Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Windows 7 setup disappoints

I installed Windows 7 this evening. My first impression is disappointment. Microsoft has improved the Windows install program (compared to the old setup programs for Windows 2000 and Windows XP) yet still lags behind the typical Linux install program.

On the plus side, the Windows 7 setup program runs smoothly and recognizes hardware beyond the basic VGA (640x480) video cards. It found drivers for my video card and network card, something that earlier versions of the Windows install did not do. It runs in GUI mode, not in text mode. The old white-on-blue text scheme is gone!

That about sums up the good things.

Windows 7 installs from a DVD, not a CD. Perhaps this is Microsoft's way of ensuring a recent vintage PC. Yet all of the Linux distros that I have tried use CDs, even the bloat-ish SuSE distro. Did Microsoft think carefully about this aspect? Demanding a DVD reader forfeits all of the old PCs to Linux. It may make the Windows install easier, but it gives up market share. (I myself have several PCs with CD-not-DVD readers.)

Windows 7 offers no "Live CD" version, to let you run off the CD (or DVD) without installing on your hard disk. This is a convenient and useful feature of an operating system -- you can verify that it will work with your devices before you commit to the install. With Windows 7, you must commit and hope for the best. (Although Windows seems to have drivers for various cards.)

The install lets you select a partition, which is a nice change from the previous approach of "we are using your hard disk". Yet it gives you no option to adjust the partitions. You must (apparently) use a third-party disk partitioner (perhaps from a Linux Live CD) and then install Windows 7. (On the other hand, by not adjusting partitions, Windows 7 does not have to worry about adjusting file systems including those "foreign" file systems like ext3 or ext4.)

Windows 7, if it finds an old Windows system, keeps the files in the directory "Windows.old". There is no "take over the entire disk I don't care what's there" option.

The Windows 7 install requires three restarts to complete. (OK, one of them is at the very end after Windows has downloaded updates.) Yet the typical Linux install requires zero restarts. (SuSE does need one, though.)

The setup is divided poorly into a number of tasks: copying files, expanding files, installing features, installing updates, and then a generic "completing installation". This last vague tasks takes the longest amount of time (almost an hour) with no progress indication.

Windows, being a Microsoft product, requires activation. The install disc comes with a product code, on a sticker. The typeface is rather small and hard to read. Perhaps easier for younger eyes, this demonstrates a bias against older users.

The setup asks some questions up front and then some at the end. This arrangement is better than earlier installs which asked questions at mulitple points of the install, but it could be better. Why not ask all questions up front and then perform all operations?

In the end, the setup program does get the job done. Windows 7 is now up and running. From a purely pragmatic view, the setup program works and performs as expected. From a marketing view,  the program fails: it does nothing to endear me to Windows or Microsoft.It has fewer capabilities than competing Linux, the user interface is acceptable (and possibly cutting edge by Microsoft standards) but it does not delight.

I use the setup program once and then I use Windows. Let's ignore the shortcomings of the install program and look at Windows 7. I'll report on my findings in the future.


Sunday, June 27, 2010

Photos and e-readers

A friend helped me with photos today. She's a photographer, and we held a photoshoot at the local park.

I asked her for help because I want new photos (and better photos) for my web presence. My current photos are simple against-the-wall headshots that were taken by my camera with a timer. In a word, they suck. Today's photos are much better (from the little that I have seen) and I hope to have them next week-end.

Today I also stopped by the local Borders and looked for the Kobo e-reader. They are not available, but may be on sale in early July. I'm hoping for a drop in the price from $149 to $99. I think that it is reasonable, as the Kindle just dropped to $189 and Nook to $149 and they both include internet connectivity (which the Kobo does not).

 

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Some things go and some things come

It may be late for spring cleaning, yet I find that it is time to let some things go and bring some new things in.

I let go of an old IBM Thinkpad T21 laptop this morning. It had several problems: would not run later versions of Ubuntu, display did not always work, and sometimes would not turn on.

I'm also letting my subscriptions to "Fast Company" and "Wired" expire. In the past, I have been a big fan of both magazines, yet now I find that they are ... boring. I have read the recent issues and find very little of interest. While the subscription rates are low, the signal-to-noise ratio is also low, and I would rather spend my time reading other things.

