Posts by Doug Glass 1445 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Feb 2008
I didn't know I needed task bar thumbnails in order to look at the task bar and be able to tell what programs or files I opened that I wanted to open. Hmmm, I need to know more about this wonderful new feature of telling what I already know. I know, being a retiree I need this kind of mental exercise. I know that's true because so often now I have to open the frig door and close it in order to know it's closed. Same with the lamps in my house: gotta turn them on so I can turn them off and know they're off. Getting old is the pits.
Build 7000 is still Vista, and it still stinks. But if they keep making it "new" pretty soon they'll reinvent Windows XP SP3.
We're already giving billions to people I feel are far more insidious than these, uh, fornicators. At least they're upfront and honest about who they drill and why and certainly willing to bare all. And from what I've always seen everybody involved comes out fulfilled and smiling.
Contrast that when I listen to politicians and "bankers" I always feel raped and only those talking are smiling.
Paris because, well, even Paris is honest about her actions.
... I had four drive failures (all within a six month period) with 2-3 years warranty remaining on each drive; Seagate did replace them free of charge.
Based on MY experience, I believe I will be better served by buying other brand drives. It's kind of like buying condoms, if 14% of the time you get baby, you might want to think about using a "safer" brand.
What you say is very true. There are no more corporate "families" ... everybody is a contractor of sorts and everybody is expendable.
Corporations exist to accomplish three goals: grow the company, enhance the bottom line , and increase stockholder worth.
Employee satisfaction and for that matter, employee buy-in, are not mentioned in the company mission statement. It really makes no difference if you hate the company, love the company, or fall somewhere in between. The simple fact is employees today are commodities and commodities come and go at the pleasure of the big boys.
Anybody who thinks they are owed anything by the corporation who pays them other than pay for hours worked needs to think again. It ain't so Joe, it just ain't so. And 1,900,000 Americans laid-off thus far in 2008 now understand that all too well.
What people very often fail to consider is the EMPLOYMENT rate. This week's numbers show that 93.3% of all Americans eligible for work are, in fact, working.
If you discount numbers such as recent college graduates, those between jobs and the like you get a weighted EMPLOYMENT rate of something approaching 96%.
Not my numbers, these are shown in the numbers the American press prefers not to mention. News sells newspapers; bad news sells more newspapers. Well that used to be the case before the newspapers began to die, but the story is the same.
Why buy a white box? One with no OS? Well, maybe to use one of the uninstalled (and never activated) retail versions of XP Pro I bought a few years ago. Bought in perpetuity I might add.
My old Acer laptop is way obsolete and I'd like a newer machine that's "mo better" as my man Justine Wilson would say. You know ... faster, better, quicker, slicker than snot and hot to trot.
As a system builder I actually prefer a machine with no OS. Actually I prefer to build them myself. Never built a laptop though.
Shoot, I might have a client who actually wants his favorite Linux distro installed.
... Linux is so slow to be adopted by the world+dog. The total non geeky fix here is to install the compatibility pack and then double click on the Word 2007 file. And yet this appears to be worlds beyond the "common" man.
Is there really any doubt why Linux, with its terminal this and terminal that, is not the OS of choice? Hell, if it takes a village to install the compat pack Linux usage is not just a world away, it's in a whole 'nother reality.
In my former company (20,000 desktop computers) we were told "Before you depart, Shut Down and Restart". That allowed the IT gremlins to access our machines at all hours of the night. But that notwithstanding, people need to both understand their role and work smarter.
I told my people their workday started at 0730 hours and they were expected to begin the login process at that time; actual work would start whenever the computer was available. At quittin' time they were to initiate the prescribed Shut Down & Restart protocol and walk out the door.
I was assured by the IT folks our data was safe and I took them at their word. In over ten years under this system we had no important lost data. All work related data was maintained on a network drive and it worked very well.
The simple fact of the matter was my folks did their work with the resources they were given and they used those resources as I prescribed. It was not my people's job to either maintain the equipment or to compensate for it. We worked within company protocols and policies and let those in charge of the hammers and nails keeps them in proper working order.
Never put anything in an email you wouldn't want your mama to read and never put anything in an email you wouldn't want published in every rag (hard copy or cyberprint) for the world to see.
Same goes for wireless communication come to think of it.
It's a tough life requiring others to compensate for irresponsible behaviors.
I just installed the available Windows 7 premature release (no pun intended). It installed just like Vista, it looked just like Vista, and it felt just like Vista. I didn't keep it long before I wiped the drive because it wasn't worth a longer look.
But oh yeah, it's based on Vista alrighty. If you disable the cutesy startup screens you'll see Windows 7 is shown as Windows 6.1 build 6801. Why was I surprised? It is after all built on the Vista kernel and it is a Beta. There is room, and time (?), for improvements and enhancements.
As far as I'm concerned (I know MS is sweating this) Windows 7 is like a bad breakfast at the Waffle House: warmed over, re-fried, and some of it abc ... already been chewed.
I have Windows XP to keep me warm and Linux to keep me guessing. Why would I want anything more?
... And He Is Us", Pogo, sometimes in the late twentieth century.
RE: "Rather than count off every single well-publicized major gaffe and fiasco, it's possible to list more minor things which, when taken together, indicate the country essentially as leaderless and adrift at sea as it is in everything else."
Believe me guys, we the American people, know this. The problems are many; not the least of which is to be able to get enough honest, competent people in positions of political and business leadership. Nowhere else in American society is the Peter Principle more evident that in our political system and the highest corporate ranks.
We are about to elect a president, and once again we're in the position of having to make our personal choice of the lesser "evil". No matter which goes into office, things will likely not change any more this time than in the past.
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