Had to handle my first support incident from XP SP2's great bug ^H^H^H^H feature that is TCP throttling. Somewhere, MS started listening to Steve Gibson when it comes to security. So they turned off RAW socket support in XP SP2 and added TCP throttling. TCP throtting was added late in the game (I'm pretty sure it was at RC1 or later).

While there's no real reason to do these things, MS claims it adds security, because when a virus runs, it's absolutely impossible for it to use it's own driver or get around “safeguards” like this, right? Sigh... MS usually had well thought out security measures, always keeping in mind if malicious code is running as admin -- it can do anything! At any rate, XP SP2 limits the number of pending TCP connections to 10. Yes, 10.

More than security, it sounds like MS wanted to cripple P2P networks, as a 10 pending connection limit certainly does hurt many implementations. For instance, with eDonkey. I request a file, and get say 300 sources. I'll need to contact each source and get added to the queue. Well, 300 sources * many files = LOTS of connections needed. Since many of the sources could be slow to respond (throw in high latency connections (ever use a satellite?)), or simply offline and timeout, the 10 connection limit gets hit within seconds (I have eMule set to 512 connections max, with 128 per 5 seconds).  Even the defaults are high enough to hit this silly limit.

So today I get a call saying that Outlook won't contact my email server, and after this, the have to reboot their computer to access the Internet. After a bit of chat, I figure out it's XP SP2 being “helpful”, but limiting this guy's network software. The solution? Tell him to google for a hacked TCPIP.sys that gives him unlimited connections. (I'd love to post it here, but I think it'd be a legal issue. Maybe instructions on how to patch your TCPIP.sys file would be OK... At any rate, use google. Also, Neowin had a file in their forums for unlimited connections (other patches increase it to only 50)).

Great job -- forcing average users into downloading cracked system DLLs just to get basic functionality. Oh yea, and not accomplishing anything regarding security either. Fun.

A while ago a friend showed me some great TTS software online. But I couldn't fine it again. But I did find this: http://www.research.att.com/projects/tts/demo.html From AT&T research comes text-to-speech that sounds quite realistic. Go try it out (they have US English, UK English, German and French). Now if only MS would start shipping these voices instead of Microsoft Sam...

One thing that really annoys me about the VC++ editor is that when you collapse something, say a method, it eats up all the lines around it, until the next non-whitespace line. So when you look at your file collapsed, you see all declarations all together, and at least I have a problem reading that easily.

However, here's a simple trick to get around it. Throw a tab in a line. The collapsed region stops consuming when it finds a tab, and thus you can get the appearance of separation with everything collapsed. Nice.

30Mbps to your house:
http://www22.verizon.com/ForYourHome/Fios/packagePrice.asp
A tad pricey perhaps, but at least it's a start. Meanwhile, down here, I'm paying $229/mo for 512k...well, I will be, whenever they come to install (perhaps a month).

I just found a feature that probably few people use, relative to the number of total Word users. Even though I'm running English Windows XP, my default IME is Korean. By pressing right-alt, I can switch between Roman and Hangeul mode.

However, every now and then, I forget to switch, and end up typing (and usually sending, since it's IRC or IM), English, but in Hangeul mode. So, if I were to write, “Hi, how are you?”, it'd come out as “ㅗㅑ, ㅙㅈ ㅁㄱㄷ ㅛㅐㅕ?” The same is in reverse. If I was to say “언녕!” it'd write “dkssud!”.

What's cool is the Word is smart enough to recognize this common mistake, since “dkssud” or “ㅗㅑ, ㅙㅈ ㅁㄱㄷ ㅛㅐㅕ” are extremely rare sequences in those alphabets, but common in the other one. So Word automatically corrects the text, and flips your mode. End result? You don't need to worry about switching manually, even if your document uses both English and Korean. Very cool.

I've had it mess up on me one time (in fact, since it's such a transparent feature, I only *thought* it existed before -- I'd type something and think that it flashed and flipped over, but never really tested it) -- typing “cmd”, as in a “.cmd file”, triggers it and it outputs “층” (cheung) instead.

Actually, I've been here for over a week now... or has it been two?

What's bad is that the house (and more importantly, the Internet connection) that were promised to us turned out not be available. So meanwhile I'm on a DirecWay (yuck!) connection and a CDMA (interesting) connection. Both are slow. Both have high ping times. The CDMA connection is better than DirecWay, but it's still lacking. The cool thing is that a simple USB/PCMCIA card can connect at 128k to 2Mbps almost anywhere in the country, for only $50 a month!

