I bought a Zune (80GB) some time ago and have not been fully satisfied with its performance. I guess this is not surprising, as Zune seems to have very little backing against the mighty iPod, and Microsoft themselves even seem to half-ass their support for it, as if they don’t truly care.

On paper, it sounds ideal. And under the right circumstances, it is. It had the features I was looking for: plenty of space, a nice screen, ability to play video podcasts as well as MP3s, a competitive price, and wasn’t a friggin’ Apple product.

My problems mostly stem from the Zune Software. I hate the way the Zune is locked to the software. There’s no ability to add files directly without the magical Zune software. And the Zune software media player is okay, but has some real boneheaded problems…

• Revision3 HD content doesn’t work. This is the biggest gripe I have with the software right now. Rev3 changed their container from .mov to .mp4 and supposedly there’s some small portion of the spec that the Zune software doesn’t support. So it just fails out. To top it off, WMP11 plays the files just fine, but for whatever assinine reason, the Zune software doesn’t just use the WMP engine.
• No Equalizer.
• The progress slider is too small and doesn’t scale to the window width. This makes it very difficult to scan to a specific spot in a long video.
• The cover view is neat, but doesn’t serve any purpose. I should be able to click on albums and see their track list or information about them.
• Right-clicking doesn’t do jack most of the time. Some sort of advanced/convenient menu would be nice.
• No shortcut to skip to a certain song without being locked in the album/playlist (like ‘J’ in Winamp).
• No 4-channel support. (It would just be cool if it took the stereo audio and played it through the rear speakers as well.)

Work | No Comments »

Calvin & Hobbes, Comics | No Comments »

Draconian Rights Management…I think this is a more appropriate definition these days. DRM is the scourge of any computer enthusiast who expects to be able to do what he wants with his data when he wants to.

IT Enthusiasts commonly butt heads with DRM in the realms of music, movies and video games. Spore, for instance, shipped with DRM that consumers felt was so restrictive that many actually pirated the game BECAUSE of it. Many more who were on the fence–like myself–chose to simply not buy it. Whereas the paying consumer was required to activate the game upon installation, and was limited to being able to install the game only three times, the cracked versions had none of these limitations.

The protection on some discs has been known to be unreadable by certain CD/DVD drives, crash the computer, or, in Sony’s case, install dangerous rootkits. You’re also at the mercy of the DRM issuer, so if that issuer decides to stop maintaining the DRM servers, as Wal-Mart did (which they later rescinded), your music will cease to work.

Consumers are finally making some headway, with services like eMusic, Amazon, and even Apple offering high-quality DRM-free music. Apple charges more for it, which, at least from a business perspective, makes sense; it’s a better quality product. However, from a technical standpoint, it should cost less, since it is simpler and easier to manage (requiring no DRM servers or licensing fees).

There is a continual struggle between the studios who create DRM schemes and the hacking groups who remove the protection. DRM almost invariably loses. A good example of this is when Blu-Ray’s BD+ protection was introduced, with Richard Doherty claiming, “BD+, unlike AACS which suffered a partial hack last year, won’t likely be breached for 10 years.’ Just eight MONTHS later, the protection had been circumvented by Slysoft.

When you consider all of these caveats of DRM-enabled media, can you really blame the consumer when they choose to download the free version that’s better quality?

Rants | No Comments »

With the inauguration of Barack Obama as our nation’s 44th President today, I would like to urge everyone to remember that Mr. Obama will be your president for the next four years, regardless of whether you voted for him. Regardless of whether you agree with his policies. Regardless of whether you like his haircut.

We have been at war for the past 8 years; not with another country, but amongst ourselves, between factions we have created. A growing dissatisfaction with the governing of our nation became more and more vocal, and increasingly influential. This dissatisfaction may have been deserved, but what’s also clear is that it did not result in George W. Bush being removed from office any sooner.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”
-Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858

We live in the *UNITED* States of America. We must stand together if we wish to improve all of our lives. You may be a democrat, republican, or independent when you are casting your vote. But you are an American all of the time. Our conflicts are no longer fought and won on a battlefield. They are won politically and economically. Our nation is facing dire times right now. But if we all work together, the change that Obama has promised might be for the better.

