My Last New PC (As If)

[trevor.lazarus@ssa.gov]

This echos my experience in downloading music to a palm device. I thought as the IT/PC world goes forward in time (progresses is not the right word for this); that tasks would become simpler. NOT! Moving music from a CD or PC to another device is so complex requiring this fix and that piece of software and a myriad of actions that I think we've lost site of the prize: "making our PC or computing experience easier." Trevor

[Guest.Visitor]

Install from scratch! The *only* stuff you should copy from the old drive is data. Perhaps even programs that don't touch the registry. You'll spend more time doing so, rather than "ghosting" the old drive, but you *should* experience a *lot* less problems in the long run. The registry is key here. This fragile POS Microshaft foisted on us is the one of the key reasons why Windows is so vulnerable to crashing. (I would also add that ghosting a drive is great for restoring to identical or very similar devices, but that's another story.) Also, I would return without *any* hesitation, any computer that didn't come with the OS install on a CD-rom. Even if it is imaged to a hidden partition on the hard drive. I can buy CD-R's for a dime apiece. 'nuff said.

[Guest.Visitor]

The registry is key here. This fragile POS Microshaft foisted on us... I've been an IT professional for many years and I believe Microsoft has "foisted" a lot of crap on us but I'm not familiar with the acronym "POS" in this context. Could you enlighten me. I'm also wondering what impact Sarbannes-Oxley (Sox) will have on information auditing. I read a report that said some information auditors were writing compliance specifications that will require system administrators to be aware of all software installations & changes on a system. How will that affect all the "under the covers" stuff that Microsoft has been loading into each new release of Windows especially with regard to their "automatic update" features.

[Guest.Visitor]

Sorry, POS is, obviously, not Point Of Sale in this context, but rather, Piece Of... Snot. Veeeeerrrrryyy interesting point about SOX and Windows.

[M.Savino]

Joel's expectations were simply way to high. He expected his hardware and software to work together. This is unrealistic. And since it's doubtful that there's anything in his past PC computing experiences that would lead him to this belief, he was obviously just guilty of wishful thinking. Joel should have practiced Expectation Management. (The common term for this is "Reality Check!!".) If he had closely aligned his expectations with a broad range of the probable outcomes he would have been resigned to accepting the inevitable result. In this case it's a fairly simple formula: "Personal Computer" + "Microsoft Windows" = @#!!&^^*##@!! Anybody need a translation ??

[J.Klebanoff]

<blockquote><tt>"Personal Computer" + "Microsoft Windows" = @#!!&^^*##@!! </tt></blockquote> <blockquote><tt>Anybody need a translation ?? </tt></blockquote> No translation needed. Unless, I'm way off-base on what you meant, I muttered "@#!!&^^*##@!!" many times while I was sorting through my problems. (I mean my computer problems. I'm still sorting through my life problems and don't expect to live long enough to come close to resolving them. How's that for managing expectations?)

[J.Klebanoff]

I too was wondering what POS meant. I was fairly confident that, while it's the first thing that comes to mind, you didn't mean Point Of Sale. I take it that the "..." means that you really mean something other than "Snot" for the last word in that acronym. Hmmm... Could it be that you really mean "@#!!&^^*##@!!" (see below) or some variation on that theme?

[Guest.Visitor]

Yeah, I was actually hoping Joel might dig into that one. It could be a very valuable discussion topic...

[J.Klebanoff]

<blockquote><tt> Yeah, I was actually hoping Joel might dig into that one. It could be a very valuable discussion topic... </tt></blockquote> I'm always looking for good tirade topics. The truth is that I don't know much, make that anything, about what is going on under the covers of Windows that might conflict with SOX. (Microsoft must LOVE ignorant people like me.) Can anyone point me to some more info. If it would make for a good tirade, I'd be happy to fulfill your hope that I might dig into it.

[cor_olthuis@hotmail.com]

You have to be thankfull that at the end everything is solved 17 MB Windows 3.1 362 MB Windows 98 2.3 GB Windows XP Every 1000 Intructions contains 1 error/misprogramming "1000 is a Constant factor since human kind started to write instructions on clay tablets, stone,paper or keyboard" Moore's law but the other way around. How is it possible that Windows XP is still running at all?

