I’ve installed Vista with the “new” ATI drivers that support OpenGL.  The process has been less “fun” than I’d like thus far, and I don’t yet have my favorite games working.  Here are a few of the little problems I’ve encountered

• Vista doesn’t include support for file system backups made with Windows XP/2000.  You have to download an optional piece of software to add this support.  For a moment, as I looked at the “this file type is not recognized” error message when I tried to access my backups, I was a wee bit worried
• I’m still experiencing problems with having my computer recover properly from Standby mode.  After upgrading to the latest BIOS for my ASUS M2R32, at least I was able to restart from standby.  Unfortunately, my display is horribly corrupted after such a restart, suggesting there is something not-quite-right with the Jan 29/V7.1 ATI Vista drivers
• The embedded ADI sound card on my motherboard didn’t work initially, and the drivers from my Asus install CD simply failed to install.  I downloaded beta drivers from Asus that seem to be working now
• Once I got audio working, I discovered that perhaps I was premature in assuming that it wasn’t working to begin with.  Something is different with the supported audio output from the SoundMax- to get adequate volume, I had to disconnect the digital connector and use analog wiring

Once I figured out the basics, I started installing/testing my games

• EverQuest 2 works! I was able to successfully log in and wander around a bit; I have sound and working graphics, so it’s looking good
• EverQuest didn’t work initially- it failed while it was trying to patch Launchpad, then again when it tried to patch the game itself.  I ultimately “corrected” this by taking/forcing ownership with full rights on the EverQuest directories (I.E.: I right-clicked the Sony directory, selected Security tab, Advanced, then selected the Owner tab, made myself the owner of the directories, then back to Permissions to grant myself full rights)
• I *suspect* that I may have caused this problem myself.  I installed EQ2, then over-wrote the directories from my backup thinking this would reduce the amount of updating necessary.  I believe that all this did was change the directory/file permissions…and when I finally got EQ2 to launch, it went out and did a full (2+ hour @ 3 Mbps) update anyway.
• EQ2Map Updater does not work :(  At least not on my machine
• Second Life does not work; it installs, but crashes at the main login / status screen.  Apparently, NVidia card owners are working fine with Vista + Second Life, but ATI cards are causing the Second Life client to crash.  Presumably something wrong with ATI’s OpenGL implementation- not surprising, really, since the first release ever of OpenGL support from ATI was in the most recent (January 29th) driver set- no beta, straight to release- smart move, ATI.
• Vanguard works without a hitch- but I applied the same ownership changes to the Vanguard directories that I did for the EQ2 directories.  See also the note above re: I’m likely at fault for the permissions problem

ATI released their “production” Vista driver on January 29th. And it apparently has native OpenGL support, at least according to this extract from the release notes:

This release of Catalyst® introduces the following new features:

• Blu-ray and HD-DVD playback
• CrossFire™ support under Vista
• Native OpenGL Vista support
• Catalyst™ Install Manager for Vista
• New Catalyst™ Control Center

This looks very promising. Unfortunately, I’m away from home at the moment and likely won’t have a chance to try this out for a couple of weeks. I’m still shaking my head, though, about ATI waiting until pretty much the day of release for Vista before making these features available for folks to test out.

I run my main computer slightly on the edge.  I don’t overclock it, but I do have some of the latest hardware inside, and the latest drivers.  I build (assemble the bits, install and configure the OS) it myself not because I consider myself particularly brilliant, but because it sort of makes me feel good. 

I am pretty technically proficient.  However, I build one (1) completely unique computer per year more or less: you don’t learn all the ins and outs of a build when you only create one of them.  And as a result of the “one of a kind” nature of my configuration, I am periodically caught by a problem.  That’s what this post is about.

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I’m not exactly known for my patience.  You could probably find my picture next to the Wikipedia entry for “instant gratification”.  If I decide I want a gadget, I’ll usually mull it over for some months, but when I make the final decision…there is no hesitation.  Don’t stand in my way in Best Buy…several Sales Associates have tried that, and they are still recovering.

Some months ago I decided I wanted Windows Vista.  I was performing my annual computer upgrade, and Vista was Release Candidate 2 at that point.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t working with my games at the time.  I had picked up an interest in Second Life, and Second Life (along with a number of games by ID and other manufacturers) requires OpenGL drivers.  Early in Vista’s development, there was some doubt about support for OpenGL, but apparently that was all resolved early in 2006 with Microsoft incorporating full support for native OpenGL drivers through the use of installable client drivers (ICD). 

This ICD thing is great news- it means that the video card drivers just need to provide the appropriate OpenGL drivers, and Vista will work with them.  NVidia responded with Vista beta drivers back in September that included this support.  ATI, despite claiming to be ahead in terms of Vista support, did not.  So, in the absence of any real alternative, I shelved the idea of installing Vista for the moment and started to wait for ATI’s release of ICD drivers.

Since then, Windows Vista has been released to manufacturing.  It will be released to the public at large late in January.  That means there isn’t much more than a month to go before the floodgates open.  NVidia has had a couple more beta releases with OpenGL ICD drivers that work with Vista.  But ATI?  Not even one…nothing so much as an early OpenGL beta, or even some word of when they might finally release one.  Instead, absolute silence on the subject.  And in the interim, they’ve had two more releases of their basic Vista video driver, so it’s not like they’ve been standing still.  With each release, I look at the release notes and am saddened to read this:

The lack of a beta OpenGL driver from ATI at this point is distressing.  But even worse is their silence- if they said “it will be here in January” instead of just “It’s not supported”, I’d breathe a sigh of relief.  But as it is, I’m wondering if I’ll have to seriously consider replacing my video card in the new year with an NVidia card.  That would be unfortunate, since I really do like ATI. 

