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(by Steve Hofer, Staff
Attorney, Indianapolis West - Indiana)
December 18, 2001 |
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In case you're new to this column, It's written mainly
for an audience Contents Quick Links Driven/DVDs Bye Bye CART? Sept. 11 Postscript Quicklinks: I want to start
with a holiday theme. Here's a Christmas Do all the changes in the world make you wish you could
turn back In an earlier installment, I talked about Am I Hot
or not, www.hotornot.com Speaking of annoying, I want to talk briefly about
Clifford the Big Red Dog. Www.pbskids.org/clifford/.
My kids are 4 and 6. They love Clifford. I don't If you're reading this . . . . . . then you'd probably be interested in http://www.uselessknowledge.com Urban Legends I've received a lot of junk e-mail lately with urban
legends. One involves There have been so many false quotes attributable to
George Carlin that Googleteer Kellogg's PopTarts 2040 hits Britney Spears PopTart 1230 hits
So how old are you really? Are you younger or older
than your You mean this Column has themes? I have two themes
for this Driven to write about Driven It will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with
Sylvester Stallone's The Driven disc also highlights everything that's good
& bad about In many ways, Driven plays a lot like a fictional version
of the Driven to writeabout DVDs It appears that two consumer electronic items will
be hot this year, Googleteer "To DVD or not to DVD" 136 hits Basically, there are two kinds of video watchers, those
that want the Driven to commenton the destruction
of Championship Auto Racing This is long-- so if you're not interested skip to
the next heading. If You have to indulge me here, I was born & raised in
Indianapolis. In the first two decades of this century, Indianapolis
was neck & Road-going prototypes gradually evolved into an openwheel
oval Long simmering conflicts in the Indycar community boiled
over in For a brief chronology of the CART/IRL split, see http://www.netaxs.com/~gg1/race/cartirl.htm. The IRL is the brainchild of Tony George, the President
of the At the same time that openwheel racers were engaging
in fratricide, http://www.sportseport.com/cart.htm; http://www.autoracing1.com/CART.htm; http://www.speedvision.com/pub/articles/racing/03cart.html Procrastination My last installment was written in June. I started
writing this one on the September 11 Then there was September 11. It was like watching the
Challenger blow About half a lifetime ago, I made a New Year's resolution
to read the I am angry at the terrorists. I am angry at how they
have taken a religion If you wonder how a group of beginners with only basic
training were Another observation coming out of the tragedy: there
was a lot of talk I have one more observation about the terrorists. Their
motivation makes Googleteer economics of terrorism 132,000 hits I think in our fear over terrorism, we are doing a
lot of economically George W. Bush has been praised for his leadership
in this crisis. I dis- TTFN Ta Ta for now
Contents Catching up (Computer Stuff) - Troubleshooting
Windows ME Catching Up (from where we left
off ) Wow, the last column was March. This one was planned for April but. . . . My first computer gremlin for the Compaq Presario that I bought last November. Compaq gets lemons, because my computer was out of service for a month unnecessarily. My Compaq Presario is a decent enough machine - usually - and it was inexpensive, but my experience with Compaq technical support apparently mirrors that of many other consumers. If you don't have a Windows ME system, or if you don't want to read about a dumb old computer problem, skip to the next heading, but if you have Windows ME, and you're not Joe Expert, you might want to spend the next five minutes reading on. In short, Compaq failed me three different ways: 1.They didn't include a system disk with the computer; Here's the short story of the problem. I'm mentioning it because it touches on the strengths and weaknesses of Windows ME, the operating system that most of you received if you've bought a new computer in the past nine months, or if you're going to buy one in the next three months. My problem must not be unique - a reader of Time Magazine's "ON" edition recently wrote to the editor with a similar problem while my machine was down. (ON has a lot of good stuff. Their website is www.onmagazine.com.) Windows ME has a feature where Windows will look for system updates when you are logged onto the web. My computer told me a system update was available. Ok, fine, I downloaded a new video driver for my built-in Intel graphics. Well, there was a system crash half-way through, and when the system restarted, the system would only boot in the 16 color "safe" mode. The computer said it couldn't find a driver for my graphics card. I knew that my system would be ok again if I just got a duplicate copy of the video driver. Compaq should have supplied a CD-ROM with the drivers along with the computer, but that would have cost $.50. The drivers were available for downloading at the Compaq web site. But - window that Windows has an automatic system restore feature - it saves old copies of your system Registry files in an separate "D" partition on your hard drive. The catch is that these files are compressed. I couldn't use my modem to download the file because my browser wouldn't run under the 16 color safe mode. Through a little "lunchtime" surfing on another "unnamed" computer, I found out that I could order a disk of drivers through Compaq - for next day shipping. Cool 10 bucks well spent I thought, and I order the CD-Rom. I thought, no problem, I'll just be down for another couple of days. Wrong - I waited three weeks for the disc to arrive, my credit card statement arrived before the disk did. My credit card was next-day billed. The disk wasn't mailed for another two weeks. In the meantime, I found out I could have done without
the disk to begin with. All I had to do was run "scanreg\restore" and
the computer would fetch the backup copy of the video driver out of
the restore partition. Of course, this is described nowhere in the Compaq
documentation, and the e-mail tech support person who responded to my
e-mail, didn't clue me in on this basic tip for Windows ME troubleshooting.
