The Hemmingway App, and the Week’s News

I have received several emails asking about my thoughts on the ‘big” news items – the “Heartbleed” vulnerability, and the end of XP support.

In short:

* Heartbleed: There’s not much to say, except this is just a rather clear example of why the Internet, as we now have it, is a fundamentally flawed system, and (why I think) it’s pure folly to use it for what we’re using it for. What can you do about Heartbleed? Well.. jack-doodly, really. But in a few days, I would change my online passwords.
But loyal readers know I recommend changing them every quarter as a matter of policy (but, who does that?)

The best read inre: “Heartbleed” I saw was in the NYT. The Internet’s Telltale Heartbleed

“Heartbleed is as bad as it is possible for a security flaw to be. It can be easily exploited by anyone on the Internet without leaving a trace, and it can be used to obtain login names, passwords, credit-card information, and even the keys that keep our encrypted communications safe from eavesdroppers.” Read more..

Windows XP’s “End-of-Support”. Well, I’ve been telling readers to get off of XP for more than 2 years now – the equivalent of 14 years in Tech Time. I would not, repeat, not, connect a XP machine to the Internet. (I have a few I’ll use offline.. mainly to play old games.)

* I really enjoyed this article: Do we really need Hemingway App? (as it’s not really about some app.. or Hemmingway..)

“Digital evangelists are fond of telling us that antiquated activities like savoring a good book need to get with the times. “Reading is inherently time-consuming,” say the people at Spritz, who have invented a technology that supposedly lets you choke down 600 words per minute. They’re so dedicated to optimizing this slow, cumbersome practice for a digital age that they’ve even trademarked the phrase “Reading Reimagined.“” Read more..

*      *      *

Today’s quote: “In our age there is no such thing as ‘keeping out of politics.’ All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia.” ~ George Orwell

Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.
Find a way to make someone’s day today.
(Best advice I ever heard? Don’t sweat the small stuff.)

The end of everything we thought we knew about computing?

(aka “A Quik Reading Reco”)

Folks, an interesting read for you today…

* The end of Windows XP is also the end of everything we thought we knew about computing

“When we bury XP we also need to bid farewell to the old certainties about technology too.” Read more..

Today’s quote: “The march of science and technology does not imply growing intellectual complexity in the lives of most people. It often means the opposite.” ~ Thomas Sowell

Copyright 2007-2014 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.
And please, never forget – one person can make a difference.
Find a way to make someone’s day today.
(Best advice I ever heard? Don’t sweat the small stuff.)

A Tale of Computer Troubleshooting

I’m a tech. And a one-man Help Desk. And I’ve been one for a long time.. since Windows 95, to give you an idea. The other day I get a call. (No surprise there.)

The caller tells me that when they went to turn on their computer that morning.. the screen is solid black. And they are quite concerned, of course, as they have tons of work to do that needs doing yesterday.

They tell me it’s an old Dell with Windows XP, and, no, (unprompted) they hadn’t visited any naughty sites, nor seen any ‘strange behavior’.

So I ask some questions, and have them try rebooting, you know, I go through the SOP.

They tell me the power light comes on, they can hear the fans, and that it “sounds normal.. there’s just nothing on the screen.” (am I hearing a case of the notorious “black screen”? No, this is a Desktop.)

So what would your diagnosis be?

You might guess the monitor died.. right? That they need to go buy a new one?

Well, I tell the caller that there are several possibilities (causes) as for their ‘black screen’ trouble, either hardware or software, and the only way I could zero in on it would require I have access to the machine (not over the phone), and that in all fairness they should be thinking about buying a new machine instead of repairing that old XP. (I wrote It is time to face facts and finally dump Windows XP way back in early 2011.. 2 years ago now.) Pay me to rescue and transfer their data, not keep a relic alive for another .. who knows how long?

Well, that’s not an option, so can I come over? And .. I don’t have much money.. (why do people always say that..?)

So I go over to their house and quickly verify that, as I suspected, it is not a dead monitor (by plugging one of my own).

See, my first suspect, and line of thought as I was driving over, was that a Windows Update had ‘gotten stuck’. Why? Because the day before the call was ‘Patch Tuesday‘, and Update glitches are a cause of startup failures (and black screens). I knew this last batch of Updates had had some troubles.. as two other calls, the day before, had shown. In short, a software failure.

And I knew there were other possible suspects. I have been doing this a while..

But when I powered up their machine to test my monitor/video cable. I heard something my caller had failed to mention — five long beeps, with a short beep. Which points at hardware. Those beeps are a code, you see, and their number and sequence tell a tech what is wrong (um.. at least, that’s the idea behind POST Beep Codes.)

So I powered up my laptop and went to the Dell website and downloaded the technical manual for that model, and looked up the beep code and discovered that the code I was hearing meant that their problem was a failure with the RAM memory.
Which will also produce a ‘black screen’.

So I looked at the RAM specs and then went out to my car and grabbed my package of 2x 1GB PC3200 DDR modules out of my kit (for just such occasions) and went back in their house, opened the computer’s case, popped out the old RAM and put mine in, and BINGO! — their computer started right up, faster than before. (Because their old modules were only 512 MB’s).

