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PC Annoyances
How often do you sit down for a relaxing session at your PC, only to discover you can't find that file you saved six months ago but forgot the name of it. Or to go into Word and realize several dreary tasks could mre easily be put into macros if only you knew how? Or you decide to browse the Web only to be "attacked" by pop-ups and extra windows? AAUGHH!
This book deals with the folk who use Windows and PC's. I realize there are those who loathe Windows ("Linux rools d00d!") and point to the chapter on Windows annoyances as an example of an OS gone terribly wrong. However, until the day comes that everyone uses Linux (or finds a way around Billy Boy's "evil empire"), we're stuck with it. But I digress.
The book's several chapters are divided into specific topics, like E-mail, Windows, the Internet, MS Office, Windows Explorer. Music, Video & CDs, and last but not least Hardware. And yes there's a few suggestions and software for dealing with spam. Spam spam, spam, spam, wonderful spammmmm...not! Also mentioned are items like turning off return receipt (who cares whether or not your sender received your message, it got sent didn't it?), embedded images in email, and so on. There are also sections on dealing specifically with flaws in Outlook Express, Eudora, AOL, and Hotmail.
One thing that bummed me a little personally was that the chapter on Windows annoyances for the most part are for Windows XP. In fact, the author strongly recommends, in fact almost implores you, gentle reader, to switch from Win 98 to XP. In spite of my system running slowly and sometimes crashing (and the fact that I'm rather broke these days), I'll stick with my 98 for now. Of course, one could point out if previous versions of Windows had been created "right" or "ran correctly," there wouldn't be need for a whole chapter (or even reams of books) on Microsoft fixes or how to get it to run properly.
The Internet chapter deals with getting rid of pop-ups while browsing, and introduces a nifty tool for checking dead links on your bookmarks. It's quite annoying to save a page on your favorite band or obscure sport and then discover three months later it's disappeared. Also mentioned are a few "tricks" with using Google and even AOL IMs, like making AOL IM an "ad-free" zone. In fact, several tricks in this book are centered on cutting down the amount of on-line advertising we all seem to be bombarded with.
MS Office ... ah yes, Office. What would we ever do without it? What can we do with it? Among other tips, the author describes ways of "outfoxing" Word's Auto Correct feature (but gee, Mr Word officer, I swear that's the way rutabaga is spelled!) and my personal favorite: getting rid of Clippy -- Yeah! Also mentioned are some nifty tricks for using Excel and Power Point.
Windows Explorer ... ah yes, Windows Explorer. Not bad, but it could be better. And the author points us to two alternatives to Explorer: Power Desk and Total Commander, two inexpensive utilities that do everything WE does and more. However, if you insist on staying loyal to WE, there are some nice tips here about dealing with it.
The last two chapters discuss ways of making it easier to listen to tunes on your PC, watching video streams, and recording audio from any source. But most importantly, the author advises that if you share CDs with others to use 74-minute CDs because not all CD ROMs are created equal. The 80-minute CDs may get cranky if they're put in an old CD ROM that won't read them.
Last but not least, the Hardware chapter touches upon such wondrous things as "The Wonders of a Modem Reset," "tuning up your monitor," and also a way to keep that color ink printing cartridge you just bought to last more than two weeks, just by switching your prints to the lowest quality for most of your work. When you're broke like myself, those $50 printer cartridges add up fast!
I've just touched upon a few tips here ... the book has many more, all designed to be very helpful to the PC user.
The back inside cover has a place where the CD with all these nifty utilities should be, except O'Reilly decided to save a few bucks on the book's cost by pointing to a URL and telling we gentle readers to go there to get the utilities. Alas, I'm lazy and impatient (not to mention being too damn cheap to get a DSL line) so I haven't gotten around to getting most of the utilities yet. My bad. I've gotten used over the years to books that had the CD that I could just slide into my drive and install away. I have however so far gotten SpyBot, AMDeadLink, and MailWasher. Great stuff, and I do plan to download at least a few more of these utilities. Of course, the web site where you download all this stuff is a great plug for PC World.
The "enlightened ones," as I mention, won't need to bother with this book, as they have Linux, or a Mac. But the rest of us, who do battle with our PCs daily, will get a lot of useful information out of this book.
You can purchase PC Annoyances from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to submit a review for consideration, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Try Linux!
VeryGeekyBooks has more reviews of this book.
This book deals with the folk who use Windows and PC's. I realize there are those who loathe Windows ("Linux rools d00d!") and point to the chapter on Windows annoyances as an example of an OS gone terribly wrong. However, until the day comes that everyone uses Linux (or finds a way around Billy Boy's "evil empire"), we're stuck with it. But I digress.
Opening up the can of worms I see.
Pardon me while I put on the 'ol asbestos suit and run for my life.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
However, until the day comes that everyone uses Linux (or finds a way around Billy Boy's "evil empire"),
:-)
Its here and its called OS X
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
It sounds like a decent book for new users... maybe I should get it for my mom...
Personally, I prefer to blame the incomprehensible Michael Spindler, CEO of Red Ink Corps.
Was it suggestion, poll, focus group? I'm going to go check this out to see if they missed anything. Like the, when you map a drive, and WE has to keep polling till it eventually freezes. I hate that.
