Recent Posts

1101

N.A.N.Y. 2011 / Re: NANY 2011 Poll To Help Decide Mouser's App

« Last post by barney on September 17, 2010, 03:47 PM »

mouser,

For the webcam/diary app, considering the diary aspect, it would be nice to have import capability for images, short vids - kids don't always do their thing(s) in front of a webcam, but a lot of kinder activity does get recorded on smart phones or small point-and-shoot digital cameras.

Also be kinda nice for recipe/cooking stuff, if you're into that sort of thing.

Visual notes for when words can't quite cover, donchano:  instead of describing green, show it  .

Edit:  typos.

1102

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by barney on September 03, 2010, 08:40 PM »

If you don't check any of the boxes, you don't get the crapware.

That is patently untrue according to my definitions.  Anything other than the OS and necessary hardware drivers qualifies as trash.  I specifically said no to any security software, but it was installed anyway.  Several MS products were installed, products which were not mentioned during the order process, so there was no option to select or not select.

I was pleasantly surprised at the minimal amount of non-OS, non-hardware-related software installed, but it was installed w/o concern for my preferences.  Kinda points to why IT folk create their own disk image for new boxes, ya know?

The real concern here is not the installation of unrequested software, but the detritus remaining after a supposed uninstall.  I've had critical applications crash because of some software installation overwriting support files that were not replaced during the uninstall.  In a corporate environment, that can be near-fatal at the very least.  In a home environment, or in a small business environment, it really can be fatal insofar as a person's reliance upon a particular piece of software.

No offense intended, app103, but your premise simply does not hold up in the face of existing evidence.

OK, it's kinda, sorta understood that no hardware vendor is going to distribute schtuff that would crater their systems, but what they distribute could very well incapacitate an application upon which someone relies - or installation of such an application could crater the system.  In either case, they'd not be able to use - real life example - software that was previously relied upon for significant health issues.  (Not my health problem, but a consulting call not too long ago.)

The more junk that gets installed, the greater the possibility of crippled functionality in other areas even after the junk is supposedly removed.

1103

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by barney on September 03, 2010, 05:17 PM »

The box initialization just completed.  There's actually a lot less junk that I expected, but there is some.

MS Office 2010 is installed, but it'll be a trial-ware install, since I didn't specifically order it.  A bunch of MS Live junk is there, as well, of which I might use only the Writer blog posting app.  There's also some CD/DVD authoring software that installed by default.  Oh, yeah, the box asked by to authorize a Trend Micro install - don't know if just AV or a full suite - and when I declined, it stated that it would be uninstalled.

No Google stuff that I can see on the menu.  I really hope the discs don't have the <shudder /> Vostro wallpaper - what I got was urgly with a capital urgh.  First thing I did was lose that  .

1104

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by barney on September 03, 2010, 04:47 PM »

Once you are done installing the drivers, you can enjoy your new Dell computer without all the crapware.

nite_monkey, I like that resolution.  This beast came with six (6) discs, one (1) a DVD, four (4) CDs, and one (1) indeterminate from the print on the disk.  Each of these six (6) is marked that it is already installed, implying that the discs are there only for emergency reinstalls.  However, I've run into similar situations in the past, where the reinstall CDs also contained the junk I didn't want to reinstall.  I don't want Trend Micro - I think that's the current Dell offering - on a trial basis, nor Works, nor Word, nor any other trial software.  Just want the OS and any drivers necessitated by the hardware.

For instance, I'll have to have the fingerprint software/drivers, since this box has a fingerprint scanner.  (I wonder whether that's any good, but prolly a topic for a different thread - which may already exist here.)

Anyhoo, your process description has emboldened me with the temerity to hit the power switch and turn this beast on .  Dear heart, thank you very much for that response  .

Edited for typos - why cannot I ever avoid those, even with spell-check? - not content.

1105

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by barney on September 02, 2010, 11:08 PM »

Yeah, that trackdown thing is the one that's driving me nuts.  However, your suggestion as to ongoing backups definitely has merit.

