Hell As Computer Progress
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Are you tired of computer progress? Lately, I have had a number of encounters with questionable computer program “progress” that were expensive and dangerous. Welcome to Computer Program Hell.
Last night, my wife went to read her emails. She has an AOL account, and the email listings said “temporarily unavailable.” I got on line to help her out through the AOL online tech support, and was told by the tech gal that the problem was with the AOL server which was being upgraded to serve us better. She said she would report the problem, but didn’t know how long it would take to fix (24 hours). So much for serving us better.
Do you like using Microsoft Office that you have to buy every time you purchase a new computer? Microsoft Word is the standard for word processing programs. The newest update that is used with Microsoft Vista has a glitch. If you save your Word document as a Word document, and email it to someone who doesn’t have the Word for Vista program, it opens as gobblygook. One has to learn to save the document as a Word 97-2003 document in order for the receiver to open it. If that isn’t progress, what is?
Microsoft Vista itself is interesting “progress.” Although I like it as an operating system, it is incompatible with pretty much every other program I own, including my 200 gig external extra storage hard drive (that was a full afternoon of work); and also including Quick Books for Business, which many businesses, including my own, use on a regular basis. So when I bought my two new computers this year, not only did I have to buy the new Microsoft Office pack for Word, but I had to buy a new Quick Books program for my business….and do the teaberry shuffle with my 10 years of accounting files to be able to access them. So far, the only ones to benefit from all of this progress are the coffers of Microsoft, HP, and Intuit Quicken.
Microsoft continually tries to upgrade its Vista system. My Microsoft favorite upgrades are the ones that interrupt what you are doing to “restart” your computer to take advantage of the “progress.” There is actually a countdown. At least the HP upgrades flash until you finally allow them to connect to the internet. God only knows what has been shoved into my broadband pipe from HP.
Then there is wireless progress. Microsoft Vista is incompatible with Microsoft wireless add-ons, like the wireless keyboard and mouse. It interferes with the timed screen saver and sleep mode activation clock. You have to download a patch. Of course, they don’t tell you that. You have to figure it out for yourself.
And let’s not forget the free “upgrades”. Java kept telling me I had to upgrade. That was a hoot. By the time I was done, it had taken complete control of my computer, added numerous tool bars to my Desktop, and changed my browser from Internet Explorer to something else. I had an enjoyable afternoon trying to undo the Java damage. The only Java I upgrade now is Maxwell House.
But at the end of the day, there is no progress like AOL progress. The AOL program I have on my Vista computer at the office continually asks whether or not I wish to change my CD player from whatever was installed on my computer to the AOL CD player. I tell it “no” several times each day. I asked AOL tech how to fix it, they couldn’t tell me, but advised me to install a new AOL program. See Below.
On my new 5 month old computer at home, the AOL program which worked fine with Vista, asked every 5 minutes if I wanted to upgrade to the new AOL 9.0 VR (Vista Ready). After months of looking at it, on July 4, I succumbed and installed the upgrade, which in turn, completely infected my computer with AOL programs throughout my entire system. Of course, the AOL program itself didn’t work. It took me 4 hours on the phone with the AOL Tech people (who were useless), hours with my tech guy (who had to go file by file to remove all of the hidden AOL files from my operating system); advice from on line AOL Tech people which told me to reinstall my operating system…right; and a week of online research from my office computer to figure out how to get my computer and AOL to work as it did pre-upgrade. I won't bore you with what I had to do to fix it.
It sort of works now, enough that my wife can use the AOL program. It is still flashing for me to upgrade to AOL 9.0 VR, but we ALWAYS click install later. That doesn’t count the flashing pop-ups saying that certain AOL files are unable to initiate. Those are the email files. In my research, I have found thousands of other people who have experienced the same thing with the AOL upgrade. I know one local individual who experience exactly the same thing. It is clear that the AOL 9.0 VR upgrade was and is not ready for prime time.
I wouldn’t be so upset, except computers are expensive pieces of equipment, and no one should tell you to download anything that it knows is problematic, knows it can cost you a lot of money to remedy the situation, or perhaps destroy your operating system. The worst offender is AOL. Time Warner should know better. Remedy to follow. Watch the news.