New arrivals include Windows 7, which I ordered today. I have been playing with the evaluation copy and that one has expired. I ordered a "real" copy from TigerDirect this morning at an appealing price -- less than their special price of a few months ago.

Other arrivals include a pair of hard discs and a flopy drive I found in the "giving place" of my apartment building. There was a PC carcass with no memory and no cover, but the drives were present. I popped them out easily. One is a 40 GB drive and the other 320 GB. I will add the larger drive to my //delwood server and use it to store music files.


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The fun of doxygen

I experimented with doxygen today. Doxygen is the documenting package for C++ and other languages. I had heard of it some time ago and was always doing something else, never getting to it.

I was pleasantly surprised with the package. It was already installed in our environment, although the installation seems to be nothing more than copying the executable to a suitable location. No special DLL files, no COM registration, no sub-package installs, no databases, no virtual machines, and no activation keys. Just a mere "load and go" set of steps.

I was also pleasantly surprised with the capabilities. Doxygen can extract special comments and create documentation, much like Javadoc and Perldoc, and it can also chew on plain source code (without special comments) and create some reasonable documents. I used the latter mode, and got some pretty good results.

Doxygen creates documents in multiple formats. The version we have (which is an old one) creates HTML, RTF, LATEX, and MAN pages by default. (There are ways of turning off specific formats.)

Doxygen works on more than C++. It can read C, C#, Java, FORTRAN, Python, PHP, and a few other languages that I don't remember right now. It's also configurable, and configurable in sensible ways. The folks who write doxygen use it for their own work.

I'm impressed with the package. I wrote a documentation package when I was at UPS; it worked on C++ and C# and created little hierarchy diagrams. The doxygen output is superior to my attempt at a package, and faster too. Since I wrote my own documenter, I know what's involved in parsing C++ and C# code. (And parsing C++ is not easy.)

I spent all of perhaps thirty minutes with doxygen today, and feel pretty good about it. A small part of that time was learning the configuration options; most of the time was experimenting with options and showing other folks the results.


Monday, June 21, 2010

Lunch and RailsConf

I attended a brown-bag lunch session today, held in the office. Some folks who had attended the recent RailsConf shared information about the conference.

There is a lot changing in Rails, and from what I heard, it is for the better. The Rails maintainers have learned from the previous two releases and version 3.0 will have a number of significant improvements. The Rails team is not keeping backwards-compatibility, a move that I am sure caused much discussion on the team.

I was happy to attend the lunchtime session, and happy to see that the folks in the office care about new technologies and events outside of the office. It's a nice change from the UPS environment. At one time, folks at UPS did care about external events. The philosophy changed over the years, and UPS now looks inwards and thinks little of external happenings. It is an attitude that will cost them in the long run, as they fall behind in technology and they lose people to other companies. I hear reports that they already have a difficult time filling positions (contractor or employee) but I suspect that they are not too worried about such a problem.


Sunday, June 20, 2010

A step towards the white shiny side of the Force

I installed the Apple OSX development tools this morning. A while back, I had found the "Building Cocoa Applications" book and read through it quickly. The InterfaceBuilder application for OSX development is similar to Microsoft's Visual Studio for Windows development, so I understand a lot of the concepts.

Or so I think. I will test that idea in the next few weeks, as I develop applications for the Macintosh. I'm sticking to the Macintosh and not developing for the iPhone or iPad for two reasons: the "Building Cocoa Applications" book talks only of Macintosh (it was printed prior to the release of the iPhone) and iPhone development requires more tools than the development kit.

For now, I can keep busy and learn new things. And that is enough.


Sunday, June 13, 2010

Lunches and resumes

This week-end I lunched with my former co-worker Larry. He has been working long hours (7 day weeks) for a few months now, to compensate for project under-staffing. Larry is a decent guy and doesn't deserve half the politics that he suffers. Yet with the current job market, he chooses (understandably) to suffer. And he's in a position to shield the folks that work on his team, so he's doing good things for people.

