Future thin client computers?

I start this thread saying that desktop computers have evolved so they are too complex for their own good. Windows has tried to be all things and add multimedia, support for all sorts of content and hairy programs, making it vulnerable to viruses and other inherent problems just because it is trying to do so many complex things seamlessly, connected to the internet pipeline, subject to any kind of input.

In a nutshell, if you really try to DO something with the computer, it slows down, crashes, stops working the way it used to, and is a royal pain. Even power users have probably unacceptable levels of updates, repairs, re-boots, reformats, and typical users don't want to, don't have the time, or can't cope with the daily problems that seem to pop up. Time and expense.

The solution may not be yet another version of Windows, or OSX, or whatever.

The industry newsletters reported this Microsoft insider story:

Jim Allchin, a senior Microsoft Corp. executive, walked into Bill Gates's office here one day in July last year to deliver a bombshell about the next generation of Microsoft Windows.

"It's not going to work," Mr. Allchin says he told the Microsoft chairman. The new version, code-named Longhorn, was so complex its writers would never be able to make it run properly.

Well maybe they got beyond that, maybe they didn't, but are you betting that Longhorn, now called "Vista" will be the solution?

What is the possible solution? "Thin Clients"

In the 90's Citrix invented a system which takes all of the hassle of maintaining a PC away! A central server has all the goodies. Many clients simultaneously log on remotely from terminals, and use it as if it were there own. Slower computers and networks slowed acceptance back then, but Microsoft at first licensed the software from Citrix, then tried to steal the idea, but were stopped by a lawsuit, which lead to "Terminal Services" that Microsoft provides, but pays Citrix for the code. I know this because I knew someone who worked for Citrix in those days and told me about it. Microsoft was predatory, according to him.

I use my laptop that way. It's older, but not ancient, and I couldn't and didn't want to replicate all the programs on my main PC. So I set up just the bare bones, and wirelessly connect by Terminal Services to my main computer in the cellar, which acts as a sort of server. All that is transmitted is the keyboard and the screen ( thin client). It is so fast and responsive that I can hardly tell I am not on the other machine. Some video and sound is not perfect, but would be with even faster connections.

All my settings, updates, software, bookmarks, text files reminders are there, because actually I am there electronically.

Well imagine your PC just connected to the internet with who cares what minimum client operating system, pay a monthly fee to be connected to a server. It has all the programs you want. You don't have to worry about slowdowns, updates, viruses, conflicts, just use the computer. Of course some registry of settings would be stored for your individual setup, but that might not even be local.

If you have used a "Blackberry" or cell phone or such device to get on the internet, you get the idea. Just put that on a big screen with a keyboard, and there you have it. No license of windows necessary (sorry, Bill). No need to troubleshoot or wrestle with technical troubles. That burden is shifted to a server somewhere, where hundreds of clients can log in simultaneously as if it were their own personal setup.

Kitchen low-tech

This seems so trivial, but Martha Stewart is out, so I will do it in her honor.
It has been a while since I went into one of those kitchen gadget specialty shops, but we used to laugh because no matter how complete, they never had the three things I thought were the best things in our kitchen. "Oh, we at Kitchens R Us have, or can get anything.", they say, but I get the last laugh because they don't ever have them. These were made by somebody once, because we have 'em, but they must have lost the molds, because you never see them for sale.
1. The best ladel ever made made. Not available now.

Not to go too crazy here, but the flat edge is great to scrape the last of the soup or whatever out. The pan is flat. Why do they make ladles all rounded and oval shape?
2. A simple plastic ring transforms any common plastic waste basket into a better functioning and trim holder for a liner or a paper bag.


3. The third one I don't have a picture of because I wore out both of these I used to have. It was made out of very flexible plastic or nylon, and was about the length and shape of a big 12" carving knife. Sort of a long thin spatula. I used it to make scrambled eggs or an omlette in a frying pan. The flexible blade would bend under and scrape the sides and the bottom at the same time. Can't describe it any better, but it beat anything else.

Chinese Inflatable Spam

I almost deleted it, but somehow it had a curious look to it, so I clicked an unsolicited email from a Chinese company which sells huge custom made inflated plastic "toys".

"We manufacture high quality and good price inflatable products in any size or style, please browse the inflatable products sorts."

