In the ’70s you needed a whole roomfull of Univac with its own climate control to do what a laptop does now.

jay12 on November 16, 2009 at 7:12 PM

Exactly!!! So how come we lost several major features which make computers more usable and reliable? Features don’t have a significant cost anymore, so all it would take is for users to demand quality and reliability.

All software designers have to do is pay attention: they can read all about the “non-stop” architectural principles in a good technical library, and several well-documented field-proven architectures which incorporate these principles are readily available.

Perhaps the economic slowdown will “inspire” certain software vendors to realize that quality doesn’t cost: it pays!! They could greatly expand their market by giving customers a real, valid, bottom-line-improving reason to buy new software and at the same time drastically reduce their own support costs.

unclesmrgol on November 16, 2009 at 5:41 PM

Sorry, but these are just lame excuses for the lack of proper system architecture, sloppy design, and ineffective quality assurance.

A company with Microsoft’s revenue should be able to produce software which, absent hardware failure, does not crash and leaves the operator in control if an application fails.

We did it in the 1960′s for the space program (featuring among many other projects a probe which lasted over 20 years and was repurposed several times), again in the 1970′s for multiple industrial applications, and again in the 1980′s for all kinds of critical non-stop applications which would make themselves known via huge explosions if they “crashed”.

If the volume is there, the OS does NOT have to cost any more than Microsoft charges. How do you think Intel and AMD sell the processors for under $100 (usually WELL under) when the spend huge sums (up into the billions) on development and manufacturing? Answer: VOLUME

And there is software within processor chips which does not crash!!! How did they do that??? They paid attention!!!

If you settle for S***, you’ll always get it. But software doesn’t HAVE to be S***!!

elderberry on November 16, 2009 at 9:24 AM

Perhaps — but they are the ones who need to take their computers to the Apple Store frequently because the critters are built like laptops — all custom components. I’ve only met one Mac user (out of hundreds) in my career who actually knew his way around the interior of his computer — all the others are the kind that when something quits working, they either have to ignore it because they don’t have the money, or take it to the Apple Store (if they are lucky and the sucker is still under warranty).
unclesmrgol on November 16, 2009 at 1:22 PM

Geek Squad does a booming business in our town…
and i don’t think they are working on MACS.

Jay12, stick a 4GB Class 4 or above SD card in it and allocate it to ReadyBoost and watch it start from Sleep mode in less than 2 seconds.

Sailfish on November 16, 2009 at 3:24 PM

Where’d I talk about “sleep mode”? What if I live in NYC, the city that never sleeps?

NO!!! Systems were faster than that in the early 1970’s!! And they could come up “hot” after a total power failure.

landlines on November 16, 2009 at 4:10 PM

In the ’70s you needed a whole roomfull of Univac with its own climate control to do what a laptop does now.

As a former Senior Systems Engineer, I have always cringed when someone used the word “stable” to describe a piece of software. How did this admission of the possibility of imminent failure become a specification?

Can you imagine someone being talked into buying a new car by the promise that it was “stable” and would not fall over on its side in normal use and/or when merely parked?

You all know what is found in a “stable” (Hint: it ain’t hay).

landlines on November 16, 2009 at 4:07 PM

As a Systems Engineer, you should know better. Each “9″ added to the reliability number costs.

Stability is relative.

“Stable” means software (or hardware) passes whatever tests the implementer defined as characterizing correct operation for some period of time. You get to live with system crashes, application failures, etc. because that bar is set fairly low so the item doesn’t cost a tremendous amount. Now, if you want truly exceptional software — what you know as a Senior System Engineer as “human-rated” (software upon which a person can bet their life), then be prepared to pay considerably more (say $4K or so for your OS, and about $1M and up for the custom software) because your software had to pass DO-178B (soon to be the even stricter DO-178C) certification. And, since not all problems are related to software, your little PC’s hardware must pass DO-225, and I won’t even go into what that costs.

You get what you pay for. A PC for $299 including OS is worth nearly every penny, even though it passes neither DO-178 nor DO-225. The value is obvious when you consider that 30 years ago it would have had equivalent reliability, taken up about 300 sq ft, and not been as powerful.

As for a car, I won’t buy it if it has a pull down menu.

fast as hell

I thought hell was supposed to be a tortuous, drawn-out affair. Must be the Catholic in me…

I’m very pleased with Windows 7 over Vista, and in some ways, even xp. Before the arrows fly, again, maybe it’s the Catholic in me…

I use a trading software that was quite buggy under Vista. They all run quite well under 7. I have a HP HDX laptop that had an annoying habit of shutting down the wireless connection and adjusting the volume and bass/treble on its own. It’s only happened a couple of times under 7 which is a vast improvement. Now if HP will only fix their silly drivers…

Isn’t that good enough?

jay12 on November 16, 2009 at 3:19 PM

NO!!! Systems were faster than that in the early 1970′s!! And they could come up “hot” after a total power failure.

Can you imagine someone being talked into buying a new car by the promise that it was “stable” and would not fall over on its side in normal use and/or when merely parked?

You all know what is found in a “stable” (Hint: it ain’t hay).

It goes from a cold start (powered OFF) to a completely loaded HotAir page in 25 seconds using Internet Explorer. And it powers down in less than 10 seconds.

Isn’t that good enough?

Mac owners enjoy a much less stressful computing experience.
And most are actually getting real work done.

elderberry on November 16, 2009 at 9:24 AM

Perhaps — but they are the ones who need to take their computers to the Apple Store frequently because the critters are built like laptops — all custom components. I’ve only met one Mac user (out of hundreds) in my career who actually knew his way around the interior of his computer — all the others are the kind that when something quits working, they either have to ignore it because they don’t have the money, or take it to the Apple Store (if they are lucky and the sucker is still under warranty).

