Posts Tagged: ‘Miscellaneous’

Sometimes I Wonder – Originally Published October 2016

October 4, 2016 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Sometimes I have a hard time deciding what to write about in this monthly column.  There are so many things that I wonder about.  Many of them are big enough that I can write a whole page on the subject.  Others are so minute that I occasionally need to write a potpourri column like this month.

As I write this, the iPhone 7 is about to be released.  I long ago quit wondering why people would sit in a line outside the Apple Store for weeks to buy a phone.  This time I’m wondering about the missing headphone jack.  Personally, I think that is really the future.  I hardly ever plug into the jack on my phones.  I’ve used the one on my current phone twice.  Once when I first bought the thing to make sure it worked.  I also used it one time when I forgot to charge my Bluetooth headset.  The thing I’m curious about is what the new iPhone owners will do when they fly on an airplane.  Bluetooth isn’t allowed on many airlines because of interference with the aircraft’s navigation equipment.  I’ve got a feeling that the rules will soon be changed.

Sometimes I wonder if I should buy a dedicated e-reader.  I must admit that I was pretty envious when Tom showed off his new Koby.  Every time I think I’m about to pull the plug, I realize that my tablet(s) are really sufficient for my reading needs.  I’m at the point where I’ve got so many of them that they’re scattered around my house like bread crumbs from an old sandwich.  I’ve even got my first tablet, an Archos 70.  I got it back in 2011.  I use it for videos and reading.  Someday it will probably be just another picture frame.  Soon, I’ll be wondering if I should buy the new Nexus 7 that is supposed to be released in October.  It probably will depend on the price.

Almost every morning when I open my Facebook account, I wonder why I don’t just close the darn thing.  Then all of a sudden, among the obviously false political claims and impossible to believe factoids, I see some information about a relative, make a silly comment and log out.  Thankfully, I’ve avoided all other social media.  You can’t Twit me a Snapchat or Google+ me an Instagram.

Sometimes I wonder how long it will be before there isn’t any disk drives at all in our computers.  Long gone are the days of having stacks of floppy disks sitting alongside our machines.  After they disappeared, CD drives soon followed.  Hard drives are slowly giving way to solid state drives.  Someday in the future, all of our computers will have their operating system stored in flash memory.  Every thing else will be stored on remote servers.  I’ll be long gone, but the hobbyists of the future will be the only one that use local storage.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wondered if the major Operating System manufactures will ever play nice with each other?  The main reason I don’t buy any Apple Products is that they don’t play nice with my other technology.  Long ago, I quit using Microsoft Outlook because it was too difficult to synchronize with Android.  Unfortunately, it is getting worse instead of better.  Have you ever tried to video chat with an Apple product with Android, or vice versa?

Over the years, I’ve wondered about lots of little things.  For instance, why does Windows always make you click on start to shut down the computer.  I wonder if I will ever get all the old newsletters scanned and uploaded.  I wonder if I’ll get a good gift at the club’s Christmas exchange.  I wonder if people like the monthly Mindbender puzzles.

One last thing I wonder about.  Should I end this article?

Thanks for reading.

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Should I Buy a Chromebook? – Originally Published August 2016

August 7, 2016 Posted by Tiny

From the Dark Side
by Tiny Ruisch

You may find it difficult to believe, but I’ve been giving serious thought to completely abandoning Microsoft.  Over the last year, the Windows 10 upgrade fiasco has really disillusioned me.  I’ve got Windows 10 installed on two computers and except for a few minor complaints, I like it a lot.  I decided long ago that I was going to keep using Windows 7 on my main laptop and my desktop.  I’ve invested a lot of time installing and tweaking just the software I really use.  I don’t clutter my two “work” computers with unnecessary programs.  For a year, Microsoft update has made it pure “H‑E‑double hockey sticks” for me to keep these two computers free of Windows 10.

Although many people don’t realize it, Windows 7 mainstream support ended last year.  This simply means that there will be no product upgrades.  Extended support will continue until 2020.  This means that I will still get security updates.  Maybe now I can be a little less vigilant in watching the recommended updates list.  Now that the free upgrade has passed, maybe there will not be any more evil updates.

I use my two Windows 10 computers for playing games, web browsing, making article notes and testing new programs.  I recently retired my last XP computer.  Someday soon I plan to install Linux and turn it into a media server.

