from concerned readers about this hoax or that virus. I read about viruses and hoaxes galore online as well. It seems as if there is an upsurge every year in the number, variety, and severity of these complete wastes of time. In my book, the people who perpetuate these sorts of things are either ill-informed or simply sad. If all of the energy that goes into creating these scares would go instead into some productive use, I can’t even begin to imagine the benefit to mankind as a whole. Instead, we have readers running about like Chicken Little exclaiming that the sky is falling. Of course, there is the issue of if a pandemic actually were to happen in the future, we would have to worry about what information was true and what wasn’t. This could cause a lot of confusion, especially if we had to make a tough decision during a global crisis. I hope the government would take the lead in tackling any misinformation, or at least produce an official US list of open states should we find ourselves in a lockdown. We want to be able to trust what we hear, read, and see. If we can’t do that, it will cause a lot of issues and maybe even lives.

John Dvorak ran an article in his blog the other day entitled, “Did You Fall for the Facebook Hoax?” I’m not too thrilled about some of the language he used, but the information he provides is right on the mark. You can probably sum it up as, “Anything that sounds too good, weird, or evil to be true, probably isn’t.” Of course, most of us want to be sure that something really is a hoax, so it pays to check out Hoax Busters, VMyths, or Snopes.com, just to be certain. These sites track all of the current myths and hoaxes out there, so you can see the basis for that hoax that arrived in your e-mail this afternoon. The point is that hoaxes aren’t real and you shouldn’t believe them, even a little.

When it comes to viruses, you can be sure that the Internet is plagued with them. Tomorrow I fully expect to see an article about the next major virus that will take down the Internet after emptying every bank in the world of funds. Yes, civilization will cease to exist with the next virus created by the cracker (a black hat hacker who uses his/her skills for ill, rather than good) who works only at midnight in a darkened room above a garage.

The fact is that viruses are real, but crackers often attack the least prepared Web surfers just as any other thief attacks the unsuspecting person on the street. There are enough people who are ill prepared to work on the Internet that crackers really don’t have to worry about creating a truly devastating virus that will invade every network on the planet. For one thing, it’s a waste of the cracker’s time-for another, must viruses have a relatively short active life before someone comes along with a fix that prevents them from spreading. Crackers know this, so they create viruses that work well enough for the time they expect the virus to be active, and then the cracker moves on to something else.

In general, a computer system can be invaded by a virus at any time-just as you can get a cold at any time. You tend to catch colds when your bodily defenses are down. The same holds true for your computer. When you let your computer defenses down, it has a better chance of getting a virus. However, even with the best defenses, there is a small chance you could still get a virus, but being prepared significantly reduces the risks. Here are five things you can do to ensure you’re prepared for a virus attack.

  1. Keep your virus protection updated.
  2. Install all of the required patches for your operating system and applications.
  3. Don’t open an e-mail from someone you don’t know, no matter how tempting the message might be (remember Pandora’s Box).
  4. Don’t go to sites you don’t trust.
  5. Keep your browser locked down so that it doesn’t automatically execute code when you visit a site. This means setting your browser to disable both JavaScript and Java support. Most browsers have an exception list you can create for sites you trust, so these sites will continue to work as they always have.


When you follow these five guidelines, you have a very good chance of avoiding viruses on your computer. The next time you see an e-mail message containing a hoax or trying to get you excited about the latest virus that will take down the Internet, consider the fact that these sorts of messages have been going around the Internet for quite a long time now and we have yet to see a major Internet down time. Let me know your thoughts about viruses and hoaxes at [email protected].

Exercise Care When Synching to External Time Sources

I read with interest an article by Mary Jo Foley recently entitled, “Microsoft offers guidance on Windows Server Year 2000 time-rollback issue.” It seems that the time source at USNO.NAVY.MIL experienced a problem and rolled back the clocks on a number of servers to the year 2000 during the evening of November 19th. I wouldn’t have wanted to be one of the administrators who had to fix that problem, especially if there were time-sensitive processes running at the time. Can you imagine the effect on applications such as billing? Of course, the effects are devastating for time-sensitive server features such as Active Directory.

