Chkdsk needs to provide a log file! We had two Windows XP computers recently in which the NTFS file system was self-destructing. We need to run Chkdsk every night and have the log sent to us by email immediately if Chkdsk reports anything besides perfect health.
One area that I didn't criticize above is Microsoft's terrible, terrible, sloppy, incomplete, scattered documentation. Nothing in Microsoft documentation that neither Microsoft technical support nor I was able to find explained the Chkdsk log file.
About those computers I mentioned above: The problem in one seems to have been caused by a bad contact between the IDE controller and the hard drive. The problem in the other was never solved, even after 30 hours of hard work. We restored from a month-old backup. My experience with Windows XP SP2 is that sometimes it begins degrading and can only be fixed by re-installing the OS.
Chkdsk is a toy. A much more comprehensive, integrated, file system health tool is needed.
Next time, try the Psychic Friends Network. They don't know the answer either, but they are friendlier, cost less, speak English, and won't waste your time.
After re-reading what I wrote in the parent comment, I realize that it is
excessively pro-Microsoft, in my opinion.
There are entire huge areas of abuse that I didn't mention.
Several years ago I accompanied some friends to a computer store to
help them buy a computer. We were offered Microsoft Office for $50. That's why
Lotus SmartSuite and Corel WordPerfect lost market share. There was always a
two-tier market for Microsoft Office. You could pay full price, or you could
pay $50. It seemed to me that Microsoft was less than intense about stopping
the pirates, because that ran the competitors out of business.
Microsoft did the same thing with DOS. At one time, 5 local and
national distributors with which I did business all carried pirated DOS. I
visited one distributor that indicated they were genuinely concerned, and
showed them that it was easy to detect a pirated copy. Microsoft verified
that. Other DOS-like operating systems were not able to compete with
broad-scale piracy.
In 2002, Microsoft implemented a plan it called "Software Assurance".
At the time, Ed Foster, who writes a famous column called GripeLine, called
Software Assurance "manipulation... and... pseudo-extortion" Ed said then that many people "have...
gotten the impression from Microsoft or their resellers that the deadline
holds menace for them if they don't respond".
Ed said, "The thing that Software Assurance has always assured is
Microsoft revenue -- what the customer has gotten is risk, and lots of it.
Expecting Microsoft to deliver value when they've already got your money is
just not a very good bet."
Those are just two short examples. Some people believe that there are
hundreds of Microsoft abuses like that, but, as far as I know, no one has
counted all of them.
einhverfr, there is a simpler explanation of the same thing, in my
opinion. Microsoft was never relationship oriented. Mentally, Bill Gates and
Steve Ballmer are still the socially disfunctional teenagers they were when
they started.
Microsoft has never been a trust-based company. Anyone who tries to
manage without examining the quality of relationships must manage by
constantly testing the limits of what he or she can push other people to do.
"Testing the Limits" management makes employees feel disrespected, because
they ARE being disrespected. Before, programming was so exciting that
employees were willing to be abused. Now that is beginning to change.
Microsoft has always sold mediocre products. The company has always
been organized around taking advantage of technical ignorance, and around
examining just how little people will accept. Think how miserable it is to
work at a company that never does a good job!
Microsoft Basic was the first major product. It was poorly implemented
and poorly documented. For example, there was no way to write a strictly
binary file! An ASCII Hex 07 character would ring the bell rather than be
written to a file.
Microsoft Assembler was provided with manuals printed from a dot
matrix original. The assembler was unreliable. It would sometimes just not
produce the correct instructions. The world had to wait for Borland Turbo
Assembler to get a reasonably good assembler.
In an hour of testing the first version of Windows NT, which I had
bought, I found 3 pages of serious bugs. My money was totally wasted.
The first version of Microsoft Access had huge bugs.
Microsoft Word in Office 2000 sometimes destroys its own files. (Tip:
Open the Microsoft Word file in Open Office and save it as a.DOC file from Open
Office. Then you will be able to open the file in Microsoft Word again.)
