Think I’ll keep it

Bought a MS based laptop, about 900 plus tax. I got tired of waiting and doing nothing. There is a bunch that really frustrates me. However, surprisingly, it does have a thing or three that I have found very redeaming.

Right on the front end, I found it extremely difficult to set up mail accounts. I suspect this might be because I didn’t wait until all the updates were done. If so. Someone should have told me before I spun my wheels for I don’t know how many hours. It’s still got proble!s but, I don’t plan on it being my primary computer. I have a Mac, which does have a substantial learning curve, but not like MS.

To make things worse, in he name of making things easy, they had taken control of the system I purchased. My first three computers I had, I reformatted the hard drive once a month. The important thing was o had confidence I could do it. I can’t do that on the new systems, mainly because it would take at least a month to do it if I knew how.

The idea of reformatting regularly is that it made hardware upgrades easier and faster. Whether it be a larger disk or a completely new system, I could reload the disk in a couple hours, if that. It seems they are going well out of their way to keep me from doing that these days.

Another thing, I wanted to add a directory to my new system and spent over an hour at it. Guess what, no directories on the new machines. They are called folders.

As a former computer field engineer, I learned something basic and important. Never, never, never store programs and data on the same disk. Copying data from one disk to backup equipment is generally fast and simple. Moreover, it takes a lot less hardware to do it. A smart data processing pro does it daily. Some businesses are required to by law. If your data is only a third of what is on that hard drive, your wasting hours copying stuff that never changes. In fact you are using three times the time and material as you need.

My new computer, for my daily backup, I’ll not use a minute to perform my backup. The static stuff on the drive, that which changes very little, remains on the main drive. The files that are dynamically changing minute by minute goes on another drive, one that can be totally copied in seconds. If something happens to the computer, I simply take my most recent copy of data, move it over to another computer and I am conceivably up an running in minutes, Maybe seconds.

To be sure, there is a lot that goes into remaining immune to disasters, but it all starts by keeping your static and your dynamic files physically separate or at least logically. Putting data on a separate logical file isn’t ideal, but it is better than putting all in one huge bucket, so to speak.

Nonetheless, they have done some very wonderful things with AI and MS Word; perhaps with the rest of it too. For that one reason, I’ll put up with the rest in light of what time and efforts they are saving me with AI. It works three ways that save me all the hours I waste on the other stuff. I will grant you, it is a type of cheating but it does produce a cleaner document is far less time.

However, it does not stop there. Sometimes t catch myself laughing out loud when I see things I overlook when I thought I had all the angles covered. I think to myself, why didn’t I consider that. As far as I am concerned, bettering the quality of communication is not a bad thing, regardless that the aid comes from a bunch of ones and zeros or not. Perhaps it is a political speech you are drawing up, some business proposal, or maybe even a legal brief. Sometimes the choice of of word might make the difference of success or failure.

Finally, do you really want to be the one explaining to you spelled manager without the second a? I would suggest that would be the savings of one red face, even if you still made the deal. I am sure my writing would be far more persuasive if I stopped using there instead of their. I mean, even I think that is dumb. Still, sometimes I do it and proof read it and still miss it. I mean IA are is perfectly suited four folks just like me.

A Lesson Hard Learned

For many years, I was committed to the PC platform for three key reasons: it was straightforward to maintain, relatively affordable, and provided a stable environment. Even when new operating systems were released, my existing applications continued to function well or even improve after the upgrade.

Today, there is no greater reason to go to Apple than the Microsoft operating system. Each progressive operating system gets more resource-hungry, devouring the mountains of extra memory, disk space, and processor speed. The net result is a slower platform that not only runs slower but requires more time for maintenance.

Then, of all things, they make sure every year or two, you must pay the kitty for new applications and/or hardware. The alternative is to spend a lot of time waiting for the slower machine.

At some point, do not be surprised if you must purchase new applications to allow them to work with the new system.

Microsoft has decided to rent the applications to users instead of selling them. Over time, this approach may be similar to upgrading every few years. However, this gives the large companies an advantage, as it forces smaller companies to upgrade, whether they want to or not.

Worst of all, if we do not like the new product, too bad. I do not like the new Outlook email program. Among other things, it will not fit on my 15-inch screen. Too bad for me. They made me upgrade. They asked what I thought of it. I told them. It did not matter. Similar to the Steamroller Effect, a well-known phenomenon which is what happens when the little guy gets in the way of the big corporations.

After careful consideration, I have decided that my next computer will be an Apple. While the journey has been challenging, I have gained valuable insights that will guide my future technology choices.

I am sure that Microsoft will never miss me. I doubt my posts like this one will bother their bottom line. However, a few decades ago, I never dreamed of Sears filing for bankruptcy. It was one of the biggest companies in the world back then.

It seems Microsoft may soon be learning the hard way that Windows is no longer the belle of the tech ball, should a more charming platform come along to sweep users off their feet.