Just incase you thought eveything in the Cupboard was running smoothly, here is error of the day “Apple Software Update has stopped working”. This is how the story unfolded
Avoid using any Apple products or services because they:
are rumoured to treat their employees, vendors, contractors etc rather poorly
target being a monopoly. For example they undermine multiple hadware manufacturers. By contrast, companies such as Microsoft promote partnerships with other companies that sell Hardware (e.g. Dell, HP, Nokia, HTC etc). This approach enables those companies to thrive rather than competing with them. This strategy cost’s Microsoft in terms of time - the liaison and planning required and the lack of control leading to lack of consistency that introduces more potential for ‘errors’
Captured by BBC evil alliance
Unfortunately, when I started wanting to use BBC’s iplayer the only way to view the programs that my Licence had helped fund was to use Apple’s quicktime. Furious that the BBC chose to align with a company’s product rather than an industry standard. Darn, effectively the BBC was saying download Apple’s quick time or eff off.
For a while I managed without the BBC iplayer and just fumed until the lure of quality drama on-demand got the better of me. I installed Quicktime and lost a little of my self-esteem in the process.
Pompositively indignant
When I buy or use Microsoft services, part of their profit goes to causes I support. Microsoft products may not be beautiful to look at and they may be error ridden but they genuinely show social values that I respect. They can have my money and time before Apple anyday because of how they spend my commitment
The ACCU (Adult Critical Care Unit) was full of Beeping, flashing, colourful, dynamic machines. Gadget heaven. The nurses were all very modest about their ability to read and use these fancy computers.
This is Tiger’s very own beep-beep machine. The yellow light at the top-right changes colour from green through yellow and finally to red when any of the meters plugged into Tiger measure something out of acceptable ranges. As we watched the beep-beep machine Tiger gradually learned how to make his vital signs move from yellow to green. Awesome!
The nurses could gather an impression of the patients status just by listening to the beeps. They could tell which machine, patient, from the direction of the sound and quickly check the lights and displays visually for confirmation. All very imrpessive
Unfortunately the noise keeps Tiger awake… and the songs of all the machines on the ward are sending Tiger messages. He thinks they are saying more, and more sinister, things than patients vital signs
I found the noise rather hypnotic, strangely calming. It was easy to imagine professional dancers swirling and leaping through the isles, coordinating their movements to the beep-beeps. My imagination is more kind to me than Tiger’s is to him
Just incase you thought eveything in the Cupboard was running smoothly, here is error of the day “Failure to display security and shutdown options”. This is how the story unfolded
Zap the unresponsive browser
I was getting impatient waiting for Firefox to decide to ‘respond’. Respond sounds like something a patient does to treatment. It’s probably an appropriate analogy for a wendy treating a computer. It feels like dealing with the dead when you’ve got an unresponsive program. I pressed CTRL+ALT+DELETE:
Control the computer – kick Firefox
find an Alternative way to do what I want to do
Delete the unresponsive program which the ‘task manager’ seems to call a ‘task’, loosing the medical analogy and shifting to what looks like Taylorism
I just wanted to stop Firefox and use another browser, not a computer based task and workflow analysis.
Wait for the darkness
There is always a ‘black flash’ before Windows 7 shows me it’s fancy blue screen with a list of ‘security’ options. The black flash is similar to the one I get before it shows me a dialog asking me to give some program permission to do something like install updates. Blackness arrived, but it wasn’t a flash. Layered over the top of the blackness was and XP Classic (i.e. Win2K) style error message which accurately recognised that I had just pressed CTRL+ALT+DELETE.
Boggle my brain-cells
The error message gives me three suggested actions
press ESC (Escape from what? the error message, Firefox, the computer, Reading town?)
restart the cupboard using the power switch
click the “OK” button
Hmmmmm. Which one should I try first? The
First suggestion (press ESC)?
Least dramatic suggestion (Click the OK button?)
The well-known troubleshooting strategy of switch everything off then turn it on again – and go off to make myself a cup of tea and ponder the meaning of life?
Being of an impatient disposition, when it comes to computers, I clicked OK which removed the black screen and returned me to the computer desktop and unresponsive Firefox. But what now? Should I now press ESC? Pah, I want the task manager, so I tried CTRL+ALT+DELETE again, and “Hey Presto!” this time I got the black flash followed by the Security and Shutdown options
I wonder whether the task manager is a security or a shutdown option? Certianly I use it to shut things down, so it’s probably a shutdown option….
