September 15, 2004
Finding the Names of WIndows XP Processes
I have often wondered what junk processes-- things the computer does without your asking-- Windows inflicts on my computer, clogging it up. I've also wondered which processes are legit, when I want to shut down suspect ones. Windows XP does give you a list of processes, but with mysterious names in computerese. But finally I have found my Rosetta Stone. ....
...Right-Click on My Computer. A menu will appear. Choose MANAGE and left click on it. Then Pick SERVICES AND APPLICATIONS. THen pick SERVICES. That will generate a list of processes and whether they have been started or not. Click on the name of one, e.g. PRINT SPOOLER, and a window will pop up with its name in computerese-- C:\WINDOWS\system32\spoolsv.exe. When you hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE and pick TASK MANAGER and Processes, it is that name-- spoolsv-- which shows up as a process that is running.
Posted by erasmuse at 10:52 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 25, 2004
Thumbdrives-- USB2-Sandisk 1 gig
I just bought the new Sandisk 1 -gigabyte USB 2.0 thumbdrive for about $200.
This is a device about the size of a thumb which stores 1 gigabyte of data, transferring it quicker than a CD via a USB 2.0 port. The USB 2.0 ports tout how fast they are compared to USB 1, and I find that the difference is worth it for thumbdrives (I'm not sure about for printers, mouses, etc. ). I've replace my old USB 1 hub at the office with a USB 2 hub.
This devise will probably make my Christmas List this year.
Posted by erasmuse at 01:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 08, 2004
Technical Retrogression: Bathtub Plugs and Medicine Cabinets
Bathtub plugs. The best technology I have ever seen is a rubber plug connected by a chain to the faucet. The rubber plugs the hole very nicely, it is easy to set the plug, it is easy to unplug, and you can unplug without getting your hand wet (useful if it is a child taking the bath, for example, so your hand is not already wet, or if you are cleaning something in the bathtub). New houses seems to have inferior technologies-- metal-rubber combinations that need to be screwed in and out, get clogged with gook, don't always work properly, and break down eventually.Medicine cabinets. My new 21st century house didn't have any, and when I remarked on this to the real estate agent, she said it was now standard to have lots of mirrors and drawers instead. The medicine cabinet combines those two things, saving space, and is superior to both. It makes for a better mirror, because it can either be left flat, or swung out to allow for side views (and back views if you have multiple mirrors). It makes for a better storage space for not one but two hugely important reasons (well, hugely important on the scale of home storage, admittedly a bit lower than world peace or your eternal salvation). The first is that children can't reach a medicine cabinet, unlike a drawer. The second is that a cabinet is better than a drawer for displaying the labels of many objects simultaneously. And now that I think of it, there is a third reason-- you can look straight into a cabinet instead of peering down into a drawer. And a fourth reason---one inspires the next-- which is that medicine cabinets can be very large, since to open them requires only the swinging of the door, whereas the bigger the drawer, the harder it is to open, since the weight of all the contents must be swung out. And fifth reason-- opening a medicine cabinet does not require you to shift your position, whereas opening a drawer often requires you to move because you are standing in front of it.
Why has bathroom design regressed in these two dimensions? I don't know.
Posted by erasmuse at 11:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 15, 2004
Electronic Books
Why don's we have the simple technology needed for electronic books? What is needed seems rather simple, technologically:
We need a small hinged screen that looks just like a conventional book,
with a slot
into which the user can insert a small memory RAM card (say, 8M) containing
plain ascii texts. The device would have software that would divide the text up
into pages. When you reach the end of page 1, you would hit a button at the
bottom right-hand corner that would refresh the left screen with page 3 while
you are reading on page 2. When you get to the end of page 2, you'd hit a button
that would refresh the right screen with page 4. On the cover would be other
dedicated buttons that would allow you to go directly to any page number of
your choice (you'd hold it down a page numbers would whiz past until you got to
the one you wanted). There would be no ON/OFF button-- that would be one just
by opening and closing the book, with a timer to turn off automatically if you
forget. It would run on two AA batteries, or, if that isn't enough power, plug
into a wall outlet for recharging.
Notice that in all respects this is as close to a conventional book as possible. The conventional book is a great design. All it lacks is the ability to add new texts to a given shell, so that currently if you want to take 20 books on vacation or into your hammock you've got too big a pile to carry.
In contrast, the WSJ ($) today tells us of a rather pitiful couple of
new electronic readers:
Now the world's two biggest consumer-electronics companies -- Sony and
Matsushita Electric Industrial, the maker of Panasonic devices -- are giving the
digital book a whirl in Japan, though not yet anywhere else.
Both recently started selling electronic readers that let users view a variety
of material downloaded from Internet sites. But despite some attractive services
and compelling technology, a week of testing the Sony Librie and Panasonic
SigmaBook reminded me how great paper still is.
...
Part of the problem is that the Librie display's response is excruciatingly
slow. "Turning" a page takes a full second, and using the jog wheel to move the
cursor through menus is frustrating. It's still tolerable if you're chugging
through a story from start to finish, but returning to a section you've read
before is a real slog unless you've had the foresight to "bookmark" the page you
want.
Where the Librie really fails is in its handling of digital content. It can only
view content that comes from a site run by Publishing Link, a Sony-affiliated
company with investments from most of Japan's big publishers. Users download
digital books to their computers from there and then transfer them to the
Librie, ...
The article shows a picture of something like a tablet PC, with a zillion buttons and a single screen. Surely the geeks of Akibahara can do better than that. I suppose the problem is that they don't actually ever read books,having acquired a mistrust for them from their extensive experience with the uselessness and deception of computer manuals. Thus, they are trying to make a small computer for reading rather than trying to imitate the classic book design.
This is part of a general failing of technology geeks: the failure to realize that the best innovation is one which looks and feels almost exactly like old- fashioned technology to the user, so there is practically no learning cost and no risk in buying it. We saw this with PC's: computer people didn't realize that they were successful mainly because most people wanted to buy a glorified typewriter. We saw it with email too: that is successful because it is almost the same as writing a letter. The best technology is the technology that is invisible.
Posted by erasmuse at 05:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack