tech

So we all know about the User Access Control feature in Windows Vista.  It keeps unwanted programs from doing unwanted things.  However, it is a major pain in the butt for power users, who regularly like to change the type of settings that UAC is designed to protect.  So of course I promptly turned it off on both of my computers running Vista.  I kinda feel guilty about that.  And I don't really think UAC is that bad of an idea.

And yesterday I got a bad idea.  I thought, "Hmm, I should see if it really sucks that much, and share my experience."  Yes, I got to thinking that I should re-install Vista just so I could keep blog entries detailing each of the times that I was confronted by UAC (what it was for, was it quick, did I understand the need for it, etc.).  I imagine the encounters would number near 50 to get the system configured as desired, which really isn't that bad--especially compared to the amount of time to clean just one piece of spyware off of a computer.  Of course I would expect to be bothered by it maybe 3 or 4 times per week (or maybe less) after that as I do occasional installations and adjustments.

The bad idea part of this is because it would mean re-installing Vista (and the ensuing 8 or so hours to install all my programs).  And I have about 60GB of data on my HDD that I don't have a convenient method of backing up right now.  But maybe I'll figure something out.  Because I really think it would be an interesting experiment.

1. Install Vista.
2. Join Domain.
3. Reboot.
4. Perform Installs As Domain User (And Put Up With UAC).
5. Disable UAC.
6. Move Desktop Offsite.
7. Enjoy lack of priviledges to make any further changes, as the domain administrator account was never logged into on the computer, and hence its credentials aren't cached for Windows logon.  Can't re-enable UAC either (on the off chance that THOSE credentials are cached), as you don't have the privileges.
8. Surf the internet without flash or PDF support until reformatting the computer.

2019-10-25 - I remember that a library staff person somehow found this rant and replied with a decently helpful/explanatory comment (on the long gone site).

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If there's one thing I hate about the library, it's that the search functionality you can use to find books REALLY SUCKS.  In fact, when I think of the Bismarck Public Library, the foremost image in my mind is the island of computers, all with that dreaded search interface displayed on the screen.

Anyone remember the days where if you entered "Ernest Hemingway" you would get no results?  That's right, you would only get a list of the books he wrote if you entered "Hemingway, Ernest."  Just one of the many things that contributed to the general poorness of the system.  While this seems to be fixed now, it is representative of the silly things one must put up with.

Another frustration of mine is searching for the books in a series.  I used to read a lot of Star Trek and Star Wars books, most of which are part of a series.  Sometimes these series number well over 100 titles.  One would think a library would have an easy way to find out which book is next in the series (maybe to encourage more reading--just a thought).  Nope.  Go ahead, try it: http://www.odinlibrary.org/ Basic search has no drop down for searching for a series, but advanced search does.  Does it possibly return a list of the "Star Trek" series which the Fargo Public Library (for example) has?  Would I then be able to click on the name of one of the series (maybe "Star Trek: Voyager") and view all the titles of that series in numerical order?  Nope.  It returns a list of all the Star Trek books the library has, inconveniently ordered by title, alphabetically.

So, as I did almost weekly between the ages of 12 and 17, one has to go to the library, find a book towards the end of the series, look inside the front cover, note which book they haven't read yet, and go search by title.  Which may or may not work, because the search doesn't automatically look for "Conquerors" when a search for "Conqueror" is entered.  At least NDSU search (which is a whole other case of poor functionality) does this.  It can be quite comical actually, especially if you enter 4-letter words that start with "f".

As it is, searching for things on the Internet is WAY easier than in the library.  Probably that's because webpages are structured in a fundamentally different way.  Or that web designers customize their sites to be more searchable.  But there is definitely room for improvement.  If I were some sort of search engineer working at Google right now, I would be dedicating my 20% time to figuring out a better system for this.  Then Google could sell this to libraries across the world, much like their Search Appliance.  Or even give it to them for free, and display ads next to the results.  I'd be willing to look at ads if I was able to find what I wanted.

So, later today I'll be heading down to the library, in search of a book that has all the others listed inside the front cover.  Hopefully I can check out a book on the same day that I get a new library card...

Apparently Microsoft has chosen to not include the three default IPSec policies in Vista.  You may recall that XP and Server 2003 included ones for the client to request security, the server to request security, and the server to require security.  Those built-in ones sure made things easier for the beginning user (me).  I guess now I will just have to actually know what I'm doing in order to configure IPSec.

There is now a HDD protection driver for Toshiba computers (mine's an R15 tablet PC) running Windows Vista (and it's in Windows Update--nice touch).  Now, I just wish they would come out with one that enables the auto-rotation of the screen when I convert to tablet mode.  I'll take this as a good sign that it might be coming.