tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-79389159015597418692024-03-13T17:30:08.473-05:00I HATE WINDOWSA year ago, I started a job where I got the pleasure of using Windows. Every day.
I started sending my dad emails every so often entitled "I hate windows part ##." After about a dozen of those, I decided blogging might be easier.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.comBlogger51125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-71921783531275846762013-07-12T14:40:00.001-05:002013-07-12T14:40:26.344-05:00Part 37.1: Signatures in 2010You gotta hand it to Microsoft. They try. Back in the day I wrote about how impossible it was to figure out <a href="http://ihatewindowsblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/part-37-can-outlook-signatures-be-any.html">where signatures lived</a> in Outlook 2007. There were menus to open and click through to find a major feature buried six levels down.<br />
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So in 2010, which I was just upgraded to, I had to find my signature. I was in the main mail window, and started looking. I looked at every bleeding menu. Nowhere to be seen. Finally, I asked a coworker for guidance. He told me to open a new window.<br />
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<a href="http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook-help/create-and-add-an-email-message-signature-HA010352514.aspx">Aha</a>!<br />
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If you open a new window, "signatures" is right out in the open, and easy to see and find. This is an improvement. The issue, however, is that this is counterintuitive in two manners. First, it is accessed from a completely different place as in 2007 and before. How hard would it to have a link to signatures out of the main window without opening a new message? So, you know, we can find it. Second, when I start with a new program, I want to set up my signature <i>before</i> I send my first message, not after. Now, I have to open a message, set up my signature, and is it in the message? No. I have to close the message and open another.<br />
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So with thousands of hours and lines of code, they have gone from having something completely buried but accessed from the main window, to something not buried at all, but accessed unintuitively from the new message window.<br />
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Progress. Maybe by 2020 they'll have signatures readily available in the main window of the program.<br />
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Or maybe we'll all be on Gmail.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-28420870614490788052013-06-27T08:06:00.000-05:002013-06-27T08:06:40.400-05:00Part 43: When I copy something, I should be able to paste itI'm somewhat used to sane operating systems. In other words, I'm used to the fact that, on an Apple machine, when you copy something—be it an image, or a string of text, or what have you—if you go to paste it, it will paste.<br />
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Even if you've been doing something else for a while. Even if you pasted it and then clicked on another cell in Excel.<br />
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Which brings me to Excel: for some inconceivable reason, if you copy something in Excel and run an operation and then go to paste it—it's gone! Disappeared in to thin air. Poof!<br />
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Now, I've had this as a known problem for years. But, believe it or not, people were <a href="http://www.goodexperience.com/tib/archives/2004/02/microsoft_excel.html">whining about this in 2004</a>, and even then saying that Microsoft knew it was a bug then, and didn't seem to care. So it's been going on for more than a decade!<br />
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(There's some technical nonsense about Excel having "move and copy" but a) that seems fixable and b) I can't think of any application where a user would want to have something they copied disappear.)<br />
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What rubbish. And I'd contend that Excel is one of Microsoft's better products.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-59317241975978794652012-02-03T09:46:00.001-06:002013-06-27T08:06:31.140-05:00Part 42: CTRL-F should do one thing and one thing onlyCtrl-F = find. Period. Full stop. End of discussion.<br />
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Except, of course, in outlook, where Ctrl-F forwards a copy of the selected message. That's a nice shortcut to have, but considering that Outlook has a find feature (a particularly braindead one, but a find feature nonetheless) <b>it should be called by Ctrl-F. </b>For some unfathomable reason, "Find" is called by Ctrl-E. Let's see where E is in the word "find." F, well, that's not an E. I, it's a vowel, but not an E. N is not an E, and D is close, but as close as F, which is not an E. <i>There is no "E" in Find!</i> Oh, and then, of course, "advanced find" is shift-ctrl-F. Makes a world of sense. Almost as much sense a the underlined letters in<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGqTvFMsoeTYbiBTscyLCTm3hM0XarIi_JiimzBRC0JgOR6SQ5NqwJruYl7-QJ0ZWP5lawU2DsMwYs9nmOBosE_I4CI0arPRV_BshfXH-cNxkGrRI18kqSgEYRcabFfYR9oJmjttZzfA/s1600/find.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGqTvFMsoeTYbiBTscyLCTm3hM0XarIi_JiimzBRC0JgOR6SQ5NqwJruYl7-QJ0ZWP5lawU2DsMwYs9nmOBosE_I4CI0arPRV_BshfXH-cNxkGrRI18kqSgEYRcabFfYR9oJmjttZzfA/s1600/find.PNG" /></a></div>
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The "w" is underlined in forward, so obviously ctrl-W has nothing to do with forwarding. And the "i" is underlined in find, so "i" makes things italic. Yeah that makes sense. It's nice of them to make alt-I a shortcut for find, but there's still no cross-application compatibility. In other words, ctrl-F should <i>always call the find function.</i> The program-random alt-underlined shortcuts are just annoying.<br />
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To recap: to use the "find" function you can use either ctrl-E or alt-I. In a just and loving world, this would not be allowed.<br />