Coming to Guatemala now seems a lot different than it did the first time I got here (Almost 7 years ago). More correctly, Guatemala hasn't changed much (OK, widespread Internet and cell phone access apart), but I've changed a lot. Living in Atlanta for 6 months really got me comfy on some things (like high speeds, or being able to actually order stuff online). Other things I had gotten so used to in Guatemala and then Atlanta, I've just noticed them more. Here are some random items:

-Driving. I don't have a driver's license, so I only drove once or twice while in Atlanta. Even then, it was only for a few minutes, and rather nervously. (My brother insists that you don't need a license or insurance to drive in the states, but I'm pretty sure they'd arrest you.) In Guatemala, I can use my own printed license or a few dollars. A few years ago I was stopped with no license or registration at all. After indignantly claiming I didn't need a license, the six cops settled for about $7, and even offered me change. I have a friend here who has used his university student ID card as a drivers license and it works fine. Of course, driving again just reminds me how much I hate driving (well, more specifically, traffic).

-Slow pace/bureaucratic . The USA, being quite consumer-oriented, seems to move quite fast for many products and services. Call Comcast, give them your address/phone number, and they're there in a few days installing your Internet connection (OK, YMMV :) ). Down here, it just takes longer for everything. DSL? Fill out 5 pages of paperwork, sign a 1 year contract, etc. etc. Then they might install in a month. For the Bellsouth CDMA access we have they wanted 3 bank statements, legal ownership papers and a whole slew of other stuff -- all this for a $50/month service and about $100 in hardware. Just a different pace to adjust to -- probably better for your health.

-Different freedom. While Guatemala's laws are complex and strict on some things (for instance, making an invoice requires the government to approve the design of your invoice), they are usually marginalized because of lack of enforcement or corruption (the oil of bureaucracy). I drive a 89 Jeep Korando, which wouldn't pass any inspection of anything, yet it's not a problem. I'll leave my Internet connection on (when I get a real one) eMule 24/7 and never worry about the MPAA/RIAA suing me. Of course, there's downsides to this (i.e., don't make strong enemies, since the police aren't gonna do much about it). The interesting thing is the odd things that might be enforced. For instance, broadcast on an unlicensed frequency (and almost all frequencies are licensed here), and the telecommunications agency will triangulate you and fine you quite quickly. Also, you can get stopped and fined for driving while talking on a cell phone (however driving a vehicle with no doors, exhaust like a burning oil field, and no headlights, will hardly get you noticed).

-Homogeneous environment/culture. In the states, you find all sorts of people. Companies and people must be somewhat politically correct in some areas. It's harder to make assumptions about people in the states (say, which holidays they celebrate). In Guatemala, you have essentially two groups: the Mayans and the Latinos. Inside the two groups, a lot of common thought is shared. Nothing surprising really, it's just that you don't see this as much in the states since there's quite a bit more of a mixture, and here there's a lot less diversity: I've seen perhaps 10 black people in Guatemala city and the surrounding areas (go towards Belize and of course this changes) in the years I've been here. Once I saw a company van (a photo company) driving around with loudspeakers playing a common anti-gay song at full volume. I highly doubt they got any complains.

-Radio/TV suck. Oh wait, that's not differnet. They suck in the states too. Although, I'm able to get Korean TV included in the cheap ($10) cable package (unlike Comcast, who wants $15/mo for *one* channel more).

-Money. Basic living costs are much cheaper (rent, food, etc.). However, go above that, and you get gouged. The big electronics store down here (related to Sony) sells the same equipment for about double or triple the cost of what'd you'd in the states. Telgua wants $150 for a 128K ADSL line with a public IP ($50 a month if you want private). MS Office 2002 retails for $500+ at Office Depot here. Also, good luck on finding a GeForce 6800. Yet, you could get an Oracle DBA with 8 years of experience for probably $2000 or $3000 a month.

