Technically Ambiguous

Effective Computer Maintenance: The Three-Beers Rule

MikeL_HH — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:33:00 GMT

Chances are good that you know at least one person who seems to know more than your average Joe about what makes computers tick. This person might work in IT or be an engineer in a related field, or maybe they are just self-proclaimed subject experts. Since you are reading HotHardware, chances are excepionally good that YOU are that guy/gal, in which case, bare with me.

Chances are also good that when something goes wrong, you'll turn to this person for help, either directly with a favor request, or passive aggressively by complaining in their presence and hoping they'll take pity on you so you'll shut up and stop interrupting their lunch. Perhaps your particular personal techie happens to be very nice and generous. You might even consider them a good friend. However, I have some shocking news. They hate you.

Ohh, and also they probably think it's annoying you keep turning to them for computer assistance.

I know it's hard to believe. But they were so kind and helpful when you got that virus, again, last week, you say. You might also bring up that time when they didn't even hesitate to get you out of that sure-fire deal, gone sour, with that nice Nigerian man who contacted you through email with a proposition. However, the truth of it is, unless you are compensating them for their trouble in some way, they probably hate you, they just don't realize it yet.

Now you may be thinking, "but Mike, you're just being a cynical ***", and you'd be correct, but I thought we were talking about fixing computers. Let's stay on task here.

Frankly, computers are insanely complicated machines and fixing them isn't always a simple task of mashing some random buttons and clicking on some menus (though you'd be surprised how often that works). A competent technician can charge well into the region of $50/hour to troubleshoot technical issues on-site, and in many cases even more than that. There is a reason why they charge so much, it's something to do with the job generally sucking and nobody wanting to do it. And now you expect them to offer their services to you, on a semi-regular basis, for free. A service the average techie wouldn't do for anything less than a fat hourly fee, or at least some sexual favors.

Think of it this way, do you expect your contractor friend to fix your leaky roof, then remodel your kitchen the next week. All for free? Especially as you sit idly by, yapping about how you really try to take care of your house but for some reason it keeps falling apart. Sure they might do it once out of good will, or twice because they're dumb, but three times? Really?

Now I'm not proposing that you should try to pay your good techie with cash, to bribe them into doing your dirty work. That would be demeaning. How could you ever consider such a thing, you terrible husk of a person. Rather, I suspect your techie buddy will greatly appreciate small gestures of thanks, like a cold beer, and be much more likely to help you in the future. They'll also reconsider when they next hover over your bed at night with a jackknife, but probably to no avail.

The system of bartering goods for services is centuries old and generally works pretty damned well. They fix your computer, you provide them with cold, delicious beer. Everyone wins. However, don't think a single beer is enough. If you got your computer royaly screwed up and it needs some serious lovin', you're going to need more than a half-pint for compensation.

The system that I have developed to handle these situations is lovingly referred to as the three-beers rule. It's quite simple. While they fix your computer, you feed them a continuous stream of beer. If they can't figure out your problem after 3 beers, you are SOL. At this point it is best for your relationship that you thank them for their attempt, and just take your seriously screwed up computer to the shop. Or you could try a different techie friend with 3 more beers, if you haven't driven them all insane by now.

Perhaps the real beauty of the three-beers rule is that it is self-enforcing. After three beers, your friend probably won't be much more adept or motivated than you at fixing computers. This is to ensure pushy bastards like yourself don't back out of the deal at the last second and try to squeeze another beer or two of work out of your poor techie.

Pro-Tip: if YOU are the techie friend, and you're a heavy-weight who's unfazed by a measly 3 beers. Double-up and use the Six-Pack Rule instead. Or consider the natural corollary, the Three-Vodkas Rule.

So in closing, remember that your techie friends hate you, and beer is delicious.