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So, maybe Redmond realizes how bad their search is and doesn't want people to find it. It turns out that a surprisingly high number of people have <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/crazy-90-percent-of-people-dont-know-how-to-use-ctrl-f/243840/">no idea</a> how to use the find function. Probably because they've been using Outlook. (Now, in Gmail, Find actually works, you know, to find things. But that's an entire other post.)Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-91546396162221220452011-11-15T16:28:00.001-06:002011-11-15T16:30:13.920-06:00Part 41: When Windows cripples other peopleAs I <a href="http://ihatewindowsblog.blogspot.com/2011/10/not-using-windows-for-while-pure-bliss.html">wallow in funemployment</a> (<a href="http://ariofsevit.com/resume.pdf">Give me a job</a>!) I sometimes find time to help out other people. For instance, a friend of mine works for a local non-profit. Now, before I go any further, let me take a quick second to rail against non-profit IT people. Non-profit IT people, as far as I can tell, really need to learn something about, uh, information technology. I'm sure that they are nice people, but if you manage an organization with satellite offices, you really should be able to set up a secure wireless router over the phone. It's not hard!<br />
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The second thing I am going to get out there before I start my story: buying PCs because they are cheaper is penny-wise and pound-foolish. The Times <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/16/technology/businesses-too-have-eyes-for-ipads-and-iphones.html?_r=1&hp=&pagewanted=all">just wrote</a> about how businesses are turning more to Apple products. The money quote:<br />
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<blockquote>Information technology departments, though, may find working with Apple a challenge. Historically among I.T. managers, Apple Macs were largely shunned as too expensive, and the company was viewed as not serious about making the computers blend well in corporate environments.</blockquote>Basically double that for non-profits. For instance: I have a friend who works with GIS a lot, which pretty much only runs in a Windows environment. He had had enough trouble with PCs, and realized that the best computer was a graphics-laden MacBook Pro, running Boot Camp to run Windows. And he has not regretted it. I'm not sure how he got that through his IT department, but it just plain works.<br />
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Now let's get back to my friend. I went by her office to grab lunch, and she was complaining about how stressful it was to have a computer which wouldn't connect to wireless. I started troubleshooting. They'd done the obvious (restarting the router) but it was obviously her computer since it was occurring with multiple wireless networks and no other computers on these networks were compromised. The first thing I asked was for the password for their wireless. "Oh, we don't have one." Now, I doubt that was the reason her DNS lookup and wireless is all screwed up, but she said it was slow from time to time, and I went about logging in.<br />
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They'd basically plugged in a Linksys box and logged in, as did, apparently, everyone else in the neighborhood. The hardest part was figuring out which username and password combination to use; once I had I pretty quickly gave their network an appropriate name and WEP encryption (with the office phone number as the password, of course). Next it was time to see if the computer could be fixed. The long and short of it was that I couldn't figure out what was wrong. I didn't bug my dad, but there was obviously something non-trivial wrong with it. The connection would frequently cut out, especially when trying to send data (very weird). Basically, she needs to take the computer (brand new and very much still warranted) and get it fixed or replaced. With Apple, I assume even for enterprise a quick trip to the nearest Apple Store would have them fixing or replacing the machine. With Windows, she had to go through whatever IT distributor her organization uses, entailing a trip elsewhere or a wait for the mail (and I doubt they have overnight turnaround like Apple).<br />
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In any case, I asked how much productivity she thinks this cost her. "Oh, about a week." Eight hours a day, for five days? "Yup." I said that since she could still convolutedly send email (by writing it in Word and then doing something) she hadn't lost all productivity and she agreed. I said it was maybe half productivity. 20 hours. At $20 per hour (give or take, not counting the IT department's time on the phone). One random crash and she'd whittled away $400 of time, which could certainly have been used to buy a Mac which would probably be faster and last longer.<br />
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The upshot? It will probably be solved bluntly, with a full reinstall of the OS. My friend didn't have the ability to back up her data or the time to reinstall windows (i.e. the whole day). So, for now, she'll beg time off of people with desktops (she's on the road a lot) and lose more productivity with subpar equipment.<br />
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So, dear IT departments of the world: just because you don't know how to use a certain product doesn't mean your employees don't, either. Don't just buy the cheapest crap you can get your hands on. Invest in a quality product, and then you're job will be easier. And your employees more productive. And everyone wins.<br />
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Oh, and learn how to set up a goddamn wireless router. 192.168.1.1, admin, admin …Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-88100056318559878092011-10-23T21:24:00.000-05:002011-10-23T21:24:24.211-05:00Not using Windows for a while = pure blissPure bliss = $8/hour = a good way to go broke<br />