Bouncers______Castles_________ Sports __________ Slides_______ Fun City


This, unlike 99.999% of spam, was an interesting ad, from an honest company with a Real Product , They gave their real location, and legitimate contacts, opt out click, etc.. In short, if all our unsolicited mail were like this, we could tolerate it! I mean how long are we, as smart mail consumers, going to put up with these fake mortgage, drug ads, scams, not to mention the viruses, that we have to find ways to filter out?

But spam discussion aside, I love these things and the company ad with its pretty-good English. Althought they never mention the prices, which they quote when you inquire, I bet they range form 200$ up. The shipping alone is estimated at ~$250 if you only order one. They come with electric fan blowers that keep them up, and a repair kit. I don't mean to sound like an infomercial, but they are interesting! (Just think of Richie Rich's birthday party) Some of them are huge - 30 feet high - and complex. You've probably seen them as grand opening displays, on top of shopping centers for promotions, etc., but they have hundreds of them, and will custom make one to your design if you want!

Internet vs Katrina

My internet hosting company, DirectNIC had an intereting challenge last week. You can see from my sitemeter graphs here that there was a bite out of page views mainly on friday and saturday. DirectNIC offices and servers are in an office building in New Orleans. One of the owners has had media attention with his blog during the hurricane and aftermath. He put out pictures and stories from the streets when others were escaping to high ground. When the power went out, the city shut down, support service companies left, and everyone advised them to throw in the chips, they stuck it out and with luck and hard work, never lost connectivity, even though they admitedly had problems and loss of some activities. They ran on deisel back up generators, as did the company next door who supplied the OC3 line to the internet. They waited for resupply of fuel that was promised, but not delivered on time, they kept tech support up for existing customers, and this is not a trivial thing, since they are one of the major internet hosting companies in the country.

Interestingly enough, my web sites were available at first when the hurricane went through, but finally went out on fridayand saturday, but bounced back quickly. I was impressed that they sent me a quick response to my email and let me know what was happening.

Here was an entry in the "Interdictor" blog yesterday:

The city really does look like a ghost town. It's so bizarre to see streets which are normally highly trafficed having such a limited flow of vehicles. And at night it's weird to see all these high rises with no light coming from the buildings. No street lights, no traffic lights, the clock on the Whitney Bank building on Poydras and Camp -- a widely recognized feature -- is stopped. The debris is still everywhere. Cars abandoned all over the place. Abandoned and trashed. And the quiet. Aside from the occasional vehicle, this place has no sound. Every piece of glass that used to be a high rise window which hits the ground can be heard blocks away.

I wonder how things will be different in this city when this is all behind us.

Update: On cam, way down the street, you can see what appears to be an armed military foot patrol. First one I've seen.

Oh, yeah they have a live web cam: Web Cam

Arthur Ashe Commemorative Stamp Unveiled

Here's a story that has a few twists and turns. I have a Google news alert sent to me for three or four things. One is "Richmond, VA" since I lived there so long. Today I got a news clipping that the Bangkok Post(!) was reporting that The US Post Office was honoring Richmond VA native Arthur Ashe with a commemorative stamp.


I feel close to the Arthur Ashe story, because I followed his presence, though I don't think I ever actually saw him, in Richmond --- well maybe in a parade. I passed the tennis courts often where he had been excluded as a youngster, I followed the battles of the area snobs and worse who finally had to accept a wonderful statue to him on Monument Avenue, the great divided boulevard in the fan that was previously only lined with bronze Robert E. Lee on horseback and other Confederate heroes.

I saw his funeral pass me at work in 1993. I was standing at our counter, looking out the plate glass windows, and I happened to be talking on the phone to a supplier in California at the time, who was so interested, she had me tell her the story and describe the details as he passed.

Past Topics

I did a little cleanup on my archives. Some of the posts from 2002 were linked to storage places that don't exist anymore, and they were identified by dates rather than title, so it was russian roulette to look at old entries. The result is a title list in the left column, linking to previous posts by name.

I had forgotten about this post June 2002 that linked to some family pictures and some design pictures. Also, the snaps of the Lego display when it was in Hartford also in 2002.

template fugit

Just a little tweaking in the template for a change.