1106

General Software Discussion / Re: Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by barney on September 02, 2010, 10:51 PM »

@4wd
selection (a).  It's already on the box's hard drive, and the first time I power it up, it will be installed, whether I will it or no.
Yes, Win7, 64-bit.
Your edit kinda defines the problem ... I don't know what drivers will be necessary, and the Dell site is less than forthcoming with specifics that satisfy me.

@MilesAhead
Unfortunately, in my current location, I'm more know ledgable than the available 3rd party techs  .  I will check http://www.boot-land.net/forums/.

@Eoin (I still can't get the o right)
There is no install disk - it all happens the first time I power up the box.
And, while I am comfortable with doing clean OS installs, this ain't one <grin />.

@general
This particular box came with six (6)  CDs (assumption that they are only CDs on my part), all of which are marked, "Already installed on your computer."
That's the part that bugs me, and I'd really like to obviate most of those installations.
Yeah, I realize that's unlikely w/o a month or two of research, but I don't have that kind of time to get the box up - I need its power for an upcoming project.

Apparently, due to time constraints, I'll have to accept the whole install, then, as time allows, get rid of all the junk that I won't use or don't want.  I was just hoping against hope that someone had an easy - I like easy - answer to a problem that many people don't seem to have.

Note:  I said I'm comfortable with clean installs, but maybe not so comfortable with installing drivers that I don' know I need until something fails  .

I do appreciate the quick responses, folk, and all your suggestions are viable, given enough time to implement them - time is my enemy at this point, but this is all on file and will be consulted in future initiations.  Thank you.

1107

General Software Discussion / Stupid question time, "Any way to *prevent* crapware loading on new box?"

« Last post by barney on September 02, 2010, 08:05 PM »

Yeah, I know it's dumb.  But, just maybe ...

Finally got my new i7 box, a Dell Vostro 3700 laptop, and I'd really like to find a way to prevent loading of the [obligatory?] included crapware, rather than come back and remove it after the box completes initiating.  Searches have turned up the question, but no viable answers to speak of.  Did find a few that were technically impossible, a couple that seemed improbable, but none that could be effectively implemented, at least by me.

One of the improbable ones involved booting from a Live CD, deleting the offensive bits, then booting the machine naturally.  That requires a more intimate knowledge than I'm ever likely to have of both the OS and the appropriate install programs.  (For one thing, this box has a fingerprint reader, the software for which I'm unlikely to recognize even after installation, much less prior to install  .)  Yeah, with enough research I could probably identify some of the stuff I know is there, but ...  .

OK, enough about my inadequacies ... anyone know of a way to pre-clean a new box prior to initialization?

1108

Living Room / Re: Anyone using Backup4All on Windows 7, please?

« Last post by barney on August 31, 2010, 10:57 PM »

Has anyone ever seen a UAC prompt that was not a false positive? One that actually saved you from doing something you'd have regretted?

I must say I have yet to see any UAC warning that was anything more than an impediment to whatever I was doing at the time.  It's a nice thought, but a really sucky implementation.

1109

General Software Discussion / Re: 27 Good Reasons to Love Linux

« Last post by barney on August 31, 2010, 09:26 PM »

Of course if you do want some hand holding on Linux use Ubuntu, it's forums are a treasure trove of helpful people and technical advice. Personally, I've tried a number of distros, but always come back to Ubuntu.

Yeah ... well ... Ubuntu is my preferred Linux distro, but as far as help goes, I gave up on the forae a couple-two-t'ree years ago.  I encountered the same elitism and rtfm that has driven me away from many another forum.  It's really easy to denigrate someone else for not understanding something you consider self-evident (and boost your ego at the same time, or so you think) - a hell of a lot easier than actually trying to help.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A friend and I were speaking telephonically earlier today.  He was, several years ago, a telecom field installer and troubleshooter (MCI, pre Bernie Ebbers) - a very good one, a very good one and running a field team of thirty-five (35) to forty (40) techs.  He remarked, during the Linux/Mac/Windows OS discussion we were having, that he really missed the power of the Unix command line ... but didn't want to go back to it.  All it needed was one typo and he could take down a whole remote repeater site.

