The company formerly known as Apple Computer and now called simply Apple, Inc. is unique in many ways--including in its ability to drive even folks who admire it positively batty. It makes great products (usually), yet its secretiveness about them borders on paranoia, and its adoring fans can be incredibly irritating. Of course, its fans have to put up with some irritations, too: Simply being a member of the club still means you must endure unending jabs from the other side of the socio-political-techno aisle. But do they have to wear their suffering as a badge of honor?
Today, we -- that's us, Narasu and Alan, veteran Mac users both -- are going to get some stuff off our chests. We've enumerated ten things we hate about Apple (or its followers, or simply about the experience of using its products).
News and general opinion, often privacy, security or computer related, but could be about anything really, including religion, politics, the environment, business or audio books. "Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence/stupidity/neglect." -- Hanlon's Razor
Sunday, May 20, 2007
10 things we hate about Apple
This is the article that the Editor of PC World quit his job over:-
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
The Great Defrag Shootout IX: PerfectDisk Rx Suite 1.0 build 14
I was looking forward to reviewing PerfectDisk Rx Suite 1.0 by Raxco, since I have been using PerfectDisk Pro 8 for some time already, and found it to be pretty thorough, albeit stubborn and sluggish at times. I found out about the Rx Suite from the PerfectDisk blog. Going from PD8 to PDRx is like going from the sublime to the ridiculous. The less they market this product the longer Raxco will remain in business. It's that bad.
The first good point I noticed is that at $29.99 it's cheaper that PD8's $39.99. But it isn't worth the money: it's like PerfectDisk Lite with bugs, and it's a massive 25.8MB download. Almost every feature I tried didn't work properly. More on that later.The second good point is that PDRx shows the name of the file being analysed or defragmented, which is one of the more annoying aspects of PD8. The interface is simple and easy to follow, and well organised.The problems started when I did the stress tests: copying a 4GB file to a compressed folder, and then restoring the data to SQL Server, again in a compressed folder. I ran the "Quick Scan" of drive C: and PDRx told me there was nothing wrong, other than the free disk space was fragmented (see below). I could find no way of listing the names of the fragmented files, or how badly fragmented they were.
Even the hard drive display failed to show the massive files that are significantly fragmented: see top picture. I ran the defrag and after 10 minutes PDRx had finished, and displayed the following image. Compare it to the top image. I can't see any fundamental difference.
Now compare that to the "before" stats displayed by the built-in WinXP Defrag program:
Quite a difference. The "after" analysis was basically the same, indicating that PDRx either can't or won't defragment files that massively affect the performance of the machine.Next I tried the feature that allows you to analyse the file usage on the hard drive. Out of curiosity I went to look at the Data folder for SQL Server, and discovered another bug: it gets the size of the compressed files wrong. The file it displays as being 380MB in size is actually 1.79GB compressed, and 4.37GB uncompressed.
I decided to test the registry cleanup, and was relieved to find the "Rollback" function worked, especially after the "cleanup" facility decided to delete references to dozens of .hlp files used by Office97 and other packages. What were they thinking?A similar fate awaited my "cookies" - delete all or nothing. So the dozen or so sites I visit like Amazon, Yahoo Mail and BBC News where a permanent cookie is actually quite useful, all have their cookies removed and I have to answer a whole load of boneheaded questions when I return. I decided not to try the performance tuneup because the program wouldn't tell me which options are already set and which ones need to be changed.There is no boot time defrag facility, unlike PD8, and the "Screen Saver" defrag option is extremely irritating because it carries on with the file it was busy with even after the screen saver stops. I get the feeling that the entire package has been cobbled together and rushed to market without proper testing or consideration of the user. It's one of those "we know best for you" packages that is more likely to stuff up your machine than actually fix anything significant. I was relieved to uninstall it and reclaim 20.5MB of wasted disk space. I will not be reinstalling PerfectDisk 8 Professional anytime soon either: I'm suddenly not so certain of the quality of the software. (Update: I have since relented and installed it again. I'm glad I did)Update: Version 1.1 of PDRx will be coming out later this year.