And I charged them $75. (One half-hour labor plus the parts.)

My client was delighted and flabberghasted. They were expecting to pay much, much more.. And they not only were able to get right back to work, but had gotten an unexpected upgrade.

I tell you this story not to blow my own horn, or drum up more clients. I tell you this because my client, upon hearing the bill, expressed what I find to be an extremely prevalent conception out there in “average computer user” land — that technicians are crooks, gougers, and/or incompetent, and/or always tell you to buy a new device.

Or they think they can “Google it”, and fix it themselves.

I tell you that story to try to explain why that conception, out there, common though it be,  isn’t fair to us techs.

We know what to look for (and listen for), what questions to ask, and can (usually) get right to the heart of the trouble and get you back online again in  jiffy. In today’s marketplace, with literally TONS of unemployed IT types willing to fix your computer, we simply cannot gouge in our pricing (were we so inclined).

And if we tell you a part needs replacing, it does. And I (and I’m sure other techs, too) do not profit on parts — we order ’em cheap and pass the saving on to our clients.

.. to test my theory, try googling ‘black screen’. See how many answers you have to read before you find “replace your RAM”.

I know this little story isn’t going to change the world’s view of repair techs but.. if your computer won’t start up, the screen is black, and it’s beeping at you? Be sure to tell your tech about them, won’t you? Have a great day, everyone!

Today’s reco: Windows Repair (All In One) – A GREAT Utility For The Tech Toolbox

“When it comes to computers we can find ourselves getting into all sorts of situations where it is very difficult to assess and fix the problem. For example, a couple of friends of mine recently ran into a situation where the windows updates service was broken on a computer they were working on and they had to resort to researching the matter on the internet in order to get a fix.” Read more..

Today’s quote: “You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” ~ Walt Disney

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Is It Time To Say Goodbye To Windows XP?

“I am often asked by clients using XP if they should “upgrade” their machines to a newer OS.“

Microsoft’s Windows XP was their most successful operating system to date and more than half the computers in the world are still using Windows XP. There are several reasons for that. (One big one is software “pirates” and “warez”. Another is businesses, gov’ts, and org’s don’t have the cushion in their budgets to upgrade.)

XP was released in 2001. It was the first consumer-oriented operating system produced by Microsoft to be built on the “business grade” Windows NT kernel — which was far less prone to random Blue Screens Of Death (BSOD’s) than the Windows 9x architecture was.

Windows XP has many loyal fans. I used (and liked) Windows XP right up to 2007, when I was able to get advanced copies of a new operating system, “codename Longhorn” — which became “Vista”. I still have a couple XP machines I occasionally use for testing purposes, but the keyword there is “occasionally”.

Windows XP was, after Service Pack 2, stable, rather fast, and most of the software (aka “programs”) ever written would run on it. It had/has the “modern” abilities we needed to really allow the Internet to blossom and grow. The point of my article today is not to “dis”, “knock”, or “put down” Windows XP in any way. It is/was a “complete OS”; versatile; capable; and, the world of computing (and the Internet) would not be what it is today without it. It was an important part of our tech evolution.

But that is my key point – evolution. (In tech.)

2001 may not seem like all that long ago to you. But in the arena of technology and computers (as stated by Moore’s Law), 2001 is either 4 1/2 “generations” ago, or 6 generations.. depending how you count. Let’s be conservative, and call it 4. In terms of hardware/software, Windows XP is a Great-grandpa. (Or.. a Great, great, great grandpa. Depending how you count.) In terms of Microsoft OSes; it has been ‘succeeded’ by Vista, Vista + SP1, Vista + SP2, and now Windows 7 (with SP1 for Win7 not long off).

Fact: Microsoft is ending support for Windows XP.
Phasing it out.
“Retiring” it.
Their most successful product.
(“.. turn out the lights .. the party’s over ..)

Support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 will be retired on July 13, 2010. Microsoft stopped general licensing of Windows XP to manufacturers and terminated retail sales of the operating system on June 30, 2008.

On April 14, 2009, Windows XP and its family of operating systems were moved from Mainstream Support to the Extended Support phase. During the Extended Support Phase, Microsoft will continue to provide security updates every month for Windows XP.

On April 8, 2014, all Windows XP support, including security updates and security-related hotfixes, will be terminated.

Is it time to say goodbye To Windows XP?
I am often asked by clients using XP if they should “upgrade” their machines to a newer OS, or buy a new computer altogether. What answer I give depends on several factors, but basically my decision boils down to the “generation” of their hardware, and whether or not they have any ‘mission-critical’ programs that are XP-only (i.e., DOS-based).

* Is your Hard Drive an IDE? When you plug in a USB device, do you get a message saying “This device can perform faster” and something about USB 2.0? Is your CPU (aka “processor”) a “single-core” (Pentium 4/Athlon 64 or older)? Do you have 1 GB (or less) of PC400 – PC800 RAM?
(You can see most of these things by looking at your System Properties. Right-click on “My Computer”, and selecting “Properties”. Then look at your HD’s Properties in Device Manager.)

