The time is near for the release of SP1 for Windows XP and once again I’ve started to hear a phrase bandied about that irritates me no end; early adopter. So what’s an early adopter? To my way of thinking, it’s someone who avails them self of a product when it’s first placed in the retail channel. Notice that I didn’t say it’s a beta tester or a guinea pig or someone that likes to take extraordinary risks.

This isn’t some new phenomenon since XP first hit the market. My memory may be a bit cloudy, but I seem to remember this phrase from the days of Windows for Workgroups. Each time a new operating system, upgrade, or even a service pack is released the dire warnings start to fly. Wait until the first service pack is released before you upgrade, they warn. Don’t be a fool and make the change so quickly. Don’t be an early adopter.

Why shouldn’t I be able to be an early adopter? Just because I choose to avail myself of a product when it’s released doesn’t mean I’m consenting to allow defective merchandise on my computer. Yet the early adopter tag has almost taken on the meaning that I understand I’m accepting goods that are of lesser quality and stability than I’d receive if I waited a few months or years. I’m not looking for perfect. If that was my criteria I wouldn’t even have a computer.

There’s another little phrase that’s been a part of popular culture for a while now. Deal with it. I think it’s a pretty good reply for those who scorn early adopters. Just because ‘you’ can’t deal with a few issues that crop up in the first releases don’t scare off those willing to update right away. A year from now, after you think the early adopter guinea pigs have worked out all the kinks, go ahead and upgrade. I guarantee you there will be a whole new set of current issues for you ‘late adopters’ to deal with. It’s the nature of the beast.

A lot of press coverage has been given to the upcoming release of SP1 for Windows XP. Most of the attention has been directed toward allowing middleware applications to be hidden so that users can install programs of their choice, part of the proposed anti-trust settlement. Another aspect of SP1 that hasn't received much attention relates to Microsoft addressing pirated copies of Windows XP, or what is commonly referred to as warez. It's no secret that illegal copies of XP are widely available via the Internet. I've read that somewhere in the vicinity of 90% of these illegal XP copies use a single corporate license key that was stolen and distributed. To strike back, it's my understanding that SP1 will prevent these copies of XP from being updated as future enhancements and security patches or service packs are released from Microsoft. So here's the bottom line and the reason for this little piece.

I've received a number of e-mails from people running pirated copies of XP wanting to know if I have, or can direct them to, sites where patches can be obtained that will defeat the effects of SP1. The answer is no. I don't deal in pirated software, and I don't keep up with the warez scene. Even if I did, I wouldn't direct you to them. It's always been my opinion that if you use a product , you pay for that product. If you think it's overpriced, don't buy it, but I see no justification for using a product illegally. Especially when you obviously find it valuable enough you go to the trouble to seek out a way to continue to use it illegally when a company takes steps to deny you that use. If you aren't willing to pay the price to use a product, delete it and find an alternative. Anything less brands you as exactly what you are. A thief.

A friend sent me this the other day. He said it reminded him of me. I wonder why? I suspect it was #1, but I enjoyed them all.

Hello, and Welcome to the Psychiatric Hotline

• If you are obsessive-compulsive, please press 1 repeatedly.

• If you are co-dependent, please ask someone to press 2.

• If you have multiple personalities, please press 3,4,5,and 6.

• If you are paranoid-delusional, We know who you are and what you want. Stay on the line so we can trace the call.

• If you are a schizophrenic, listen carefully and a little voice will tell you which number to press.

• If you are a manic depressive, it doesn't matter which number you press, nobody will answer.

  ---

Months slip by, the Microsoft trial keeps churning along and tidbits about SP1 for Windows XP are slowly finding their way into the news. SP1 will cover a number of different XP related issues as discussed in an article by Paul Thurrott on his Windows SuperSite. The part of the article which got me to thinking revolved around the compliance changes as part of the settlement with the federal government.

One of the comments made by a reader the other day stuck in the back of my mind. The topic was SP1 for Windows XP and how it was going to remove the icons for middleware. Naturally, this led to reader calls for a totally stripped version of Windows. One reader suggested that if Microsoft did offer the OS in a lean and mean version then they could package up everything that has been removed similar to the PlusPak that's currently available for XP. A sort of "Windows XP for Strippers Pack" that contained the items that everyone whines about and fuels the Nine Prophets (states) in their quest for publicity.