If your organization has a single server that relies on a single time source for synching purposes, it probably isn’t possible to detect this sort of problem immediately, unless you have a human being observing the synching process. Given that administrators love automation, having someone physically sync the server won’t happen in most cases. However, good advice in this case is not to sync to the time server every day—sync only on days when someone will be there to monitor the servers. At least the administrator can quickly react to errant updates of the sort mentioned in the article.

Larger installations with multiple servers could possibly set up multiple time servers and use an application to monitor them. When the servers are out of sync, the application can notify the administrator about the issue. It’s also possible to use the W32Tm utility to perform time monitoring or to compare the time settings of two systems using a strip chart.

Actually, it’s a bad idea to sync to the time server at times when an administrator isn’t available to monitor the system, such as during the middle of the night or a holiday. The best option is to sync the server immediately before the staff arrives in the morning or immediately after they leave at night, when an administrator is available to quickly fix the problem. My personal preference is to include the W32Tm utility in a batch file that runs when I start my system in the morning. This batch file syncs all of the systems on the network at a time when I’m specifically watching to see the results. Both Administering Windows Server 2008 Server Core and Windows Command-Line Administration Instant Reference provide information on how to use this utility to perform a wide variety of time-related tasks.

If you happened to be affected by this issue, make sure you read the Microsoft blog post entitled, “Fixing When Your Domain Traveled Back In Time, the Great System Time Rollback to the Year 2000.” Even if you have already fixed the problem, the information in the article is useful because it helps define the problem and provides some useful information for avoiding the problem in the future. The vast majority of servers affected by this problem have Windows 2003 installed without time jump protection enabled. I’d actually like to hear if someone has encountered something odd in this particular circumstance so that I get a better feel how this problem manifested itself in the real world.

How do you work through time-related issues in your organization? Have you ever encountered a problem of this sort with your system? Let me know your thoughts at [email protected].

 

I Don’t Speak “Texting”

I really do try my best to decipher reader e-mail and, generally, I do a good job. However, lately I have received a number of messages written as if the person were texting me. Unfortunately, I don’t speak texting, so I couldn’t answer the e-mail without clarification. In at least one case, the person in question became agitated. I truly do want to answer your questions, but first, I must understand the question.

The incidents have led me to think through some of the assumptions I have made about language in general and the grammar we use to communicate with each other. Language changes constantly. Sometimes it changes more quickly and sometimes it settles down to percolate for a while. However, as with any living thing, language changes. I’m sure that texting (as it applies to cellphone usage) will contribute to some massive changes in our language.

It wasn’t surprising to learn that there are actually terms for some of these changes. For example, the combination of letters and numbers used to form a word is called wumbers and someone has actually written a book entitled, “Wumbers” about it. That this is a children’s book tells me that youngsters today are steeped in the language of texting long before they own a cellphone. An example of a wumber is “writ10” (pronounced, “written”). You might learn about a 2can (toucan) using wumbers, and always be sure to say 10Q (thank you) when someone does something nice for you. I’m surprised at the number of ways in which wumbers are used today.

On top of the wumbers, the texting devotee also has to learn a host of acronyms and abbreviations. I’m sure that some of these terms are standardized. You can find a sampling of them on Netlingo. There is nothing new about acronyms and abbreviations. In fact, I have used some, such as IAE (In Any Event), for years. However, the sheer weight of new acronyms and abbreviations that have become popular due to texting makes it akin to learning an entirely new language.

At issue is when people start using wumbers, acronyms, or abbreviations, mixed with slang, that other people can’t figure out, despite investing time and effort to do so. The creation of a new language is a painful process—at least, it appears that way from my perspective. There will come a point where a certain level of standardization will occur and texting will become a language onto itself. I’m not sure whether there is an actual name for the language yet or not, but I’m sure some linguist will coin a term for it.

Of course, the problem now is to determine whether texting has the staying power to become a bonafide language. There have been many language failures over the years. Some languages become extinct because the group that spoke them no longer exits; others become extinct because the language was impractical. In order to survive, a language must have enough standardization that people can understand it, it has to meet needs that existing languages don’t, and it also has to have enough flexibility to grow to meet new needs for expressing ideas and concepts.