Now that you know the background I’ll tell you about the real purpose of this article.  I’ve been giving serious thought to saving my money and purchasing a Chromebook.  There are many advantageous reasons for doing so.  Because there are very few programs installed on the machine, you can get some pretty good hardware for a reasonable price.  Although Wi-Fi is a necessity, it will be available in nearly all the places I would be using it.  Maybe before too long Chromebooks will routinely come with mobile SIM card slots.  It would be awesome to use Google Project Fi on them.

One of the great lures of a Chromebook is a recent change that allows you to use native Android apps.  This leads me to believe that it won’t be too long before all Android apps will run.  I am sure that in the future, Android and Chrome will be combined into a single OS.  That could create some awesome possibilities.

Right now, I would have two major problems with using a Chromebook.  I use LibreOffice and Scribus nearly every day.  Neither of these have yet been ported to use with the Chrome OS cloud system.  Because the Chrome OS isn’t very popular, I don’t expect this to happen in the near future.  There are some hacks and other work arounds, but I’m getting old and don’t want to spend a lot of time messing with them.

As far as I know, no one in the club has a Chromebook.  If everyone would like to donate $30 or $40 dollars, I would be happy to buy one and make a presentation at a future meeting.  Since that likely won’t happen, I guess I’ll just have to be patient.

Thanks for reading.

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Things I Won’t Be Spending Money On – Originally Published August 2016

August 7, 2016 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

I was watching television when an advertisement was aired for My Clean PC.  My first thought was that this might make a pretty good Whatchamacallit topic for the club newsletter.  I opened a virtual desktop and went to the My Clean PC website.  Bravely I ignored the Web Of Trust warning and enabled all scripting.  I downloaded and ran the free diagnostic tool.  Oh No!  My computer has a dangerous start up item, 110 registry irregularities and 12 repairable security vulnerabilities.  My internet settings aren’t optimized and there is 38.61 MB of internet clutter.

I restarted my computer and ran Wise Registry Cleaner and CCleaner.  Then I opened another virtual desktop and downloaded the diagnostic tool again.  This time there were only 109 registry irregularities.  I wonder if Wise isn’t as good as I thought?  It looks like CCleaner did a fine job.  My internet clutter is all gone.

The dangerous start up item was HPservice.exe.  The diagnostic tool didn’t tell me how it would improve my internet settings.  All of the security vulnerabilities were related to Internet Explorer.  Not only would I never spend money on the technology, but I’d advise you not to purchase any of these types of programs you might see advertised.

My Clean PC isn’t the only technology that I’ll probably never spend my money on.  I haven’t had a land line telephone for more than ten years.  I don’t know how much telephone service costs these days, but I’m sure I’ve saved thousands of dollars.  I know I’m missing out on enhanced 911.  E911 wasn’t mandated until 1999, so I’ve lived most of my life without it.  I know I’m missing out on crisp, clear calls that don’t get dropped, even though I seldom talk on the phone.  The only thing I really miss about a land line is the satisfaction of slamming down the phone when I’m really mad at someone.

I will probably never spend any money on a 3D printer.  I really like the technology and think it would be cool to be able to print some items.  Then I get realistic and realize that I really haven’t any practical use for it.  I seldom print anything any more.  After all these years I still haven’t any need for a laser printer.  Maybe when three dimensional print advances enough that I can print a cheeseburger, I’ll rethink the issue.

If you’ve read any of my previous articles, you already know that I won’t be spending any money on Sony technology of any kind.  I won’t bore you again with my reasons, but will just restate Sony is not very reliable in their security.

Even though qualify as a senior, I won’t spend any money on technology that is designed specifically for “seniors”.  I have found that most of this stuff is mostly overpriced and outdated.  If I find I should need a keyboard with big lighted keys, I know I’ll be able to find one on Amazon or Newegg for about a third of the price.  I still haven’t figured out why anyone would buy a computer just to keep up with what their grandchildren are doing.  The answer is that they are probably busy hacking their grandparents computer.

I doubt if any of my dollars will ever be spent on a “smart” watch.  I just can’t see the need for having technology that doesn’t really do anything.  All that a smart watch really does is interface with a computer.     It is more of a small monitor on your wrist than anything else.  How many do you actually see whenever you are in a crowded area.  I don’t even need one for telling time.  When I retired from the Navy in 1989, I took off my watch and I never put one back on again.

Now that I’ve saved all of that money my by not buying useless technology, I can finally afford to buy that new computerized toilet seat.  Do you know the one I mean?  It connects to your phone via Bluetooth and you can adjust the temperature of the seat.  There are a couple of speakers built in to the seat lid so you can listen to your favorite music while sitting in the bathroom.  I’m pretty sure that future updates will feature technology that will tell you when it is time to change the paper roll.

