So SQLServer is not the only one! Read on: Oracle warns of security flaw in 9i database. Database giant Oracle Corp. is warning customers about security holes in versions of its Oracle 9i Database Server.

Okay, I've had this thing for almost a year now and I have been meaning to write this for almost that long. I did a diligent job on researching the other MP3 players out there and I picked the Nomad because it had lots of space (20 gigs), long battery life (11 hours on one or 22 on two) and excellent EQ and sound leveling? come on, what do you expect from Creative Labs! What I didn't expect was that the firmware and software for it was so poorly written (and still is)! Okay, the headphone sucked too, but I expected that. Read on if you plan to buy one of these things?

Why The Nomad Sucks

One very important accessory they left out of the package is a straighten out paper clip! You need one handy for a few reasons. If you ?accidentally? leave it plugged in to its power supply over night, it won?t turn on?!?!?! Huh? I have never had any device in my life that did this! At first I thought the Nomad was bad and I contacted the Creative labs technical support. The said they needed to replace it. They did and it kept happening until I realized what the real problem was. The only way to get the player started is to stick a straighten paper clip into the reset hole in the underside of the player.

So after I was very careful to not keep my player plugged in, it kept happening! During this time I was transferring a lot of songs over to my player while I worked on another computer. Well, after a frustrating time wondering why I kept having to use my trusty paper clip every morning. I discovered that keeping the USB cable plugged into it overnight did something, so it needed to be reset every morning! Huh?

Before I move to the crappy software, there are a few more firmware issues. One is that there is no way that you can tell if you added an Album to the Playlist. So if you added it again (because you could not remember if it was in the play list or not), the firmware is too stupid to know that you already added it and adds it again. After about six months of wondering why some songs played all the time and others hardly ever played, I finally figured it out! I also found out that the play list can not be as long as you want. I recently hit some limit and had to kill off a big play list and make lots of smaller ones. When you select to play a play list, for some reason it will play songs that are not on that play list ?!?!? Also, the random song generator simply blows. It can actually play the same song twice in a row! With over 600 songs on my player, I don?t know why I hear the same song 3 or 4 times in 8 hours??

The Software Sucks? Then Got Worse!

The Play Center software that originally came with the Nomad looked like a summer intern wrote it! It did not ?play well? will other programs while transferring songs to the Nomad. Meaning it took over all the computers cycles and you could not user any other programs. Navigation around the Nomad major areas (Albums, Play lists etc.) is very poor. It?s funny how my CD player for my home stereo system can read the song names off of CD-R?s that I burn, but the Pay Center can not?

Anyway, I was hoping they would fix Play Center or come out with a better program? well they did. I just installed it and its worse! They seem to be forcing you to use this huge program Creative MediaSource Organizer. Even though it says it will work with the Nomad, it doesn't unless you install a plug in. After going to their web site again, struggling though some error messages, deleting a device driver, installing it again and rebooting? it finally worked! But then it took me about 30 minutes just to figure out how to transfer a CD to the Nomad. The MediaSource Organizer is way to confusing to use. Most features that were in the Play Center are gone! You can?t add an entire album to the play list anymore? you have to add the tracks. The whole thing just sucks.

What Were They Thinking?

Okay Creative, good hardware but want went wrong with the software and firmware? Because of this I will NEVER purchase another Creative MP3 product. You have lost a customer forever. Actually, since we all paid for this piece of crap, I think that we all deserve the latest generation of MP3 player you have? for FREE! That?s the least you can do.

Last weekend I rebuilt (hardware) my main computer at home. I was running Microsoft Office 2000. Before I shut down the old hardware for the last time, I exported all my e-mail account settings in Outlook (all 9 of them) and placed them (along with all my other backup data) on my file server. After I rebuilt my server, installed Windows XP, I installed Microsoft Office 2003 (beta 2 refresh). After I went through some hassle with making my old .pst file the main personal folder in Outlook 2003 I then attempted to setup my e-mail accounts.

 

At first I went to the screen where the e-mail accounts are setup because in Outlook 2000, this is where you import/export account settings. Guess what? No such option. Then I went to File/ Import and Export. I selected :Import Internet Mail Account Settings". all I got was an error stating "No internet accounts were found to import"! What the heck! It did not let me pick a place to import them from or anything!

 

So I had to manually enter ALL NINE of my e-mail accounts (thank goodness I had the foresight to make screenshots of all my account settings)! It was a struggle remembering some of the passwords! This really sucked! They better get this fixed before the release in two weeks or there are going to be a lot of pissed off people.

 

Update March 14, 2005

I still can't figure out a way to save (export) email account settings in Outlook 2003. Very frustrating :-(

If you have a Compaq Pocket PC as I do, they I?m sure might be as irritated as I am? Why the heck when I cradle my Pocket PC and Microsoft ActiveSync kicks in to communicate with it, the ActiveSync windows has to pop-up and disturb me? Why can?t it just operate quietly down in the system tray and not bother me unless there is a problem? I have to purposely close the dang thing every time I dock my Pocket PC! ARRRGH! And another thing? why can?t I ever close down ActiveSync? It?s the first program I have ever encountered that does not have a way to exit out of it!?!?!?!?!?

So you think open source will save the world? Linux is great? Well check this out: Server breach raises Linux code worries. The GNU Project, which develops many of the components in the operating system, warns that the system housing its primary download servers was compromised by an attacker.

WS-I releases Web services interoperability plan . Looking to find the Holy Grail of low-cost, easy interoperability for data and applications, the Web Services Interoperability Organization (WS-I) on Tuesday is set to release its Basic Profile 1.0 document.

Another week, another security hole in Windows ('MSBlast' worm a piecemeal monster). Let’s face it… it’s going to happen when you have the most popular operating system on the planet! There are probably thousands of pimply faced little hackers with nothing better to do than to try to make Windows look bad. No operating system is perfect… not the Mac, not Linux… none of them. The others have holes too, but since they are in such the minority the media never publicizes them. Believe me, if we were all running Linux, there would be worms, security holes every week… so everyone settle down now!

Today Rolling Stone released an article about the Iron Maiden "Dance" back outlining their tour and new album. I personally am going to skip their appearance in San Diego this week. Why? Well... their last album was week, during their last concert Bruce actually had the balls to say that they were going to bring metal back and they played way too many songs from the new album during the show.

Come on Bruce, groups like Disturbed, Tool, Sevendust and others are bringing metal back, not you. Take your place in history... keep touring, keep playing to the old (good) songs with a few (very few) new songs mixed in. That's what we like. Oh, curb the attitude too.

One parting question... does Iron Maiden really need three guitarists?