28. February 2009 by admin.

About a year and a half ago, I bought a shiny new laptop with the Vista operating system.  I had heard that Vista had gotten mixed reviews, and looked forward to experiencing it for myself.  I found that the oh-so-sexy windowing system, with translucent windows, was an annoyance when I was trying to be productive, so I shut it off.  I set up the machine to look like Windows 2000, and I was happy.

People made fun of Vista for User Access Control: the function of asking for confirmation when you were about to do something that could potentially reconfigure the system.  I lived with that function under Linux for a few years before getting the laptop, so I was glad to see it in a Windows system.  (As much as I like Linux as an OS, it’s a Microsoft world out there, so running Linux for business is not a practical option.)

So for a year and a half, I lived with Vista, and it seemed to work OK.  I had a couple of minor problems, but nothing too terrible:

• The Windows XP driver for the printer at the office would work, and then toss its cookies after finishing the print job.  I could tell Vista to restart it automatically, but that didn’t help my CADD application, which ran each page in a batch as a separate print job.
• Vista insisted on trying to figure out what sort of files were in each directory, and showing them to me in an appropriate format.  The result was that running Windows Explorer was somewhat of an adventure, as one directory would list details of the file, while another would show thumbnails.  I tried to force Vista to show me everything as a detailed listing, and it sort of helped.

Other than that, Vista was OK.  It ran my software and pretty much took everything I threw at it.  I had maybe two Blue Screens of Death in the eighteen months I had the machine, and they had fairly obvious causes.

And then, about a month ago for travelling, I bought a ‘netbook’ computer.  The newer machine has a pipsqueak processor and half the memory of my Vista box, but it runs perceptibly faster.  But the netbook runs Windows XP.

Anyhow, last Tuesday at 4:29 pm, my Vista box all of a sudden dropped dead.  I was writing a document when the screen went black.  Restarting didn’t help: it wouldn’t even access the disk, wouldn’t display an error message, wouldn’t even beep.  In a word, dead.  Fortunately, the disk was still OK, so I didn’t lose any data.  (But it’s much cooler to sigh, ‘Thank God for backups,’ when someone asks.)

So for a couple of days, I used my netbook as my work computer.  Everyone who saw it thought it was cool.  But I know I can’t go on that way forever: I couldn’t possibly do CADD on the netbook.

So yesterday, I bought a new Lenovo laptop.

It runs, and will continue to run, Windows XP, although it included a set of disks for installing Vista.

A machine cycle is a terrible thing to waste.

Posted in Computers | No Comments »

26. February 2009 by admin.

Last Tuesday, President Obama addressed a joint session of Congress, and the nation, about the state of the economy.  I was disappointed.

For a while now, I’ve been trying to compose some coherent thoughts about the $787B stimulus package signed into law last night.  In brief, I don’t like it.

But how can I fairly say that I don’t like it when I don’t know what’s in it?  I know that there’s something about tax cuts and money for states and localities and ’shovel-ready’ projects.  On that level, my problem is still the same: commentators will pull out some aspect of the package or another for discussion or criticism, but I still don’t have a coherent view of the whole thing.

There are, however, some things that I can point to:

• Our Fearless Leader, in fact, exercised no leadership in composing the package.  In the runup to his inauguration, he indicated that he wanted to see a stimulus bill on his desk, but kept his hands off while the Democratic party faithful went to work.
• The Democrats responded like kids in a candy store.  Since all government spending stimulates to some degree, they decided to try and remake the world in the moderate President Obama that we elected.  Some of the really stupid stuff got killed through the legislative process, but much of it is still there.
• One provision that particularly bothers me relates to welfare reform, one of the great successes of social legislation.  The package makes funds available to localities who abolish their requirements for welfare recipients to seek work or be placed in jobs.  (Mayor Bloomberg has wisely declined this aid.)  The thought is that in a tough job market, it’s pointless to press welfare recipients to try and find jobs that don’t exist.  But the real reason, I suspect, is to deter cash-strapped local governments from replacing union civil servants with welfare recipients.  You know what?  Times are tought all over!

Obama’s speech Tuesday night was somewhat of a disappointment.  He bagan and ended with an exhortation about how we would get through this crisis, and end up stronger than before.  President Bush said the same thing after 11 September, and it resonated: there was actual physical destruction that I could go and see if I really wanted to.  But while we’re told that there is a vast economic crisis, it’s a little hard to believe when there is still food (and everything else) in the stores and power at the socket.  Obama’s call, alas, rings hollow.