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About a year and a half ago, I quit my job. It wasn't a bad job, but I was ready to not work in an office, not use a computer which was supremely outdated* (yeah, non-profits) and not deal with Windows on a daily basis. I took off to work in the mountains (for the <a href="http://outdoors.org/">Appalachian Mountain Club</a>) where the use of a computer required putting a laptop on a frame pack, hoping to not break it (best idea: surround it in a down comforter and shove the whole thing in a brew bucket), carry it several miles (say, 4 miles and 3500 feet) uphill and still have very little (if any) internet on the mountaintop. So, not a lot of screen time, and not a lot of fails.<br />
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Oh, yeah, and I have a Mac. This summer I treated myself to a new MacBook Air (it's dreamy, and weighs less than 3 pounds) and I even bought a new version of Office—Microsoft's most functional product (it's a low bar). Still, Office '11 works pretty well, is slightly more intuitive than old versions (again, a low bar) and has better cross-compatibility with Windows versions than previous. (Of course, one would think MSFT would be able to actually make them completely compatible. But, no!)<br />
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In any case, I'm out of the mountains now and looking for a job. Like, maybe, a "real" job, one where you sit at a desk and use computers. Even computers with Windows. I'm willing to do so, if for no other reason than that I am running out of fodder for this blog. Oh, and a paycheck. Benefits would be nice too. I picked the perfect economy for this, right?<br />
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So, you can find my <a href="http://ariofsevit.com/resume.html">CV</a> on my <a href="http://ariofsevit.com/">personal website</a>, check out my other websites (<a href="http://tsastatus.net/">tsastatus.net</a>, <a href="http://birkieguide.com/">birkieguide.com</a>) and if you have any ideas, email me at ari dot ofsevit at gmail.<br />
You can even follow me at <a href="http://twitter.com/ofsevit">twitter.com/ofsevit</a>.<br />
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Thanks! I hope I can find some broken Windows crap to blog about soon.<br />
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* Apparently, my replacement made it about a week before demanding a new computer—which I was about to do when I quit and figured it wouldn't be worth it to waste my breath. It got to the point of taking minutes to open Word. Of course, it was a 2003 machine in 2010.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-66158312196249825132011-06-29T12:56:00.002-05:002011-10-27T12:44:28.508-05:00Part 40a: when bloggers call me outI saw that I had twelve followers. Weird. Someone must have mentioned me somewhere. Well, someone did. In this <a href="http://emotivalounge.proboards.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=music&thread=18344&page=2#288798">thread</a>, someone calls me out for <a href="http://ihatewindowsblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/part-40-when-wireless-goes-wrong.html">blaming a hardware problem on Windows</a>. I'm way too lazy to sign up for that message board, but I will explain why this is, actually, a problem aided and abetted by Windows (or, at the very least, Microsoft):<br />
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<ol><li>Windows allows shoddy hardware. Say what you want, but the only hardware which runs Mac OS is, drumroll, Apples. They can be made to run Windows, or whatever else, but Apple has a lot of control over which keys are placed where. And, no, there's no single key I have to hit to turn off wireless (actually, I have to use my mouse). So I never inadvertently turn it off.</li>
<li>Windows does not ask me if I am sure I want to turn off wireless. This is a company who will, when you type "June …" ask if you are typing the current date, or when you type a letter will say "it looks like you are trying to …" (okay, lord be praised they killed Clippy, but still) But when a stray keystroke turns off one of the main features of my computer (since, you know, we live in the internet age), crickets.</li>
<li>It's done in the background, or at least in the margins. There's nothing which comes up in the center of the screen and broadcasts what is going on. Hell, when I change the brightness or even the screen backlight brightness in OS X a transparent image pops up in the center of my screen for a second. The backlight keyboard! That didn't happen on this Dell, because it didn't have a backlight keyboard.</li>
<li>The icon for wireless is decidedly tiny. And if it is off, it appears with an even tinier X through it. Perhaps Apple copyrighted their empty pie icon, but, come on, Windows. It looks like it's clip art from 2002, too.</li>
<li>There's no way to disable the key. If there were, I wouldn't be writing this. Maybe I could have just, you know, pried it off the keyboard. "It looks like you are trying to disfigure your keyboard. Can I help?"</li>
</ol><div>Just for fun, here's the unbelievably funny <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxcmoLKVd60">clip</a> about Clippy from Wait Wait, don't tell me.</div><div><br />
</div><div>And, no, Mr. Thepcguy, I'm not a Stupid User.</div>Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-31073326689799752332010-12-23T21:29:00.004-06:002010-12-23T21:46:10.576-06:00Part 40: when wireless goes wrongAfter a blissful summer away from the wide world of Windows, I have been forced to return. Rather than fight for my right to have cross-platform compatibility, I succumbed and had someone buy me a PC. Windows 7. It's sort of okay, although changing the menus in Office is really unnecessary (since "add a row" is now under the "home" menu, which makes no sense of course) and since the UI is still several years and iterations behind OS X. (For instance; in Mac OS I can use "pretzel"-tab to change programs and "pretzel"-` to change windows within a program. Windows 7: I can only change amongst all open windows. Although the nested window view is somewhat useful.)<br />
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Anyway, all was going somewhat well until, with no prior warning, my wireless connection today went completely kaput. It just ran dry. When I click on the little wireless icon, it tells me that it is not connected, and that "no connections are available."<br />
