And the word in question tonight is "final". As in, I'm sitting here in SEA-TAC airport, waiting to fly home from the Microsoft double secret training; and Northwest Airlines has just made what has to be their fifteenth "final" boarding call for the flight to Detroit. (Not my flight: I'm going through Minneapolis.) In the last nine or ten "final" calls, they called out the missing passenger by name (including once in Japanese, though the name was the only part I recognized).

I understand their reasoning, which is two-fold: they really don't want to strand a passenger and leave him or her disappointed and angry; and in today's security climate, if that passenger has checked luggage, they have to hold the plane and unload that luggage, which may mean unloading a lot of other luggage to get to it. This all can delay a flight a lot, so holding it up for one more "final" boarding call may make the plane less late than letting it go.

But this is just like the lesson parents have to learn: if they keep giving the kids one more last chance, the kids learn that a last chance is something they can safely ignore. If I weren't obsessive about getting to the airport early, NWA would've just trained me that their deadlines are really just suggestions, and I can be late if I want. Not a good attitude to encourage.

Ever have a night when you really need to get up early, and yet things keep you up late, and finally it seems like the safest course is just to stay up? Or does that only happen to me? Either way, this is one of those nights. In five-and-a-half hours, my plane leaves Atlanta. I've been away from Sandy and the dogs and our home for four weeks. I am going to be on that plane. And I already learned this week that this hotel's wake-up calls are still pretty unreliable. And while the M200 has pretty good speakers and usually serves as my alarm clock, it's having some problems right now. (Never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.) And this 3500 has had the speakers repaired, but they pretty much suck, and I can barely hear them. (Never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.)

So at this point, the safe way to be sure I'm on that plane is to stay awake until I board, and then sleep on the plane. So to find things to keep me going, I decided to do something I haven't done in a while. It's time for another installment of Seen around the tech blogs.

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Richard Hale Shaw makes an interesting argument against the C# using statement (not the using directive; and thank you, C# team, for that bit of confusing language). I disagree with him; but it will take time and sleep before I can fully explain why. The short preview: he says you can't force people to use your class correctly; I say I can, and I'll show you how, soon.

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Joe Kunk passes along some suggestions on porting MFC code to .NET, including some discussion of tools to automate parts of the port. Since I have a presentation on this topic, I'm going to check out those tools.

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From the Earth to the Moon links to this discussion of where the Apollo capsules are today. Until it shut down, the Michigan Space and Science Center in Jackson was home to the Apollo 9 capsule. (Commander McDivitt was a Jackson-area native.) I used to go there for inspiration whenever I had a spare afternoon. When I think of what those engineers accomplished at a time where the sum total of all the computers at NASA amounted to less memory than I have in my hand, I realize that no job of mine is that tough. It was a sad day when I learned that MSSC had closed. Now I have to go all the way to San Diego to see Apollo 9. Of course, my flight home tomorrow ends in Dayton (I started this trip with INETA meetings in Cincinatti and Dayton), and Apollo 15 is at the Air Force museum there; and later this year I'll be in Huntsville for another INETA presentation, where Apollo 16 is. So I'll get my fixes then. (Bonus: outside of Dayton and on the road toward home is the Neil Armstrong Museum!)

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James Avery is looking to switch blog engines, and wishes he had a decent, easy to use and extend .NET solution. I could be wrong, James, but I think it will be really easy to build your own with ASP.NET 2.0.

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Tablet PC Buzz points out this post by Josh Einstein about fixes that will make Tablet PC components work properly under .NET Framework 2.0. I'm getting a new version of Tablet UML ready, so this was important news to me!

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Space Law Probe has a round-up of reactions to China's manned space launch.

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I don't have James Hudnall under Tech Blogs, because I think of him as a comics guy. His Espers is one of my favorite series. But he's also a computer geek. This week, he posted about the latest story on e-paper, and we drooled over the possible comic book applications.

Marvel has released 40 Years Of The Amazing Spider-Man on CD. I haven't picked it up yet, because I'm afraid someone may get it for me as a gift, and I wouldn't want to spoil that. I really would love to read that collection on a Tablet PC (particularly my new Gateway CX200X Tablet PC, to be ordered next week); but a programmable e-paper comic would be equally cool.

(And I hope that Marvel and DC and others release a lot more of their back stock this way.)

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Mike Swanson shows off the 5 best videos from the PDC. I wish I could've been there, but I was earning the money that will pay for my new Gateway CX200X Tablet PC.

