More Software Installation Tedium

A couple of weeks ago, it fell on me to write a new version of a specification document. Since the previous author had used Word 2007, I thought that it might be best if I updated from Microsoft Office 2003 to 2007, on the chance that there were 2007 features that slightly broke the document in 2003.

Company IT's software distribution web pages warned that Office 2007 was unstable on Thinkpad T42s, but ran on T43s, albeit with occasional performance problems. I have a T43p - an obsolete laptop, but one of the most up-to-date laptops that my company gives engineers to use - so I decided to take the chance.

(The Thinkpad T43 seems to have been introduced circa April 2005 - at least that is when reviews seem to be dated. It was considered pretty good ("Wow!") at the time of introduction. I believe that I have had this model for circa 3 years.)

Installing Office 2007 took circa half a day. It ran. Frequent hangs, at first, typically when saving an auto-recovery file. But once I disabled that, it ran well enough for me to update the document.

However, the performance problems that IT had warned about did afflict me. I could not prove that they were due to Office 2007, but it seemed likely.

Therefore, at the first opportunity where I was not rushed for time, I decided to uninstall Office 2007 and revert to Office 2003. The IT web pages indicated that might take 30 minutes to half an hour. I started at 3pm yesterday. It just finished this morning at 9am.

Of course, during that whole time I was unable to get any computer based work done. I.e. I was able to get almost no work done at all, except reading some PowerPoint foil sets that I happened to have printed out. Worse, I could not go and exercise - because the ^%&$^ uninstall/reinstall process required me to hit a button on a dialog box about once every half hour. After I had exhausted my supply of work-related printouts, I read a Margaret Frazer mystery, but only after I had taken my computer home.

While at work, my options were limited. At 7pm, I decided to take m laptop home, and let the install continue while I ate supper. I then read my book while watching the display until midnight.

I do not know how long it lasted past midnight. For all I know, it might have blinked "finished" right after I went to bed. However, since I had, by that time, just started the automated reinstall of Office 2003, I suspect it kept busy for a few hours.

In the morning the Office 2003 installation was complete. I had a few more software upgrades to install - a patch here, a Communicator update there.

Did I mention the half hour Outlook spent "updating personal preferences" and the like?

Finally, by 9am, I am complete.

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I suspect much of the slowness was due to virus scanning. I considerd disabling the virus scanners, but IT has denied me the ability to do this from the console. I could have uninstalled the virus scanners and then reinstalled them, but I wasn't sure if that would ave been netly faster or slower.

===

As is my wont, I wonder what can be done about this?

Certainly, if the upate process interacted better with virus scanners. E.g. it one were authenticaed to the others.

Much time could have been saved if I could have installed bth Office 2003 and Office 2007 on my system simultaneously, changing only which was the default.

Overall, though, I keep coming back to the thin client / properly administered system model. E.g. if these documents had ben written on Google docs rather than on my PC using Microsoft Officde.

Swimming Radio and Podcasts

Swimming is my favorite form of exercise (after rock climbing).

But, I find swimming lengths in pools boring. Therefore, I decided to try to get some entertainment, som redeeming value: a swim-water-proof radio or MP3 / podcast player, so that I can listen to radio and, ideally, books or Teaching Company (http://www.teach12.com/) lecture series on tape. (I am not much of a listener to music.)

Googling narrowed it down to

Swimp3 from Finis (http://www.finisinc.com/products-swimp3.shtml) - 150$. Bone conduction, v2-256 MB.

Speedo Aquabeat MP3, 1GB, 116-150$ - earplugs

Swimman (http://swimman.com/) waterproofed iPod shuffle (2nd genration) - 250$ - earplugs

Plus various other waterproofed cases,

Since I am not yet rich enough that 150$ is mad money, I decided to try the Swimmer's Choice Radio (http://www.gearedtobefit.com/pd_swimmers_choice_fm_radio.cfm) - 40$


The Swimmer'sChoice Radio worked well enough, I suppose. However, it failed the second day of use. I cannot recommend it.


Fortuitously, I encountered a friend at the pool who had the Swimp3. He let me try his. He recommended it highly. The results were good enough that I purchased my own, and have used it fr the second day today.

