Why is the Lenovo Touchpad Driver always Broken?

The Lenovo Touchpad driver has had a problem for years and it never seems to really get fixed. Turn off "tapping" and then reboot the system. Most of the time "tapping" is re-enabled; not what the user would want or expect. Sometimes it reboots and is actually still disabled; but the user never knows what state it will be in after the reboot. This is really annoying for those of us who need "tapping" always disabled. And yet, Lenovo engineers never appear to be able to fix the problem. This doesn't appear to be a "rocket science" type of problem. Makes you wonder...

An Unanswered Open Letter to Geoff Barrall of Drobo Inc.

9/8/2013 update: This post was originally written to Tom Buiocchi who was CEO at the time. It is now addressed to Geoff Barrall who is again CEO of Drobo Inc.

Hi Geoff,

Below is a direct quote from your support knowledge base. It is the one thing that continues to keep me awake at night! My understanding is that for a network attached Drobo, like the FS, that there is NO way to protect against File deletion. If all of my high level folders (12) were deleted, then TBs of data would be permanently lost.

This, no matter how you look at it, flies in the face of having a Drobo in the first place. A quote from your overview page: “…so you get the data protection you need along with the speed and interface you want.”

This isn’t a lot of data protection when all of the data can be so easily destroyed. Windows has spent considerable effort in file/folder level permission, trash cans, shadow copies etc to help users protect their data. But you dismiss this with a glib “we didn’t design it to protect against that”. But let me tell you that there is NO comfort in your lack of design!

Your users pay for and deserve these basic protections. They urgently need full windows permissions, a Drobo homed trash can, and automatic file versions (aka system protection).

Sincerely,

Jon

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Is there any way to recover a folder that I accidentally deleted on my Drobo storage device which I access over a network from my PC?

Answer ID 312   |    Updated 02/10/2010 10:36 AM

Unfortunately, while Drobo devices are designed to provide data protection from hardware failure, they do not protect against files intentionally (or accidentally) deleted by users over a network. So, unless you have duplicates or backups of those files, they may be permanently lost. The following Microsoft technical article may provide a solution to your problem if you are on a network: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc787329.aspx.

Note that if a Drobo device is directly connected to a host computer, rather than via a network, you should be able to recover deleted data from the Recycle Bin or Trash in normal fashion, just as you would with other drives.

Thinkpad X230, T240... Buyer Beware

- 6 row island keyboard; not 7 row professional keyboard
  separate microphone, volume up/down, ThinkVantage keys gone
- poor keyboard rearrangement
- no dual set of mouse click buttons
- no thinklight; just backlit keyboard
- Bluetooth status gone
- dark gray vs black finish

Keyboard
- smile shaped keys; so was the prior keyboard?
- larger forgiveness zone between keys; again...was it a problem?
- 30% larger keyboard surface but beveled edges gone
- soft landing mechanism; the prior version worked just fine
- 25% larger mouse pad; nice but the prior version worked just fine
- shiny keys vs matte finish
- application key replaced by PrtSc
- medium ESC key vs large
- numeric keypad/NmLk gone
- medium Delete key vs large
- PrtSc/SysRq, ScrLk/NmLk, Pause/Break gone
- raise/lower brightness moved to F8, F9 from Home/End
- reverse, play/pause, fast forward moved to F10-F12 from cursor pad
- stop key gone
- switch display gone
- hibernate gone
- almost undetectable F and J key index bumps
- thinkvantage key black; not blue or identified


Clearly Lenovo doesn't get it. Oh that's right, cheaper keyboard -- more profit.
They keep going backwards...very sad.

Tivo Quality is Slipping

Tivo Premiere XL 

1 - While watching live TV I used the Pause button to leave the room and not miss anything. Ten minutes or so later I returned and started Play. Very quickly afterward the Tivo switched channels without warning! It seems that it needed the tuner for a scheduled recording. Normally the viewer gets a warning to switch or cancel. In this case the unit being paused is apparently not factored into the switching logic. Not cool.

2 - While watching a recording, if you use the left arrow it returns you to the program menu. That's great. What is not so great is that there is a glitch flash of video/audio along the way. My older Tivo units never did this.

3 - On my older Tivo units when you used the Back button, you could use the Advance button to move you to the previous tick mark (similar to what it does when using the Forward button where it moves you to the next tick mark). This does NOT work in the Premiere XL. In fact it switches from Back (rewind) to Play mode...arrrggghh.