For more on Windows ME troubleshooting, here's a link: If reading about a an expert computer user's attempts
to troubleshoot his computer problems flips your switch, check out Jerry
Pournelle's column at Byte.com.
In honor of Compaq's poor technical support, I'm including the following
link: Which brings me to. . . The Good Guys: Computer Recommendations for Grads & Students I've had a couple of folks lately ask me what computer I would recommend for their parents (senior citizens) and going-into-college age students. As to parents - my recommendation is easy - whatever YOU are comfortable with. You will be mom & dad's technical support, and if you can't solve the problem, you'll really look like a twit. As to your teenaged kids - they already think of you as a twit, so I have more concrete recommendations. The Dell 4100 series (www.Dell.com) is an excellent, fast, expandable computer from the company with the highest reputation for customer service. For $999, you get a 1Ghz Pentium 3 machine with fast graphics, a 17 inch monitor, and Microsoft Works Suite, which includes Microsoft Word word processing and a free ugrade to either a CD-RW or DVD-ROM drive. The 4100 is hard to beat. Spend the extra $200 over the low-end Dimension L computer. The Dimension uses the Intel 810E chipset whereas the 4100 uses the Intel 815 chipset. The key difference: the 815 chipset allows you to upgrade the video card. The video card is far more likely to be a limiting factor than a 1Ghz processor even now that the fastest processors are moving toward 2 Ghz. For college students though, a laptop is really useful. In addition to Dell, IBM (http://www.ibm.com) and Apple really have strong laptops. The new Apple iBook laptop (http://www.applecomputer.com/ibook/) is well-suited to the needs of college students. It's light, affordable, includes a full set of ports, and it's cool just like all of Apple's recent offerings. Unlike the outgoing model with the gaudy color panels, the new model is a sleek white. Quick Links Round 1 It looks like Shrek will be the #1 box office summer
movie. Here's a version of the classic Concentration
game from the Shrek website Speaking of movies: Here's the real scoop on the star
of Jurassic Park 3 Dinosauricon is also a great general information site on dinosaurs for older kids and kids-at-heart The babelfish automated translation utility is a wimp
compared to Intertran. If you find a webpage that appears to be on point,
except it's in another language. Check out Intertran. I was "busy doing my job" not long ago, when a thought
struck me "Tastes Like Chicken - that's a great name for a band" Yeah,
but it's already taken, by a band one step evolved from the Rutles.
Here's their website http://hometown.aol.com/tlctheband/main.html Speaking of the Rutles: Time for some Googleteering. "The Rutles" 7740 hits The Rutles Homepage "The Tragical History Tour" UAW-LSP Employees and the Holy Grail of Car Discounts Although I expect this article to be available to all over the web, I'm writing it primarily for the UAW Legal Services attorneys who are members of AFSME Local 3357. In addition to volunteering to write this article, I serve as the shop steward for my office. It will come as no surprise to my fellow union brothers and sisters that a continuing sore spot is the company's car policy. We UAW-LSP attorneys must drive to work a UAW-produced car. We get no discount on these cars. Let's contrast this to the UAW members who actually produce the cars. They don't have to drive UAW produced cars to work, and they receive substantial discounts. Is it fair? No. Should it be on the top of our local's agenda for change? No, I don't think so, and here's why: The last time one of my members complained about the car policy, I decided to put on my Googleteer hat and search for information about the car discount policies of the Big Three. General Motors & Ford have similar plans. DaimlerChrysler? I still can't figure out what their plan is. The first thing you need to know about plans is that
both GM & Ford divide their plan into an A plan for employees & retirees,
and a lesser plan for contractors. And it seems like a lot of contractors
qualify for a discount. I am a proud graduate of Purdue University.