When Apple is finally forced to unbundle their OS, maybe I’ll try it — as a virtual running under Linux.

I happen to like my Linux — my server has been up for 240 days now, and I don’t know of any other OS (other than vxWorks, OS/2, and Solaris) which can stay up that long without crashing.

The first thing to try is to use the default theme for awhile (mainly because it’s the easiest to enable/disable.) If it still occurs, then disable all extensions and try that for awhile. If it still occurs, then try creating a new profile.

If it doesn’t fail after disabling all the extensions, then the laborious part comes with disabling each extension one at a time until the problem goes away.

Lastly, some plugins have been known to cause problems in the past, e.g., Flash so ensure those are up-to-date, as well.

Good luck

I just got too frustrated trying to learn the Ubuntu environment at the time, but I may take it up again down the road.

Ed Morrissey on November 16, 2009 at 10:01 AM

Ed, you never mentioned in your e-mail to me that you were frustrated with Ubuntu. You did say that you’d stopped using it because your company laptop came with Windows. So perhaps you were just being nice to a Linux fanatic who looks at all the headers in every e-mail envelope.

I guess I overstepped my bounds by connecting the dots between the connectives in your statement and coming up with the reason I did — “because Michelle won’t let him”.

As for the rest of the stuff, I stand by it — your Captain’s Quarters site was technically far more advanced than Hot Air currently is.

Michelle uses a Mac, not a PC, and couldn’t care less what I use (except to tease me about not using a Mac).

Wow, that’s interesting news. I didn’t know Michelle was a Mac zealot. :) Mac is good but I can’t game on it and its just not my thing. I’ve been very happy with a Win7/Fedora11 dual boot. I get great online security in Linux, and I have all the extra utilities and gaming of Windows all together on the same rig.

So mind your P’s and Q’s when you’re thinking of upgrading.

Firefox is my browser. No crashes or problems whatsoever. For those having problems, look to your extensions/themes. Walnut caused problems for me in XP and Vista so I refrained from even trying it this time around.

MS Office – sucks. The less than intuitive UI was so frustrating I have gone fully to Open Office which runs fast, has easy commands and does the job without all the eye candy.

Preferred platform is still my linux box which is my gateway, router, firewall and all around reliable backup workstation when needed.

Ed sent me an e-mail a few months back when he was setting up the Green Room and I noticed that its envelope said he was sending from a Windows box. I asked him about it and he responded that the company-provided laptop ran Windows. So Michelle apparently made him return to Windows when he joined Hot Air.

unclesmrgol on November 15, 2009 at 10:38 PM

I don’t know where in the world you came up with this. The Ubuntu experiment was when I was writing here at Hot Air, not CapQ. Michelle does not supply me with computers; I buy them myself. And Michelle uses a Mac, not a PC, and couldn’t care less what I use (except to tease me about not using a Mac).

I just got too frustrated trying to learn the Ubuntu environment at the time, but I may take it up again down the road.

tendencies for Firefox to crash

Had the same problem, then got the latest upgrade. That seemed to have solved any “issues”.

1. Macs are NOT used for gaming, and neither are Linux boxes. Anyone who claims such does not know near as much as they think they do.

About five-six years ago, I was speaking to an employee at my local ISP. I was toying with Linux at the time and since he was MS certified and used it at work, I thought he might be a good source of info. He told me the only reason he stayed with a MS o/s was because he was a gamer. Said if it weren’t for that he’d go to Lnux in a heart beat.

Macs are used by musicians for the same reason teachers use Macs. They don’t know anything else.

That statement isn’t quite accurate. I used “anything else” starting in the mid 1980′s. I built 5 pc’s on which I used “anything else” as the o/s. I learned Unix/Linux because I wanted a stable operating platform. (No, I’m not a gamer.)

I have consulted for hundreds of companies and MS rules the day both on the desktop and in the server rack.

I would suggest you get out a little more. With two kids up to their chins in the IT profession, one thing is abundantly clear, more and more companies are going to Linux servers, locally. I don’t know how that translates nationally, but you might want to check that out.

Yoop on November 16, 2009 at 1:05 AM

You should know, that information is WAY out of date. The “Antispyware-Pro” Trojan is now a DRIVE BY infection. In other words, you can be infected simply by viewing the ad, IF YOU ARE USING ANY VERSION OF INTERNET EXPLORER.

Are we all clear on that last bit? If you are using IE, you WILL be infected by this one, probably sooner rather than later. I have actually watched a machine get infected with this. All it takes is loading the “payload” via an ad, and BLAMMO, you are infected.

Also, it’s incredibly difficult to uninstall. (Around 6 – 8 hours of work) Most people end up having to format and reinstall Windows.

Honestly, this is why I surf with Firefox and the Adblock Plus extension. Not only does it make surfing FAR more pleasant, but it prevents me from getting nailed in drive-by virus attacks.

Sorry HA, until you guys stop using 3rd party ads and start hosting your own ad content, I’m blocking all ads from this site. I know it hurts you financially, but I’m not sacrificing one of my Win machines for anyone.

As for Macs, I love going into the software store and seeing rack after rack of every imaginable kind of program I could ever think of (for PC’s). And then I look at the little table in the corner with the Mac software. Ten’s of programs (all written by Apple, except for Photoshop).

Yes, Macs are (slightly) more secure. You’re a minority. But keep pushing Mac vs Pc. If you guys catch on, you’ll have just as many jerks writing malware for you. If I were you, I’d enjoy my anonymity.