Build Guide: High Capacity $300 Budget Media Server

MikeL_HH — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 21:07:00 GMT

In this post, I'll show you a few select options for putting together an affordable media server computer for under $300 that can store all of your media in one central location and is small enough to fit just about anywhere in your house. This build guide is for a server that will probably be running headless (without a monitor) and not for an HTPC, although you can probably turn it into one by simply dropping in a discrete video card. Here are the goals I wanted to hit with this particular computer build:

Budget of $300 not including peripherals or OS (before tax, shipping, etc)
Enough storage capacity for average household (ie. not a serious heavy-duty server load and not optimal for office use)
Relatively small so it can be crammed in a corner of your house
Must have room for upgrades (more storage!)
Quality components, no no-name junk

In order to have a fully functional home server rig, we're going to need a case, a power supply, processor, motherboard, memory, hard drive, gigabit ethernet and a video card or integrated graphics at a minimum. Actually, we'll want as much of all that to be integrated as possible to save money. An operating system will also be needed but that is out of the scope of this quick build guide since there are so many options available for a media server, many of which are completely free to download. A server like this shouldn't need a optical drive or a monitor except during the initial installation process. If your operating system of choice is Linux-based, you might not need an optical drive at all since you can install using a USB stick. Most operating systems designed for media server use should have remote administration tools so a monitor will not be necessary after everything is set up.

Let's look at some hardware options. For each component I'll offer a specific recommendation and an explanation of my choice. In some cases I have also included an (often cheaper) alternative to the primary pick. All prices were taken from the Hot Hardware price engine on the day of posting.

Case / Power Supply

For the case, I was looking for something cheap and small with as much hard drive capacity as I could find. For a personal media server like this, it doesn't make much sense to use a decked out full-tower server chassis that will run you a solid $200+. The server will also be running headless without a dedicated monitor since most media server oriented operating systems like Windows Home Server will have built-in remote administration features. This means you can tuck your server into a corner somewhere out of the way and it doesn't need to be near a desk. Since the server will be hidden away in a corner, aesthetics wasn't a factor in my choice. While the server needed to be small, ITX was out of the question since the majority of ITX cases have less than 2 hard drive bays, which severely restricts future upgradeability (stay tuned for an upcoming ITX media server build guide).

After some searching around, I ultimately settled on the Athenatech A3603BB.400. To be honest this sort of breaks our rule of only using name-brand components, but this little chassis gets decent customer reviews and Athenatec has been cranking out budget chassis for some time. This is a surprisingly well laid out budget MicroATX mini-tower that should suit the purposes of this build perfectly. This little mini-tower manages to pack in 6x3.5" bays and 3x5.25" bays which should be plenty for our purposes. While it isn't exactly a looker, its subdued styling won't draw attention to it when it's installed in its little corner. The chassis is also well ventilated with 92mm fan cutouts in the front and back as well as a 80mm side panel fan cutout, although only the rear 92mm fan is actually included. Heat won't be a huge issue in a small personal server like this so the single rear 92mm fan should be adequate until you start to fill up the case with hard drives at which point you may want to add a second fan. The case also comes with a 400W power supply which is plenty for what we want to do with it. At around $45, it fits the bill nicely. Unfortunately it does have its share of issues. The most important of which is the relatively cheap construction. This isn't a particularly durable case and if you treat it roughly, it won't fare too well. However, once again, I want to emphasize that a media server isn't something you will be messing around with too much and you'll likely leave it alone to sit in a corner so this shouldn't be a problem.

However if you'd rather go with something a bit bigger and more durable, check out the alternate pick, the Cooler Master Elite RC-330. The RC-330 is a larger case than the Athenatech so it'll require more room, but it also has slightly more space for drives with 7x3.5" bays and 4x5.25" bays. It comes with a 350W power supply which is a bit less than the Athenatech, but it should still be enough for this build.

Primary: Athenatech A3603BB.400 w/ 400W ($45)

Alternative: Cooler Master Elite RC-330 w/ 350W ($50)

Processor

The amount of processing power needed for a personal file server is often misunderstood. Frankly, you don't need very much under the hood. The processor will spend nearly all of its time idling and there is not much point in using even a mid-range chip. Even at full load while serving multiple files simultaneously, there will be very little processor activity. If you plan on only using the server for file storage, you can easily get by with as little as a single-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom chip. However if you want your server to handle richer media tasks like video streaming and content encoding, you might want something a bit more powerful, although only slightly.