Personally, I'm all for this idea. It will get the whiners to cease and desist with their pitiful cries about how bad Microsoft has treated the computing world. I don't believe for a second that 90% of these criers want the features removed from XP totally. I think they want them removed, but available for free, so that when they find they really aren't so bad they can easily reinstall them.

Maybe Netscape will seize on this opportunity and start charging again for the wonderful v7.0 if Microsoft yanks IE from the free market and bundles it as a "Stripper" item. Let's see, what would I like to have? A browser that has been bug-laden since day one that can't display even a small percentage of the pages on the web properly, or a browser that while it may be far from perfect at least offers a degree of stability? Oh, and the virus and trojan problems? Stay off sites where they are likely to be found. Buy a damn virus program, but most of all, educate yourself to how they propagate and what files they might be in. Another group of whiners I'm tired of: the "I didn't know" whiners. It's not anyone's job to educate you but yourselves. Take some responsibility.

I know for a fact that RealMedia (or Networks) or whatever they are calling themselves today will never find its way to any computer I own. Yes, that was the 'never' word, and I do mean never. Few companies are as deceitful and slippery about trying to hide things from consumers during the installation process. If there was no other media player available, I'd do without before I'd let them on my machine. This one company alone could generate enough black ink for "Stripper" that Microsoft wouldn't have to add anything else to the CD.

It was a much different world when I first ventured online. People who even knew about this place were considered a bit strange. If you inhabited this part of the world you were certifiably crazy. There wasn’t a wide variety of material available back in those days and keeping up with the offerings was a lot easier. Today, the volume of material has increased to the point that it would be impossible to view it all in a single lifetime. Finding relevant material via searches has become quite difficult with the nets popularity explosion over the past decade. Many sites have come into being to provide indexing and search capabilities to aid in information retrieval. Gimmicks abound, but one that began as a gimmick to keep a sites name visible in an open browser has become exceptionally useful. I call them search toolbars or branded toolbars.

Until recently Yahoo had earned a place in my browser. I’m not quite sure what happened, but over time my search results through Yahoo became less and less useful. The ratio of spam to relevancy exploded so I went looking for a different search venue. Enter Google, the search engine and branded toolbar that has replaced Yahoo in that valuable strip of real estate at the top of my browser.
Google has managed to keep the relevance in its searches, works quickly and as a wonderful bonus has a 20 year Usenet message archive. If you frequently use the search function I highly recommend you visit here and install the Google Toolbar. It’s compact, versatile and a wonderful browser addition.

Normally I remove articles from this section within a few months of posting. This one remains because of the great respect I hold for Mr. Ellis, his associates, and their vision called Usenet. Their work, in large part, allows us to today enjoy what we call the World Wide Web.

07/01/2001     HARMONY, Pa. (AP) -- Jim Ellis, who helped create the information-sharing electronic bulletin boards that predated the World Wide Web, has died. He was 45.

Ellis, who had been battling non-Hodgkin's lymphoma for two years, died at home in Beaver County early Thursday, said his wife, Carolyn.

Most recently an Internet security consultant with Sun Microsystems, Ellis was one of the creators of Usenet, which linked computers and allowed people to share information and reply to messages.

Usenet began in 1979 when Ellis and another Duke graduate student, Tom Truscott, thought of hooking together computers to share information. At the beginning of 1980, the network consisted of two sites at Duke and one at the University of North Carolina. Usenet quickly become a popular means of trading and sharing information internationally before the World Wide Web came into existence.

By using bulletin boards -- later called newsgroups -- people who were linked to the system could share information and hold discussions. By late 1999, the number of newsgroups was estimated at more than 37,000.

Allan Fisher, chief executive officer of Carnegie Technology Education, a subsidiary of Carnegie Mellon University which develops Web-based courses, said Usenet could be considered ``the first big community application'' of an interconnected system of computers. “The social importance was it allowed this community building and prefigured a lot of what happened on the Web,'' Fisher said.

Ellis and the other creators of Usenet, including Steve Bellovin and Steve Daniel, made no money from it, said Carolyn Ellis, because it was not set up as a commercial venture. “They launched this thing and had no idea where it was going,'' she said.

After working in North Carolina, Ellis and his wife moved to western Pennsylvania in 1986 when he took a position with the Super Computing Center in Pittsburgh. Later, he joined Sun Microsystems, working from his home in western Pennsylvania.

“He had a good wit. He loved bridge. He loved his family of course,'' Carolyn Ellis said. ``He was not afraid of his impending death.''