Are you tired of computer progress? Lately, I have had a number of encounters with questionable computer program “progress” that were expensive and dangerous. Welcome to Computer Program Hell.Last night, my wife went to read her emails. She has an AOL account, and the email listings said “temporarily unavailable.” I got on line to help her out through the AOL online tech support, and was told by the tech gal that the problem was with the AOL server which was being upgraded to serve us better. She said she would report the problem, but didn’t know how long it would take to fix (24 hours). So much for serving us better.
Do you like using Microsoft Office that you have to buy every time you purchase a new computer? Microsoft Word is the standard for word processing programs. The newest update that is used with Microsoft Vista has a glitch. If you save your Word document as a Word document, and email it to someone who doesn’t have the Word for Vista program, it opens as gobblygook. One has to learn to save the document as a Word 97-2003 document in order for the receiver to open it. If that isn’t progress, what is?
Microsoft Vista itself is interesting “progress.” Although I like it as an operating system, it is incompatible with pretty much every other program I own, including my 200 gig external extra storage hard drive (that was a full afternoon of work); and also including Quick Books for Business, which many businesses, including my own, use on a regular basis. So when I bought my two new computers this year, not only did I have to buy the new Microsoft Office pack for Word, but I had to buy a new Quick Books program for my business….and do the teaberry shuffle with my 10 years of accounting files to be able to access them. So far, the only ones to benefit from all of this progress are the coffers of Microsoft, HP, and Intuit Quicken.
Microsoft continually tries to upgrade its Vista system. My Microsoft favorite upgrades are the ones that interrupt what you are doing to “restart” your computer to take advantage of the “progress.” There is actually a countdown. At least the HP upgrades flash until you finally allow them to connect to the internet. God only knows what has been shoved into my broadband pipe from HP.
Then there is wireless progress. Microsoft Vista is incompatible with Microsoft wireless add-ons, like the wireless keyboard and mouse. It interferes with the timed screen saver and sleep mode activation clock. You have to download a patch. Of course, they don’t tell you that. You have to figure it out for yourself.
And let’s not forget the free “upgrades”. Java kept telling me I had to upgrade. That was a hoot. By the time I was done, it had taken complete control of my computer, added numerous tool bars to my Desktop, and changed my browser from Internet Explorer to something else. I had an enjoyable afternoon trying to undo the Java damage. The only Java I upgrade now is Maxwell House.
But at the end of the day, there is no progress like AOL progress. The AOL program I have on my Vista computer at the office continually asks whether or not I wish to change my CD player from whatever was installed on my computer to the AOL CD player. I tell it “no” several times each day. I asked AOL tech how to fix it, they couldn’t tell me, but advised me to install a new AOL program. See Below.
On my new 5 month old computer at home, the AOL program which worked fine with Vista, asked every 5 minutes if I wanted to upgrade to the new AOL 9.0 VR (Vista Ready). After months of looking at it, on July 4, I succumbed and installed the upgrade, which in turn, completely infected my computer with AOL programs throughout my entire system. Of course, the AOL program itself didn’t work. It took me 4 hours on the phone with the AOL Tech people (who were useless), hours with my tech guy (who had to go file by file to remove all of the hidden AOL files from my operating system); advice from on line AOL Tech people which told me to reinstall my operating system…right; and a week of online research from my office computer to figure out how to get my computer and AOL to work as it did pre-upgrade. I won't bore you with what I had to do to fix it.
It sort of works now, enough that my wife can use the AOL program. It is still flashing for me to upgrade to AOL 9.0 VR, but we ALWAYS click install later. That doesn’t count the flashing pop-ups saying that certain AOL files are unable to initiate. Those are the email files. In my research, I have found thousands of other people who have experienced the same thing with the AOL upgrade. I know one local individual who experience exactly the same thing. It is clear that the AOL 9.0 VR upgrade was and is not ready for prime time.
I wouldn’t be so upset, except computers are expensive pieces of equipment, and no one should tell you to download anything that it knows is problematic, knows it can cost you a lot of money to remedy the situation, or perhaps destroy your operating system. The worst offender is AOL. Time Warner should know better. Remedy to follow. Watch the news.
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