I Ain’t Dead
I remember why I hate new computers.
OK, I figured out how to turn off the touch pad [extremely simple when you know] and am using a wireless mouse, so that problem is solved. [No, I did not buy the Couch Mouse.] So now I can work in a more normal fashion.
I beat up on the file manager and forced it to do some things my way, so now I have my tried-and-true e-mail client working on the new machine by simply copying the directory to the appropriate spot on the new disc and running the install program again.
In the midst of that I was aware that Firefox 6 has been released and decided to update it on the new machine. That was a mistake, having nothing to do with Firefox. Apparently Toshiba and M$ detected an update in progress and decided to join in. The Firefox update would never have finished at the rate M$ and Toshiba were hogging bandwidth, so I cancelled that and waited.
M$ predicted the Apocalypse if I didn’t immediately update the machine that had just downloaded 78 updates yesterday, and added a further ‘critical update’ before the original updates finished. They lie and tell you, that you can continue working, but you know they are going to re-boot the computer at the end, so you sit there waiting.
So, after that mess was done, I got to deal with Toshiba, which decided for the first upgrade to the machine to do a BIOS burn. It is a multiple step process that requires accessing the BIOS set-up and the use of functions keys at various points along the way. Not too many ways someone could screw-up their new computer [/sarcasm].
So after all that drama, I finally updated Firefox, and it informed me that an Adobe Flash upgrade needed to be installed. M$ and Adobe on the same day really puts a strain on my anger management program.
Hopefully I will be back to some real blogging later tonight.
9 comments
Y’know, installing Fedora or Ubuntu requires a big glop of updates download at the end of the process too, but at least that big glop runs all at the same time. What annoys me about Windows is that you install updates, reboot… then it says it’s got MORE updates, install updates, reboot… wash, rince, repeat, it’s like that old joke that goes “You have moved your mouse, reboot? (y/n)” about how often Windows needs rebooting.
The sad thing is that there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with Windows 7 / Win2K8R2 that would require this annoying wash-rinse-repeat process, it’s just a case of Microsoft having written their software updates program back in the days of Windows XP and never bothered updating it to modern standards. SIIIIiiiiiigh!
– Badtux the Easily Annoyed Penguin
I fully expected the first dump. Even though the machine was assembled a month ago, there is no way of being sure how up-to-date the master disc was. That’s why I booted the machine and read a book the first time, because that’s the nature of the process. But that was yesterday, and re-booting today and finding all of these updates is truly annoying, especially when it interferes with what I was attempting to accomplish within a given time frame.
Ahhh, yessss… I do feel the pain!! Yes indeedy… *SIGH*!
There are a few easier ways to get updates. 🙂
I used to use a great program called AutoPatcher, but the M$ bullies forced NeoWin to cease and desist (even though they were doing nothing illegal). Anyway, there are still others.
CTUpdate (WSUS Offline)
This works with all Win’s from XP to Win7/2008 R2 server x64, and Office & .NET. It also allows you to create an ISO image of the d/l updates and other features. 🙂
Windiz Update
This one is actually a plugin for various browsers, incl FF & Opera. I haven’t used it for some time, but the site is still up! 😉 😀
For the crappy Adobe plugins (without all the stupid questions and agreements, silent install!)
Alternative Flash Player Auto-Updater
You can leave it running in the background, and it will silently update whenever a new version is released (and stops those annoying “You need to update your flash player” when you visit a website with Flash (ie. almost all of them!)
Good luck! 😉
[No, I did not buy the Couch Mouse.]
no need to! i’ve got the very cheapest ~$10 logitech wireless optical mouse and it not only works fabulously well on blankets, table cloths, and blue jeans, it’s very thrifty with batteries too.
Ahhh, mice.
My mouse is the Logitech Darkfield Anywhere MX. Perfect registration regardless of what surface you use it on, large enough to hold onto but small enough to be portable with a laptop computer, has five buttons and a wobble wheel and I use every single one of them (I assign the side buttons to Expose on the Mac and to Logitech’s equivalent on the Windows gaming machine)… it’s expensive, but I spend roughly 10 hours a day using a computer, and getting frustrated by a lousy mouse that doesn’t have the right number of buttons or is too large or too small or doesn’t have precise registration or won’t work on the conference room table or etc., well, life’s too short for that kind of nonsense.
I have a Logitech mouse/kb also! I’ve tried 2 M$ set’s and they were both horrible (No, really!) Anyway… I picked up a Logitech MX 5500 Revolution Bluetooth with very high precision laser mouse. I only got it because I saw it at a closing down sale for half price! Was a steal. 😀 The only problem is that I have to remember to put the mouse on the charger cradle when I’m not using it! 😉
Ah yes, keyboards. I’m the same way with keyboards as I am with mice. Most keyboards are big clunky things, then Apple introduced their slim little aluminum keyboard. No more wrist pads or other such nonsense to keep your wrists on level with the keyboard, lower the keyboard down to the level of your wrists and voila! Well, that keyboard works well if you are using MacOS, not so well under Windows or Linux because it lacks a DEL key (which makes ctrl-alt-del somewhat hard to type to log into modern Win2K8, heh!). I found a small Chinese-made keyboard at Central Computer (which is run by a Chinese guy who has connections in China and gets all sorts of cool cheap Chinese stuff) but it was intended for data center use in those little trays they put on racks, so it lacked a keypad and some keys too, though it’s small and thin enough that I keep one of them in a drawer at my office in case I get called to diagnose some balky machine that isn’t hooked up to anything (also have a small LCD monitor and a spare mouse for that purpose). So anyhow, finally I found a flat wired Logitech keyboard that they call simply “Logitech Illuminated Keyboard”, which also solved *another* problem, which is that my keyboard in my home office is on a tray beneath my desk that places my hands at the correct level to avoid wrist pain (that whole 10 hours a day thing again), and I keep the lighting low in my home office to avoid glare, which means that my keyboard is somewhat shadowed and hard to see if it’s not self-illuminating.
Yes, I apply this same attention to detail to the products I design myself. Why do you think they pay me the $$$ they pay me? Not because they like to do so, heh! Anyhow, I did not set out to have Logitech mice and keyboards on my desks (home and work), but the pile of keyboards and mice that *didn’t* work for me attests to the fact Logitech simply makes the best keyboards and mice on the planet at the moment, with the possible exception of Apple’s corded aluminum keyboard with the keypad. Their mice even work better with MacOS than Apple’s own mice!
Oooh, just went to the Logitech site and discovered they have a *new* flat keyboard out now, a *solar powered* wireless keyboard. And it will use the same receiver as my wireless mouse, so I end up using one less USB port too. Not getting one for the home office due to the illumination issue (if it’s too dark to see my keys it’s too dark to charge a solar keyboard, heh!), but reducing the wires on my desktop at work certainly would be an excellent thing to do. (My desktop at work looks more like a mad scientist’s workshop, due to all the hardware laying around on it, and the wires have gotten completely out of hand).
Shiny. So shiny…. (geek drool).
I bought an M315 and it actually has an on/off switch to save the battery.
M$ once made a good mouse, but they screwed it up making it cheaper to manufacture, the same with IBM keyboards which were the gold standard among touch-typists.
Logitech rules input these days because they apparently listen to people and use their own products.
I used M$ mice until I had to switch to using my left hand for the mouse. The M$ mouse was just uncomfortable. I didn’t switch the buttons, I use it with my hand at an angle to the mouse and have a wrist rest. I assumed that I would go back to my right hand when it healed, but am too used to doing left-handed to bother, If my left arm gives out, I can make the move, but with the Logitech shape I don’t think the problem will recur.