Re: FTC Complaint filed

Dale wrote:

"garyd" <spam@xxxxxxx> wrote in message news:egzXaQKWHHA.4404@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

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Everything on this page is a rant!

Get a firewall and block everything from Microsoft.

Use Solaris/Linux and never worry about it! I am playing around with Solaris and zones, and attempting to run the DOS/Win3.1,'95/98/98SE apps, each in it's own zone if needed, using WINE. If it works, I may have 5-6 zones, w/1 console/display.

My original complaint is still valid. There is no way to limit what M$ wants to install on your system because they hide the descriptions, and the code.

I agree with you here. Calling the installation of WMP 11 an "update" for WMP 10 is outright deceitful. And especially considering that their own readme indicates they are aware that installing WMP 11 could cause their customers to lose access to some protected and paid-for content.
It got loaded "somehow" on one of my MCE systems. Before, it ran for a year just recording stuff that I watched when I wanted. Then IE7 and MWP11. I used the recovery disks twice. It shoots a whole day to remove the preinstalled crap and put the applications and data back. I just did that 3 weeks ago!

This last time I uninstalled most of my apps, and also did a few restores to get rid of them. I still ended up installing IE&/WMP11 to avoid another use of the recovery disks. I was getting the "Restricted Content" message about playing recordings when I was watching Live TV on analog cable (AMC in fact)! Everything does work now, but most of my apps are now on this XP.


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appxxx = Apple? Go ahead. You can say it here. I'm not so sure about saying Microsoft on Apple's forums though. They tend to block or delete posts that get too inflammatory.
appxxx=MY applications, not apple, but my son is a new convert. He is like I was, a Senior System Administrator on Sun stuff, and a little Linux too. He has passed me by, he works on 10K's and up now.He uses his Sparc and Apple at home, and has Windows/Xbox just for games. He also has EVERY version of PS, and all the other brands too! I know he has more games than DVDs!


Rants.............


Hell, they even break their own-how many versions of WORD files are there?

Actually, Word files have remained pretty consistent. I can open anything from Word 97 to Word 2003 in anything from Word 97 to Word 2007. Word 2007 will save in compatibility mode so users of previous versions can still open documents created in Word 2007.

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I don't have Word, just Amipro and OpenOffice on Solaris. I created 3 different formats of a Word doc before my brother could open it...


COBOL? For quick-and-dirty programs? That's a prersonal choice. See my blog article on learning .Net at http://www.dalepreston.com/Blog/2006/07/learn-to-program-in-net.html. You can do it for free. I have, in the past, used C, C++, Visual C++, IBM BASIC, BASICA - just about everything under the sun (though never COBOL) for quick-and-dirty programs. There's nothing wrong with COBOL but there are a lot of alternatives better suited for quick-and-dirty programming on the PC.

Yes there is-too many. I started with M$ C 1.0/1.5 and before I could finish the classes I took, I had to buy a copy of Borland. They taught Ansi C and it took too much effort to make the programs work with the test data. This was just C and C++, not Windows programming. I liked Borland so much I tossed the M$.

COBOL is a (business?)language that lets you do something without having to learn 5-10 other languages to do it. I'm talking about a USER application, for me or a customer-back in the days. A COBOL program CAN be used with all the alphabet languages available today, but it does just fine for what I want now. I wrote an Assembler cross-reference program for the 8052 micro in COBOL. MLASM51 didn't have one, and I was used to the mainframe listings. With a couple of internal sorts, I had it running in two hours with the COBOL interpreter (MicroFocus Academic). I challenged everyone at SAC HQ/USSTRATCOM to write it in C, since it was NOT a business application. I didn't have to pay for any beer...

When I write something on the PC I use ported Unix scripts, COBOL, or a spread***. If I want something to work well, I use assembler. Check out Gibson's site www/grc.com, most of his stuff was in assembler because it's small, works great, and lasts a long time. He has lots of links to ASM tools. Solaris/Linux you seem to know about.

So you don't want to learn new things but you want the benefit of new things? I have long said , in my opinion and pre-Vista, that Windows 95 was the best OS Microsoft ever made. From a look and feel, it isn't so far from Windows 2000 or even XP with gummy turned off. And it installed in under 30 MB. Maybe you just shouldn't use newer OS's.
I agree about '95, the last one which could run 3.1 apps in a window. It's too bad the memory management was so bad...