If you want to keep your PC registry and hard drive clean, rather use CCleaner, NTREGOPT, JDisk Report, PageDefrag and JkDefrag. They are all freeware and I trust them more than anything else I have reviewed or used in the past. Even though PerfectDisk Rx Suite was bad, I'm dreading the next review: Diskeeper 2007 professional. I battled to uninstall DK8, so I hope they've fixed that issue, although I doubt it.Monday, May 14, 2007
The Great Defrag Shootout VIII: JkDefrag v3.8
Every now and then you come across a program that is so blindingly brilliant in its sheer simplicity that it takes you completely by surprise. JkDefrag v3.8 is one of those programs.The first good point is that it's free (released under the GNU General Public License), and it uses very little disk space. The entire download is a skimpy 320kb, including documentation. It doesn't have a setup program (yet), just a few simple instructions. I was so impressed with the program that I used Inno Setup to make a setup program which is listed on my "defrag" page.The second good point is that it has an intelligent screen saver. You can tell it to wait a predefined period (i.e. 6 hours) since the last defrag before trying again. The second brilliant feature is that once it has completed the defrag, you can tell it which other screen saver to run. So in my case I get it to run the Google Pack Screensaver, which is my favourite.The third good point is that it has two defrag modes: fast or thorough. The default is fast, and it is as fast as Vopt8, and much faster than PerfectDisk. The thorough mode goes to the trouble of removing those tiny gaps between files that waste a lot of disk space, and took less time that PD normally takes. This is what DIRMS is supposed to do, and Vopt has a good go at tackling as well.Another good point is the approach to temporary files. By default JkDefrag leaves 1% of the first part of your hard disk free, to be used by temporary files. The idea is that this would improve the performance of the system, but I haven't been able to measure it.There are actually 4 programs in one: the graphical JkDefrag.exe, the command line JkDefragCmd.exe, the screen saver JkDefragScreenSaver.exe and JkDefragScreenSaver.scr. The command line version works great for me, because I can include it in a batch file I use to keep my hard drive in order.When I ran my "torture test" involving the 4GB SQL file, JkDefrag performed well. The "fast" version decided that although one of the files was highly fragmented, all the pieces followed one another in a line, separated only by free disk space, so it left the file alone. The "thorough" option sorted the files out, and intelligently put the two main data files near the end of the disk.There is no "interactive" mode where you can click on a disk cluster to see what files it contains. The graphical screen display uses screen pixels to represent the files. Unlike most other programs, this one uses the bottom left corner of the screen as the start of the hard drive. The colour scheme is also a little different to most, but the help file explains it all with elegant simplicity.The only "missing" aspect of this program is that there are certain files it can't defragment because they are in use by the system. They recommend using Sysinternals PageDefrag v.32 to defragment these files, and the combination of the two works incredibly well. There is a third free utility, called NTREGOPT which can be run before rebooting, and this will compact the registry, after which PageDefrag sorts out any fragmentation. A "complete" install with all the necessary utilities is available on my Defrag page.I can thoroughly recommend this program, both from its simplicity and its flexibility. No need to uninstall this one, although I'll have to disable the screen saver while I test the next product: PerfectDisk Rx Suite by Raxco.Update: Version numbering may be a bit confusing: 3.8 was followed by 3.9, 3.10, 3.11 and so on. So 3.8 should really be 3.08.
Update: If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then Jeroen Kessels should feel flattered, because both Abexo Defragmenter Pro 5.0 and SpeedItUp FREE 4.0 clearly use the JkDefrag code, without acknowledging copyright or conforming to the GPL license.