Anyone who really gets a new technology is initially gung-ho about it, but there comes a time when comfort, ease of use, is more important than bragging rights.  The one big thing MS/Windows did was to standardize software.  In the Linux arena, some stuff works on KDE, other stuff works on Gnome ... too much of the software available is distro and desktop specific ... there is no standardization save for the kernel itself.  OK, that's not comfort.  It's fun for thee and me, but it would not have worked for my late parents.  (You should have seen me trying to teach my dad how to use a mouse - he handled it as though it would break any moment, and trying to click w/o moving the [very delicate] mouse was a personal trial for him .)

Most folk who buy a personal computer want it to just work, to be able to do what they want to do without a significant learning curve.  Granted, that leaning curve will exist whether you're using any of the extant OSes, but some of those curves are steeper than others.  The Linux curve is a bit too steep for many new users, twenty-seven (27) good reasons or not .

As jaden said, more or less, the Linux problems seem to be a bit more complex than those same problems on Windows.  One of my most common go-to-guy experiences is helping someone out of a Linux jam.

1110

Living Room / Re: I'm ready for the TV revolution to hit!

« Last post by barney on August 29, 2010, 04:12 PM »

Try reading "The Machine Stops" by Saki !

An interesting read - seems prophetic in some parts - but some of the premises appear questionable.

On the TV front, I'd expect the relevant execs to learn from the music industry - and from The Machine Stops, should they bother to read it - that the writing is on the wall.  They - and the advertisers! - will have to adapt.  However, if they take a leading stance, as opposed to the reactive stance of RIAA, ASCAP, et.al., they could lead the way in non-console video presentation rather than reacting to it.  The advertisers are already adapting - fancy that! - and if the TV folk can find a way of making advertising less obtrusive and more relevant to the program being presented, and if they don't get greedy, they should fare reasonably well.

Many of us are already conditioned to pay for cable, so it's not a great stretch to adapt that payment mentality to other venues. 
[Sidebar:  one of the big selling points when cable first came out was the lack of advertising - how soon we forget ]
And with the tracking systems already in place in the wireless/Internet/mobile arena, it would be no great trick to produce advertising both relevant to what is being watched and to the person watching it.  Hey, we already see a lot of in situ advertising, some of it near-subliminal, in film and TV presentations, so this would be a very doable thing, methinks.

The mobile equivalent of broadcast and cable TV will come - not as soon as superboyac would like, but it will come.  The technology will adapt - see app103's comment on broadband - of that I'm certain.  It always does when enough people produce a perceived need.  As a for-instance, consider how the porn industry has driven several technologies in the past.  Color magazines, enhanced video technology, Web imagery, Web video, all were driven, at least in part, by the pornographers.  Oh, yeah, the technology enhancements were taken over by mainstream media, but only after the technology became popular - and effective.

By and large, what we are discussing is not technological, or even financial; it is temporal.

1111

Living Room / Re: I'm ready for the TV revolution to hit!

« Last post by barney on August 26, 2010, 11:27 PM »

I'm kinda dubious about a hardware resolution (save, perhaps, for hardware allowing a new delivery method).  That is what currently exists, and any hardware solution to this would be naught more than an extension of existing broadcast technology.

True innovation - and Smart TV may be such, I don't know - is going to be software technology related, whether a new application or a new delivery method or, mayhap, a new display method.  But it's going to have to take into consideration existing technology trends - laptops, desktops, tablets, smart phones - as well as make some effort toward predictions of technology to come (imagine a tablet laying on a table - or your lap - with a holographic display transmitted above it, for instance). 

I suspect there'll always be a place for a flat-panel home television, but if the TV folk are going to advance, they're going to have to concentrate on software and delivery thereunto.  Yeah, a Star-Trek-like holodeck in your living room would be nice, but I want to catch that same holographic effect on my laptop for the noon news break, perhaps for the State of the Union address.  Oh, yeah ... I'd like to have that without eye fatigue or damage that some of the current 3D efforts are predicted to provide  .