I quickly learned that, as I normally swim, the Swimp3 was audible when my ears were underwater, but not when they were above water. E.g. I could hear it throughout crawl / freestle, but not when I lifted my head to breath for breast stroke. My friend Mike had never observed this, saying he always used custom fit earplugs. A cheap pair of wax earplugs, and this problem was "solved".

However (1) wearing earplugs has disadvatages, e.g. when my daughter is calling for me, and (b) it is not clear to me that the bone conduction is of much value - my brief experiece with the SwimmersChoice radio indicated that earphones work as well as bone conduction.

Possibly better:

(a) the earphones can be used outside the pool. The bone conduction headset works a bit, in quiet places, but not where it is noisy. Unless, again, I use earplugs.

(b) I find it hard to hear talk on the Swimp3. I may be forced to fall back to music. It doesn't matter so much if you miss a few notes in a song; it matters a lot if you miss a few words in an audio book.

Nevertheless, I am reasonably happy with the Swimp3. I had a nice long practice today, and never got bored.

OLPC XO vs. ClassMate 2goPC

---+ BRIEF SUMMARY:

Last year's OLPC One Laptop per Child) XO PCs, running Linux, were one hell of a lot easier to get up and running than this year's Atom based Classmate 2goPC, running Windows XP.

The XO was up and running, and being played with by my daughter, in a few minutes.

The Classmate 2goPC has taken hours.

---+ DETAIL:

Last year I got my daughter an OLPC XO for Xmas. Actually, 2, or a total of 4 under the Buy 1 / Give 1 program. The XO was up and running within minutes.

However, the XO had some limitations:

a) My daughter has had problems using the Windows PCs at school, because the XO's user interface was so different.

b) The XO's Sugar interface is idiosyncratic, to say the least. No printing. No files. They say, essentially "Humans forget, therefore computers should too." Althouh my daughter has figured out how to deal with this, first, it is useless learning, and secondly she regularly loses data.

c) Because the XO is not a standard PC, it cannot run all web software E.g. my wife bought my daughter a "Webkinz" toy, whose tie-in website does not seem to run on the XO. ActiveX? Flash? I dunno.

Obviously, some of these problems can be solved by uninstalling the OLPC XO software, and/or running vanilla Linux software. But that somewhat defeats the point of the XO.

Therefore, I gave in and decided to buy my daughter a Windows PC. Fortunately, the Atom based Classmate 2goPC was available, under an Employee Purchase Plan. (Unfortunately, the plan did not include the Classmate Tablet 2goPC, which I would have bought instead if I had known it were available.)

I meant to purchase the 2goPC for Xmas, but website issues got in the way... ultimately I only gave the 2goPC to my daughter today, as a late Xmas present. She unwrapped it this morning circa 8am.

First delay: the instructions say to charge for 6 hours before using. I could probably have used it plugged in, but just in case...

At 3am my daughter came home, anxious to try her new PC. We power it up...

The usual delays, after asking for PC name, etc.

Next delay: Internet Explorer hangs configuring itselg. Like, a 45 minute long hang. So we reboot.

This time it comes up. OK, let's run Windows update... Microsoft Update... Much downloading and several reboots later...

Microsoft security Center is warning about no virus scanner. Fortunately, my employer has a homeware program, whose single license for use on an employee PC I am not using. So I install that... sevceral more reboots later, including rebooting the company PC that I was transferring from...

Upshot: my daughter's 2goPC seems to be working now. 6:19pm. More than 3 hours since we powered it on; almsot 10 hours since my daughter unwrapped the Classmate 2goPC.

This compares unfavorably with the several minutes required for the OLPC XO last year.

Worse: my daughrer was able to get the OLPC XO up. Daddy (I) had to sped several hours supervising the Classmate 2goPC. My daughter, quite understandably, lost interest.

> 5 hours to do a Software Update

It's been one of those days. Sob stories about time wasted in virus scanning and software updates are my specialty, aren't they?

Some people write about what they KNOW.

I write about what ANNOYS ME.

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I left for work circa 8am. A bit late, considering that I started leaving at 7:30am, but that's another story.

I had not driven a mile before a realized I had forgotten something. I returned to the house.