If I was an employee of Purdue University, I could get a discount on
a GM or Ford car. I wouldn't have to drive one, but I could get a discount
on one. General Motors even has a separate website for its
supplier discount. The GM Plan The GM Family Savings Plan, the plan the employees commonly call the "A-Plan" is described at the site below. http://gmfamilysavings.com/family/discount/cert_overview.html In the A-plan, the employee or the family member orders the car from the factory, and gets the car at dealer cost. In the alternative, the employee can pay the dealer 2.5% of the MSRP sticker, and take a car out of dealer inventory. * Under the GM supplier plan, on the other hand, at participating dealers, the buyer can buy the car at 4% over the GMO (dealer cost) price. The Ford X-Plan is similar to the GM Supplier Plan, 4% over invoice. (I was not able to find reliable information about a supplier or contractor discount plan for DaimlerChrysler. According to the UAW website, the in the 1999 contract the UAW announced an upgrade of the employee discount plan so that it would match the best of The Big Three. See http://www.uaw.org/contracts/99/dc/hr/dc19.html.) Are we missing anything by not qualifying for a 4%
over invoice discount plan? It depends. On most cars, no. Take a look
at a sample transaction involving a 2001 Ford Taurus SE before options. MSRP on the Taurus is $19,325. Invoice on the Taurus is $17,868. The "TMV" price listed at Edmunds.com (essentially an Edmunds' trademarked term for a well-negotiated price) is $18,057, or one percent over invoice. (a $625 destination charge is added to both MSRP and TMV). In other words, an X-Plan buyer can be expected to save nothing on a Taurus. At the other end of the Spectrum is Saturn. Saturn has
a no-haggle policy. For a comparison to the Taurus, let's take the Saturn
LS200 the middle range model for the Saturn midsized entry . Edmunds lists the MSRP of the Saturn LS as $17855, almost $1500 lower than the Taurus SE. The invoice of the Saturn is $15,891, almost $2000 lower than the Taurus, but the TMV is $17,855, same as list price and very close to the price of the Taurus. (The Saturn's destination fee is $500.00.) If a GM supplier discount was available to us on the Saturn, the price would be $16,527 - a big difference. Conclusions: On most cars, contractor and supplier discounts don't
end up producing better prices than the average Joe can negotiate on
the street. These days, with web-based pricing information from sites
like Edmunds.com and Intellichoice.com, it's easy to get in the range
of the last dollar. With buying sites like autobytel.com, you can get
a no-haggle discount price on most models. There are lots of other sites
for competition. It doesn't really bother me that the automakers give
the employees of Purdue and University of Michigan supplier discounts.
After all, these Universities supply the technology to make our cars
safer, more efficient etc. It bothers me only a little that that a Google
search of "Ford" and "X-Plan" lists 136 matches. It bothers me a little
more that one of the suppliers that Ford apparently ranks higher than
UAW Legal Services Plans is FTD. When we left contract negotiations with Plan management last year, Plan management agreed that they would continue to use best efforts to negotiate car discounts, for their benefit as well as ours. I think they can be really proud that they were out-negotiated by FTD. Speaking of cars . . . If you're looking for a list of rebates & cash incentives
Midi Files - a Poor Man's Napster If you're like me, you feel left out by this whole Napster thing. Shawn Fanning, the creator of Napster is almost exactly half my age. Actually, most of us are left out of Napster. Even though MP3's take only about 10% of the space and download time of an uncompressed CD quality song, they still take a long time to download. It's not uncommon for a single MP3 song to take up about 500kbytes. If you have a fast internet connection, like in a dorm room, with free filespace on your school's server, hey, no problem; but for those of us in the great unwashed masses of dial up users, we just don't have the time. Ditto for Aimster, Gnutnella and all the rest. If your computer is less than 2-3 years old, there's a way you can have a lot of fun with downloaded music without getting into MP3s. I'm talking about standard midi files, aka General Midi files aka midi files (sometimes all caps - MIDI). What is a Midi file? MIDI stands for Musical Instrument Digital Interface. MIDI is the language that electronic musical instruments use to communicate with each other and with computers. With MIDI, you're not downloading full audio files, you're downloading instructions to play waves that are already stored on your soundcard. To enjoy MIDI