Seagate abandons IDE, concentrates on SATA

This isn't a big surprise, but Seagate will halt production of IDE hard drives by the end of this year. Remember when IDE drives were the hottest storage on the market? Instead of IDE, Seagate will manufacture serial ATA (SATA) drives. Seagate has become the first major hard drive manufacturer to abandon IDE, but IDE has been dying for years. SATA drives now account for nearly 2/3rds of desktop disk sales and just under half of notebook disk sales.

The IDE interface is an antique by computer standards—21 years old—but it still accounts for more than a third of hard drive sales. (HINT: If you're looking for performance, you're looking for SATA; if you're looking for low price, you're looking for IDE.) Motherboard manufacturers will probably continue to support IDE for a year or two.

As for the drives themselves, you can find a 400GB SATA drive at NewEgg for $100. Just 20 years ago, that much storage space would have been a bargain at $25 million.

If you remember when 1GB drives appeared in the marketplace, you're not that old. How about 10MB drives? Yes, I remember that and now the major manufacturers are introducing 1TB drives. What's next—a petabyte*?—and what will we store there?

*No, petabyte is not what your annoyed cat does. It's one quadrillion bytes. Or, as computers count it, 1,125,899,906,842,624 bytes.

I have a digital camera and when I shoot in raw mode (which I do frequently these days) each image consumes 6 to 12MB of disk space, depending on whether I use the compressed raw format or not. If I choose not to keep the raw format, the file I save could range in size from 3 to 30MB. It doesn't take long to chew through a lot of disk space with files that large.

And there's news from Western Digital. The company is using "GreenPower" technology in its Caviar GP 1TB hard drive to reduce power consumption from about 14 watts to 5 watts. In using less power, the drives also create less heat. The 1TB "green" models will be available to end users later this year.

Yet another Windows Vista report

So howzzit going? If a tree fails to fall over in a forest when people are standing by, listening for the sound of a tree falling over, did the tree not fall over?* Vista differs from Windows XP (gasp!) but so far I haven't encountered any insurmountable problems and overall I like the way that Vista works.
*Yes, I know that the philosophical question (or maybe it's a physics question) is: If a tree falls over and nobody hears it, did it make a sound? And I suppose the answer depends on whether you include the listener in the definition of sound.

You've seen my previous posts on the subject. Not much is different now. The most significant problem I've encountered is the difficulty of modifying the Start Menu. Those who are inclined to whine about anything Microsoft will continue to whine, but overall Vista is the Windows we've been waiting for. Security is better, if sometimes a bit intrusive. It looks better, although panels falling over backward did make me a bit dizzy for a few days.

The transition from XP to Vista has been relatively painless if we omit the self-inflicted wounds that I gave myself in the process.

I've even come to like the Windows Sidebar. It's transparent panel that you can anchor to either side of the screen. It holds "Desktop Gadgets" (I guess calling them "Widgets" would indicate too clearly where the idea came from.) Widgets/Gadgets are small applications that have one specific task such as showing the time, weather information, news headlines, or sports scores. Gadgets aren't limited to just the sidebar, though, and can be placed on other parts of the desktop if you like a cluttered appearance. Being an old radio guy, I keep the time and temperature in the sidebar. I don't normally keep the CPU meter over Tangerine's right shoulder, but I placed it here to illustrate the free-range concept for gadgets.

When you start Vista for the first time, the Welcome Center appears. It will continue to start with Windows until you turn it off. Even though I rarely use it, and it's easy to get to through the Control Panel, I've allowed it to continue opening with Windows. The Welcome Center shows an overview of new features and provides immediate access to new-user setup and security. It's part of the System and Maintenance menu of the Control Panel. Some of the components can connect to Microsoft websites for additional information or to allow the user to download files.

Adobe wrestles with Vista, eventually wins (with my help)

Every few days, the Adobe updater tells me that I need to install the 8.1 update for Acrobat. Sometimes there are other updates, too. The automated update procedure failed several times, but the other components always succeeded. I tried Adobe's support site and found no information about the problem, except that 8.1 is the update that's supposed to make Acrobat CS3 fully compatible with Vista.

The process starts, validates the installation, and begins copying files. Then it begins rolling back and eventually reports "The installation process has encountered a problem."