I thought: "Since I am delayed, maybe I should just check my computer? It should be fast."

That's how it always goes. It was 8:20.

As soon as my computer boots, the security center red alert is there. Update the virus scanner. Update Windows. Oh-oh: it's a big update. SP3. Apparently I have not used this personal computer for a while.

Before long both my personal computer, and my company laptop, are consumed doing updates. Worse, I could not get anything else done on the net on any other computer (I have several), since my home broadband is slow.

I did not want to disturb the update process - that has, in the past, occasionally resulted in brokennesses. So I waited. And waited. And WAITED. After a while it becomes a matter of interest: how long will this take?

I have been able to use my work laptop for a while. My 3 year old work laptop updated faster than my 6 year old low-end personal tablet PC.

Is this the new benchmark: how long does it take to do a big software update?

It's now 13:53. The personal computer has just rebooted after the update. I hope it's finished, but I don't know yet.

One of those days: PhoneTools, Mozy

This has been one of those days. Well, afternoon and evening.

My goal was to write and run my first Java applications on my phone - the Motorola Ming A1200 a friend had loaned/given me.

Lots of time spent downloading various SDKs and REs and .PDF manuals from Motorola and Sun. Apparently Java is not like Perl's CPAN: you can't just download one module, and have it pull all the rest of the modukes it requires. No, you have to download them one at a time.

Along the way had to install Motorola's USB Driver. I hoped that this would allow me to look at the cell phones files without using Motorola's phone tools, which I hate. Yes and no: the phone appears to be a mass storage device, but try as I might I can't find the files. Thew directory structure appears to be empty.

So, it looks like I will have to install Motorola Phone Tools. Did I mention that I hate Motorola Phone Tools? They are a cobbled together user interface for synchronization. They have their own file copy GUI. In the past, I much prefer to just access the files directly. But since I can't figure out how to do so...

But where is my copy of PhoneTools? Google Desktop can't find it on the laptop I am using. Was it on the laptop whose disk I reformatted a while back? ... Gosh darn, not only do I hate PhoneTools, but I have already purchased it twice, once with a physical CD, once just as a download. But I can't find either, so I purchase the download again...

Perhaps I left it on my Teraserver? But I haven't used my Teraserver since my upstairs Comcast cable modem failed - since it needs to be close enough to the WLAN router. It's not worth moving the machine around.

Although, as Murphy would have it, when I have paid and am downloading, *that* is when I find the existing copy. Apparently Google desktop was not indexing plain old directory names.

Determined not to let this happen again, I try to burn a CD. Nope, can't... for some reason this PC can't burn a CD. I suspect because it is my work PC, and IT may have disabled.

Hmmm.... if I can't use my Teraserver as my "permanent" storage, at least not until I rearrange networking, or at least get the upstairs Comcast tap fixed, perhaps I should store such paid-for files on some web based storage.

Google Docs? No, restricted file types and sizes. the Google mail filesystem? No, restricted size.

How about one of those services like Xdisk or Mozy?

AOL is closing down Xdisk - nice of them to allow folks to offload their data as a .ZIP file.

I start installing Mozy, but then realize that it is trying to backup large parts of my PC, not just the single file I want. So I hit cancel... What is it about "backup" tools like Connected and Mozy, that they can;t behave well to a cancel button? Eventually I had to reboot.

I considered uploading PhonTools.ZIP to Geocities, but I wonder of I would be accused of illegal file sharing. Geocitis allows uploads, and has the space, but doesn't provide a way to make things private.

---

Morals:

TANSTAAFL: there appears to be no such thing as free web storage.

But it sure would be nice. I am becoming more and more web centered.

Make sure that you have an exit strategy, a way to recover your data, before becoming dependent on something like Xdisk or Mozy. Or, for that matter, Yahoo Mail, Geocities, or Google Docs or Mail. Yesterday I realized that I could not manage stale yahoo mail en masse. I don't have the faintest idea as to how hard this will be if ever Google Docs or Google Mail evaporates. t least Google Mail allows POP and IMAP>

Perhaps the real moral should be that I should own all of my storage, and that my storage should be on the web. But I grew so tired of managing my own web exposed servers. I want to pay somebody lse for the privilege of applying all of the urgent patches.