-Armed guards. Something I'm so used to I almost forgot: armed guards. Everywhere. At the bank in Atlanta, I think the guard had a pointy stick and a .22. Here, the guard at the postal office had some mean-looking automatic assault rifle. Pretty much any mall, store or any place with anything of any value will have really-armed guards. After a bit they just start to blend in. And in reality, I doubt they help that much. I worked on restoring bank robbery footage, and the poor bank guard in one attack couldn't even pull his pistol out in time. Also, the thieves are similarly (or more -- in one video, they came in with some machine gun type thing that was around 150cm long), and have the element of surprise. In fact, I'm not even sure how a guard would use an assault rifle in a mall or a bank. Police are armed like that too (once I got stopped on foot by police -- by having their uzi stuck into my back), but they've got some training at least.

-Security. Since the police force is not an effective deterrent (since the response is not that great), a lot of focus is put on prevention. This is directly in constrast to the states, where prevention is hardly anything, and everything is based on detection and response. Almost all houses will have a wall around them, some with razor wire or perhaps broken glass on top. Driving around in Atlanta's suburbs seemed so strange, since you could look, or walk, right into people's houses. Also, I've yet to see many residential windows that don't have iron bars across them. Having homes be like mini-fortresses just seems natural after a while.

Those are just some differences, some nice, some not-so-nice, that I've noticed. I'll try to remember some others.

Since I've been living alone for the last few weeks, my main food intake is from a local Chinese restaurant. About a week ago, I got this fortune inside the cookie: “An exciting new job will present itself soon.” And the next day, I got a call from a recruiter with XXX. Exciting is an understatement. First time a fortune cookie has been that accurate for me. Because of this, I still order from that restaurant, even though they had a roach in my soup the other day.

Two days ago, I got this fortune: “Someone you haven't seen for a long time will re-enter your life.” Now, I tried to imagine who this could be. Well, again they were right. Yesterday, I sadly said farewell to a friend: My MSDN Code Center Premium Smartcard. The shared source licensing doesn't apply to Guatemala, so I had to have my account deactivated and card returned. Today I'm fixing an error in an app where FormsAuthentication isn't working correctly (signout is not happening). Usually, I'd just slip in my card, navigate to com/netfx/framework/xsp/.... and well, I'd have the source and figure it out quite quickly. That's no longer an option. Enter my the someone I haven't seen for a long time: ILDAasm. Sigh.

Does anyone else play the game of “sarcasm chicken“? It goes something like this:

Alice: Well, user's are still opening virus attachments.

Bob: Let's install better anti-virus software on all client machines.
Alice: Well, still, it's not enough. Maybe all attachments need to scanned at the server first.

Bob: Hmm, maybe we should have virus-scanning at the ethernet layer, you know, stop it before it gets into the computer, right at the switch.

Alice: Yea, even better, we could also have a heuristical scanner inside the TCP/IP stack.

Bob: Well, true, but attachments also have to be saved. So maybe the file system could make all new data written unaccessible to the user until an admin approves it or until it's virus scanned.

Alice: Could be, but if the OS gets attacked... what about having it at the disk level? That way we'd have hardware support, and that's a lot harder to hack.

Bob: Hardware support? That's a good idea, but we'd have to buy new hardware.

Alice: Hmm, maybe we can patch the BIOS to.... <g>

Bob: <g>... I was gonna ask if you were serious...

Has this ever happened to you? It starts as a joke, and you keep it up a bit, and then you start to think the other person might actually be serious and well... This is a good outcome. It's no fun if you have to explain your “joke“, esp. on a public DL.

Yet another cool thing from Microsoft: MSN Web Messenger. For all those who can't install software on the computer they are using, or if everything except IE is firewalled out, just navigate to http://webmessenger.msn.com/ and away you go.

MSN Web Messenger uses IE (ok, maybe it works with another browser?) and HTTP to pull off a very convincing Messenger UI. It even does the little pop-up message windows! It's not nearly as nice as the real client, but it's definately usable. Wow, I'm impressed.

A while back (ok, for quite some time), I've been complaining about non-Unicode apps. Today's latest offender was MSN Messenger, Korean version. Apparently there's some extra things from Microsoft for the Korean version that allows you to have avatars, instead of just a picture.

However, I couldn't install it, because it's not Unicode enabled. Here's a pic of it's installer (downloading):


Beautiful, eh? Same goes for IRC. I type in Hangeul (Korean script), and it comes out as ????. Others (using a DBCS, codepage 949) type in, and it comes out as garbage (as in the title of the above window). I was hoping to have an app that would set the locale for a specific app, so I wouldn't need to change my whole session locale *just for one app*.