This has been quite annoying because this is the update that supposedly provides "[s]upport for Microsoft® Windows Vista™ (32-bit and 64-bit versions)". It's also a waste of time. When it happened again on Saturday morning, as I was preparing this report, I set the report aside to see if I could find a solution.

I downloaded the patch and ran it manually. During the process, there were 5 errors. I selected "retry" for each. The process succeeded. This seems a bit too much like black magic for my taste, but it worked.

The errors:

• Error 1310. Error writing to file C:\config.msi\4d4257.rbf. Verify that you have access to the directory.
  (Retry) (Cancel)
• Error 1310. Error writing to file C:\config.msi\4d427a.rbf. Verify that you have access to the directory.
  (Retry) (Cancel)
• Error 1310. Error writing to file C:\config.msi\4d43d1.rbf. Verify that you have access to the directory.
  (Retry) (Cancel)
• Error 1310. Error writing to file C:\config.msi\4d4721.rbf. Verify that you have access to the directory.
  (Retry) (Cancel)
• Error 1310. Error writing to file C:\config.msi\4d4879.rbf. Verify that you have access to the directory.
  (Retry) (Cancel)

What caused the error and why did it succeed on retry? Vista has a highly protective attitude when it comes to drive C. Any part of drive C. It may be that an attempt to write these files triggered a security alert that failed to display properly. Vista usually displays a message that asks for permission to proceed with a task. That dialog never appeared; instead it was an Adobe dialog. As for why it succeeded on "retry", it may be that this passed the appropriate information to Vista and allowed the process to continue. Maybe. That's nothing more than guesswork.

The other question I have is why the automated process didn't fail in the same way. It just failed with a nondescript and useless error that didn't explain what had gone wrong. Without knowing what's wrong, it's difficult to devise a solution.

But now Acrobat is version 8.1 and the Adobe PDF Printer now works. Overall, not a bad morning's work.

Netflix or Blockbuster — who wins?

Blockbuster looks like it's on the ropes as Netflix continues to gain ground. I should explain right now that I was given a one-year gift subscription to Netflix by a friend and, although I'm enjoying it and although the price has dropped, it's far from certain that I'll continue when the gift subscription expires. Meanwhile, Blockbuster (having watched Netflix eat its lunch) is keeping a close eye on dinner. This might be a very good time to be renting videos.

Netflix sent me a message this week.

Great news! We're lowering the price of your 3 DVDs out at-a-time plan to $16.99 a month plus applicable taxes. Now you can enjoy Netflix for less!

You don't need to do a thing - except pay less.

Your membership will automatically move to the lower price and be reflected in your Membership Terms and Details. The lower price will take effect beginning with your statement on or after July 23, 2007. And your gift subscription still applies. Your $16.99 plan not only gives you 3 DVDs out at-a-time but you can also watch 17 hours of movies and TV episodes instantly on your PC each month - for no additional charge.

I don't think I'll be watching 17 hours of movies and TV episodes on my PC because my Wide Open West connection has been providing little more than modem speed of late. Even if I had the full 4000 Kbps promised, I probably wouldn't be watching TV on the computer. When I'm sitting at the computer, I'm working. When I watch TV, I'm usually lying down.

But once again I'm a bit off track. This was supposed to be about what Blockbuster is doing.

By way of background, Blockbuster reported a $35 million loss to end the second quarter and announced changes that will limit the number of in-store exchanges a customer can make before being charged more. In trying to fight Netflix, Blockbuster emphasized the ability to return movies to the store for immediate exchange instead of mailing them back and waiting. But now Blockbuster says the limit is 5 in-store exchanges per month for its $18 per month plan.

If you want unlimited in-store exchanges ("Total Access Premium") you'll pay $25 per month. Is this a "price increase"? Not if you listen to Blockbuster's CEO and PR spinners. It's a limit on in-store exchanges. But customers will now be able to exchange their online rentals for discounted in-store game rentals in addition to movies. (Yawn. Not everyone who rents videos plays games.) Previously, Total Access members had the option to get one free game rental per month, so this is an enhancement (according to Blockbuster) although one that few people are likely to use.

The good news for Blockbuster and its shareholders is that the company's ad campaign has boosted enrollment by 600,000 subscribers during the quarter to 3.6 million. During the same period, Netflix lost subscribers and that is a first.

Blockbuster has been testing video-on-demand in Denver and Pittsburgh, but the company isn't willing to talk about the results yet.