McAfee thinks that I need a shortcut on my desktop for quick access to it’s internet security software.
I disagree because I:
can easily find McAfee with one-click from the desktop from a system tray icon- the desktop shortcut is redundant
NEVER need one-click quick access to McAfee – when it isn’t already open
keep a clean desktop – it has no shortcuts or documents on it. I find this aesthetically pleasing and it doesn’t interfere with what I’m actually doing
But McAfee is not content to simply disagree with me, it proactively bullies me! – everytime I delete the desktop shortcut – it REPLACES it!!!!! This is worse than merely ignoring my request – this is reversing my request, ignoring me with knobs on!
Luckily, I’m prepared to spend time playing around in software settings, so I set off to find the “Don’t automatically place a shortcut cut on the desktop” setting in the main program. Guess what? There isn’t one!!!!!! It take a lot longer to find out that something doesn’t exist, then to find that it does, because it requires a complete, exhaustive, search. That makes me 700 exclaimation marks ANGRY!!!!!!!
Maybe I can suggest to McAfee that they change this poor user experience, or maybe they can tell me how to remove the pesky, unnecessary, irritating, shortcut. A trip to the McAfee website might help. What do you think?
I had to install “Citrix Gotoassist” before I could chat to my “representative”. If this software is an integral part of the McAfee service then it should be pre-installed with the application and available from within the application. This would reduce the number of technical hoops that the wendy has to jump through when she needs support. It would also reduce the time taken to get first-time support.
My representative told me that the design team are working on an improvement that will be included in the next automatic update. Excellent.
If McAfee had employed user experience experts to review their software they would never have made such a basic software design error in the first place.
My security software should be inobtrusive, it should be there and accessible. It should not be bullying me and requiring me to install extra components before answering my support questions. Generally a very poor show by McAfee
The year started well as I rolled out of bed in my warm brushed cotton, red tartan, pyjamma set. Mumsy buys the best christmas pressies with her Marks and Spencers loyalty card. As the teapot brewed I lifted the cupboard‘s lid and logged in.
The warm, fluffy feeling started fading as Microsoft’s .NET framework announced an ‘unhandled exception‘ in MY ‘application‘. My cheeky little application had the afrontary to so something without proper handling? Naughty!’
This verbose .NET Framework message appeared to offer me 2 choices in the first paragraph:
ignore this error (continue button)
force my application to close (quit button)
The second paragraph is written in jargon about turning on functions, configuring, clients, trace-logs and SDKs. This is 2012, good practice for producing software error messages has been around for decades. Why is Microsoft still showing me outrageously poorly designed dialogs? Especially first thing in the morning of the new year. pfft. I choose to ignore this message because it didn’t enable me to make an informed decision – which ‘application’ of mine is exceptional?
A few moments later I got a BIG clue about the exceptional ‘application’. Mozilla:
raised it’s hand with a message
started its conversation with me by apologising. Nice! This takes ownership for having caused the problem and sets the tone of the conversation with me as one of respect to me
tells me firefox will try to fix the problem – doesn’t expect me to fix it
politely asks for me to give them diagnostic information. Which I did
I really like the tone of voice, the attitude, of Mozilla when talking to me
As I poured my second mug of tea another potential culprit for the ‘application’ that Microsoft .NET framework found ‘exceptional’ raised it’s hand
The large, ugly, Sony Viao update dialog insisted that I update my netbook software then told me I had to reboot the cupboard. It’s direct instructional approach feels rather rude. I follow the instructions because I’ve been trained by years of poor software to feel helpless and follow this type of condescending instruction
Installation failed
Error 404: Season not found. The season you are looking for might have been removed, had its name changed, or is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later …
While standing in the isle of a FGW commuter train from London Paddington I watched the young man seated beside me using his Blackberry phone. It looked like a mini Windows 95 – text-menu list overload! My gut reaction was yuck! The young man navigated the text-heavy grey menu with impressive speed. Clearly an experienced user.
Some of the things I love about my Android HTC desire are the way the designers have managed to
Use pleasing interaction styles - I can gesture with flicks, stretches, squeezes. I can drag and drop all sorts of things across screens. I can use short and long presses on the screen to find different button behaviours. It’s fun to explore and learn
Create a simple, versataile information architecture. I don’t have to learn then relearn where everything is because everything is in a sensible place that’s easy to find and find again. The navigation system is clear and simple
Allow me to easily find and install useful, innovative, fun, relevant Apps. It’s my phone and it does what I want it to do!
