Y2K Disaster?

Even now, 8 years after the millennium, I keep reading that the only Y2K disaster was the fact that so many companies bought into the issue, and piled hundreds of thousands of pounds into fixing it. I remember that for quite some years afterwards, there were many articles jeering at these so-called "morons" for buying into the hype, and sending their money gurgling down the drain of the consultants pockets.

What I don't see is anyone actually defending much of this spend. OK - yes, there were some jokers insisting that your washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher and even your toaster were going to be affected by this move from '99 to '00. Thankfully most people were above such panic (although there were sad, sad stories of people actually "upgrading" their white goods because they had been suckered into believing that they'd stop working at midnight on 1999!) and were able to see that it wouldn't matter what year your white goods thought it was, because it'll function just as well in 1900 as 2000.

What did matter were many database systems where the year information had been stored as a two digit number instead of a 4 digit number. It's very simple, but there was a hell of a lot of data out there with just that problem, and the companies who had such databases paid to make sure they were up to date by the end of 1999. There were other systems where the year mattered, and these were updated too. The reason the "millennium bug" failed to bring the world to its knees was because so many companies had paid so much money to ensure that systems would NOT cause problems.

I worry, in retrospect, about claims that aircraft would fall out of the sky because they'd suddenly stop working on the dot of midnight 1999. Even now, I just can't see how this could possibly have been an issue. HOW would this have worked? If I change the date in my PC back to January 1900 (actually, the internal clock wont let me go back further than 1980), is my computer going to suddenly think - "Oh my God! They didn't have computers back in 1900! I can't work any more."? Well, let's look at this logically - I'd be thrilled if my computer started thinking at all! But computer systems don't, as yet, have any kind of awareness save what we've programmed into them, so, no, I think it unlikely my computer would worry about the fact that computers hadn't been invented in 1900. Similarly, I'd be prepared to bet that no aircraft would have any kind of programming which would give said aircraft cause to worry that no-one was able to fly back in 1900, so it shouldn't be able to fly either. I can see no reason to have year information in the programming of an aircraft at all. That said, I bet Airforce 1 has some pretty fancy software!

Has it ever occurred to these people who now dismiss the whole Y2K bug theory as having been a load of old hokum, that the reason it didn't hit us nastily was because it was part hokum, and part preparation.

Windows 7 Wish-List

My copy of PC Pro arrived last week, and I fell on it like a vulture onto the carcass of a lamb! Inside there's an article about the forthcoming new operating system from those boys in Redmond, Windows 7. I was rather disappointed to find that there's no interesting code-name for the beast. Within the article, however, there was a section where a few people had put in their wants for this new OS. Let me detail what I'd like, with a few reasons.

1. I want to be able to set the program defaults for every user who logs into the machine - like the ability to configure IE without the end user having to think it through. Working in a school one becomes aware of how the younger children are completely lost when presented with the "Now let's set up how you search the internets" page on first starting IE. All they want to do is to find their favourite games sites, and having to talk every single year 3, 4 and 5 student through the decision on which internet search engine they want to use is seriously eating into my support time.
This also goes goes for WMP - I want all the machines to behave the same.

2. Sound. Why, for the love of Mike, is Windows configured to play a little tune on login? Can you imagine a room of 20 computers, many of which don't have functioning headphones (because children are tiny little vandals) all logging in at the same time? 10 times a day? After the first time it becomes REALLY annoying - the kids aren't allowed to use the control panel, and thus cannot configure this. And if they could - remember these are children. They're going to choose something which grates even more. So on the wish list for Windows 7 - make the default sounds settings as No Sounds.

3. For pity's sake stop hiding things. I've spent ages learning how to be damn good with XP, and I know where to find most things (although I do have some problems with registry entries). But in Vista I'm completely lost. I want to check my network connections - I head to Control Panel, Network Connections. Where do I head in Vista? Sadly this is not a rhetorical question, because I've not yet worked that one out :(

4. Stop swamping me with messages. Apparently a recent study of popups found that most people will do anything except actually read the message in front of them in order to get rid of those annoying messages that Windows (and loads of other programs) pop up onto your screen to tell you something. It's not even that people are idiots - it's just that there are TOO DAMN MANY of these dumb messages. I don't need to know that I have unused icons on my desktop. I suspect more people would read them if there weren't so many which are completely information free. Or if the information had anything to do with the real world. You'd almost think that all programmers were, in fact, elitist sons of bitches.