As mentioned in my previous post, I’ve built a new machine.  And I’ve completed my first performance test on it, before any optimizations and with an out of date video driver.  Here is what I got running 3D Mark 2006:

And here is the result of the same test run on my old machine:

That looks like a 3-fold improvement to me, which is better than I expected.  I would have been happy with double the performance.  But 3DMark 2006 looks at performance for future games: games that might be out *next* year.  3DMark 2003 is a test probably more in tune with games that exist today: here are the results from that test on each machine:

3DMark 2003 results

• Old machine:  10,257
• New machine: 18,405

So, for “current” technology games, my new machine is probably about twice as fast as the old one.  I also tried 3dMark 2005, but for some reason it failed (crashed on the second test) on my old machine.  On the new system, the 3DMark 2005 score was 11,262

I built my “new” computer over the weekend.  This is sort of a tradition- every two years or so, I feel the need to refresh my technology from the ground up.  Every other year I perform an “intermediate” upgrade- RAM, video, disk.  The distinction between these two types of upgrade is somewhat vague, but I pretend they are different.

The last “full system” upgrade was back in 2004.  I moved from Intel to AMD, NVidia to ATI, IDE to SATA, and life was good.  This time around the changes are a bit more subtle…basically, sticking with AMD, ATI, and SATA, but bigger, faster, and better.  Since I like living on the bleeding edge, I also decided to try Vista RC2…that turned out to be unworkable, but then it *is* a beta release. 

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I enjoy…perhaps that’s the wrong word, but I’ll use it for now…catching vendors in obvious disconnects between words and action. Here is one I just found:

• Microsoft keeps harping on developers, particularly hardware developers, to support the 64 bit versions of Windows…

In his keynote speech before about 3,500 hardware makers, Gates also sounded a familiar note, talking about the coming wave of 64-bit computers. Although many systems today have 64-bit chips, the necessary software and drivers are only now coming into the market. The company perennially uses the Windows Hardware Engineering Conference to implore hardware makers to ensure they have built 64-bit drivers. Although 64-bit systems can run 32-bit software, they require new drivers for any hardware device–drivers that have been slow in coming.

• Microsoft’s own tools don’t support Windows XP x64…this is the message I get when I run the upgrade advisor on Windows XP x64 Professional:

Comical, really. I do plan on one day installing Vista when they ship the 64 bit version. Maybe by then they’ll have an advisor that works on their own 64 bit OS?

Walter Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal penned an article the other day about how the Personal Computer era may be ending, to be replaced by … I’m not really sure, I guess he’s saying purpose built devices for particular purposes. Actually, the way I read his article, I think he’s saying that the “component build” model appears to be a poor one to use for things like iPods, but the technology media seems to have picked up on this being someone yet again predicting the end of the personal computer.

I’m pretty sure that Mr. Mossberg didn’t actually intend to predict the end of the personal computer. That’s been done so many times before its almost laughable. Network Computers were hyped and died in the mid ’90s. We’ve had several generations of game consoles that were supposed to kill the personal computer. And now ubiquitous devices like iPods and web browser/camera/music player/pda/cell phones are going will be the death nell that removes that machine from under your desk.

Bill Gates has responded to this kind of thing before, and apparently he’s written a letter to the WSJ for this one (although I’m not a WSJ subscriber, so I can’t read it). To be honest, Bill, you are wasting your time.

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If you buy an upscale new car today or in the near future, say a BMW, Mercedes, or Cadillac, there’s a good chance that you won’t have a key. Instead, you’ll have a little fob- sort of like the keyless entry control you are likely used to. To start the car, you’ll just push a button- the car will have confirmed that you have the right fob and will allow you to start the engine (or not). No key to pull out of your pocket or fuss with. This all sounds very high-tech and convenient. Unfortunately, the
methods used by the car and the keyfob to validate each other are pretty porous….easily crackable. Even easier than the keyless entry system. And unlike the keyless entry system, they let you start the car and drive away as if you own it. The article I link to above lays things out pretty clearly, but here’s the gist of it. Remote keyless entry fobs are “active”: they have have a battery and broadcast a signal only when you press the button on the fob. The new keyless ignition systems work the opposite way: the fobs are passive, and the car continously sends out a signal looking for the authorization response. Someone with some basic computer equipment can pick up that signal, identify its nature, and try a simple brute force attack until the car responds. The encryption code (key) used by the cars is a relatively weak 40 bit cryptographic length- for comparison, your web browser supports a 128 bit key. A 40 bit key can be broken by a laptop in a matter of hours: possibly much faster if the thief has some clues such as those given by the car sending out its query signal. Since getting a response means the thief can actually start and drive away in the car without a hitch, and since most cars with this system today are in the $60,000 + range, hacking the code is worth the effort. David Beckham of soccer fame has had his BMW sport utility vehicle stolen this way not once, but twice. Apparently, the manufacturers of the cars using these systems don’t think their vulnerability to hacking is worth worrying about. For myself, I’ll probably think twice if I happen to one day be looking at cars with this keyless ignition feature…

Apparently Google is taking Microsoft to task over the new search bar built in to Internet Explorer 7. The Googleheads are upset over the fact that this search bar defaults to using Microsoft’s own MSN search.

First let’s set aside the obvious fact that Firefox “defaults” to using Google, and no one complains about that. And then we can ignore the fact that Microsoft is the manufacturer of IE 7 and therefore somewhat entitled to give precedence to their own products. That leaves us with one slim thread holding up any credibility to Google’s concerns: that somehow, Microsoft is taking away a user’s “freedom of choice”.

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