Avoid looking like Windows 95, no battleship grey, no long text menus with uninspiring fonts
Include fun animations like the windscreen wiper blade running across the screen when its raining. I love how the designers have taken the notion of a dashboard design and then added a winscreen wiper extending the metaphor with humour. Fun!
As I wait to pay for Thomas’s annual MOT I watch the Halford‘s service man sort through at least 10 pages of A4 documents, sorting them into piles, stapling them together. The queue of 6 people behind me is getting ancy. They’re leaning against the counter, the wall, adjusting their positions and loudly sighing.
Wendy: Wow! Thats a lot of paperwork
Halford’s Engineer: Tell me about it! You wouldn’t believe this company. All you need is a Tablet and one document, but not here. When they computerised the process it quadrupled the paperwork!
making phone calls to co-ordinate town planners reviewing my pre-planning application for PV roof tiles
answering 3 urgent phone calls from “24/7 PC Care” about my infected PC -sounded like fraud
reporting potentially fraudulent phone calls to the local police
The potentially fraudulent phone calls were fascinating, I was trying to keep them on the line to find out about them without revealing much about myself or my computer. It was tough. They quickly became irritated by my questions and in all 3 calls they got angry and hung up on me.
The calls went something like this:
Potential Fraudster: Hello, I’m from 24/7 PC care and I’m calling you because we’ve noticed that your computer has an infection
wendy: how did you find that out?
Potential Fraudster: Because you are a windows registered user
wendy: Oh, you have my registration details, so you know which version of Windows I’m using?
Potential Fraudster: No, we don’t have your registration details, but your computer shows as infected
wendy: how do you know my computer is infected
Potential Fraudster: if you turn your computer on and go to…
wendy: can you give me your company registration number and a call back phone number?
Fraudster: Yes, after we’ve finished mending your computer, see the key on the bottom left hand side of the keyboard marked c t r l That’s the control key
During Thomas’ annual service the battery was disconnected forcing his onboard computer to reboot. After reboot the Diesel Particle Filter malfunction warning still showed.
The mechanic said the filter looked ok. The nice chap at the Mini Dealership explained that the software might be malfunctioning and would cost me £90 to upgrade.
£90 for a software update!
What?! Software malfunctioning? Software not doing what it was designed to do? That sounds like a programming bug to me, a design fault. Software doesn’t suffer from ‘wear and tear’ like mechanical components. It sounds like Mini manufacturers, BMW, are passing on the cost of fixing their poor original workmanship to their customers! Atrocious. Most software providers release free fixes for software bugs. Hmmmmm…..
An internet search suggested that driving above 40 mph consistently for 10 minutes on a regular basis should burn-off the diesel particles and remove any mechanical problem – if one actually exists. There were lots of discussion forums talking about the warning light showing when there was no malfuntion on BMW cars. Consistent with an actual software design fault.
I changed my driving pattern to include regular periods of driving over 40mph for 10 minutes. Bye Bye to beautiful back-road Oxfordshire. The warning sign still showed. Sigh.
Time to re-visit those lovely chaps at MiniCooper Reading…
I was priviliged to again see the black screen of file verification. Apparantly my usn journal has been verified. Phew. Not that I needed to know about this. I’d rather they showed me a video of kitties playing, or potters potting, or even mentioned they are sorry for interrupting my usage.
I used to have Microsoft Office 2003 installed on Neverland. I haven’t yet bothered putting it in the cupboard because I don’t have the patience to wait for 7 years worth of updates to install. Many of my files are word files, (.doc). When I tried to open them in the Microsoft Works Word processor it didn’t recognise their format, neither did wordpad.
International rescue happens from my fabulous new Thunderbird 3.0 But, Alan, we have a problem. Almost all of the spam in the spam mail folder is from me, yes me! I’m spamming myself. Yet, my sent mail doesn’t contain the same messages. Odd. I searched the google support forums and help. I completed their multipoint point protection list at least 3 times, changed my password several times a day. Yet still I spammed myself.