1112

Living Room / Re: I'm ready for the TV revolution to hit!

« Last post by barney on August 25, 2010, 08:18 PM »

Thanks for the input. it's sad, but such is life sometimes.

I'd offer you a shoulder to cry on , but it's pretty soggy - been using it myself  .

Y'know, it strikes me there's an opportunity here for some up-and-coming entrepreneur/infopreneur.  'Twould take mucho dinero to set up the infrastructure, negotiate syndication rights, and so on, but it's doable - look at YouTube - right now.  Might only have a small market, but considering the activity on the Internet right now, that could still make for a pretty lucrative system.  It would be a membership/subscription service.  Payments could be set monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, annually, or even pay-per-view.  If the payments were set fairly low, y'could prolly attract enough subscribers to make it worthwhile.  You'd need the backing of a financial angel with deep pockets and patience enough to wait three (3) to seven (7) years for a return

Prolly have to accept advertising for some of the syndication - which would create a cottage industry of developers building ad blockers specific to that purpose, methinks  - but you could also throw in some ads of your own  .

Reason I mention this is that I mentioned the thread to an angel I know - don't use him, but we talk, and he's Web/tech savvy - and he thought it a worthwhile concept for contemplation.  'Course, you'd have to show a business plan (that I would hate to have to draw up), along with some reasonable projections of growth.  Likely take a year or more just to set up the syndications, but if you could show, say CBS, that you could provide them a return, based upon usage, for stuff they're essentially giving away now ... that could get interesting.  It could provide them with a new revenue stream, and it would be in their interests to promote it.  However, they wouldn't be responsible for it, so all they'd incur would be the promotion costs, if any.

Now, those were ideas from the angel, and we discussed, ephemerally, some of the downsides as well, but he was overall receptive to the concept.  He seems to think it'll start happening sooner rather than later, particularly if tablets, e.g., the iPad, start to take off.

1113

Living Room / Re: I'm ready for the TV revolution to hit!

« Last post by barney on August 22, 2010, 09:36 PM »

Interesting thread.

I was [kinda] here when television first started ... parents bought one, a thirteen-inch, round, green-and-white screen console in the early fifties ... so I've watched TV advertising just about from day one.  The progression has, at times, been very awkward, and it has - as with most marketing - been very slow to evolve.  It has almost always been a decade or so behind technology, and likely will always be so.  The Mad Men almost always trail behind for security reasons - new technology may not be secure enough for their ads to make money .

As to ad-created programs, the cartoons don't hold a patch - late to the fray .  Saturday morning had a not-to-be-missed (in the US) program called the Sealtest Circus.  It was a televised depiction of a three-ring circus aimed at selling Sealtest milk.  Yes, it was entertaining, at least to me at that age, but its sole purpose was to sell Sealtest - not just milk, but Sealtest milk.
Then there was the Jon Gnagy (sp?) Learn to Draw program.  It did teach drawing, but it was nothing more than a thirty (30) minute infomercial (the first one?) to sell his drawing instruction kits.
And Jack LaLane's exercise program - also an infomercial.
And don't forget Wonder Bread - builds strong bodies twelve (12) ways.  Think the parent company was Rainbo - but I still remember their mantra, their slogan, and likely I'll never forget it.
Those were innovators in a new technology - but their innovation was considered chancy at the time.

As to the online TV thing, there's a problem there that no one seems to care to address - the providers, I mean.  Last stats I saw gave 40% to 60% of the US Internet users as still on dial-up.  That's not conducive to a wide-spread structure of TV, ad-supported or not.  Then there are other countries.  Some of 'em have a better Internet structure than the US, but many of 'em have no Internet structure at all.  The marketing folk are going to stick with established technologies - radio & TV, almost universally available - until this newer technology has been proven through time.

You have all presented well-thought-out arguments in regard to on-demand TV and the marketing force(s)) behind it.  But don't expect to see significant adoption for another decade or two (2).  Despite the Mad Men scenarios, most marketers are a conservative lot - they'll adopt only after someone else has proven a viable construct.

