Need a Calculator for School? Try this!

I was reading through ticalc.org's web site and, especially, the update on the DMCA situation vis a vie TI's threat to sue Brandon Wilson because he dared to crack the encryption key TI uses to lock down the software in its top-o-the-line calculator, the TI-83+. Yup. That's right. It's a whoppin' 100 smackaroos to get you one of those babies. Perfectly understandable that they'd be upset.

Okay. Not really.

I was reading through the comments on their news site concerning this issue when I found this one explanation as to why TI is pissed (er, that means unhappy in this context, in case any one of my UK or Australian / New Zealand colleagues is reading this... doubtful... this web site gets less hits the the Chicago Cubs.) Anyway, here's his explanation:

Their latest reaction is baffling at first, but the reasoning is perfectly obvious if you understand who their customers are. Schools, CollegeBoard, ACT, Kaplan Inc, and other institutes have been hostile toward the whole 3rd-party OS issue for years. Now that calcs are a blank slate for anything we can cook up, TI must show their partners they won't take the situation laying down--even if it's a lost cause. Either way, this will be the stall tactic until new deals are made, or some kind anti-hacking revision rolls out. This line of reasoning may sound alien and incomprehensible from a coder's standpoint, but I witness it on a daily basis in the business world.

So, if this the problem, if schools and colleges are well and truly against 3rd-party operating systems, well, then, I have the cure. The picture says it all.

Any questions?

An Open Letter to Texas Instruments

Dear Dumbshits,

Back in the day, you built a truly wonderful computer. I know because I had one. I also had the expansion box that weighed as much as the USS Missouri. And I still have the 300 baud modem that you built for it. Now, you're left with your IC market and some calculators. Me, I prefer my HP50g, but some of the calculators you make are pretty good. Given that you do not dominate the market in handheld calculators, you'd expect that any news, or "buzz" as the current phrase goes, that generates publicity for your calculator would be a good thing.

I guess you didn't get that memo.

Seems a hacker has managed to crack the encryption key for one of your calculators. And you're pissed about it. Sent him a high-falutin' memo stating, "Stop that!" Threw in some big words and acronyms, including DMCA.

I guess you just. Don't. Get. It.

You have a group of people who are dedicated to tinkering with your calculator. Are they trying to reverse engineer your hardware so that they can make their own? No. Are they selling the software that they have managed to reverse engineer? No. But because you are currently suffering from some cranial-rectal inversion, you're going to be the guy with the truly smelly flatulence who just arrived at the tea party. And instead of saying, "Hey, we've got a lot of people who are looking at our calculators as cool! Let's build up some buzz! Have a conference! Start a contest for looking at some other part of the calculator!", you decide to kill the party just as soon as it starts.

Are you REALLY this stupid?!?! Can't you SEE the possibilities here!?!? So they cracked the encryption key of your vaunted $100 calculator. And somehow you think this is going to impede on your corporate profits. Ya know, it might. But something tells me that, if you saw this as a potential to improve the market share, to increase awareness (People thinking, "TI still makes calculators? Hey, I thought they quit after that TI 2500 Datamath thingee."), to really and truly hype your calculators, you'd be on the right track. Are you following me here? Can you see where I'm going with this?

That's right. Park your lawyers in the closet for a few minutes and figure the possibilities. Lots of buzz, lots of hype, lots of publicity, lots of free advertising. For YOUR calculator. You know, the one you want to sell more of? Hellooooooo?!?! And all you have to do is to say, "Ya know, perhaps we should concentrate on the hardware and not so much on the software. Perhaps we can even make it open source. If we do that, there's this whole community of open source people out there. Perhaps they'll want to buy our hardware. And by default we can control that." (knock-knock. Anyone home?)

Please. Consider what I'm saying. You can either stay on this same road. Or you can really and truly make a comeback in the calculator department by embracing a different mindset. The choice is yours.