For this build, I have picked the AMD Athlon X2 4850e processor. This is a very affordable little dual-core processor with a low power profile at a TDP of only 45W. At just $59, this is perfect for our needs. While this budget 2.5Ghz chip with only 512KB of L2 cache per core isn't much of a speed demon in the grand scheme of things, it packs more than enough power for media server duties. Its low power envelope will also come in handy since it will keep the heat in the chassis down and the server will likely be running 24/7 so we'll want to use as little power as possible.

As an alternative to the AMD, we picked the Intel Pentium E2200. The E2200 is a dual-core chip using the Allendale core with a frequency of 2.2Ghz. It should perform similarly to the AMD and it'll be plenty of power for our purposes.

Primary: AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz 45W ($59)

Alternative: Intel Pentium E2200 2.2GHz 65W ($60)

Motherboard

For the motherboard, I was looking for something with plenty of integrated features to keep the overall cost of the system down. Of primary importance is support for gigabit ethernet and plenty of onboard SATA ports. Built-in RAID was also a requirement.

My first choice is the ASUS M3A78-CM motherboard built on AMD's excellent low-power 780V platform. The 780V northbridge only draws about 11W at full load and less then 1W while idle. Compare that to Intel's G35 northbridge which consumes nearly 30W at load. This board is just loaded with features including the ones most important to this build; gigabit ethernet, 6xSATA, RAID 0/1/10. With six SATA ports, this little mATX has all the storage capacity we need, not to mention an additional two more potential hard drives that can be connected to the onboard PATA. This board also features a great layout, full-copper heatsinks and quality solid capacitors for the critical power phase circuits that feed the CPU. In terms of expansion, the board offers two standard PCI slots, a PCI-E x1 slot and a PCI-E x16 slot. All this for only $73 is a bargain. The AMD 780V northbridge packs the ATI Radeon HD 3100 with VGA, DVI and HDMI connectors, which is more than enough graphics for our purposes, bordering on overkill. However the 3100 isn't quite enough for a gaming-capable HTPC experience, so if that is what you're looking for you may want to consider filling the board's PCI-E x16 slot with a dedicated video card.

For our Intel alternative processor pick, we chose the Zotac GF9300-A-E based on NVIDIA's GeForce 9300 chipset. This is a much more expensive board than the ASUS M3A78-CM at $110. Fully featured Intel boards with 6 SATA slots, RAID and gigabit ethernet just aren't as cheap as available AMD offerings.

Primary: ASUS M3A78-CM AMD 780V mATX ($73)

Alternative: Zotac GF9300-A-E NVIDIA GeForce 9300 ($110)

Memory

Unlike in some builds, a media server won't need much in terms of memory, especially if you're judicious in your OS selection. You can easily get away with 1GB of budget RAM or some left-overs from your other builds. Memory performance is largely unimportant for this build. Just about anything will do, but if you must have a specific recommendation, I choose a single 1GB stick of Corsair PC2-6400. At $13, it's as much as you need and nothing more. If you insist on having more memory, which is understandable given the current rock-bottom DDR2 pricing, check out the alternative pick; 2x1GB Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 dual-channel kit.

Primary: Corsair 1GB PC2-6400 DDR2 ($13)

Alternative: Corsair XMS2 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 ($25)

Hard Drive(s)

The heart of any media server is the storage system. There are a ton of hard drives to choose from these days in a wide variety of storage capacities and spindle speeds. It is certainly acceptable to use hard drives you already own for this build, but if you are buying new, I recommend going for high storage density. Not only is it more cost efficient, but it's also space efficient which will leave you extra room for future upgrades. For a storage server like the one we're building, transfer speed of the drives shouldn't be a huge issue. Consider that the vast majority of data transfer to and from the server will be bottlenecked by the ethernet connection, it isn't especially important to have the fastest drives so there is no point in blowing our budget on a bunch of top-speed 10,000 RPM enterprise drives, or even top-speed 7,200 RPM drives. Another factor to consider is the system will be on constantly which means power draw is an important consideration.