1114

Living Room / Re: Micropayments to DonationCoder could be possible through new PayPal service

« Last post by barney on August 14, 2010, 07:32 PM »

While a micropayment system is intriguing, there's another consideration - longevity.  (Well, there's international or near-international coverage, but that's for later.)

PayPal is in process of killing off its existing Plugin process(es).  One of those processes, one I've used since its inception, is single-use or single-payee (recurring billing) cards.  After two-plus years, they've presumably decided it's not sufficiently profitable, so it's getting eighty-sixed. 

That's unsettling for me, considering the number of commercial sites get raided of consumers' financial data.

Same thing could happen with a micropayment system:  folk come to depend upon it, then it gets retired - for perfectly understandable reasons, but that doesn't help anyone who might have come to rely upon it.  If their business model is even moderately dependent upon micropayments, they'll become collateral damage of someone else's (in this case, PayPal's) valid business decision.

1115

General Software Discussion / Seeking tracking software for downloads to local system ...

« Last post by barney on August 13, 2010, 04:54 PM »

Looking for software to track downloads to desktop or laptop box.

Requirements/preferences:

• Track all downloads of software or documents except Web pages & the like
• Create real-time log including item name, type, source URL, date, time (optional, but handy), comments
• Store (database or [text] file) download history by date with read/unread flags
• Editor for selected date file - add/modify comments, flag as read/unread
• Searchable across dates for name, type, comment content, date range(?)

FlashGet (formerly JetCar?)- v1.9, as I didn't like the logging of the newer versions - provides some of what I seek - the detail record is very nice, but may be overkill - however, the information is not readily editable after the fact of the download, and it tracks only the downloads run through its interface.

I've seen a few other download managers with some logging capability, but they log only what comes through their interface.

This app needs to be able to record downloads regardless the downloading vehicle.  It should recognize downloads initiated by any browser - or any application update procedure - without recording Web pages and the like.  For instance, it should recognize and record FTP or HTTP downloads, but ignore the browsing maintenance pages, e.g., the actual Web data required for browser display.  I hope that made sense.

Rationale

On any given day, I am like to download up to fifty-sixty files.  Sometimes more, sometimes far fewer, but fifty is about as close as I can calculate w/o having some sort of historical record.  As I review these files, I need to be able to record some result of that review and have them removed from the active list.  I also need some way to check to see if I've already downloaded - yesterday, last week, last month ... - a particular file, then decide whether it should be downloaded again.

I was doing all this manually with a PHP 4.? script, an old MySQL database, and several different text files.  The process has been untenable for a while, but I could find nothing better.  Now, PHP and MySQL have both been upgraded, and the process is broken.  The script will not run under PHP 5.x, or perhaps it cannot talk to the newer version of MySQL - or both.  I've looked at the script - although I'm not allowed to edit it - and it is a real hodgepodge, so even if allowed, I'd spend more time editing than creating something new - assuming, or course, that I could.

All my searches have turned up are ways, scripts, applications to record downloads from a Web site or server in order to amass/analyze statistical data.  I cannot seem to find anything that works more or less in reverse, that tracks to rather than from.

Anyone aware of such a beast?  Or, perhaps, an amalgam that might replicate these tasks with less effort or time consumed?

Edit:  upload tracking would be nice, as well, but down is the primary need.

1116

General Software Discussion / Re: Any Firefox addon to do multiple searches in same search engine?

« Last post by barney on August 08, 2010, 12:57 AM »

Common I would have to agree with to be honest.

OK.  I've stopped.

1117

General Software Discussion / Re: Any Firefox addon to do multiple searches in same search engine?

« Last post by barney on August 08, 2010, 12:16 AM »

So you manage it without trying. Must be a talent. No offense.

Believe me, that is not the least of my auto-offensive talents - although probably the most common .

1118

General Software Discussion / Re: What's up with Android versions and upgrading?