Back in Business

After reformatting the Linux partition and starting from scratch, my system is now up to Ubuntu version 9.10. Yes, it's pretty nice. The interface is different, but I'm not certain that alone made it worth it. I do know that the Ubuntu team has stated that there were many changes that made the upgrade worthwhile. I'll take them at their word. I've discovered that some things that didn't work before do now. For example, I have an old webcam. It didn't work at all before, but does now. Kind of. Another thing is that this new version is recognizing my other partitions without me prompting them. I'm now in the process of reloading my data and putting back the various programs that I need. Skype is back (which was one thing I really needed) and so is Octave. I'm hoping to get the latest version of Freemat (version 4.0) installed as well. I've got Thunderbird back, and all of my e-mail is back in its proper place. All in all, the upgrade was disastrous, but the OS, once installed properly, is working fine.

The one thing I'm doing better this time than with the original install is keeping careful notes of what is getting installed and how I installed it. Some of those notes will be written up in upcoming articles.

A Big Setback

Today, I received a notice from Ubuntu that a major upgrade was ready. Specifically, the system was ready to upgrade from version 9.04 (called "Jaunty Jackalope") to version 9.10 (called "Karmic Koala"). Being the trusting type, I hit the "Upgrade" button. As the upgrade progressed, I received a few errors, namely that "OpenOffice" was running. I managed to kill the processes, though for some reason it kept coming back. Anyway, there wasn't anything that said, "This is a MAJOR error! ABORT! ABORT! ABORT!" Two hours later, it finished. I restarted the computer and thought, "Hey! Looks great!" Wanted to go on about my business. Just before the upgrade finished, I was listening to some music. So I wanted to continue listening.

Only problem is my sound wasn't working. And still isn't working. Also, every time I reboot my computer, the icons on my desktop all shift back to the left side of the screen. (I have certain ones that I explicitly put on the right side of the screen.) And sometimes Skype doesn't start up. And also when I reboot or shutdown, I get a pop-up window that says an "unknown" process is still running.

Suffice to say, I'm far less than thrilled. I went to the Ubuntu forums and found someone else with a similar problem on the sound. He managed to get his problem resolved. I didn't. That was topped by someone called "lovinglinux" who came on and told me tersely that I was on the wrong thread. It was a kubuntu thread, and I was ubuntu. Despite the fact that the original creator of the thread was actually helping me. At the time, I was thinking, "Well, bite me, "lovinglinux", you arrogant, kubuntu prick!" I've calmed down since then and realized he was trying to save me from possibly getting bad information. But as mad as I was at the time, he was "wrong thing to say at the wrong time".

I've scoured the internet (both Ubuntu forums and non-Ubuntu ones) hoping, praying to find a fix. Somewhere. Somehow. And I've come up empty. Seems that a LOT of people are having similar issues. I'm now backing up all of my data on Ubuntu because. I. Am. Going. To. Have. To. Start. Over.

No, waiting is not an option. I need sound NOW. I need Skype to work reliably NOW. I need the sound because I use it with Skype. And I need both of them NOW. So, as I'm typing this, I have data backup in progress. Once it's finished, I'm going to start over with a fresh install, which seems to work better for most people. Still, this will be 6+ hours out of my life, not to mention the future time to re-install much of the software I've come to rely on. Freemat & Octave. Google Earth. Wireshark. Wine. Crossloop on Wine. Paint Shop Pro on Wine. And the list goes on. And this is time that I could have been spending doing real work.

Does this mean I'm dissuaded from Linux? Hardly. But if you're considering making the switch, wait a few more weeks.

Loading Digital Images under Ubuntu Linux

After loading Ubuntu Linux (ver 9.04, aka Jaunty Jackalope), one of the things on my list that I needed was the ability to download images from my two digital cameras. One was an older Sony Mavica CD-R camera. The other was a newer Canon Powershot SD870. Under WinXP, it was pretty much plug-n-play.

The good news was that it was just that easy with Ubuntu. I literally plugged them into the USB cord I keep on the desktop for just such a purpose, turned on the camera, and voila! I'm downloading pictures. After plugging in the camera and turning it on, a new folder popped up on the desktop. It was as if I'd plugged the digital storage card (for the Canon) or CD (for the Sony) into the computer. All I had to do was to select the pictures I wanted to copy then paste them into the folder on the computer where I wanted them to go. Now, it didn't pop up a "wizard" of any kind. So you have to know how to do basic copy-&-paste operations.

