The Coburn Blog

I’m not much for griping anymore, but as time goes on, I am really beginning to dislike WIndows Vista more and more.

A couple of my biggest Gripes:

Whenever an update is available in Windows Vista, at first it tells you one is available, so I’m ok cool I’ll install it as soon as I’m done typing out this 20 page report I have to write for school..  So I get to the end of my document, click on File and JUST about ready to press “save” when suddenly,  “poof”  MS word closes and the entire Computer reboots..  I’m like….”what the HELL??”  so when the computer finishes rebooting, I look down at my taskbar and it says “computer rebooted for updates to install”  and I’m thinking.. “ya MICROSOFT you could have auto saved my work for me before rebooting my computer for me!! idiots!!

Then on top of that, after you reboot, finding out your 20 page report that you just got done typing out for the last 5 hours, is not only GONE, but your last upgrade to Yahoo Messsenger is suddenly starting at windows boot.   I’m like…”I set that to NOT start on startup 2 freakin days ago”  but yet its checked AGAIN because every time yahoo messenger comes out with yet another update to their messenger program, it wants to enable “startup at boot” every time. The same with that other annoying setting about “always on top of every window open on your desktop” so all you can do is minimize it, or close it, to get it out of your freakin way!   Its the same with MSN messenger, AIM messenger, digsby, ICQ, they all wanna do that,  make “run at startup” and “always on top of all your freakin windows making it impossible for it to go away” the default..   I’m like…I can’t even think of an instance where I’d want either one of those settings enabled for anything, why make the most annoying settings that nobody ever uses the default?????

I’m tellin yah, its no wonder IT people get so many calls about “my computer is too slow”  or “my computer freezes up and does this and that”   then when you go over there,  they have 2 screens full of stuff in their startup menu….

programmers, if your gonna write a program, ANY program,  DO NOT make it run at Windows startup by default!!   please I’m BEGGING yah!!    and when you make an update installer, have it READ the previous installations configuration settings so that EVERY TIME a new update comes out the user doesn’t have to go thru hunting down in the jumbled mess of crap they put in configuration preferences to find that little option that says “run automatically at windows startup”  to UN-check it!  or the one even further down in the sub-menu of sub-menu of sub-menu that says “keep on top of all your windows on your desktop including the one your trying to work on”  Oh its one of my biggest all time gripes about Windows software…

I mean seriously folks, do any of you out there ever run yahoo messenger on WIndows startup?  I don’t care what your doing with yahoo messenger or AOL instant messenger or whatever instant messenger you decide to use, NOObody wants their programs to run automatically at startup!    Users want to be able to click on an icon on the desktop, or in the start menu, when they want to run something, they don’t want it to run automatically, NOO body does!    Do these application programmer not get that, or what?  hehehe

I’m not upset or angry or anything, I’m actually laughing right now at how stupid these things are.. hehe

honestly, why would you want a window, that pops up in the middle of your screen, and just sticks there, why would you ever want that for anything?  like lets say your surfing the web and you come across an article you want to look at, so you start typing in something, and suddenly “poof” this annoying popup window from your instant messenger or whatever, pops up,  so your like ok I’ll answer it but in a minute I was just working on someting first, then when I get to a point that I can answer it I’ll answer it,  so you try to task back to what you was doing, but it don’t let you,  the window just “sticks” there right in the middle of your freakin screen!!  I’m like  “what the hell??” ya know what I mean?  why would anybody WANT that on??? much of less the “default” behavior??  hehe