For our first pick, we chose Western Digital's heavily praised Caviar Green series drive. There has been a lot of talk about this family of hard drives recently and for good reason. These are excellent high capacity drives with low power drain, perfect for our purposes. This drive comes in several capacities but the 1TB version is the best deal currently at just $100. That is a solid 10GB/$. Another good option is the Samsung HD103UI 1TB drive, which is very similar in performance to the Caviar Green. You might scoff at the Samsung's 5400RPM spindle speed but that would be a mistake. Like I said earlier, the speed of the drive really isn't important since data transfer will be bottlenecked by ethernet anyway. A lower spindle speed of 5400RPM also means less power drain and better reliability. It's also worth noting that the Caviar Green isn't a 7200RPM drive yet it still achieves good performance. Western Digital doesn't specify its true spindle speed, but it is somewhere between 4200 and 7200. In all likelihood its closer to 5400 than 7200 on common access patterns.

Primary: Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB ($100)

Alternative: Samsung HD103UI 1TB ($95)

Optical Drive (optional)

As I mentioned earlier, an optical drive is not strictly necessary for a media server except during the initial installation process. Simply 'borrowing' an optical drive from one of your other rigs for the installation will be a good option for a lot of people. However you may want your server to perform extra functions like ripping and burning optical media, in which case your server will need its own private optical drive.

DVD-RW drives have been flat-lined at around $20 for some time now. The LG GH22NP20 is a dual-layer capable DVD-RW that writes DVD-/+Rs at 22x and 16x for dual-layer discs. It can also write CDs at 48x. Overall a decent drive in return for just one Jackson.

Primary: LG Electronics GH22NP20 DVD-RW ($20)

Overall this build should provide a solid basis for a budget media server that will handle all of your personal files in a single central location. Depending on your operating system of choice, you can use the server in a wide variety of ways to stream files and media to and from the rest of the computers in your house to the server for safe keeping. The key tenants of this build are high capacity, low cost and low power. This obviously isn't a particularly high performance machine simply because it doesn't need to be. The money you saved is better spent on your gaming rig or HTPC anyway. While our build only has a single 1TB drive to start with, there is space in the case and on the motherboard for 5 more drives. Using 1TB drives, that allows for a total capacity of 6TB, more than enough for most households. Higher capacity 2TB drives are also right around the corner and if you used six of those, you'd have a whopping 12TB of storage crammed inside a little budget box.

This rig can also be transformed into a hybrid server+HTPC in a pinch by throwing in a dedicated video card and swapping the case with something a bit more pleasing on the eyes. The processor choices we have here should be enough for basic HTPC duties but more advanced users who plan on doing a significant amount of encoding may want to consider upgrading the processor too. Both of our motherboards offer onboard surround sound which is adaquate for use with HTIBs, but you might want to consider a dedicated audio card if you have a decent sound setup.

Primary Build		Alternative Build
Athenatech A3603BB.400 w/ 400W AMD Athlon X2 4850e 2.5GHz 45W ASUS M3A78-CM AMD 780V mATX Corsair 1GB PC2-6400 DDR2 Western Digital Caviar Green 1TB	$45 $59 $73 $13 $100	Cooler Master Elite RC-330 w/ 350W Intel Pentium E2200 2.2GHz 65W Zotac GF9300-A-E NVIDIA GeForce 9300 Corsair XMS2 2GB PC2-6400 DDR2 Samsung HD103UI 1TB LG Electronics GH22NP2	$50 $60 $110 $25 $95 $20

Total	$290	Total	$360

Don't agree with my recommendations? Want to share your ideas? Leave a comment!

Build Guide: $500 & $400 Gaming Rigs

MikeL_HH — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 19:26:00 GMT

In this post, I'll show you a few select options for putting together an affordable computer for under $500 that can handle just about every game currently available for PC while maintaining a decent screen resolution and image quality. Here are the goals I wanted to hit with this particular computer build:

Budget of $500 not including peripherals (before tax, shipping, etc)
Play currently available games with high to medium settings at a decent resolution
Must be upgradable and relatively future-proof
Quality components, no no-name junk
Doesn't rely on overclocking to achieve acceptable performance

In order to have a fully functional gaming rig, we're going to need a case, a power supply, processor, motherboard, memory, hard drive, optical drive and a video card. Let's look at some hardware options. For each component I'll offer a specific recommendation and an explanation of my choice. In some cases I have also included an (often cheaper) alternative to the primary pick. All prices were taken from the Hot Hardware price engine on the day of posting.