files on your computer, you don't need to understand everything about how it works. What you need to know is that Microsoft Media Player, Apple Quicktime, and Real Networks' Real Player free playback software all include software synthesizers for MIDI file playback. The one in Microsoft Media Player 7.1 to me sounds as good as a $1000 synthesizer of a decade ago. Microsoft Media Player contains the soundwaves of at least a couple hundred musical instrument sounds. Musicians can use software programs called sequencers to put together song files playing those instruments and create a virtual orchestra in your computer. There is no hardware required other than your built-in soundcard. Because they are just playing back musical notes stored in your computer, all of the songs are instrumental. The files that take advantage of extended protocols like XG, GS and GM2 can be quiet expressive. How do you find Midi files? I usually just go to my old trusty Google, type in the title of the song (or identifiable words from the title) and either the word "midi" or ".mid" (the file extension); and 9 out of 10 times, at the top of the Google list is a site that includes the song that I'm looking for. Most of the midi files are created by amateurs, and the files are found on non-commercial fan sites. Most of the big midi compilation sites are overseas. Some sites are licensed by the music publishing companies. For more background on midi files, including a discussion of the ethical issues, check out this site: (It includes a midi file search engine.) Standard Midi Files on the
Net For a commercial site with lots of good quality files
try Looking for Classical midi files? And if you're looking for Rutles midi files, try One thing to keep in mind with midi files, because most of them are done by amateurs, and the quality can vary from early-piano-student to multi-instrumentalist virtuoso. Part of the fun is the anticipation when clicking on a new file. Will it be great or a dud? Files that take advantage of extended protocols like GS, XG and GM2 can be quite expressive. With growling saxophones, surging strings and careful stereo panning. The most consistently good files seem to be songs by artists like Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder, and (surprisingly) the Alan Parsons Project. Nevertheless, I've found everything from Weird Al Yankovic to "Back Home Again in Indiana" . The files come in two flavors - Karaoke - where the
lead vocal line is left out, and fully orchestrated where an instrument
plays what would otherwise be the lead vocal line. If you really are
in to Karaoke in particular check out these sites Now that my MIDI introduction has rekindled your musical genius, you want to become a full-bore computer musician. This brings me to the FREE DOWNLOAD OF THE MONTH (or however long it takes me to put together my next column) PRO TOOLS FREE
by Digidesign is a fully functional digital production studio with
8 tracks of high fidelity digital audio and 48 midi tracks. It is basically
the same software that a lot of pros use but this version is optimized
to use your built-in soundcard rather than specialized hardware. Free
for downloading in versions for Windows & the Macintosh, I downloaded
it and ran it with no problems. I haven't spent much time with it. (I
had to write this you know.) What is especially cool about it is that
you can run software "virtual synths" with ProTools as the host. Some
of the coolest are from a company called Native Instruments. They have
"virtual versions of classic keyboards like the Hammond B-3 organ, the
Prophet 5 and the DX-7 Synthesizers. Limited function demos are available
as free downloads from the website Quick Links #2 Need a hobby? How about Aviation Archeology? Unlike
scuba diving old ship wrecks, aviation archeologists generally (but
not always) look for old wrecks - plane wrecks - on dry land. For misheard Lyrics like "scuse me while I kiss this
guy" try Space, the final frontier. For an excellent educational
site about the history of space flight, check I love Avery Brooks' Commercial "Where is my flying
car?" Here's your flying car The Moller Skycar is a neat project that has seemed
to be treading water for about 20 years now. I don't want to see the
sky full of the things, but it would be fun as a novelty. I can say
that it's not the WORST transportation idea. I'd give that award to
the the GAS POWERED POGO STICK From the "too much time on his hands on his time" file,
here's HOW TO BATUSI The first runner-up: The Scooby Doo drinking game! Finally, a professional link! There's a newsletter called
Spot Delivery that gives law updates for car dealers. It's actually
quite good. Gosh, It's about quittin' time. Time for one more Googleteer adventure "Mullet Gallery" 101 hits Bye |