It’s unlikely that I’ll learn texting anytime soon—partly because I don’t even own a cellphone (the preferred method of practice). When communicating with me, please try to use English or at least a language that I can translate with Google Translate. Let me know your thoughts on the texting language at [email protected].

 

Information Overload – The Conclusions

I’ve been
discussing the issue of potential information overload with my blog entries for the past several weeks now (see Information Overload) and it’s time to come to some conclusions. Several of you wrote in to tell me that you’d actually like me to write more. As nice as that would be, my current schedule won’t allow for it. In order to provide you with a high quality of writing, I need to focus my attention on a few good posts, rather that a flood of mediocre ones.

I received a total of 117 e-mails. Three of those e-mails wanted me to publish posts six days a week. Because that wasn’t one of the options, I chose not to chart them as part of the output you see here.

BlogFrequency

Strictly speaking, most of the blog readers would prefer that I publish posts four day a week. As you can see though, the numbers are pretty close. What I’ve decided to do is publish four posts a week from this point on, unless I happen to have an excessively easy week (when I’ll publish five) or an excessively hard week (when I’ll publish three). I’m hoping that the new schedule will meet with everyone’s approval.

As far as content is concerned, I only receive a few messages that talked about it at all. Most people seem quite happy with the content that you see on the blog now. There are some people who like the technical articles best and others who like the self-sufficiency articles best, but even amongst those who expressed a preference, they usually added that they liked at least some of the posts in the other category. For the moment, I’ll continue to post the mix of articles that I do now. Of course, I’m always happy to hear from you about blog issues. Feel free to contact me at [email protected] if you have any questions or concerns about the blog at all.

 

A Reminder About Information Overload

Last week I wrote a post entitled, Information Overload. It really is important to me to find ways to serve your needs. If you’ve already responded to that post, please accept my thanks. I’ll be posting the results next week Wednesday. If you haven’t responded, you still have another week to respond to the post by writing a comment or sending an e-mail to [email protected].

Make sure you also tell me about posts that you particularly like or dislike. While it isn’t possible for me to tailor my posts to meet the needs of any specific person, I do try to meet the needs of the majority. Of course, I’m always open to your ideas and suggestions as well. My goal is to provide you with the best content that I can !

 

Green Doesn’t Mean Pollution Free

There is a misconception about green technologies that I hear more and more often. The idea that a green technology is necessarily pollution free simply isn’t correct. I’ve been giving the notion a great deal of thought and haven’t been able to come up with a single green technology that is free of pollution of some sort. In fact, I have come to wonder whether some supposedly green technologies may actually produce more pollution than the technologies they’re supposed to replace. Yes, I realize that this is a radical position, but hear me out before you make a decision for yourself (and I would welcome discussion on this particular issue).

I’ll start with the simplest green technology that I could come up with. Years ago my wife gave up her drier for a clothesline. Not only do our clothes last longer and smell better, but she gained some important space in the laundry room, our costs for drying the clothes are smaller, and using a clothesline is definitely green. However, is a clothesline pollution free? It isn’t for several reasons.

 

  • The clothesline we use is plastic covered metal wire, which means that manufacturing it generated several kinds of industrial waste and hydrocarbons.
  • The hooks used to support the clothesline are made of metal, which means yet more industrial waste.
  • The posts used to support the hooks are made of treated lumber, so they contain toxic chemicals.
  • The posts are also painted, which means more toxic chemicals, along with industrial waste and potential hydrocarbons.


Using the sun to dry your clothing is a green technology. There are few continuing pollution sources when using this approach, yet, it can be easily argued that the clothesline will eventually require replacement, as will the posts and the hooks. The posts will last longer if I continue to paint them, but that means continued pollution in the form of toxic chemicals as well. So, this green approach to drying clothing does generate a small amount of pollution—it isn’t pollution free as advocates would have you believe. (However, it is demonstrably better than using a drier.)

After thinking this issue through for a while, I did come up with some ways to reduce the pollution generated by drying clothing outside, but never have created a solution that is completely pollution free and still provides the desired result. Here are some of the changes I considered:

 

  • Use black locust posts and cross beams that require no painting and are naturally resistant to decay.
  • Use natural fiber clotheslines that don’t generate as many pollutants during production.
  • Avoid the use of hooks by tying the clotheslines directly to the cross beams.


