Justinian Lane - Commentary on law, politics, and tort "reform."

The Worst Thing About Windows

I consider myself to be among the top 1% of computer users in terms of skill.  I worked for a decade in the tech industry and spent three years at Microsoft.  I was part of the Windows 98 team and the Windows 2000 team – I know how to use Windows.  And yet, despite my knowledge, I’m afflicted with the same problem everyone else is regarding the gradual degradation of a Windows install.

Two years ago, I got a brand new laptop when I started law school.  It’s a Decent Dell Core2 Duo.  It came with an 80GB hard drive and 1GB of RAM.  I immediately upgraded it to 3GB (the max you can use with 32-bit Windows) and a 200GB 7,200 RPM hard drive.  I then proceeded to do clean installs of Windows Vista, Office 2007, and the other goodies I use on a regular basis.  It ran like a champ for about 18 months.

Then, it started getting slow.  Bootups took longer, and the hard drive would just churn away for no discernable reason.  I rebuilt the drive index, reduced my number of offline files, and defragged the hell out of my system, yet it still ran slowly.  It wasn’t spyware/crapware or a virus.  I haven’t had any computer virus since 1999 or 2000.  I’m very careful in my surfing habits: I only go to sites I trust.  If I’m going somewhere I don’t trust, I use a Virtual PC and do it all in there.  (Using a VPC for surfing and peer-to-peer stuff has saved me a ton of headaches.)  But just for the hell of it, I ran a full virus and spyware scan and got nothing.

So I finally threw in the towel and did a complete format & reinstall.  And what do you know – it runs blazing fast again!

I wonder if Microsoft will ever manage to solve the problem of gradual degradation that has haunted Windows since Windows 95.  I truly hope so, because this is completely ridiculous that I – someone who could write a book about PC best practices – has his computer slow down and become flakey.  I’m the equivalent of the guy who religiously gets his oil changed every 3,000 miles, yet has the engine fail at 50,000 miles.  If I’m having this much trouble, I can imagine how bad it must be for users who don’t have my background.  No wonder so many people bash Windows.

It seems my only solution is to plan on doing a format and reinstall every 18 months or so.  Don’t bother suggesting a Mac to me.  It won’t work for me because the applications I use the most won’t run on a Mac.  Unless I install Windows on it, which (a) defeats the purpose, and (b) forces me to spend 30% more for a Mac than a comparable Dell.

It wasn’t much fun to piss away most of my weekend reinstalling everything and migrating my data onto a new install.  I truly hope Microsoft fixes this issue in Windows 7.  It’s downright unacceptable.

Technorati Tags: Windows,Mac,Vista

Can I be lead plaintiff in the class action against AT&T because they blocked 4Chan?

You know there has to be one brewing.  If one isn’t filed somewhere tomorrow, I’ll be shocked.  Hell, if ten aren’t filed tomorrow, I’ll be shocked. 

Some nice lawyer should put together a skeleton of a breach of contract complaint on his/her website and encourage all of the pissed off AT&T customers to file pro se small-claims lawsuits against AT&T.  I wonder what they’d do if they got hit with twenty thousand lawsuits all at once.  Even if it cost them $100 a piece to deal with, that would be one hell of an expensive lesson.

Cool Screen Capture From Call of Duty 4

I picked up Call of Duty 5 and love the new graphics… but the levels just plain suck.  The only one I like to play is Dome, but that gets too crazy too quickly.  So I went back to COD4.  Last time I tried to play it, I couldn’t because Punkbuster didn’t work on Windows 7 64-bit.  But apparently it does now, and I’m quite happy about that.  I was just playing in Crossfire (my favorite level) and came across this guy hanging from the ceiling.  I shot someone right above him, so I can’t take credit for this unfortunate fellow’s pose.  But I thought it was cool enough to screen cap.

I can’t wait for the sequel to Call of Duty 4 to come out in what, October?  Oh, and yes, that is an MP44 I’m using.

Technorati Tags: Call of Duty,Call of Duty 4,screen captures,guys hanging from ceilings

The Rockford Files Predicted The Future

So I just got done watching the final episode of Season 4 from The Rockford Files.  It was a two-part episode that dealt with a shady computer company trying to – get this – setup a database that kept the private financial and criminal records of 200 million Americans.  Those dastardly businessmen had a computer file that would show your bank balance, your credit limits, your criminal history, property you own, and your credit ratings.  Thankfully, Jim Rockford was able to shut them down, in part because they also happened to commit a murder.  I can’t imagine what privacy used to be like.  I recently had the opportunity to use a new service from Westlaw for locating people.  I ran myself, and it showed virtually everything about me that the evil computer company in Rockford tracked.  And I know that lots more is available to people with the right computer access.

Was there really a time when Americans cared so much about their privacy that you could make a TV show where the bad guy was basically the CEO of Equifax/Experian/etc.?  I mean, the bad guy had to commit the murder to protect this secret database that was being built in a missile silo so no one would know it existed.  Today, a CEO wanting to build a database like that would be welcomed with open arms and tax breaks for creating new jobs and providing useful analysis tools to the financial sector.

I think I’ve written about it before, but I have an unrealistic dream.  One day, I hope to be financially self-sufficient such that I have no need for credit in any form.  Then, I hope to sue the major credit reporting agencies for violating federal law (which they do fairly often) with regard to my credit history.  Instead of collecting money, I want to enter into a settlement with them in which they agree to never carry any information about me whatsoever.  On a scale of one to ten, I wonder just how unrealistic that is.  I  bet a seven.

Food for thought on the day before our Independence Day.