The even better part was that downloading them from either device seems to be as fast, and probably faster, than under Windows.

I consider this one less thing off of the list before Windows can go "bye-bye" for good.

So It Begins

These just arrived from Amazon. I have a bit of reading to do. Time to get started.

The Realization

Many have said it, but it's rare when I agree. I'm an idiot. In one of my previous posts ranting about Linux, I was comparing it to Windows. I knew (and still know) Windows fairly well. The problem was that I was upset with Linux, of which I knew (and know) little, against something I knew well. Not a fair comparison.
Now that I have Linux to play (and learn) from, I've found that Linux has much more to offer than Windows. One of the best things is transparency. Linux does not try to hide anything. On the contrary, it gives you the opportunity to see everything. By way of analogy, imagine buying a car and having the hood welded shut. That's Windows. Linux is just the opposite. It not only has a transparent hood, the hood can be opened and the different parts examined to whatever degree you like. A further analogy is what is provided on the dashboard. A Windows dashboard would have the basics (speedometer, perhaps a fuel gauge) whereas a Linux dashboard would look like that of a 747. Gauges, dials, switches and levers everywhere.
So, those are my realizations. Now that I have my head out of my... motherboard, I can see that Linux will allow me far greater opportunities than Windows ever will.

The Beginning of the End

I realized that, in a previous post, I'd ranted about I'd ranted about problems I was having with Linux. Specifically, I was using a version of Linux called Ubuntu. I'd tried Ubuntu and found it wanting.
Not too long ago, I started a new job that required me to having a much deeper understanding of programming. Frankly, that was one thing I remembered that Linux did real well. Perl, C, C++, you name it. Long story short, I wound up loading Linux onto a hand-me-down computer. After playing with the latest version of Ubuntu (9.04, the Jaunty Jackalope), I was pleasantly surprised. It did much of what I needed it to do right out of the box. Therefore, I've decided to make this permanent. I'm not going to make the leap completely. I've found that I still need Windows because there are still some things only it can do. But the transition has begun.
I plan on keeping a running log of my transition to Linux (and away from Windows) on this blog. Future posts will go through the various steps (loading Linux and adding functionality).

Yeah, I'm Ashamed About the Last 8 Years... NOT!

BUMPED: The update explains why.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I originally published this one, then a friend from Texas (who is a much better writer than I) got ahold of it and polished it. Therefore, this has been slightly modified. The intent remains the same. Only the smackdowns are more well written.

I popped on over to Skippy's List and checked out the latest posting from Michiel, who went into a rather quick discussion of why he's happy that Bush is leaving office.

In a word, "Gack!"

It leads with

"I think about 70% of us can agree..."

Well, many of us believe that 50% of all statistics are made up, but I digress.

Michiel, if you want to rant about how much YOU think Bush sucks, have at it. It’s your opinion and you’re entitled to it. You’re even entitled to say it aloud and in print, but what gets to me is the "I'm ashamed to be an American." statement you made, then dittoed time and again in the comments. This gets to sounding like a therapy session. "Hi, my name is Michiel, and I'm ashamed to be an American." followed by a chorus chiming in, "Hi, Michiel. I’m ashamed, too!"

Were you ashamed when Al-Qaeda tried to blow up the World Trade Center the first time (1993), and Clinton did... nothing? When they blew up Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia and Clinton did... nothing? When suicide bombers blew up the USS Cole and Clinton sent... a couple of missile strikes? When bombers blew up the embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam I didn't hear much talk about shame then. All of these, by the way, happened on Clinton's watch. Did he have anything to do with them? Nope. What did he do about them? Next to nothing, which Al-Qaeda saw as, "Hey, we can kick the living piss of out these people and they won't do anything. What a bunch of pussies! Let's kill more of them!" This is what happens when you do nothing in the face of evil.

You talk about Dubya "being on vacation". Yeah. Vacation. The last sitting president to get a vacation was somewhere in the Coolidge or Roosevelt I administrations. Okay, sure, George W. Bush had absolutely no access to any of his senior staff when he was in Crawford. Nope, none. Completely isolated. No access to phones or e-mail because, well, Texas is obviously a technologically challenged backwater. Right? Hardly - the President of the United States is surrounded by the most extensive and redundant communications system known to man and he literally cannot get away from it.

