A Rockin' Plea

Derek K. Miller of Penmachine.com and the author of the current Windows Weekly theme begs Paul and me not to replace his tune with former Windows chief, Jim Allchin's, Enigma Machine.

Microsoft and Security

Excellent article in The Register about Microsoft and security, increasingly an oxymoron. I agree with the author, Richard Forno, wholeheartedly. He says:

Unfortunately, Windows XP doesn't protect you from Microsoft, an entity some argue is more dangerous than any cyber terrorist or hacker gang.

It's one of the reasons I'm using OS X more and more. I'm just plain afraid of Windows XP!

I Hate Windows

I just erased all the WAV files on my main editing system - including two FLOSS episodes ready to roll out the door. OK this is operator error and it could happen on any operating system, but... it was too damn easy in Windows. I suppose it's my karma for trying to produce an Open Source podcast using Windows. I'm writing this while running ActiveUNDELETE and praying. It all started when a shiny new 2GB mini-SD card arrived for my T-Mobile SDA SmartPhone. My plan: put podcasts on the thing so I could listen just about anywhere. I guess I'm a little spoiled by iTunes and the iPod (despite Apple's appalling anti-competitive DRM). Getting podcasts on a Windows Media device is just ridiculously complex.

• Step one: install Active Desktop.
• Step two: install podcatcher client that can use Windows Media Player for synching (still trying out different solutions there. Man I miss iPodderX.)
• Step three: configure Windows Media Player for synching media
• Step four: search hard drive for tunes

And here's where mistake #1 happened - I let WMP check the entire drive for media files. Actually mistake #1 was using my audio editing machine for this. I have, in the past, been careful about keeping stuff off that computer so it's just Adobe Audition, FTP programs, and podcast files. But I got lazy. So now Windows Media player has everything, but everything, in its playlist.

• Step five: connect phone

Yikes! WMP is trying to copy everything to my phone. I don't want every copy of TWiT on my phone. So I press stop synch. A bunch of times. It sorta stops. Then starts up again. Windows really really wants to synch all this stuff to my phone. So I delete the playlist in Windows Media Player. You know that box that says "Delete the entries in the playlist or actually delete the files?" Can you guess which one I clicked? Within seconds 1000s of megabytes of precious podcasts and podcasts as yet unborn disappeared. And they didn't go into the trash. They disappear entirely. And I didn't notice until the next day when I sat down to edit. I admit I acted in haste. But it was way too easy. An operating system should make it easy to do the things you want to do (like copy podcasts to your phone) and hard to do the things you can't reverse (like entirely delete all audio from your PC). Microsoft has this completely backwards. No wonder Vista isn't coming out until 2007.