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Okay, well, I have a trusty-if-elderly (nearly four years old) Mac, and can turn to the Googles. If I search for the no connections phrase and windows 7, I get a Microsoft Help page. Oh, that's lovely. There must be a nice, easy fix for this, right? <a href="http://social.answers.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w7network/thread/43f61a9c-069b-49ab-9f5b-f52ec2b1ef7e">Wrong</a>.<br />
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There are six steps, the first of which is power-cycling your computer, wireless router and modem. I haven't read the others yet. All I know is I first have to deal with the email I wrote and now have to save elsewhere (and hope the formatting doesn't get messed up) and then go through several annoying steps so my computer will, you know, connect to the internet.<br />
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It's amazing that in 2010 Microsoft has a product which will lose its internet connection and not easily get it back. Oh, and in case you were wondering, I'm writing this on my Mac. Connected to the internet.<br />
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(Oh, and when you try to connect to the internet, you click the "open network and sharing center"—at least they don't call them wizards anymore—and then click "connect to a network, which takes you back to the same window where you clicked open network and sharing center. Which circle of hell is this, again?)<br />
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<b>Update 1: </b>Power cycled the machine. It did nothing. Except give me a few glorious seconds when Windows was off.<br />
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<b>Update 2:</b> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The ever-so-helpful Microsoft website tells me "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">Update the drivers for your wireless network adapter via Windows Update, or by using the website for either the company you bought your PC/Laptop from or the manufacturer of your networking device.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">" <i>And how the fuck am I supposed to do that without an internet connection?</i></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><i><br />
</i></span><br />
<b>Update 3:</b> I hit troubleshoot. It tells me that wireless capability is turned off. Why? Lord only knows. Why it went off in the middle of using the computer? Lord only knows. Can I click on the little wireless icon and turn it on? That would be intuitive. Of course not. It won't tell me how, only that there is a switch on the front or side of my computer, or a function key.<br />
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Hello? Is it 2002? Is anyone there?<br />
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<b>Update 4:</b> Apparently, if you hit F2—which, as it happens, is located conveniently above the 2 key—it toggles on and of the wireless. Now, why on earth would I want to be able to turn on and off my wireless with an errant keystroke? Wouldn't it make a whole lot more sense to, say, have a drop-down menu with the option to turn off my wireless, so that an errant slip of the finger wouldn't do it? Yes. It would. That's why the good lord created OS 10. I believe that was a feature on Apple products, oh, 9 or 10 years ago.<br />
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<i>If anyone knows how to disable F2 as the toggle key for wireless, please let me know. I'd like to be able to turn off wireless, I guess, but I'd like it to be a bit more of a barrier than hitting one key. Maybe function keys should be left for things like screen brightness and volume; you know, things I use more than once in a blue moon.</i>Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-59754900406307723282010-04-29T13:51:00.000-05:002010-04-29T13:51:06.897-05:00Part 39: Really? I can't use commas to separate email addresses?So we recently upgraded our server. In addition to a bizarre method to change default printer preferences (which may well be the printer driver's fault so I won't document it here—yet), there's been a subtle change in our how Outlook works. Or, of course, doesn't work.<br />
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Let's say I want to email two people. In Gmail, I'd type in their addresses separated by commas, say, "sbrin@gmail.com, lpage@gmail.com". I'd write my message, hit "send" and go on my merry way. And that's how it used to work in Outlook. But not anymore. If I go to send an email in outlook, I can't write it to "bgates@microsoft.com, pallen@microsoft.com". Oh, no-siree-bob. If I do something that intuitive, I get an error message:<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz8PwJMZ4Aev7zKTDAlJplkpTBV4Nrh3J6C22kO1OkTRzQZU8fKGWkqP9Eb1xYZJ5d1pD77aZNeVqVgigO3fh3AivpUfIz7DQ_pOGrIAOHsoq7jbrW_O94CPndJxsFtABga5WJuNUNMg/s1600/emailfail.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz8PwJMZ4Aev7zKTDAlJplkpTBV4Nrh3J6C22kO1OkTRzQZU8fKGWkqP9Eb1xYZJ5d1pD77aZNeVqVgigO3fh3AivpUfIz7DQ_pOGrIAOHsoq7jbrW_O94CPndJxsFtABga5WJuNUNMg/s400/emailfail.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Wait, what? I can't separate email addresses with a comma? And, smartypants, since you obviously know what I was doing (i.e. that I was separating emails with commas) why can't you just make the goddamn change for yourself!<br />
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Oh, yes, Windows = productivity.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-47711124074375716632010-04-22T14:58:00.000-05:002010-04-22T14:58:09.633-05:00Part 38: Word/Outlook integrationWhile we're knocking Outlook, what's the deal with the integration of Word and Outlook? Sometimes, I'm typing away in Outlook and get a message that Word needs to close, and since Outlook uses Word to edit applications, Word's crashing has rendered Outlook braindead, so carry on.<br />
