bt’s Weblog

Just for the record:

It took me under two minutes to download and install the latest Firefox version (2.0.0.4).

It took twenty-one minutes to do the same for Internet Explorer version 7. Had to verify my Windows installation first even though it has been done, it seems, weekly for quite some time.

So tell me which of the two is bloated?

I have 3.83 GB of data in jpeg and zip formats on a DVD disc. I want to transfer the data to my hard drive. How long will it take?

If you answered “over 4 hours” you are correct.

But how can this be? I can watch a 4 GB DVD movie in two hours and burn that amount of data in 45 minutes. It takes 4.5 minutes to copy that much data from one part of a hard disk to another and only 3.25 minutes to copy it between two hard disks. My Sony DRU-800 drive says it can read DVD data at 16X (~21.6MB/sec) but 3.83 GB in 4 hours is only 0.328 MB/sec or about 65 times slower!

If you have an answer I’d like to hear it. My hunch is that there is something very inefficient about Windows XP’s Windows Explorer algorithms for handling files stored on optical media.

Something is very wrong with a file system that operates in such an inconsistent manner. Four hours to read 4 GB is ridiculous. My ISP (AT&T) claims it can deliver 3MBits/sec on the DSL line (I’ve never seen more than half that). But the 3MBit rate is equal to what XP did with my DVD data.

Now WTF is going on in this alleged “powerful state-of-the-art operating system” that reduces an ATA-100 bus driven by a 1.6GB processor to a merely fast DSL connection? Something is rotten in Redmond or perhaps the whole industry is a sham. We throw gigaeverythings at data and get shit results.

A couple of days ago as I was burning a DVD data disc I realized that my machine could not do anything much besides that. Well, it played mp3 files (Winamp) and I could play solitaire (Freecell) but sometimes the music skipped a beat and the cards didn’t move right away because the burner needed the processor. I sure as hell could not edit video files at the same time. It seems to me that a fast computer (faster than mine) should be able to digitize a video, burn a DVD and edit another video file all at the same time (while playing music, of course).

Somehow having a processor that is 3,000 times faster and has the same factor increase in memory and hard disk storage hasn’t produced a system that can do 3,000 times what the IBM AT did twenty-five years ago. Did I miss something or do others see the disconnect between computer resources and performance? At this rate not even a teraflop supercomputer will be able to take my verbal directions as I capture, edit and burn video data and take time out to say “hello” to friends who happen by for a live video chat session.

This is not a drill. It is really happening. You have five older computers each with Windows XP SP2 installed as the operating system. The processors are Pentium III or IV and run at 500MHz to 1.6GHz. The hard drives range from 9.3 to 40GB. However, the drive sizes do not match the speeds. That is, a slow processor has a large drive and so forth. You want to switch hard drives to put the largest drive in the fastest machine and the smallest in the slowest. You get the idea.

It takes only a few minutes to remove and replace a hard drive except of course, if the mounting hardware is different. This was the case in one machine which used a carrier tray instead of allowing you to attach the drive directly to the frame. So that takes ten or fifteen minutes. That should be the end of the story but it is merely the beginning of an odyssey.

The usual result of inserting an XP drive in a different machine is a message consisting of a paragraph or so that stays on the screen for a second before the machine restarts. This speed reading challenge repeats itself, perhaps indefinitely. I have not had the patience to let it go more than three times. This comedy also occurs during cloning processes (using Symantec’s Ghost) if there are more than slight differences in hardware.

A second scenario is that the drive boots the operating system and you are informed that the hardware varies too much from the image on the disk so you will have to reauthenticate your copy of XP. That isn’t so bad except when you get the notice that the key you typed in has been used (up) and so you need another one. I have another key but will not waste a license so we go to the “repair” XP option.

I’ve installed and reinstalled XP more times than I care to count and have learned some things not to do in the process. Don’t opt for “Repair” on the first screen. You don’t have the correct backup disk since the drive isn’t in its original machine. Don’t select the “Repair” option the second time it’s presented because no amount of time you spend in the console mode will fix the mismatched hardware problem.

After the three or four minutes required to get to the “discovery” phase you may then opt to repair the Windows directory the installer discovered. This is actually a complete installation which saves applications and registry information. It’s better than nothing, I guess. You now get the 39 minute countdown to end of install. It will take that long only if you do NOT let the installer try to connect to a network. If you do that the machine will hang and you’ll have to push the reset button (a rare item these days) or hold the power button in until the machine shuts down. After restarting you are told the installation is resuming and are back to the 39 minute countdown. So on the network question tell the “Wizard” to connect you to a workgroup instead. It will tell you in a minute or so that it can’t do that but at least it will then go on to the 29 minute countdown and from there to the end of the “repair that is really an install” process. Somewhere along the line you have to type in a software key. I tried to use the one that was used up but the Wiz rejected it. Fortunately, I have a multiple license whose key worked.

You are now close to an hour into the mission and can boot to XP as the machine administrator. That ID along with the applications you installed are as you had them on the previous machine. BUT, you are now running the original XP and have to install Service Pack 2 for starters. On older (slower) machines this takes up to 45 minutes. I start the update from a CD and go on to other business.

