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Archive for March, 2009
Why must Windows take forever to shut down?
Mar 28th
Greetings Readers!
First off, I want to apologize for not blogging much lately. Life has been very busy and I have been rather uninspired until a day or two ago. Also, the Global Geek News Podcast will return next week. Now that that is out of th way…
Have you ever noticed how terribly long it takes for virtually any version of windows to shut down? Unless it is a completely fresh install, it often can take 5-10 minutes. In my case, its usually closer to 10 minutes. For a shutdown time, that is pathetic. We don’t put up with it from other devices such as our tvs or game consoles, why do we have to put up with it from Windows?
I have noticed this problem for many years. Whether it is with XP, Vista, or to a slightly lesser extent, Windows 7, it seems like it takes forever for Windows to shut down. If you have to reboot, you might as well go to the movies because the bootup times are typically as bad or worse. What is windows doing that it is taking it so long to shut down? I have tried many things but nothing seems to help. I have tried killing every application and process I have running before shutting down but it seems to make no difference. What could the problem possibly be and why hasn’t it been fixed in all these years?
In my fairly limited Linux experience, I never had this issue. I don’t know if this problem affects Macs or not but I certainly never hear of it having this issue. If it does or you have an experience you would like to share, please do so in the comments.
Microsoft really needs to address this issue as it is a huge productivity killer and electricity user. I can’t say I have gone looking much lately but I have never heard any comment on this. Occasionally I come accross some guides that supposedly help with the problem but still don’t solve it. I think its time we put pressure on Microsoft to fix this issue that is a plague on all Windows users. We must demand a higher standard from the company we have come to depend upon.
What has your experience been with this? Post it in th comments as well as tips or links to tips to help this problem.
-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray
Why 'Live Twittering' is a Horrible Idea
Mar 13th
Greetings Readers!
I have another rant again today. Hopefully I will have some more upbeat things to write about after this but today’s topic really irritated me this morning so after gathering my thoughts, I decided that I should address the idea of “live twittering” here.
‘Live Twittering’ is likely a new term to most people as thankfully it hasn’t really caught on at this point. Live Twittering is much like live blogging except it takes place on Twitter. It can also take place on other micro-blogging services but since Twitter is the biggest, I will be talking about it today. Live blogging and live Twittering are similar in that they are a live reporting of something as it happens. Whether its a tv show or a press event, it is relaying information in near real time primarily for those who cant experience the event themselves or wish to share the experience with others.
Although similar, there is one major difference that I see to be a major problem. Live blogging is attended by people who specifically seek to be apart of the live blog whereas with live Twittering, followers don’t really have a choice without completely unfollowing the person. Often times, live blogs contain material that people consider to be spoilers but that is something that is acknowledged and accepted by those who intentionally go and read or participate in the live blog. This presents a major issue for live Twittering. When live Twittering something such as a TV show (for example, the Battlestar Galactica finale), the live tweeter’s followers will be inundated with information they either don’t care about or don’t want to know because they are unable to watch at that time and don’t want to have the episode spoiled for them before they get a chance to watch. Live twittering essentially takes away that choice for the user and leaves them with the only real option of unfollowing you either permanently or temporarily until they know you have stopped.
Its clear that the major difference is user choice. The user can choose whether or not to be apart of their live blog, but the choice becomes much more difficult when you force the experience on them by live Twittering. I have even had people threaten to unfollow me if I took that choice away from them, which is why I only do a live blog. It all comes down to choice, something that should never be taken away from your potential audience.
New Twitter Etiquette (part 2) Rule: Thou shalt not live Twitter!
If you want to see how I handle this issue, you are invited to watch and participate in my Battlestar Galactica live blog tonight on Pcnerd37.com. I will be Twittering out the exact link when I go live (So follow me!). The show starts at 10pm EST but I typically get things going around 9:30pm EST.
Programming Note: I put up two Global Geek News Podcasts this week so check them out. Wesley is busy with SXSW so I will likely do a solo show over the weekend and put it up as soon as its ready.
Follow me on Twitter & Friendfeed!
-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray
Global Geek News Podcast #18
Mar 10th
Here are the shownotes for episode #18 for the Global Geek News Podcast.
Help support us with a $5/mo subscription!
Stories:
- Girl refuses to stop texting in class, gets arrested
- Are games too expensive?