Tech support Wizard?

Tech support?
A good friend of ours said that their 20-something daughter in Florida needed help because she didn't know how to get her new printer to work with her laptop. I figured I could walk her through it on the phone (to Florida) since I have set up hundreds of printers and drivers. I was not prepared for this, though. It took about 30 minutes for 5 minute's worth of actual work.

The daughter, I will call her "Jane", is a teacher, and I figured would be somewhat savvy. NOT! I asked what the problem was, and she explained the printer was still in the sealed box, she was afraid to open it, but she thought that the "wire thing" (USB Cable) that her mother sent was the right one probably. Now at this point, I should have told her I would call back after she had it set up and connected, but I was on their phone, and wasn't going anywhere, so I gritted my teeth and grinned, and said, "First, take it out of the box and take all the packing and tape off of it." This took her many minutes with me coaching.
Jane, "What is this little cube box thing that says Ink Cartridge on it?"
Me: "It is an ink cartridge. Take the tab off it and put it in the printer."
"Where in the printer?", said Jane.
I said I had never seen the printer, so she would have to figure it out. This went on and on. . .

About 98 % of my frustrating step by step process was through, and all there was was to send a test print to see if we had succeeded, she denied me of this pleasure as well. All of a sudden she unfolds a big quick start instruction sheet and says, "Hey, this has all of this stuff on here that we have been doing!" And she starts READING IT TO ME! 1. take tape off 2. unwrap black cartridge, pull tab, etc. etc.... EEEEKKK! I had to laugh, because I had to stop her from going over this back to me, but she didn't get it. Finally, I got her to print a test page, which would have been automatic if she had read the instructions.

Then I get ten minutes of praise and nonsense from her and her mother about how smart I am for doing this , as if it were a wizard and they were mere muggles. "Oh, it was nothing", I heard myself saying, If they only knew how true that was.

Two telephone related rants

Two phone related rants: a.) Can't dial and listen. b.)Phone times out too soon.

a.) Most phones now, cell and standard have the dialpad in the body of the phone, not like the old days when you could look at the dial and listen too. This would be fine, except the phone company and corporate automated phone systems (eg. . . hit 1 for sales, 2 for customer service, etc.) still think you can do both.
So I hit 2 for customer service, for example, and not being a magician, I take the phone from my ear to do this. By the time I get it back to my ear, the message has already started on instructions for the next level, so I have to wait for the next cycle to repeat.
Or you have to enter your 10 digit id, and a digit doesn't register, but of course you don't know this until you have put the whole thing in there. Then when you finish the whole thing, you realize that if you could have listened, you would have known sooner.

b.) But the most sinister thing that has changed on the phone systems, and I swear I am right on this, is that they don't give you as much time - or enough time between digits. I first realized this when Martha's mother started slowing down a few years ago, and she couldn't dial any number out of town because it started beeping if she delayed more than a couple of micro-seconds between digits.

Even today I get so mad when I am looking up a number, and key in the area code, glance down to my listing and find the rest of the number, and before I get my attention back, it has timed out. Bah Bah bah bah The phone nazi has said "No dialing for you! Too slow!" Not an earth shaking problem, but makes phones harder to use and I know they were not this way years ago. And who is responsible for this? Ma Bell? ATT? it is a nationwide thing, it looks like, so there is nobody to complain to, nobody who would care.

emminent domain revisited

There is a chance, albeit small, that the worst supreme court decision in memory, Kelo vs. New London, affirming the forced acquisition of private property for more profitable private, not public use, could be re-heard.

Perhaps the justices will have seen the flurry of cities now emboldened to act on this, making plans to take private property for malls, golf courses and wall-marts, and have had second thoughts.

Institute for Justice: Property Rights Cases: New London, CT, Kelo

BPL

BPL technology makes sense if it turns out to be profitble to develop. Broadband over Power Lines! The wires are already there! Makes sense for rural areas, for sure. Hard to get cable or DSL out to the boonies. Turns out it is not as simple as plugging an adapter in the wall. There are distribution problems, costs of repeaters and bypasses to transformers. One architecture being tested has the final signal come in from the power pole by Wi-Fi.