Friday, May 11, 2007
The Great Defrag Shootout VII: O&O Defrag V8.6 Professional
It's difficult to know what to make of O&O Defrag V8.6 Professional. On the surface it has everything a defragmentation program should have, and more. But what do you make of a program that gives up on defragmenting a file simply because there isn't enough free space available? Apart from uninstalling it, that is.The first thing that caught my attention was that Raxco (the publishers of PerfectDisk) do a comparison between their product and the O&O product. Methinks they protest too much. They should do a comparative review with Vopt, not O&O Defrag. But I digress.The first good point is that the interface on installation is clear, well organised and incredibly useful. You can see exactly what is happening on your hard drive, and the pie chart is an interesting touch. Click on any block on the drive map and you'll see all the files it contains. The reports are clearly laid out and contain useful information, and you can go back a few days if required. I set mine to 5 days.The second good point is that they have a defrag screen saver. Whenever your machine isn't being used you can get it to tidy up the disk. This is a brilliant idea, and although the graphics are somewhat cheesy (Why does the disk image need to rotate in 3D anyway?) the information that is displayed in the bottom left is helpful and thorough.
The down side of the screen saver is that it cancels any other manual defrag job you may have been running at the time, even if the job parameters are the same. O&O tech support confirmed that it's a "feature", not a bug.
The third good point is there is a boot-time defrag option, to get rid of those nasty fragmented files that you can't tackle when Windows is running. PerfectDisk only allows certain file types to be defragmented at boot time; Diskeeper and O&O Defrag will defrag any file.The down side of this is that O&O Defrag simply "bails out" on any files it doesn't feel like defragmenting, i.e. if there isn't sufficient free disk space. It doesn't only do this during the boot time defrag (click on screen shot above), but at any other time as well (see top screen shot, taken after several attempts at defragmenting the hard drive). This is my main reason for uninstalling the product: why use a defrag program that can't defragment the files? I could understand if the file was huge and the available free space was tiny, but this is not the case. The mind boggles.What's worse is that there isn't any predictable pattern to this behaviour. When I did my normal test of copying a large file into a compressed folder and then using the data to restore my SQL Server database, I landed up with one file that Windows had fragmented into 399000 fragments! Using the O&O Defrag Manager program I tried a "Stealth" defrag. Nothing. Then a "Space" defrag. Again nothing. Only the "Complete/Name" option made a difference, and it took 8 hours to do so, even though I had run it the day before. But the "Complete/Name" option fragmented a ZIP file that wasn't previously fragmented, and now the software doesn't have a clue how to defragment it again. It got sorted out on the reboot, but 6 other files it had similarly fragmeneted remain fragmented. Time to uninstall.This product takes its time, even when you change from the default and tell it to use all available resources. I get the feeling that my normal disk activity is creating fragments faster that O&O Defrag can keep up. I'm not paying $49.95 for this package, even though it is well written and well put together. If it doesn't do its primary job, it just isn't worth it.My next review package is a freeware product I found mentioned on Digg.com: JkDefrag 3.8.Update: Version 10 has been released. I will probably review it later.
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Transport Minister Confirms eNaTIS Incompetence
Transport Minister Jeff Radebe should be commended for his "unreserved" apology for the inconvenience caused by the changeover from the NaTIS to eNaTIS system, but he hasn't explained the incompetence and bad planning that has led to a 6 week crisis at the licensing departments.- Why was the changeover done during the busiest month of the year, i.e shortly after year end in the month with the lowest number of working days, and therefore the longest queues?
- Why was no provision made for offices to stay open longer and/or open on Saturdays? The offices were turning people away long before the office hours closed.
- Why was it necessary for the old system to be switched off for an entire week, causing inconvenince and generating an immediate backlog?
- What kind of bad program and database design has forced FOUR server upgrades in 4 weeks?
- Why was it not possible to revert to the old system when the wheels fell off?
- What procedures were in place to deal with the paperwork manually while the system was off-line? There appears to have been none.
- Why has the Dept of Transport been lying to the public about the true status of the system for the last 6 weeks?
- When will the Minister explain why the system is almost R100 million over budget (R408 million instead of R311 million) and three years late?
- Why did the license renewal letters sent out in March not mention the planned shutdown of the entire system for the period 5th April to 13th April?