Details, details

Changes in Total Access terms include "unlimited" rentals of 2 (if it's "unlimited" how can there be a limit of 2 DVDs or 3 exchanges?) DVDs out at a time for $15 with a limit of 3 free in-store exchanges per month; "unlimited" rentals of 1 DVD at a time for $10 with a limit of 2 free in-store exchanges; and one DVD at a time (no mention of "unlimited") for $8 with a limit of two free in-store exchanges. It's enough to make your mind spin.

Stupid Stuff (in place of Nerdly News this week)

Stupid roadblocks

Occasionally I hear from Chuck Adkins, who is blind. I mention that because it's an important part of the story. He's also a radio engineer for the Central Ohio Radio Reading Service, a division of the Ohio Radio Reading Services. ORRS makes printed materials available to blind and low-vision people by having volunteer sighted readers speak the text of publications.

The last time Chuck tried to send me a message via the TechByter website, he ran into the security measure that requires a user to type a visible number that's on the page. Being blind, he can't see the number. But he knows my e-mail address (it's on the website), so he sent the message there and told me he didn't mind that roadblock. He understands that TechByter is a small site with limited resources. Although I know it would be helpful to provide a spoken version of the security number, I rely on non-sighted listeners to use my e-mail address instead of the form.

But Chuck is annoyed by the same kind of roadblock when it's used by a big organization that has the money and the resources to do things the right way. Here's his story:

I got a call from a listener who asked me how to sign up for MySpace, so I tried to sign up to help them. After filling out everything, I got a request to enter the text to verify my account. [He couldn't read it and the site didn't offer to speak it.] When I went to the contact-us link, I got the 6 top questions and nothing else. No way to contact them directly. [There is a contact page, but it's not particularly easy to get to even for somebody like me who can see all the text on the page.]

Chuck puts it this way: "The problems being blind are getting others to realize that I exist and my needs are important and I do matter. I feel denied access to so many sites, forcing me to pay for my sin of blindness."

I don't know what percentage of Americans happen to be blind or have limited vision. I suppose websites that deal primarily with visual communication might feel that they have nothing to gain from providing access and nothing to lose by not providing access.

Guidelines exist for making websites accessible. If you're responsible for a website, I encourage you to do what you can to make that site available to everyone who wants to visit. As for TechByter Worldwide, I haven't been able to make the site speak the security number, but I do plan to make some changes that will help.

Stupid spam

If you're going to send a spam that claims to have certain medical abilities designed to enhance, it might be a good idea to find someone who has heard English spoken once or twice. Occasionally I dip down into the dreck of the slop bucket to see what's there. And I usually spend some time wondering what kind of person might actually be fooled into buying something advertised this way:

Finally the real thing ? with no more ramp!

P.E.P. (URL was here) are piping hot at the time! Well here comes the original thing not a counterfeit!

One of the very exceptionals, absolutely unique produce is easy accessible all over the world!

Notice just what people say about this stuff:

"I love how quickly P.E.P. had an affect on my boyfriend, he can not stop babbling about how excited he is with his new calibre, length, and libido!"
Amely S., Boston

"At the beginning I decided the free sample parcel I received was a kind of joke, till I actually tried to take the P.E.P. I can not describe depict how plume I am with the consequences from using the remedy after 9 short weeks. I'll be requesting on a constant basis!"
Rikky Martin, Chicago

Check up more testimonies on this marvellouls product right here and right now! (URL was here)

Stupid Mozilla mistakes

We like to think that the folks at Mozilla are smarter and better and more resourceful than the corporate drones at Microsoft, but that might not be the case. The latest security release for Firefox (2.0.0.5) has no shortage of security problems. If you think you're safe because you use Firefox, think again.

The Full-Disclosure mailing list (http://lists.grok.org.uk/full-disclosure-charter.html) says that Firefox 2.0.0.5 contains a password management flaw that allows websites to steal passwords. Do you JavaScript enabled and allow Firefox to remember your passwords? If so, your passwords may already be toast.

There as a similar problem last year that didn't require Javascript. If you think you're safe, go here and see what a rogue website could see. Heise Security (posters of the proof of concept) and Mozilla developers suggest that there is a debate among developers over removing this feature because rogue pages can steal passwords from browsers whether the user has opted for password management by Firefox or not.

Full disclosure says that Apple's Safari is vulnerable in the same way.

The fix the problem, you could disable JavaScript or not use password management.

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