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Matt Propst announces the Formal Cancellation of Grand Valley Programming Competition. That's too bad, but I hope they can pull it off next year. Josh Holmes and I were asked to be judges. One of my oldest programming memories is high school programming competitions at Grand Valley, so this would've been like going full circle.

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And speaking of Josh Holmes, he has a couple of posts on his latest work with Compact Framework and Win CE. Josh is my goto guy on this Windows handheld stuff, and he should be yours, too.

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Sam Gentile posts about a Channel 9 interview with him and Ward Cunningham. Since neither gentleman is shy — especially with their opinions! — it's pretty no-holds-barred.

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And speaking of Robert Scoble (the guy behind Channel 9), he's on a crusade to get Microsoft to focus on blog searching.

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Julie Lerman has a 512MB memory chip for a Toshiba Portege M200. Julie, Julie, Julie... Some day you'll learn: never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

Look at this Gateway CX200X Tablet PC, Julie. Look at the 14" wide-screen. Isn't it... tempting? Look at that optional 4-year, on-site, parts and labor and accidental damage warranty look... comforting?

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Lora at What Is New posts that the Windows Mobile PC Team (i.e., the Tablet team plus) now has a group blog.

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And speaking of the Windows Mobile PC Team... This is a little belated note (since I just learned of their blog from Lora): they write of the work their people did in helping to support Hurricane Katrina relief. I've already noted the contributions by Best Buy, WalMart, Home Depot, Edward Jones, McDonald's, and others; so it's only fair that I point out that my favorite software company has pledged over $9 million in cash, materials, and support to the relief effort. Thank you, Microsoft.

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Howard Lovy has retired NanoBot. That's too bad, but his new job probably keeps him plenty busy.

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Thom Robbins forwards an announcement of the general availability of the "Project Server Visual Studio Team System Connector" application. "The solution provides guidance for integrating Project Server and Visual Studio Team System. It demonstrates how Project Server and Visual Studio Team System can be integrated together to provide extended value for project and resource managers and guides developers through the process of building and customizing components that link the project management and software development tools. This is a foundation for partners to build applications that can integrate the two server products and provide specialized functionality."

As someone who's more and more excited about process and practices, I'm pleased by this news.

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James Kendrick — a.k.a. jkOnTheRun — links to this Detroit Free Press story about Bill Gates's visit to Ann Arbor. (Oh, sure, Bill... Come to town when I'm three or four states away! OK, I wouldn't have been invited anyway, since his presentation was for students. But still...) I think the story hints at one reason why I suspect for Microsoft's strong support for the Tablet PC: Bill loves his Tablet, and has wanted one for a long time. You don't believe me? He described his vision of the platform in drooling detail way back in The Road Ahead (or maybe it was Business @ the Speed of Thought — I'm on the road, remember, so I don't have my books with me). There are few people who are more fanatical about Tablet PCs than I am, but Bill's clearly one of them. And so I have a sneaking suspicion that, just as Microsoft will always sell a version of Basic so long as Bill's involved, so too will they make sure that somebody's making new Tablet PCs for Bill to play with.

(NOTE: The above is tongue-in-cheek, and I know nothing about Microsoft's internal platform decisions nor the reasons for those decisions. But I do know that it's true that Bill loves his Tablet PCs.)

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And speaking of jkOnTheRun... He links to more proof that Toshibas are junk. And he has a plea:

Let’s help Tracy get her Tablet back. Anyone with a Toshiba horror story about repair or customer service difficulties please chime in here with a comment. Let’s see if a string of unsatisfied customers can get Toshiba’s attention about Tracy’s plight. It’s worth a shot as she has nothing to lose since she is already without her precious.

I'm about to throw some links your way, James, as you asked. But at this point, you may already know my conclusion: never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

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There! That worked out just about perfectly. I planned to start prepping and packing at 0600, and it's 0553. That gives me just enough time to do a cursory proofread, and then post.

When next you hear from me, I hope to be H*O*M*E! Sandy, I'm on my way!

Professor Reynolds links to this USA Today story, Spyware can constitute illegal trespass on home computers.

When I clicked the link to read the story, Spybot popped up twice to inform me that it had blocked download of the Avenue A spyware.

Apparently someone in ad sales at USA Today needs to learn to read their own paper...

