Making repetitive tasks more tolerable

If only somebody would make a Macro Express for mowing the lawn, washing dishes, or doing the laundry! I can't help you with any of those tasks, but if you have some computer-based tasks that you have to repeat and repeat and repeat, you're going to like Macro Express. It's a $40 program that you can teach to perform complex tasks, even when you're sleeping. It works like this: You tell Macro Express, either by pointing and clicking or by having the program watch what you do, what you want done. Then you tell Macro Express to do what you told it to do. And, unlike a cat, it does exactly what you told it to do. Here's an example. Let's say I have a business that needs to send eight data files to an FTP site every weekday. To obtain these files, I have to run a report generator program and each report takes several minutes to complete because I have to answer questions indicating the date range I want to use and wait for the report to finish. The task takes perhaps 30 to 40 minutes per day. What if I had a way to examine the working directory on my computer to find existing copies of the report files, delete those files if they are present, then open the report generator, select the appropriate report, enter today's data and a date 30 days in the past, choose the appropriate company to run the report for, wait until the report has finished generating the output file, close the report generator, and transmit the file via FTP? And what if I could have the process repeat 7 more times, once for each of the files that I need to submit. And what if I could have this all happen at 1am, when the workstation and the server are both idle? Macro Express can do all this and lots more, as you can tell from the list of commands shown at the right. Each of the general categories (indicated by a black triangle) has several, and in many cases several dozen, related commands. There's very little a human can do that Macro Express can't accomplish. One big macro or lots of smaller ones? It makes sense to me to break large tasks up into smaller components that can be tested and debugged individually (not that I ever make a mistake that requires debugging, of course.) This approach also allows me to create macros that can be reused within other macros—submitting the password, for example, and setting internal variables at the beginning of each macro.

	Macro Express commands are added when you select them and tell Macro Express to add them to the stack. In most cases, you'll then see a dialog box that asks for specific information about the command. In the case shown at the left, I want to ensure that all text variables used by the macro are clear. • CLICK THE IMAGES FOR A LARGER VIEW.
	Here is the master macro. It begins by finding and deleting all of the work files. I do this on a file-by-file basis instead of deleting the contents of a directory because this is a shared machine and other users might drop files into the directory. I don't want to delete files that don't belong to me. Once that process is complete, this macro starts calling each of the other macros sequentially to run each of the reports.
	A separate macro is called by each of the report-generating macros to give the application a password. The advantage to this approach is that I need to change only this one file when the password changes instead of opening and changing each of the 8 report generators. Note that Macro Express has an encrypted text option so that the password is hidden from prying eyes.
	Each of the macros that generates a report looks like this.
	Because Macro Express must establish an FTP connection, it needs the name of the FTP server, a user name, and a password. The password is encrypted. Note, too, that the result text from the login attempt will be saved to variable T12, which is one of four types of variables that can be used internally. Text, integer, floating, and control variables (99 of each) make it possible for the program to capture information needed for testing and branching.
	I want this procedure to run Monday through Friday at 1am when I'm sleeping and the computer isn't busy. To make that happen, I scheduled the master macro to run and it calls each of the other macros sequentially. To ensure that Macro Express is running and has the proper macro file loaded at 1am, I have the Windows Task Scheduler reload Macro Express at 12:30am.
	Here's the scheduling detail.
	Because I don't want anyone to tinker with my macros when I'm not around, I set password protection so that only someone who knows the password can open the file for editing, although anyone who can log on to the computer would be able to run the macro. It's possible to set a password for running the macro. I didn't do that because it runs at 1am when nobody would be around to provide the password.

Overall: If you have jobs that you have to do over and over, this is the application that will make your life more sanguine.

Macro Express does what you want it to without making a fuss.

For more information, visit the Macro Express website.

Creative Zen Stone is pebble size

This news won't have Apple shaking in its boots (this would, of course, assume that Apple wears boots and I'm fairly certain that as a corporation it doesn't wear boots, but it's just a metaphor). Creative's new tiny Zen Stone beats Apple's offerings in battery life (10 hours) but small size also translates to small memory (only 1GB). If you have a lot of Apple-specific AAC files (also known as MP4), you won't be able to play them in the Zen Stone, which plays only MP3 and WMA (Windows media) files. List is $70 (Singapore dollars), which makes US list about $46. You'll find it at $40 at most resellers.

The Zen Stone is available in a bunch of colors, too: black, white, red, blue, pink, and green, so you can have one for each day if you take one day off or use one of the colors on two days.

Like Apple's lowest-cost Ipods, the Zen Stone has no screen, so you'll have to remember which order your 500 or so tunes are in or just choose "random" and let the Stone figure out what to play next.

