Beware, my friends, of the volume setting following a Windows 8 upgrade. It will be cranked up to 100%. Should you have speakers plugged in through the headphone jack, they will receive a nasty blast of juice, and you may end up like me: with some beautiful, expensive, and BLOWN speakers.
Here's the story. I had a nice pair of Martin Logan bookshelf speakers--which retail for about USD$250 each--plugged into through the headphone jack via a Y-cable split out to RCA connectors into an old garage-sale receiver. I was having some problems with my W8 laptop, and so did a system restore.
Following the upgrade, I pulled up Pandora for some tunes, as I'd done a thousand times in the past. Little did I know that the volume had been cranked up to 100%! I innocently pressed the "Play" button, and was greeted with a massive blast of sound that rattled my eardrums. Surprised and shocked, I fumbled for a few seconds until I realized what had happened and found the pause button. After adjusting volume levels, and playing again, I sadly realized that this blast had shredded the tweeters in my beloved speakers.
Needless to say, this saddens me greatly, as I sit here and listen to my speakers hiss and crackle out Enya's lovely voice.
The volume was also set to 100% recent upgrade to v8.1, which prompted my post. I was ready this time, and had my receiver turned off--not that it mattered because my speakers were already blown--but I was annoyed to see that it had happened again, and thought that I might save another my pain.
I will spare you the rant about about usability testing of Windows releases.
Given the gravity of the situation, I deem the CAPS LOCK necessary, as it may spare you the cost of some high-end speakers:
DISCONNECT YOUR SPEAKERS BEFORE UPGRADING OR RESTORING A WINDOWS 8 MACHINE. CHECK YOUR VOLUME LEVELS BEFORE RECONNECTING.
Everlasting Love,
Keith :^)
Monday, December 9, 2013
Tuesday, April 23, 2013
JavaScript: A Beautiful Language
JavaScript! Perhaps the most misunderstood computer language, so few truly understand its enormous expressive power. Unlike Java, C, C#, and many others, it is, at heart, a functional language. Sadly, this is an endless source of frustration for so many programmers. They pound away with an imperative style, in a language based on lambda calculus, forever hammering square pegs into round holes. Only when JavaScript's functional nature is grasped can its beauty truly be appreciated, and the road to mastery begin.
Keith Miklas
4/23/2013
~kjm~
All Rights Reserved.
Keith Miklas
4/23/2013
~kjm~
All Rights Reserved.
Sunday, April 14, 2013
Apps are Evil! Ten reasons to Beware of Apps.
Although there are some great apps out there, many things can be accomplished through a Web page. Why install a native app and waste resources on your device when your mobile browser is more than adequate? Here's a list of reasons why you should hesitate before hitting that "install" button.
1. Apps start themselves. Ever look in your device's task manager and see apps running that you haven't started and don't need running? With some, this even occurs on a reboot, and there's no easy way to stop it. The result is wasted resources on your device, and some unwanted side effects, as you'll see in the next points.
2. Apps don't respect your privacy. They report your usage habits back to The Mothership(s).
3. Running apps burn up your battery. Wondering why your battery life stinks? Perhaps you've got a dozen or more apps chugging through your charge.
4. Apps eat up memory. Running apps will eat up your valuable memory space.
5. Apps have bugs. Developers, especially those under heavy pressure to get something published, will sometimes push a pretty buggy app out there, and this can cause problems on your device. For example, ever leave your phone on for a few days, only to find that it's almost totally unresponsive? Look in your task manager and find that your memory is almost completely used up? These are memory leaks from buggy apps.
6. Apps slow down your device. If we add up points 1-5, we have a rather irritating situation: unwanted, unneeded, and buggy apps, starting themselves, reporting data back to their respective Motherships, burning up your battery, and wasting your memory.
Often this is all happening without your knowledge, desire, and consent. In addition to a host of privacy issues, this can slow your phone to a snail's pace. Without rooting your phone--which may void your warranty--you're pretty much stuck with these apps and their lousy behavior. Adding insult to injury, as you'll see in the following points, there's not much that you can do to put a stop to this--despite the fact that you're paying big bucks for your device and service.
7. Some apps don't remove well. If you were an app writer, would you be overly concerned about burning time and money to make sure that the uninstall passes the "white glove" test? You're losing the user as a customer anyway, right? Sometimes the "remove app" software is not that well-written, and in addition, Web beacons can be intentionally left behind to track your usage habits, even when an app is removed.