I never said that about new things. When I was 59 and disabled, I bought an MCE (my first XP) to BE a media machine, mainly a TV and recorder. Recordings I liked I would put on DVD. For things I really like I buy the DVDs. The break even point was 5 years over renting a couple of DVRs, mixed if I bought a DVR recorder and rented. I ran for a year without problems, just download the never-ending security patches as time goes on. It was MUCH better than the '9X systems because of the memory and storage, and dual tuners. I built this XP system because I wanted to migrate the video editing and other applications to this one. As long as I had a new XP system, I added a couple of capture cards too. As I mentioned, I'll be moving the REAL old apps to zones on my Solaris system(s).

One new thing to try is developing device drivers for the open source efforts. I've done it for mainframes (in assembler), as well as communications and networking drivers/development. It will be "new" to try it in C. No rush, I can't "work" any more, but I also don't need flashy GUI apps which pay more attention to flash and glamor, or in reality, lots of smoke and mirrors (ads). My version of COBOL does do basic GUI windows/tables/scrolling, but it's limited to just "work" not glitz. If I move it to a zone, I can bring it up on any X/telnet window...


Lotus 123/Amipro. I have the upgrades for 98 and XP, but I use Amipro for doing formal documents and PCB documentation. It will let me insert multiple graphics, cut and overlayed, even transparent and merged for multilayer boards. I can't reinstall it on anything, because the floppy disks can't be read anymore...

Your problem here is with IBM/Lotus then. Too bad they don't make it any more. As I have stated on the Vista newsgroups - facetiously only - I am really upset. I hooked up my RS-232 to 20-ma loop adapter to my Vista PC, connected my DEC VT-50 to it, and not only can I not get it to run AERO, I also cannot get Vista to run my CP/M copy of WordStar.
The answer was above, use WINE on Solaris/Linux ;)

I agree with you, IBM should have ported that version of the suite to 32 bit Unix. It would have taken over, except they went the NOTES route and lost the market on spreadsheets and (Simple?) word processing. Wordpro on the PC has as many bells and whistles as Word, but like word it cannot handle my docs with lots of overlayed and transparent graphics. Bummer.


A PCB design program. Cost $149, upgrade $700. There are free or cheaper ones, but they don't allow the control of each line/pad/part. It also supports my pen plotter. I can't reinstall it because the 5.25" floopys can't be read anymore...

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Your complaint then, should be with your PCB software maker. Do you make your living designing PCBs?
No complaint, they did bring out a Win version, but it wasn't worth the cost TO ME. I don't do it for a living, just extra income at the time.
A quick google shows that the PCB software world has changed a lot since I did that work. There are a lot of powerful PCB layout tools for free that will run on XP like the open source FreePCB. And as a great testimonial to the power of open and competitive markets, several board manufacturers like ExpressPCB and PCB123 will give you free software so you can use their board manufacturing services. And they all run on XP.
Got them, tried them, didn't like all of them. I build hobby stuff, or for big money, special order hardware/firmware designs. Mostly I do Embedded controllers and Ham Radio applications. When I have enough little radio circuits, I put them all on the same board, get samples, and cut them apart. I do have to edit the drill files before I send them-they aren't sorted and drive the machines crazy! I think it was PCBEdit but I don't have the system running right now.

I only sold a few hundred copies of a 805X controller bare board, but they paid for the development tools and a new PC, with something left over for the IRS. I sold 3 built-to-order video monitoring systems, each a different version/model, but they were $1200-1500 items($1000+ each profit). Nothing earthshaking. I've made more with software sales.

The newer PCB programs will do some of the things better, like antennas/waveguides/stubs on the board, but it does take a little more work to do it than the old one, which is basically a 2-layer CAD program, with a parts lib, and no routing. Placing each line takes time, but my generic board was ready for 33 MHZ before they were announced.

For assembly docs, with Amipro I could import the devices in package format, or with a physical block (for spacing concerns) and superimpose both on the two layer board as a group of transparent plotter files. I really missed that with the Wordpro replacement. I'm sure it could produce one, but not by importing the PS and PLT files from PCBEdit...




Two ATI display cards that capture TV, but won't run under '98 because M$ changed their drivers to support Windows TV, EVEN if you didn't install it! I still use them to capture some programs, and they even work better than the XP/MCE systems at 1/10th the horsepower! Progress???