Then eventually I found a knowledge base article that explained that spammers can ‘fake’ from addresses, that gmail can spot this and filter them to the spam folder. It suggested that these emails should be ignored. Three days of unnecessary angsting and password changing because the Google help and support arrangements are so difficult to navigate. Puh.
With the message ‘help not available’ Blogger successfully manages to end my search on how to report the error message they’d given me. Time wasters.
They asked me to report it without providing a clear link to do so. I tried their support forums where I found one other message of someone reporting this error but no support on what to do about it or reassurance that Blogger is doing anything about it. I tried their help documentation with different queries and found nothing useful except this message ‘page not avialable’ that included a suggestion to use the Chrome browser.
Given this experience of their support for my encountering an error, I am not inclined to want to extend my use of their services. How can they refine services to high quality if they don’t provide an adequate error tracking, reporting system? By asking me to submit the error they implied they we’re not tracking it by any other means.
Useful of them to remind me that Chrome is a service they provide, which I might not want to use at the point they tell me they are not going to help me.
I have no idea what the worldwide statistics are for the actual use of different browsers. I do know what browsers are used by the people (IP addresses) who open Wendy House pages because Google Analytics has snooped on them and told me! (see below)
Unsurprisingly IE in all its versions is the most common browser. Obviously. Almost half these visits are made by me in the cupboard. If we remove the numbber of visits made by myself we are left with Firefox being the browser of choice for my visitors. ‘Choice’ because someone choose to install it on the computer and open it to visit the wendy house.
I understand that some people have more than one browser on their computer. For a gal like me this is potentially confusing. Where possible I like to keep things simple; one credit card, one set of parents, one kitchen, one bathroom, one type of tea bag, one car. This simplicity reduces the everyday cognitive load of decision making. I’ve removed the need to make many daily decisions. Obviously there are some details that are significant and require reqgular decision making resources such as – which cheese? which hat? Which password?
Currently I’m toying with ‘which browser’. I am not an ‘early adopter’ of new technologies. I like to use things which lots of other people have used and found OK. Firefox is looking like the browser for me because it’s open-source, should play well with Thunderbird and lots of people that read the wendy house use it already, pressumably because it works well for them.
Oh! Looks like Mozilla Thunderbird is having a sulk. She’s ignoring me and legitimising the offense by using psuedo-medical jargon – ‘not responding’ to treatment by wendy. Less than 24hrs after putting her in the cupboard. TUSH!
After reading this message I went in search of a way to ‘closethe exsiting Thunderbird process’ . I’m not used to closing a process and a quick look in the Windows 7 starter task manager confirmed my suspicion that this was pretty scary. Instead, I decided on the more familiar, easier, way to close something. I closed the only program I knew that I was using at the same time. I closed IE8. Then tried to start Thunderbird. That worked. That sorted the problem.
Close IE to fix Thunderbird. Confusing. Two programs that just aren’t playing nicely together, squabbling and leaving me to be doctor and arbitrater. Sigh.
How to get rid of an unused program on Windows 7 Starter
I clicked on the ‘control panel’
Under ‘adjust your computers settings I clicked on ‘uninstall program’
I chose Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 from the list
I clicked uninstall program
But windows doesn’t want to accept this action without further confirmation, I might not mean it, this might be an accident, do I REALLY want to uninstall this program?
I clicked on the ‘yes’ button with extra force to demonstrate my certainty.
YES
Large and bold, that’s how I felt. That’s what I wanted the button to say. This was no accidental uninstall.
I wonder how often people do accidentally select something to uninstall, click ‘No’ on this dialog. If it is a genuine problem then fixing should happen before this point, improve the users ability to select the program initially, more information with larger clickable target rather than questioning the users ability to be ‘sure’.