Its like, all these different toolbars they have out now..  Google toolbar, yahoo toolbar, ask.com toolbar… honestly guys,  do any of you ever run any of these web browser toolbars from any of these sites??  HECK NO!!   I see ‘em all as spam if you ask me. hehe   Seriously though,  if I accepted every toolbar that tried to install in my Internet Explorer or Firefox, I’d have enough “toolbars” to cover 5 computer monitors.  hehe.   I mean common guys, nobody likes these crappy toolbars,  don’t even bother putting them into your application installations get over the toolbar hype already. hehe.  I can understand if its for advertising purposes, you can always uninstall all these things I know, and making money is cool,  but WHY as default when there is no advertising purpose for it?  Thats what I don’t understand?   I can understand there being some vague uses for some of these things,  but why by default when 99% of the population never uses it?  A toolbar can’t help much with advertising I wouldn’t think, and things that run at startup just freeze your computer anyway, so again no advertising benefit there.  I mean, most toolbars just have little bitty buttons on ‘em that most people ignore anyways, its not like any of ‘em show banner ads or anything,  thats not really effective advertising, so I just don’t understand the concept of this really. hehe  I do have to say though,  these little nit picky things really make an IT professionals job interesting to say the least, I’d bet.

To continue on with the Vista gripes,  I’m probably one of the few individuals who doesn’t like the new Vista Start menu.    I actually “liked” the old style  “fly up and over” menus better.  Granted, the search bar is kinda nice because you can just “start to type in” the name of the program you want, kinda like auto-complete in your favorite web browsers address bar,  that really is handy,  but I still prefer the “all programs” menu to “fly up and over” like it did back in WIndows XP.    Yes, you can set the start menu properties back to Windows Classic, like in previous versions of Windows, but you can’t set the start menu in WIndows Vista back to “XP style”  you can only set it back to “windows 95 style”,  which was my first gripe when I first installed Vista.  Its like, where did the XP style start menu, go to??  The reason I prefer the XP start menu, over the Classic Windows 95 style, is because I still like the “favorite applications”  list on the left side that was first introduced in Windows XP,  that is how I run most of the work that I do is by using that list. I don’t like icons on my desktop I HATE desktop icons, because they cover up the beautiful backgrounds I have as my desktop wallpaper. I have different ones I use depending upon what mood I’m in. The nature ones especially are really beautiful.  Icons are like someone coming along and putting their fingerprints on one of your photographs you just brought back from the photo store.  like get them stupid icons away from my picture!! messing up my picture with them smuggy things!! hehehe. Thats how I feel about icons I’m sorry. hehe.  Widgets are even worse.  I think the person who invented widgets, must have been the same person who invented the Quick Launch bar.  hehe.  Both just take up more system RAM, more resources, and give your computer another reason to flip out, freeze, and randomly reboot on you while your doing something important.  hehehe

My last gripe is about Internet Explorer.    I can’t see it happening, but I sure hope Internet Explorer 8 is alot lighter on resources then Internet Explorer 7 is in Windows Vista.   I can’t even bring up IE in Vista at all without the web browser itself taking 10 minutes to load into memory and onto the screen..    Once the browser actually loads in from the hard drive, hehe, it runs decent enough,  until you type in a web address that isn’t common. Then, you gotta wait another 20 mins or so, for the philsing filter to check the website address out before you can actually do anything on that website.    Granted, that would be ok if the philsing crap did that every time it visited a new domain, that I can understand,  but every single page load??  I mean common!!!   I was on facebook the other day in IE, and I tell yah, that philsing filter would hang and hang and hang and hang trying to check out facebook to see if it was “safe” or not, every single time I would reload a page, or click on a link going to another page on the same website.  I’m like…arrrgh!!

So I don’t use Internet Explorer in Vista anymore,  its just not usable…  So I installed Firefox, which I absolutely LOVE in Vista, very fast very stable,  except for ONE thing…  Whenever you goto a web site that has a file attachment thingy on it,  like lets say for example your trying to upload a new photo to facebook for example,  in Firefox under WIndows Vista,  when you click “browse”   a window pops up asking for which file you want to upload.  so you click one and click “Open”.   what happens?  the whole browser crashes!!   ever single time!!   no matter what the site is, so basically, whenever I attach a file, ANY file of ANY size, to a website, as soon as I click on the “browse” button and the browse window comes up,  the whole browser crashes.  You can choose a file, but if you click the red “X” instead and not choose a file, Firefox still crashes.