> I've managed to glean several valuable tips about Windows 95 and 98
> from the Annoyances books about those OSes
Windows? Annoyances? Isn't that redundant?
Grammar Nazi alert. This should be "telling us gentle readers". Think about how the sentence would sound if you ended on the pronoun:
They did it without telling us.
They did it withoug telling we.
from the article:
This book deals with the folk who use Windows and PC's. I realize there are those who loathe Windows ("Linux rools d00d!") and point to the chapter on Windows annoyances as an example of an OS gone terribly wrong. However, until the day comes that everyone uses Linux (or finds a way around Billy Boy's "evil empire"), we're stuck with it. But I digress.
RTFA
A review... ah yes a Review
I gotta admint this book sounds interesting and I could easily be persuaded to buy it had you actually reviewed the book and not just spattered the page with anecdotes about your own life and computing practices.
Worst... review.... EVER!!!!!!!
Or if they're really unlucky, they get the support the Win32 users.
[Or if they're really unlucky, they lose their job right before the holidays and don't even do that any longer. But I digress.]
To be fair, it's not like non-MS software is annoyance-free. =) One nice difference with Linux, Evolution, and all of the other OS software I use is that I can learn about the annoyances before I pony up my increasingly scarce cash for it....
most of the examples cited by the reviewer can be gleaned from cursory investigations of the options menu or (heavens forbid) a quick query of the help contents. despite the o'rilley stamp, this book seems targetted at the 40+ discover-the-magic-of-PCs! where's-the-any-key crowd.
One of my favorite dialogs from Windows is the one saying "This program is not responding". Excuse me but wouldn't it be nice to tell me which one that is? Obviously Windows knows which one it is. Arrrr!
TT
be prepared for annoyances like:
- not being able to open that complex word attachment that your coworker mailed you
- not being able to browse every site online (some are definitely IE specific, others require plugins not available on linux)
- figure out how users, accounts, software installations etc. work (click on a link and the program installs automatically? yeah, right), not to mention the joys of the command line
- become confused by some desktop environments where settings are spread around 3 different menus and where sometimes they inexplicably don't stick etc. etc. in general using software developed by developers with sometimes not much thought given to user friendliness and good UI guidelines.
- not being able to play commercial games (unless you shell out for winex and even then some things don't work)
I could go on and on, I've been using linux on my desktop primarily for more than 10 years now and there's no way that I'd give it to somebody not extremely computer literate...
-- the cake is a lie
The only thing that keeps people stuck on Windows is their attitudes. I have not had the displeasure of using a Windows machine in over a year. Everyone that uses OS X or Linux regularly knows that Windows provides no significant benefits, is overpriced and wrought with drawbacks. Anyone that wishes to drop Windows is free to do so at any time. The resigned attitude that you are stuck with anything is rediculous. You are scared. Be honest, say "I am scared of other operating systems".
TallGreen CMS hosting
My biggest PC annoyance is my father. Am I the only one who has a father (or some other relation), that knows nothing about computers, yet insists upon playing with all the settings they can find?
Oy.
Should Slashdot be covering books that are considered "novice books" for windows. I thought the concept here is to discuss a little deeper issues. I can get this same review from "Better Homes and Gardens"
Stay tuned for new sig...
But they said it only comes in a set of 32 hardbound volumes.
Is watching someone else use a computer!
Example comments:
You know, you don't have to double-click the webpage link...
You could just type the web address in the white box at the top instead of using a search engine...
Damn it! No! Just... Forget it, let me do it.
All last night. There were a few more I'm sure.
This is not my sig.
where people who don't understand law or economics talk about it anyways.
Don't install the Microsoft Office Assistant. Duh. It's right there, in the installer. It's not rocket science, you know.
Jeez... you'd think a bunch of geeks would know their way around an installer...
*Installing new apps from the command line
.DLL hell but certainly library hell
*Missing packages and circular dependencies - a wont install without b, b wont install without c, c wont install without a.
*Maybe no
*Plug and play works ok during the initial setup but not very well after that. Try changing your video card after already doing the initial install.
*Cut and paste doesnt work most of the time.
*Crappy fonts - most web pages look like crap, even slashdot. I dont consider stealing fonts from windows a fix to this problem.
*X and Gnome and Kde are just as bloated as XP.
*Everything is a beta. Wheres all the version 1.0+ software?
it was stolen. Thats what you get for buying the demo copy, sans utilities CD.
TallGreen CMS hosting
LIAR - good link, mod up
It leaves me with the impression that I can never truly destroy my data, and that someone else will get my recycled bits.
"How often do you sit down for a relaxing session at your PC, only to discover you can't find that file you saved six months ago but forgot the name of it. "
oh yeah its ANNOYING when i stupidly name files! here i was thinking it was my fault and not the inatimate object that just takes what i give it... duh!
dont get me started on how i can never remember my aol password! why doesnt the computer remember it for me? surely this would save people MILLIONS of hours of time!
come on. i mean, come on.
"They that can give up essential control of the PC to obtain a little temporary comfortability deserve neither control nor comfortability." -- Benjamin Franklin v.2.0
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
...It's here ... and it's called steve jobs dumper.....
