Turn and face the strain...
So... Playing with the new 'puter continues, in my spare time. And we have complaints, Gentle Reader, oh yes we does! From an e-mail I sent to a friend this morning:
And now, back to our day... already in progress.
So... Playing with the new 'puter continues, in my spare time. And we have complaints, Gentle Reader, oh yes we does! From an e-mail I sent to a friend this morning:
A stream of consciousness litany of complaints follows...
I don't like the views in Windows Explorer, which is to say I cannot see the entire directory tree... I can only see the folders that Vista wants me to see, and only ONE directory at a time. Arrgh.
I lost all my bookmarks in Firefox, even though I made sure to copy the entire Firefox directory from the old box on to my external drive. The bookmarks document is there... but no bookmarks.
Vista doesn't like my external hard drive, refusing to boot when that drive is connected to the box. I had a moment of sheer terror the first time THAT happened... just a blinking cursor (a la DOS) in the upper left hand corner of the screen and nothing else. Disconnect the external drive and Walla! Boot as normal...
The latest edition of Word has completely rearranged all the menu items and it's NOT frickin' intuitive. At ALL. I have a 60-day trial version loaded on this box and just might reinstall my six year old version rather than upgrade.
My ancient version of MS-Money (circa '97) won't run on Vista and the downsized version provided on the new box ("Money Essentials" - hah) will not import or recognize the old files. This is a critical problem... my entire frickin' financial life for the past 12 years is in that program, with the exception of my tax files... which I haven't got around to messing with. Yet.
I lost all my bookmarks in Firefox, even though I made sure to copy the entire Firefox directory from the old box on to my external drive. The bookmarks document is there... but no bookmarks.
Vista doesn't like my external hard drive, refusing to boot when that drive is connected to the box. I had a moment of sheer terror the first time THAT happened... just a blinking cursor (a la DOS) in the upper left hand corner of the screen and nothing else. Disconnect the external drive and Walla! Boot as normal...
The latest edition of Word has completely rearranged all the menu items and it's NOT frickin' intuitive. At ALL. I have a 60-day trial version loaded on this box and just might reinstall my six year old version rather than upgrade.
My ancient version of MS-Money (circa '97) won't run on Vista and the downsized version provided on the new box ("Money Essentials" - hah) will not import or recognize the old files. This is a critical problem... my entire frickin' financial life for the past 12 years is in that program, with the exception of my tax files... which I haven't got around to messing with. Yet.
There's more but leave us not bore you. The upgrade will proceed slowly as I intend to spend as much time with SN1 as possible while he's in town. I can putz around with the 'puter all I want (and probably more, but let's not go there) once he heads back out to South Carolina tomorrow.
Today's Pic: Take Two of yesterday's beer and cigar extravaganza… a wider view with roughly the same poses. Buck is sitting differently, I ain't. I have but one stock pose for all occasions/circumstances, yanno?
And now, back to our day... already in progress.
I am not liking Vista, either.
ReplyDeleteMom and I went to the Yacht Club and did some damage to the bar and my tab. I guess it was to be Son/Parent day at NM and FL.
Have fun!
Enjoy! Anything special on tap for Happy Hour?
ReplyDeleteBuck - you did move from yesterday's pic. Your beer is on your knee yesterday....
ReplyDeleteBut I nitpick. Have a great time with SN1.
And Vista - ewwww.
Any time I see photos of your grown sons, I am reminded of the photo from long ago that you posted once - the one where the boys both have long hair. It is amazing how they change as they grow up.
ReplyDeleteBag Blog wants to know if SN1 is barefoot, "for some reason."
ReplyDeleteVista and Office on my wife's 'puter convince me I don't want them. Why would MS abandon a menu scheme we've been using since the 3.1 era? Ribbons? Wha? I'm so resisting this especially at work. I've got miriad machines interfacing with equipment. I don't want to learn a new OS at my age. My synapses are trained a certain way and aren't squishy enough to change. (I said that leaving DOS mostly behind. Sure miss the command line.)
Funny: I thought I put my name in there just above.
ReplyDeleteArgh I hate Vista. We're ditching it at work. It's had so mnay complaints. Great photo as ever. Handsome men. Sunday am cheers to you!
ReplyDeleteHave to stand up for Vista...well, I don't have to, but I want to as I like it, like the Ribbons also. It WAS an adjustment and sometimes frustrating as it IS a new paradigm.
ReplyDeleteBut, I also come from a lifetime (adult part) of mostly embracing change both software and life-wise...different strokes and all.
The OS I have a hard time with is Apple/MAC - and I WANTED to like it. I loved iPod/iTunes and Parallel which allows XP and now Vista and probably Win7 to run side by side was around last time I bought and I wanted to go that way but worked on a friend's system and just wasn't me. I might try again next round, which will be soon - as soon as Win7 is released.
Hmmm. Seems like we're all agreed: Vista sucks. But I knew that. :D
ReplyDeleteDarryl: How MUCH damage didja do to the bar? Enquiring Minds (TM) wanna know!
Moogie: We didn't do Happy Hour yesterday... we had a family lunch and then SN1 hit the road in the late afternoon.
Kris: You're right, you nit-picker, you! :D
Lou: While the kids DO change as they grow, it's also amazing how much they remain the same.
Bob: We're on the same page. I'm finding the changes made to Word, specifically, have been change for change's sake. I've yet to find any significant improvements in functionality... it's all just repackaging.
Alison: Thank you! I hope your Sunday morning was fine!
Ann: We were commenting together but separate. I like to think I embrace change, when change is beneficial and/or an improvement over the status quo. But I'll stand by my comments that all I see in Word (specifically)... so far... is repackaging. That said, I agree with you on the Mac OS. It never seemed all that user-friendly to me.
ReplyDeleteSome of the Office changes are just repackaging as you say. I'm hardly an MS insider but I use Excel and Outlook extensively also and they did bring them into closer alignment as far as where things are located - with the Ribbon. And although I use Office extensively, I don't use it in depth so really can't speak to whether there is much new functionality.
ReplyDeleteAll of that said, "they" will almost always repackage a bit - shift the look - so it looks "new" - kinda like cars :)! What none of sees is the "under the hood" part where the major changes are made. AND some of the changes - both those that we see and those we don't are laying a foundation for future things.
There was that huge shift from Windows to Win95/Win98 and Win2000 didn't "look" or operate much differently but each gained more in stability (under the hood stuff)...then XP - OMG!!, now it is all OMG over Vista. But people who have tried Win7 seem to like it and I'm fairly sure that it is actually Vista 2.0 - at least the Vista foundation - improved ? - certainly.
My perspective...naturally skewed as a software development person ... :)!
You can still get an XP machine. Some are sold with XP and some as backward compatible or retro something I think they call it.
I've actually grown to like Office 2007. Parts of the functionality improvements are HUGE for the work I do...
ReplyDeletePowerpoint is (unfortunately) where I spend a lot of time in Office. The tools available to edit pics you put into the slideshow are MUCH improved over the old version...
As far as having to "find" the old lists and functions...it does take a while to learn where they've put things, but I'm getting better at it.
There are other improvements, but it would take too long to list here...and there are many places to get much better reviews.
My .02$
SN1
I'm probably gonna get creamed for this ... but ... I really like Vista. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd the two Bucks are certainly good-lookin' men aren't they, girls?
Re: the Firefox bookmarks -- do I understand that the old computer is still up and running? If so, you can use Xmarks (formerly Foxmarks, I think) to send your Firefox bookmarks up to the internet from Old Computer, and down from the internet to New Computer. I did this without a hitch last December, and I have no particular patience or skill with software anything.
ReplyDelete