Random Synapses

It’s autumn. Cold, foggy, wet autumn getting to your bones. A good reason to go shopping for a new winter outfit, though. Imagine me, the extremely picky kind of consumer, going through stores and wrinkling my nose at almost anything, exclaiming every once in a while with a sigh, “ahh, the good old days.” Old days which were not that long ago, considering my age. But then I started to think: why do I have this feeling that the “old days” were better? Am I just older, arguably wiser, compared to the innocence and simple joys of childhood? Have I changed, or is it a different world that I live in? Hmm.

Being on the path towards becoming an economist, I had the opportunity to learn a few things. (There’s nothing better to do when you have a hungover after last night’s party, the only alternative to reading course notes being watching Argentinian soap operas on TV which simply drive me nuts! Heehee, I’m just kidding - not the drunk party animal kind of person here.) And one of those things vaguely reminded me about mass production and encouraging consumption as means of boosting economies.

Did you know that products are no longer designed to last “forever?” Manufacturers have the capacity to completely redesign a product in a matter of years, significant improvements come every few months, and in case your product breaks down it’s cheaper to completely replace it - assembly robots work day and night anyway - than pay a service technician by the hour to look into the problem and repair it, even if that meant replacing an entire module, not looking for the deffective component. Your TV set is designed to be replaced with a newer model in 3 to 5 years. Same goes for your car. Compare that to products designed 20 years ago, for example, which were so robust and simple that they still work today with very little maintenance. Of course, they didn’t have the production capacities and automation existing today, they had lots of employees which worked by hand and had a higher rate of mistakes and deffective products. BUT - those products still work, decades later.

What’s the connection between current manufacturing and market trends and my “good old days” thoughts when shopping? That’s easy: I needed shoes. Classy, black leather shoes, to bring a much needed change in my jeans-and-sneakers appearance. Guess what? There’s more plastic and synthetic compounds than leather in a shoe! You’ll be shopping for a new pair in 6 months or less. The few shoes that actually had natural leather in them (by looking closely at the material itself, not just the fake sticker) were painted black to look good on sale, but the paint came off on my fingers and trousers, and the leather got cracks after wearing them for a day.

Is it bad that I preffer quality over lower production costs, reliable products over spending a little less on a product but buying it every few months or years? Is it in our advantage as consumers and, most importantly, beneficiaries to perpetuate mass-assembled, machine-built, low-cost, below-average products, and fire the people who put dedication, skill and experience into creating unique and reliable products?

Let me express the same problem in terms of software development: is it really a good choice for a company to fire its old-time programmers and hire third-country software programmers just because they’re slightly cheaper? How can a company function when it hires a bunch of people for a specific project, then in a few months it hires others to fix the bugs in the original projects, then a few more months later a third group of new people to extend the functionality and fix more bugs, and so on? Perhaps there’s more to think about when making such a decision, things that cannot be evaluated in financial terms, such as stability, overall quality of work, the dedication and skills of the workers.

There was a movie made once, and the producers had to cast whoever was available to keep the budget to a bare minimum. This way, characters were interpreted by completely different actors in consecutive shots! Needless to say, even if the script was brilliant, nobody in the audience could understand who was who and did what. Striking resemblance to the chaotic pieces of codes written by thousands of anonymous Indian programmers trying to accomplish the same big application, isn’t it?

I have a mental list of things I’d like to do. You know - from small things, like, uhh… “clean windows” and “reorganize files on the computer,” to bigger things: “learn German,” “read some literature books, paper books,” “learn to dance without causing casualties on the dance floor,” “learn PHP,” “see some reference movies from the ’40s.” This list is constantly growing, and twice a year I am reminded of it: birthday and New Year. How many things I wanted to do did I complete in the past year? Three? Six? Eight? Fourteen? How many new things I wanted to do - seventy-five? That’s not working too well, is it?

I don’t know if it’s just me, but I’m getting really frustrated about the limited time we have here. Not as in having a limited life, but the time in a day. So many things to do, so few hours. Sleeping, eating, travelling - they have become daily annoyances; I can’t wait to the day when a pill will give us all the energy our bodies need. Spending one hour out of 24 on public transportation - that adds up to 200 hours a year! - is simply unreasonable, when there are other things I could do in that hour.

Why does the day have only 24 hours? When God created Earth and made it spin around the Sun and itself, why did He decide on this amount of time? Would it have been much too difficult to make the day, say, 100 hours long? Nice, round number, and enough to cover everything one would desire. Stay up late at night and still get enough sleep without waking up late. Work for 16 hours, come back home, have a nap in the middle of the day then have the rest of the day for yourself. That would really be nice, eh?

Maybe I have too many expectations from life, too many “I want to” ’s. Or perhaps I suck at time management and prioritizing activities, and that’s why all the important things - like updating this blog regularly or finishing the Java exercise I have started a week ago - are constantly postponed. Maybe it’s a test for making decisions that really matter we all must take.

