Hosed by application software

When I pulled out my garden hose at the end of the winter, I found it was kinky and cracked, and let little sprays of water shoot out in odd places. (“Like its owner,” my wife says.) It still did its job, mostly, but I can’t say I’m really happy with it. Which brings us to application software. I’ve been trying a number of programs lately that allow clients to communicate with each other, and I’ve been tearing my hair out trying to use them.

For instance, take Kssh — a KDE front end for Secure Shell. Granted it’s not yet a version 1.0 product, but version 0.6 completely fails to run under Mandrake 9.1 for me. When I visit the application’s home page for troubleshooting information, I find, in full, “I have no time to write anything about kssh.” This should be unacceptable — one should never release software without documenting it, and that’s especially true of software that’s still under development, when feedback is especially valuable. If the primary developer on an open source project has this attitude, he should pass the project on to someone with more enthusiasm and professionalism.

Sometimes it isn’t just the documentation that’s at fault. My boss pointed out what seemed like an interested application — Unison is designed to synchronize files in local directories or on two machines over the network, running over an FTP or SSH transport. You can run it in command-line or graphical mode on Linux and Windows. Since I use a GUI on both systems, I opted to use Unison’s GUI.

Unison lets you create profiles that specify the two machines and directories you want to synchronize. The interface is very simple. Unfortunately, it’s so simple it leaves off a means to modify an existing profile, or delete profiles you no longer want. Mistakes being a natural part of my life, that leaves me with a long list of profiles among which only one or two mean anything.

When I was learning to program (an endeavor I later practiced professionally for eight years), I remember my professor admonishing the class, referring to data structures, “Never create something you cannot destroy.” Alas, poor Unison users are stuck with profiles the developers won’t let them destroy. And the simple interface fails to include any online help, although there is copious documentation on Unison’s Web site.

While I’m whining, let me express my frustration with Mandrake’s treatment of non-bundled RPMs. I download an RPM and click on it, which brings up Mandrake’s RpmDrake software installer. If the operating system knows enough to start up RpmDrake, why doesn’t RpmDrake know enough to install the program it was invoked with? Instead, RpmDrake makes me search its database for a package, which it fails to find among its internal list, because after all, if it had been available, I wouldn’t have had to download it! Luckily running rpm -i in a console window seems to do the trick most of the time.

I don’t mean to single out Mandrake. I’ve been irritated with SuSE too. I tried to install Opera under SuSE 8.2. I love Opera. But SuSE’s YAST2 administration program tells me “libXm.so.2 is not available.” A Web search confirms this is a known problem, and explains how to work around it. But this is downloaded software, not something I have to install from a CD-ROM, so if the problem is known, why not just fix it?

Nor are the problems limited to Linux. I installed Internet Information Server’s SSH service on a Windows XP Professional client. It’s running, but its management application hangs whenever I try to use it. Connections to the service regularly fail, and without the management console I can’t figure out why.

If I, as an experienced, intelligent (and humble) user, can’t get past these issues, the average computer user hasn’t a chance. Without a big marketing budget, open source software can be successful in the mass market only if it is at least as easy to use as commercial software. Making things easy on users is just as noble as providing useful core capabilities.

Meanwhile, does anybody have a good file synchronization application for me? Or a new hose?

The gateway to sharing online happiness

What do you get your retired father for a present? My dad is in his 80s, sharp as a tack, but without a handy hobby that lends itself to easy gift-giving, like coin collecting or taxidermy. For years I was stumped, until I had what I thought was a great idea – I’d get him a computer. I figured I could then buy him software for future presents – problem solved.

At first it seemed I’d done well. My father used the computer to keep track of his gas mileage, write letters to old friends, and play solitaire. My mother was happy he wasn’t pestering her. She had no interest in any technological toys.

No interest, that is, until she discovered e-mail. Then she began corresponding with an old boyfriend across the country, and checking every half hour to see if he’d responded. Soon she learned how to exchange instant messages. Now my dad had to share the computer.

Then I made my fatal mistake – I introduced my mother to online bridge. On many Web sites you can play online with other people all over the world, with the computer dealing the cards. For my mother, this is more addictive than crack. She began monopolizing the computer. Soon dialing in via Earthlink wasn’t fast enough for her. She signed up for high-speed cable modem access. And when I’d drop in to visit, she’d say hi without turning away from her screen and mutter apologies for not being able to get away from her Internet “friends,” none of whom she’d ever met in person or even spoken to on the phone.

My father claims it’s okay. He says he gets as much computer time as he needs. (Of course he has to live with her – what’s he going to say?) But I’m not so sure. You might think I’d have learned my lesson, but no – I’m considering giving them a second computer. That way both of them could play bridge at the same virtual table.

Naturally I’d want to give both computers the speed benefit of the existing cable connection, but how? Would it involve complicated wiring and expensive new hardware?

Actually, no. Setting up a home network is fairly simple and inexpensive nowadays. All you need is a single new device that acts as a gateway to the broadband connection. That is, instead of hooking the cable or DSL modem up to a computer, you hook up the gateway, sometimes called a router, to the modem, and plug the computer into the gateway. If your two computers are in the same room, you plug them both in. You then do a little software setup on the gateway and boom, you’re connected.

The magic works courtesy of software running on the gateway that performs something called network address translation. Your broadband service provider sees only one device, as it always has, but now that device is the gateway. The device assigns internal network addresses to each of your computers and makes sure network traffic going between each computer and the Internet gets to the right place.

If you have all your computers in one room, make sure you get a gateway that includes a built-in switch. That doesn’t mean you can turn it off; it means it has four sockets in the back for network cables to plug into.

Putting multiple computers in one room is a little restrictive for a lot of people, though. Each spouse may want a home office, for instance, or one of the home computers might be a laptop that family members want to use in different rooms.

That’s why the most popular home networks nowadays are wireless. They use a standard called 802.11b, or Wi-Fi, that sends network traffic just as fast over radio waves as you can over wires. It’s faster, in fact, than your broadband connection.

Setting up a wireless home network is just about as easy as configuring a wired one. You can buy a wireless gateway for $125 or less – reputable vendor names include D-Link, Belkin, 3Com, Proxim, Linksys, and Netgear. And in any computer that’s not sitting close enough to wire up to the gateway you need to have a wireless network adapter (around $60 from the same companies).

Of course, with any computer hooked up to the Internet security is an important concern. While network address translation makes it difficult for outside users to hack into your computer, you should still make sure your gateway includes a firewall, which is software specifically designed to repel attacks. I also suggest running a personal firewall, such as Norton Internet Security or ZoneAlarm Pro, on each computer for added protection.

I’ve been running a D-Link wireless gateway for a couple of years now. It sits in my basement office. When I get a sudden urge to surf the Web from the kitchen on the ground floor or the bedroom upstairs, I reach for my notebook computer and its wireless network adapter, and there I am. Depending on how many walls are in the way, you can go as far as 300 feet from the gateway and still connect.

It works great for me, but I’m wondering if it’s the right thing to give to my parents. What happens if I drop in to visit and both of them refuse to leave their keyboards until the rubber is over?