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Also, it's so very well integrated that when I was editing my <a href="http://ihatewindowsblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/part-37-can-outlook-signatures-be-any.html">signature</a>, I had a section which was 10 point Verdana italic, which refused to show in 10 point font in the actual email. Oh, yes, Word works so well I want to use it all the time!Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-41549210071869603682010-04-22T14:55:00.000-05:002010-04-22T14:55:43.943-05:00Part 37: Can Outlook signatures be any harder to find?So work decided that we should all have standardized signatures and can we all change them. Fine, whatever, I should be able to find out where to change signatures, right? They're a pretty generic part of email, so it's not like Outlook will hide the signature in an incoherent menu which is impossible to find. In a just and loving world, it would be on a main menu. Now, of course, <a href="http://ihatewindowsblog.blogspot.com/2008/12/part-19-menu-madness.html">Windows won't show me the whole menu if I haven't used it recently</a> (thanks), but even if I have to expand the menus, I bet I can find it, right?<br />
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Wrong.<br />
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Now, in Gmail, where I don't even use a signature, I can find the signature setting easily. I click on settings, then, oh, hey, look! It's right there! Right on the main front screen! One click! Easy.<br />
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In Outlook? Oh, boy. I had to look it up on the Interwebs. First, I go to the <i>tools</i> menu. There, I select <i>options</i>. Now, leaving beside the fact that <i>options</i> shouldn't be under a tools menu (since an option isn't a tool) or should be called something out, I am presented with a mess of tabs and interfaces. I got to this without the web. But I didn't see "signature" on any of the tabs, so I kept going.<br />
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Had I clicked through all the tabs, I would have found that the <i>mail format</i> tab contains the signature dialogue. I have no idea what all the other functions Outlook has which are so very important, but the signature dialogue is in an not-at-all-obvious place, and is much further down the information tree than it should be. Then again, other than save and print, is there anything you can do without three menus and a dialogue box in Windows?Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-75969445154429182832010-04-05T11:27:00.000-05:002010-04-05T11:27:15.815-05:00Part 36: Restart, restart, restartI was out of the office for a couple of weeks and, apparently, Windows took it upon itself to download some update. And now that it has done so, it prompts me, every 15 minutes to restart. But it gives me 15 minutes to say no. What I really want to do is go about my business today, and restart at the end of the day when I shut down my computer. But "restart later" simply resets the clock.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpqrdULUzYYvdHjVh4f9aSc1EpnWoyjCkws5Gz3YbX8iRbZjgXOiXSvvvFYb62GeFqS7qXA-BFL0uIk64Un7IqnFEdofNohGZQSp4NJsQ6w8-J5MIbbPRQuhLV5lWIwqYBPMQUbqpyJw/s1600/ihwrestart.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpqrdULUzYYvdHjVh4f9aSc1EpnWoyjCkws5Gz3YbX8iRbZjgXOiXSvvvFYb62GeFqS7qXA-BFL0uIk64Un7IqnFEdofNohGZQSp4NJsQ6w8-J5MIbbPRQuhLV5lWIwqYBPMQUbqpyJw/s400/ihwrestart.JPG" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Please, Windows, why can't you give me a "restart at my own goddamn convenience" button?!Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-6140756551979208842010-02-03T15:39:00.002-06:002010-02-03T15:41:11.144-06:00Part 35: hidden formattingI had a bit of an email I wanted to post in to Facebook. I figured the steps would be copy-paste-post, right? Not so fast.<br />
<br />
It turns out Outlook had embedded some really hidden line breaks in to the text. So I wasn't just copying the text, but I was copying the line breaks too. So when<br />
I posted it on Facebook, it didn't look right. In fact, it had random line breaks. It looked sort of something like<br />
this. This was a problem for me because a) Facebook only displays a certain number of lines before saying "read more" and having a link and b) more importantly this was for my work's Facebook page (it's getting <br />
annoying, isn't it?) and it looked ugly. Even more disturbing is that if I copied the text from the email, it would sometimes paste in with a bunch of xml before it. Seriously, come on.<br />
<br />
The workaround was to copy everything in to Notepad (one of the less braindead windows applications, since it has so few useless features) to get it in to text and then paste it from there. It worked. But it was annoying.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-7501254603116539172010-01-15T13:58:00.000-06:002010-01-15T13:58:11.258-06:00Part 34: Word can't open it, but Google Docs canI went to open up an attachment in which someone had filled out with text boxes (why text boxes? someone else designed the original) and found that most of the information was squeezed out of the text boxes which we next-to-impossible to drag to expand. But, rather than much around with the document in Word, I sent it to my gmail account and opened it first as html (fail) and then as a Google Doc. All of the sudden, the text boxes are gone, and all the information I need to access is easily visible.<br />
<br />
What is perplexing is that the native software (Word) was unable to accomplish this task, while Google Docs did with ease. Google may be a huge corporation out to make a dime, but at least their products, you know, work.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-38645361631506768412009-11-20T08:30:00.001-06:002009-11-20T08:30:37.406-06:00Hotmail funnyWhen you get an email from a Hotmail account, it appends a message / advert for Microsoft on the bottom of the message (note: Gmail does not do this). This one is pretty good:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>Hotmail: Trusted email with Microsoft's powerful SPAM protection. </blockquote><br />