It's faster than DSL and Cable, and though there is a nagging interference problem with with short wave radio signals, that could be overcome. Everybody is running tests, (IBM, ATT, Google, AOL, Yahoo, and smaller players) and there will be issues of control and distribution, but it looks like it is coming on. Broadband is really dragging its feet in getting cheap and available. I would have thought that satellites or other wireless internet would have been the next technology to get practical, but we should be used to cloudy crystal balls by now. A lite discussion of BPL here and a heavier 2004 white paper here.

Oh, by the way, I just read that AOL is going to stop its subscription service. Have to redefine themselves. But what am I going to do with the left over "free trial" discs that they sent me?

Paul Winchell

I had no knowledge of Paul Winchell's voice in Disney movies, as is being reported, but I sure remember his best friends, Jerry Mahoney and Knucklehead Smith (or was it Smiff?). I always was a sucker for ventriloquists. You feel like a dummy yourself each time you realize you are accepting the dummy as a real character. I also read a witty statement that Jerry and Knucklehead were probably more important inventions than his artificial heart. I gotta read a bio somewhere about him. How could an entertainer/ventriloquist also be a artificial heart inventor? Bet it is a great story.


Update: I did go to the Vent Haven Museum of Ventriloquists that Leah suggested in the comments. By coincidence, their 2005 convention is going on as we speak. One thing that I got straight finally was that Edger Bergen had Charlie McCarthy, Mortimer Snerd et. al., easy to confuse with the Winchel/Mahoney/Smiff team.

RE: The inventor Winchell: from this web site:
Something of a renaissance man, Winchell was also an inventor who held 30 patents, including one for an early artificial heart he built in 1963 and then donated to the University of Utah for research. Dr. Robert Jarvik and other University of Utah researchers later became well-known for the Jarvik-7, which was implanted into patients after 1982.

Among Winchell's other inventions were an early disposable razor, a flameless cigarette lighter, an invisible garter belt and an indicator to show when frozen food had gone bad after a power outage.

Oh, NO, The Supreme Court let us down!

Justices: Homes may be 'taken' for local projects
The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that local governments may seize people's homes and businesses - even against their will - for privately owned economic development projects.

I guess the justices did not read my plain and simple plea in my blog back in march,
They have ruled against a free country and for a communist system ignoring the rights of the ordinary citizen. It's enough to turn me into a Democrat!

So now Big Brother, 1984 can take your private property not for public use, but steal it for sombody else's gain???? !!!!!

"Mr. & Mrs. Doe, your house that you own, and have lived in for 25 years shouldn't be there, Ajax developers say they can make a fortune and a very attractive and profitable Mall there, so GET OUT NOW!"

How does this square with our consitution and our legacy?? I can't wait to read the opinion. Red Commie rats! ( I don't know why this upsets me so much!)

The Sky is Falling

I cringed at this news item:

Rescued Utah boy had hid from searchers
The 11-year-old boy lost for four days in the Utah mountains might have been found sooner had it not been for the fact that he was taught to stay away from strangers, his uncle and a sheriff told NBC News on Wednesday.

I'm sure we all have wondered if the negative aspects of teaching a generation of kids to stay away from strangers would come back to bite us. Certainly I have read that the hysteria about kids being abducted is not statistically supported. The chance of abduction has always been a miniscule risk compared to most anything. I know the emotion of a parent not wanting to have their child hurt, but ironically, I think kids are also hurt by fearing to smile or wave at people, or as in this case, be afraid to be rescued.

Kuni Watch

Just browsed on the web to notice that Japan has given almost 7 million dollars' worth of fire engines to Egypt, and of course our friend Kunihiko Makita was in the middle of it.

Amazing and gratifying that Japan is such a friendly and generous country in
the modern world.

Worn out words

I know T.V. is a time waster, and I know Seinfield is ancient history, But from time to time I think of the episode that included Jerry and his wise guy reaction to a rental car non-reservation.

Seinfeld. I made a reservation for a midsize,. . . .
Clerk: We have no midsize available at the moment.
Seinfeld: I made a reservation. Do you have my reservation?
Clerk: Yes. Unfortunately we ran out of cars.
Seinfeld: But the reservation keeps the car here. That's why you have the reservation.
Clerk: I know why we have reservations.
Seinfeld: I don't think you do. If you did, I'd have a car. You know how to take the reservation, you just don't know how to hold the reservation.
And that's really the most important part of the reservation-- the holding. Anybody can just take them.