Well, it turns out that Microsoft has already done this, and it rocks. Presenting: AppLocale! This beauty sets the local for a single app, and well, that's it. So now I can easily use IRC to chat in Korean (well, chat perhaps is an overstatement of my abilities)! Yey! And people wonder why I think Microsoft is so cool...

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/04/iraqis.unwelcome.ap/index.html

Baffling. Too busy to meet someone? Racist? Utterly terrified for no reason? Just plain retarded? Well, whatever your excuse, you can now “cite security concerns“ to get around things.

Well, the nice FedEx man showed up today with a little package from NewEgg.com: Arctic-Cooling's Super Silent 4Pro L. I can actually run my machine (P4c, 3GHz, 533MHz FSB) with a 2000RPM CPU fan (although it's quiet enough to move it to 3000RPM “just in case”). The Intel one wouldn't run at less than 3700RPM, and that's after a very cold boot, with a glass of ice inside the case.

To test it out, I ran a little keygenerator program which taxes my CPU. I ran two instances to make sure that each core would get a beating. Temp went up to about 60. That's all. And the fan was still running nice and quiet at 2500 or 3000 RPM. Cooled off instantly. Why can't Intel ship a good fan/heatsink combo like this in each processor box? With the old one, running a test like that would push the fan to about 6000RPM, and the whole thing would vibrate like it was about to take off.

Actually, I'm thankful that my machine is even running right now. It's been a long time since I've done any real hardware work, and I've never worked with thermal paste or Socket 487 restrainers (in fact, I took out the entire MB just to figure it out!). Guess I can still do those kinds of things :)

My great friend Herbert Sandoval left a comment on my entry about returning to Guatemala. He's a little pissed at me for sounding so cocky and, well, ignorant, hypocritical, etc. And, well, he's got a point there. What is 3rd world? Who is any other country to decide what's 3rd world? But is it an offensive term? I certainly use it to describe certain characteristics. They may or might not have anything to do with 3rd-worldliness (whatever the hell that is). I've lived most of my life in the USA, and Guatemala, with a bit in Canada, so it's not exactly like I have a wealth of data to pull from. He makes some great points about culture (well, *I* made those points quite a long time ago myself, so I want some credit for those ideas!!! :)), and “if you're a 1st class country, why go and attack less fortunate countries” <ok, let's not say anything since I don't wanna start a political battle here!>.

So if anyone is offended, my deepest apologies. That's just a term to describe some of the things I face there. That's all. I don't think I would have married someone from there if I thought “3rd world” was an offensive term. I do like being able to order a Arctic-Cooling Super Silent 4Pro L Heatsink/Fan for $10 and have it arrive at my door in 2 days, and I like being able to use PayPal. Or make a phone call and 5 days later have a 4Mbps connection. As I noted in my comment, perhaps my definition of “3rd world” should be related to how fast I can get a great Internet connection :).

Then again, go check out my parents' clinic: www.hands-of-hope.com. Talk to Anita about what she deals with every day. Sure, things like this can happen everywhere. I think the general term “3rd world” comes out of that in certain parts of Guatemala, things like that are more common. It doesn't reflect on individual people like Herbert (who is a kick-ass designer -- if you ever need graphic work, go here: www.expletus.com), or Juan Gabriel (probably one of the best people I've ever worked with). Just please remember you don't decide where you are born. Being proud or offended by nationality is childish. It may be fun “Yea, we're the best, let's rock the world!“, but it's still silly. I can't remember the last time I was offended by hearing anything negative about Canada. I'm not “proud to be Canadian“ (although I love the passport). There are people doing advanced technology and all sorts of things all over the world. Countries are too large a unit to do much with :). Hey, here's a brand-new blogger, a Visual FoxPro developer in Guatemala.

Being “3rd world“ doesn't affect everything in Guatemala. Actually, being “3rd world” is only a label, it doesn't affect anything at all, except perhaps some peoples perceptions. Hell, if you're in Guatemala City, you probably wouldn't notice much different from many other cities. I love staying at Johnny's Place out in Monterrico. Eve Andersson has a great tour of Guatemala. However, certain things remain factual: high illiteracy rate, lack of medical care in certain areas, widespread poverty in certain areas, crime, etc. There are certain disadvantages (Internet access being my #1 complaint :)). I'm not making any judgements, just saying how I see it. Correct me if I'm wrong. Perhaps it's an elitist term I should stay away from, but I've never cared for being PC :).