Thanks for reading.

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Wondering About Windows 10 – Originally Published July 2016

July 3, 2016 Posted by Tiny

Wondering About Windows 10
by Tiny Ruisch

I’ve been wondering!  As we get closer to July 29, there are so many things that might happen with the Windows 10 operating system.  The free upgrade will soon be coming to an end and I’m sure there will be more changes in the way Microsoft does business.  Here are some of my predictions.  Just like for the New Year, they probably won’t be too accurate.  It’s still fun to make them.

I think that Microsoft will magnanimously have a change of heart and continue to offer free upgrades to Windows 10.  Of course, if I’m right that also means that those of us choosing not to upgrade our operating systems will probably continue to receive pop up advertisements and other spam from Microsoft.  Another possibility is that instead of a free upgrade, there will be a heavily discounted price on upgrading.

I also predict that those of us who upgraded for free will finally have to start paying for the free by enduring more advertising.  Personally, I can live with this as long as they don’t get as nauseating as the “upgrade to Windows 10” campaign was.  In fairness, I should mention that Google seems to be sending me more ads on my Android phone.

One thing I am pretty sure will happen is that we will start seeing lots of rumors on various tech sites, news organizations and of course, Facebook.  I can see them in my mind.
1) Microsoft will start charging an annual subscription fee will probably be one.  That may eventually happen, but I don’t think it will on machines that were updated within the free time period.
2) Don’t take your laptop into the bathroom because Microsoft will be turning on the camera to check what brand of toilet paper you use.
3) They have also installed a key logger with the latest update.
4) Microsoft will start making Windows 7 updates more inconvenient to obtain.  I can imagine slower downloads so that you will want to upgrade for more speed.
I’m sure there will be many other rumors.

Do you think that Microsoft will continue to be as aggressive with updating as they have been the first year?  Security updates and new builds have been installing fairly frequently in the first year.  This has been one of their stated reasons for upgrading.  I wonder if the fast pace will continue after the grace period ends or will they revert to a massive monthly update on the first Tuesday?

I hope I’m wrong, but I’m going to make a prediction that Microsoft will do some nasty things in their future “mandatory” updates.  For instance, if they think that your favorite anti-virus software isn’t compatible with the operating system, they could just uninstall it.  By the way, don’t plan on installing any “unauthorized” hardware on your system.  You’ve agreed to let them do this if they want to.

There is only one thing that I don’t have to wonder about.  After July 29, we will find out what the cost of free is.  There will also be a lot of customer complaints that they wanted to upgrade to Windows 10 but weren’t able to.

Isn’t wondering fun?

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Over Datified – Originally Published May 2016

May 8, 2016 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Tell the truth now!  How many pictures do you have on your disk drive?  When was the last time you actually looked at most of them?  How many files do you have in your documents (and other) folders that you haven’t opened in the last year?  How many USB Flash Drives do you have filled with stuff you don’t ever use?

In this short article, I’m not going to tell you how to clean up those messes.  I’m just going to tell you why I think we are getting “over‑datafied”.  No you won’t find “over-datified” in the dictionary.  I made it up, but maybe it should be!

In this modern day and age, we are constantly being tracked.  Information about our habits are being stored on web servers everywhere.  Law enforcement agencies, business and many other organizations keep track of where we are, what we do and what we buy.  We hear almost daily about the potential harm that may befall us because of all the data mining.  For the most part, I don’t think that really happens very much.

What does happen is the data is often used to better our lives.  Isn’t it nice to just say, “OK Google” and almost immediately find out anything you might want to know.  I personally like it when my pocket computer beeps and tells me that it is time to leave if I don’t want to be late for a club meeting.  I like the fact that the library program suggests books that I might enjoy to reading.  In fact, that is how data mining is supposed to work.  We share information about ourselves and that information is used to make our lives better.

The problem is that I think we are getting to the point where there is just too much data.  There are thousands of apps you can download to your phone that access many data bases.  Do we really need to know where all the bathrooms within fifty miles are?  Is it necessary to keep track of how much coffee is left in the pot?

You can search the WWW and find a database for anything and everything.  We’re definitely “over‑datafied” when we can find out that women blink more than men, that Americans eat more than 100 acres of pizza every day, Vermont has more cows than people or that ingrown toenails are hereditary.