UPDATE: Fair is fair. This problem may have been as simple as a stuck key on the keyboard. Using a USB keyboard (as suggested by the ingenious Josh Holmes), I was unable to log in at first; but after letting it sit idle for a bit, somehow I got in. (I'm still not sure how.) Yet when I tried to do anything with either keyboard, all I got was a continuous string of back-slashes. On the theory that the \ key might be stuck, I tried cleaning under it, jostling it, and hitting it repeatedly. But it just kept repeating. So I let the machine sit idle for a couple of hours, and it seems to have stopped. So it may be a sticky key; but it may be a flaky keyboard circuit somewhere. Either way, I don't trust it yet.

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UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: So much for the stuck key theory. I was doing some light work with the M200, and all seemed well. I set the machine down and walked away to take care of dinner. When I came back, the | key (i.e., the shifted \ key) was repeating and repeating — in my source code, no less! Every once in a while, a string of \ would appear, as well as the occasional 6, and once in a while just blank spaces. This is no stuck key. It's a malfunction somewhere in the keyboard circuits, or in the mother board.

My original judgement stands: never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk. Gateway, here I come!

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So as if I didn't already have enough problems with my Toshiba Portege M200, now the keyboard has stopped working. CTRL and ALT work most of the time. SHIFT works occasionally. And that's it. That means I can't even log in.

That's it. Enough. I'm done with Toshibas, for good. Never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

So just in case any search engines are looking for my opinion on Toshiba...

Never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

Want a review of the M200? Never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

Wondering about Toshiba reliability? Never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

Looking for a good Tablet PC? They're out there. Check out the Acer TravelMate C314XMI Tablet PC, the HP Compaq TC4200 Tablet PC, the Xplore rugged tablet, the Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet PC version, the Fujitsu models, the Gateway models, the Motion Computing models... But whatever you do, never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

Will they fix it if there's a problem? Sure, but that just opens the door for another problem. Never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

Want to know more about Toshiba computers? Never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

I'm pleased that a lot of people are coming to this site looking for Tablet PC training. That's good to know. But here's some free advice for people learning to program Tablet PCs: never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

Hey, all you people coming to this site for opinions on Borders Rewards vs. the Barnes and Noble discount program... Here's some free advice for you, too: never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

And all of you folks coming here looking for UML examples, I have the same advice for you: never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

And what else seems to bring visitors here? Let's see... Superman, Green Lantern, Batman, DC, Marvel, graphic novels... Yeah, all you comic fans, you're smart enough to figure out the message by now: never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

And I sometimes get people looking for Frederick Meijer Gardens and the big horse statue. You folks, too, should know: never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

And just in case I missed anybody, here's some general advice for the masses: never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

Oh, I almost forgot: all you fencers out there should never buy Toshiba. Toshibas are junk.

Sometimes, you just gotta take the artistic geniuses back behind the woodshed and thrash 'em until they stop being so creative. There's a point where "genius" becomes "impractical"; and if you trust the geniuses, they'll never draw that line properly.

A case in point: the Grand Marquis that I'm renting for the consulting I'm doing this week. Like all cars, it has a basic problem to be solved: how to let the driver steer the car by applying leverage to produce angular rotation on a steering column. The standard solution to this (software geeks might call it a pattern) is a large wheel on the end of the column, so the driver can turn the wheel and thus the column. And the common solution looks something like this:



To which the artistic geniuses behind the Grand Marquis responded: How boring! So they came up with this stylish, asymmetrical solution:



See how the wheel is centered on the column (shown in red); but the bulk of the center attachment is asymmetrically below the column (drawn in red). And we all know how asymmetry is stylish, right? Trendy, even.

OK, I'll drop the sarcasm. Actually, it is distinctive. It's also impractical. Let's add in just a little more dashboard details: the gear indicator:



It still looks kinda stylish — right up to the point where you actually have to drive the car, and you turn the steering wheel:



OK, can you tell what gear you're in? Neither can I. Now when you're driving forward, you probably don't care that much. But when you're backing out of a tight parking space, and you have to crank the wheel a lot to avoid hitting another car, and then you have to switch back and forth between R and D... Well, let's just say that the Grand Marquis doesn't make this task any easier. In fact, to read the shift position, I often have to either over-turn or under-turn, putting the rental car and the cars around it at risk.

Such design genius deserves a proper reward: a thrashing out behind the woodshed. Sometimes, the standard solutions work and everyone knows how to use them, while a "creative" solution makes the user's job harder. That's always a bad thing.

And when I get some time to think, I'll probably have a lot more to say about excessive creativity as regards Microsoft's "Avalon" tools...