Coming in July, Creative will offer a docking speaker system in black and white. The speakers will list at $70 (Singapore dollars), so expect a street price in the US of about $40 to $45.

According to Creative, "You can loan it to a friend just like you would a CD or a mix tape and not have to worry about it, but you'll like it so much that you'll want another so you always have one with you."

Yeah. Buy them by the dozen and hand them out to all your friends.

Happy Birthday to TechByter Worldwide

One year ago, on May 21, I wrote "Until such time (if ever) that Technology Corner returns to the air* we'll give podcasting a try. Joe and I probably won't be able to schedule time during the week to record the show, so for now it'll be just me. I'm learning the procedure for creating a podcast as I write this article, which will give you the information you'll need to listen." During the past year, Technology Corner changed its name to TechByter Worldwide and expanded its viewpoint from central Ohio to the entire planet. Most of the listeners previously listened to the program on WTVN, but many are new listeners who are far beyond the range of WTVN's 5000-watt signal. Radio continues to change.
*Sound familiar? Watch the final scene of The Wizard of Oz.

A year ago, it appeared that Technology Corner had come to an end after something like 17 years on the air. Joe Bradley left the Sunday morning program and Clear Channel did what Clear Channel does when it can: It replaced a live local program with a canned program. Good for the bottom line. Not so good for the audience. But, to quote one of my favorite authors, Kurt Vonnegut, so it goes.

Being a broadcast guy, I'd always considered podcasts to be inferior, much as the journalist in me generally considered blogs to be inferior. The past year has proven that I was wrong about podcasts and I'm beginning to rethink blogs.

I've talked about the advantages of podcasting—both for you and for me—before: I can record the program at a time that's convenient for me; you can listen at a time that's convenient for you. If something interrupts, you can stop the podcast and continue it later. If the topic is one you're not interested in, you can fast forward through it or turn it off. And if I should happen to say something compelling (I calculate that there is approximately a 3.7% chance that this will happen at least once in the next decade), you can rewind and listen again. I don't have to drive to the radio station. There are no commercials or other program components that serve to reduce an hour's worth of a broadcast program to between 15 and 20 minutes. Instead, you get 15 to 20 minutes of tech talk in one more or less cohesive lump.

This is a tough time to be in radio. Clear Channel doesn't "fire" long-time employees, they just fail to renew their contracts. To be fair, it's not just Clear Channel; they're just the biggest and the ones doing the most harm to the medium. The competition is intense and getting worse: Independent stations such at WWCD and NPR stations such as WOSU and WCBE are making inroads. XM and Sirius have grabbed up a significant chuck of people who listen in their vehicles. Technology makes it easy to obtain podcasts of your favorite programs and listen to them when it's convenient. Over-the-air broadcasting with its never-ending stream of commercials that seem to repeat several times an hour seems to continue to do everything it can to alienate listeners.

In the 1960s, they could get away with that. Top-40 WCOL could play 18 minutes worth of commercials every hour and never play 2 musical selections in a row because they had a lock on the teen market. They even promoted "single-spotting" to advertisers. That meant that there were never two commercials back to back: Music, jingle, time, temperature, call letters, commercial; repeat 18 times an hour; insert a newscast and start all over again.

I'm not really knocking Clear Channel

Companies today see their primary task as taking care of the shareholders and staying in business; customers and employees come in a distant third and fourth. But let's face it: If a company doesn't stay in business, nobody has a job and the customers won't be served at all. So in finding a way to increase revenue or decrease costs, it makes sense, from a business perspective, to sacrifice high-paid employees who have been around for 20 years or more and to bring in lower-wage employees. It is apparently not acceptable to ask the shareholders to expect a smaller return on investment or the top executives to forego the vacation home in the mountains. That may make it sound like I am knocking Clear Channel; but—to repeat what I said earlier—it's not just Clear Channel that behaves this way.

So the state of radio today is not so good and, as I've told a lot of people, it's a good business to have been a part of, back when it was fun. And actually I'm thankful that Clear Channel cut Technology Corner loose. If I'd really stopped to think about it, I probably would have been podcasting at least a year earlier—maybe two. That doesn't mean I'm bitter about it because I'm not. Things change. What happens happens. And I really do like things the way they are now.

Thanks for coming along on this ride. I hope you're having as much fun as I am.

Nerdly News

I won the Lotto! Again!

The crooks who run Internet scams aren't very bright, but they keep doing it so somebody must be falling for some of these messages. By my count, this message earns a negative 125 points on the believability scale and it wasn't a question of even having to study the message for more than a few seconds. No studying was needed, really. Just a quick glance.

