Posts by Pompous Git 3087 publicly visible posts • joined 24 Sep 2014
"Until you can make a reliable converter (including macros) for EXISTING documents..."
My computer training business took off with the launch of W95/NT4. Many of my clients (small business such as legal firms) were moving from Wang and similar systems. The file converter was me and I didn't come cheap. So it's doable... Not to mention that several versions of Word/Word Perfect run well enough under Wine (or so I'm told).
I have a friend with a Macbook who decided to upgrade the OS to the latest and greatest. What he hadn't realised is that the DL was considerably greater than his monthly data allowance. The install died part the way through. So, he decided to reinstall the version of OS X that came with the machine. That failed to even start I believe. The machine has been in the hands of the Geniuses at our local Genius Bar for five months now...
In truth my disquiet with MS dates back over a year. I "needed" a second MS Office license and really wanted to purchase another copy of Office 2010. Unfortunately, it had been replaced by Office 2013 so I purchased that instead. I installed it on my main machine expecting Word to behave much as it always had, only to discover that one of my favourite features had been crippled.
I use Autocorrect a lot; not just to correct typos, but to insert blocks of text. When I type xnsa* Autocorrect replaces it with "The National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia defines sustainable agriculture as..." It can save a lot of typing. MS in their wisdom removed the option Add to Autocorrect from the right-click context menu "because it had become too cluttered".
I reinstalled Office 2010 and attempted to install Office 2013 on my ASUS Zenbook. Not allowed! Apparently you must wait 60 days between installs! So for a while it was back to Office 2003. Office 2013 sits gathering dust on a shelf. The Zenbook is now running Cinnamon Mint 17.2, Libre Office and since I can access my emails through my server's web interface, I haven't bothered with an email client though I use Thunderbird on my desktop machine.
Happily Libre Office has the required context menu and also like MS (but unlike most word processors) uses the Australian Macquarie English Dictionary. So yes, life is good; very good indeed :-)
* The blocks of text entries in Autocorrect all have four letters; first letter is "x" because there are very few words starting with "x" and then a three letter acronym that's easy to remember.
I suspect for the foreseeable future, it's always going to be easy for many to find an excuse not to make the move to Linux. My main machine is used to run Adobe InDesign, CorelDRAW! Suite and Painter from time to time and there are no acceptable substitutes for Linux. That said, I'm now spending most of my time using Linux and run the graphics apps in a VM (Oracle VirtualBox).
The only real fly in the ointment is printing. My colour laser printer (Lexmark 543DN) returns a "waste toner receptacle full" message for each print job. It took 6 hours to get to that stage, but at least I can print. Unlike Windows, you can't specify a job to print using just the black toner from the app's print dialog box. You have to visit the printer and change defaults. This is tedious and I suspect I would buy a mono laser if I became at all busy.
I approached Libre Office with some trepidation. I have none too fond memories of Star Office rendering a document unreadable. But it certainly looks like it will do the job. And I can always install MSO in the VM if need be.
Civ V running under steam reveals the shortcomings of OpenGL. On Windows it runs fine at the highest graphic detail at 2560 by 1440 pixels. The native Linux versions can only run with low and medium terrain/water/fog of war detail and low for rival empire leaders. However, the strategy remains the same and that's the main reason for playing the game. I can live with it.
Most of the little apps I use run either under Wine, or have native versions; Beyond Compare and PasswordSafe for example.
All in all I'm a happy camper and hopeful that this MS madness will result in some first class apps being written for, or ported to Linux. The last time I tried this I was a beta tester for Adobe FrameMaker (a very decent word processor/page layout app) so it would be possible for Adobe to finish that though I'm not going to hold my breath.
So, stop making excuses and have a play with a bootable Linux distro DVD. Be brave ;-)
He's far too tight to cough up money... to my ex-Certified Solution Provider partner for instance. I'm playing a waiting game. He lives in the city to which I go as infrequently as possible. If he has borked the machine with W10 (which is by no means certain as he is as ignorant as you can get of computer terminology), then I'm going to be off the hook. I've only used W10 for less than an hour and will never do so again. Unless someone offers me an insane amount of money and that will certainly not be my brother-in-law.
"have you ever had to give telephone support to an elderly relative?"
Jesus H Christ! Did you have to remind me? My stupid brother-in-law has managed to install W10 and can no longer print. He doesn't even understand what I mean when I say I can't help him with W10 because I am not running it or ever likely to. He just says: "It's a computer and you understand these things..."
My (cheap) Android phone (htc) does exactly what I want it to do. I make and receive phone calls and tether it to my ASUS Zenbook to access emails and the Interwebs. I have no idea which version it is running, nor do I care as long as it performs the duties for which I purchased it.