Regardless, when did the President become the be-all, end-all of this country, and when did we expect the government to come to our aid when things were going wrong?

Since when did this country become a cult of personality? Is the President the only reason to love or hate this country? Apparently so. When Clinton's presidency ended, Alec Baldwin Eddie Vedder stated, "If Bush wins the White House, I'm leaving."

Alas, he didn't follow up on his promise.

When I was growing up, my family expected the government to stay the hell out of our lives, not get more involved. And certainly not to the point where we expect them to hover over us. The people I grew up with called that concept "socialism". We were expected to get through puberty, then move out. We were expected to work our own way through the world, and watch out for ourselves. Which reminds me of Hurricane Katrina hitting New Orleans. Hey, couldn't have seen that coming. It appeared suddenly out of nowhere with absolutely no warning whatsoever. Just suddenly whacked New Orleans. Everyone's dancing in the bayou one second and underwater the next. No warning messages saying "Leave Now!" All the fault of that EVIL Army Corps of Engineers, no doubt.

And when people DIDN'T leave (you know, on any of those buses left to wind up underwater), then they started screaming for government assistance. When the call comes out, it falls to the government to do, well, everything. The Mayor of New Orleans sat on his hands waiting for the incompetent Governor of Louisiana to do something. But who took the blame when neither did anything? FEMA and George W. Bush, who simply did nothing more than follow the law.

A couple of months later, a flood hit the Midwest. I don't remember hearing about people dying in their homes or looting. Nor did you hear of the National Guard having to be mobilized to handle the populace.

Another one that really gets me is

"I have never been so embarrased (sic) to say I am from Texas as I have been these last eight years."

I haven’t read anything that leaves me with the feeling Texas is all that glad to have you. Tell you what. Head south. Seriously, hop in your jalopy, drive until you hit water, and then take a swim. That, if you'll pardon the cliché, will kill two birds with one stone. You'll no longer have to say you're from Texas OR from America. Instead, you can whine to the President of Mexico, [as world weary as you make yourself out to be, you know who he is, right?] about how he makes you embarrassed (note the spelling... "ss", two of them, as in "ass") to tell people you're from Mexico.

Oh, and you might want to hold that thought while you’re there, as you might not like the Mexican response.

But, wait, "Fortunately, I haven’t traveled to other countries". Fortunately! FORTUNATELY? So, you've never been anywhere but here but you're willing to throw your entire country under the bus simply because of the President? Yeah, you're truly a proud American. "Proud" in the same way that the President-elect's wife was "proud" to be an American. Well, I have traveled to other countries and have always been glad to be back. And, Texas – what a great place so long as you’re not subjected to the vagaries of Baghdad on the Brazos.

"And since we are on the Texas thing, what the hell is up with your accent?" Yeah, America isn't a melting pot at all. Can't have different dialects merging. That would never do.

In your closing, you stated "I would like to express my feelings by quoting your eloquent Vice President, Dick Cheney..." (It’s a bit lost out of context to its original utterance, by the way.) Instead, I'm going to quote another, eloquent American, Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post.

"Now, please respond with that biting sarcasm for which you are so well known, and bite me."

UPDATE 2009/07/05: Mike the Marine provided a much more curt appraisal of those who would turn this great country into a cult of personality.

Problems with Paperport 11 Not Responding

I've had problems with Paperport 11 freezing up (not responding, crashing, whatever). Turns out that my problem is that the thumbnail files (which Paperport names "PP11Thumbs.ptn" and "PP11Thumbs.ptn2") were corrupted. I exited out of Paperport (it was not responding anyway), went into the directory where those files were stored, and deleted them both.

All that does is, when Paperport 11 starts up and you go into that directory, it will take a few extra seconds while it rebuilds the thumbnails. However, it won't freeze up anymore after that.

I have to agree with the many people who are very unhappy with the fact that the program crashes, but this is a work-around until Nuance fixes the problem. If that ever happens.