We discussed this back in ‘06 and I am here to say that BitTorrent is still not useful. Back then I said,

For bittorrent to be useful, there has to more than a few users with fast connections. If you try to download something that is only shared by a few users, the download will take forever. Same goes if any of the users sharing are doing so over a dial up connection.

As you can see from the graphic above, I’ve almost got the complete download. .01GB is all that’s left and it’s gone caput. It’s been running like this for almost 24 hours and nobody out there has that last bit I need to complete the download.

We can only hope for the day when bandwidth and storage is so cheap that this kind of thing won’t even be necessary. I’m not saying BitTorrent is bad, but if it’s something that might be a little older or not very popular, it’s just not the way to go.

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I admit it – I actually read the phishing e-mails, some more closely than others.  Not because I believe that the Crown Prince of Nigeria wants to give me any money or that I’ve inherited money from an unknown relative in Tiawan or anything.  It’s just that some of these e-mails are so pathetic that it’s kind of amusing.

The latest one to get my attention:

—–Original Message—– From: chenjb [mailto:chenjb@mail.stut.edu.tw] Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 4:35 AM Subject: Please Reply to this email:acct.service55@gmail.com

Attention,

This mail is to get you inform that there was a record of a deposited fund of $1.5 million dollars in our Bank with your details by Steven Coleman Company Ltd as your own share of the contract you both did

You are been noted as to get back to us so that we can be able to work out the transfer immediately.

UBA BANKING GROUP PLC

E-mail:acct.service55@gmail.com

David Doye

Note that more details will be needed for transfer clarity sake.

Thanks,

chenjb Lui

Please Reply to this email:acct.service55@gmail.com

What I really like is the e-mail address it came from – this guy is so lazy he can’t even be bothered to send from an e-mail address that might almost be remotely credible… Instead he just uses what is quite probably his own student e-mail account from his school in thTiawan…  So here it is for every e-mail spambot on the interwebs – chenjb@mail.stut.edu.tw  SPAMBOTS ATTACK!!!!!

I use Twitter. I like Twitter. I think it’s handy to have around. But lately it seems that it is the only thing anyone can talk about.

For example, the word Twitter appears over 20 times on the front page of Mashable. I have unsubscribed.

In the last 2 episodes of TWiT, more than 50% of the stories were about Twitter. I have unsubscribed for the time being. Hopefully normal tech talk will resume soon.

Even on Twitter there is getting to be too much talk about Twitter. I just finished unfollowing about 5 of the worst offenders there.

It’s time to realize that there are more important things to discuss than how many people follow you on Twitter or what’s the best Twitter app to use or, or, or.

You people are like Pitbulls. You find something you like, get it stuck in your jaws and wave it around until it’s a bloody, limp mess that nobody wants anything to do with anymore. Time to find something else to talk about.

Sure, it’s simple, right? Find the app in The Finder, drag it to the trash and poof, it’s gone. Except that it really isn’t.

Over on Windows, MS made developers include a uninstallation routine with the installer. Sure it was hit or miss until Windows XP, but it was still there. And, it was there for many reasons, least of which is that uninstalling applications in Windows without it is practically impossible unless you are the original developer of the app. There are folders. There are .dll files. There are registry entries. Log files. Mold, mildew and soap scum. When you install an app on Windows, it gets everywhere.

Not so on the Mac. You open the .dmg, drag the icon out and that’s it. Everything that app needs contained inside of a nice package.

Until you run the app.

Suddenly .plist files are created and stuck in one of 37 /library folders, buried 4 or 5 folders deep from there. But not just in 1 folder, in multiples. Places where I’m sure normal computer user folk would not dare to go. These are also files that, when you uninstall an app, do not get uninstalled. You might have noticed this if you unstalled an app, then reinstalled only to find that your settings are still there. I thought that was odd the first time it happened to me.

Sure there are apps that you can get for the Mac that will help you to uninstall applications, including getting rid of all of those pesky preference files. But should I have to pay $15 or so for this? Sure I could go through and start deleting preference files, but what if I delete the wrong one? I could mistakenly remove the files for Transmit when I thought I was removing transmission. That could be a serious nightmare for me. Made even worse by the fact that I’m not using Time Machine (but that’s for another post).

Just don’t think that when you drag an application icon to the trash that it’s all the way uninstalled. If you do want to make sure an application is 100% uninstalled, go over and purchase AppZapper. That will do the geek stuff for you.

Speaking of the /library folder, is there a definitive guide that tells me what the difference between ~/ folders and / folders are? It would be keen if said guide also explained the hieroglyphics that are everywhere in this damned OS too. It’s been more than 2 years and I still don’t know which is which.

I’ve been using Tweetdeck for my Twitter needs of late and I can tell you that it’s the only app built in Adobe AIR that I actually like. Until it came time to upgrade to a newer version.

Everytime I tried to run the upgrade, it would crash and not restart. I tried reinstalling from the website using Firefox and Safari, but couldn’t get it to go. I tried installing other AIR apps the same way, but no go. So I tried to reinstall AIR, but that kept telling me that AIR was already installed, which means the installer wouldn’t run.

No big deal, I think. I’ll just uninstall and reinstall AIR I think. How hard can it be? I have expert level technical experience and skills, and this is just a simple software uninstall/reinstall.