Yeah. Right.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-53035381858120617482009-08-27T17:08:00.005-05:002009-08-27T17:22:18.647-05:00Part 33: One problem, many programsFor some reason, Word decided not to cooperate with me today. It just won't open. And since I was in the middle of writing something, this makes me angry. Oh look at what has happened!<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2JMhsuJbMmEmRc0Th2H-tZwwV4Rj__skmwAn4xXdPBuvJ98cCbOGYei513rjUhuSKpHPKCoLHiCCU2rnLx7F_wuLr70TMcdnsTLA09ID6Goz2kaxkGUfqsgs5vCuNQQYKoMHwPFO0Q/s1600-h/ugh.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 480px; height: 384px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-2JMhsuJbMmEmRc0Th2H-tZwwV4Rj__skmwAn4xXdPBuvJ98cCbOGYei513rjUhuSKpHPKCoLHiCCU2rnLx7F_wuLr70TMcdnsTLA09ID6Goz2kaxkGUfqsgs5vCuNQQYKoMHwPFO0Q/s400/ugh.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5374772300010855394" /></a><br /><br />Now, I've had programs freeze before. It happens. On all operating systems. Here's the thing: when something freezes on the Mac, it generally doesn't also freeze other programs. Like Outlook. First I got a message that Outlook used Word for writing emails, and since Word was dead, it was using something else. Then I got an active X error. Now it is frozen. So much for the typing I was doing in Word &c. Time for the three fingered salute.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-3167169669880268082009-06-16T11:13:00.006-05:002009-06-16T11:24:09.661-05:00Part 32: Where is FirefoxHere's a screen capture of my toolbar (why I can only capture elements of the screen on a screen capture and not the whole goddamn screen, well, that's a post of a different color) from this morning:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZDaKLA6_WchTZw5g6G8ryNXURXArFkhAGUNjRBxrQ49T694m-D7CNzZ0MCova3TMaH3kTUYoU0rw5Et_KC67PC6G9pzzVcSjUFhZJsbwo9vks7osrlY9gi2B1uENo_OW7WDsz0fd9HQ/s1600-h/toolbar.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 22px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZDaKLA6_WchTZw5g6G8ryNXURXArFkhAGUNjRBxrQ49T694m-D7CNzZ0MCova3TMaH3kTUYoU0rw5Et_KC67PC6G9pzzVcSjUFhZJsbwo9vks7osrlY9gi2B1uENo_OW7WDsz0fd9HQ/s320/toolbar.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347959972792846482" /></a><br /><br />That would all be well and good if it weren't for what was in the window above it.<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHuGZekAbXa0K6yhqEEgcx8tzejRA4ZiBCqqlArlOrMkZnxsvP0P9F5JI9xpTWrsORcCBpKitssPNto8fWzdeZLWT3KRECEeHkdQC1CUBDHrWWEMq3pqInKs8u36jjGXG-hgtWOy9FIQ/s1600-h/screen1.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 186px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHuGZekAbXa0K6yhqEEgcx8tzejRA4ZiBCqqlArlOrMkZnxsvP0P9F5JI9xpTWrsORcCBpKitssPNto8fWzdeZLWT3KRECEeHkdQC1CUBDHrWWEMq3pqInKs8u36jjGXG-hgtWOy9FIQ/s320/screen1.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5347960840233887698" /></a><br /><br />This happens, uh, a lot. I am happily browsing through Firefox and then I go in to my mail and then I go to click back to Firefox and--where has it gone? If I am in a program, how can it just up and disappear from my toolbar? Sometimes I flip out--has it close itself? Is the text box I was filling in gone forever? No, it just went in to Windows purgatory, and a few minutes later it will slide out and reappear as if nothing was wrong.<br /><br />Seriously, though, what's the point of a toolbar if it's not actually going to show your open programs. Why not just have the computer poke me in the eye. It would get the same amount of information across to me.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-49937702661686824592009-06-04T09:38:00.004-05:002009-06-04T09:42:31.051-05:00Part 31: Still writing to a CDEvery time I start up my machine, a friendly little bubble pops up and announces that<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4X2ZvmZQEHGxKXFD8PXyxABWxw0jvpkRlANYZBgjsKJxSH1NJjpHyJVKl2QFyFU4KCBPc6LvNWjJ6OnQYul_ZXpbik56R18upc1dq94tSU96MAsTp-q2MPlMODyxlyDLwQM2l8rxcmw/s1600-h/ido.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 129px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4X2ZvmZQEHGxKXFD8PXyxABWxw0jvpkRlANYZBgjsKJxSH1NJjpHyJVKl2QFyFU4KCBPc6LvNWjJ6OnQYul_ZXpbik56R18upc1dq94tSU96MAsTp-q2MPlMODyxlyDLwQM2l8rxcmw/s400/ido.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5343482138688823298" /></a>This is news to me. Since I already burned the CD, ejected the CD and sent the CD off to someone, you know, a week ago. So every day, my reaction is, "I do?"<br /><br />But, apparently, that doesn't matter.<br /><br />"You have files waiting to be written to a CD" is something I've never seen on my Mac. You know, because once you burn the CD, it knows enough not to pester you about something you've already done.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-78544982602232141432009-05-22T16:35:00.005-05:002009-05-22T16:48:51.235-05:00Part 30: Copying files and answering the same questionI am copying files to a CD. Now, there are two things going on here that piss me off. First of all, when I copy files to a CD in OS X, it tells me when it is full. On a Peecee, I have to guess, and make a new folder that will add it up for me. So there's that. Luckily, I know about how much data a 700 MB CD holds (about 650 MB).<br /><br />But then, there's this:<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD6OjXHpxz8-JanouK2PQYG4VJq47A81H8NaqKCLGnySZ5Fw9qd_-MiZFAPFwvPNIueWtFoPaOptd18ncNDak93AW562a4m_QC2-1BQUbQIm_BLv0M_s8TjYM2iLIHGNpDSHhKMmQFEQ/s1600-h/annoying.bmp"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 205px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD6OjXHpxz8-JanouK2PQYG4VJq47A81H8NaqKCLGnySZ5Fw9qd_-MiZFAPFwvPNIueWtFoPaOptd18ncNDak93AW562a4m_QC2-1BQUbQIm_BLv0M_s8TjYM2iLIHGNpDSHhKMmQFEQ/s400/annoying.bmp" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5338765550285908498" /></a><br />This is annoying for two levels. First of all, this is completely cryptic. Files I didn't know existed will not be written, but it won't matter. THEN WHY TELL ME?!<br /><br />Second, even though I continually checked the "use this answer every time" box, every time I did a new copy, it asked me the goddamn question again. You mean, there couldn't have been a "use this answer always for now and forever option"? That would have made my life a little easier.<br /><br />Apparently, that's not the business Microsoft is in.