So naturally, I reported this bug to Mozilla’s  bugzilla thingy.. I read back the response to the report, and most everyone else in that report said “well I haven’t tried this yet”  and I’m thinking… you haven’t noticed this???!!  who surfs the web and doesn’t try to upload an avatar, or text file, or picture file of some sort, to a website  at some point while their surfing the web??    I mean geez I do that just about every other day..  It blew my mind that I was the very first to notice that… (shrugs) totally blew my mind…   and Firefox 3 for Vista has been out for a LONG time too, yet I’m the first one thats noticed this??   I kinda found that hard to believe in a way…

All in all, Vista has been pretty stable though for the most part.  I’ve yet to experience any complete OS  freezes that require me to shut down the computer with the rocker switch in the back,  that is always a good thing  :)   Another thing thats really cool about Vista,  hardware functions built inside my computer case and motherboard actually WORK like there supposed to in Vista.   I was like WHOA!!!  For instance,  in previous versions of WIndows,  sleep and hibernation modes NEVER worked for me.  All 5 of my computers, including my laptop, sleep or hibernation modes never worked.  They would either go into sleep and not wake up from sleep,  or hibernation would shut off the computer instantaniously, so obviously for the longest time, I thought there was something physically wrong with my computers to make hibernation and sleep modes not function properly,   but now I know,  it was the OS, NOT my hardware.

Oh man, I am finding out now how COOL and AWESOME hibernation and sleep modes are.    Now if I let my computer sit idle for about 20 mins or so, it’ll go into sleep mode, which basically shuts down all the fans and stuff until you move the mouse around,  very cool.   If I let my computer sit idle for an hour or so, it’ll go into hibernation mode, which basically shuts down the computer pretty much entirely.  I mean, you actually think the computer is off entirely,  so you push the power button to turn it back on, and poof your back to the desktop like you had it before you left…   I was like WHOOAAAA that is awesome!!!   so I just leave my computer on all day now, letting it go nto hibernation and sleep modes while I’m walking places or doing housework or on the phone or whatever.  I love power management now its totally awesome! hehehe  so there are some good things about Vista that not everybody really talks about

I know most of you are probably wondering, if you are blind, or mostly blind, how do you use a Computer?  I get this question alot, so here in this post, I will attempt to answer this question as best I can.

Like dogs and white walking sticks for travel, they have software for the Computer that turns text on the screen into audio speech. Its very good software.  There are three different ones made by three different companies. The most well known is called  Jaws for Windows

Jaws for Windows

Another one not quite as well known, is by a company called GW Micro, who are located here in Indiana, its called Window-Eyes:  Window Eyes

The last option is the Hal Screen reader by Dolphin software, but their a company located outside the united states so their products aren’t used much here in the states.

All three of the above options have both screen reading capabilities, and the option to hook up what is called a “braille display” to the computer instead of a traditional monitor.  Most people who have no sight at all, prefer the braille displays, so they don’t have to mess with all the graphics and such.   I like Jaws, I’ve used it before, the other two I haven’t used so I don’t know how good or bad they are.

Myself, I don’t use Jaws on a regular basis. I use a different solution from AI Squared called Zoomtext.

The reason I prefer Zoomtext, over Jaws, is because I have some usable vision left. Zoomtext has options to magnify the screen up to 32x its original size, and options to remove problem colors and put the screen into reverse video, similar to how a Closed Circuit Television works for those who are familiar with that process.  The Windows accessibility features built into Windows does some of that, but it doesn’t do full screen zooming, the text and pictures are blurry and unreadable when there magnified, and you can’t toggle reverse video on and off with a hotkey, thats why I like Zoomtext better then the options built into Windows.  Zoomtext has whats called xFont technology, which is used so the text is easily readable in the highest of magnification modes, which is a feature exclusive to Zoomtext. It also has mouse and cursor highlighters because sometimes the visually impaired have trouble locating the mouse and text cursors on the screen, I know I do, which is a very nice feature I use it everyday.  Zoomtext is centered around the extreme sight impaired, while products like Jaws are better suitable for the completely blind, because Zoomtext speech reading isn’t as good as Jaws, and you still have to point the mouse cursor at the point you want it to start speaking,  while with Jaws you don’t have to use the mouse or monitor at all, so Jaws or Window Eyes are definitely better solutions for the completely blind.