I say this not as a democrat, or a republican. I don’t have a party affiliation and I don’t believe in the party system. I do believe that we must be mature. We must be honorable. We must be Americans.

Politics | No Comments »

Technically speaking, Windows 7 could be named “Windows Vista R2″, correlating with its version number of 6.1. (Likewise, Windows XP, Vista’s predecessor that many people refuse to let go of, could have been deemed Windows 2000 R2, being version 5.1.) Vista’s gotten a bad rap, and I think we can partly thank Apple’s ingenious manipulation of the uninformed public for that. Hell, half of the people who hate Vista don’t even know what it is.

I don’t believe that Vista is a bad operating system. Sure, it has its annoying traits, but it also hasn’t had as much time to mature as XP. It’s an awkward adolescent in the Operating Systems world. XP was always a good operating system, but I don’t think it became a great OS until SP2, almost three years after the initial release. (By the way, if Apple were running the show, each service pack would have been packaged as a new OS release at $140 a pop.)

But, understandably, Microsoft would like to wipe the slate clean. And they’ve taken great care to address the issues that have been relentlessly focused on by their critics for these past couple of years. But enough of that! I’m here to tell you why Windows 7 is going to turn things around, and why it kicks so much ass.

• Libraries. Instead of a Documents folder, you can have a Documents library. It will include any files in your Documents folder, the Public Documents folder, and any other folders you add to the library. This is awesome for me because my Documents folder is on a separate drive. I just add it to the library and it’s fully accessible.
• Superbar. The Windows taskbar has been overhauled, and it looks like they took the icon-only view from OS X’s dock and then improved on it. When XP introduced grouping, I never liked it. I didn’t like having to click twice to switch between windows, and the behavior changed depending on how many windows were open. It’s kind of weird for me to adapt to two clicks for things, but it adds functionality, too. Now, instead of a listing of the open windows for a given application, you get live thumbnails. Mousing over each thumbnail hides all other windows so you can see it full size (a feature called Aero Peek). This means if I just need to glance at what an app says, I don’t even need to switch to it. Just take a peek. One other thing I notice is that, so far, I have a lot of unused space in my task bar. Because of the grouping and lack of labels, the pinned applications don’t even begin to fill the available space. If I pinned everything I ever used, I might not even need the programs menu.
• UAC. One of my biggest annoyances of Vista was User Account Control. I had it disabled for a long time, but eventually relented due to the value of the added security. But Win7 makes a very important correction: It understands implied permission. If you right-click Computer and select Manage in Vista, it will ask you if you’re sure you want to do that. Windows 7 understands that you already said you wanted to do it and to not ask you again. (This is the default UAC level for Administrator-level accounts, anyway.) UAC will still prompt you when an application tries to do something requiring permission, like an installer. It’s much more streamlined and much less irritating. Instead of simply being on or off, there are now four levels of protection for UAC. Default behavior is the second-highest setting and completely acceptable, in my opinion.
• Application Bundle. It bothers me when an OS bundles a lot of extra, redundant software that I don’t need. XP did this with MSN Explorer, Outlook Express and Windows Messenger, for instance. These sort of programs are not included by default in Win7, and for that I want to hug Microsoft. These sort of apps are now part of the Windows Live suite and are easily available for download. I wish it worked that way for the built-in games, as well.
• Drivers. Simple–use the Vista drivers. The core is so similar to Vista SP1 that I’ve had very few issues using Vista drivers in Windows 7.
• Application Support. Almost identical to Vista. The only apps that run in Vista that fail in Win7 are the ones that do an explicit verification of the OS, and throw an error if it’s not Vista. Most prominently, many driver installation programs will do this, but if you use Device Manager to update the driver, it will work. I think there may also be issues so far with utilities such as Virtual CloneDrive, used for mounting CD images.
• Performance & Stability. While I haven’t done benchmarks myself, Windows 7 feels just as fast–or faster–than Vista. Which is a fantastic relief. Most benchmarks I’ve seen agree, and in some cases it’s actually faster than XP. There are some crashes and quirks, but it’s still in beta! For a beta product, I consider it to be amazingly solid, and I’ll be submitting feedback whenever possible to try to improve it before release.
• IE8. IE8 is a sore spot for me so far. It doesn’t affect me very much, since I use Firefox 99.9% of the time, but when I did need to start up IE8, it annoyed me with a series of questions to answer with no good explanation. Do I want to use Accelerators? I don’t even know what they are, but I’ve never needed them before. Oh, I should set my default search engine? How about, um, Google? I think I could install Opera with less fuss than it is to launch IE8 for the first time. This needs to be addressed.
• Backup. They fixed my gripe about the Vista version! The way I have my computer structured, I don’t care about backing up the OS Core. I can reinstall that easily. But I wanted the ability to back up specific folders, and they’ve introduced this functionality in Windows 7’s version of the Backup utility.
• Bugs. Hey, it’s a beta. I’d be worried if there weren’t some weird quirks to deal with. Currently, I’ve noticed that my NIC loses the gateway setting frequently when I reboot. Ipconfig actually reports that the gateway is set to both 0.0.0.0 and 192.168.1.1. Disabling and re-enabling the connection fixes it. I’ll be reporting it next time it happens. I’ve also found that the Add A Printer wizard doesn’t include that many drivers. But there’s a Windows Update button to search for more. Problem is, it takes forever to search–it doesn’t simply query Windows Update for the best driver available for the device you specified; it gets an exhaustive list and apparently that takes a while. And there’s no progress meter or indication that it’s working. 10-15 minutes later, I got the list I needed with the printer I needed and it worked perfectly.