8. Some apps can't be removed. There's a disturbing new trend for apps: no uninstall option. Similar to the bloatware that ships with some phones, once you install it, it's yours, 'till death do you part.
9. Some apps can't be stopped. In some operating systems there was an an option to kill an app, or at least force it to stop. In later devices, this option is not available, and there's no way to stop some apps from running.
With points 7-9 we've moved from insulting to unconscionable.
Finally, perhaps the most compelling point...
10. Apps cost. Why pay for an app when you can probably find the same functionality for free on the Web?
My advice? Install all the best browsers on your phone, including Opera, FireFox, and Dolphin. Keep them updated, and use them to accomplish as much as possible through Web apps. In addition to neatly sidestepping the issues listed above, you also retain far more control over your device. You can close the browser window of the offending page, set browser privacy and reporting settings, and even kill the whole browser if pages aren't cooperating.
Install an app only if it's really good, is from a trusted entity, or offers an exceptional service. Do as much as possible within your favorite browser, and install apps as a last resort. If a native app is needed, do your homework, research those that meet your needs, read the reviews, and only install those that are highly rated.
Yours truly,
Keith Miklas ~kjm~
keith@sexydevelopment.com
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved.
1. Apps start themselves. Ever look in your device's task manager and see apps running that you haven't started and don't need running? With some, this even occurs on a reboot, and there's no easy way to stop it. The result is wasted resources on your device, and some unwanted side effects, as you'll see in the next points.
2. Apps don't respect your privacy. They report your usage habits back to The Mothership(s).
3. Running apps burn up your battery. Wondering why your battery life stinks? Perhaps you've got a dozen or more apps chugging through your charge.
4. Apps eat up memory. Running apps will eat up your valuable memory space.
5. Apps have bugs. Developers, especially those under heavy pressure to get something published, will sometimes push a pretty buggy app out there, and this can cause problems on your device. For example, ever leave your phone on for a few days, only to find that it's almost totally unresponsive? Look in your task manager and find that your memory is almost completely used up? These are memory leaks from buggy apps.
6. Apps slow down your device. If we add up points 1-5, we have a rather irritating situation: unwanted, unneeded, and buggy apps, starting themselves, reporting data back to their respective Motherships, burning up your battery, and wasting your memory.
Often this is all happening without your knowledge, desire, and consent. In addition to a host of privacy issues, this can slow your phone to a snail's pace. Without rooting your phone--which may void your warranty--you're pretty much stuck with these apps and their lousy behavior. Adding insult to injury, as you'll see in the following points, there's not much that you can do to put a stop to this--despite the fact that you're paying big bucks for your device and service.
7. Some apps don't remove well. If you were an app writer, would you be overly concerned about burning time and money to make sure that the uninstall passes the "white glove" test? You're losing the user as a customer anyway, right? Sometimes the "remove app" software is not that well-written, and in addition, Web beacons can be intentionally left behind to track your usage habits, even when an app is removed.
8. Some apps can't be removed. There's a disturbing new trend for apps: no uninstall option. Similar to the bloatware that ships with some phones, once you install it, it's yours, 'till death do you part.
9. Some apps can't be stopped. In some operating systems there was an an option to kill an app, or at least force it to stop. In later devices, this option is not available, and there's no way to stop some apps from running.
With points 7-9 we've moved from insulting to unconscionable.
Finally, perhaps the most compelling point...
10. Apps cost. Why pay for an app when you can probably find the same functionality for free on the Web?
My advice? Install all the best browsers on your phone, including Opera, FireFox, and Dolphin. Keep them updated, and use them to accomplish as much as possible through Web apps. In addition to neatly sidestepping the issues listed above, you also retain far more control over your device. You can close the browser window of the offending page, set browser privacy and reporting settings, and even kill the whole browser if pages aren't cooperating.
Install an app only if it's really good, is from a trusted entity, or offers an exceptional service. Do as much as possible within your favorite browser, and install apps as a last resort. If a native app is needed, do your homework, research those that meet your needs, read the reviews, and only install those that are highly rated.
Yours truly,
Keith Miklas ~kjm~
keith@sexydevelopment.com
Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved.
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