If you answered “yes” to the above, my answer is to forget about upgrading to Vista or Win 7, and instead save your money for a new machine. Keep your machine XP until you can retire it. But be aware, XP is aged and vulnerable to cybercriminals: make sure you have proper defenses in place. Please see, Top 10 things you should do to your computer for the tools and How To’s for that.

However, if you answered mostly “no” to that checklist (in other words, you have a dual-core, more than 1.5 GB’s of RAM [and it’s DDR2]. and your USB busses are 2.0, and your HD is a SATA, well, then, you might want to consider upgrading to Windows 7. (Or at least, creating a “dual boot” setup. See, Video Tutorial — How To Dual Boot Win7.)
But it is very important that you download and run Microsoft’s Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor first. It will scan your machine and tell you if you have any incompatibilities, and save you a ton of headaches.

The critical reviews of Windows 7 are in, and they are over-whelmingly positive. A long time ago, I wrote A Tech’s First Impression of Windows 7 RC; my enthusiasm for Win 7 has not faded in the time since. I will repeat my “general opinion” of Win 7 –> it is the Windows that Bill Gates has promised us since way back when Windows 95 was released.

But! Short version, seriously consider a new machine over an upgrade. A new machine will be 64-bit, and have the current generation of hardware, and it will come with Windows 7 already set up and configured. A new machine will last you more years to come; while XP’s days are running out.

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*** A Chance To Win A Valuable Prize! ***

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The folks at SYNCING.NET have generously donated six Professional Edition licenses to me, to award to my readers. SYNCING.NET is a Business Class program which enables users to sync their Microsoft Outlook data on multiple computers.
To enter the drawing, please see: Software License Giveaway: SYNCING.NET
Enter my current giveaway and (possibly) win a license!

Today’s recommended reading:
* Google Admits Tracking WiFi Payloads
* Canada’s Super Spies “Discover” Cybercrime is a Threat

Today’s free download: Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. Find out if your PC can run Windows 7.
To see if your PC is ready for Windows 7, download the free Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor. It scans your PC for potential issues with your hardware, devices, and installed programs, and recommends what to do before you upgrade.

Copyright 2007-2010 © Tech Paul. All Rights Reserved. post to jaanix.

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XP End-of-Cycle | What Happens Next?

A reader submitted a question that I think merits a short posting, regarding the demise of “Microsoft support” for Windows XP.

This reader is one of many people who have – for various reasons – remained staunchly loyal to Windows XP, and was afraid that the end-of-life “phasing out” of XP would force them into installing and learning Linux.

Q: I read that Microsoft will stop supporting XP in April. Does that mean my computer will stop working? I absolutely refuse to use Vista, and want to keep using XP!! What do I have to do to keep my computer functional?

A: Microsoft is indeed ending full support (called “mainstream”) for Windows XP SP3 on April 14th. It will then offer a much more limited support level – called “Extended” – until April 8, 2014. Of course, this is subject to change, but, basically 5 more years.
When those dates are reached, no – your copy of XP will not “stop working”, it just will be incredibly obsolete, and after 2014 no new security patches will be released.. which will make it a golden target.

What happens in April this year? Microsoft defines “Extended Support” as follows:

3. What is the difference between Mainstream Support, Extended Support, and online self-help support?

Support provided	Mainstream Support phase	Extended Support phase
Paid support (per-incident, per hour, and others)	X	X
Security update support	X	X
Non-security hotfix support	X	Requires extended hotfix agreement, purchased within 90 days of mainstream support ending.
No-charge incident support	X
Warranty claims	X
Design changes and feature requests	X
Product-specific information that is available by using the online Microsoft Knowledge Base	X	X
Product-specific information that is available by using the Support site at Microsoft Help and Support to find answers to technical questions	X	X

Note A hotfix is a modification to the commercially available Microsoft product software code to address specific critical problems.

* Hopefully before 2014 arrives, you will find an OS to your liking (https://techpaul.wordpress.com/2009/01/11/a-techs-first-impression-of-windows-7/) and you can let XP retire into pleasant memory..

For more details see, the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ.
Also, for other Microsoft products, click here.

Copyright 2007-9 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Attention XP fans– get your copies NOW

Redmond laid to rest rumors that they might reconsider pulling XP from retail shelves and from most PC makers next Monday. Bill Veghte, the Senior Veep who manages Microsoft’s online and Windows business groups, confirmed that June 30 would indeed be the deadline when MS halts all shipments of boxed XP copies to retailers and stops licensing the OS directly to major computer manufacturers.*

So, if you’re one of those folks who thinks XP is the last Microsoft OS (version) you’re going to run, you better go buy whatever copies you think you might need for the future.
It’s going bye bye. Adios, amigo.

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

* Source: WServerNews Vol. 13, #27 – Jun 30, 2008 – Issue #681

[Addenda: For more on the latest (last?) Service Pack for XP, including troubleshooting, click here]