Windows Sucks

The raging debate these days is whether or not Windows Vista measures up to the hype that precedes its release. Speaking of the “official” release date of Vista, nobody seems to know when this will be. I tried googling the phrase “official release vista” and one of the top results says confidently that Microsoft has announced November 30^th 2006 as the official release date. November 30^th has come and gone, and still no Vista. The last edition of PC Magazine trumpets the arrival of Vista, but it is still nowhere to be seen. Talk about vapor-ware…

I am often asked if I know anything about Mac computers, and I always answer honestly, not much. It’s not that I haven’t played around with them, because I have. But I never get any calls to assist people with them, because like all Apple products, right out of the box, they just work. People often enough abandon their Windows machines for the Mac, but very few go the other way. Some of my customers have admitted that the reason they want to switch to the Mac is so that they will no longer have to pay me to repeatedly fix their problems.

For some reason the Windows PC still dominates the world, and thank god, or I would be out of work. Still, as lucrative as it is to fix buggy Windows PC’s, sometimes the problems I have to face drive me crazy. Certainly, I learned from experience that selling a Windows machine only leads to heartbreak, because the first time it breaks (and break it surely will), the finger of blame will get pointed directly at me. Since I have not sold any PC’s for over 3 years, I get to be the exalted guru and not the villain, because I provide the solution and not the problem, and I can’t be blamed for selling the danged thing.

Recently, I picked out a flashy and powerful Windows PC for my mother. I spared nothing, researched all the components, and went with a reputable manufacturer. The other day, she emailed me complaining that she could not get the microphone working. I was the one who selected the computer, so naturally she called me first. This type of thing is generally a cakewalk to troubleshoot, so I tackled the issue confidently. My parents live on Vancouver Island, so thanks to modern, free remote software tools and broadband internet, I was able to connect to and control her computer from my house here in Whistler, and fix the problem in seconds – or so I thought.

When you routinely fix the same problem multiple times, you file it in your grey matter for future retrieval whenever the problem presents itself again. I felt I was armed well enough to solve the problem with my mother’s computer; but alas, the problem had me stymied. I had to resort to calling tech support. To their credit, they answered the phone on a Sunday night, the tech didn’t know less than me (a common, frustrating occurrence), but the problem was still not resolved. The tech on the line couldn’t figure it out either, and now I’ve been elevated to tier one support, and a smarter tech will call me in a few days. Perhaps it was just the mood I was in on Sunday night, but I felt like phoning my mother and telling her to toss the whole thing and just buy a Mac.

Or should she just upgrade to Vista? Oh right, Vista’s not here yet. Sigh. Those Mac vs. PC ads on TV are really speaking to me.

Finding the right remote

This holiday season, my NLP (remember, that’s Nurturing Loving Partner) and I went over to Vancouver Island to spend Christmas with my family. My parents, who I am loathe to describe as elderly, are none-the-less slowing down a bit, and have been reluctant to host the customary family Christmas the last couple of years, and have instead fled to warmer climes. This year, they decided to host again, and it was great to be back home.

This year, the whole family agreed to change the way we exchange gifts. Instead of buying a gift for everybody in the family, which is exhausting work and usually results in a lot of gift returns, gift moth-balling, and re-gifting, this year we decided to draw names from a hat and focus on buying something really nice for just one person. The rules are somewhat loose, so if we want to buy additional gifts for others, we can (of course, this doesn’t work for children, but our whole family has grown up – sort of).

Naturally, Murphy’s Law dictates that the name that gets drawn is the toughest possible person to shop for, but that’s part of the challenge. In the process of shopping for my brother-in-law, I had the great idea of getting him a universal remote to get rid of all those remote controls on the coffee table. It was then that my sister informed me that they already have a Personal Video Recorder (PVR – see last week’s column), which comes with its own universal remote. However, I then realized that a universal remote would be the ideal gift for my mother and father. My mother, a self-admitted gadget-aholic, has a fairly extensive entertainment system, complete with 5 remote controls. The system has become so complex, there is now an instruction sheet sitting on the coffee table next to the labeled remote controls. To turn on TV, use remote “A”, to watch a movie, use remote “D”, and so on. My father doesn’t even know how to turn on the TV, he just gets my mother to do it.

So I went shopping for a universal remote control for Mom and Dad. I discovered that there are two types; really cheap, and really expensive. There are many varieties of really cheap remotes, ranging from about $9 to about $30. Then there are the really expensive types, which range in price from $130 to about $700. Interestingly, the expensive ones are all made by the same manufacturer, Logitech, which is best known for its line of computer peripherals. I started my search among the cheap remotes, then did some research (using the internet, natch), and came up with a Sony model which did everything I wanted, the most important of which was the ability to run macros (a macro is a way to combine numerous commands into a single button press), but alas, I could not find this particular Sony model in any of the retail shops. Then my NLP discovered that the $130 Logitech Harmony model, which was over my allotted budget for not-pulled-from-the-hat family members, was on sale for $80 at Staples, so we took the plunge and bought it.

The big difference between the Logitech Harmony and the cheaper ones is the method of programming. Harmony remotes are designed to be programmed through a PC using a USB cable; then it’s a matter of picking the component model names from a list, and the software then downloads the appropriate driver from the internet. The wizard asks a few questions, and the appropriate macros are built, and hopefully all is bliss. This is all theoretical, it’s Christmas Day as I write this, and we haven’t opened our presents yet, so stay tuned for the real story on Universals. Meantime, Merry Christmas!