Until I find that I don’t have an uninstaller for Adobe AIR on my system. Great. I then go about searching on google, on adobe and anyplace else I could think of. It would seem the only way to fix this problem is to sign up for an account on the adobe support site and submit a question.

Why?

All I want is the runtime uninstaller. Hell, I’d be happy if I could just reinstall AIR, but it won’t let me since it’s already installed. I don’t want to jump through a bunch of hoops and give my information for a file download.

As it turns out, there is a way to uninstall AIR without the uninstaller that I found here. It requires using terminal and having the installer DMG open, but it works.

Why couldn’t I find this on Adobe’s site? Why did I have to use a command line to fix this? It is thing like this that make computers hard to use for the majority of users and the only benefit is to keep a few support staff busy with phones and email troubleshooting the problem.

The thing is even the card registration process is simple – so simple that I can (and have) done it in my sleep.  Sadly however quite a few of the end loosers users here are so dumb that they’re completely incapable of finding their way to the restroom let alone how to register their card.

Some of the common conversations:

End User: Hi I’m here to register my card

Me: Have you ever logged in to the system?

EU: Umm – the folks at the gate told me to come up here….

Me: Right, but have you ever logged on to a computer here?

EU: I got a new card at the gate, they said to come here…

Me: I understand.  But I need to know if you have ever logged on with your card before we can get started….

EU: ???  Um I just got a card?

This morning’s person showed a little promise at first:

EU: I got a new card and the gate said I needed to see you

Me: Ok.  Have you ever logged on with a card before?

EU: No I have a username a password

Me:  (Excited that I may have a user with half a brain) Ok, log on to the computer just like you would at your desk.

EU: Do what now?

Me: (sinking back into the pit of dispair) Log on with your username and password just like you do in your office.

EU: But I have a card, why can’t I just use my card?

Me: Well we need to register your card before you can log in with it.  You need to sign in with your username first so we can register your card with your account.

EU: But, I have a card now…

Me: I know but you can’t sign in with it until it’s registered to your account, if you would please sign in we’ll get you set up…

EU: Ummm.  I forgot my password.

And then my head exploded….

It made me think. Do I really bitch about IE that much? The more I thought about the more I realized that, yes, I do. IE6 has turned into the iPhone ‘07 bitch (you remember those, right?).

So, I can’t complain about IE6 anymore. Can’t really complain about the iPhone either (but I’m seriously thinking about paring down my twitter for some of the more serious offenders).

I could call to task one of the over 100 business within a 30 mile radius of me that didn’t even bother to send me some kind of reply when I sent in my resume. No, that’s too lame.

Maybe complain about money, or my complete and total lack thereof? Again, lame.

I really can’t think of anything else good to complain about.

So, it looks like I’m going to stick with the eradication of Internet Explorer 6 as my cause for the time being. I would like to refer to Mr. Hotdogsladies for a moment if you will allow.

And, in reference to the point made by Mr. Raditionman above, no, they haven’t. A quick check of the logs on 4 of my sites show that IE6 comprises over 30% of my total viewers, averaging 8.4% per site so far this month. That is a full third of people that read the words I write are doing so with Internet Explorer 6.

I would guess a fair number of those are stuck with it because their IT shops are stuck in a “slow motion stoke”, but it is people like me that will get them to trust, or at the very least, begin to test, Internet Explorer 7 or even (gasp!) Firefox.

I have mentioned that I am no longer supporting IE6. If I lose business because of it, so be it.

But, I will slow down on my bashing.

Why are you people still trying to support software that is almost 10 years old?

By supporting it, you are slowing down the migration to something better, safer and more stable. Whether its IE7 on XP/Vista or getting those last Win2K folks to migrate to Firefox, you are, in effect, encouraging people to not update.

I’m not sure when IE6 goes EOL, but it can’t happen soon enough.

As I’ve mentioned, I have pretty much already stopped supporting it. This is primarily because I don’t have anywhere to run it.

If you are stuck on IE6 (still?) for any reason, especially if it’s at your work place, it’s really time to start bugging the system admins to upgrade. Really. And, if you are stuck on Win2K, then it’s seriously time to start thinking about moving up to XP. If that’s not possible, then someone at your organization needs to research Firefox for your everyday browsing.

I know those .net guys need components in IE6 for their stuff to work, but that doesn’t mean you have to be stuck with it for browsing.

It seems several different companies have renamed their iPhone games to begin with either a space, a quotation mark, or some other symbol so that they appear first in the list of 197 games on the iPhone portal to the App Store.

Really? It’s good thing they don’t advertise in the yellow pages.

I’ve actually worked with people like this. Had a domain name that started off with 3 A’s because he thought it would help him get to the top. Idiot.

And, this is no different than the way iTunes handled podcasts when it first started. Before there were categories or any organization, you would pull up a list that was complete rubbish at the top with all of the silly names starting with all manner of punctuation, the letter A and spaces. Most of those shows are gone now, as you can imagine.

But, really, make good software. Promote it on your web site. Link to it on your website. Encourage your customers to spread the word. Something.

Just don’t get all pissy because someone is thinking they are being clever because they are faking out the system. Sheesh. Pull your skirt up already Alice.

Besides that, I just checked the app store and I didn’t see any of that silliness. Maybe the good folks at the apple store decided they didn’t want your panties to get in a bunch so they fixed it for you.

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