This reminded me of the XP shut down process where you have to choose shutdown at least 2 times before it will actually do what you’ve asked, and only then if some programs haven’t objected to your wishes. Luckily Windows 7 Starter simply shuts down when I ask
an hour-glass next to the cursor to indicate that the computer is doing something
partially obscured notificiations, or hover-overs, hanging around on the desktop – poor fit and finnish
a task manager that looks exactly the same as XP’s
No snipping tool, just like XP. I quite liked this built-in Windows tool, but I guess its not widely used tool
There are some ways that Windows 7 starter is definitely not like my old XP Pro. These are defintiely not little things, for example,
Indexed desktop file search. With my thousands of photographs this is wonderful
Tagging for files. Excellent, this is a real bonus over XP, especially if, like me, you spend the long lonely winter evenings drinking vin chaud and classifying your lovelly photographs of Matrix
No cascading menus. finding stuff in my ‘Start’ menu is easy as ‘search’ none of those fiddly cascading menus. HoooooooooRAH
Network and sharing centre. this is lovely, it arrived in Windows Vista and has a network connection troubleshooting tool. While I use it rarely it does a great job worth doing
Task based control panels. In the control panel the controls are grouped, sensible groups, easy to navigate by tasks and no option to view them in ‘classic’ (XP or Windows 2000) list format. I like this. It’s relatively easy to find out if a control exists or not
No Windows Movie Maker. There is no windows moviemaker onWindows 7 starter. This is an application I rarely used, but it would have been nice to be able to edit the media-clips that my digital camera produces. Ho hum. If a cheaper version has less features this is one that I would vote for excluding
No mail client. XP included Outlook Express which I used to use so that I could manage all my email while offline, store it on my laptop. Windows 7 expects you to be online, using the cloud all the time. They provide a complimentary free trial of Office 2007 but it doesn’t include the Office mail client – Outlook. I enjoyed the benefits of having a local store of my mail from multiple email accounts. Now I have to go online or purchase a mail client. Sigh.
Sync centre. There is a sync centre with a control for setting-up offline file sync, but nothing happens when I click on it, not even any feedback that says I can’t do this or what I need to do to set it up. I used to use this in XP Professional on Darling
Personalisation. I can’t change the desktop background, or pick a fun colour scheme, lack of this fun functionality is just silly. Even ‘starters’ want to personalise thier stuff
A quick look at the questions and answers on this forum for super users implies that they would rather have XP on their Netbooks than Windows 7 Starter. On balance, for me, Windows 7 starter is working well enough with the exception of not being allowed technically or legally to change the desktop background.
I will probably find more differences as I start to fully use the Cupboard, for now these are the immediately noticable differences.
Here we see Neverland having dinner with Matrix and I in a farmhouse style restaruant that tolerates ladies with laptops on their tables. That was
GOOD
Once you’re up and running with your new, budget, computer, what do you do next? I change the desktop background to that gorgeous picture of Matrix.
When I used the fabulous easy transfer migration wizardy thing to move my files and preferred settings from Neverland, this desktop background picture didn’t move. For a fleeting second I thought this was odd but not a big problem because its so easy to pick a picture and I do enjoy picking and changing the picture.
Can you hear it coming? Can you?
Windows 7 starter does not let you change the desktop background !!!!
BAD
Apparantly ‘Starter’ means we’ll take away the frivolous fun and your ability to personalise the desktop. The available colour schemes for the desktop are the ‘Classic’ which mean make it look like Windows 2000 and the high-contrast schemes that make it easier for people with vision defects to use the computer. I can live without personalising the colour scheme but being forced to look at the windows logo on a blue background is a bad decision. Everyone I know enjoys chaning their deskop background. At work they have to have dull corporate or business backgrounds, but on their own machines and phone’s they can make it personal, put their own picture as a Background. Even cheap phones let you change the background picture, but not windows 7 starter. That was a big suprise and a major disappointment. It’s a mean not user-focussed decision, that’s just
My first day with the cupboard got off to a spanking start. Hoorah!
Then things suddenly slipped to a chug, and
Finally I went to bed without even getting to use the cupboard. Booooo!
Here’s my story:
1. get safely online
connect to the internet
download Windows updates, reboot
download MacAfee updates, reboot
download Microsoft update, reboot
It took about 10 mintues from pulling the Cupboard from its box to going online. Great start. It took about 4 hours and 3 reboots to get all the software security updates installed. While I’m glad to have the live software security updates, 4 hours and 3 reboots seems a bit clumsy and dulls the shine of the new-computer experience that Sony manages to make really smooth.
2.get copies of my pictures, music, favourites and programme setting from Neverland
While all the downloading and installing and rebooting was going on I gathered all the files from Neverland using the file transfer wizard. It’s really cool because it doesn’t
actually transfer, it copies
copy only files it, it does things you use like favourites and program settings.
I adore that automatic copy everything wizard! While it’s copying stuff on Neverland I can’t use Neverland for anything. This took about 2 hours. Urgh. While Cupboard was still installing and rebooting I couldn’t use the Cupboard. This meant that both my computers were unusable for for several hours. Ouch!
