I bought and set up a Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router. In the process of setting it up I was suprised to see no fewer than three networks in my neighborhood that broadcast their SSID and are not protected by sophisticated encryption. In fact one network router identified itself as ‘Linksys’ which leads me to think the owner just went with the factory settings. Tsk. Perhaps I am paranoid but I set my router to not broadcast my SSID.

This week I got the notebook I ordered from Dell. It is a Dell Inspiron 600m, a cheaper model intended to hold me over until I upgrade my desktop computer. As a computer professional I like to upgrade my hardware every three to four years to stay current with trends. I’m due for a new desktop but am waiting until Microsoft releases Windows Vista, its next version of the Windows operating system, sometime next year. That way I can upgrade my PC and its operating system at the same time.

Shiny New Dell Inspiron 600m

Another Look at the Dell

The first thing I did when I got my notebook was to uninstall all the bologna that Dell loaded onto it. I removed every trial program and unnecessary software package I could using the Add/Remove program control panel program. But I still got a nag screen from QuickBooks. Grr. I’m going to dig into the system this weekend to remove every trace of it.

Overall, I am pleased with the notebook. The keyboard is as wide as screen, i.e. 14 inches. After using a full-sized keyboard like the Microsoft Natural Keyboard, the notebook’s keyboard feels tiny and cramped. The screen is crisp and bright esp after turning on ClearType.

As you can see I added a wireless notebook mouse . It is a Logitech V200 Cordless Optical Notebook Mouse. I am pleased with its performance. It tracks very well with no noticable lag. Also, it micro-receiver snaps onto the bottom of the mouse for easy storage.

Tom Gets a Dell

I mangled my Windows XP registry. This incident started after I upgraded my HDD to a 200 Gb model. I took these steps: 1) exported up the registry to a USB thumbdrive, 2) formatted the new HDD, 3) reinstalled Windows XP and software and 3) double-clicked on the registry file to install its registry entries. I got an error griping about trying to update registry entries that were being actively used. Then, the regedit program closed. Does this mean a partial success? Short of scanning the registry and reg file there was no way of knowing. This probably messed up the registry.

I noticed that the system seemed to think it was in safe mode. Funny thing was that I didn’t see any of the banners that are displayed when Windows is in safe mode. My PC consistently booted into Safe Mode without displaying the “Safe Mode menu”, the one that you see if you press F8 at boot time. I searched Microsoft’s knowledge base for an article how to get Windows to not think it is in Safe Mode. No success.

So I reformatted the HDD and reinstalled Win XP. This time I did not attempt to reinstall the registry entries. All works fine.

Lesson learned: do not try to install registry keys from an exported reg file. The regedit program does not fail nicely or attempt to clean up after itself.

Well, my Intel PRO/1000 network interface card (NIC) went on the fritz. The problem manifested itself by having my computer freeze. It even froze sometimes during OS boot time. I have come to expect this behavior from Windows. But when I booted to Linux and had the same problem, I suspected a hardware problem.

My first suspect were my hard drives. I have been getting SMART errors on them for a while. But I happened to notice that the system especially tended to slow down when it tried to access the network. I watched activity on my hub. My faulty NIC kept flashing on and off. The problem had to be the NIC.

After a quick trip to Circuit City and Best Buy I discovered that neither of them sell Intel or 3COM branded cards. I had to settle for a NetGear card for $25. The salesperson told me that they do not sell many Gigabit ethernet cards. I suppose since the 100 Mbit NICs were less than $10 after mail-in rebate that people opt for the cheapest card when installing a home network. Either that or they opt for a wireless network.

Many apologies if you tried to access my blog Saturday night. The server on which my domain was hosted suffered major disk drive errors. Dreamhost, my web host provider, could not recover the server. They moved all of my services to a new hardware system. But it resulted in downtime that lasted over an hour.

I have been a DreamHost customer for over six years. That is the worst downtime I have experienced. Overall, they provide decent service. They let me down this weekend though. Someone happened to try to access my blog while it was down and sent me an IM. I was embarassed and disappointed.

Open source software developers need to give credit and respect to documentation developers. The hard work needed for technical documentation is underappreciated. Unfortunately, the prevelant attitude among software developers is to install a Wiki and depend on the good will of others to document their projects.

Wikis do not work for technical documentation. For technical documentation to be usable it must be clear, complete, correct and current. Wikis fail on all of these points.

:: CLEAR

Most technical documentation Wikis are a mess. They are an unorganized pile of articles that can duplicate or contradict each other. Most Wikis are unmanaged by anybody responsible enough to purge the junk and reorganize the entries. I lament the revert war that may follow anyone brave enough to attempt to the clean the mess up.

The ‘search’ feature of most Wikis is inadequate. Multiple words in a search phrase causes the search engine to lose its brain. If your phrase does not match the words of entries exactly, the search engine will not be able to find what you need. You often can have better luck with a Google search.

:: COMPLETE

Wiki zealots want documentation to be incomplete. They feel the best way to encourage participate is to post stubs. Stubs are woefully inadequate articles that are the Wiki equivalent of the “under construction” signs once popular on web pages. Remember those? Stubs are just as pointless.

:: CORRECT

Not too long ago Google announced a project to scan in books and make their digitized contents searchable. Why not? Books have been subjected to the scrutiny of an editorial review. The author’s name is prominently displayed on the book.

Software developers have their superstars such as Alan Cox and Linus Torvalds. Can you name a technical documentation author whose work is as respected? Technical documentation Wikis do not reward either editorial scrunity or correctness. In fact who wants their name associated with anything that can be changed so easily to be incorrect.

:: CURRENT

A neglected Wiki is not a good source of current documentation. In fact technical documentation in general usually trails the release of project software. I challenge open source developers to make technical documentation a part of a ‘release’. In other words a software project is not ready for release until its technical documentation is updated. I am frustrated by outdated documentation in projects like Gnome and Cloudscape.

:: WHAT TO DO

Open source projects must find a documentation maintainer. That person is a developer — a documentation developer — who is just as important as any developer actively working on source code. Consider her part of your team. Give her CVS privileges. Answer her questions quickly and in a friendly manner. Give her credit in your project documentation and on your project web site.

A documentation maintainer’s job is to handle document submissions. He ensures that your documentation is clear, complete, correct, current, and consistent. Also, users may find a bug but will complain that the manual is wrong. If he cannot explain a feature, it may be a usability problem with your interface.

Wikis suck for technical documentation. But with the right attitude and a serious commitment open source projects can have decent technical documentation.