Get to know it....It likes boi(y)s!
AcaBen
seriously, i dont think this is the right place for such a book. most people who read /. either use linux, bsd, or they probably know windows to its full potential.
:)
or maybe i have too much confidence in readers here?
just my 2 cents
Marge, get me your address book, 4 beers, and my conversation hat.
About as often has I have a heart-to-heart discussion with my cordless drill. Maybe slightly less frequently than I take my telephone on a nice vacation to the beach?
A computer is a tool, nothing more, nothing less. I've got no emotional attachment to it whatsoever.
Father-in-Law. I live in Texas, he lives in Pennsyvlania. One glorious Saturday afternoon, we reformatted his hard drive and reinstalled Windows. Over the phone.
Did I mention that he's practically deaf?
"FORMAT C:/ \s"
"E?"
"No, C"
"G?"
ceci n'est pas un sig.
about windows are the themed 'schemes' that people can load.
i am doing an install at a clients PC today, and I absolutely hate wagging around the "reigndeer" pointer that goes with the X-mas scheme. This feature should be disable on "windows professional", and be relegated to home users.
Gag - this is worse than Clippy.
"If you think you have things under control, you're not going fast enough." --Mario Andretti
Do you really need to buy a book to figure out how to uncheck the "Office Assistants" checkbox in the list of available modules during the install of Office?
If it wasn't for your daily book-review spam, Abdullah, I don't know what I'd do.
This was a terrible review...Yeah! Someone let the a moron loose on a O'Reilly review...yessss, O'Reilly, yessss. It was pandering and pointless and strayed off topic repeatedly...off topic? hmmmm? whaaaa? Look at me!!! I am writing a review....uhhhhhmmmm, review [licking lips]. Uh-huh, uh-huh!
"the starry sky above and the moral law within"-Kant
be prepared for benefits like:
.ini files to something downright usable.
- being able to enjoy those cute "I love you" and "Anna Kurovina" messages automatically forwarded from your best friends, co-workers, and total strangers.
- The ability to browse every site online, at least every one selling X10 cameras and pictures you wouldn't want your boss to see.
- Software so advanced it installs automatically while you browse, no user intervention required. Uninstalling is as simple as wiping your main partition and re-installing Windows.
- Enjoy desktop environments where settings are spread around 3 different menus and where sometimes they inexplicably don't stick etc. etc. in general using software developed by investors free from the limiting boundaries of friendliness and caring about your users.
- A wide swath of available content, all provided to your trusted platform ensuring that your purchased programs will run forever... Until you lose the disk, upgrade your system, ban the program from spying on your browsing habits, or the producer decides to turn the software off remotely.
Linux is no longer hard. Once you have a modern Debian, Red Hat, or Mandrake installed, everything runs easy-peasy. I've been using it on and off for 6 years, and in that time frame it's gone from nothing but command line editing of
We have a woman in the office who had never used a computer before in her life. We plunked her down in front of a Windows box and a Linux box. While Covad required Internet Explorer, she was always using Linux. She likes the multiple desktops (Microsoft has a power tool multidesktop, BTW), changes her wallpaper every few days, and prefers browsing around in Konqueror. To her, editing the registry is as baffling as editing a shell script, but she doesn't need to do that anyway. If she wants something installed on Debian, it is an apt-get away (whereas in windows she has to look for it). I'd feel comfortable putting newbies in front of a Linux install. In fact, I've done it, many times, and with success.
I respect the opinions of my Linux elders, but I fear your perceptions of the OS may be a little out of date.
The ______ Agenda
I don't think I need a book to tell me about the annoyances of Windows 98...
ascii art
Wow, there's not a single /. article that doens't generate a fight (especially the linux/windows ones)...
:: Andrea
Anime Wallpapers
In spite of my system running slowly and sometimes crashing (and the fact that I'm rather broke these days), I'll stick with my 98 for now.
I've been running XP for almost 6 months and it has *never* crashed.
Switch you fool! (Oh, and inquire your fellow nerds for a, um, *cough*, discount)
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
However, until the day comes that everyone uses Linux (or finds a way around Billy Boy's "evil empire")
It's here and it's called goatse.cx
Wanna bet this isn't going to be modded as insightful?
Seriously, and I've seen a lot of this kind of book over the years.
Steven
http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article02-010
I'm surprised that this book got an "8" for offering such profoundly useful advice such as how to eliminate popups or to use less ink in your printer by using economy mode. Did any of the advice mentioned in the review even remotely pique your interest (assuming you have to deal with Windows at all)? When auto-correct annoyed me (which it also did in OpenOffice), I looked through the options and turned it off. If that's too hard to figure out without a book, then you need some basic software education instead of a grab-bag of "tricks".
I wonder what versions of Windows the book refers to? I thought PowerDesk only worked for Windows 95-ME. And what software is it really addressing? If it's giving any advice about Internet Explorer, I hope that it's to remove all file associations and hide all links to it by deleting them or burying them deeply in Start Menu/Programs/Accessories/Unsupported Software/Mistakes/Don't Go Here/Did You Try Mozilla?/FireBird?/Opera?/You Can't Be Serious!/Are You Really Really Sure?/Okay But Don't Blame OReilly/.
