Windows 7 Defender

Today's top story on CNN Money is entitled “Windows 7 Complaints Begin”. As a person who now has a Windows 7 Machine, I have to say I have about 0 complaints. But I wanted to look at what the article lists and go through the problems one by one.

It comes right out and says most problems were with upgrading, and lets face it, upgrading sucks. But you know what else sucks? Using a computer that is 5 or more years old. It is just about 2010, and the people experiencing problems upgrading are using an operating system that was released in 2001. Vista was released in 2006 people. Come on. Get with it. That being said, here are the problems:

1. “One common gripe, experienced by 9% of installers, is that the half-hour to an hour-long upgrade process gets to the "62% completed" point and then freezes.” OK, again, you should have upgraded more recently than 5 years ago. Not an issue migrating from Vista.

2. “Most common among those complaints was that basic "applet" programs, like Mail, Movie Maker and Photo Gallery, were missing. That's because Windows 7 deletes those programs and makes users download them from the Windows Live Essential Web site. IYogi said 26% of their customers were confused about that extra step.” Here is a new problem. Features removed? Why would a company do this? Could it be that governments (and by extention, the voters), sued Microsoft before for similar program bundling? No, it must be to stick it to potential customers. Also, how hard is it, on a scale of 1 to 10, to go to windows.com and click one link to download all of these programs? I'd say about a .5

3. “Others had problems getting their computers to work properly: Eight percent said their DVD drives couldn't be found and 2% couldn't sync their iPhones with Windows 7.” I forget that most users have the computer skills of a squirrel, but the new assistant in control panel helps tremendously for people who don't know the difference between Internet Explorer and Outlook. As for syncing iPhones, I believe that is Apple's job. Hear that Cupertino? Oh, your Windows support has always been a lacking, half assed attempt to port Mac programs. That's right, I remember now.

4. “One in seven users also complained that the sleek new "Aero" theme doesn't work.” Really? Have you bought a computer in the last 5 years? Because if you have, it works. What other electronics do you have that are more than 5 years old? Hows that 2^nd gen iPod working out for you?

5. Other common complaints included an inability to view file extensions, too many "mini-dumps" (memory images saved on the computer when it crashes), problems with the "Aero snap" feature, changes to custom icons and problems with the new taskbar.” File extentions are in settings. If you can't figure out how to view them you have no business using them. Mini-dumps, I feel like a broken record, but get a new computer. Apple's new OS X.6 only works on new computer for this reason. Microsoft is giving you a chance to be compatible, don't spit in their face. Aero snap is tied in with the rest of Aero. You need a computer that can run it. And the new taskbar is amazing. Some 3^rd party applications don't support its features though. That is not a problem with windows. That is a problem with your program (iTunes I am looking at you).

And that about sums up the article. Moral of the story: No shit your old computer doesn't work well. Next week I discuss the growing number of complaints that Nintendo 64's still lack DVD support and motion controls.

Record Companies Leading By Example

So apparently college students and grandparents are not the only ones ignoring copyright laws to get the music they want. A recent article on describes the hypocrisy of the records labels, who are being sued for using tracks they do not own the copyrights on.

They have apparently admitted to violations totaling over 50 Million dollars (by the way this is not 50 Million music copyright infringing dollars, it is 50 million real dollars.

To convert to copyright dollars, I’m going to average it at 2000:1, so the price the average college student would be charged by the RIAA for the same amount of music theft would be 100,000,000,000

Dollars (100 billion dollars). Maybe GM could get in on that.

Artists are starting to stand up for themselves. As the article reported, “Just a few months ago Latin America’s biggest artist, Alejandro Fernández, sent the police to a Sony Music office to confiscate over 6,000 CDs that the label refused to return, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.”

There is a lot of talk of how the record companies are hurting, but when they pull the same tricks they say are killing their companies, I have little to no sympathy for them.