[Guest.Visitor]

Joel, I feel your pain but there is an alternative. Have you though about Apple computers? I have never used one and I don't know what your requirements are but I understand Apple's just work. When my next purchase comes, I'm going to look carefully at Apple. The latest Microsoft issues I'm dealing with are SP2's incompatibility with device drivers and the hardware manufacturers are not updating them. My printers and scanner work fine but if I want to use SP2, I have to buy new hardware. No thanks. It's time to find alternatives. Tom.

[J.Klebanoff]

Tom asked: <blockquote><tt>Have you though about Apple computers? </tt></blockquote> Actually, I did think seriously about an Apple. There were a few issues that made me decide against it. First my clients use Windows. That probably wouldn't be a problem for exchanging Word documents, but I also create PowerPoint presentations for clients. One client likes the latest fancy animations. I'm just not convinced that those would convert perfectly between the Apple & Windows versions of Powerpoint, although I admit that I've never tried. Second, I do not pirate software. Period. Moving to Apple would have meant buying new versions of all of my software, which would have greatly increased the total cost of ownership. Third, my accounting package (I run my own business) does not offer an Apple version. That's probably not a huge problem because my current software will export into a couple of different formats which could probably be imported into accounting software on an Apple, but I just didn't want to go through the hassle -- and the risk that it wouldn't convert over properly. Whoever said, "nobody ever said life was going to be easy" was probably a computer user.

[J.Klebanoff]

cor_olthuis wrote: <blockquote><tt>Every 1000 Intructions contains 1 error/misprogramming "1000 is a Constant factor since human kind started to write instructions on clay tablets, stone,paper or keyboard" </tt></blockquote> You know, those clay tablets are looking more and more appealing all of the time. They last longer than magnetic tape, hard drives, floppies or even CD-ROMs. And, there is no problem with clay tablets becoming unreadable because they are incompatible with the new technologies. My kingdom for a chisel.

[Guest.Visitor]

Joel, Most of the people I deal with don't know what Windows is doing & usually don't care "as long as it works". Microsoft keeps adding "features" that serve special purposes and that many user's don't need. Each time they do this they interweave the functions into existing applications so that users are locked into an unending upward spiral. For example, I assume your new system came with Windows XP, try to disable the Windows Messenger function or the automatic update feature. What do you do if the automatic update feature fixes one security hole but exposes another bigger one?

[tdaly@sddsystems.com]

There's always Virtual PC from MS. http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=highlights Although I haven't used it personally so I can't vouch for it, it might be worth checking out. Tom D.

[David Abramowitz]

It was last week when the automatic update feature prompted me to download and install XP SP2. To make a long story short, some spyware tagged along for the download ride, crashed the box, and made windows inoperable. I spent several hours with MS support trying to recover. Once recovered, it was never the same. Performance took a 60% hit accross the board. I know this is not typical, but I'm sure it's happenned to others. Dave

[J.Klebanoff]

David said: <blockquote><tt>To make a long story short, some spyware tagged along for the download ride, crashed the box, and made windows inoperable. </tt></blockquote> Are you serious??? Am I misunderstanding you??? Spyware tagged along on the Windows Update download of SP2. I know that I go off on tirades against technology, but that's something that I wouldn't have thought possible. I have always trusted that anything coming through Windows Update is going to be clean. Buggy and full of security holes, sure, but not with spyware attached. How is that possible?

[J.Klebanoff]

RNock said: <blockquote><tt>Most of the people I deal with don't know what Windows is doing & usually don't care "as long as it works". </tt></blockquote> I'm one of those people. After I stopped being a programmer many years ago, I became someone who just wants technology to work for me. But, "as long as it works" ... there's always a catch isn't there? I don't know if technology just hates me, but give it enough time and something will always fail. For me, "enough time" seems to be measured in days or sometimes even hours, not months or years.

[J.Klebanoff]

Thanks for the suggestion, but my new laptop is now more than a month old. It's already been out on the road (well actually, just down the street to COMMON). I don't think that they'll take it back now. Besides, I finally seem to have everything working ... for now. Heck, much to my amazement, I was even able to get wireless networking working at COMMON, which is the first time that I tried that technology. Maybe my next computer will be a Mac, which hopefully won't be for a while yet.

[MCWebsite.Staff]

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[engilabroni]

I didn't have to worry about anything during the Ubuntu install, all updates were downloaded automatically -- worked first time like a charm