Tuesday, February 17, 2009

The Day of the Microsoft

It is no secret that if I could lift Microsoft over my head and throw it into the ocean, there would be Microsoft -- in Davy Jone's locker. One of the reasons for that sentiment is for the entire day that I spent re-installing XP (not even Vista -- just little old XP...)

It is not even done yet as I write this, some 12 hours since I began. It was all because -- a couple months ago -- I decided to give IE8 a go. Ever since then my old trusty XP box started having random crashes. Since the two events seemed unrelated, I chalked the random crashes to the overburdened machine's constant workload. It is a 5 year old machine -- maybe getting crinkly or something, I thought.

But as each crash occurred it seemed to be more and more related to using IE8 for something, or for updates of XP (which use IE a lot). But eventually it crashed right at the point I was using IE8.

SO... I spent all day trying to GET RID of IE8, which meant that I had to get rid of XP and start all over again. I am still at it. I don't want IE8, but it seems like I'll be stuck with it, one way or another. Is like something dead that comes back alive to get ya.

OH, how joyous my Linux machines are -- each with their little quirks, but they are quick to be fixed, even if I have to redo the whole damn thing it takes about an hour - versus 13 hours now.

It could be worse -- Cobol or something

Sunday, February 8, 2009

Apocalypse No


This is the year to see who falls out of the wagon and gets trampled by the stampede. There is a feeling of "impending doom", a term usually reserved for manic depressives or apocalyptic people.

I truly hope that nothing terrible happens, since in today's world there is too many greedy bastards. Too many people with guns, practicing for years to have their way with whoever gets in their way. Too many people with no skills whatsoever to live in the wild, or live on pennies per day.

Bread lines were real in my father's teenage years. There was nothing, no work, no nothing. Just dust and whatever they could scrape together off the land. Having a gun was for shooting rabbits, not people. A great thinning of the herd would happen in today's world.