Once you have the system up to SP2 you now are ready to begin the Windows Update phase of the mission. First you have to install the “new” loader version which you had on the previous incarnation of the disk but which got wiped during the “repair.” Once that’s installed you suffer the “Windows Genuine Advantage Validation Tool” which is marketing bullshit for “We want to make sure you haven’t stolen this copy of XP.” Once you have been acquitted of piracy you can now download the 23 or so security updates that followed the release of SP2.

This security shit is a total joke. During the installation you’re informed that XP is the “most secure Windows ever.” That may be true but it was followed by two service packs of security updates and then more security updates monthly and sometimes more frequently for really, really, really necessary “critical” updates. Face it folks, these are not updates. They are patches to correct mistakes or omissions in the original code. I wonder how often you can patch a tire and still have a tire.

Finally, after an hour or two you can add the machine to the network. Of course, you can’t use the original name unless you’ve wiped it from the Active Directory but that’s a minor issue. And just think, you only have to repeat this idiocy four more times. Nearly an 8 hour working day to switch drives on 5 older computers. Can’t even outsource the job to Bangladesh.

XP is a disposable operating system. Microsoft will not have to announce its end of life because it is tied to the life of the system disk it was installed on. Once that needs replacement XP is toast. And do not doubt that Vista will be more of the same (or worse?).
If somehow the license key I used for “repair” is recorded as the machine’s official XP identity I will write another entry under “Dear Microsoft, I am not a thief, you bloodsucking sack of shit.”

This is what came with the ADS capture device and from what I read it is one of the leaders in movie making software. Although I captured tape to DVD and VCD files I was more interested in combining some mpg clips into one file. Each clip has a header I wanted to remove (except for the first one) before making one video clip.

The Ulead booklet that ADS Tech sends with its capture product is a very bare bones intro to the package. Like the other booklet, it has English, French and German instructions. It also has some ‘unfortunate’ statements like “Note that the feature set may differ depending on your build.” I’m a mesomorph so what do I get that an ectomorph doesn’t? Does this software favor one build over another? Should I contact the ACLU? Oh well.

The version 9 logo is a babe in a sleeveless thingie holding a digital camera and staring straight at you. I had ample opportunity to study her during the install where she dominates the splash screen which stayed up for the five minutes it seemed to take to install Ulead. Alas, every time the program is started, there she is, the brown-eyed beauty, staring at me for THIRTY freaking seconds. Excuse me, Ulead, but get that shit off my computer. She’s obviously a wonderful, wholesome young woman and I hope she gets royalties on each package she appears on but not on my computer. I’m not interested in anyone holding a digital camera much less one who stares at me.

Believe it or not, even though the software works and does what I want it to do I will not buy it or recommend it to others just because of that affront to my intelligence. WTF does this woman have to do with movie editing software? Nothing? I thought as much. Could we perchance be using the soft (sex) sell to titillate our customers? Do female users get a WWF hunk to stare at them? Sheeesh.

Oh, was I talking about movie editing? Got sidetracked, I guess. VideoStudio 9 has very good help once you know you have to click on the ‘?’ to get it. It’s on the top, right side so I should have known it was the Help button. I tried clipping without help and was ready to uninstall the softbabeware I was so frustrated. After all these years I still need to remind myself to RTFM (RTBM in British/Australian English).

A minor irritant - select a group of files to load into the ‘library’ and they are listed in almost reverse order. It’s a Windoze thing, I believe. Fortunately, you click on the ‘Name’ heading and they sort by name, thank the maker.Clipping is easy although I’d like a finer control on moving the slider. Maybe I’ll find that some shift-arrow combination will work but that will take more reading.

I loaded eleven parts of a video, alphabetically, into the ‘library’ and then dropped them all into the ‘Storyboard’ viewer. They lined up correctly. I then went one at a time and set the clipping pointer to remove the heading from clips 2-11. After that I selected ‘Share’ which is where the output options are hidden. The ‘Export’ option under ‘Clip’ doesn’t create a new file. Don’t ask. For starters, I selected the ‘Like the first clip’ as the output format and zoom, off it went to make a combined video.

Some problems come up when the first clip isn’t some standard (I’m guessing) because you get an odd message about missing a decoder and that’s the end. I found that going into the options and FIRST selecting the encoding type (MPEG-1 or whatever) you can duplicate just about any combination of size and frames per second that video clips may have.

Not all of the combinations produce a ‘playable’ video, as I learned by experimenting. First of all, if you have 320×288 pixels per frame input you can’t stretch the data to 640×480 and expect to get a better picture. That aside, I tried an MPEG-2 format specifying the frames per second and size and for some reason only the VLC (freebie) media player showed it at normal speed. Windows Media, DivX, Nero Showtime and even Ulead Studio showed it at about half the frame rate I specified. I’m assuming that VLC “figured it out” and that the others were using what they were given and showed it in slow motion.

This area is somewhat new for me so in time such strange effects will turn out to be simple, dumb things you did events.