5. I'd like to be able to set a default printer for a machine, which will override any network settings. So if a PC has a printer attached, I can say that this is the default printer for every user who logs on. While I want to be able to restrict my users from doing things I don't want them to do, I'd like to be able to make their lives easier, by providing the most useful set of defaults. There are some settings which can't be set by group policies.

Actually, this is much more of a DO NOT WANT list than a wish list of new functionality. I do want more control over new accounts than I have at the moment, and I really do want to be able to set more defaults, more easily.

So, Microsoft, are you really listening to your customers?

Finding a Higgs Boson Particle.

I know. They're going to turn on the LHC tomorrow, and we're all going to be sucked into a black hole. Very scary.

However, assuming we DON'T get sucked into any kind of black hole - in fact, assuming that no black hole is actually created, I worry about this search for the Higgs Boson particle. What if, contrary to Stephen Hawking's expectation, they do, indeed, find it, but it turns out NOT to provide unlimited understanding of our universe?

What, are they going to say it's not actually a Higgs boson at all, but some other particle (and they need only look as far as Star Trek for some damn fine particle names if they get stuck)?

I just feel that all those nice scientists are going to be so very disappointed!

Olympic Shooting - just mind the flowers.

There I was, chatting with my mum yesterday, who was letting off steam and having a good old rant about the Olympics (actually, a source of comment all day), when we moved onto the subject of the forthcoming London Olympics in 2012.

"I think it's ridiculous, they're building all new sites for the Olympics, you know."
"What?" I replied, "Aren't they using Wembly Stadium?"
"No, they're building a new stadium for the thing. And the shooting too, building a whole new site for that, which they're going to take down at the end of the Olympics, because they're worried about guns. Why don't they just use sites, they've already got? We've got Wisley for shooting!"

Just as long as they watch out for the flowers!

Going to the Movies

So what happened? Last year, just as soon as I mentioned that I was single again, there was a flurry of interest. Invitations came, minor flirting happened.

But it was all too soon. I wanted time to regain my equilibrium. Find my chi. Stretch out alone in the king size bed, and feel nothing there. I wasn't ready to start looking for the next man - yet!

I'm still not ready for anything serious, but I want to go to the Movies. There are films I want to see which aren't suitable for my girls, and while I did enjoy Wall-e very much, the thought of having to sit through High School Musical 3 fills me, as you can possibly imagine, with horror. I want to go and see Hellboy II. I wanted to go and see Wanted (Angelina Jolie and guns - nuff said) ,but missed it. I want to go and see The Mummy 3 - it's got Terracotta Warriors, I'm hard pressed how it can get any better. I missed the latest Indiana Jones movie because the girls didn't want to go. The summer is filled with blockbusters, and I can't find a film buddy.

It's not just the silly blockbusters, although, as you can see, there's a certain excitement generated at the thought of going to see some of them. I want to go and see slightly odd films. Not as odd, you understand, as The Fountain, a film so obscure and strange that I still have no idea what it was all about. I love foreign films - especially those from the east. The Chinese have produced some gloriously beautiful films. Hero - all those beautiful colours, and an ending requiring a boxful of tissues. Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - equally beautiful, and with wonderful story.

And what of Anime, I hear you cry? I'm getting to that. I LOVE Anime! Is it just me, or do the Japanese really have the most way out imagination in the world? I can imagine the conversation in Hollywood...

"So, I've got this idea for a movie."
"OK - let's hear it!"
"Right, it's set in the future, not too far..."
"Oooh, Sci-fi - I like it!"
"And there are these kids..."
"Good, appeals to all age groups - I'm getting ya!"
"And they all have a little implant which allows them to connect to the web."
"OK - I'm still on-board."
"And these glasses which allow them to see what they're accessing with their virtual keyboards, which they can't see unless they've got their glasses on..."
"Yes..."
"And the whole space around them is created in cyber space, but sometimes the space gets corrupted, so someone's created these big ol' virus programs which go round trying to re-format the corrupted space..."
"Say wha'?"
"No, stay with me! But there's a problem because the virus programs can actually affect the kids, if they're caught by them while wearing their glasses..."
"NEXT!"
"And they've got these little cyber-pets, which they can't touch, and can't see without their glasses..."
"Bye now, missing you already!"