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-36633273127535739292009-05-08T10:21:00.008-05:002009-05-08T11:01:21.682-05:00Part 29: What's in it for me?<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcq0Fp2poSKmjik0wMOoB5RZh4XN-oxXO20CArxn4DJIx0EIbqYENn0LCp-2E4ifHV9GjbAOt9ZLlYZmwMBLy2Ps_wkTTFuQ9Z80gr8IZLBKCznMrCW_xpeXESsrJOiafaS5LAyT0Trw/s1600-h/forme.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 250px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcq0Fp2poSKmjik0wMOoB5RZh4XN-oxXO20CArxn4DJIx0EIbqYENn0LCp-2E4ifHV9GjbAOt9ZLlYZmwMBLy2Ps_wkTTFuQ9Z80gr8IZLBKCznMrCW_xpeXESsrJOiafaS5LAyT0Trw/s320/forme.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5333479862902126258" /></a><br />Now, whenever I start up my machine, I see this:<br /><br />Oh, hooray. First of all, I've never heard of that, so I am not about to download it. (It seems <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/905474">legit</a> but still this could always be a shell.) Second, why should I download it. Let's do a quick pros and cons analysis.<br /><br />Pros for me: I get to know if my copy of Windows is valid. This is not really a pro. If I have a valid copy of Windows (here, I do. In other cases, [redacted]) I'm fine. It will tell me "congratulations, you have a non-pirated copy of this software" which is basically a waste of my time. I know that already.<br /><br />Cons: If I have a valid copy, this is at best a waste of time. And if I don't have a valid copy, it (perhaps) is able to check that and I lose my OS (not a huge loss, believe me) and/or have to go out and buy a new one. But, there is at least the chance that I would be unable to use my computer.<br /><br />So, in other words, if I run the program, the best thing that happens is nothing, and the worst that happens is my computer is thrown in to turmoil. Sounds like pretty much a lose-lose.<br /><br />Some of the comments on a <a href="http://www.neowin.net/news/main/09/05/07/microsoft-changes-windows-genuine-advantage-name">story</a> about this "product" (if you can call it that) are pretty good (although generally poorly spelled with horrid grammar):<br /><br /><blockquote>there's never really been any advantage of having a genuine copy (except for the feel good inside feeling some people get)</blockquote><br />Actually I get that feeling downloading pirated Microsoft software.<br /><br /><blockquote>The "genuine advantage" was double-plus good speak, perfected to an art during the Bush years. I, for one, would appreciate this change back to common sense English descriptions that actually mean what they say.</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>Now, just drop the telephone activation stuff and make it an online method already.<br /><br />"But it already has internet activation, idiot!"<br /><br />No. What I mean is when you've used up your Internet activations due to troubleshooting hardware problems, you'll need to use the phone to tell them your PID and answer questions to get a new serial number of some sort in return to activate. But why the phone? This is a disadvantage to the deaf population. We embrace the internet because it's deaf-friendly. Why on earth can't Microsoft use a webform or application that we can answer questions to and punch in our generated PID code in? Such fail.</blockquote><br /><br /><blockquote>Note: Anonymous commenting is disabled in order to keep the quality of responses to a high standard.</blockquote><br />Okay, fail.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-87293089670379863872009-04-23T09:56:00.003-05:002009-04-23T10:04:49.955-05:00Part 3.1 Office 2007I've learned the best way to learn how to apply for jobs: post one yourself and read the resumes.<br /><br />Well, I'm not quite at that stage. I am compiling the resumes. Here are a few hints:<br /><br />1. Send your resume and cover letter in PDF format. That's the easiest and most universal. Everyone can open PDFs, on any system, and they are pretty much always compatible with everything.<br /><br />2. If you wish to send a second format, send a .doc or a .rtf.<br /><br />3. Do not send weird formats from open-source software. Hell, I am a huge proponent of such programs, but they have their time and places. Sadly, cross-platform resumes are not one. Create them in a non-Word program and save them as PDFs.<br /><br />4. Give people options. Send a PDF, a .doc and post your resume <a href="http://ofsevit.dynalias.com:8081/ari/resume.html">online</a>.<br /><br />5. If you have Office 2007, good on you. MAKE SURE TO SAVE YOUR RESUME AS AN OLD .DOC FILE! I can not stress this enough. If you send it to someone who does not have the latest version, they will not be able to read it. <br /><br />Now, as to why Microsoft did not make this backwards compatible, I'll never know. Nor will I understand why they didn't, I don't know, send out a patch to everyone using Word. (Find me someone who would say, "no, I'd rather not be able to open files people send me thank you" and I'll find you a fish with a bicycle.) But, no, they have a "<a href="http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=941B3470-3AE9-4AEE-8F43-C6BB74CD1466&displaylang=en">pack</a>" (read: "patch") you have to download yourself, and for some ungodly reason a wee extension which should be a few hundred kbytes to convert xml to an older .doc format is 28 megabytes! And you have to restart for it to take effect.<br /><br />It does, surprisingly, seem to, I don't know, work.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-38775215470574425812009-04-23T09:52:00.004-05:002009-04-23T09:56:50.184-05:00Part 24.2 ... Why?Oh, Firefox. I don't think you are to blame. Why, oh, why does the operating system on which you run let you open but not initiate? Why does it allow you to be opened multiple times without a friendly message such as "you have already opened Firefox" or "Firefox is already running"? Why, praytell, do you initiate several different Firefox.exe tasks chewing through memory without the program starting? Why, indeed.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn4P_PCWmYOtwVzN2iLR65ojP5Qnlw_EUkGzeTb80fyiR6VHVoQspjmWKUyrrv6gzGD0edzKvabWzK3IPEytZdjPKfMChuHQUbhl5Z46x6l-Fe8VrXDFQCV1-gF96snr9vRB2AZ_Wz7w/s1600-h/taskmgr.JPG"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 49px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn4P_PCWmYOtwVzN2iLR65ojP5Qnlw_EUkGzeTb80fyiR6VHVoQspjmWKUyrrv6gzGD0edzKvabWzK3IPEytZdjPKfMChuHQUbhl5Z46x6l-Fe8VrXDFQCV1-gF96snr9vRB2AZ_Wz7w/s200/taskmgr.