This is how I learned, I messed up my PC many o'time but I learned something each time I did it.
/. was born knowing anything other than mewling and expelling waste. People grow and learn by doing.
Unlike the grandparent poster who apparently believes that somebody knows nothing about computers should be berated for playing with one that they own. Wrong, grandparent.
Nobody on this planet emerged from their mother's womb fully capable of navigating the command line. Nobody here on
I guess there's no "community" to be in unless there's someone to keep out, huh, computer savants?
Besides being a poor review; as in no real insight into the book.... The reviewer doesn't seem to be a reliable source. I don't put much faith into someone who is unwilling to upgrade to XP when they are having terrible problems with 98. It wouldn't have surprised me if he was running ME. ;-) I get tired of people complaining about a six year old operating systems.
If he doesn't want to pay for Windows, he could easily use SUSE, Fedora, Mandrake, Debian, Gentoo, etc...
Christ you sound arrogant. I guess those of us with jobs that require using Windows or need to use software that only runs on Windows are a bunch of whiners? I can hear you now, "Well, no one forced you to work there, switch jobs!" Sorry, I'll choose a stable income over ideology. With comments like "I really hate whining; I like constructive attitudes" you should practice what you preach. Try leaving your tiny little hole in the ground sometime.
Parent post contains link to bill gates' evil empire. MoD DOWN!!
Who let this guy review this book?
It's like me reviewing a Mariah Carey concert, if you fundamentally dislike it don't buy the damn ticket (or book in this case) in the first place.
a confession or a plea for help. ;-)
Quack, quack.
Yeah, it's nazi. Frankly, I don't know why it's being done. However, it's not my decision. Just your local peon who has to deal with it and support its users.
My dad, who's in his late 70s, bought a PC last year (because it was cheap & he is parsimonious). This replaced an antique Mac Classic, which still runs BTW. After many phone calls for advice about Win XP, I showed him the Annoyances web site. He looked at me & looked relieved. "So other people are just as annoyed with this stuff as I am, huh?" And he's had fun implementing the various fixes, although he's still too stingy to go buy the book. Maybe I'll get him the book for Christmas... I've already left him a Knoppix CD to play with, though ;-)
"Obviously, I'm not an IBM computer any more than I'm an ashtray" (Bob Dylan)
FP!! .......... frick. my biggest annoyance is slow internet.
~~
Let's go back in time a bit.
.Net framework for FreeBSD being one. But there they were trying to build an even bigger replacement monopoly, so it made some sense).
A while ago, Microsoft released IE for Solaris. Sparc solaris. Not x86 Solaris. It wouldn't have cost them anything but typing 'make' on a Solaris x86 box, but they would not do it.
If Microsoft were to release software for non-Microsoft x86 operating systems, then they'd be helping to validate the proposition that Microsoft is not the only game in town. They simply cannot afford to do that (there are a couple cases where they have done so - the
If Microsoft releases Linux office on Monday, Dell will start selling Linux desktops on Tuesday.
Maybe if Microsoft actually loses its monopoly status in operating systems, we might start to see them port their software, but they're working very, very hard (and playing very, very dirty) to make sure that won't happen. Ever.
And every product of theirs anyone uses (note I didn't say "purchases" - even users who pirate their shite help keep them in control) helps make it possible.
You know what would qualify as an annoyance for a Windows user? The login screen.
It's like dealing with a relative who's an alcoholic or drug addict. The solution is so simple (stop taking drugs), but they just get angry if you suggest that."
You, sir, win the daily "Elitist Prick Award"!!
It's no wonder a lot of people regard Linux with suspicion and contempt with people like you championing its cause.
"Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
I was never once told to RTFM, even in cases where reading the documentation was really what I should have been doing.
But hey, you go ahead and rant anyways. Do you feel better?
By the way, I know the people you describe exist, and you're right; I'm sure they do turn a certain percentage of potential Linux users off to the idea of trying it. I just wanted to say that I had not had this experience, and I don't really expect to. All the Linux users I communicated to via forum or IRC have been nothing but helpful.
philcrissman.com.
Seems like an interesting book but one of the annoyances I discovered was going to that "util" url and finding decent software mixed in with really crappy software I suggest downloading ad-aware before downloading the other stuff on that page lol!
anyone who uses Windows 98 and sees no reason to upgrade, or at least hasn't used XP extensively is not qualified to review a book on common PC annoyances.
As far as annoyances go, I find much more "annoyances" on my Slackware installation then I do on Windows.
No platform will be free of annoyances...ever... A book on dealing with them is helpful, but using this as an anti-MS tool isn't helping anyone.
Clif
clifgriffin > blog
Obviously, many people think there is a great benefit in upgrading from W-98 to W-XP. My most reliable computer is still running W-95, (5 years, no crash or downtime) and when my W-98 box is tied up with a circuit analysis program, the W95 box allows me to keep working. My W-98 finally crashed because I got in too much of a hurry with REGEDIT for a program that would not correctly allow a re-install for something that got messed up. (Mozilla, no less) I use W-2000 at work (and sometimes XP), W-98 at home mostly, and since both work for me flawlessly, I can't come up with a reason to change either to the other, regardless of which might be better for some tasks I don't do. I agree with the author about using W-98.