ChkDsk.exe (Check Disk) supplied with Windows XP Professional has a
log file parameter. ("/L:size NTFS only: Changes the log file size to the
specified number of kilobytes. If size is not specified, displays current
size.") However, according to Microsoft technical support, Chkdsk does not
actually produce a log.
Many other Windows XP command line interface programs don't actually work
completely with Windows XP. The CLI is very incomplete and toy-like.
Microsoft software has had incredible numbers of very severe security
vulnerabilities and Microsoft has been very slow to fix them. The vulnerabilities have
cost customers hundreds of billions of dollars. If Microsoft had to pay for
the destructiveness of all the vulnerabilities, Bill Gates would be the
poorest person in the world, instead of the richest. Microsoft is like the
cigarette companies. If the cigarette companies had to pay the total cost
of cigarettes, including medical bills, cigarettes would not be profitable. If
Microsoft had to pay for the damages caused by its mediocre software, Microsoft would
not be a profitable company.
Apparently in an effort to create copy protection, Microsoft designed Windows XP to save configuration data from most programs in one huge file called the Registry. If that file somehow becomes corrupt, it can be impossible to repair for a reasonable amount of money.
Microsoft is managed around taking advantage of technical situations
rather than managed around trying to develop good products. Microsoft is, in
that way, more an abuse company than a software company.
You didn't think very carefully about what you said, in my opinion. The links I gave all have other links to the original material. The stories to which I linked all have comments by me about why I think there is a huge problem with the communication of scientific results, and links to the original papers.
Also, it seems to me that editors take advantage of readers by
encouraging mis-interpretation so that they can get more readers. Here's an
example of a story that didn't deserve attention: Report
Claims Men More Intelligent Than Women.
Microsoft software is insecure because that is a way of "maximizing shareholder value", in my opinion.
When
people have problems with their computer, they often buy a new computer. Then Microsoft sells another copy of
Windows, which, of course, still has huge security risks.
That also seems to be why Microsoft software is so... unfinished. If they ever finished the job, no one would need to buy another copy. So maximizing shareholder value means minimizing quality as much as possible, considering what customers will accept, and trying to introduce new hassles that can be fixed by even later versions.
Slashdot comments are not fully edited editorials. I just googled for what I knew was there, and picked one of the first links. Don't like it? Pick one of the others, or Google for your own.
-- If your gov't chooses killing as policy (CIA trained Arabs in
1980), expect others to choose the same.
The article says, "Drill shafts into the oil-bearing rock. Drop heaters down the shaft. Cook the rock until the hydrocarbons boil off, the lightest and most desirable first."
That's NOT a new technique. They were saying EXACTLY the same thing 50 years ago. (Back then, my father sold Motorola communications equipment to the oil and mining companies in Western Colorado.)
My guess is that Shell's P.R. people found a technologically ignorant media writer.
Think about it. How much energy would it take to heat a cubic mile of rock enough that the oil would boil out? Where would you get the energy?
Slashdot has become an angry place. If someone doesn't understand, or there is disagreement, there is immediate hostility.
-- Trying to make one book explain all of life makes some taxpayers crazy enough to pay for killing.
The article referenced in this Slashdot story is a complete lie, in my
opinion. It is certainly possible to do what the article says. However, the
cost in energy is greater than the amount of the energy returned.
The situation was the same 50 years ago. There is a huge amount of oil
in the shale, but no way has been found to extract the huge amounts of oil
efficiently.
The article refers to the "Synfuels debacle". Here's an article about
Synfuels called The Great Energy Scam that discusses how scammers take advantage of the
lack of technical knowledge of the public. Here's another article: Harsh
glare on synfuels hitting home.
I would like a way to limit searches on your web site to Open Source software. I think it would be good if each listing on your site mentioned if the package is open source.
