What's wrong with computing today
Time to share what is right and what is wrong about computers and the Web today. Shall we embark?
---America Online drives many people nuts but insert the new 9.0 CD into your CD drive and you’ll find after installation it has automatically upgraded your browser to Internet Explorer 6.0 (what if we didn’t want it?), installed five icons on the desktop and reset your home page to AOL.COM, all without asking. It was pretty annoying, too.
---Nothing compares with Real Player, which grabs control of your computer, renames your first-born child to “Abner” and otherwise makes a pest of itself. Real is bracing itself for another fight with Microsoft about Media Player and the first step it needs to undergo is become friendly and learn to get along with others. My favorite Real trick is when it pops up a message that “another application” has stolen the file associations it wants and would you like to “fix” the error? Most people are going to hit “Yes” and will soon find their music is being controlled by the Real Player.
---Itunes 4.5 is now doing it to me, too. Every once in a while, I get the message “Would you like Itunes to be your default media player?” and every time I check “no” and every few days it pops up again. I may have to check yes just to keep it from driving me nuts. (Yes, I always check the “never ask me this again” thing, too.)
---It hit “eject” the other day on my CD burner and found the tray ejected on the floor along with the disc. I fiddled with it for a while, then decided I needed a new one anyway (with DVD capability.) When I bought the new one ($119 for a CD and DVD burner!) I found the a sticker on the old one that it had been manufactured in 1998, a real lifetime for PCs. I remember buying the burner for $499 and being impressed by its 2X burning speed. The new one burns at least 20 times faster than the other one.
---The Internet continues to amaze me in terms of the breadth and depth of content. You have to remember, this whole think is still a teenager. In doing my family tree research I managed to find guys who served with my uncle in the 457th Bomb Group in World War II, who survived with him in Stalag Luft III and dozens of other relatives I never knew I had. In thinking about how fast this whole thing has happened, I recall that I was possible for a person to be born at a time to see the Wright Brothers’ first flight at Kitty Hawk and see Americans on the moon, all in a single lifetime.
---Spam remains a terrible intrusion on our lives. I am testing one of those remailing things. If you mail me something to one of my accounts, it automatically mails you right back. You have to type in a small word to prove you’re a human and resend. (You only have to do it once). It seems to me if we all do this we’re going to drive each other nuts.
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