PS I am not a twit.
This is a lie. Every version of Windows from 95 onward commenced to install by transferring the relevant files from the installation media to the local hard disk, or more recently SSD. W10 commences after this step. That is, a significant portion of the installation has already taken place without the user's permission.
And again, WTF has what Apple do got to do with this?
Imagine if you will Mrs Git taking the car to drive into our nearby market town to purchase the few groceries we need given our penchant for fresh, homegrown food. Instead, the car's manufacturer insists it must go to a more distant towns on the other side of the island that doesn't sell what she needs to purchase. Can you now see the problem?
Many thanks for your kind offer AC; I'm tempted, but at this stage can't see very much point. True I'm out of pocket by $AU80, but small claims costs $AU111 and does not award damages. It's also true that I have with much pleasure watched a tradesman fume for 8 hours awaiting the attention of the small claims magistrate while I happily read for an upcoming history exam.
The fly in the ointment here is that I am about to put the farm on the market and move into a small town nearby. This requires considerable work on the world-famous House of Steel in order to generate the best possible price, building a Very Large Shed on one of our properties in town and commencing a new vegetable garden at the other. In a word, I'm busy. A year ago I would have accepted with alacrity.
Retirement is in general fun. But I agree with my friends who all say the same thing as I do: "How the fuck did I ever find time to do anything while I was still working?"
It's not me that's confused. Theft: "(criminal law) the dishonest taking of property belonging to another person with the intention of depriving the owner permanently of its possession."
MS has permanently deprived me of several GB of data allowance purchased with my money.
"I don't know what the issue you're facing might be..."
Read what I wrote! "using up my data allowance without permission". There's also the matter of "upgrading" my HTPC to W10 prevents it being used as a Free-to-air television since there's no Windows Media Centre available under W10. Mrs Git wants her PC to behave the same as the one she uses at work where there are no plans to change OS or MSO version since they have only just made the move from WinXP.
A note on my lawn: Iff you ask permission and are not going to be stealing from me then likely permission would be happily and freely granted. If OTOH your purpose for wanting to stand on my lawn is so that you can more easily steal my property, then no fucking way! Do you not understand the concepts of theft and property?
You are gullible aren't you? I voluntarily DL'd W10 once to one machine. MS pushed W10 once more to that machine after I reinstalled W7. The revert to W7 didn't work as advertised. MS pushed W10 twice to each of three machines, once each after I followed instructions on how to prevent this.
The page to which you point says nothing about this issue. Nor does it address the issue that MS consumed all of my monthly mobile data allowance and half of my FW data allowance without my permission. Quite why I would need 8 copies of W10 has yet to be explained. I made a USB stick after the first and only voluntary DL. I make no doubt that had I not turned all updating off on the two remaining W7 machines that MS in their "wisdom" would be pushing even more copies of W10 for my "convenience" if that's what they want to call using up my data allowance without permission.
As several other commentards here have remarked, Microsoft can just fuck off and die for all I care.
FWIW I was proud to be a MS Certified Professional and Certified Solution Provider before my retirement. MS will receive absolutely no sustenance from me unless they compensate me for stealing my bandwidth and likely not even then.
"however from Microsoft’s perspective they want..."
Who gives a fiddler's fart what Microsoft want? Most of us purchase our computers to do what we want them to do, not for Microsoft's benefit. Nor do we give a flying fuck what Apple's up to unless we own a Mac. You are correct that Linux isn't free (unless your time is worth nothing). But there's absolutely no obligation to purchase anything in Linuxland unless you choose to do so. That's freedom!
My heart doesn't bleed (yet), but you have The Git's sympathies and he hears your cry! Not so very long ago, he too was at the very far end of a very thin pipe. Happily, he used the fastest, smallest web browser the Internet has ever seen:
http://offbyone.com/offbyone/
Far from perfect (it doesn't understand HTML4, never mind 5) it does the job on a remarkable number of sites such as The Git frequents. YMMV.
Didn't work for me. They still pushed the ~3GB of update files onto my computers. Once before trying what you've done, then again after, so I received them twice on four machines. The two remaining w10 machines have all updating turned off. The two machines now running Cinnamon Mint would appear to be completely invulnerable :-)
The bastards used up all my mobile data when on a trip to the mainland and half my monthly quota on my FW broadband connection at home. Just spent two weeks shaped to 256 Kb/s instead of the usual 10 Mb/s. The HTPC runs Windows Media Centre; the SW that came with the DVBTV card doesn't run on W7 (or Linux) so it's not likely to run on W10. WMC doesn't exist under W10...
"In response to the significant threat to Australia and our way of life from returning foreign fighters and supporters of foreign conflicts, the Australian Government has enacted amendments to the Criminal Code to prohibit individuals travelling to areas where terrorist organisations are engaging in hostile activities."