Case / Power Supply

For the case, I chose Antec's excellent Sonata III chassis. As the name implies, this is the 3rd iteration of the Sonata design philosophy of quiet, reliable computing. The Sonata III is a standard mid-tower case with a relatively traditional design. It features clean modern looks and a handful of features to keep noise to a minimum, such as rubber-dampened hard drive bays and low-RPM 120mm fans. There is space for 9 drives total; 4 internal 3.5" bays, 2 external 3.5" bays, 4 5.25" bays. While the chassis is nice, the best part of the package is the included 500 watt Antec EarthWatts power supply. Antec's EarthWatts line-up are excellent high-efficiency power supplies and the 500W model goes for $70 on its own. All this for $90 is a steal.

However if you'd rather go with something a bit cheaper, check out the alternate pick, the Cooler Master Elite RC-330. The RC-330 is similar to the Sonata is design and capacity although it lacks some of the Sonata's sound dampening features. It comes with a 350W power supply which should be enough for this build but may limit future upgradeability unless it's replaced.

Primary: Antec Sonata III w/ EarthWatts 500W ($90)

Alternative: Cooler Master Elite RC-330 w/ 350W ($50)

Processor

For the processor we chose Intel's E5200.The E5200 is based on the Allendale core shrunken to 45nm. At 2.5GHz with 2MB of L2 cache, it gives plenty of bang for the buck. It also happens to overclock very well and with a TDP of 65W, it's relatively energy efficient. The E5200 should serve the purposes of this build quite nicely without blowing the budget.

As an alternative we picked the AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750. The 7750 is the highest model currently available for the K10 Kuma, a dual-core Phenom design. At a core frequency of 2.7GHz, 512KB of L2 cache per core and 2MB of L3 cache, and 1800MHz HTT, the 7750 is a solid competitor for the E5200. In fact, benchmarks show they perform on-par with each other in most cases. However, the 7750 doesn't quite overclock as well and at 95W it isn't as energy efficient either.

Primary: Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 2.5GHz ($83)

Alternative: AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 2.7GHz ($75)

Motherboard

For the motherboard we went with MSI's P6NGM-FD, mATX board based on NVIDIA's GeForce 7100 chipset. This is a very budget concious board but it doesn't lack much in term of features and it has everything we need for this build. Realtek 8211BL gigabit ethernet, Realtek ALC888 surround sound audio and four SATA 3.0Gb/s ports with RAID (0/1/0+1/5/JBOD). It even packs onboard video although we will not be using it since it is ill suited for gaming. There are a few down sides however. Since this is a mATX board, it doesn't have as many expansion slots as a full ATX would. We're limited to one PCI-E x16, a PCI-E x1 and two vanilla PCI slots. This is more than enough for the purposes of this build, but it may limit future upgradeability. In addition, The chipset doesn't support any sort of multi-GPU capability, not that it matters with only one PCI-E x16 slot. Overall we still think the $60 price tag trumps the minor gripes with the board and make it a good choice for our build.

Should you decide to go with an AMD processor, like the 7750 we offered as an alternative to the E5200, you can check out the alternative motherboard we picked. The Gigabyte GA-M78SM-S2H is another budget concious mATX board. Besides supporting a different processor, it is very similar to the MSI P6NGM-FD. It has the advantage of a newer north bridge chip equipped with a better onboard video card, but that is irrelevent to us.

Primary: MSI P6NGM-FD NVIDIA GeForce 7100 ($60)

Alternative: GIGABYTE GA-M78SM-S2H NVIDIA GeForce 8200 ($70)

Memory

For memory, we're going with 4GB of Corsairs XMS2 memory. This is a kit of two 2GB sticks of PC2-6400 with timings of 5-5-5-18. While this is hardly premium performance memory, they should serve our purposes just fine. Besides, it's hard to argue with a price tag of just $46 for two sticks of quality Corsair memory, but if you insist I've listed two alternatives. Both alternatives are $32 but they are quite different. First we have a 4GB kit of Kingston ValueRAM, if you prefer capacity. It's worth noting that ValueRAM modules don't have heatspreaders. And second we have a 2GB kit of Kingston's HyperX PC2-8500 if you're looking for a bit more performance.

