Ventura County Computers Home Page

Table of Contents

Vista Issues
Open Office Virus?
Computer Manufacturer Rankings
Rick's Rant: What Consumer Reports doesn't tell you
CIPCUG Notice
Subscription Information

============== Vista Issues

I have been running Windows Vista for about a month now and have followed several blogs and articles by people who hate Vista. It's amusing. The problems almost always boil down to the fact that the user can't find functions he knew by heart in XP. The real problem is that Microsoft didn't update their user OS soon enough. Think about it. For most of us, Windows 95 was updated in 98, Win98 with Windows Me in 2000 and Me in 2001 with XP. But we have lived with XP for 6 years. So we aren't replacing 1-3 year old habits. We are replacing ones that are twice as long.

In addition, the problems with viruses and spyware have caused a significant increase in the annoyance factor every time we try to install a new program or change settings. All those "Are you sure you really want to do this?" prompts are annoying. It's easy to forget that at one time industry estimates are that over 70% of all Windows XP computers were seriously infected with either viruses or spyware (or both).

Microsoft significantly increased security in Vista. And yes, it does increase the nuisance factor. Unless it prevents you from getting infected by something nasty. Then it's all worth it.

From my experience, the first two weeks, I was ready to kill the $%$#@% thing. It was awful. Nothing was where I was used for it to be, every time I tried to do anything I had to chop my way through a thicket of "Are you sure's?" It was awful. But I was better prepared than most. I had not used Win95/98/me. I had gone from NT4 to Win2000 to XP. The switch from NT4 to Win2000 nearly killed me -- and then I ended up thinking that Windows 2000 was the best OS ever. So, I persevered with Vista knowing that the learning curve would taper off and the benefits would surface.

After a month, I hardly ever get a nag from the OS. I'm not installing, I am using. Everything is running pretty smoothly and when I do get an error, the resolution is easier than with XP. My Outlook locked up this morning (happened occasionally under XP, too). I exited and restarted. Got a message that said, "Outlook wasn't shut down properly last time. Rebuilding data." Took a bit of time but it came up just fine. With XP, I had to run a utility to fix the file when it was farkled. And it didn't happen often enough that I could remember where the darn utility was.

Once you find everything, it's much better organized. It isn't where you are used to it being, but it's rethought with everything in a more logical place.

Vista is an excellent program as long as your computer is powerful enough to run it well. If you are getting a new computer, don't even think about getting Windows XP. Long before the new computer dies you are going to upgrade to Vista. Why spend the extra money and time later when you can get it all done now?

And when you read about someone having problems with Vista, ask yourself whether these are real problems or just someone who is upset that Microsoft moved things around and increased security.

============== Open Office Virus?

It is possible you may have read about a macro virus infecting Open Office. If you are an Open Office user (I think it's at least as good as Microsoft Office and it's free), you may have been worried. Don't be. FRirst, the virus was only a "proof of concept" virus -- which means that the only copy of the virus that exists is in a laboratory computer. Second, the "discoverer" didn't send his proof of concept report to the Open Office Foundation as protocol requires. They went public with it instead. Thirdly, McAfee, Symantec and the other antivirus vendors have laughed at it, calling it a "publicity stunt." If you are running Open Office, don't worry. If you're not running OO, why not?

============== Computer Manufacturer Rankings

We were shop-talking a bit ago with a couple of knowledgeable customers about the relative size of computer vendors. When we looked up the actual statistics, we were all a bit surprised, so I thought it might be worth bringing up here. According to Infoworld, the top 5 are (in order): (1) Hewlett Packard, (2) Dell, (3) Lenovo, (4) Acer and (5) Toshiba. Lenovo is a Chinese company that purchased the laptop line of IBM. It would appear that Acer has overtaken Lenovo for #3 this year. In our office discussion, Lenovo didn't come up at all. Rick and I like Acer laptops (we both each have one, which replaced the Acer's that were stolen last year), so we were aware they were one of the world's largest, but it surprised the others. Several manufacturers have a much higher mind-share than they do market-share (are you listening Sony? -- read next article).