Sounds like it's illegal for The Git to travel London then. Headline in the Australian edition of The Daily Mail:
"Married British ISIS commanders dubbed 'Mr and Mrs Terror' claim bombers are ready to carry out 'lone wolf' terror attacks in the UK - including VJ Day plot targeting the Queen".
Whoda thunkit!
How very odd! One moment you use the term schooner, a measure of beer confined AFAICT to that part of the world known to the constabulary as New South Wales* and the next you misspell Labor. The Australian Labor Party has never included the letter U in Labor.
The port drinkers were in the Liberal (Tory) Club, their meetings were by invite only and held in secret locations.
Clearly you have never drunk a decent sauv. blanc.
http://winefolly.com/review/new-zealand-sauvignon-blanc/
*NSW, the realm of pastel shorts, macchiato with sugar, thin books read quickly and millions of dancing queens. Its capital, Sydney, has more queens than any other city in the world and is proud of it. Its mascots are Bondi lifesavers who pull their Speedos up their cracks to keep the left and right sides of their brains separate.
And again you show your comprehension skills are lacking. I have not "accused [you] of being a Nazi"; I said that you espouse an Authoritarian stance. If that's being a Nazi then Mao Tse Tung, Joe Stalin, Frederick the Great, Queen Elizabeth I, and Pol Pot were all Nazis.
Oh, and I'm not in the least irked by being "deprived" of a schooner of sherry for breakfast. While I am free to drink as much sherry as I like, at whatever time of day I choose, it's not been my primary choice of tipple since joining the Labor Club at LaTrobe University in 1969.
If you know my habits as well as you seem to think, mine's the coat with the bottle of Marlborough sauvignon blanc in the pocket. And I'm not in the least irked by it ;-)
"not at all, I'm no right wing sympathiser."
Your comprehension skills appear a little lacking. I said nothing about right (or left) wing. Hitler was a socialist; Nationalsozialismus translates to National Socialism in English. If you check out The Political Compass (Gurgle it) you will see that Hitler was only ever so slightly right of centre, but very much an authoritarian. And it's the authoritarian stance you espouse that irks.
"Now go open your mind and shut your mouth"
Whatever you do, don't say anything that might deter your neighbours' teenage children from going to fight for IS (based on your understanding of the way the world really works). x7 wants the IS promoters to have free reign here...*
Fuckhead!
* He/she/it [delete whichever is inapplicable] has the somewhat naive belief that the authorities protect us. They don't, though they may be observed cleaning up afterwards.
"Hell, it's far more likely - by orders of magnitude - I get killed on my daily commute on the motorway..."
Shortly after the twin towers malarkey, I heard an interview on the radio (ABC here in The Land of Under) with a retired CIA ant-terrorist specialist. He pointed out that terrorists, even after Sept 11 accounted for only a few hundred deaths during the 20th C. Governments OTOH were responsible for millions of deaths of their own citizens. Hitler 6 million, Stalin 10 million, Mao 100 million...
So I'm not so scared of terrorists; it's governments that scare me.
And they are!
Put a suitable amount of bacon, sausage and ham into a large plastic freezer bag.
Place in freezer overnight.
Remove from freezer.
Approach the bitch from behind and bring the frozen meat down firmly and smartly onto her head.
Defrost the frozen meat in the microwave and commence cooking.
Call the police/porcine brethren [delete whichever is inapplicable].
"She called out to me to come and have breakfast and I found her lying there officer. And there's no sign of a weapon."
"Really, is EVERYONE in the UK as ignorant, patronizing, parochial and uninformed about Americans as you are?"
Dunno, I don't live there any more, but I can relate to it. My sadly deceased best friend was born in Puerto Rico and raised in Louisiana where following graduation he fled the draft by coming to live in Tasmania. In the late 1980s he went on a visit to the USA where his family inflicted what appears to be a typical American diet on him. "Instant" mashed potatoes, "instant" dehydrated peas etc...
When he returned and I asked how the trip had gone, he replied that all he could think of was coming to my place to eat. Chicken for dinner meant a trip to the hen-house, vegetables came straight from the garden. Even the wine was made on the farm.
I agree with you about locally grown beef though. I agist the neighbour's cattle in return for a freezer full of beef each year and it's wagyu x Murray grey. I also purchase a quarter of Hereford grown out for a year longer than commercial growers once a year. It's even tastier than wagyu and definitely cheaper than meat from butcher or supermarket. Home-made bacon definitely is an entirely different substance to what the supermarkets sell.
Frankly I will stick with eating gourmet fare every day and the ROTW can subsist on food-like substances as much as it wants. I'm not going to eat any.
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