Free Tech Support

Anyone else who reads this and considers themselves a geek is probably in the same boat as me. The more I do with computers and tech stuff, the more my family & friends view me as a free tech support guy. It started out when I was in school with my parents asking me simple stuff about setting up their email and such. That wasn't so bad. Gradually it spread to where my extended family was calling me about the simple stuff as well. As soon as my neighbors learned I was a CS student I became the first person they'd call whenever they had a computer question or problem. It went up a step when a year or so ago I helped my brother wire his apartment for ethernet so he could play his Xbox 360 in a different room from his computer. Apparently I am the only person who can use a crimp tool.

I find it funny how people seem to think I can solve problems with just a simple telephone call. I had an uncle call me because his computer was stuck constantly restarting and not loading the operating system. Somehow he thought I could just tell him to hit some magic key (right next to the Any key) to fix the problem. And it's not like I can just drive over to his house to fix the problem. He lives far enough away it'd cost me roughly $50 in gas to drive there and back. It would be cheaper for him to take his PC into a tech support shop and pay the $30-$40/hour they charge.

Now, I don't mind helping people with simple stuff or giving advice when I'm visiting or actually there in front of their computer. Doing support over the phone when they aren't able to converse on the same tech vocabulary level is very frustrating. With my family, I'll get calls while I'm driving down the road and have no frame of reference to what they're doing, and sometimes they're not even able to articulate what the problem is exactly.

I really think people should have to go through some sort of introductory course on how to use a computer before they actually get one. I think the biggest problem when it comes to computer problems, bugs, viruses, etc is user education level. A computer takes time and effort to keep in good working order, just as does an automobile. People think it's important to take care of their cars - get it washed, change the oil, etc, but they seem to think a computer will just take care of itself. Then they wonder why their computer runs so slow and is plagued with problems just a few months after getting it. Then again, you could always go overboard, as a friend of mine does, in that he reformats and reinstalls his entire operating system every few months just to be sure nothing is on there he doesn't want.

The Vista Experience

Okay, so I finally bit the bullet and upgraded my PC to Windows Vista this last week. No, I didn't mistype there as I consider it an upgrade from XP. I really have to laugh when I hear the criticism about Vista. Sure, there might be a few compatibility issues with some very specific hardware or some backwards compatibility issues with older software, but those type of issues are always there when upgrading to a newer version of an operating system. The funniest thing about the criticism about Vista is I usually hear it from people who have no clue what they're talking about. They aren't IT professionals or even people who have upgraded themselves to Vista. The criticism is usually from people who read something somewhere on the internet and decided to pass it on, usually from a misinformed or biased source.

Getting your PC & Windows information from Apple is like going to Toyota and asking them if they think buying a Dodge truck is a good idea. Of course they'll tell you their product is better. A lot of people don't quite understand that upgrading your operating system is only a good idea if you're also upgrading your hardware too. Microsoft designs their operating systems to work on certain hardware specifications. Running an OS on lower grade hardware will only result in a lower grade experience.

Windows 98 was designed to run on a 66 MHz processor with 16MB memory. Windows XP was designed to run on a 300 MHz processor with 128 MB memory. Vista's minimum requirements are a 1.5 GHz processor and 256 MB memory. Again, those are minimum specifications. In my experience, any operating system needs at least 4 times the minimum specs to get a good experience out of it. When I ran Windows XP I had at least 1 GB of memory, 8 times the minimum requirements and I never had performance problems with it. I've seen some people try to run XP on the minimum specs before...it's not a pretty sight. The main reason I held off upgrading to Vista was I wanted to have my computer upgraded to the levels where I could be sure performance wouldn't suffer. Too many people out there think Vista isn't good because they try to run it on the same hardware they ran XP on. That's just not a good idea. Some people don't like Vista because they need to upgrade their hardware just to be able to install it. To use the latest and greatest operating system you're going to need the latest and greatest hardware. That's just a fact about software. If you're okay with old hardware, then stick with an older operating system. But if you're going to insist on upgrading to the newest operating system, don't whine because you need to upgrade some parts to be able to run it (CPU, memory, video card, etc.).

Now that I've had Vista for a week or so, I have it configured the way I want it. I've got my User Access Control (UAC) configured the way I like it. I've got my software installed. All the applications I used on XP installed just fine on Vista. The only issue I had was with Nero (DVD & CD burning software). I had to get the newest version of it because the version I had was written before Vista existed and hadn't been designed for it. That wasn't such a big deal. All my hardware works fine with no incompatibility issues whatsoever.