Because these options are expensive, and because there are 4 different options depending upon severity of vision loss and user preference, for instance Window Eyes can be used on a USB stick, while Jaws has to be installed on the Computer with administrative privileges which wouldn’t be suitable at a college computer lab or the local library for instance, so there are advantages and disadvantages to each option,  they usually recommend a blind person goto her local states Vocational Rehabilitation office.  There, they can put her thru mobility and independent living skills training.   My independent living skills trainer is also a low vision specialist,  and she taught me how to use Jaws and Zoomtext to be productive on the computer in my everyday lifestyle.  She went over how to use the software, how to use the software with word and excel to maximize my productivity, how to use it with a web browser and do web searches, so on and so forth.  I could even use it to take the CompTIA A+ and Network+ and Microsoft Office Certification exams, if CompTIA would allow it, but lately they have been giving me grief about it, claiming the software “may” not be compatible with their testing software environment, so they won’t even let me try it at all, isn’t that stupid?  and the testing proctors at school can’t allow me to try it without permission from CompTIA, so its a big mess.  The college should speak to them in my behalf on that, but they don’t, which just makes me mad, because I as an individual cannot prosecute a big company like CompTIA or PearsonVUE, that would be like me taking on Microsoft or CISCO, without someone important to speak in my behalf, I don’t have a prayer.

The only problem with the speech software solutions, is they can’t read images or Flash / shockware / ColdFusion content. so usually how we get around this is by reading the XML code of the page, or having the software read its page source.  For instance, Window-Eyes will convert the HTML source of the page into speech, skipping the HTML markup and reading just the actual text and links on a page. I don’t understand the specifics of the process, I just know the software does all that for me, that is a good reason why webmasters should always follow XHTML compliance, because the screen readers don’t read content very well that isn’t XHTML compliant, and special CSS styles can be used specifically for braille displays. Window Eyes and Jaws users use the keyboard to click on links and buttons they want to go to next, its pretty neat, I’ve used it before, I just prefer Zoomtext as long as I have some usable vision left, so I can see pictures and visual layouts that the screen reader wouldn’t be able to read to me.  Zoomtext’s screen magnification is actually quite good and can enlarge pictures, Flash movies, and other video content without making the images blurry as the magnification level increases, its really cool. Ai Squared even has a stripped down version of the software for people who aren’t blind, who just want the magnification, reverse video, and XFont technologies on these incredibly tiny 1600×1200, or higher, display resolutions that only teeny bobbers can read. hehe.  Doesn’t it seem like the bigger your LCD display is, the higher the native resolution is?  I’ve seen some 27 inch monitors lately with 2048×1536 resolutions before. I can’t imagine someone with 20/20 vision being able to see that!!  You can check that software out at:  getzoomware.com. there is a 30 or 60 day demo on all these products, by the way, on their websites to check out and play around with.

The main thing to keep in mind,  when a blind person uses a computer, they don’t use a monitor, or a mouse.   Now I do because I still have some usable vision left, but I could use Jaws without a monitor or mouse if I wanted to, probably will have to one day since the doctor said my vision will progressively get worse in time, as I notice a little less everyday now,  and I have used a computer without a monitor or mouse before when my eyes have given me problems,  but you usually have to go thru Vocational Rehab to purchase the software,  because each solution is in the $600-900 range, which is a lot of money, but if its for school or work or something, VR usually covers it, as they did me since I major in Computers at school.

Hope this answers the questions about how I use a computer Granted, the software isn’t perfect, nothing ever is, but its pretty neat stuff for those who might be interested.  Its given me the ability to not only use a computer, but choose computers as my field of study as a someday career move.

Oh man, today at church was a really great sermon, I wish I had a transcript of it.  It was about how we should not put anything else in our lives above God, and how we use him as our support system in our lives instead of our friends, pastors, and anyone else down here on earth.