Financial websites - why not read-only access?

I've been thinking about switching from Quicken on my PC, to a web-based financial tracking site.

Something like

• Quicken Online - lousy features compared to Quicken PC, mainly for beginners
• Yodlee MoneyCenter
• Mint - apparently professional, but a bit fascist, doesn't make it easy to have user defined categories
• Wesabe - emphasizing social networking

There are many, many, others.

Motivation:

• I have too many computers. I want o be able to access from work, and from home, and from my phone, and...
• I'm tired of having to re-set things up when I switch PCs. And, no, the migration tool seldom works, usually because I can't power up the dead machine to migrate from.
• I want my wife and I to be able to simultaneously access
• Basically, I have just about given up on having a personal computer. Or is that "a single personal computer". If my company IT allowed me to use my personal machine at work, then maybe; but they don't, so I am being pushed away from the PC-centric model to the web-centric model.

The security implications are scary: one website, with access to all of your passwords and accounts for other financial websites.

Wesabe makes a point of its security model: apparently they store the passwords, etc., on your PC, and never put the passwords onto their server. I imagine they run some client side code that accesses your other financial sites, and then filters it to upload to Wesabe.

• But, then Wesabe may not allow the sort of ubiquitous access I desire. Does it?

Mint emphasizes that their access to your financial data is read-only. They also emphasize that the actual passwords, etc., are stored. not at the Mint site, but at Yodlee - which apparently provides such services to many banks already.

• One poster points out that this is all well and good, but if the hacker is inside Mint or Yodlee, then... Well, this poster says that they should at least be bonded to indeminfy the user against that risk.
• Wesabe says the developed their own screen-scraping approach to accessing finanicial websites, in part to allow them to be free as long as possible, and not to have to pay fees to Yodlee.

OK, okay, so security is an issue.

So, the thought occurs to me: why can't I give this "aggregating" sites like Mint and Wesabe read-only access to my other financial websites? Read-only access to my bank, my 401K, etc.?

Most of the things that I want to do on such a site are read-only - track my investments, look at my asset allocation and ensure that it is balanced across all of my investment accounts at different sites, etc.

I'm reasonably happy NOT to be allowed to make changes to my investments from the central site - to have to log in to my stockbroker or 401K site separately.

Sure, even read-only access to my various fnancial account websites would be a treasure trove for the ID thief. Account numbers, maybe even SSNs (although one might hope those could be filtered out). Things that a social engineering attacker could use on the customer support phone line. Nevertheless, such read-only access would be a lot less risky than allowing read-write access, with the ability to change mailing addresses, etc.

Trouble is, all of my financial services web.accounts give me one account login, and one password, that provides full access to the entire account.

It seems that this could be changed... Let's start writing letters...

---

This is just yet another example of the Principle of Least Privilege. Of how it should be possible to split a particular security role into smaller pieces.

I switched the site that I keep my resume and CV on to Google Docs: http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dcxddbtr_6dvpxg2cj

Hitherto it was on geocities. I have left the geocities site around, with forwarding: http://www.geocities.com/andrew_f_glew, but I will no longer update it. Actually, I haven't updated it in years, since it was too painful.

It's a little bit sad. The Geocities/Yahoo site gives me reasonable URLs, while the Google site gives me ugly, goobledeygook, URLs. But the Google site is much easier to use for me, the content creator.

Also, the annoyance: I retargeted links from my LinkedIn pages, but there will probably be other stale links around that I will not retarget.

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More annoyance: as I say above, I had not updated the Geocities site in years. And, apparently, I had not read any email at the corresponding yahoo account in years. I had completely forgotten about it.

Yahoo won;t let me forward email as it comes in, or use POP, or even bulk forward a mass of email - so the email accumulated there will moulder. Pity - I saw some email from friends I had fallen out of touch with.

But at least Yahoo allowed me to put a vacation message on it. Although I will have to remember to extend the vacation once every few years.

Moral: don't use a web based service, such as a webhost or webmail, unless you can automate getting your data off,

Hmm... how hard is it to download all of my Google data? Mail? Blogs? Docs?