3.put copies on the Cupboard
Part of the transfer process. Another couple of hours waiting before I can use the Cupboard.
4. Clean-up the installed software
Getting rid of all the stuff that Sony has put on Windows for reasons that baffle me. For example, Sony have built a navigation toolbar, it behavies like the Apple Mac Navigation toolbar and is on this PC as well as the standard, dull-but-functional Windows task bar. After a quick investigation of the contents and functionality of the Sony toolbar I zap the bugger of my netbok – when the screensize is this small I dont want duplication functionality especially when it irritatingly appears and disappears.
I also have to unpin some advertising stuff, such as the free trial of the already dated Microsoft Office 2007, from the Windows task bar.
5.Backup everything. Windows and files
Sony Viao recommends that I burn a back-up disc, but the Cupboard doesn’t have a CD drive and they haven’t provided me with an external one. This little hiccup was not made clear at the purchase point – they should have told me that I might want to purchase a USB CD burner/player so that I can back-up my computer. I used the Windows back-up to back-up on an external USB Drive. This took yet another couple of hours while not using my new computer. It wouldn’t suprise me if most people just go straight online, without adequate safety and not backing up their stuff.
6. go to sleep
it was getting late, I hadn’t started this process first thing in the morning.
7. use the cupboard
After a good night’s sleep, I will be ready to start exploring and finding out what the real differences are between a cheap netbook and a prestige laptop.
The first thing on the Windows 7 starter development team’s things to do is Discover windows 7. It’s the last thing on my start-up thing to do.
Here’s what the Windows 7 development team suggest for a new user:
a guided tour (Discover Windows 7),
getting my photographs, favourites, and programme settings from my old to this computer (transfer your files)
making sure my netwook is part of my home network
turning off the extremely unpopular, unintuitively named, yet valuable windows security feature (change UAC settings)
add something that’s not already installed which is misleadingly called ‘ essentails’ (Get Windows Live Essentails)
Now everything is on the computer and its connected to all the right places get the contents and set-up backed up (Back up your files)
Let other people use your netbook (Add new users)
Make the text into a readable size – because the default is clearly too small (change text size)
Neverland has retired. Hardware failure due to wear and tear. She will be donating her organs to my home network. Screwdrivers at the ready!
Please welcome Neverland’s replacement, Cupboard. Neverland was a top of the range Sony Viao TT with fab processor, delicious styling, lightweight gorgeousness. She was yummy. Cupboard is a cheap Windows 7 starter Netbook, smaller and heavier than neverland. Another Sony Viao, I’m a bit of a brand loyalist. Lets hope the cheaper hardware is more robust.
Differences I noticed before purchasing when I tried the Netbook in the Sony store:
More pushy - The key-push experience needs slightly more push, the keypad is not as sesnisitve. A subtle quality thing. More pressure is also needed on the ‘mouse’ keys.
Small but chunky- despite being smaller than the Viaio TT the Viao netbook is heavier and thicker.
Skinned windows XP – Windows 7 Starter looks like a visual treatment overlay on Windows XP. Yuck. That’s really ugly, like an old person dressing in clothes for a smaller teenage person.
Easy file transfer is possible.
So EXCITED about getting to use the CUPBOARD, what little suprises will she have IN STORE for me!
Decomissioning one battered home laptop and replacing it with another one is not an easy process. The key players involved – hardware and software manufacturers are not very good at removing the blockers to replacing their equipment which is quite ironic when they try to sell you new stuff.
Last time that I replaced my laptop I moved from Windows XP Professional to Windows Vista Home premium. I asked the shop assisstant whether this would affect the fact that I synchronise My Docs with a remote network drive, I still wanted to use the ‘Offline files’ feature, could I use this with Windows Home Premium. Oh Yes the salesman inaccurately replied. I made the mistake of believing he knew what he was talking about and didnt spend a couple of hours trying to find out if this was true. I purchased a machine with Windows Vista Home Premium, took it home and used the awesome file and setting transfer wizard thing to move stuff from my old computer to my new computer.
Windows Vista Home Premium doesnt work with offline files. The file and setting transfer wizard did attempt to move my settings from a version of windows where they exist to a version of windows where they dont exist. The result was that the documents link in the start menu simply ignored me. It’s never worked. I’ve tried all sorts of things, but its never worked. Eventually I gave up on having the benefit of offline file sync and I manually back-up new files by moving them to my network drive.