For the past few weeks, I’ve been running Win7 as my primary OS, both with the PDC Pre-beta build (6956) and the Beta 1 build (7000). I’m extremely happy with it and am quickly adapting to the few things that require me to re-learn how to use it, like the Superbar.

Still unknown: Versions. I hope they don’t have a dozen different variations of Windows 7, with convoluted upgrade paths, as they’ve done in the past. Hell, I don’t even think they should release it in a 32-bit flavor. Anything that should be running it should be capable of 64-bit, and this would simplify the build process and driver support while offering better security and memory support. Vista was burdened by over-versioning, and to some degree, XP. I think they should either release just one version (Ultimate equivalent), or three versions (Ultimate, Home Premium, and Enterprise equivalents).

Overall, I believe Windows 7 is well-poised to redeem Windows in the public eye. Microsoft is also finally fighting back with the “I’m A PC” commercials, so the public will see that there are two sides to this battle. And the battle has only just begun.

General | No Comments »

Calvin & Hobbes, Comics | No Comments »

Allow me to make one distinction before I launch into this: I like the snow. But I hate the cold. I’d also like to note that my complaints are directed toward the lower peninsula of Michigan; if the U.P. knows how to do one thing well, it’s handle the snow.

So we’ve been getting some decent snowstorms here in Michigan lately and I’m convinced through this year and all of the past ones that the way MDOT handles clearing the roads is wrong, at least if you drive like me.

Typical MDOT response to a snowstorm is to send out the trucks at, say, noon-ish the day after a snowstorm to plow the roads and lay down some salt to melt the ice. And by roads I’m just referring to the main roads. Side streets and suburbs where, you know, people actually live will have to wait until the following week.

I consider myself a good driver–safe and defensive and all that jazz–but when the snow flies, I like to have some fun, too. I have a rear-wheel-drive truck, so a lot of corners are taken in an entertaining power-slide. It makes me happy. (I also pick my locations with care, so I minimize the risk of sliding into anything if things go wrong.)