God, if you are reading this blog, please please please please please please slow down our planet.

Preventing an infection is easier to do than trying to recover from an infectious disaster. Here are a few guidelines for measures you can take:

• Update your Windows regularily to prevent getting infected because of newly discovered bugs.

  It is so easy to install all needed patches for Windows: just open WindowsUpdate.Microsoft.com with Internet Explorer. There is a link for Windows Update in the Start menu, another one in Favorites, and a third one in Tools menu of Internet Explorer. Microsoft releases patches for Windows bugs about once a month, so make sure you visit the site and follow the steps to discover which patches you need and let them download and install automatically. It’s very simple to use, and the downloads shouldn’t take more than an hour on a slow dial-up connection; if you update monthly, it should only take a few minutes!

  If you don’t install the patches, then virus creators will create viruses that exploit the bugs in Windows, and your PC will become infected as soon as it is connected to the Internet, even if you don’t download or do anything. Your infected computer will try to send the virus to other computers, making your Internet connection almost impossible to use.

• Do NOT connect to the Internet or to a local network with a freshly installed Windows!

  This is a very serious problem and most people ignore it. NEVER install Windows when you are connected to the Internet; unplug your network cable from your network card. The clean installation of Windows doesn’t have the needed patches (see above paragraph), and it can become infected a few seconds after it is connected to the local network or the Internet. After you have completed installing Windows, you need to:

  1. Install a personal firewall to protect your computer online, such as:
     • ZoneLabs ZoneAlarm Free (not Pro, not with antivirus) - free for personal use, very simple to use and good for beginners;
     • SyGate Personal Firewall - free for personal use, more powerful than ZoneAlarm;
     • Kerio Personal Firewall - free for personal use, a very powerful firewall for advanced users, will go to basic functionality after 30 days unless you purchase the full version, but free version is also good;

     and

  2. connect to the local network or the Internet and update your Windows by visiting WindowsUpdate.Microsoft.com (read above about it); if the firewall detects an incoming connection from the Internet to your computer while you are connected to the network or the Internet, forbid/block/disallow the connection.
• Do not open files obtained from untrusted sources without scanning them with an antivirus program with its virus definitions updated daily.

  “Files obtained from untrusted sources” means files received by e-mail from people you don’t know or from who you did not request such a file, files downloaded from personal websites or peer-to-peer networks, or files obtained on CDs or floppy disks from friends.

  If you need to download software, do it from reputable websites such as Download.com and TuCows.com, or directly from the product’s homepage.

  Do not open file attachments received in e-mail unless you requested those files or you know what the files are! Most computers in the world become infected because people open attached files without thinking they might be dangerous.

  Do not obtain software from peer-to-peer networks such as Kazaa, eDonkey and others; these files have a high risk of being infected with viruses, and downloading copyrighted materials from these networks is most likely illegal. A person I know has become infected with over 180 viruses from a single program downloaded from Kazaa!!!

• Do not share folders and files with full access and without a password.

  If you really need to share files and folders on the local network, make sure that you set read-only permissions and also set a password for each share. Don’t share sensitive information on your computer, such as your entire C: drive where Windows is located, because ill-minded people will try to find your passwords, e-mails, documents, financial information (credit card numbers) and so on. Create a separate folder with the stuff you want to share and set read-only share permissions to it; create another folder for receiving files, with full access permissions.

• Do not use the computer logged in with unlimited Administrator priviledges.

  The Administrator account has unlimited permissions to access the software and hardware on the PC; this freedom is a potential security risk, because if a virus becomes active by accident it will have full access to infect all files on your hard drive. Create a separate password-protected account for each person using the computer, set the username membership to Users group (with limited access to other files outside the account’s home folder), and rename the Administrator account to make it more difficult for bad people to obtain access to the computer. Disable the Guest account and create separate password-protected accounts for all users on the network you wish to allow to access your shared files. All these are done in Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Local Users and Groups - Users.

• Use an antivirus program and keep its virus definition list updated.

  Find an antivirus program you like (most can be used as trial versions to help you decide) and pay for it; the antivirus is a good investment into your computer’s security and your lack of headaches. Set the antivirus to update its list of known viruses automatically every day or at least every week and use it every time to scan downloaded files before opening them. When you become a “computer power user,” you will be able to keep the antivirus’ options turned off (so it doesn’t scan constantly the files on your computer, which you know they are clean) and only scan manually the folder of downloaded files before using them.

This is not a comprehensive list! Computers have become powerful instruments, and their users should be responsible and learn to use them correctly and safely. Use your brain for every action you take, learn about using a firewall and an antivirus program, and know that being a part of the global network - the Internet - can be a risky activity if you do not take minimum precautions to defend yourself. All of the above are simple things you can do yourself for free, but if you ignore them you can lose your files or become unable to use the computer or the Internet.