Mar 21 2013 update:

Well, it appears that Tivo fixed #3 above as that problem is gone and this Tivo now acts as its predecessors did. Bravo for Tivo.

4. However, the Season Pass Manager has this terrible habit of resorting the todo list in real time. Every time the user leaves the SPM, they have to WAIT for this sorting process which, on my Tivo, takes minutes. This is a process which should be done in the background--period.

5. How can they make, what is essentially a Linux computer take so long to boot? Recent problems with a cablecard have necessitated many power cycles. These literally take 10 minutes to complete. There is something terribly wrong with their boot process. It needs to be fixed.

August 31, 2017 update:

TiVo released the new Hydra User Interface which is a complete "fail". It's all about them and nothing about the end-user -- oh, you were fooled by the "user interface" part. Please find "HarryKerryJr" in New Tivo Hydra Interface for a good summary of how bad it is. 

The Anti "Please Wait" League

The most often repeated, phrase written by software programmers must be "please wait" or "please be patient". It is almost impossible to use your computer on a regular basis and not see these phrases multiple times per day.  

It is basically an instruction from an anonymous source telling you, the user, what you should be doing at some point in time. And it is presumptuous at best.

Progress bars, task counters, percentage complete counters, log entries along with words about what is happening and reasonable estimates of how long it will take are welcome and useful. Other indications of progress, like which file is being processed are reassuring and informative. Animated GIFs are NOT useful or wanted.

What I, as the user care, to do while some computer process is running is really none of the programmer's concern. I could take a break, get a cup of coffee, use some other computer application, use yet another computer etc. You get the idea.

If I never see the words "please wait/be patient" ever again, it will be too soon. And, despite what some are saying, it is rude.

Noisy PVC Vent Pipes

Our new house was built with a high efficiency furnace and hot water heater. Both were vented with 2" PVC pipe. Unfortunately the pipes were hung with "normal" drain-waste-vent (DWV) "J hooks" like the ones you find at the "big box" stores. These hangers were not intended for use with venting systems that see large temperature swings. Consequently the hanger/pipe connections make a lot of noise as the pipes heat up and then cool off.  The hangers are attached to the joists of the floor above which makes the house structure a "sounding board" for the connection noise. I even contacted the manufacturer of our original "J hooks" and they said their product was not approved for this use!

Fortunately there is a good answer if you still have physical access to the "J hooks". Warwick Hanger makes a great "J hook" with a hinged top piece so that they are not "spring loaded" around the PVC pipe. It's called the "Glide Lock J Hook" . I purchased a box of these and then lined most of the surface of the "J hook" that touches the PVC pipe with self-adhesive felt. Then I replaced all of the "normal J hooks" with the new ones. And that is the end of the noisy PVC vent pipes.

Saleae Logic as USBee ZX

I liked the Saleae Logic physical device, but the USBee Suite software better. Given my experience, this is possible. Mike Chrisco did some really good work in his “USBee SX/ZX Hack”. My starting point was a Windows 7 Pro 64bit system with USBee, Saleae and Cyprus software already installed. It took me a while, but here are the things I found unique along the way:

The version 3.4.7 of CyConsole that I used ONLY works with the CyUSB.Sys driver. So I had to edit the CyUsb.inf file. Using the “Cypress CyUsb.sys Programmer’s Reference” I added “%VID_0925&PID_3881.DeviceDesc%=CyUsb, USB\VID_0925&PID_3881”(without the quotes) to sections [Device],[Device.NT], [Device.Ntx86] and [Device.Ntamd64] and “VID_0925&PID_3881.DeviceDesc="Saleae Logic"” (without the outer quotes) to section [String]. Then using section “Windows Vista and 7”, reinstalled the CyUSB.sys driver for the Saleae Logic device (note that the system must be rebooted with “Disable Driver Signature Enforcement” for the driver to work with CyConsole).

Then I followed the steps in “USBeeSX/ZX Hack”. Note: the verifcation read string for the Saleae unit is "C0 25 09 81 38 00 00 00". Next I rebooted the system, checked that the device was recognized as the USBee ZX, started up USBee Suite and captured the first data of an I2C exchange.

No other testing has been done yet, but at least it functions as a logic analyzer. Big thanks to Mike for his trail-blazing work.