He discussed how credit is essential to the economy, and the measures to try and get banks to lend again. So far, so good.

And then he launched into a discussion that was a rehash of his campaign promises on education and health care.   Despite his efforts to tie these to addressing the current crisis, it all seemed a distraction.

At least he didn’t say ‘green jobs.’

Posted in Dysfunctional Government, Money, Barack Obama | No Comments »

22. February 2009 by admin.

Last week, Our Fearless Leader signed the $787 billion stimulus package (a/k/a The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) into law.  I’m not sure how much good it will do: reports in the news about it seem to emphasize one detail or another, and I have yet to see a coherent description of the entire package.  Supposedly, I’ll get some more money in my pocket as withholding rates get tweaked, but I’m not sure if my taxes will actually change.

Together with that, there have been plans for further help to the bank, and Obama has forthrightly been telling us that our problems will take time to resolve.  While I dread what form of deficit spending will be inflicted on us next, I appreciate that our leadership recognizes the dimensions of the problem.

So I’m perplexed now when our leadership announced, yesterday, that the deficit will be cut in half by the end of Obama’s first term (i.e. 2013).   So is the economy a major, major problem, or something that will blow over in a couple of years?

For almost as long as I can remember, Presidents have promised to cut the deficit by such-and-such a date, and it’s never, ever happened.  Is our leadership being open with us, or are they reverting to one of the oldest tricks in the book, after barely a month?

Posted in Dysfunctional Government, Barack Obama | No Comments »

21. February 2009 by admin.

Editorial Note:  I know, it’s been rather a while (over a month!) since I last wrote.  Once upon a time, I pretty reliably had at least a half-hour a day for contemplation and… blogging.  But it is a harder world out there, and one of the ways that it is harder is that one has less time for such things.

On Thursday, my work took me out to Queens.  Riding the 7 train, I saw the nearly-completed Citi Field.  But what had happened to Shea Stadium?

I had sort of expected that it would be demolished in a grand theatrical style, but I guess that Citi Field is too close for that. Or perhaps we’re still in shock over 11 September, and can’t stand to see something blown up.

Instead, it was quietly taken down, piece by piece, leaving only piles of rubble.  By April, it should all be carted away and replaced by a parking lot, as one cannot have a modern stadium without ample parking.

Citi Field, the new stadium, looks vaguely like pictures I’ve seen of Ebbets Field.  It’s charming, I’m sure.  But Ebbets Field doesn’t mean anything to me: it was gone before I was born.  My baseball memories all live at Shea.

And now it’s gone, in the name of… what?  A ‘more intimate venue for baseball’?  It’s baseball, dammit, not ballroom dancing!  One can only pack so many seats close to the field: for the rest of us, baseball is something that is inherently witnessed from a distance.

What else is Citi Field supposed to give us?  I’ve bought Mets tickets often enough that they sent me a flyer in the mail:

• Superior sightlines:  Does this mean, ‘you can see the field better’?  Shea had some really crappy seats with only a partial view of the field.  But from the rest of the seats, you looked out and saw… a ballfield.  Maybe you’ll be able to see it better now, but a billion dollars’ worth better?
• Wide, comfortable seats:  I never had a problem fitting in the seats, and I’m watching a baseball game, not flying to Europe.  (Or is it that the general population has gotten wider?)
• Spacious aisles and rows, with generous legroom:  OK, I’m 6′ tall and always can go for a little more legroom.  If you give me a foot more legroom, I’ll be tickled.  But from the pictures, it looks like only a few more inches.
• Wide concourses that invite fans to move around the entire ballpark:  Why, why, why???  When I go to a baseball game, I make one trip to the concession stand, and one trip to the can.  If I want to go wandering around, I can walk around the neighborhood with my wife: it’s much cheaper.
• Upscale dining options, including… a climate-controlled restaurant:  Spare me!  Part of the live baseball experience is the concession-stand food, eaten alfresco in the stands.  If you want air conditioning, stay home!  (And if they’ve gotten rid of the sausage sandwiches, my preferred downscale dining option, I may consider becoming a Yankees fan.)

At Shea, there were ten major categories of seats, not counting the really fancy seats behind home plate.  Now there are 26, a feat accomplished by zoning each level into ‘infield’ and ‘outfield,’ and further charging extra for the first few rows. The better to juice the fans, I guess.

Yes, I’ll go to see the Mets at Citi Field.  I may even like the new stadium when I see it.

But for now, I’m ticked.

Posted in New York City, Life Goes On | No Comments »