Caffeine certainly does impair humans. However, they often use it to be pushy toward themselves, and claim that they like the effects.
Caffeine is an alkaloid. Nicotine is an alkaloid that gets similar claims from humans.
"Long periods of abuse[of caffeine] can lead to detrimental effects on the esophagus; persons who consume high amounts of caffeine may have a risk for higher incidents of peptic ulcers, erosive esophagitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. They may also have heart problems, insomnia, chronic muscle tension, and nervousness."
-- If your gov't chose killing as policy (CIA trained Arabs in 1980), expect others to choose the same.
That's not the issue. The issue was that Mr. Chizen said something very inadvisable. His statement was immediately retracted by more sensible people at Adobe.
Slashdot Mirror
Chkdsk needs to provide a log file! We had two Windows XP computers recently in which the NTFS file system was self-destructing. We need to run Chkdsk every night and have the log sent to us by email immediately if Chkdsk reports anything besides perfect health.
One area that I didn't criticize above is Microsoft's terrible, terrible, sloppy, incomplete, scattered documentation. Nothing in Microsoft documentation that neither Microsoft technical support nor I was able to find explained the Chkdsk log file.
About those computers I mentioned above: The problem in one seems to have been caused by a bad contact between the IDE controller and the hard drive. The problem in the other was never solved, even after 30 hours of hard work. We restored from a month-old backup. My experience with Windows XP SP2 is that sometimes it begins degrading and can only be fixed by re-installing the OS.
Chkdsk is a toy. A much more comprehensive, integrated, file system health tool is needed.
Next time, try the Psychic Friends Network. They don't know the answer either, but they are friendlier, cost less, speak English, and won't waste your time.
Quote from the Forbes article: "The Xbox game console is hot, but its division has lost $4 billion in four years and isn't yet in the black."
The business press is often full of baloney. "Hot", but lost $4 billion? It's easy to sell things for less than they cost.
After re-reading what I wrote in the parent comment, I realize that it is excessively pro-Microsoft, in my opinion.
There are entire huge areas of abuse that I didn't mention.
Several years ago I accompanied some friends to a computer store to help them buy a computer. We were offered Microsoft Office for $50. That's why Lotus SmartSuite and Corel WordPerfect lost market share. There was always a two-tier market for Microsoft Office. You could pay full price, or you could pay $50. It seemed to me that Microsoft was less than intense about stopping the pirates, because that ran the competitors out of business.
Microsoft did the same thing with DOS. At one time, 5 local and national distributors with which I did business all carried pirated DOS. I visited one distributor that indicated they were genuinely concerned, and showed them that it was easy to detect a pirated copy. Microsoft verified that. Other DOS-like operating systems were not able to compete with broad-scale piracy.
In 2002, Microsoft implemented a plan it called "Software Assurance". At the time, Ed Foster, who writes a famous column called GripeLine, called Software Assurance "manipulation
In his column released on September 15, 2005, Ed quoted one customer as saying that Software Assurance was "one of the biggest sucker jobs of all time".
Ed said, "The thing that Software Assurance has always assured is Microsoft revenue -- what the customer has gotten is risk, and lots of it. Expecting Microsoft to deliver value when they've already got your money is just not a very good bet."
Those are just two short examples. Some people believe that there are hundreds of Microsoft abuses like that, but, as far as I know, no one has counted all of them.
"organizational model"
einhverfr, there is a simpler explanation of the same thing, in my opinion. Microsoft was never relationship oriented. Mentally, Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer are still the socially disfunctional teenagers they were when they started.
Microsoft has never been a trust-based company. Anyone who tries to manage without examining the quality of relationships must manage by constantly testing the limits of what he or she can push other people to do. "Testing the Limits" management makes employees feel disrespected, because they ARE being disrespected. Before, programming was so exciting that employees were willing to be abused. Now that is beginning to change.