Always be polite to tech support people, because they're powerless, and they're really trying to help. But they can also be pretty clueless. All they're doing at the start of the call is just running you through a script of common, simple solutions.

But here's a simple rule: when the network tech support at your hotel or other wireless hotspot reaches the point in their script where they say, "OK, can you turn off your firewall?", your answer is "No."

Now let me modify that just a bit: if you've never connected to this network before with this machine in its current configuration, maybe there's a firewall problem. Maybe. And maybe there's a problem that, while not directly related to the firewall, is being affected by it. So in that case, go along with their script, and turn off the firewall. But if that doesn't immediately solve the problem, turn it back on. And if it does seem to solve the problem, ask them how you can get the network working with your firewall.

But if you've connected to this same network with this same machine in the same configuration, do not turn off the firewall, and tell them no! The problem is on their end; but their script is designed to go for the easy answers first. And that means easy for them, not for you. Turning off your firewall doesn't take effort on their part; fixing their problem does.

Now when you tell them no, they'll be really confused. That's good! They were confused to begin with, but now you've made them realize it. The first line of tech support is almost always low skill personnel who can walk through the script, but not much more. And you know what? For a great big majority of the cases, that's good enough. So they are providing a service.

But from personal experience, I will say that when they reach the point of turning off the firewall, they've passed the point where their script is useful. They need to be confused, because when they're confused, they have to escalate the problem to someone with more skill.

In my case, I used this particular machine with this wireless card and these configuration settings to connect to the wireless network at this particular hotel on my trip to Atlanta three weeks ago. Everything worked fine. And then I used this particular machine with this wireless card and these configuration settings to connect to the wireless network at this particular hotel in this very hotel room yesterday. Everything was fine.

But last night, although I was getting a good wireless signal, I couldn't get any Web pages to open. I reset the connection. Nothing. I restarted the machine. Nothing. I rebooted. Nothing. And that left me no choice but to call tech support.

And I hate calling tech support, because I know what will happen. I know computers. I'm not a network expert, but I can handle the simple stuff. So when I call tech support, I know I'll have a problem that's off their script. But you can't tell them that. They're going to follow the script, because it's all they know how to do.

TECH: What's the problem?

ME: Well, I connected from this room yesterday; but today, I have a connection, but it won't open any Web pages.

TECH: OK, go to the wireless icon, and select Available Wireless Networks. Does it say you're connected?

ME: Yes. [That's why I said I had a connection. Duh. But I'm too polite to say that.]

TECH: OK, go to the Start Menu and select Run. Then type cmd. Then type ipconfig. [What? Doesn't your script tell you how to get the IP address straight from the window I have open already? But again, I'm too polite to say that.]

ME: OK, my IP address is ******.

TECH: And the gateway?

ME: ******.

TECH: (starts to mumble under his breath a bit, a sure sign that the script is in trouble)

TECH: OK, can you ping the gateway? Type ping, followed by the gateway address.

ME: Responds back instantly. Good connection.

TECH: (mumbles more)...can ping the gateway...

TECH: OK, minimize the window you're in.

TECH: (mumbles more)

TECH: OK, do you have any firewall installed? [Uh-oh, here it comes. Come on, Martin, just give him a chance to show initiative!]

ME: Yes, the same firewall I had yesterday, when I was connecting just fine. So that's not the problem. [Come on, tech! You can do it! Think for yourself!]

TECH: OK, can you turn the firewall off? [He shoots! He... misses...]

ME (firmly): No. I'm sorry, but I connected yesterday with these exact same firewall settings. That's not the problem, so I'm not turning it off.

TECH: (mumbles more)

TECH: Can you hold, please?

ME: Sure.

(Hold music)

TECH: OK, I'm going to have to escalate this. I need to escalate it to someone who can do something about this. Can I have your number?

ME (politely): Sure!

And that's why I hate to call tech support. I wasted five minutes running tests I had already run, just so I could have a fight with some poor tech support guy who was only doing what he was told, all so I could get to the point of waiting for someone who knows something to call me back.

Hotels and other hotspots are cesspools of viruses and other threats. And at least part of the reason is that well-meaning tech support guys tell users who don't know any better to jump into the cesspool without a firewall on (to mix a metaphor or three).

Just don't do it. Just say No!

UPDATE: And they never did call me back. But somehow, two hours later, I was able to connect to the Web. And all without me touching my firewall settings. Imagine that...