First off, it makes no sense to complain why your old stuff won't work with your new stuff.
You missed the point. I didn't ask for the M$TV to be installed, but the Windows software used by the TV card/drivers was changed to REQUIRE the VBI interrupt be processed by the OS ONLY, which disabled a perfectly good card. ATI did it all ON the card, which is why it used so little CPU and OS time. I could watch TV, but not record. All they had to do was NOT replace the driver interface if you didn't install M$TV-if it's not looking for the interrupt, and doesn't get it, who cares? Looking back, it may also have been in preparation for DRM, since the VBI is where the first analog copy protection was hidden, as well as some of the early internet/tv newsfeeds/downloads, Close Captioning/YaDa YaDa...

I know you have heard Johnny Cash's "One Piece at
a Time". That's what you're trying to build; a '95 - '96 - '97 - '98 - '99 - '2000 - '2001 - '2002 - '2003 - '2004 - '2005 - '2006 data processing system. It ain't gonna work. And it shouldn't work.
I am not complaining. I just didn't want to spend the money to upgrade the software JUST to run on a newer/bigger/more expensive system which is required to run the newer/bigger/fluffier/more expensive OS. My choice, as many others, was not to play the upgrade game and live with the results.

The capability now exists to fix that at minimal cost (except the TV ;). With WINE and Solaris zones, I may be able to keep my apps if I want to.
I can have a Solaris, DOS, Win95, Win98, and a Win98SE zone and run whatever I want, all on a Dual monitor, 800MHZ P-III made with free software, and using parts from the replaced systems. (I hope ;)

Compatibility:

We went through the same thing with upgrades from SUNOS to Solaris, with even with a compatibility mode/library. Sun does have binary upward compatibility between all Solaris versions I believe. As far as hardware goes, if you can plug it in again, it should work!

The programs for the mainframes (not IBM) I worked on in 1969-1999 still work on todays versions, without changes, assuming they aren't device specific drivers using hardware that doesn't exist any more. As a rule, users only did that for communications/networking devices, we didn't allow connections to an I/O channel except by certified vendors. I carried a tape around to every site I worked at, with several copies of everything I had developed or written, except at the classified sites. I included my device drivers as well as other systems routines I developed. Little if any changes were required to load-and-go my stuff.

An example: You really don't need to read this, it only applies to the bad old days when we couldn't reuse code...

I didn't want to develop a user program which supported "a user defined, keyed, random/direct access, variable length record, file system, which was to be implemented on a (TIP) blocked, fixed length record, memory and/or mass storage filesystem" more than once. It was to be used by multiple batch, demand (interactive), transaction, and real-time programs, in any mix.

It started as a sales requirement to replace a third-party filesystem implemented on an IBM system we were replacing. I said we could do it. We sold it, and I got to design it and write it. As the original, I developed it as a subroutine for COBOL-based transaction programs, with system utility (COBOL) to set up the system environment you wanted (#files, memory and/or mass storage, recoverable or not, dynamic (create a new one now) or static (it exists) files, temporary (life of the transaction-multiple programs) or permanent(it will be there forever)). The 1100/2200 OS will allow access by any type of program, if you design it right, and have the right security permissions. I couldn't get to a system to develop it on, or permission to use the transaction filesystem at our support site, so I wrote a filesystem simulator to develop and test with. I added it to my smart terminal emulator. We couldn't use them until the hardware arrived either. I was able to convert and test some user programs before we got the hardware installed. (OK, we were able to test my filesystem emulator against the converted programs W/subroutine also accessing a temp database, and sending the output to my terminal emulator... )
I used it, or parts of it, at 5 different sites over a 20 year period after it was developed. It was in MASM (assembler) and used no libraries-it would work as assembled/compiled if no changes were made to the OS interface by the program. It did change over the year, but new functions were ADDED TO existing ones-compatibility.


Windows 95 and Windows 98 have been unsupported for a long time now - just like Lotus 123 and AmiPro. If you have software that you just absolutely have to use on those versions, make sure you keep bare metal backups.
I don't have to use it, I want to use it. I couldn't justify spending more for the software upgrades than the new computer to run them on!
I do have images, and I have USB on the '98SE which talks on the local network, and my Intranet.
I suggest Norton Ghost or Acronis True Image. And then, keep
them off of the Internet at all costs! There are no more security updates for them and viruses for them still exist in the wild. And that way, nothing will get updated without you knowing either. Have one network for your old stuff and a new (I suggest Vista) PC for your Internet usage. A USB drive makes for a great sneaker net.
I use this system for browsing now. I would need a new graphics card to run Vista. I'm happy as long as the updates don't break the system. I will wait for the fallout from patch tuesday before trying to update again, and only after taking an image of the disk first...

Dale



Thanks for the conversation. I take a long time to write, one-handed mostly...

Gary
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