You can’t get through the day without being inundated with useless data.  Just listen to the nightly news.  Twenty-eight percent of the stories have a percentage fact in the story.  Oh well!  I guess there is nothing we can do about being “over‑datafied”.  Now you’ll have to excuse me while I edit the data charts for next months newsletter.

Thanks for reading.

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Reading For Cheap – Originally Published March 2016

March 13, 2016 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Ever since I learned how, I’ve always been an avid reader.  My parents didn’t have a television until I was about ten years old.  That never bothered me.  The library had a lot of entertainment.  In later life, when I was in the Navy, I seldom watched the ship’s movie.  I was busy finishing reading one more chapter before lights out.  These days, I still read at least a dozen magazines each month.  I am usually reading four or five books at a time.  I’ve got my bedside book, bathroom book, digital book and an audio book for my morning walk.

I could not even estimate how many thousands of dollars I’ve spent buying reading material of one form or another.  In the past three or four years, my reading has all become either digital or audio.  I haven’t been in a bookstore or looked at a magazine display rack in at least a year and a half.  For me, it’s all been for the better.  In this article, I’m going to tell you how you can do the same.

I’ve saved a lot of money with e-books and audio books.  One of the reasons is because it is so easy to check the material out from the Parish library.  From my easy chair I can check out a vast number of books (both digital and audio), magazines, comic books and movies.  I’ve written many times about using the library to download material.  We have had several demonstrations at club meetings and there is a lot of information on our website.  I won’t bore you by repeating the details again.

There are many internet sites where electronic books can be downloaded for no charge.  All of the major booksellers offer some free books, but there are many other places you can get a better selection.  A good place to start your search is at Tech Support Alert’s Free eBooks And Audiobooks To Read Online Or Download.  This is the launch page for other pages that list site with free books.  The lists are broken down by genre.  There is also an alphabetical list at their Best Free eBooks Online.  At the time of this writing there are 913 sites listed.  These pages also have links to sites for downloading comic books, textbooks and online courses.  Bonus tip: if you read the user comments, you will find many other sites.

Some of the sites that I regularly use (in no particular order) are:

  • Project Gutenberg – was one of the first ebook sites.  There are more than 50,000 titles. It has by far the largest list of free titles for downloading and the site is easy to use.
  • LibriVox – is similar to Project Gutenberg except it is all audio books.  Volunteers read and record books and upload them.
  • Open Library – although not technically a download site, the goal is to have a web page for every book ever published.  There are links on these pages where you can get the book.  You can borrow others for a two week period.
  • Bookbub – is a site that I check daily.  It isn’t a download site but lists the latest deals on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple, Google and Kobo.  Many of the books are for sale (usually $0.99 or $1.99) but it also lists many free books.  Use the link in this article and you won’t have to give them an e-mail address.

I hope this list of sites has piqued your interest and gets you started on ebook reading.  This is nowhere near a complete list of download sites for ebooks.  If you’re like me and like to read, these links should get you started.  If you know of any good book sites, I’d like to know.  Post on our club website or send me an e-mail.

Thanks for reading.

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Too Much Security? – Originally Published February 2016

February 10, 2016 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Lately I’ve been wondering if it is possible to have too much on line security.  Everyone that knows me will probably tell you that I’m sometimes a little paranoid when it comes to my computing.  I often talk about using a password manager, a virtual private network and encrypting important data on my hard drives.  Although I’ve contacted a few viruses and other malwares, I can honestly say that they haven’t gotten past my defenses and did not do any damage to my computers.

I’ve been reconsidering a little bit.  For the past week, I’ve been aboard a cruise ship.  I’ve been on several cruises, but this one has a major difference for me.  I purchased the satellite internet plan.  They’ve finally lowered the prices to where I can afford it.  It’s not nearly as fast as what I’m used to, but that’s a story for another article.

What led to the idea for this article is the fact that I’m pretty security conscious.  I use a password manager and generate strong passwords, usually 30 characters or more.  I almost always use a Virtual Private Network when I’m online.  All my important data files are encrypted.  (I’ve even got a couple of files where I encrypted the already encrypted file.)

I also use two-factor authentication on sites that allow it.  This caused a few not nice words to escape my lips when I logged into different sites and get the “we have sent a text to your phone, please enter the code in this box.”  This proved to be rather hard to do because there wasn’t a cell phone tower in the middle of the ocean.

That got me to thinking.  Do I really care if my Facebook account gets compromised?  They don’t have any of my credit card information or hardly any other personal data.  Many of my accounts that worry me don’t offer two-factor.  My bank comes immediately to mind.

