Computer Wars, I Hate Microsoft Edition

So, Windows decided to update yesterday, which it does periodically, and which I normally don't mind, except it takes too long and it's usually at a time that's not really very convenient. This time, it downloaded the updates as I was shutting down.

Then when I turned on the computer again, there was the inevitable "installing your updates" message, which usually takes a few minutes.

Three hours and twenty minutes later, it was done. Three hours and twenty minutes.

Then it wouldn't boot up. It kept showing error messages -- not long enough, mind you, for me to figure out what the problem was -- and shutting down. It took eight tries before it would load my desktop.

This morning, it took forty-five minutes to boot up. I finally got online, checked e-mail, started to check the news -- and it shut itself down.

Happily, when I turned it back on, it only took a few minutes to load.

Now, if I can just get in to disable the touchpad without the damned computer freezing up, life will almost be back to normal.

I hope.

Windows 10: The Story So Far

So, yesterday I had to restart twice before I could get an Internet connection stable enough for me to send an e-mail. This morning, it won't load Spider Solitaire and has knocked out my Dolby,* so I can't play any music (both of which are absolute necessities when I'm online).

So far, Windows 10 is slow, unreliable, sloppy, unreliable, balky, and a pain in the fundament: this may come as a surprise to real computer nerds, but I don't want to spend my mornings futzing with my operating system. I want it to be quiet, unobtrusive, fast, and reliable.

So far, Windows 10 is none of the above. Back to 8.1.

* It keeps telling me I need to re-install the driver, but doesn't give me any way to do it.

Cross-posted at Booklag.

Sporadic

I know it's been like that, first because I'd been sick (and I really don't hate anyone enough to wish that intestinal virus on them) and then because I've been fed up, and now because 1) I'm still getting used to the new technology and 2) I'm on deadline again and have to produce reviews of things, many things, very soon.

Another upside to Conan (the new laptop's name): I took it to work with me yesterday and actually got stuff done. (Wednesdays are good for that -- they are very, very slow.) And I'm slowly getting used to the idea that I can do more than one thing at a time on this one without the whole thing coming down. (And I even get automatic virus scans without stopping everything else.)

Still figuring out the various applications, though -- Media Player is downright opaque compared to the old version, although it can do more. And documentation is nonexistent, apparently.

I'll figure it out. Eventually.

There's Actually A Reason

I've been away for a couple of days -- I've been playing computer geek with my new laptop, getting it set up and all, complicated by the fact that it won't let me download anything -- software, videos, images, nothing -- from the web. Fortunately, it came with stuff like Adobe Reader, but I need BitTorrent, an FTP, and most of all, Firefox. (I really miss Firefox.) This is probably Microsoft's fault, although they swear it's Norton. We'll see.

I'm still investigating what I do have -- just discovered I can run slide shows of images on a disc or in a folder with just a click.

I still have to see if I can run my ancient version of Photoshop and my almost equally ancient scanner. And I'm really having a time adjusting to this tiny keyboard. But otherwise, I'm very happy.

I also rewarded myself for coming in under budget with my first DVD -- Loveless, of course. I hadn't watched it in a while, ever since it got pulled from YouTube -- it's still almost perfect. And Best Buy had it for less than Amazon. (I actually have two DVDs, but one's a review copy, so it doesn't really count.)

What's best, though, is that I can get up and take a break from writing or surfing or whatever and I don't have to reboot when I come back.

Addiction

It's amazing how quickly I have gotten used to getting up in the morning and actually doing things rather than surfing and commenting. (I've even started working out again, now that I have all this time. Oh, the pain! It feels so good when I stop.) This blog may become a lot more sporadic -- at least, that's the plan.

Of course, I don't have the Earthlink/Internet disaster solved yet. I begin to think that everyone at Earthlink studied customer service at Dell.

I also find that my state of mind is better without my daily dose of outrage. Something to be said for that.

The Upside

to losing my bookmarks is that I get to check out some new blogs. It's easy not to do that if you've already got a full reading list, and some of the old ones were getting stale.

A glass-half-full moment.

TSC

That's "Total System Crash." Didn't even get as far as a blue screen. Recovery time: 6 hours to date, with some software and those files I managed to save yet to be reinstalled.

Of course, lost my bookmarks, address book, all that sort of stuff.

Since this is a combined effort of Microsoft and Dell, this should be no surprise.

Of Browsers

The newest wrinkle at a/k/a Hunter: If you are not using Internet Explorer (and perhaps AOL or Netscape), links to some of the galleries vanish off the page. I found this out when I used IE to view the site, and then went back in Firefox.

Rather unsettling.

At any rate, there is a new gallery up this morning, a series I did in 1996 called "Veil." Use IE and go see it.






UPDATE:

I just checked with the link on this post, using Firefox, and everything's fine. Don't ask me to explain, because I can't.

Did I mention that Mercury's in retrograde?