Points	Reason
+5	It's true that the subject is all caps, but at least the crooks spelled all the words right. In fact, this is true throughout the message. In a day when many people can't seem to tell the difference between "it's" (it is) and its (possessive), between "than" (a comparative) and "then" (a time), or between "whose" (possessive of who) and "who's" (a contraction for who is), I suppose this should count as a major accomplishment.
-50	A Yahoo address? Seriously, who would think that any kind of lottery, even a small one, would use a Yahoo address to notify winners. And this, after all, is the East-West AustraliaLottery (alloneword).
-100	You sent the message to yourself? That can mean only one thing: You're using an e-mail application that doesn't allow only BCC entries without a TO entry. At least you know how to use BCC, so maybe I'm being a little too strict here. Change that to -99 instead of -100.
-125	You want me to believe that I won a lottery, but you don't know my name. You want me to believe that you know my e-mail address, but you don't know my name. And to make it absolutely clear that you don't know my name, you call me LOTTERY WINNER in all caps.
+5	You sent the message on May 8 even though I know that in Australia it was May 9 when the message hit the mail stream, but you're assuming I'm stupid and that I don't understand time zones. At least you put the drawing in close temporal proximity. (Was that redundant?)
+50	This may have been a mistake, but it may have been a clever marketing ploy. You're about to tell me what it is I've won when the message just stops. I guess this means that you've read some of the advertising texts dating back to the 1930s. But OK, you're copying the best of the great ad men when you use a technique like this.
[-125]	That's your final score. Not a very believable message, bubby. I'm sure that Yahoo has shut down your e-mail address by now, but if you happen to run across this explanation, would you let me know how much you were able to bilk people out of? It'd be an interesting story.

How does it work?

It's a classic. If you respond, you'll be told that there are certain fees that must be paid. These may be presented as taxes or handling fees or as a bribe. You'll have won some fabulous prize (probably 87 gazillion dollars) and to claim the money, all you have to do is forward $50 or $100 to pay for the processing. Should you do that, there will be other delays and problems that can only be resolved through the application of additional cash. Not wanting to waste the $50 or $100 you've already sent, you'll pay more. And more. And more.

Did you win? In a word, no.

AOL passwords: Easier to crack than you thought

AOL says it allow 16-character passwords and when you type the password, it accepts 16 characters. Trouble is, only the first 8 count. So let's say you have a really cool, really secure password "armrestsnugonhat". That's 16 characters and you can remember it because it says "arm rest snug on hat"—doesn't make a lot of sense, but it's something that can be remembered. Because it consists of 5 English words, it's not as secure a password as something like "Armr357snug0n#at" but because it's 16 characters long, it would be considered highly secure. But because AOL pays attention only to the first 8 characters, the real password is "armrests". Not so secure is it? Now it's just one ordinary English word.

The difference between an 8-character password and a 16-character password isn't 8 or even 8 times. Assuming upper and lower case characters are treated as different characters (with real computer systems they are; I don't know about AOL) you have something like 74 possible characters (26 lower case + 26 upper case + 10 numbers + at least 10 other characters). Some characters should be avoided in passwords: | and \ for example and probably any of the brackets and parentheses, so I'm counting only 10 of these 32 characters: !@#$%^&*()_+=-{}|\][:"';<>?/.,~`

So if you have an 8-character password, this many combinations are possible:
72x72x72x72x72x72x72x72
Increase that to 16 characters and you'll have this many possible combinations:
72x72x72x72x72x72x72x72x72x72x72x72x72x72x72x72
You don't have to be a math genius (which is not to say "an Einstein" because Einstein's math skills weren't all that well developed) to see that this is a huge difference. It's the difference between being able to crack a password in a few days versus a few centuries. If you're still having trouble with the concept, try this: Replace 72 in the examples above with 2 and do the math.

So if you're an AOL user, do what you can to make those first 8 characters impossible to guess.

Speaking of passwords, PC Magazine recently had an article on the 10 most common passwords. They are password, 123456, qwerty, abc123, letmein, monkey, myspace1, password1, link182, and the user's first name. If you use any of those passwords just leave it alone. Crackers like to have easy access to machines and if they gain easy access to your machine, that will keep them from trying to break into mine.

Some of those passwords are defaults that are created when systems are set up, but most are simply the result of people being too lazy to think of a secure password and too unaware of the dangers they're exposing their computers to.

"Link182"? It turns out the PC Magazine got it wrong when they copied the original article from Wired Magazine's article about MySpace passwords—not passwords in general. The actual #5 password from an article by Bruce Schneier that was based on information from a MySpace phishing attack should have been Blink182. As it turns out, Blink 182 is a band.

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