Could it be that security doesn’t matter any more?  No matter how locked down your data is, there always seem to be companies like Sony, Target, Adobe and Home Depot being compromised releasing our information to the world.  Even many of our governmental agencies contribute to our identities being placed at risk.

If you follow any sites like Krebs on Security, you soon find there is a security breech about every second or third day.  There are also many others that never get reported.  When we do find out, it is often months after the fact.

The simple fact is that if you go online in the modern world, you should assume that your personal data has been compromised.  I guess I was incorrect in my opening paragraph.  You can’t have too much security.

That’s all for this month. Thanks for reading.

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Cruising 2016

January 20, 2016 Posted by Tiny

I’ve been cruising with the Mrs. again.  We usually do two or three a year.  I inevitably write a short article on my observations on how technology is used by both the cruise lines and the passengers reading their books.  This year, I initially started to write about how large screen cell phones really seemed to be more prevalent and how quite a few people had signed up for the ships satellite internet plan.  That all changed because of my shy, introverted personality.

Over a cup of coffee, I got to talking to a gentleman.  He mentioned that this was his eighty-second cruise.   I told him how much I liked to cruise but that it was unfortunately out of my budget to do that many.  He then related to me how he could do it only because of sheer luck.  It turns out that about ten years ago, he got an e-mail from a wealthy foreigner from Nigeria.  It seems that a new government had taken power and tied up all of his funds.  The only way he could reclaim them was to transfer them overseas.  The fellow I met simply had to provide an active banking account for the funds to be transferred to. He also had to initially send a few thousand dollars to bribe some dishonest officials.  For providing the service, he received several million dollars.

Just a few days later, I met a surgeon that told me the strangest tale.  It seems that he was on a cruise that pulled into port.  He had to cancel the remainder of his vacation and immediately fly back home.  It turns out that there was a little girl that needed a life saving operation.  He had agreed to do it provided she could get only ten thousand “likes” on her Facebook page.  The doctor told me that the only reason he had agreed to do it in the first place is because he was sure the child would never get enough responses.  He was true to his word and flew back early to save a life.

One day, in one of the shipboard bars, I told the stories of the millionaire and the doctor to a young lady.  I was pretty sure she would think I was a liar, but then she told me how her belief in people was the cause of her good fortune.  It seems a person on Facebook had bought a Powerball ticket and agreed to share the winnings with fifty random people.  She wouldn’t tell me how much she got, but it sounded like it might have been several thousands of dollars.

I guess I’m just not very lucky.  There was another passenger who had one of the latest iPad tablets.  It seems that there was some minor flooding in a warehouse where thousands of them were stored.  Even though they weren’t damaged, they couldn’t be sold as new.  They were being given away as a promotion.  Like I said, sometimes it is just a matter of luck.

I met another millionaire who became one simply by winning the Irish lottery.  All he had to do was spend a few hundred dollars to pay for taxes and processing.  The funny part was when he told me that he didn’t even remember entering the sweepstakes.

Of course, the more people I talked to, the more it seemed that everyone was much more fortunate than me.   Then I met a fellow cruiser that made his money the old fashioned way, He earned it through plain, hard work.  He started his own home business by stuffing envelopes for various countries.  He used his profits and bought some equipment and was soon processing credit card transactions for some major companies.  A few years later, he expanded his home business into the insurance claims business.

After two weeks, I didn’t think there were any other ways to make a lot of money.  Then I met a man who was in the merchandise resale business.  He went to various auction websites and bid on various items.  He would often get new computers for as little as five dollars or a big screen television for a little more.  He would then take these items and resell them on eBay or Craigs List for an astronomical profit.

Naturally, I checked on many of these profit generating plans and realized that they just wouldn’t work for me because I haven’t been lucky enough to get in on the ground floor.  If anyone has any ideas on how I can finance my next cruise, please let me know.  If you don’t have any ideas, you can just simply send me a dollar instead.  Make sure you forward this article to everyone you know.  You can also feel free to Tweet the link or post it on your Facebook time line.  When you do, make sure to emphasis the fact that they only have to donate one measly dollar to me.  For less than the cost of a cup of coffee, they will not only finance my next cruise, but they can learn the latest methods for becoming a multimillionaire.  If it works, I might not even have to build a new pyramid.

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Things I’ve Unlearned – Originally Published October 2015

October 11, 2015 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Recently, I was reading an article in “Astronomy Magazine” about the Pluto New Horizons mission.  There was a section on why it was downgraded from planetary status.  Now I’ve got to unlearn some things about the place.  Like so many other things, that got me to thinking about how I’ve had to forget or change my thinking on many other subjects.