For instance, Jeremiah 29 verse 11-12 says “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and i will listen to you”

PSALM 46:1 says  “God is our refuge and our strength, and ever present help in trouble”

My personal favorite passage, which he didn’t talk about today, is John 3:16  “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believith in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life”

Isn’t that wonderful?  He is basically saying here, that as long as we believe in God, and put no other God’s before him, that we shall not perish, but instead have everlasting life when we die.  That is just truely amazing. Having that kind of faith, how can you ever moarn the loss of another, knowing in your heart the person you lost is now immortal?  I mean, I just can’t imagine being upset about that.

The pastors sermon talked about the troubles him and his wife had with their daughter.  She started to rebel against the family when she turned 18, got involved with one boy who was into pornographics and drugs, then she got involved with another guy who said he was a pastor, but turned out to be too controlling and into alcohol and drugs too. He went on to say that they were at their witts end trying to figure out what to do for her, until he read PSALM 46:1, it was then  then they realized what they had to do.  They had to step asside and let God handle it, instead of trying to handle it themselves.    He said the more they tried to handle it themselves by pressuring her into going to church and preventing her from seeing guys, the more rebellious against them she became.

So they stepped asside as her parents, and realized God is a much better father then they could ever be, and that put their mind at ease as they continued to pray for her.  God always listens to our prayers, but doesn’t always answer them when its most convinient for us. Instead, he has his own time table, that is beyond our understanding, for God says impatience is the enemy.

To make a long story short, she ended up coming to God in her own time, and started attending church where she was living, and she fell in love and married the pastor of that church, so not only did God answer their prayers, but he answered them better then they had ever hoped for.

Touching story eh? He ended the sermon that day by saying “many times, we forget to put God first in our lives.  We goto church only for the glory of ourselves”.  He also says “many times, we forget to put God first by concentrating on our college degree to better ourselves, for more money, for more materialism, and that, all these are signs of the enemy”.   We live to serve God, not for the glory of ourselves.

Alot of times, we turn to our family, or friends, when we feel depressed, sad, lonely, need something, or even to moarn our lost loved ones. In PSALM 91:4  it says “He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge. his faithfullness will be your shield and rampart”.   This passage is basically saying that when we feel depressed, sad, in tears, lonely, need something, or moarn our lost loved ones,  turn to God, for his faithfulness will make you feel better, for turning to your family and loved ones, instead of to God, is the enemy.

Afterwards, in Sunday school, we talked about how it doesn’t matter what sins we commit down here on earth, for God doesn’t see a 10 minute argument any better then comitting adultery, or comitting murder. In God’s eyes, all sins are judged against us equally.  For in John 3:16 it states “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believith in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life”

According to the scriptures, we are all guilty of sin, rather its yelling at someone behind their back for not turning on their turn signal, or comitting adultery, we are all guilty of sin.  We have no right to judge each other, for we are all guilty of sin equally no matter what type of sin it is.   The only one we have to answer to is God, and God says in John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believith in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life”  which means, as long as we believe in him, and put no other Gods before him, that we will not goto hell, but instead have everlasting life up in heaven.  Now is that not cool or what? Who wouldn’t want to be a christian, knowing all we have to do to keep from burning in hell for all eternity, is have faith.  Jesus died on the cross to save us from our sins, so it doesn’t matter if we commit adultery, commit murder, or think bad thoughts about our boss, for Jesus died on the cross for us, and as long as we believe in him, we will have everlasting life

A friend of mine posted this on one of the message boards I frequently visit

It’s interesting how there are SO many posts saying “I’m PROUD to be FAT”,
but none saying “I’m PROUD to be THIN”, and once you post something saying
you’re proud to be naturally thin, you get yelled at, called “shallow”, and
so on. So why is it okay for people to be “proud” to be “fat”, but it’s
horrible and shallow if someone is proud of their naturally thin body? Why can’t we all be allowed to be proud of our own bodies? The double-standards are getting extremely stupid.