Primary: Corsair XMS2 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 ($46)

Alternative 1: Kingston ValueRAM 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 ($32)

Alternative 2: Kingston HyperX 2GB PC2-8500 DDR2 ($32)

Video Card

For the video card, argueably the component that will make or break this build, we splurged a bit on a Radeon HD 4850 from Sapphire. At $154 it is the single most expensive component in the entire build by over $60 but we believe it's worth it. The 4850 is a very strong mid-range gaming card that will give this rig some real legs to stand on. The Sapphire model we chose uses a dual slot cooler, but in return you get improved cooling over the reference cooler.

As an alternative I chose the GeForce 9800 GT from XFX, which is a $25 savings. Judging from benchmarks, the 4850 and 9800 GT are very similar in performance but the 4850 trumps the 9800 GT overall, especially at higher resolutions.

Primary: Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB ($154)

Alternative: XFX GeForce 9800 GT 512MB ($130)

Hard Drive

The Hot Hardware price engine lists the WD Caviar 320GB for the very low price of $47. At less than $50, there is no point in going with an even smaller capacity drive as the savings would be negligible. With around 300GB of usable capacity on tap, after formatting, this drive should provide more than enough space for all your games. You won't be able to fit an extensive video library on this, but it should be just fine for a primarily gaming rig with enough space left over for all your documents and music.

Primary: Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB ($47)

Optical Drive

Primary: LG Electronics GH22NP20 DVD-RW ($21)

Overall this build should result in some decent gaming performance well above what the price tag may suggest. Since we set out to make this rig primarily for gaming, we were able to focus our limited budget around the components that will have the greatest effect on frame rates. The video card is the most expensive component in the whole build with 30% of our total budget but it should pay for itself with very respectable frame rates in all of today's latest titles. We didn't skimp on the processor either since there is no point in having a nice video card if all of your games end up CPU limited. We also didn't cheap out on the power supply since an even and reliable power feed is required to keep your system stable, especially under the stress of gaming.

Areas we did skimp a bit are the auxilary components, however we made sure to leave the door open for future upgrades. We stuck with onboard sound for the build since not everyone is an audiophile. The onboard Realtek sound card should be enough for most people. We also elected to stick to stock cooling for the processor since overclocking wasn't part of the original goal of this build. However room for overclocking does exist in the components we selected and those so inclined will be able to do so.

Primary Build		Alternative Build
Antec Sonata III w/ EarthWatts 500W Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200 2.5GHz MSI P6NGM-FD NVIDIA 7100 Corsair XMS2 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 Sapphire Radeon HD 4850 512MB Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB LG Electronics GH22NP20	$90 $83 $60 $46 $154 $47 $21	Cooler Master Elite RC-330 w/ 350W AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 2.7GHz GIGABYTE GA-M78SM-S2H NVIDIA 8200 Kingston ValueRAM 4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 XFX GeForce 9800 GT 512MB Western Digital Caviar Blue 320GB LG Electronics GH22NP2	$50 $75 $70 $32 $130 $47 $21

Total	$501	Total	$425

Don't agree with my recommendations? Want to share your ideas? Leave a comment!

Buy Optical Media, Get Free Bagel Holder [Hot Deal]

MikeL_HH — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 01:19:00 GMT

As the mass media warns of the financial apocolypse, consumers are tugging on their purse strings and retailers are feeling the pinch. Manufacturers everywhere are trying out kooky gimmicks to try and lure dollars out of the pockets of spooked consumers. Whether it is a free copy of Far Cry 2 with your NVIDIA graphics card purchase or a bonus Dell Mini netbook with your Iron Man DVD, the deals are starting to heat up. Now optical media manufacturers are bundling free bagel and donut holders with every optical media purchase.

This gives me a great idea for a new business plan.

Just think of the synergy savings!

Guaranteed 37% more rambling than the industry standard!

MikeL_HH — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 23:48:00 GMT

I was reading through some comments on the news stories on the front page when I came across this one. I started typing out a reply along the lines of "I don't mind Vista" but 5 minutes later I was in a deep scathing rant about modern interfaces and how I hate them so. It occurred to me that it probably wasn't the right time and place, so welcome to my first rambling blog post.