For years I’ve saved all my files with an eight character file name.  Back in the DOS and early Windows days, file names were limited to eight characters and three more for the extension.  You had to be creative in naming files so you could remember what they were.  Over the years, most file systems have allowed us to use up to 256 characters.  I finally unlearned using non-descriptive file names.  I still haven’t unlearned that it’s not okay to use a space in a file name.

I’ve had to unlearn a lot of terms over the years.  Sometimes, I still find myself saying, “dial the phone”, even though my pocket computer doesn’t have a dial on it.  Unlike my wife, I’ve finally quit saying “tape a TV show.”  There isn’t any tape in the VCR.  Oops!  I meant DVR.  Many others like myself still, “film a movie”, “roll down the car window”, “blow off steam” and make a “carbon copy.”  People that haven’t unlearned this stuff should “hold their horses” before they start sounding like a “broken record”.

There is a lot of things I haven’t minded unlearning.  It is so much easier to double click an icon to start a program on my computer.  Long gone are the days of having to type “load program name,8,1”.  There were many times I sat and waited for a program to load.  I would finally realize that I had forgotten to hit the return key.

I also don’t mind having to remember to make sure there is enough room on the VHS cassette tape before recording the latest Star Trek program.  The same goes for setting the clock on the machine.

I’ve also have many non-technological things to unlearn.  Before I pour a glass of milk, I still shake the container even though there isn’t any cream to mix in.  I still let the water run before filling my glass.  I don’t want to get a spider in my glass.

About the only thing I’ve found worse than having to unlearn something is the things I’ve had to relearn.  I’ve been teaching the grandson how to code a web page.  Unfortunately, I’ve had to look up some commands that I used to write without even thinking.  One of the problems with programming languages is there are so many of them.

Isn’t technology great? I wonder what I’ll have to unlearn in the future.
Thanks for reading.

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More Things I Hate About Computing – Originally Published July 2015

August 6, 2015 Posted by Tiny

A Pain in the Whatchamacallit
By Tiny Ruisch

Way back in 2009, I wrote an article for the newsletter where I ranted on things I hate about computing.  About the only thing that has changed is that I hardly ever get any forwarded e-mails any more.  Of course, it’s probably because hardly anyone uses e-mail these days.  People have found that it’s easier to just hit a “share” button.

Maybe hate is too strong a word, but there are still a lot of things that I really dislike about electronics, computing and the internet. For instance, “click baiting” seems to be getting worse every day. Simply put, click baiting is where an advertiser pays a web site to put in an article with an interesting headline that just turns out to be advertising. If you want to see a lot of click baits, get a Facebook account. Just make sure you hit the share button to pass it on to your friends.
After giving some thought to the subject, I’ve discovered that there are a lot of other things I hate about computers, the internet and electronics in general.  For instance, I really dislike all of the haters.  Microsoft fan boys are always running down Apple while the Apple fans do the same to Microsoft.  Of course, the Linux users are different.  They hate all the other operating systems.  It goes even further.  If you go to a camera forum, you will find Sony, Canon, Olympus, etc. users at each others throats.  Don’t you miss the old days of “FORD: Fix or repair daily”?  Personally, I’d rather fix a Ford than drive a Chevy.

I really dislike software that isn’t user friendly.  Some programs have windows that can’t be re-sized.  I’m getting older and my eyesight isn’t what it used to be.  If I can’t make the window bigger and re-size the font, I likely won’t use the software.  Then there is software that won’t let you choose where to install it.  I don’t install all of my programs into “program files”.  Lots of times, I don’t even install them on the C drive.  I’m not even going to talk about End User Licensing Agreements or unwanted offers.  One of the worst things is a question similar to: “Click this box if you like this article”.  Then you see a yes box with no alternatives.  You can’t continue if you don’t check the box.

I wonder if Microsoft will ever fix one little thing that has bugged me for as long as I remember.  Whenever you use file explorer to copy, move or delete a list of files, Windows makes an estimate of how long it will take.  Wouldn’t it be nice if the estimate was close once in a while.

Isn’t it amazing how many download sites have succumbed to evil ways?  In times past, CNETs download.com was the premier site to get software.  In recent years, the site has become riddled with malware, drive-by downloads, and other unwanted junk.  Source Forge has joined them.  Some days you can’t keep up with the bad stuff.

Since another thing I hate is long winded diatribes from complainers, I’ll just say, “Thanks for reading.”

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