Below was my answer to this post, which is the same thing I said in Introduction to public speaking class one day last semester.

The double-standard has to do with the fact that, stupid people think if your thin, then you must be anorexic. (not eating properly or throwing up) but if your fat, people think you eat too much.

Neither of those statements are true. For one thing, just because a girl is naturally thin as a child, doesn’t mean she’s gonna always be thin. 99% of women double in weight after they reach their mid 20’s, or early 30’s, and its not just because of pregnancy either, womens metabolism slows wayy down as they age. Also if you eat a bunch of sugary crap as a kid, you’ll carry those bad habits to your adulthood and you will double, even triple, in weight, thats just a known fact.
After all like they always say, “you are what you eat”.

I think teenagers just don’t understand that just because they have a hollow leg as a teenager, that they’ll always be that way, and that is just not true at all. When your no longer a teenager anymore, you have to stop eating junk food and all that sugary pasta crap, or you’ll triple in weight before you realize it, regardless of how much you exercise. The reason why doctors want us to loose weight when we get to that point in our lives, has nothing to do with looks, for I don’t think most good doctors care how heavy or skinny a person is, it has to do with the fact that,
as we age, and gain weight, comes illness, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, even altimers and cancer if we’re not careful. so really the push in society to loose weight isn’t so much looks as it is about living longer and staying healthy so that our quality of life is better.

Now, having said all that, some people are born heavy, or there are people like my mom who didn’t gain a pound until after she had her gall bladder removed, once she had her gall bladder removed, she went from 120 to 320 in a years time. I mean, things like that happen, it doesn’t make her any less of a person.

THAT is why, you NEVER EVER EVER judge a person based on looks, because just because a person you date may look skinny and petite now, doesn’t mean she’s going to stay that way 5, 10, or 20 years down the road. What are you going to do then guys? divorce her if she gains too much weight??! if you ask me, THAT is shallow!

and women are the same way, they get all upset if a guy doesn’t like them for who they are, yet, the guy has to be all handsome and skinny or she don’t bat an eye, so the girls are just as shallow as the guys are believe me, I’ve dated enough shallow women in my lifetime to have learned that much believe you me. I think I’ve been out with more women then all 3 charmed girls went out with guys combined in that TV show, and each girl I went out with were as shallow as all get out with double standards of their own like that.

both men AND women need to realize, TRUE beauty is found within. Most people tell me “ya its easy for you to say tom, your blind” well ya, but blind people can be just as shallow, believe you me. I’ve met some blind people who put the worst of arrogance to shame. No, I’ve always known that TRUE beauty is found within. who says a 400 lb woman isn’t beautiful on the outside too? who says a 400 lb man isn’t handsome on the outside too? I say, who sets the standards on what is handsome or beautiful and what isn’t??!! Trust me, I’ve met PLENTY of Mrs USA contestants in my lifetime who are so shallow and arrogant that I would never ever be friends with them if they were the last woman on earth.. Looks don’t matter jack to me, and thats why, when I get married again for the last time, whenever that’ll be, whoever that will be with, I know in my heart that it’ll be forever, for that very reason.

After all, if I love her for her beauty within now at 90 lbs, I’ll love her just as much, if not more so, if she reaches 300, for when you truely love someone for who they are, your love for that person only grows stronger with each passing day. So all you women out there who treat your daughters like crap because there not skinny enough, or you guys who treat your mate badly because she’s not as skinny as she once was, stop being shallow and arrogant, and get to know her or him from the inside, because when you love someone on the inside, their outside looks beautiful to you no matter what its shape, color, or age happens to be, and thats what true love is really all about.

Granted, you don’t want to date someone as young as your daughter, or as old as your mother, as I found out the hard way, because you don’t want those images of your daughter, or mother, popping in your head when your getting romantic, ewwww I know, believe me that has happened to me many times, but there is nothing wrong with being friends with that person, and we should never treat our own family that way, we should never judge people for who they are on the outside, for that is what true love is really all about.