Windows 8: Designed by Idiots, for Idiots

Now that I have your attention... I don't really think Windows 8 users are idiots, nor do I think the Microsoft Windows 8 designers and developers are idiots.

But Windows 8 is moribund. DOA. Stillborn. It reminds me of something one of my most respected colleagues once said, "If you make something foolproof, only fools will want to use it". Microsoft has acknowledged that Windows 8 is not as successful as they had hoped. They're blaming everyone but themselves.

I am a software engineer by trade, and one of the most fundamental principles is, "Don't remove features!" The corollary is, "Try not to force users into a particular way of doing things". I've watched Bill Gates for thirty years. I know that he understands these principles. Under Gates' direction, Microsoft understood. But with Windows 8, they threw both of them under the bus. Bill Gates would be spinning in his grave, but he's not dead yet.

Windows 8 offers a new start screen, optimized for touch screens, such as the ones found on tablet computers and phones. Windows 8 needs to support these new technologies. But Microsoft still has many millions of customers who use traditional desktop machines. People with jobs that require them to sit at a desk and type on a keyboard.

I believe Windows 8 would have been much more successful if Microsoft had done two simple things:

1. Don't remove the Start button! It would have been fine if the Start button had been disabled by default, but give us the option to re-instate it if we want. The total removal is dictatorial, pure and simple. People want control of their lives. They don't like dictators. 
2. Don't force us to use the Start screen! If someone's job involves desktop apps, don't make them have to dismiss the big green screen just to start working. Put the Start screen on the same footing as the desktop. In fact, the Windows behavior could change based on the computer's capability, and/or the docking state of the main computing unit. 

Microsoft used to understand this. For four Windows generations, users could still use the Windows 95 look and feel. Many of my co-workers still use this, because it gives higher performance, and they just like the old design. 

People are asking Microsoft to re-instate the Start button, but I'm afraid that ship has left the barn. That cow has sailed. Even before Windows 8 hit the streets, at least two (now six) independent software vendors introduced products designed to replace the Start button functionality in Windows 8. If Microsoft were to restore that feature in the OS, they would be in direct competition with these very popular products. Maybe MS could license them, but really Microsoft doesn't need third party software to implement something as simple as a pop-up menu on the task bar. To avoid lawsuits, they'd probably have to pay the Start button ISVs for damages. 

Sorry Microsoft, it was an idiotic move. We're your customers. You're not the boss of us. You're just another OS vendor, in competition for our dollars. Customers vote with their dollars. I am typing this on a shiny new computer that I just built. I had a choice of purchasing Windows 7 or Windows 8. Guess which one I chose. I thought Windows 7 was the best Windows ever. It was Vista done right. Windows 8 could have been a continuation of that theme, but noooo...

Update: Microsoft is reportedly re-instating the Start menu in Windows 8.1. It is also reportedly going to add a "boot to desktop" feature. I won't say, "I told you so", but those were the two things I was ranting about.

Update: Um, no. I just installed 8.1. Microsoft did not re-instate the start menu. They merely re-instated the start button. It takes you to the Metro screen. Whoopee. No dice, M$. I didn't like your shiny new schizophrenic OS, and I still don't. I'm running Start Menu 8, and will continue to do so until M$ pulls their heads out. Why a company would alienate an installed base of millions is beyond me.

One last update: Microsoft got one thing right with the reinstated start button: you can right click it, and get a menu of some fairly useful stuff.

• Programs and Features
• Power Options
• Event Viewer
• System
• Device Manager
• Network Connections
• Disk Management
• Computer Management
• Command Prompt
• Command Prompt (Administrator)
• ----------
• Task Manager
• Control Panel
• File Explorer
• Search
• Run
• ----------
• Shut Down or Sign Out > (the usual options)
• Desktop (cancels the menu?)

Okay, so that's almost useful. Worst case, I'll be right clicking for the run dialog all the time.

Windows: Choppy Audio and Poor Performance

A computer system running Windows XP (yes, it's that old) had been running fine for several years, when all of a sudden it started feeling really sluggish, and most annoying, the audio playback became very burbly. The audio buffers were not getting filled as fast as the sound card emptied them. As a result, the sound card was looping sporadically on the same buffer. This happened mainly when disk activity was occurring.

After trying several time-consuming and pointless exercises to fix the problem, I happened on the solution more or less by accident:

You can see that the Current Transfer Mode is Ultra DMA Mode 5. This is what you want. What I found was PIO Mode. PIO stands for "Programmed I/O", and it is the slowest transfer mode, which requires the processor to stop what it's doing (like playing audio), and move the data from the drive controller to memory and vice-versa. DMA stands for "Direct Memory Access", which allows the processor to set up the transfer, and then allows the DMA controller to actually move the data from the drive controller to memory and vice-versa, so the processor can keep working on other things.