Sure there are different choices out there when choosing an operating system for your new computer. People need to stop listening to advertising campaigns and go with what they need and what suits them. I chose Microsoft's operating system because
a) I like to play PC games (there just isn't a market out there for non-Windows games)
b) I write software for Windows based PC's.
c) I'm already familiar with how Windows works and am comfortable with it.
If all I did was browse the internet, check my email, and use a word processing program then almost any operating system out there would suit my needs. Computers have been able to do that basic functionality for the last ten years, so any old PC would work.

My main reasons against using a Linux based computer is the learning curve associated with Linux. Yeah, I've used Linux machines before and I could probably handle the switch okay, but I don't think my wife would enjoy switching over. As for using an Apple product, I just can't justify having to buy an entire new system every time I wanted to upgrade my computer. This last upgrade I just had to upgrade my CPU, memory and video card -- that's it. With Apple, if you want to upgrade your operating system you're going to basically just have to junk your current system and buy a whole new one from them. That's another thing I can't stand with Apple, is that they are the makers of both the hardware and the software. With a PC, Microsoft makes my operating system, but has no say in what hardware I use. Apple doesn't want you using 3rd party hardware to run their software. They basically want a monopoly on your computing experience.

Overall though I'm very pleased with Vista. The interface works superbly. For anyone who is already familiar with Microsoft operating systems, you're going to love Vista (provided you have the right hardware). The sidebar is very handy to have. If you have never used a PC before and are looking at getting your first one ever, then look at what you're going to do with it and decide on that. Just ignore the TV ads when trying to decide. No matter who puts them out, they tend to be very biased (that's the point, isn't it?).

And on a final note, I had to laugh when I saw Microsoft's new advertising campaign for their new operating system that launches July 29th. Essentially, they showed people who had previously bought into the Apple 'Get a Mac' ads (entertaining, but mostly flat out lies about PC's) the new operating system and then asked them what they thought of it. The people loved it. Then the Microsoft guys told them it was actually Vista. Funny, eh?

Firefox 3 Released

Today is the release date for Firefox 3. Starting at 10 AM PDT today, Mozilla is going to try and set a world record for the most software downloads in a single 24 hour period. For those who don't know what Firefox is, it's basically your run of the mill web browser with a lot of enhancements to make it by far the best one on the market. If you're still using Microsoft's Internet Explorer...I'm sorry.

Firefox doesn't present the security flaws that are built into Microsoft IE. Maybe it's just me, but I don't like my web browser so tightly intertwined with my operating system. Firefox also renders web pages (converts the HTML code to the stuff you see on your screen) a lot better and more accurate than almost any web browser out there.

For those wanting to see the new cool features of Firefox 3, here's a great screencast that demonstrates them.

Cognitive Surplus

This is a great video of a presentation given at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco earlier this year. Clay Shirky gives a great explanation (plausible) as to the reasons behind the explosion of user created content on the web and the immersion everyone is experiencing with social networking sites. Enjoy.

The Machines Are Alive

I swear the more processors and memory we put into our computers, the more likely the are to come to life, if they haven't already. Processing power has grown so fast that most PC's can handle workloads that weren't even imaginable ten years ago. Just the other day I had my computer at home ripping a DVD, converting videos to another format, uploading a data backup file, recording live TV, using VoIP, streaming video my Xbox 360, and playing a video game -- all at the same time, without even so much as a hiccup.

With all this new computing power at our fingertips, I'm amazing our computers haven't started talking back to us yet. Then again, that's likely a software issue. But I am willing to say that I've seen some technology start to take on personal attitudes, if only at a base level. Where I work, the developers all share a common network enabled printer. It gets used fairly regularly by all of us. After a few weeks we've all started to notice that our printer seems to have something against one of the developers, and against him only. In the year or so that I've been there, I've yet to have a problem with that printer. Every time I use it, it works flawlessly. The same goes for almost all the developers, except this one guy. For him, the printer likes to give a 'Paper Jam' error message on a large percentage of his printouts. When you check the printer, there is no paper jam. You just open one of the trays and close it again and all is fine.

The last few weeks we've tracked how often this happens. For all the other developers we get that error about one in fifty. For the unfortunate guy, he gets it about four in five printouts. It doesn't matter what time of day, how many pages, what tray he prints from, or from what PC he initializes his printouts, it always seems to give that bogus error message for him and him alone. Every time it happens we can all hear his verbal frustrations and almost on cue, the entire development team bursts out laughing. If the printer doesn't learn it's place, it may find itself in the same position that unfortunate printer did in the movie Office Space.