You've got to love Microsoft...
Dec. 15th, 2000 07:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpJust kidding.
The new computer is a real hummer. Too bad I can't say the same thing about the operating system it came with (Windows Me). I don't think I've been able to get through an entire day without having the software go south on me, and pretty much all I use is Word.
Take today, for example. After entering nearly a page of backbreaking equations using the "Equation Editor," I get up to stretch my legs and get a drink of water. Upon returning to the machine, I find it's locked up tighter than an Alabama tick on a bloodhound.
Relying upon my accumulated experience wrestling with Windows-based computers, I give the animal a few minutes so that the auto-save feature of Word has a prayer of triggering, and then I reboot the machine. Needless to say, I got to review those equations a second time as I entered them using Microsoft's cumbersome editor. (It is apparently so cumbersome, that after a little while, an ad pops up in a dialog box informing me that a superior product for entering equations is available commercially. Yikes.)
So today, just to be on the safe side, I rebooted the machine three times.
It seems I did better using Windows 95. Personally, I'd drop Windows and use Linux all the time, but there are just too many good programs out there for the Windows platform...or at least enough of them to make the constant operating system quirks seem tolerable.
Don't get me wrong. I'm far from being one of those "I-hate-Microsoft-on-principle" people. I personally think that, all things considered, my life is most certainly a lot easier today because of Microsoft, and I know I've made a considerable amount of money using Microsoft products to sell my services to others. Having said that, I'm also not a blind apologist for the company, nor will I use products just because they're put out by the Redmond giant. My approach to computing today is the same as when I started so very long ago: if it works, use it.
Tomorrow should be a pretty easy day. I've seen the crew's schedule, and when they're not eating, they'll be exercising or just enjoying some time off. I expect the air-to-ground conversations tomorrow to be rather on the light side, but you never know.
On the home front, I shall have to confront - finally - the prospect of packing stuff for the move to Colorado. Oh, go twist my arm, why don't you?
Cheers...
The new computer is a real hummer. Too bad I can't say the same thing about the operating system it came with (Windows Me). I don't think I've been able to get through an entire day without having the software go south on me, and pretty much all I use is Word.
Take today, for example. After entering nearly a page of backbreaking equations using the "Equation Editor," I get up to stretch my legs and get a drink of water. Upon returning to the machine, I find it's locked up tighter than an Alabama tick on a bloodhound.
Relying upon my accumulated experience wrestling with Windows-based computers, I give the animal a few minutes so that the auto-save feature of Word has a prayer of triggering, and then I reboot the machine. Needless to say, I got to review those equations a second time as I entered them using Microsoft's cumbersome editor. (It is apparently so cumbersome, that after a little while, an ad pops up in a dialog box informing me that a superior product for entering equations is available commercially. Yikes.)
So today, just to be on the safe side, I rebooted the machine three times.
It seems I did better using Windows 95. Personally, I'd drop Windows and use Linux all the time, but there are just too many good programs out there for the Windows platform...or at least enough of them to make the constant operating system quirks seem tolerable.
Don't get me wrong. I'm far from being one of those "I-hate-Microsoft-on-principle" people. I personally think that, all things considered, my life is most certainly a lot easier today because of Microsoft, and I know I've made a considerable amount of money using Microsoft products to sell my services to others. Having said that, I'm also not a blind apologist for the company, nor will I use products just because they're put out by the Redmond giant. My approach to computing today is the same as when I started so very long ago: if it works, use it.
Tomorrow should be a pretty easy day. I've seen the crew's schedule, and when they're not eating, they'll be exercising or just enjoying some time off. I expect the air-to-ground conversations tomorrow to be rather on the light side, but you never know.
On the home front, I shall have to confront - finally - the prospect of packing stuff for the move to Colorado. Oh, go twist my arm, why don't you?
Cheers...
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no subject
Date: 2000-12-15 10:01 pm (UTC)On the other hand, I don't use Word ;) I use Star Office for what little WP and spreadsheet stuff I need. It's buggy, but the price is right and it doesn't crash the system.
I figure I'll update to a faster processor when MS Whistler is released and has time to get debugged. Until then, I'll just soldier on and Save Often ;)