============== Rick's Rant: What Consumer Reports doesn't tell you

I had a great time at the last meeting running the computer fix-it clinic. I felt a little bit like the old country doctor making the rounds instead of my usual snake oil salesman persona. I wasn't too sure of what I was getting myself into, so I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Oh, no! I just used another saying. Before we go any further, let's see what it really means to "keep your fingers crossed." Crossing your fingers is a custom that dates back to pre-Christian times. It was believed that the cross was a symbol of unity, and benign spirits dwell at its intersecting points. In many European cultures, two people were required to use their index fingers to make the symbol together when making a wish upon the cross, one to make the wish and the other to support it. Over the years, the custom was modified so that one person could cross his own fingers and make a wish.

With that said, let's continue. It was a bit exhausting to be put on the spot with everyone scrutinizing my every move, but, as usual, the CIPCUG crowd is a very friendly and patient group. It all went well with a large variety of small and large issues to fix. I really enjoyed the challenge and company of everyone and look forward to doing it again. Michael Shalkey was a great help in post-op stitching up the patients after surgery. It was a bit like being a M*A*S*H unit.

After the meeting, we had one of the employees of a business client bring in her computer, which was not working. This woman purchased the system about three years ago in 2004. Being a well educated consumer, she researched PCs before making her purchase and read in consumer reports that Sony Vaio was good value and had very high customer satisfaction and good points for service. OK, she said, and trotted over to the big chain store to purchase her well recommended PC. As the story goes, it operated at peak efficiency until that one dreaded day that the hard drive crashed. For those of you who want to know, we use this term very liberally to describe a list of problems that can go wrong with the only real moving part in a PC. As it was, she could not operate the PC and decided she would reinstall Windows XP. But guess what? Sony did not send an XP CD-ROM with the computer but instead configured it with a "Restore Partition" and a windows utility to run it. I guess that they couldn't afford the cost to include such an item in the package as it would make the PC unattractive in the price point category. Come on, give me a break! I'm starting to think Microsoft gives the big OEM manufactures a sweeter price not to include a disk as this reduces the risk of software piracy. I can't prove this, but I wouldn't put it past Microsoft.

Upon realizing she had no way to reinstall her purchased software, she called SONY and guess what? That's right, you got it, Sony Corp. discontinued that model and has no software OS or driver disk. At this point, she was quite irritated and frustrated, which brought her to our door with her tale of woe. I cannot believe a company would completely abandon its customers after only three years even if they were willing to pay for it. Oh, wait! Yes, I forgot! Intuit is retiring my version of Quick-Books 2004 and will turn off such major functions as payroll and e-mail services as a method of extortion to get me to purchase the newer version, which is a complete toad of bloated software that needs a new computer to run it! Whew, I'm getting all worked up.

Now, I believe that Sony could easily re-create a disk from an image file and charge a reasonable fee to provide its customers with product support where they would still be able to cover expenses and maybe even make a slight profit. But no, they just said tough doo doo to the customer.

Now we were able to resurrect this PC with a new hard drive and some good detective work by none other than our very own "Cat in The Hat" Michael Shalkey. Michael was able to find most of what she needed for drives except the TV Tuner software that came with the unit. We were able to install some DVD and CD-RW software, Open Office and antivirus and she was on her way. We even saved all of her music and stuff to put back on it. She left our office with a handful of our business cards singing our praises. It was a great way to end the week, and we really do love being heroes.

P.S.: On a side technical note, ask Michael or Toby to explain what happened with Microsoft licensing when our first install didn't go quite right. It's quite an interesting story which I've run out of room to tell.

============== CIPCUG Notice

You don't have to be a member of CIPCUG to subscribe to this E-letter, but we do make a short notice of upcoming events.

This Saturday, May 26, ADS Technologies will be demonstrating some of their products. ADS Tech pioneered the consumer video editing industry with several USB MPEG-2 conversion devices designed to make archiving video to DVD easy and affordable. Going even one step further, ADS Tech not only enables customers to capture their video content, but also take their video, television and music to go anywhere whether on DVD, CD, or portable video players.

June 23: To be announced

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