Weblog of a “Switcher”

One of OS X's newest features was one of the biggest reasons I switched to Mac. That feature (as you probably gathered via the title of the post) is Spotlight!

Today I had a rather frustrating time at work in Windows trying to locate a single file in millions. Every time I attempted to launch WinCVS, it would either lock up or tell me that there was a deadlock with a TCL84.DLL file.

Reading the error message that displayed, it implied that it was possibly using an incorrect version of the DLL stored somewhere else. From the name of the file, I figured that it was something to do with TCL/TK. This is odd since I didn't install the Python/TCL options it wants. I didn't have them installed before and had no problems.

Anyway, I wanted to see where there were other copies of the file. So I asked XP to do a file search (the one in Explorer) for me. After 30 minutes of my system running at a snail’s pace looking through all the files on my HD for that file, I gave up.

"Why didn't I use Google Desktop Search or Microsoft Desktop Search?" you ask? Well, I'll tell you. I don't use those tools because they cause my computer to run at a snail’s pace when I don't want it to. Even though those programs claim to not run if the computer isn't idle, they still seem to. Also, I have had Google Desktop Search cause some rather strange problems to show up. Like getting errors during project builds because it's indexing a file that was just touched by the build and since the file is in use, the build errors out.

I have tried both of the search engines above. Microsoft's search at least allows you to put it to sleep for 1 hour, 8 hours, etc... What they need is a scheduler that I can say exactly when the indexing should take place. That way I can specify the hours I am not in the office.

Enter Spotlight on the Mac. I have used this many times since I got my MacBook. I constantly forget where I store files. All I have to do to find the file is type part of its name and before I finish typing that name, it appears in the list. I'm sure OS X is indexing the computer, yet I never notice it.

Why is this such a difficult task for Microsoft or Windows to do? For file name searching, I have created a batch file at work that does a "DIR /S" and pipes the output to a file. I do this for all the volumes on my computer and I schedule it to run overnight. In the morning I can simply search the text file created to find a file. It's not real-time, but at least it's something.

written by Dave M. \\ tags: 30 Minutes, Deadlock, Desktop Search, Error Message, File Search, Google, Hd, Macbook, Microsoft Desktop, Office Mac, Os X, Pace, Python, Scheduler, Search Engines, Single File, Sleep, Spotlight, Strange Problems, Tk

So, thanks to Microsoft Windows, I was finally able to convince my parents to switch to a Mac as well.

Why? Well, my Dad mistakenly used Internet Explorer to go someplace on the web. Apparently, that place wasn't very nice, and the next thing he knew, windows were popping up left and right. Later, when my mother tried to use the computer, Internet Explorer windows started popping up all over the place for her too. There were two processes running that were suspicious looking. "isamini" and "isamonitor". Looking these up on Google, I find that one is a trojan and the other was just malware in general. Aparently both do bad things to the system.

So this weekend, I spent 6 hours backing up their data, wiping out their HD and re-installing Windows. The backup/re-install/restore didn't take that terribly long. It was the freaking UPDATES that took forever. First, there was the fact that Windows Update thought we were not using a Genuine copy of Windows. That was utterly ridiculous. I used the "Re-install" disk that came with the freaking computer. I had to go through some bizarre set of webpages that identified the little certificate on the side of the computer. Once I did that, I was allowed to start the update process.

There were 10 updates in the first set. That took about a half an hour, then came SP2, that took about 45 minutes, then after SP2, there were 49, count them, 49 more updates that needed to be done. I stopped at this point. Enough is enough.

So to try to combat future problems, I set up both my parents accounts as "limited users". This works great. Now, they are not allowed to change the Power Saving features in the Display options. I also forgot to install some printer drivers they need for the printer they have. So back to their house I went tonight to make those adjustments.

Tomorrow afternoon, on my way home from work, I'm buying a MacMini for them. I'll get it setup and bring it over to them when I finish. If they don't want the Windows box, I'll probably bring it home and install a Linux distro on it.

There was a time when I really though that Winows was not all that bad. Between Vista being as useless as Windows XP when it comes to security, (I'll explain) and XP being useless, it wasn't really all that hard to convince the matriarch of the family that the switch was necessary.

I make the claims about XP and Vista that I am making due to the fact that Vista seems to have a similar security model to XP. A "Standard user" can't do much (apparently they can change the power saving features unlike XP). I suppose this is a good thing. However, in order to do anything with the system, you have to log into an administrator account. XP is the same way with it's "Limited user" accounts. I take part of the above statements back... I tried to change a setting somewhere else, and it asked to put in the password of the admin account. So they did make some improvements. Maybe the other places it doesn't ask will get fixed before it's released.

I am writing this post under Vista as a "Standard user". Basically, I want to see how Vista fairs compared to OS X and the way it handles changes to the system by non-admin accounts. Windows XP just doesn't deal with Limited users at all. From what I can see with Vista, at least it has the ability to make some changes as a Standard user. My opinion, it doesn't stack up at all. Apple got it right with OS X and the way it deals with standard users vrs admin users.

Thank God I was able to convince my parents to switch. :whew:

written by Dave M. \\ tags: Computer Internet, Dad, Genuine Copy, Google, Half An Hour, Hd, Installing Windows, Internet Explorer Windows, Isamini, Isamonitor, Macmini, Microsoft, Microsoft Windows, Parents, Printer Drivers, Sp2, Tomorrow Afternoon, Trojan, Windows Box, Windows Update