Never, everything goes under /home/username or in my home directory on a NetWare server which is soft linked to an icon on my desktop.
Or to go into Word and realize several dreary tasks could mre easily be put into macros if only you knew how?
Never had the need for anything that fancy, but I look forward to the day.
Or you decide to browse the Web only to be "attacked" by pop-ups and extra windows? AAUGHH!
It doesn't happen. I run Mozilla.
I can control cookies too. w00t!
But frankly Linux also has some annoyances. Care to list any?
Skuld, Sakura, Loki, Dayglo, and Lilith would all like to send you a packet or two.
(These are my work/home machines. They don't like being un-anthromorphized)
Panel 1
Pointy Haired Boss (PHB) approaches Dilbert, who is sitting at his computer, and announces that he want to be more of a hands-on manager.
Panel 2
PHB begins micro-managing Dilbert to the point where he is directing him mouse movements. "Now move the mouse. Click it! CLICK IT!!"
Panel 3
Dilbert apparently doesn't do the right thing, and the PHB explodes:
"Oh no! You IDIOT!!!"
Dilbert (thinking): "This has long day written all over it."
Hey, Windows users, there is no such thing as "forward" slash, there is only slash and backslash.
I smelled fear. I struck.
;-)
Nice trolling man!
You had me laughing more and more
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
because there does happen to be some people out there that actually happen to like Windows! :-)
I won't comment on all of them (because I can't comment on something I'm not familiar with), but I will comment on 1) the OS. IT can be and has been made to look and act like Windows. You need look no further than Lindows; 2) I don't know what version of StarOffice/OpenOffice you'e using, but in my version (OO1.1) Ctrl-Space is what is used to insert a nnon-breaking space - that's out of the box, not something you have to configure. But let's say you want a function to perform differently: All you need to do is go to "Tools"... "Configure..." and configure it to your liking.
The examples you give most certainly do will not take "six months cursing all the little things that are different".
I've had the pleasure (for the most part) to see more than just a few people - some family, some friends, some co-workers - shift away from MS (both OS and Office) and the things you mention are not the problem. The problems come about when they wanted to take things like their macros from Office to OpenOffice, use their Access DB on Linux, etc. Of course those situations will cause problems. Until you see MS port their office suite to Linux (or shell out the bucks for Crossover Office), those will always be problems. And those problems aren't trivial to begin with. It took a long time for users to learn their macros and DBs.
When an unsuspecting co-worker leaves their machine unattended and logged in, add their boss' name to their auto-correct list and have it "correct" it to "my butt-headed boss".
See how long it takes them to notice.
They should make that a default configuration option, the '-mother' switch. :)
"Click here if your mother sends you e-mail." hehe
I see a lot of "look, a box! I must fill it with information.
I don't know why, but my first year of computer use, when a program would produce a little temporary 'cancel' box while busy, I could not keep myself from moving the mouse over it. I noticed that my friends were unconciously doing this too. Something inside compelled all of us to do it.
And then, since the mouse was directly over the cancel button, I sometimes would accidentally/involuntarily click the mouse thereby cancelling the process which would really piss me off. It took a while to recondition myself.
This is not my sig.
In less time than it takes to read and implement solutions presented in this book, you could become enlightened several times over. Then Microsoft will make changes that break your workarounds to their problems. For less money than you will spend on the two systems you will be forced to buy in the next three years, you could have bought a Mac and been happy. That's why most of us consider Windoze so annoying, it's not cheap , it's not easy and it hardly works.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
What... right like Linux? Which version of the kernel? Or did you mean a specific distro? Which one?
Or are you talking about having the computer configured the correctly out of the box? Configured to whose preferences? Which hardware?
Remember the "P" in PC stands for "Personal". The whole idea is that you can whack it into submission, unlike servers run by us uptight, high-strung operators.
Go configure.
--- "1.21 Jigawatts!" -Doc
The original book was a compilation - kind of a blog. People submitted content to the site.
One scary piece was that, every now and then, Windows would delete a folder containing an MS competitor's product. Not a problem - since essentially all Windows users back up their systems on a regular basis...
Note that Windows XP is too large and slow to run on many machines that run Windoze 98. And, '98 is still a virus/worm nightmare. For these smaller and slower machines, the options are - get a firewall, antivirus, etc., or, load it with Linux.
I still prefer Win 2000 pro over XP, in a lesser of evils sort of way.
-- Stephen.
in my life God comes first.... but Linux is pretty high after that
Francis Smit
Windows Explorer
Reminds me of the M*A*S*H episode where they're teaching Radar to impress the ladies, and tell him to say 'ah...Bach' when Bach comes up in conversation about music...
Both your attitudes are symptoms of the problem. Your OS should be solid enough that an inexperienced user can fool around and not feel scared about what she's going to do.
And you -- You're basically saying newbies should shut up and work and not tweak anything?
"Fundamentalism" isn't about divine morality. It's about human authority.
According to whom? The Inter-office Memo Standards board? The Clippy Commission? Friends of ASCII? The I-Hate-Microsoft Committee?
The poster was completely correct when he asserted that MS Office is a de-facto standard. For your information, that means that while it has not been officially blessed by some lofty standards board, the indisputable fact is that everyone uses it.