When your disk drive performance suddenly seems sluggish, and especially if multimedia performance becomes jerky and choppy, check your IDE channel properties, and make sure it's running in DMA mode. In Windows XP (and on Vista and Windows 7 as well), select Computer Management/Device Manager, and expand IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers, and make sure they're running in DMA mode.

How does the controller get into PIO mode in the first place? Several reasons. The most common one is that there have been too many drive read errors, and after several of these, Windows reverts to a "fail safe" mode. Unfortunately, it doesn't alert you about it. So yes, you might have a disk drive failure looming. Other reasons include a faulty or improperly plugged drive cable or power cable. After you have verified that everything is connected properly, and maybe run chkdsk, use Device Manager to uninstall the lobotomized controller and then restart Windows. Windows will re-install the controller automatically. In the process, it should revert to DMA mode if the drive is responding properly.

Weather Station Back Online

I gave the entire 1-Wire network a complete going-over. RF is a big problem around here, since there's a 50KW AM transmitter within a mile of here. The new 1-Wire adapter is optically isolated from the computer's USB circuitry, and the adapter power supply is isolated from the house wiring, so presumably, there's no RF path to ground, and thus no current can flow.

However, the system had been working reliably for several years, before it began its downward slide. Maybe a lightning strike damaged the old 1-Wire adapter. I'll do some diagnostics on it when I get a chance.

Weather Station Going Dark For a Few Days

I'm going to take my weather station offline for a few days for much needed repairs and improvements. My humidity sensor has been flaky for the last several weeks, and my attempts to fix it have been unsuccessful. So I'm going to take the whole thing down, and replace all of the RJ-11 and RJ-45 connectors, rearrange the wiring layout, and clean and oil the wind sensors. I'll probably bring the sensors back online one at a time, as I dial in each one before adding the next.

Classic Amp -- Updated PCB, and Why Not?

Ok, so I updated the PCB yet again. Check it out:

Classic Amp PCB - Click to Enlarge

What did I do? Well, I flipped the transistors Q7, Q9, Q11 and Q13 on the bottom half the board, so that they're a mirror image of Q6, Q8, Q10 and Q12 on the top half. It is now beautifully symmetrical, and the positive and negative pulling devices will have as similar a layout as is physically possible. There's just one problem: Q12 & Q13 are facing opposite directions. Too bad the transistor manufacturers didn't consider this when they made complementary devices - duh! I have it figured out, though: I'm going to sandwich both devices between two heat sinks. Pure symmetry, Captain! You'll just have to wait for the snapshot of the prototype to see what I have planned.

Classic Amp -- Guess What?

That's right folks, it's another iteration of the PCB layout. I wanted to get the drivers closer to the finals, so I rotated the big emitter degeneration output resistors so I could put the finals closer in. That necessitated refactoring both power supply planes. While I was in the market, I put most of the traces on the ground side so they would interrupt the power supply planes as little as possible. Finally, I added a 0.1uf bypass on the power supplies.

Refactored PCB - Click to Enlarge

There is a lot to be said for multi-layer boards. Life would be simpler if I could put the power and ground planes on an inner layer.

Classic Amp -- Plagiarism

Some of you, looking at my schematic, might have noticed similarities to this, this, or especially this. The last one has some marked similarities, right down to my R11. I rarely see emitter degeneration in the VA. In my final design, I might make it vanishingly small, or jumper it out altogether, but I wanted to experiment with it, and see what kind of effect it has on distortion, gain and bandwidth. I actually didn't see that schematic until a couple of days ago, when it turned up in a Google search for Sziklai parasitic oscillation.

Classic Amp - My Schematic - Click to Enlarge

Although I have the ESP site bookmarked, along with Douglas Self's and Marshall Leach's sites, I promise you that I was working independently when I did the schematic capture.

Of course, there are only a few ways to configure a "classic" amplifier and still have it be, well -- classic. So you should expect some similarities. As I said in my original post, I wanted to include a number of enhanced features, without over designing. There is only one way to make a differential amplifier that has a current source and a current mirror. There are only two typical output configurations: Darlington and Sziklai. The rest is all calculating values, parts selection, testing performance and optimization.

The area that lends itself to originality is the PCB layout. Although there's really nothing original about ground and power planes, I have never seen a power amp use them. I'm using Eagle Light for this project, so I can only do two layer boards. Otherwise, I would have done a four layer board, with power and ground on the two interior layers (V+ and V- planes could almost meet in the middle), and signal traces on the two outer layers.

But I think the other thing that makes this board unique is the ability to make the temperature compensation track by fastening together Q8 & Q10 and Q9 & Q11.

Classic Amp - My PCB - Click to Enlarge

I think that the power and ground planes might make this amplifier more stable, requiring less tweaking (fewer caps, or lower values) to control oscillation. Stay tuned. I believe this will be an unique amplifier.