Are We There Yet?

The RSS feed for the Anandtech News Channel just came across with an interesting article that I had to check out. According to an article on Computerworld, Microsoft's upcoming release of Windows XP SP2 (that's Service Pack 2 for those of you who never use Windows Update - shame on you!) could break some existing applications.

Blasphemy, you say?! Maybe to the hardcore zealots out there that have nothing positive to say about Microsoft in the first place. But for those out there will bother to RTFA, you'll find that Microsoft has chosen to eschew some backwards compatibility in taking a step towards making Windows a more secure platform. Regardless of your feelings towards Microsoft, it's difficult to argue against the fact that backwards compatibility has certainly bogged down the Windows code base over the years. Despite the fact that Microsoft's most popular consumer OS is based on NT, let's not forget that Windows NT 4.0 (the predecessor of Windows 2000 and step-father of XP) was released in 1996. Do you remember computers in 1996? The world of computers was much different 8 years ago.

Fear not, fellow computer user. Microsoft's decision to favor security in circumstances where backwards compatibility becomes an issue arises only out of certain circumstances: when an application was coded without consideration of security. That's certainly a pretty vague statement to make which is open to broad interpretation. Does this mean that Windows will attempt to prevent buffer overruns from occurring that would compromise a user's system (as a co-worker put it, if that's the case, will IIS even run?). Who knows? Kudos to Microsoft for getting the word out so early and organizing support materials and training to assist major vendors in ensuring their products are safe and secure under Windows XP SP2.

The Microsoft product manager quoted in the article does make a good point - developers need to be aware of and involved in the process of security as well. As the saying goes, security is not something you buy; it's something you do. It's a process that requires attention at all levels of the computing process. It certainly starts with the hardware and core software processes that comprise the platform of your choice as these are the things that the end-user has the least control over. However, complete security means using and deploying applications from vendors you respect and trust. It means understanding enough about how you use your computer to ensure its safety. It's no different than locking the doors to your house or car except we all understand how a door and lock works The computer is a powerful tool, especially when connected to the Internet. There are certainly things that the major software vendors can do to ease this strain on an uninformed and (relatively) uninterested computing public. But that does not excuse you from your own personal responsibility over your computer and it's use.

Back in November of 2002, I purchased my first "new" used vehicle as the car I (mostly) drove since turning 16 used its last lifeline to turn the 110,000 mile marker. Both vehicles that I had owned previously were Pontiacs and I had been very pleased with them, so my time car shopping eventually found me settling on a practically new (7,000 miles) Grand AM SE. Since my previous car was built in 1991, sitting in a car that was 11 years newer was like going from from a 486-DX2 to a P4 3GHz computer. The highly touted features of the previous vehicle consisted of A/C and an automatic transmission. It didn't even have a tape deck. Now I'm spoiled with power locks, automatic headlights, and intermittent wipers. The sad part is that my vehicle doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of "standard" features that a slightly more expensive vehicle would have.

One of the more intriguing, if not esoteric, functions of the Grand Am is the radio. It supports something called the Radio Data System. Reading about this feature in the manual really piqued my interest and I was excited to give it a go. In a nutshell, RDS lets radio stations embed information in to their broadcast signals that radios supporting RDS can then display. Types of information that might be included is the name of the radio station, a musical genre that describes the station's content, and even information about songs and artists.

Sadly, I was very disappointed to discover that very few stations in the metro-Milwaukee area supported this feature in late 2002. IIRC, the only one I found at the time was a Christian music station that came up as "The Fish" whenever it was the active radio station. In due time, more stations in the area have slowly started adding support for RDS. In my 5 radio presets, 3 support display of the station name - Rock 102 One, FM106, and 99WMYX with Rock 102 One being the only station I regularly listen to (the other two stations being "family friendly" ones I save for times when I'm not traveling alone). My other 2 rock stations STILL don't support it.

As "cool" as it is to see the station name be displayed by the radio when tuning in to one of the aforementioned 3 radio stations, it is pretty useless. I mean, the novelty wears off pretty quick that "oooh...it knows it's name". I mean, come on. My 19-month old daughter knows her name, too, and she doesn't have the financial backing of a mult-billion dollar media company. So, I was extremely impressed to discover the other day that one station has finally forged ahead to start using this potential - 99WMYX.

While scanning through my radio stations, I noticed a bit more text than normal being displayed while the radio was on 99 WMYX. I paid a bit more attention to it and noticed that it was broadcasting the artist name and song name that was currently being played by the station. Hallelujah! Why can't more radio stations do this? Nothing is more annoying than hearing a song you like and not knowing who or what the name is! I'm not patient enough to sit through 3 more songs (which I probably won't like) for a DJ to mumble out the names as if we already know who they are. It's one of my biggest beefs with radio stations and a solution has been available to it for years. Talk about slow adoption of new technology! Perhaps that explains why Googling for "Radio Data System" yields pages of results to URLs in Europe.

In my last post a couple weeks ago, I talked about the Radio Data System, which is supported by the radio in my car.

I was pleasantly surprised yesterday evening as I climbed in to my car after work to discover that my favorite local radio station, Lazer 103, has finally graduated to knowing its name! Now, instead of seeing that pesky, uninformative frequency setting of 102.9 when tuned in to their radio station, I am greeted with the infinitely more personable and altogether more fulfilling label of "Lazer 103".

Kudos to Lazer for becoming the second to last station in my presets to become semi-intelligent *cough* JJO *cough*