Microsoft Windows

[cdybedahl]

[Extensive swearing]

How do you people stand working with this? I very rarely do anything in Windows, but rumour and such had made me believe that things worked quite well under it as long as you didn't try to do anything unusual. But that proves not to be the case. Unless using "Windows Update" or syncing a PDA counts as unusual. The Update thing dies without even a message one time out of three, and goes unbelievably slow the other two (as in, if I let it be it'd be finished some time in late January). When the iPaq syncs, my account in the Windows domain becomes locked and has to be unlocked by IT Services (they're getting a bit tired of it by now).

After many trials, I got a net connection from the iPaq via GPRS. For some reason, though, it only seems able to reach cyberPoMo. Connection attempts to LiveJournal and work's webmail both time out. This is quite weird.

Comments

[kitsune76.livejournal.com]

Actually, both of those are unusual activities. 'Windows Update' certainly is. Working with a PDA's a little on the rare side too.

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

But Windows Update is right there at the top of the sodding Start menu? How can that possibly be unusual?

[kitsune76.livejournal.com]

Because Microsoft trust you not to bother using it?

OK, more seriously and complexly. It's Windows. So it's written by a bunvh of paranoid chimps who don't communicate well. And aren;t great at their job. So you've l9ots of parts that don't really talk to each other in the O/S. Add to that a whole bundle of different hardware and drivers programmed by people of diffeent levels of competancy. Now add that varying levewl of quality to the Updates themselves as well as the power behind them...

Basically Microsoft want to Daddy you by pushing all the stuff *they* think you need onto your machine. In theory. In practice, the reality of coders means it just is very likely to go to pot. There's nearly always a solution but it's more of a 'do this because it works!' rather than a 'this fixes it because...'

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

*sigh* That I can believe. It seems that every time I have to use Windows for any task that's not entirely trivial, I end up being severely irritated both at Windows itself and at the support people. The former because, well, it's Windows. The latter because they almost never seem to actually understand what they're doing, it's all cargo cult thinking (that is, your "do this because it works").

[(Anonymous)]

I have come to understand that a requirement of people working with Windows is that they can't ever expect to understand in detail what is happening under the surface. They can only guess.


And the thing that separates a good Windows fixer from a bad is the ability to make correct guesses from almost no information.

[nordgren.livejournal.com]

Just say no to using Windows for purposes beyond games, pornography and surfing. That would be my philosophy, but sadly it seems that I will have to work in it all too soon...

[cdybedahl.livejournal.com]

"Use it or we will stop giving you money" is pretty hard to argue against.

[nordgren.livejournal.com]

Good enogh reason to keep philosophy from affecting policy.

[zonereyrie.livejournal.com]

Windows Update normally works very well actually. The security fixes on Thursday were BIG news in many outlets and their servers got HAMMERED. That was causing trouble. I've never actually seen it act so badly in the past.

I've never tried to sync a PocketPC, but I've been syncing PalmOS pretty much daily for years, with nary a problem.