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327900370561011138" /></a><br /><br />And why, after I go in to the Task Manager and manually end each of the running tasks, do you start up without fail? I'm not blaming you, Firefox, I am blaming Windows.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-71209281200572836502009-03-30T15:27:00.002-05:002009-03-30T15:34:59.478-05:00Part 28: Why is powerpoint picture-from-file so braindead?You may remember in <a href="http://ihatewindowsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/part-27-oversized-powerpoints.html">Part 27</a> when we were adding and subtracting pictures in Powerpoint to resize a document.<br /><br />Here is the question. A Powerpoint slide is a set size, probably 1024x768. When you want to insert a picture in to a Powerpoint slide, can you think of any conceivable reason why you'd want the image to be any larger than the slide itself? I can't, other than to, say, show a blown up part of a significant piece of a large photo, but in that case I'd probably crop it first. In any case, one would surmise that when inserting a "picture from file" it would downsize it to the size of the Powerpoint slide for easy manipulation.<br /><br />Ha. Of course not. If you put in a 2000x3000px picture, it opens way over your slide, and screen! You have to scroll to the corner and downsize, and then scroll, and downsize again, and then size it to where you want it, and then move it to where you want it in the slide. Kudos, Microsoft, on making something which should take two or three steps (insert, move, resize if necessary) take eight (insert, scroll, resize, scroll, resize, scroll, resize, move). That's productivity.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-23235071842917455482009-03-30T15:24:00.003-05:002009-03-30T15:27:34.523-05:00Part 27: Oversized powerpointsA coworker says to me: "I am trying to send a Powerpoint document and it's too big. Any ideas on how to resize it?"<br /><br />We take a look at it. It is just over 5 mb. So we remove one picture and put in a downsampled one. And it is just over 5 mb. So we check the size of the other picture. It's 2.75 mb. Somewhere, Powerpoint has found an extra 2.25 mb.<br /><br />So we remove the other picture. And resave. Voila! It is now 108 kb. So we put in the offending picture, and somehow it is now 3 mb and won't bounce.<br /><br />The question, of course, is where that phantom 2.25 mb came from?Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-26413454419584857612009-03-26T09:31:00.003-05:002009-04-23T09:56:38.520-05:00Part 24.1Firefox is being weird. Once it opens, it's fine, of course. It's the opening it up part which is not bloody working.<br /><br />As I <a href="http://ihatewindowsblog.blogspot.com/2009/03/when-i-start-up-firefox-for-first-time.html">whinged recently</a>, every time (then it was sometimes, now it is every time) I open Firefox it asks me "which account do you want to use to run this program?" Uh, THE ONE I AM LOGGED IN TO, NUMBNUTS! I say okay to the dialogue. And more often than not, Firefox doesn't start.<br /><br />The first time this happened, I opened Firefox again and again and again, and finally decided to use Safari for Windows. I like Safari, I use it on my Mac, but the Windows version is a wee bit buggy; I prefer Firefox on Windows. I'll make do with Safari (the other option is far less pleasant in my vIEw) but would like for my Firefox to, I don't know, work?<br /><br />So the next time it happened (after my start-up) I tried to open Firefox three times after the dialogue (to no avail) and then I <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control-Alt-Delete">three-finger-saluted</a> my way in to the Task Manager. There, lo and behold, there were several Firefox "tasks" running. Of course, I had to end each separately (why a single program can be opened multiple times is a quirk I will never understand), and once I did, tah-dah!, Firefox started up.<br /><br />So that's my daily routine, now. Start Firefox. Say yes to the dialogue. Start it again, go in to task manager, kill the Firefox tasks, and then, actually launch Firefox.<br /><br />I. Hate. Windows.Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7938915901559741869.post-76170328013376276342009-03-10T09:37:00.003-05:002009-03-10T09:45:14.387-05:00Part 26, cont.: They did me againI think this needs little further explanation (mainly because I can't make any sense of it):<br /><br /><blockquote>dwwin.exe DLL initialization failed.<br />The application failed to initialize because the window station is shutting down.</blockquote><br />Except, the window station (what? is this English?) is not shutting down, which is the entire problem.<br /><br /><blockquote>The system cannot end this program because it is waiting for a response from you.</blockquote><br />Oh, that's nice. It's my fault. Meanwhile this program has not been open for hours and only needing a response from me because it failed to close properly or completely and has been hiding in the background, ready to rear its ugly head now.<br /><br /><blockquote>Adobe acrord32.exe application error<br />The instruction at "0x5ad71531" referenced memeory at "0x00000014" the memory could not be "read"</blockquote><br />Cute, tell me about some random line of code and random bit of memory. This is entirely unhelpful. If you had a countdown timer (like, oh, I don't know, my Mac) that just shut down 120 seconds after being told to, come hell or high water, I wouldn't have to deal with this bullshit.<br /><br />If my time is worth $20 per hour, and I spend 3 minutes a day dealing with this, and I work 250 days a year, that's $1 per day, or $250 per year, or $750 over the lifespan of a computer (assuming it is amortised over three years). Can someone please explain how it is more efficient to save a hundred dollars on a PC just to have staff waste hour upon hour of time trying to make the goddamn system work?Arihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06058285362842737187noreply@blogger.com0