Orchids, Onions, and Kumquats

By Jerry Pournelle

February 3, 2003

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Column 270 (Continued from the Previous Week)

Drizzle

A small orchid to Microsoft for their "drizzle" program updating system. This has worked quietly and invisibly to keep both operating system and applications programs up to date without overwhelming the download capacity of my IDSL system. "Drizzle" sends bits and pieces of the update, assembles them, and lets you know when they are ready to install. It has worked very well for me.

I do confess some mild trepidation about security: The update drizzles are potentially a major vulnerability to an outside attack, and I haven't seen a lot of discussion of that. I know Microsoft is aware of the problem.

Burning!

A medium sized onion and a "what were they thinking?" to Microsoft for the backup program built into Windows XP. Microsoft Backup hasn't been the most wonderful backup program ever, but it can be useful—except that this one won't back up your system to CD/R or DVD, and that's by design. With CD burners nearly as cheap as DVD readers, and DVD burners down to commodity prices, it's time to get some decent backup to archive capabilities into our operating systems.

A Chaos Manor Orchid to Nero Burning ROM for their CDROM software, still the best out there. I haven't tried their new MPEG-2/DVD Plug-in but given how good Nero Burning ROM has been, I'm willing to bet it works well.

Plextor and Mount Rainier

The Chaos Manor User's Choice Award for CD Burning Hardware goes to Plextor. They've won that so often they could retire the trophy if this were that kind of game, but of course it's not: Companies do rise and fall, and rapidly. But Plextor has been making efficient and reliable CD writing hardware for many years, and I don't see that changing.

A big Chaos Manor Orchid to the Plextor 48X PlexWriter. This is not just a slightly faster CD burner, because it supports the new Mount Rainier CD-MRW technology that finally makes CD-RW packet-writing transparent to the operating system.

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