Microsoft has always sold mediocre products. The company has always been organized around taking advantage of technical ignorance, and around examining just how little people will accept. Think how miserable it is to work at a company that never does a good job!
Microsoft Basic was the first major product. It was poorly implemented and poorly documented. For example, there was no way to write a strictly binary file! An ASCII Hex 07 character would ring the bell rather than be written to a file.
Microsoft Assembler was provided with manuals printed from a dot matrix original. The assembler was unreliable. It would sometimes just not produce the correct instructions. The world had to wait for Borland Turbo Assembler to get a reasonably good assembler.
In an hour of testing the first version of Windows NT, which I had bought, I found 3 pages of serious bugs. My money was totally wasted.
The first version of Microsoft Access had huge bugs.
Microsoft Word in Office 2000 sometimes destroys its own files. (Tip: Open the Microsoft Word file in Open Office and save it as a
ChkDsk.exe (Check Disk) supplied with Windows XP Professional has a log file parameter. ("/L:size NTFS only: Changes the log file size to the specified number of kilobytes. If size is not specified, displays current size.") However, according to Microsoft technical support, Chkdsk does not actually produce a log.
Many other Windows XP command line interface programs don't actually work completely with Windows XP. The CLI is very incomplete and toy-like.
Microsoft software has had incredible numbers of very severe security vulnerabilities and Microsoft has been very slow to fix them. The vulnerabilities have cost customers hundreds of billions of dollars. If Microsoft had to pay for the destructiveness of all the vulnerabilities, Bill Gates would be the poorest person in the world, instead of the richest. Microsoft is like the cigarette companies. If the cigarette companies had to pay the total cost of cigarettes, including medical bills, cigarettes would not be profitable. If Microsoft had to pay for the damages caused by its mediocre software, Microsoft would not be a profitable company.
Apparently in an effort to create copy protection, Microsoft designed Windows XP to save configuration data from most programs in one huge file called the Registry. If that file somehow becomes corrupt, it can be impossible to repair for a reasonable amount of money.
Microsoft is managed around taking advantage of technical situations rather than managed around trying to develop good products. Microsoft is, in that way, more an abuse company than a software company.
Oh, come on, moderators, that was funny.
Killing and destroying property is the least sophisticated way of relating to other people.
And: MOD PARENT UP. The U.S. government seems to be regressing to an infantile way of relating to the world.
You didn't think very carefully about what you said, in my opinion. The links I gave all have other links to the original material. The stories to which I linked all have comments by me about why I think there is a huge problem with the communication of scientific results, and links to the original papers.
"reporters usually avoided math and science"
Yes, but it seems to me that sometimes the scientists themselves give misleading information to journalists, possibly to make their work seem more important. Here's an example: Effort to Create Virtual Brain Begins. Here's another far worse example, in my opinion: Can Cell Phones Damage Our Eyes?. Here's my opinion about Dr. Henry Lai of the University of Washington: Distinguish between real science and junk science.
Also, it seems to me that editors take advantage of readers by encouraging mis-interpretation so that they can get more readers. Here's an example of a story that didn't deserve attention: Report Claims Men More Intelligent Than Women.
MOD PARENT UP!! Good thinking.
Lameness filter encountered. Post aborted! Reason: Don't use so many caps. It's like YELLING.
We have a lame lameness filter.
--
If your gov't chooses killing as policy (CIA trained Arabs in 1980), expect others to choose the same.
Microsoft: We're so great that there is nothing to do this month! Oh, don't worry about those High Severity Remote Code Execution vulnerabilities.
Macromedia and Real Networks have been competing with Microsoft, but Microsoft is considerably ahead in being insecure.
Microsoft software is insecure because that is a way of "maximizing shareholder value", in my opinion.
When people have problems with their computer, they often buy a new computer. Then Microsoft sells another copy of Windows, which, of course, still has huge security risks.