I’ve bought a netbook. It’s got a different version of Windows on it. Windows starter. Wow, I feel a bit insulted, just because I want a small cheap laptop they’ve already labelled me a astarter. I’ve been using computers for years, why couldn’t they call it something like ‘windows light’ or ‘winodws streamline’ that highlighted that it probably doesn’t have a load of features rather than insult me by telling me I’m a started. Puh!
Now the challenge is whether I use the windows ‘easy’ file settings and transfer wizard to transfer my settings that once worked on XP professional, that partly work on home premium, to windows starter? I suspect there will be problems. What do you think?
Neverland is collecting symptoms of aging, the sort of symptoms that make me consider replacing a computer. 2 years old and is very well travelled. And worn.
Wear and tear includes but is not limited to:
In Italy she took a bit of a beating and parts of her hinge and lid case fell off. I managed to push them back on but her lid has been a bit ‘rattly’ ever since.
Tonight I accidentally trod on the power-chord connector pushing the metal protuding plug into the rubber casing. A pair of pliers have temporarily solved this problem but the power cable keeps falling out of the socket when its plugged in on my lap.
Of course there is always the lure of something special and new, perhaps an ipad, a netbook, a Dell Streak, an Acer somethingorother?
The first time I thought about replacing the EX s770 was a couple of years ago when I noticed a lense defact placing a smudge on all of my photographs. Since my photographs are more about the gist of the story than the perfrection of the detail, I tolerated the slight blur.
The next blow was not so easy to absorb.
While on holiday in Turin the camera decided it would only take effective pictures if I used the zoom – a little bit – not a lot. A sadly high proportion of my Italian holiday was spent zooming the camera then walking further away from things to get a better picture frame. The camera joined me in July 2006. Four years of taking daily photographs, jiggling round in pockets and bags, is darn good performance. But. Aaaaarggghhhh, this could not go on.
This is a picture taken with no zoom:
This is the same scene after I’ve stepped back, zoomed the camera, and a lady has stepped into the gap between to leave a prayer:
The new camera, casio EX fs10, will not improve my photgraphic skills, it will help tell stories more effectively than the now defunked EX s770. It also has some slow motion panning functionality that I accidentally used and is frightening geek-lovingly-cool but irrelevant to life as I know it. Sigh.
IT Professional: can you get the internet into your computer?
Wendy: Into your computer?!!please, can I blog that ?
IT Professional: yeah sure, it can be like getting toothpaste back into the tube
The IT professionals here have a wonderfully colourful way of describing the technology in non-technical terms. Especially colourful if they have scottish accents which, strangely, most of them seem to have.
I wonder whether anything is slaughtered, murdered, guillotined, or assassinated by abbatoir processes. Maybe things are slowly drawn, quartered and impaled.
Google analytics provides a ‘site overlay’ that shows your website with in-place click-through statistics. A geek like me will spend time wandering through such statistics saying ‘oOOoooo‘ and ‘Aaah‘ and ‘what does it all mean?‘
For 4 weeks, September 2009, Google analytics says that I had 4,681 ‘visits’.
I rashly infer that visitors want to know something about who is writing this nonsense (8.1% on who’s wendy) or are interested in finding food (0.3%), or why I’m bothering to write about anything at all (0.2%). Some people consider whether to comment, or why I might consider stopping people from publishing their commentson my blog, (0.1%).
More than no-one, some-one, is interested in who inspired me to blog ( >0.0%) while no-one wants to sign-up to receive notifications of my posting in thier RSS reader.
Here’s what Google Analytics says, in numbers, about what visitors click on:
Scribbles (The Wendy House home page) = 5.9%
Who’s Wendy = 8.1%
Why Scribble = 0.2%
Comment control = 0.1%
Food foraging = 0.3%
Credits = > 0.0%
RSS = 0%
I prefer the notion of ‘somone’ over the numerical representation of more than no-one (> 0.0) looked at who I credit with inspiring my blogging. The relationship between significant (meaning) and signifiers (often numbers) is frequently obscure and sometimes misleading.
Just incase you thought eveything in the Cupboard was running smoothly, here is error of the day “Apple Software Update has stopped working”. This is how the story unfolded