This is actually the premise behind Denou Coil (which I found on the net not that long ago), and it's really that weird! But it's got a great story. Obviously someone would grumble about the lack of tactile feedback on a virtual keyboard... Although most of the Anime I've seen is a) suitable for children and b) far too big to be contained in anything as short as a film, there have been some wonderful films - the most notable being those created by Miyazaki.

So, this is my crie de coeur - I want to go to the MOVIES!

Whining about Windows

My soon-to-be-ex husband bought my in-laws a computer a few weeks ago. This is a big deal, you know (apart from the seemingly generous gesture), because it's taken them years, literally years of prevarication to get to this point. The number of times I've sat with Margaret at my computer as we looked up something she wanted to find, and had been saving for weeks to ask me, escapes me. They'd come for Sunday lunch, and we'd end up spending the afternoon on the interweb, looking for things. I'll never forget Eric's first foray onto eBay, where he bought, with some glee, some golf clubs from the US for the usual bargain price. Margaret and I had located an old friend of hers, not through Friends Reunited in the end, but by Googling her name!

I'd tried to set up a computer for them so they could dial up the internets and browse eBay, send emails, read my blog etc. Unfortunately it was a very old machine, and I was trying to use Linux to set up a Modem I'd been assured would work. Since my knowledge of Linux is still very limited, you can imagine how pathetic it was a couple of years ago while I was trying this project.

So, you can see - it's a big deal.

But where, I hear you cry, does the whining come in?

Last week, just after we'd returned from France, and were still shaking the sand out of EVERYTHING, I got a call from my mum-in-law. I thought this was a call for a chat, and settled down to do justice to a good chit-chat, but was surprised to find that the real reason for the call was to ask for help on the computer. So I put on my computer solving hat, and asked for the symptoms. It turned out to be a pretty big problem - Vista wouldn't let them log on. I don't know about you, but being able to log on to my computer is a pretty fundamental part of it all.

The message "The user profile service service failed the logon"(sic) produced a page full of results on the aforementioned Google, showing me quickly that this is a known problem. A Known Problem? Yet, not a Fixed problem, apparently. And, according to the dates of the entries, a well-know-for-at-least-the-last-8-months problem.

What the hell are Microsoft playing at? This is not a user fixable problem, although when the aforementioned soon-to-be-ex husband went down there to help, with his good computer knowledge (c'mon, can you really see me having married a guy with no computer skills? Really?) it was a relatively simple task to get Windows to start up in Safe Mode, and restore the system to a previous point. But why wasn't this easier for Margaret and Eric to find? I tried to talk them through starting up in Safe Mode, but somehow this didn't work and since I couldn't see what was going on, and don't know Vista very well, it all worked to confound me. Fixing problems aside - why on earth is this problem still rearing it's hideously ugly head, a year (oh yes, a whole bloody year) after it was first talked about on the web? This is, as previously mentioned, a pretty fundamental issue.

You can cope, as an end user, with a lot of things going wrong with your computer, if you can login. If an application goes tits-up, well, you can attempt to uninstall and re-install it. As long as you can login. If your internet connection dies, if you can login to the computer, you can attempt to talk to your router, try pinging something external - IF YOU CAN LOGIN!

India Calling

Once again, this evening, I found myself on the phone to India.

You all know the experience - you call up your support people, press a few numbers on the phone, and you find yourself talking to a person situated in Mumbai, or Bangalore (those are the two places to which I've found myself connected). At this point, a lot of people start to panic. I'm hard pressed to understand why.

I love speaking to India, because all the people to whom I've spoken are

1. Extremely polite.
2. Very knowledgeable.
3. Incapable of admitting defeat.
4. Delighted when they get someone on the phone who has a bit more than a little technical knowledge - although this is personal!
   

Yes, I admit, there are sometimes problems with making out some of the words. However, I've never yet met the person who will not repeat for me, sometimes more than once.

In addition to which, you can usually get them to give you a weather report while you're on the phone!

Let's hear it for the Indian tech support guys!