Over the years, I have become an active fighter against software and music piracy over the Internet. Even if it’s immaterial, piracy is still stealing. It is a crime. There is no excuse for it. Here’s a collection of excuses most used by people to justify their actions.

I don’t have the money to pay for it. I don’t make as much money as an American or Western European. I am just a student.

Not enough money, eh? Then, the software product you have stolen is out of your league. It is a luxury you cannot afford. You don’t get to travel with a limousine for free if you can’t afford it; you take the bus or walk. Perhaps you should sell the computer and use your time to get a better paid job or look for software you can afford.

Microsoft/Symantec/Sony Records/The company you stole from has enough money already, they won’t go bankrupt if I don’t pay the $10/$50/$500/$2000 license. I’m allowed to steal while they are still making a profit.

The company has worked hard to complete the product you have stolen. Their financial results are none of your concern. The basic rule is that you must pay the price to be allowed to use it, and this rule applies to all people, not just for the wealthy or until the company’s costs are paid for.

It’s too expensive. If it was cheaper, I would have paid for it. But $1995 for a single user license? Come on…

The price of the product you have stolen is not determined on the market by supply and demand rules; the product is available from a single producer, which sets the price as high or as low as wanted. Your choice as a consumer is to accept to pay the price for the product, or to find another similar yet cheaper product. This isn’t the grocery market, to bargain on what price you would agree on. And the price justifies not only the amount of work put into the product, but also how much it helps you complete your work. The more powerful, productive and helpful the program is, the more it will value.

Why should I stop stealing software/music when others continue to do it? Don’t tell me that you never ever ilegally downloaded some music or software off the Internet, are you some kind of saint to judge me?

Law doesn’t care if someone else is doing the same thing; it only matters if you broke the law or not. You are not entitled to shoot others just because other people commit murders somewhere on the planet every day. You are not allowed to steal because others are doing it, too.

But it’s legal in Canada!

Believe it or not, two people have actually told me this! Almost all countries have copyright laws, and if they don’t, there are international treaties that deal with intellectual property rights and software or music piracy. So, unless you live in a hole, it’s likely that downloading music, software, movies or other copyrighted materials without the right to do so (right acquired by purchasing the license) is illegal.

Reasons for not participating in online piracy? How about not breaking the law and keeping your criminal record clean? How about not becoming the sex slave of every criminal in prison? A piece of advice: don’t drop the soap in prison showers when Bubba is around.

There is absolutely no excuse for stealing. You wouldn’t like others to benefit from your work for free either. It’s not a matter of “if,” but “when” you will get caught and prosecuted. Law enforcement agents are heavily monitoring the Internet these days now: peer-to-peer networks, web sites, even chat programs like IRC networks. You will get busted! Show some maturity and stop using such childish excuses to justify your illegal actions. You know what you’re doing is bad; save your pathetic stories for the judge, I’m sure he or she loves a good laugh every once in a while.

It never ceases to amaze me how people disregard help files. They install an application and start it right away without reading a single line from the help file. I wonder how the world would look like if people could buy a car and try to drive it without learning how to do it first.

So, first thing you need to understand: mIRC and IRC are two completely different things, even if their names are similar.

IRC means Internet Relay Chat. It’s a method of chatting, a communication protocol if you prefer the tech talk. It’s like “television,” a way to see and hear different programs.

The same way you need a TV set to be able to view TV programs, you need an IRC client - a program which understands this communication protocol, displays messages on your screen and sends messages to other people - to be able to chat on IRC. There are many kinds of IRC clients (programs) you can use, just as there are many kinds of TV sets you could buy. mIRC is just one of them; there are also pirch, The Klient and more. You can use which ever you want - they do the same thing, although they might look a little different. This is normal when you have a computer; you probably know that there are more web browsers than just Internet Explorer: Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox or Opera would be alternative browsers. There are several e-mail clients you can use, several instant messengers, several word processing applications, and so on.

You will have to connect your IRC client to one of the thousands of IRC servers in the world. These servers take messages from connected people and deliver them. Some IRC servers are interconnected forming IRC networks; people on one server can chat with the people on another server of the same network. Undernet is such an IRC network, with over 30 servers you can connect to.

Each network has its own chatrooms called “channels,” just as any cable TV operator provides their own channels you could watch, different from the ones you may find on satellite, for example. You can’t connect to one IRC network and try to find a channel and the people of another IRC network. They are separate, you must know the channel name and the network or server name where your friends chat.

In conclusion, you chat on the IRC network of your choice, not on mIRC or any other computer application. Without getting connected to IRC, the application is useless; and there are other ways to chat on that IRC network than just mIRC program. So please, please, please stop using the expression “chatting on mIRC.” There is no such thing.