Even those who do not use MS Office, and use other such as Open Office, Star Office, etc., save their documents in MS Office format. I have yet to see anybody who uses an alternate office suite save their documents in the native format of that package. It's always in MS Office format. Further, any office package that does not have at least a minimal level of interoperability with .doc files is dead-on-arrival.
You have raised a valid point about the intentional breakage that is periodically introduced to force upgrades, but that is a separate question.
Since we're veering off topic here, I'll just mention that it is the exact same situation with Internet browsers - IE is the standard. That's what 98% of the universe uses, that what 98% of all internet sites are written for. And we still get the whiners who just keep pissing into the wind, complaining about compliance with some "standard" or another.
The fact of the matter is that when you command a large enough slice of the market, you become the standard. Period.
Hey, Windows users, there is no such thing as "forward" slash, there is only slash and backslash.
I'm just kidding. I'm not a huge Linux zealot myself. Windows has got some things right and its more about building a good free (as in mind) OS then proving Microsoft sucks.
And of course we can still learn a lot about GUI consistency and user configuration from both Apple and Microsoft.
Quack, quack.
Who doesn't want people to know about this book?
For example:
What they said: "The interweb thingy on my hard disk RAM isn't working. Something about an invalid USB googlehertz."
What I heard: "Money money money money money money money money money money. Money money money money money money."
-moitz-
Screw 'em...who cares what anyone thinks.
Me: Click Start
User: [click]
Me: Now click Programs
User: [click]
[this goes on for a while until...]
Me: Click on "Network Neighborhood" so it's highlighted
User: [click]
Me: Now right-click the icon so a little menu appears.
User: [click]
Me: Next click Properties
User: Uh, right click or left click?
Backspace key in Internet Explorer goes back a page, and promptly trashes the contents of whatever form you were filling out before you clicked in the wrong place.
Now WHOSE bright idea was that?
Heavy editorializing.
Sidetracked multiple times, and STATED IT.
I still don't know anything about the book.
I do not want to buy this book, right now.
Often wrong but never in doubt.
I am Jack9.
Everyone knows me.
How about: I don't *like* other operating systems [besides unnamed windows version]?
and offer this as the most important reason:
WinXP just *works*
and offer this as well:
That's the one concept that you Mac and Linux fanatics don't seem to get.
The last statement really should be a question. Here's part of the answer.
Mac heads may be fanatics but there's nothing like a Micfosoft fanboy. People who are not Microsoft fanboys actually look at and enjoy other software. I actually like Solaris, Mac, Mac OSX, HPUX, Just about every thing Linux, BSD, even OS/2, but not Windows. I'm not a fanatic for saying that Windows is buggy and that Microsoft demands way too much money and EULA restrictions for such buggy junk in it's XP forms. Experience shows me that, I'm nothing special. No one that's ever really used another OS for long is really able to put up with Microsoft. Microsoft has to invent switchers because they can't find real ones. Because of this and from my own experience confirmed by many others, I have to suspect that you are paid to say what you just did. That might not be true, I have met people who describe themselves as "Wintel all the way", who blindly refuse to look at anything but Microsoft on Intel. They froth at the mouth with violent hatred of anything different. It's really wierd, but that's the kind of stuff Microsoft actively promotes, is it not?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
it's a rant against Microsoft. I'd suggest criticizing the book from the context in which it was written.
Would you please come and put me back on the desk?
Much thanks,
Your PC
By far the most annoying and ridiculous thing in Windows (and it's STILL in W2k and AFAIK XP) is when you do a large file operation, like moving or deleting a large group of files, it gives you an error because one of the files is locked or something and when you hit OK it stops.
I still want all the other files that aren't locked to move. What idiot thought that up?
I've seen pop-up blockers in just about every shape and form, whether it comes from ISP software or a third party (like the kinds you see advertised in banners). My favorite pop-up blocker is Mozilla, but I know it will be a very long time until everyone else I know catches on. What's even more sad is how many self-proclaimed *nix "fans" I see using Internet Explorer.
I am afraid to move out of my parent's basement, get a job
Do you know anybody hiring programmers in Fort Wayne, Indiana? The web sites I checked sure don't.
It boots, she can do whatever she wants, but she can't effect any local settings.
The only trouble we ever had is why it says "This Side Up" on the CDs - I'll leave it as an exercise for the reader to figure out what she did...
"Straddling the sword of technology..."
No, His mods are infalable.
Killfile(TGK)
No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
O'Reilly has a book about Linux annoyances as well. However, they named it Linux Server Hacks
Can you spell your name and remember a password? If so you can install Knoppmyth, a fully installable Knoppix(debian) distro with mythtv. Knoppmyth is a pvr, has tv with a guide to your local cable/sat provider, weather, news, a dvd playing, an mp3 player (and indexing, by group and album, with visualizations), cd ripper with artist and title lookup, emulator frontend, and vcd player.
-dameron
in those 10 years I've been through most distros, currently running RH9 and I =still= wouldn't give it to somebody not extremely computer literate.
.Xmodmap I had to edit the XSession startup script.
