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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!
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!
> 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?
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.
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.
My favorite one (which makes me swear everytime I see it) is, when uninstalling a program, I see these too dialog boxes:
:)
1) the file yaddayadda.dll is not being used by any other programs and can be safely removed. Remove? (yes/no)
Then when you click 'OK'...
2) Another program may be using that DLL!!! Dear god! Are you sure?!!! (no/no)
friggin CYA programmers
"Faith: Belief without evidence in what is told by one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel." - A.B.
You are scared. Be honest, say "I am scared of other operating systems".
Hmm... after you repeat these words:
"I am afraid to move out of my parent's basement, get a job, and stop posting dumbass comments on Slashdot all day"
Say it! Say it!
Some of us work for "companies" with "IT Departments" who have "rules" and tell us what to "do" to get "money".
Also, some of us like playing video games, or having a home theatre PC, both of which are a giant pain/impossible on Linux.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
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.
I used to throw bricks at my monitor until I realized that my monitor had done nothing wrong.
Finally I had to break down and buy a magnesium alloy case becuse computers are su much more expensive than tubes.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It's getting caught where the trouble lies.
I don't think I need a book to tell me about the annoyances of Windows 98...
ascii art
I smelled fear. I struck.
TallGreen CMS hosting
Not being able to run the latest email virus is an annoyance?
I need a life more like yours.
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This gives rise to one of my favorite acronyms:
DWIMNWIT (lovingly pronounced as 'dimwit')
Do What I Mean Not What I Typed
So, it _was_ the computer's fault all along!
The preceding comment has been reviewed and declared to be compliant with HIPPA Phase II regulations.
Amateurs ... you need to smash the KEYBOARD. You can get a new keyboard for like $10, and a lot of problems could be the fault of the keyboard.
.c program? I'm sure you hit it, the keyboard probably didn't register it. SMAAAAAAAAASH
Spend an hour looking for a missing ; in a
And how about that process locking up, it's probably polling the keyboard somewhere in its code, that could be the problem. SMAAAAASH!!!
It's here and it's called a ZX Spectrum?
There are people out there that pay for MS licenses? Really?
You've posted 9 comments in an hour and a half here. How freakin' productive could you possibly be?
"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."
Holy hell, a woman can use Linux? Then Linux must be pretty easy to use if a simple woman can figure it out
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They should make that a default configuration option, the '-mother' switch. :)
"Click here if your mother sends you e-mail." hehe