That also seems to be why Microsoft software is so... unfinished. If they ever finished the job, no one would need to buy another copy. So maximizing shareholder value means minimizing quality as much as possible, considering what customers will accept, and trying to introduce new hassles that can be fixed by even later versions.
I get display bugs like those, but by far the worst bug for me is the bug that causes Firefox to sometimes use 30% to 98% CPU time.
Slashdot comments are not fully edited editorials. I just googled for what I knew was there, and picked one of the first links. Don't like it? Pick one of the others, or Google for your own.
--
If your gov't chooses killing as policy (CIA trained Arabs in 1980), expect others to choose the same.
There is NO new technique. That's the point.
The article says, "Drill shafts into the oil-bearing rock. Drop heaters down the shaft. Cook the rock until the hydrocarbons boil off, the lightest and most desirable first."
That's NOT a new technique. They were saying EXACTLY the same thing 50 years ago. (Back then, my father sold Motorola communications equipment to the oil and mining companies in Western Colorado.)
My guess is that Shell's P.R. people found a technologically ignorant media writer.
Think about it. How much energy would it take to heat a cubic mile of rock enough that the oil would boil out? Where would you get the energy?
Slashdot has become an angry place. If someone doesn't understand, or there is disagreement, there is immediate hostility.
--
Trying to make one book explain all of life makes some taxpayers crazy enough to pay for killing.
The article referenced in this Slashdot story is a complete lie, in my opinion. It is certainly possible to do what the article says. However, the cost in energy is greater than the amount of the energy returned.
The situation was the same 50 years ago. There is a huge amount of oil in the shale, but no way has been found to extract the huge amounts of oil efficiently.
The article refers to the "Synfuels debacle". Here's an article about Synfuels called The Great Energy Scam that discusses how scammers take advantage of the lack of technical knowledge of the public. Here's another article: Harsh glare on synfuels hitting home.
In my opinion, this is just another attempt to start a new scam. I think the word farce is too weak. Here's a little about how it works: THE 2005 ENERGY BILL, Helping Corporations, Hurting Western Colorado.
--
Bush lied, many died.
It was a traffic monitoring equipment company called Traf-O-Data.
--
Bush lied. 100,000 died. Violence & lying show a lack of social sophistication.
+1, best comment so far.
--
If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.
Mod parent +1 Funny.
--
If your gov't chooses killing as policy (CIA trained Arabs in 1980), expect others to choose the same.
MOD PARENT UP. Excellent site!
Whoops! Hit the submit button before I was fully ready.
What do you think of TugZip?
I would like a way to limit searches on your web site to Open Source software. I think it would be good if each listing on your site mentioned if the package is open source.
--
Michael Moore on Bush incompetence: Not a good writer, but I agree.
MOD PARENT UP. Excellent site!
--
Michael Moore on Bush incomptence: Not a good writer, but good ideas
Caffeine certainly does impair humans. However, they often use it to be pushy toward themselves, and claim that they like the effects.
Caffeine is an alkaloid. Nicotine is an alkaloid that gets similar claims from humans.
"Long periods of abuse [of caffeine] can lead to detrimental effects on the esophagus; persons who consume high amounts of caffeine may have a risk for higher incidents of peptic ulcers, erosive esophagitis, and gastroesophageal reflux disease. They may also have heart problems, insomnia, chronic muscle tension, and nervousness."
--
If your gov't chose killing as policy (CIA trained Arabs in 1980), expect others to choose the same.
There are many poisons that don't kill. Caffeine disturbs the normal working of the central nervous system of both insects and humans.
Caffeine has apparently the same effect on humans as it does on insects. It's a poison that in small quantities does not kill.
--
Trying to make one book explain all of life makes some people crazy enough to kill.
That's not the issue. The issue was that Mr. Chizen said something very inadvisable. His statement was immediately retracted by more sensible people at Adobe.
--
If you support dishonesty and violence, don't say you are Christian.