• Snow provides some traction and rolling resistance. Up to a certain point, having that layer of snow will actually help to slow you down and offer some control, as opposed to the layer of ice beneath it.
• Salt is only effective down to about 15?F. Below that, it won’t melt the ice, or the ice will refreeze. (http://science.howstuffworks.com/question58.htm). A 10% solution is effective to 20?F, while a 20% solution is effective to 2?F. But how do you maintain a consistent solution across miles of roadway?
• Repeated freezing and thawing contributes heavily to degraded roads. Michigan is already fighting an uphill battle, having repeated freezing and thawing over a normal winter. Adding in the potential for salt to thaw/refreeze only exacerbates the problem. Combine all that with the fact that our weight limits for trucking are twice what they should be and it’s no surprise that our roads are crumbling beneath us. (http://www.waynecounty.com/dps_roads/potholes.htm)
• Inconsistent traction is more dangerous than consistent ice. If the roads are obviously slippery, a wise driver will govern their speed to an appropriate value. But if you have a few hundred feet of good traction, leading you to believe you can go 50mph, followed by a sheet of ice, you’re put into a dangerous situation.
• Accelerated degradation of vehicles is both expensive and dangerous. The use of salt (Sodium Chloride) promotes rust at a faster pace than normal, reducing the lifespan of a vehicle and costing consumers money. It can also increase the likelihood of failure. [There are supposed safer alternatives such as Calcium Magnesium Acetate (CMA), but they can cost upwards of 15x as much as salt and I'm skeptical whether they could provide the volumes needed and whether there may be yet undiscovered environmental impacts. (http://nwc.ctgaia.net/drupal/articles/road%20salt.pdf)]

So I can’t list so many faults without trying to suggest some improvements. Essentially, I think we need to drive smarter and stop trying so hard. We’ll expend a lot of energy trying to outsmart nature. Or we can learn to adapt better.

First, a couple inches of snow is acceptable. With the time that would be spent removing it, try to shore up some of the side streets that would otherwise be neglected and impassible. Second, we should primarily use sand, not salt. The Upper Peninsula already does this, for example. It will improve traction on ice–though it will not melt it–and the life and reliability of your car will be improved. Finally, and most importantly, drive accordingly to compensate!

General, Motoring, Rants | No Comments »

When it comes to outputting HD content from a PC to an HDTV, it can actually take a surprising amount of horsepower to decode and display such a large amount of data (1080p amounts to 124.416 megapixels per second of raw data). This can bring an aging media center to its knees rather quickly.

ATI and nVidia have both developed technologies (Avivo and PureVideo, respectively) that seek to offload this processing to the video card, which is a more logical place for it to occur for a couple reasons. First, today’s powerful video cards are completely underutilized most of the time. Second, these programmable GPUs are capable of taking some specific tasks and performing them at rates that would make your CPU whimper softly in the corner.

So that’s the good news. The bad news is that these technologies are completely unintuitive to make work, although progress is being made. You can’t just install the video driver (which includes the Avivo/PureVideo technology) and automatically have accelerated video, although that’s exactly how it SHOULD work. What they don’t tell you is that you also have to have a properly accelerated DirectShow codec, supporting application, and some magical settings in place for it to finally feel like offloading the processing to the right place.

PowerDVD 8 is a popular choice (I think it was the only choice for a long time), but it doesn’t support MKV files, which was something I required. Renaming them to MP4 seemed to sidestep that limitation, and PowerDVD would play them with a marked improvement in performance. However, I don’t like PowerDVD, nor do I have any desire to shell out the $80 to make this all work.

However I stumbled upon a better choice. I’ve used Media Player Classic and the K-Lite Codec Pack for a long time now, but hadn’t seen the latest version. I noticed that K-Lite now included a forked version of MPC called Media Player Classic – Home Cinema, modified to accelerate video just as I’m looking to. I used K-Lite 4.4.5.

In the components section, I used a default install. However, you need to enable a few extra things in the Additional Tasks area:

• Video Renderer set to EVR Custom Presenter
• Use Internal subtitle renderer (instead of DirectVobSub)
• Enable internal H.264/VC-1 DXVA decoders

The installer takes care of the rest, and I definitely want to thank the K-Lite guys for putting that together. They’ve done a good job at making this process actually possible to do for the average person, instead of the impossible situation I was running into before.

On my quad-core/GeForce 8800GT, this dropped CPU usage from 13-20% to a mere 0-1%. For my Opteron 2.2GHz/GeForce 7900GS Media Center, 1080p video that wasn’t playable before would now play correctly using about 85-90% CPU.

I hope this information helps someone. I wanted to write it out because it took many hours of researching, testing, and playing with settings in Media Player Classic to actually get this working situation. I’m glad it does now, but I wish the companies involved had made things easier on the consumers. Most people will never know the capabilities that their computer may have and it’s a shame to have a useful technology like this go to waste.

General, Rants | No Comments »