Monthly Archives: November 2010

Why I hate computers part MCLMXIV

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You know why I hate computers? Because no matter how many years of experience you’ve got under your belt, they can still make you feel like a village idiot.

Case in point: I’ve recently bought a professional sound interface by M-Audio, the Audiophile 2496 PCI card. It did not initially work in Ubuntu but did in Win7. So I did things normal people usually do like install some software, play some games, configure things here and there, and after a few restarts, BAM! No sound coming out of my headphones.

Neither in Ubuntu nor in Windows.

So on I go and Google things like usual, and boy did I learn more than I’ve ever wanted to about the inner workings of audio in Linux! Indeed, I went ahead and taught myself the basics of digital audio so that I don’t stare at terms such as S/PDIF only thinking I had an idea what they meant. Nothing helped, though; no sound was coming out of my headphones.

What does a desperate man do in such a situation, then? Re-install Windows? Nope. Re-install Ubuntu? Sure, it was getting slower by the day and I figured it was about time anyway. No sound from my headphones at the end of the day, however.

What does a desperate man who’s lost all sense of self-worth by that time do, then? Pull some cards out of PCI slots and put then in again in different ones! And lo and behold, the music comes to life once again!

One would think that computers and operating systems would have learned a thing or two about IRQs and shit come 2010. Apparently, this is not the case. Or it is, but my computer has never revealed why it suddenly went silent. Or why it spoke again. Once thing is for sure, I’ll never again admit to being a computer expert.

Did Google actually arm its enemies with Android?

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Interesting article over at HBR – it argues that since Android is open, manufactures might and indeed are sometimes replacing Google with other search providers in their handsets. As a result, “Google will not make a cent on this handset, despite having enabled its creation with Android. All the search revenue will flow to [other providers].”

Could be, but I think we have to consider the typical user approach to smartphone in general and Android in particular, which tends to be exploratory if not outright geeky. That’s very unlike Nokia use case (call & text) indeed.

So render me sceptical. In those markets where Google is the 500 pound gorilla, users WILL ask “Where is my Google?” and download / tweak their handset so that Google is back in play. Because in these markets, Google got there by delivering the best results, period. Users are not that “dumb” as when they simply used the defaults because going beyond defaults was going beyond pain.

Plus, there’s tons of other services (Mail, Maps…) which will continue to be present on these devices for as long as people use them, and through those channels Google will continue making advertising dollars.

I think Google’s main concern has been the oft-mentioned “fragmentation” caused by users having to wait for manufacturers to release OS updates. Once Google figures out how to deliver updates and upgrades with its own mechanism (Market or otherwise), they’re going to be just fine.