Technorati Tags: The Rockford Files,privacy,credit reporting agencies,the 70's

What Amazon needs to do to win over the student crowd with the Kindle

Saw this article about the cost of ownership issues with the new Kindle:

The Kindle DX runs you $489 as an upfront investment, and the average student spends $488 on new and used course materials a year. In a nutshell, Amazon is asking the average student to fork over more money for the Kindle and then buy the textbooks too.

Add it up and the average student is losing money on the Kindle DX in that first year. Let's say Amazon can halve your textbook costs to $250 a year--you'll still be shelling out nearly $750 in year one.

Over two years, a student will still be behind on the Kindle DX return. Going the paper route on textbooks yields a two-year cost of $976. But the Kindle still runs you $13 more over two years.

Source: With Kindle, why is Amazon blind to Wi-Fi? | Wireless - CNET News

One of the problems the article points out is the used book market and how students buy used books then sell them back since most students don’t want to keep their textbooks forever. 

So here’s the solution: Work with the publishers to rent textbooks on a per-semester basis.  At the end of the semester, the books expire and can’t be used.  Done properly, this could eliminate the used textbook market, a market that publishers and authors hate because they don’t make anything from it.

I’d much rather pay $25 or $50 to rent the book for a semester than play the book buyback game.  Especially since I usually lose it.  For example, I bought one book for a small class that set me back $130, and they only had it new.  I sold it back for $20.  Net cost to me was $110.  If I could have paid $75 to rent the book for the semester, I’d have done it.  And sometimes the used prices are so screwy that I just buy new to begin with: When the book is $80 used (and scribbled in) or $100 new, I usually just pay full price.  When I sell the book back, I usually only get back 30 to 40% of the price. 

There already are some book rental services, but they require me to deal with shipping and have limited selection.  E-textbook rentals could eliminate both problems.  Plus, the money I’d spend on renting the textbooks would compensate authors, and not bookstores who rape me on used books.

Technorati Tags: Kindle,Amazon Kindle,textbooks,textbook rentals

Blogging from my new Mini 9

Wow, I haven’t written in a while.  Things have been busy with law school, and now I’m prepping for my last two finals: Crim Pro 2 and Class Actions.  But I thought I’d take a break to get stuff setup on my Mini 9.  It’s a Dell netbook, and so far I like it.  The keyboard takes some getting used to, and it’s not the fastest system in the world, but it weighs something like 2.5lbs and has no moving parts.  No cooling fans, no spinning hard drives, nothing.  That makes it very quiet and in theory, very reliable.  I got mine in black, and from the Dell Outlet for $125 less than new.  Considering it has the same warranty as new, buying from the Outlet is the smart thing to do.

If you’re in the market for a netbook and want one with a solid state hard drive, go with the Mini.  The HP one is nice, but the VGA output requires a weird cable that no one sells.

I should totally sue Facebook for libel and defamation over the IQ app.

So, this morning my wife asks me kind of sheepishly if I took the Facebook IQ test.  I told her “no,” and asked her why she wanted to know.  Turns out that her Facebook profile was displaying an ad for the IQ test that claims that (a) I took it, and (b) my score was 116, which was near the bottom of her friends list.

Maybe I’m just getting old, because I’m not going to sue anyone pro se.  Too bad, because I smell easy nuisance settlements.  I’d sue the developer of the app, and Facebook itself.  The latter would likely settle with me for some small (a couple grand) sum of money after I hit them with a ton of discovery requests asking for:

• Information about their relationship with the developer of the app
• How many people have seen the claim that my IQ is 116, and who those people are
• What revenue they’ve made from displaying the ads
• Something really burdensome from their IT logs that they wouldn’t want to produce

I’d also force the developer to admit that I never took the IQ test, and could thus move for summary judgment on the liability claims.  Honestly, I don’t know what a jury would give me for having a false IQ score displayed to the world, but I bet the developer would be scared enough to also throw me a couple thousand dollars.

Perhaps they’d even throw their hands in the air, take the app offline, and then I could become an Internet pariah who would likely become the butt of a meme about my IQ.   I’d lack the resources to sue those who create and transmit the meme, so I’d probably end up spending my $5 to $7k settlement on booze to drown my sorrows. 

No thanks.

Unless of course someone with a credenza full of cash wants to make me the lead plaintiff in a class action over this.  For $100k, you can meme me all you want.

Technorati Tags: Facebook,IQ tests,libel,defamation,class actions,meme

Bono dumps Apple, goes with Blackberry

The fact that Apple wouldn’t work with U2 speaks volumes about the company’s arrogance.

"I'm very excited about this," Bono told Mr. Cross about the RIM deal. "Research In Motion is going to give us what Apple wouldn't — access to their labs and their people so we can do something really spectacular."

Source: globeandmail.com: RIM rocks a new tune

Technorati Tags: U2,Blackberry,Apple

I’m not cool enough to be a Mac user, either

This girl got a decent laptop for $700 bucks.  What can you get at the Apple store for $700 bucks?  Not much more than an iPod loaded with Feist and a condescending look from guy wearing a “Genius” t-shirt.

Uncool To Be a Mac User in These Tough Times?

Apparently you can run disingenuous "I’m a Mac" ads for years and no one cares but the minute you run an ad poking fun at the price of a Mac, you end up with editorials like this. Hinting that Apple users are elitist snobs? Oh no! Here's the ad:

Source: [H]ard|OCP - www.hardocp.com

Technorati Tags: Mac,pricing,elitist snobs,PC 4 Evar!

Your crappy old Pentium III will not make a “great server”

Every now and again, I check Craigslist for good deals on Dell/HP servers.  Every time I search for “server,” some moron is advertising a ten year old pc as being great for a server.  They’re not.

A 300mhz machine with 64MB of RAM and a 20GB hard drive is great as a doorstop, not a server.

Just wanted to share.

Technorati Tags: Craigslist,servers,morons