So many words have lost their meaning Either through overuse, dishonesty, or ignorance. They need to be explained to the user like Seinfeld did: Do you really think there is a SALE when they put up a sign that says so? Everything is on sale.

There has been a "Deaf Child - Caution" sign down the street here, looks like it's been there for for twenty years. I haven't talked to anyone who remembers who the child was it was protecting. But of course nobody in the neighborhood would think to take it down, hoping it might slow the traffic. The town has forgotten it, I'm sure, and the speeding cars don't really pay any mind to it anyhow, having seen the Seinfeld episode, so it will probably be there many more useless years.

PS: Did you know you can Goooogle any TV show, including the dialog, since Big Daddy Google even looks at the closed captions and presents you even with thumbnails from a search: Go to video.google.com and search, or type something like this right into your browser: http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=seinfeld no soup for you

PostSecret

Here is something a little different. Here is the site that invites all to send in a postcard with a secret on it. Cards are posted here: PostSecret: "Mail In Your Secrets Today".

It's a little hard not to be cynical and think these are fabrications, but the little pulls at truth and sadness, or utter, though anonymous confession, makes you know that even if it isn't true in this case, there are those out there with similar stories yet unrevealed.

I don't feel qualified to get all philosophical about this, but it starts cutting at the premise I always had that, though I have never been in the "In Crowd", perhaps NOBODY really has been, and everybody is on the outside looking in, at least in one way or the other. My bet is that pretty much everybody has a secret or two that should go on one of these clever or poignant post cards.

Example of one I like:

My Firefox Update

Just a post to say that I almost exclusively use Firefox now.

I love the tabbed browsing. I thought it might have been mainly because of my slower dialup access, but now that I have DSL, it hasn't changed. A browser without tabs would be a BIG step backward.

Especially when reading blogs, there are often several links I might want to go to, but if I go to them when I see them, it is a diversion, and I may never get back to the original or finish the current thought. Instead, I right click on each link, sending it to a new tab, and they are ready, loaded and available when I am ready to jump.

As far as the RSS, I have tried quite a few aggregators, and felt that it was the way to go, because you can scan all the headers for you selected sites and go to those that interest you without wasting time loading up each site. Firefox has made this the EASIEST yet with "live bookmarks" I put my favorites in a pull down menu in the top bar, and can peek at these, and since they are dynamic, I can always see the latest things.

Because of the open source, the programmers have been having fun adding little extension and add-ons that keep improving the environment, like the googlebar lite, with all of the goodies except page rank.

When I go to Microsoft's own site it's best to use IE, apparently because they use a lot of 'Active X' that is not supported in Firefox for security reasons.

Art in the 3rd dimension.

Brother Nardo sent me this link to the site of an unlikely and previously unfamiliar (to me) Dutch artist by the name of Rinus Roelofs.

Did I say WOooooaaaahhhwooohoogahgahgahgahbubububububyeeeeeehaaa yet?

I can't describe his sculpture, computer graphics, stuctures, optical brain toys all.

Hoping to be within fair use of his copyright, I will send you on your way to check it out with the image below, which is only a tiny sample of this amazing body of work.

Big Band Gig

I usually play best embedded (hiding?) in the midst of a concert band, playing a Sousa march or some overture or pops piece, but underneath, I really love the Big Band Glenn Miller or Dorsey type music. I don't have as much experience or skill at that, either, but from time to time I am asked to substitute in a local "Big Band of the 40's" for a "paid" gig where a musician can't make it. If you saw the check, you would know why I put quotes around "paid". This band is VERY good, many of the guys have been professional musicians in their younger years, or played this stuff for years. I do pretty well considering. It's so amazing to be playing these old 78rpm songs like "String of Pearls", "Sentimental Journey", "Jumpin at the Savoy". You have to keep remembering when reading the music that it "swings", for instance if you had four quarter notes in a row, they don't have the same value, the first and third grab a little more time; so you get: dah da dah da.

We played from 7 to 10pm. It was a special event for an older church group, and the people were dancing and tapping and swaying just like it was taking them back to the old days. A lot of fun for us and for them.