Even with these changes, however, the simple act of drying clothing generates pollution. For example, I have no source of natural fiber strong enough to support the clothes on my property and even if I did, I have no way of turning the fibers into clotheslines. In short, drying clothing generates some amount of pollution in the form of industrial waste even with the best planning. I’ve been able to use this same approach to consider the pollution generated by burning wood instead of propane to heat the house (despite my replacement of the trees I burn to maintain the size of the woods) and other ways we try to be green. Humans simply generate pollution for every given activity no matter how benign or well considered.

So, now you need to consider how this information translates into other green technologies. When you look carefully at my arguments against calling a green technology pollution free (as has been done in the hype generated in the news lately), you quickly see that many green technologies generate considerable pollution. Most of the articles I read on the topic are woefully inadequate and some are downright inaccurate. For example, I read an article from Scientific American that tries to paint solar cells as relatively pollution free. The article does consider the burden of fossil fuels used to construct the solar cells, but doesn’t consider the content of the cells themselves. For example, when you talk about the silicon used to create a solar cell, you must consider the heavy metals used to dope the silicon in order to make it into a semiconductor.

Unfortunately, while I do know that toxic industrial waste is produced when creating solar cells, there is a terrible lack of material on just how much. It’s a dark secret that you won’t read about anywhere. The article also doesn’t consider the emissions produced by the manufacture of plastic housings and metal castings used for solar panels. So, while using a solar panel does reduce locally produced pollution, I have to wonder whether the technology doesn’t simply move the pollution to another location—the place of manufacture. It makes me wonder whether our grandchildren might not consider solar technology as an ill conceived maneuver designed to make everyone feel better at the expense of toxic output that is even worse than the technology it replaced. In fact, I have read an article or two about this particular issue already—we may be making some places in China uninhabitable in order to clean up our own country.

Of course, these are simply musings of mine that I’m choosing the share with you. My point is that we need to consider the potential ramifications of theoretically green technologies that we embrace and consider the full cost of each. There are many technologies, such as the use of ethanol in gasoline, that many people have already questioned as being reckless. You can find a lot of articles questioning the use of ethanol in places such as the New York Times, Scientific American, and Environmental Working Group that say ethanol is a wash at best and potentially worse than simply using unadulterated gasoline from a health perspective. I have an open mind when it comes to green technologies, but I’m also cautious in saying that we’re making progress because so far, I’m not seeing much real progress. Let me know your thoughts on the green revolution at [email protected].

 

Information Overload

I’m always looking for ways to serve your needs better. Of course, that means reviewing the statistics for this blog so I know what you find most useful, reflecting on your comments both in the blog and in e-mail, and looking at the latest trends in content presentation. This third possible source of useful information has made me wonder whether I’m not overloading you with information. Check out the post entitled, “Why I Will Be Posting Less” to see for yourself. Information overload is indeed a problem in our society and I would want to be the last one to add to anyone’s burden, especially after writing posts such as Learning to Unplug.

Of course, every blog is different, as are the people who read it. I’m taking a page from Mr. Hyatt’s blog and considering what you need from me in the way of usable information. What I’d like you to do is tell me how often you’d like me to post new additions to this blog:

 

  • Two times a week
  • Three times a week
  • Four times a week
  • Five times a week


You can tell me as a comment to this post or through e-mail at [email protected]. It’s important to me to provide you with enough information, but not to overwhelm you. Of course, if I end up posting less often, I’ll cover some topics a little less often too.

From what I’ve been able to garner from the statistics that the blog software automatically maintains for me, you really do like the eclectic mix of topics on this blog, so I’ll continue in that vein and using about the same percentages of posts as I do now. However, I’d like to hear about any topics you particularly like or dislike. Be sure to e-mail me about your concerns. It’s important to me to serve your needs the best way I can.

I’ll gather statistics for a couple of weeks from you (reminding you at times about this post), and then provide an update here on what I’ve learned. These sorts of discoveries are always interesting and often produce unexpected results. I’m sure you’ll want to know what I discover just as much as I want to learn your thoughts and opinions about this blog. In the meantime, happy reading!