« Last post by barney on August 08, 2010, 12:06 AM »

Granted, I'm looking to the future.  But I'm also remembering.  The Amiga was superior, in many respects, to a lot of desktop systems in existence today.  There was another, a competitor whose name I do not recall - and too damned lazy right now to research it - equally capable machine, as well as the Z90, which took a different approach to most everything.  None of them exist today, save in ROMs that can be used in Windows or in a DOS/Linux environment.

What I expect to happen will be much along the same lines as DOS/Windows - adventurous app makers will embrace a new environment, people will adopt the newly created apps and complain when they're not available on older systems, then the vendors - and other app makers - will take note.  Then the explosion begins.  Android may not be the platform for that, but it has the capability, if its developers pay attention to history.

As for the app makers targeting older OSes, I don't think so - most of the ones I've know want to use the latest and greatest in order to display their genius.  Understandable - I'd do the same thing if I had the talent.  If you think about it, many of the requests here on DC are for things that no one else has done - many of which really push the edges of what is doable in the current environment(s).  But the folk here manage, don't they?  Not every time, but the successes are significant.

These are the people, and many like them, that will push some phone OS to its limits, and force manufacturers to accommodate their products, whether for free or for coin.  When that happens, service providers will have to acquiesce or go under.  'Tis my thought that Android - particularly being not vendor-specific - could provide the platform for such.

Perhaps not.  But it is the most viable phone OS I've encountered for that capability.  And when that happens, whatever the OS, the hardware folk and the service providers will have to acquiesce or go under.

1119

General Software Discussion / Re: What's up with Android versions and upgrading?

« Last post by barney on August 07, 2010, 10:45 PM »

Android can do it the same way Windows did in the PC market.  When I got my first laptop - a business machine - there were probably half a dozen different OSes current.  DOS, in several different flavours, but others that I cannot remember - think the laptop was MK/V - ? - but not certain.  I'm not forgetting Amiga, Z90, all the rest that fell by the wayside - they fell.

At that time, Windows existed, but didn't work - Borland's (?) Carousel was better, and I was using OS/9 on a Tandy CoCo for my home stuff:  it had functioning, workable windows.  Software - if you could find any - was catch as catch can.  DOS was the most common and varied, and that's one of the things that started to make DOS the prevalent OS.  Then MS presented Win 3.0, 3.1, 95, 98, 98SE in fairly short order.  That's when software standardization really began.  It had started with DOS - if most  everything you could find, even games, ran on that OS, ya naturally wanted to use that OS - and a functional Windows platform, even on a DOS platform made things more attractive.  Compaq had a proprietary system, as did HP, and a few others, but they'd all run Windows.  The name of the game was standardization - if your hardware couldn't run Windows, it wouldn't sell.
Android has the capability to do the same thing - as more people adopt it, more manufacturers are going to be constrained to conform to it.  As that happens, more hardware vendors will be equally constrained to create fitting platforms. 

Yeah, that sounds like a stretch.  But considering that the smartphone hardware is advancing at about four times the rate that PC hardware did, it's a near-future reality.

And it's not hardware that drives software, it is software that drives hardware development.  So, Android has a real shot, good or bad, at creating the kind of standardization that happened with DOS/Windows.

(Before someone brings up OSx, Linux, et. al., remember that neither one would likely exist w/o Windows as a target/incentive.)

If Android really does get going, service/hardware providers are going to have to accommodate or lose market share - anathema to them!

1120

General Software Discussion / Re: What's up with Android versions and upgrading?

« Last post by barney on August 07, 2010, 09:40 PM »

US phone service has been a closed market since the first cell phone came out.  FTC opened up the market when it disbanded/fragmented Ma Bell (then known as AT&T - guess who's back ), but the market started closing again when cells appeared.  So it's well nigh impossible to get the phone you want with the service or provider (not necessarily the same) you want in the US.

The hope was that Android would, to some extent, alleviate this situation.  Someday, it might.  But not  right now.

1121

General Software Discussion / Re: Any Firefox addon to do multiple searches in same search engine?

