A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch
I’m saying goodbye to an old friend. As you may or may not know, I’ve been an Outlook 2007 user for the last six years. It’s still a pretty good organizer of email, contacts, notes and of course my calendar.
The only real problem is that it doesn’t play well with other operating systems. For years I was a Windows Mobile user. I got my first pocket computer in 2004. It was a Hewlett-Packard IPAQ running Windows Mobile 2003. (Doesn’t it sound like Apple should have made that machine?) In July of 2012, I decided to quit waiting for Microsoft to catch up in mobile development. I bought an Android pocket PC and haven’t looked back. Now it is two years later and Windows mobile has become a pretty good mobile operating system again. I’ve become vested in the Android mobile world. I doubt if I’ll ever go back.
One benefit is that I’ve gotten a lot of new material for future lagniappe columns. I’ve replaced Outlook 2007 with freeware and other open source programs.
My decision to change reminded me of other similar choices I made in past years. Do you remember Sidekick? It was one of the first personal information managers (PIM) created. Like many other people, I spent my hard earned money to buy the program. At the height of its popularity, it was more than software for your computer. It spawned several pocket organizers that worked more like glorified calculators.
I really miss the old Infocom games. To this day I remember their advertising slogan, “We put our graphics where the sun doesn’t shine”. I’ve played a few of the modern “adventure” games, but they just don’t seem as difficult or imaginative as Zork, Planetfall or Trinity. I think my favorite game of all time was Suspended. I know you can still play the games online. The problem is that they just don’t seem as good as I remember them.
My first web sites were designed with Microsoft Front Page. It was a great program for a beginner web site designer and proved to fill my needs as my knowledge advanced. Some of the pages on my web site today were originally created years ago in the program. Unfortunately, Microsoft doesn’t sell the program any more. (For some reason, I’m reminded of a labeling software.)
I guess as I get older, old great software has become like other things in my memory. I know that modern automobiles are quieter, safer and getting better every year. Even though, I sure do miss my ’54 Oldsmobile.
That’s all of my thoughts for June. My mind is empty again. Thanks for reading.