There are other controls for color, hue and the like and I tried them on parts of clips to clean up the image. I believe it worked but can’t say for sure since I’m not there yet.

Now this software can do a thousand things to make pretty, family, fun, business, office, impressive presentations but for now I’m not interested. I can see that the software has five layers in the timeline view and built-in transitions. I can also see that it would take more time than I want to spend making a really snazzy presentation of Aunt Emily’s 80th birthday bash.

I mentioned earlier that I tried the capture and gave up. It’s possible that it works fine since it is keyed to the ADS hardware but why bother when I have the ADS interface?

In sum - get the babe off my screen and if I need it I’ll buy the full package. For now, I’ll use it because it came with the hardware and I don’t have a good alternative. Well, I have Nero Vision Express which came with my Sony DRU-800A but it doesn’t seem to be as capable as Ulead’s Movie Maker.

This is one of three applications that come with the ADS InstantDVD+MP3 capture device. Unlike the capture option in the Ulead suite this is specifically designed for the hardware and after a brief shot at using Ulead for capture I returned to this application.

The first screen is a startup wizard which is okay for the first time but everything it asks for can be set in the main window. In fact, I didn’t realize that I was resetting the defaults to DVD when I wanted to do MPEG-1 decoding (DVD is MPEG-2). You will also see a “No device found” warning if the box isn’t turned on. From experience, stop there turn on the box and start over because the main window won’t acquire the device by itself. Once you’ve started using the software, I’d suggest pressing ‘Cancel’ for the startup window so you can get to the main window and then do what you want.

The main window has that burnished steel look (with rounded corners) which is all the rage it seems. The information is well placed and there are buttons for selecting the many options by category: Input/Output, Audio/Video Formats, Color/Brightness, etc. The operational buttons are at the bottom of the ample black viewing area which you can enlarge if you wish.

As I said earlier in the hardware writeup I took a narrow path of VCR to DVD and did some VCD and SVCD trials as well. I/O allows you to select one of four video inputs: S-video, RCA (Composite) , tuner or DV (camera) and two outputs: S-video and RCA. Format selection has presets like DVD better (3.5 mb/s) or DivX (MPEG4) and a custom button which opens up a large number of possibilities depending on the encoding scheme you select. Lots of room for experimenting. I did nothing with audio but accept defaults.

There are other things you can set, like date and time for a recording which presumably means you have a tuner attached and you leave the program running so it can catch your favorite episode of whatever.

The help is the ubiquitous pdf file but is not indexed or linked. It is more like a simple user’s guide and not helpful for asking ‘how to’ questions.

[rant start]Call me biased but seeing the patent numbers each time Adobe Acrobat Reader starts drives me to distraction. A note to Adobe - I don’t give a shit about your patents because I have no desire to steal your precious knowledge. You made yourself the standard so now live with having to supply folks like me a free reader. Nah Nah, Nah Nah Nah. [rant end]

The process of capture is trivial once you begin. Just go have a drink or something because capture happens (only) in real time. Getting to the starting point is a bit tricky if not annoying because first, the start, stop, pause buttons refer to the recording and not to the VCR. Second, you can’t see what the VCR is doing if you pause the recording. Third and most annoying, there is a significant lag from pressing ‘record’ to the actual recording start. I had to try some tape segments four or five times to get it to start in the right place. In hindsight, I should simply start ahead and then crop the clip later. You learn.

In summary, Captain Wiz is a good interface that makes the task as easy as possible. Just make sure you check out all of the options so you’re not overwriting files or capturing in a mode you really don’t want. As for the directions, they are only helpful for presenting the big picture. The details are yours to learn by doing.

When I began my job as information technology manager a year and a half ago I experienced overload because of all the new and disperate things I had to learn to do the job. The list: routers, firewalls, switches, cable drops, workstations, laptops, wireless access points, Exchange, SQL, Active Directory, DNS, DHCP, IIS, ISA, Great Plains, Administrator Plus, Apache, FTP, TFTP, CLI, Anti-virus, content filtering, Ghost, asset management, tape backup and system patching.

After a year and a half I know about each one of the items in the above list and can usually trouble shoot and maintain them but that’s because most of the time they work as they’re supposed to.

A month ago I spent over five hours on the phone with a much more knowledgeable technician fixing one problem with ISA and the content filter proxy. This problem effectively shut down Internet use for the day in our high school. It is not unusual to spend an hour or two doing a “simple” update and the list of things I want to do but haven’t gotten around to continues to grow. Even when I try I can’t truly document issues and procedures for future reference. I know what I know but there is always something that comes along that has to be learned.

The Web contains a glut of material on every conceivable topic and although it is entertaining to follow links to see what’s there the surfiet of ‘information’ prevents finding a quick answer to a question. For me it is still easier to talk to someone in India than it is to ferret through a company Web site looking for a “How To” article. I have had some sucess with email to support personel and Cisco has a procedure for problem solving that has worked fairly well for me. Still, I don’t want to be a certified Cisco engineer or anything close to it. Ditto for Symantec and Veritas and Microsoft. I need information to fix things not to set up a consulting business.