« Last post by barney on August 07, 2010, 09:18 PM »

I think it's a combination of both.

I suspect we all do 

sell the unsuspecting public a service that just front ended some other

  Oh, my! on the Internet?!?

or some graduate student wrote the program a long time ago

  Let's see ... Google was founded by a couple of grads ... Yahoo! was founded by one or more grads, and if memory serves, took over the then Alta Vista (so, what is Alta Vista now?) ... really curious as to that original - contributor? - grad  .

Edit:  As I reread this, I can see that it could be taken offensively - that was not my intent - just, sometimes, my attempts at humour can get pretty heavy-handed.

1122

General Software Discussion / Re: Any Firefox addon to do multiple searches in same search engine?

« Last post by barney on August 07, 2010, 08:20 PM »

Don't personally use Alta Vista much, but have a few acquaintances who swear by it.  And they've encountered similar problems in the past when trying to use some sort of search automation [duh].

I suspect that the search engines' abhorrence of automated methods is pretty much universal .

Actually, why do they dislike automated methods?  Afraid someone will steal their results?  That kinda, sorta sounds reasonable, I guess.  Or would it be because of excessive traffic?  Is a puzzlement .

1123

General Software Discussion / Re: What's up with Android versions and upgrading?

« Last post by barney on August 07, 2010, 07:40 PM »

not tied to any carrier, and allowing any OS version we want. Maybe it will never come though...

And therein lies the crux of the matter.  Each carrier wants to keep a 2-year contract with services that only they - regardless the phone involved, or even the OS - provide.  In order to do that, they're getting more proprietary than any software development company ever dreamed of becoming.

The hardware platform - even, to some extent, the OS - is irrelevant so long as that contract is signed.  It had been hoped - my hope, at least - that the advent of the Android phone system would alleviate that issue.  It has made great inroads on Apple's iPhone existence.  However, the providers seem more interested to provide features that are hardware related. 

It's no big thing if the phone you currently possess cannot use all the features of an Android upgrade, we've become accustomed to that as applications require more and more CPU/GPU power, and we eventually find ways around, for the most part.

It's not particularly disturbing that the MyTouch that I have cannot utilize all the functions of the latest Android update.  It is upsetting that I have to resort to sometimes unsavory methods to discover that.

But, if it were freely available from the telecoms, they would lose their aura of - what to call it? - invincibility? - supremacy? - profitability? - coverage? - I don't know.  After all, even if we should select a new phone for it's capabilities, we have to sign a new contract, and probably pay a penalty for terminating the old one.  I do know that the provider combat is making us collateral damage, since the existing providers are emulating Apple's proprietary mode rather than concentrating on providing service. 

1124

General Software Discussion / Re: What's up with Android versions and upgrading?

« Last post by barney on August 07, 2010, 06:10 PM »

The one thing that Microsoft did - the thing that made them a household word - had little or nothing to do with the OS, per se, but with the software standardization that was accomplished.  Yeah, Apple did much the same, but Apple has always over-priced their stuff - that's what let MS out-perform or surpass them in market share.  That's also a significant issue right now with Linux distros - too many applications that require a specific distro.

I was hoping that Android - and a bit of vision on the part of manufacturers - would do for the smartphone market what MS did for the PC market.  It still could happen, of course, but until the big players in the telecom industry abandon the Apple [proprietary] attitude, and the Linux [forking] attitude, I just don't see it happening.

Perhaps, if the telecoms concentrated upon unique application of software, as opposed to unique and proprietary  hardware development ... alas, not likely .  It seems to me that they could take a lesson from Intuit, Peachtree, a few others that have created their own niche in a mostly standardized OS world, but, then, I'm not the CEO of AT&T, T-Mobile, et.al.

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General Software Discussion / Re: Any Firefox addon to do multiple searches in same search engine?

« Last post by barney on August 07, 2010, 05:09 PM »

I have run into this problem with Google, too, and it's very frustrating when it happens.

Yeah!  Might as well go bake a loaf of bread, you're not gonna do much else for a while .