- The life of an iPhone app
- Netflix might have streaming only subscriptions next year
- Sprint has the Palm Pre locked up for a year
- New bill would force ISPs to retain user data for 2 years
- Dell files to have “netbook” stripped of its trademark status
- P2P and porn traffic falls while games and flash increases
- Judge throws out lawsuit against Google over Street View
- On averate, kids get cell phones at 8 years old
- Facebook reverts to its old Terms of Service
Hosts: Jeremy Bray and Wesley Faulkner
Music: Rush by Walt Ribeiro
Global Geek News Podcast #17
Mar 9th
Here are the shownotes for episode #17 for the Global Geek News Podcast.
Help support us with a $5/mo subscription!
Stories:
- New York looks to tax downloads
- Microsoft to open retail stores
- Microsoft announces Windows Marketplace and My Phone for Windows Mobile
- Apple says that jailbreaking the iPhone is illegal
- Palm Pre gets Flash support
- Google now accepting paid apps for Android Marketplace
- YouTube tries micro-payments, more download options
- Online thieves scam the state of Utah out of $2.5 million
- Facebook’s new terms of Service causes outrage
- Canadian judge: No warrant required to see ISP logs
Hosts: Jeremy Bray and Wesley Faulkner
Music: Rush by Walt Ribeiro
Why trivia contests should not be on Twitter
Mar 2nd
Greetings Readers!
I wanted to address what I find to be a growing problem on Twitter, trivia contests.
For quite a while now, I have noticed various people on Twitter such as @microsoft_cares and @rahulsood among others give away some great prizes by running trivia contests on Twitter. I see several problems with this. Before I get going on my disagreements with it, I have won prizes via Twitter in the past, so if you believe that I am mad because I don’t win, you would be very wrong.
The first issue I have with this is fairness. While everybody certainly has a chance at winning, thanks to a slow (assuming its even up which is another complaint) Twitter web interface, people often wont be able to see the question at the same time and thus create a disadvantage for some users. This problem is even more evident today when Twitter was slow and up and down much of the day after a power failure. Contests such as this should be held in a way that problems such as slow website or api limit or whatever can’t effect somebody’s chances to win the contest. Contests like this can be won or lost in less than a second, so it should be based on a less time restricting manner.
My next issue with doing trivia contests on Twitter is that it is really a thinly-veiled attempt to up your follower count. Trying to up your follower account with such a cheap tatic is sad. I believe a followers count should be deserved, not bought. If you don’t have as many followers as you like or believe you deserve, you should do something so that more people will find you worth following. You should target a group of people that you think should follow you and go after them. For example, if you want to target people that love food, most of the content you post should be to things like recipies and restaurant reviews. If you people interested in cars to follow you, you should post a lot of stuff about cars. You should also follow these people. If they see you post about stuff they are interested in, they are likely to follow you back which is what you are after. Contests are a shotgun blast to get anybody you can when you should really be targeting a group of people who you can bring value to and who can bring value to you!
Now I’m not saying running contests on Twitter is a bad thing, but doing them the way I see most often is. Contests should be used to promote you and what you do to the maximum degree. Giving things away is a great way to earn brand awareness and a fan or two of a product, but the way many contests are currently done, they only have a fraction of the impact that they could have. If you want to get the most out of the contests, have people who want to win something do something for you. Have them submit something to your website or comment on your blog or something. If they are willing to google something to try to win whatever you are trying to give away, they will certainly be willing to do something actually useful to you for the prize. Sending people to your website or blog or whatever can do a much better job at educating people on what you do and what your product is than just having them answer some random trivia question and cross their fingers that they will get something. Hitting follow is not an action worthy of a prize either (I’m talking to you people that give away stuff when you hit so many thousands of followers).
Finally, if you still insist on doing a Twitter triva contest, at least make sure that the trivia question is related to you instead of just some random fact. Have your followers learn about your history or other products so that they can become aware of what you have to offer instead of asking something that can be easily found in a quick Google search. Give yourself the maximum possible exposure with a contest, don’t just give stuff away for the heck of it.
Anyway, enough of me ranting. This is my advice for running contests on Twitter. Take it or leave it. If you have any questions or want me to expand on this, respond in the comments.
-Jeremy “pcnerd37″ Bray
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