- The fourth upgrade was announced on Friday, but only completed on Tuesday morning. Does it really take from 6pm on Friday to 8am on Tuesday to set up another server? That's 86 hours, or didn't they work on the weekend?
Radebe apologised “unreservedly” for the inconvenience the implementation of eNaTIS had caused.“Motorists already issued with traffic fines due to no fault of their own will have their fines reviewed on merit and considered for cancellation by the relevant traffic authorities,” Radebe said at a press conference on Pretoria.Over the past few days a new server with bigger capacity had been installed. This and other work had led to the system 'operating in a stable manner' since it was brought back online on Tuesday. [We believe you, but how long are the queues?]Radebe said more work would be done and the system should be running with stability on almost full capacity by next week.However, he said, people who wanted to renew their licences could go to testing centres. Arrangements were [only now] being made for centres to operate on extended hours to reduce backlogs. [That's about 6 weeks too late, Mr Radebe!]Backlogs, technical glitches and shaky, slow systems have been reported at testing stations around the country since the eNaTIS system was introduced last month."Monday, May 07, 2007
The Great Defrag Shootout VI: 4th Generation Defrag
I have suspended my evaluation of mst Defrag Home Edition 2.0 Beta, while I wait for a response to two lengthy bug reports. It is beta software, after all. Don't bother with version 1.9: it sucks, but not nearly as badly as the Ashampoo software. I found some interesting information in the mst help file, which I share as written."Fragmentation occurs naturally on a computer system's hard disk as files are created, deleted, and modified. Eventually, the operating system needs to store parts of a file in non-contiguous data clusters. Although invisible to the user, it can slow down the speed at which data is accessed, because the disk drive must search through different parts of the disk to assemble the various fragments into a single file to present them to the user."To resolve this problem, defragmenter applications were designed to defragment or 'defrag' the hard disk and reassemble these file fragments into the same and contiguous data clusters."There have been four different generations of defragmenters since the early days of computing."The defragmentation tools of the first generation could defrag disks only if they had exclusive access to it. This meant you had to choose between work or defragmentation. For example, the application defrag.exe from MS-DOS 6.2 worked in this manner."The second generation of defragmenters could share use of the operating system with other applications. To start the defragmentation process the user or administrator had to start it manually. This could often be inconvenient, especially on business computers in large company environments."With the next generation three defragmenters it was no longer necessary that a system administrator be logged on to the system. The real work was done by a service (some kind of background task) which had the relevant rights and which could do its work even if no user was connected to the system. Nevertheless, significant problems remained due to the challenges involved in configuring the application properly. A lot of systems remain fragmented because the user simply forgets to run a defrag. In business networks the rollout and scheduling has proved to be a daunting challenge."Finally mst Defrag introduced the first fourth generation defragmenter to employ their proprietary 'proactive' defrag technology, which effectively resolves all of the above issues. To install mst Defrag you need administrative rights, of course, just like with any other defrag software. Once installed, mst Defrag will defragment the disks unobtrusively in the background while a logged on user can continue working undisturbed. But only with such a 4th generation defragmenter are the disks defragmented proactively in the background without user or administrator interaction, insuring optimal performance of the user's hard drive at all times."The technology which is used in mst Defrag is, like most other brilliant innovations, actually quite simple. The goal in the development of the proactive technology was to relieve the computer system administrator or user from tedious and time consuming tasks."As soon as a file is saved by Microsoft Windows in more than one fragment, mst Defrag monitors this and memorizes the file name internally. As soon as there are adequate free resources to run the task, mst Defrag automatically performs the defragmentation of that file. This action occurs proactively (in real time); that means that it is performed completely independently by the software and requires no user interaction. Any running processes will not be impaired."Together with an initial defragmentation, which is also done completely automatically after the installation, the optimal state of files on the disk files is virtually assured. And this is maintained not only after the initial defragmentation but but automatically thereafter using the proactive technology."The shootout continues with O&O Defrag 8.6 Professional. Stay tuned!
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