The word document is valid if you want to work with your coworkers, the web argument is valid if your bank happens to target only IE (my bank did that for a while then FINALLY they tested their site with NS7 so it works fine in Galeon). The management/config is valid, as despite having RH9 I still have problems with KDE 'forgetting' that I want certain windows to be sticky etc. etc. not to mention that in order to force it to work with my custom
-- the cake is a lie
(and the fact that I'm rather broke these days)
When you're broke like myself, those $50 printer cartridges add up fast!
(not to mention being too damn cheap to get a DSL line)
Well my heart burns for you buddy. If you were in Austin I'd buy you a beer for the entertainment value of you review. In fact I know a quixstar/amway guy that I met a b&n who'd love to help you make a couple bucks, but that'd just be if you bought the $8 dollar bottle. hehe
Yes, whenever I have a Windows problem and do a Google search, I find dozens, maybe hundreds of posts with the same problem, with most in English.
What I don't find are solutions.
"I realize there are those who loathe Windows ("Linux rools d00d!") and point to the chapter on Windows annoyances as an example of an OS gone terribly wrong. However, until the day comes that everyone uses Linux (or finds a way around Billy Boy's "evil empire"), we're stuck with it."
Indroctrination can be insideous... even well meaning people become, unintentionally, part of the problem.
The quoted statement above is just FUD.
Question: Why are you stuck with Windows if so many other people using it? I'm not. I know a lot of people who aren't.
Now I'll click on the "Submit" button in my Mozilla web browser which is running in Mac OS X so that I can submit this post across the non-Microsoft owned Internet so that it can be viewed by patrons who are viewing Slashdot, which is powered by Perl, via Apache server.
Yeah, now we all have to use Microsoft.
am i the only one that finds XP to be the worse MS OS yet? windows 2000 is cleary the best, its stable (as can be) and doesnt require 2x the resources just to run the OS which leaves more for apps/games....
I've spent the ENTIRE DAY on the telephone trying to get HP to service my laptop. Calls back and forth to HP's various telephone numbers - all of which lead me speak to unfailingly polite, but utterly clueless, people in Bangalore, India.
"How perfectly Goddamn delightful it all is, to be sure" Charles Crumb
A sample chapter from the book, Email is available in PDF format from O'Reilly.
Not to complain (a phrase that is always followed by a complaint), but... this has to be one of the worse book reviews I've read in a while (even on Slashdot). Many of the comments were unnecessary, and it seemed to really just be an excuse to bash Microsoft. I'm not sure the Slashdot audience is the best audience to pitch this book to, either, though I'm sure many will find it quite useful.
... ah yes, Office. What would we ever do without it? What can we do with it? ... ah yes, Windows Explorer. Not bad, but it could be better.
/. only posted it in hopes of getting people to use the affiliate link...
I just had to comment about the review itself. The reviewer gives a couple of specific examples from the book. And his own comments, like:
MS Office
Windows Explorer
And sentances like:
Of course, one could point out if previous versions of Windows had been created "right" or "ran correctly," there wouldn't be need for a whole chapter (or even reams of books) on Microsoft fixes or how to get it to run properly.
(emphasis mine)
There's not much of a teaser or compelling "cliff hanger" to make one want to go buy this book. I suspect
About the book itself, aside from the one chapter about hardware issues, it seems to be yet another Windows (and Windows software) annoyances book, though if you're targetting the mainstream I suppose PC == Windows. It just doesn't sound much like an O'Reilly title, though...
NGWave - Fast Sound Editor for Windows
People who confuse the term PC with Windows.
Everything will be taken away from you.
Why are people always talking about removing Clippy? I never install him in the first place! There is an option called "Office Asstaint" (or something to that affect). Just uncheck that when installing and Clippy never existed!
I am but a lowly Windows 2000 user and know not of the intricacies of the magic of programs, so please forgive me. What is index.dat and why can't it be deleted without buying some software that claims to do so?
OMG. The parent poster is heralding the arrival of X windows's newest feature: changing resolution instantly.
It's ironic how today Microsoft declares Win98 EOL'd (which had instant res. changing) and we have this new feature everyone is so excited about.
Glurge
Microsoft is a dishonest company that pays people to lie on their behalf. When you say XP is stable and not buggy, you are either decieved or paid to say that. When you are dishonest, you bring down even your honest advocates, tough luck. When you lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. When you tie your system down with Microsoft, you get popups and all manner of buggy anoyances. My little brother keeps one of those nasty little boxes. He's good, but it sucks time and life. Good for you if you managed to weather the Slammer storm and all the other nasties that have jammed the web for the last 2 years thanks to XP.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
I don't want to just get rid of him... I want REVENGE!
The book never mentions Mozilla as a MUCH better and SAFER browser than any version of Internet Exploder. And the list of links for downloads also omits any mention of Mozilla. Now THAT is annoying. ANY book about annoyances in Windoze that doesn't even mention Mozilla is annoying.
Better book: SuSE Linux documentation that comes with SuSE Linux, with CDs, more software than can be listed, & ready to install on a Windoze PC (making it a dual boot PC), so you can use a stable & secure PC & avoid the annoyance of having to use Windoze. The SuSE distribution of Linux has the best printed documentation there is in Linux land.