Unlike a good portion of the rest of the HH team, I'm still using XP on my main every-day productivity machine. I've had Vista on other machines around the 'lab' for a while but haven't bothered to switch over my ultra-modern typewriter yet. Besides the initial issues with driver compatibility, I didn't find Vista to be too bad overall; especially once I figured out how to disable UAC (which was very soon after I noticed how much I hated it). So why not adopt it as my main word processing OS? Frankly because I don't like its interface and I don't yet need it to stay productive. Ohh, and I'm really lazy.

But then I was the guy who went with the "Classic" layout in XP for the first 3 years after it was released. Now I've finally come to terms with using XP's "new" interface a few short years ago and you want me to switch to Vista with its even fancier animations and graphics? Can't someone come out with an OS with less interface visual enhancements and features than the previous version? What about just less interface in general? Where are all the minimalists? Certainly not working at Apple since I don't think the Leapard interface is much better (some other rant, some other day).

While the words "sleek" and "fancy" come to mind, nothing about this says "minimalist" or "efficient" to me

Why do I need glowing, transparent, rounded, beveled, animated, reflected, drop-shadowed scroll bars again? Last I checked, I'm not an 8 year old girl and glitter doesn't excite like it once did (those were the days). Besides, I always thought the most interesting parts of the computing experience were the things the interface is supposed to frame and present... you know... that "content" stuff. Sometimes I wish MS would bring back a full-function command prompt. Yes, I am serious. If I want to be arcane and ridiculous with my new ultra-modern OS, then damnit, I should be allowed my insanity.

I also despise gel and glass buttons. I know Apple didn't invent the concept, but I blame them for making it popular. It isn't so much the button themselves as it is the cheap, guady reflection effect they all carry. It seems like the top of every gel/glass interface has a rediculously bright and harsh light because all these buttons have a massive bright spot at the top that fades a little, then ends abruptly half-way down the button.

The reflections make the button respond faster!

Also, what is with partially transparent interfaces? I know this is purely optional in Vista but I mean in general. It seems to me that there are a bunch of interface designers out there who think more transparency is better. Since when was it a good idea to make your interface harder to see? Why would I want to see part of my desktop background through my scroll bar? Why is an interface element that is permanently docked to the edge of the screen (practically all docks and bars) allowed to be transparent? Did no one realize that since the interface element is docked, it therefore by definition cannot move, which means you constantly see the same exact thing "through" the transparency? I would think that a 2D transparent item which is permanently displaying a static image behind the transparency is no longer really transparent. Instead it's just an oddly faded and blurry interface element.

My (almost) perfect browser setup

My browser set-up is probably the best example I have of what I personally demand from an interface since I think it is pretty close to what I currently think of as "perfect". Namely maximum function. When it comes to interfaces that generally means minimum interface and maximum viewable content area. I use FireFox and Opera as my primary browsers. "But Mike, how can you have two primary browsers?", you ask. Technically I only use one at a time but I switch between them on a near weekly basis, going back and forth whenever one of them starts to annoy me. I've yet to find the perfect browser and all the major ones have issues and quirks that piss me off, but that is yet another rant for some other time. If you look at my FireFox interface (image above), you'll notice it looks like about half of it is missing. Where are the drop-down menus? What happened to the forward and back buttons? Why is the tab bar visible when you only have 1 active tab? Where is the status bar?

The answers are simple. I don't need any of that clutter 95% of the time so they are gone. I use a mouse with dual thumb buttons that gives me forward and back navigation within WIndows, so I don't need the interface buttons. I rarely use the drop-down menus so I've relocated them within a drop-down menu button (that drops down a menu of all the drop-down menus when pressed). The status bar has been integrated within the address bar so the address bar fills with grey to indicate page load progress and rolling over links will automatically display the link address within the address bar. All of this is for the sake of minimalism and to provide me with the most vertical viewing space possible. So why the persistent tab bar? Because it's useful to see which tabs I have 99% of the time and I don't care for my tab bar snapping into and out of existence whenever I am down to 1 tab (which almost never happens anyway).

I'm not sure what the point of this rant was when I started, but I just have one last thing to say. Get off my freaking lawn!