Our lunches were good. It gave Larry the opportunity to vent (something that everyone needs at times) and it also let us discuss possible futures. I tend to be too much of the purist and Larry can help me with his experience and his pragmatism.

As for resumes, I forwarded a the resume of another former co-worker to a respectable recruiter. I feel a bit guilty -- I have had it for a while. I hope that she (the recruiter) can find him a good opportunity.


Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Local lightning talks from ACM

I attended the local ACM chapter's lighting talks this evening. They went off fairly well, although the chapter must work on building attendance.

Tonight was the annual meeting, and a new set of officers was elected. (Which means I escape from my role as Mmeber-at-Large.) I met a few folks, but didn't have enough time to talk.

One interesting topic was the Baltimore hackerspace. It's closer than I thought -- maybe ten blocks. Worth looking at, even if I don't have the time. (One of the talks at Open Source Bridge last week as about hacker spaces. Coincidence?)


Monday, June 7, 2010

Force of habit

I returned to the office today, after the week of science fiction and open source conventions.

And when I did, I logged on to my assigned computer. I entered my ID and password.

Not only did I enter the proper values, but I did so without hesitation.

That's a milestone. I have been stumbling on my ID and password, entering the ID and password of the previous assignment, not this one, and catching myself as I entered the old credentials from habit.

Now, I have re-programmed myself with the new credentials. It may have happened a few weeks ago, and I noticed it only now.

Still, it feels good to know that I *can* reprogram myself.


Saturday, June 5, 2010

OSB 2010 concludes

The Open Source Bridge conference for 2010 has concluded. The four-day conference had lots of great sessions, creative people, and imaginative ideas. The conference itself was a model for creativity, with the fourth day an "unconference" day in which the attendees plan the sessions. Rather than pre-planned (and pre-approved) sessions, the day is filled with attendee-run sessions. The opening time slot is spent planning the rest of the day, with people announcing sessions and pasting them onto a large white-board. Then attendees pick the sessions they want to view, and voi-la! Instant conference day!

I went to a bunch of sessions in the unconference, and they were informative and helpful. The topics were more varied than the regular conference sessions, with people discussing the resurrection of old Hypercard files and travel tips, yet still fun.

I think that the unconference works best at the end of a con. At the beginning of the con, people are still (mostly) strangers, but at the end of the con people are comfortable with each other. Also, its a more relaxed atmosphere.

I don't know how well the notion of an unconference scales. The planning session requires access to a whiteboard, and you can do that in a meeting of 150 people of which 30 want to present. I think it would be difficult at a conference such as OSCON with 3000 people of which 450 want to present. And on-line tools would be a poor substitute -- there is an air of intimacy with everyone in the same physical room.

But then not every conference must have every feature. There are things that OSCON can do with its size that smaller cons cannot. Let's use our resources -- and con size is a resource -- for good purposes.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

OSB day 2

Today was the second day of the Open Source Bridge (OSB) conference. I was in several good sessions, and again the best conversations were the ones not in sessions but in the hallways. I'm not the only one who recognizes this phenomenon. Today's keynote speaker talked about hacker spaces (permanent spaces for a hacker group -- "hacker" in the "white hat" sense) and discussed the notion of "permanent hallways". A permanent hallway strives to duplicate the hallways of conferences, to let people meet and talk about random interesting topics.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Open source means business

Day one of the OSB conference in Portland OR. I attended several sessions that covered various topics. The opening session was for the general conference and had some remarks from Selena Deckelmann (one of the con organizers) and then a keynote on open source and how it can be used to protect journalists.

Other sessions included "How to Give Great Tech Talks", a session on Hypercard and why we need it now, databases and the cloud, search engine optimization, and an evening BOF (birds of a feather) session on Ruby.

I think I was most impressed with the focus on business issues. A number of presentations (not all, but a significant portion) discussed the use of open source solutions to solve large-scale challenges. (Facebook and Twitter use open source, for example.) The discussion of business issues is a change from the open source conferences in 1999. Back then, presentations discussed neat technical tricks and did not talk about business issues. Perhaps it was not necessary, or even appropriate, given the low degree of adoption. Now, the market has changed, and presentations have changed too.