"PC Annoyances" has one great feature: it shows how much better to just use Linux (or Mac OS X). Otherwise, it's mainly a plug for PC World (all the links go there also). I'm sick of that magazine. CPU magazine (Computer Power User) has a page by CmdrTaco (Slashdot creator) and another called Open Sauce in every issue.
"It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies."
"If the Nuremberg laws were applied today, then every Post-War American president would have to be hanged." --MIT Professor Noam Chomsky
The government has a defect: it's potentially democratic. Corporations have no defect: they're pure tyrannies. -MIT Ling
IRQs and generally the entire archaic PCI interface.Comming in at a close second is the Troll(much like me you pink motherfuckers)...
As far as Clippy.... right click on clippy, then click hide. I can't believe so many people are so annoyed by it, yet fail to see the obvious. This is an MS product after all, not something on the Mac. Think like someone who's got more than one button by default.
-]Phreak Out[-
That reminds me of something else.
Almost every dialog that has `no, yes, yes to all' option needs a `no to all' option.
I've never seen one, but I've needed it a stack of times.
Here is a way to get the Windows 2000 search screen in Windows XP.
You're welcome. :)
Nathan
whats that? you review a book and willingly addmit to not having broadband? there goes this reviewers credibility... jk
Human engineering is a whore to money, thus our technology is not formed of "tools" but "products."
Can Linux be used as a desktop system ? Absolutely -- provided that it's used for a fixed and limited number of tasks, and that a Linux guru is available on hand to maintain it. Will Linux be ready for the mainstream ? Perhaps, but that seems a long time in the future.
>|<*:=
Let's say for the sake of argument that you're all in the same department and running the same version of MS-Word. Wait 3 years and you've likely gone through at least two different versions of MS-Word and your older documents are not in the new file format. So you're still looking at loss of data, especially metadata, and formatting.
This is a long standing PC annonance and is starting to cost. Therefore many government agencies, businesses and institutions are looking at the OASIS format, which being open would reduce the rate at which it becomes obsolete. The Kingdom of Denmark is even taking the issue so seriously that there is consideration of an additional open format.
Personally, I figured out that most of my PC annoyances were really MS annoyances and things have been much simplified by using better products even if they are free (Linux, KDE, OOo, Mozilla) or not free (OS X, Opera).
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
I'm dissapointed that the EU anti-trust activities have not yet taken this tactic into account.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
One of the things that's always just really bugged me is that when you sort files in an explorer window by name, type, size, etc, it never does a stable sort. It tries to be helpful by, if you sort by type, listing all files of the same type in order by filename, but that's not what I freaking want!
.jpg files, because sorting them by type mixes all image files together, and sorts them by filename.
.foo files are just called "FOO" files. That would also solve the problem of having to look under "W" for mp3s, asfs, and rars, etc, which should be under, oh, I don't know, maybe M, A, and R?!?
Try to find, say, the largest txt file in a directory. Well, I'll just sort by size, then by type, right? WRONG! WTF is wrong with a stable sort?
A related thing is that it's impossible to sort by extension. It's pretty common for all image files to have the same "Type" (e.g., "Irfanview"), which makes it a real pain in the ass if you've just done a conversion and want to select JUST
I think a real useful program could just crawl through all your file associtaions and make it so
I play video games. Right now, a huge amount of my life is being sucked away by a great game called Disgaea. If you like games like Final Fantasy Tactics or Shining Force, you should immediatly buy this game.
But wait, it's not for the PC, it's for the Playstation 2. A piece of hardware which is smaller than and costs less than any PC, even the incredibly crappy ones. It doesn't need to be upgraded, runs basically silently, and has a MASSIVE library of great games. No crashing, no driver incompatibilities.
I love games, and I run Linux on the desktop. For me, it's a case of the right tool for the right job.
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
Where I work, we have building automation software which is only available for NT variants. Same deal with the software that controls our central plant, and the software that controls paint mixes for the paint shop. We're looking into facilities management software, and the one that does what we want, Maximus, will require 3 Windows servers (though we can use what we want for the client).
People not working in a traditional office WILL have that one weird piece of software that only runs on Windows. Half the time it's expensive and sucks, but you have no choice because no one is working on an alternative. OSS programmers don't tend to also be steamfitters.
Sure, I want to change this as much as possible, but it's a tall order. At least open source GIS stuff is being tackled.
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
Why is this book titled "PC Annoyances"? If it were called "Windows XP Annoyances" I would have known that I didn't want to bother reading the review. "PC Annoyances" makes it sound like a hardware book that I might have some interest in.
+1 funny please :)
HERE !
The first time I saw a recursive acronym ("MUNG Until No Good") I thought it was very funny. But that was 20 years ago, and the joke's beginning to get stale.
The Gay Nigger Association of America (GNAA) is the group that represents the world's Gay Nigger population as well as those non gay, non nigger patrons that support it. Its mission is to foster a gay and free-loving climate that supports and promotes our members' creative and financial vitality. Its members are the gay niggers that comprise the most vibrant national gay nigger conglomerate in the world. GNAA members create, manufacture and/or distribute approximately 90% of all legitimate pro-homosexual propaganda and blue, rubber dicks produced and sold in the United States.
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-posted by GNAA member Penisbird