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I mentioned to a coworker that I was buying an iMac to do some xcode development:

Joe: That’s a lot of Apple devices.
Me: What do you mean, I only have a *thinks* iPhone, iPad, and iPod.
Joe: That’s 4, which is nearly fanboy-level.
Me: Nah, I think my Windows netbook, desktop, home server, web server, exercise computer, big laptop, and overwhelming urge to buy a Ford Fiesta to get a vehicle with Sync balances it out.
Joe: You’re safe.

If I get another Apple device, I’m going to have to buy 2 Microsoft products to keep the peace.

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My brother’s girlfriend’s sister’s computer wasn’t working  so I figured I’d give it a crack.  My standard test setup is a 20″ monitor, with a ps/2 keyboard and mouse which were useless as this computer had a DSUB 15 monitor connector and no ps/2 ports only USB.  I plugged in my spare G15 and MX518 and was able to boot into the BIOS and did some initial checks.  I then booted to Windows XP and was stymied by the keyboard and mouse not being recognized.  Well they were, but I needed to click the little button to let Windows load the appropriate drivers, which I couldn’t do, as I had no keyboard or mouse… until I clicked on that button, which I couldn’t.

I’m normally impressed with what I can only call the tenacity of Windows to create drivers out of bubblegum and tape to figure out something.  Sure it may cut your printing speed by a factor of 10 or your monitor will only show 4  colors but it works until you can get something done.  Today, that died…

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Windows 7 was nice.  Taking a trip to the near future was quaint despite failing to deliver the ZFS filesystem I’d been promised years ago as well as the virtualized hardware model I read about in 2002 that won’t be out until Midori which may beat the Mayan Apocalypse.  The last straws were the idea that I’d probably have to do two reinstalls of an OS before I could call it stable and somewhat hairy nature of the beta video card drivers on which no blu-ray codec could run.   My personal favorite was the three part cycle of errors when I changed microphones.  The first told me the existing microphone didn’t exist and I’d have to pick a new one.  The second one told me I had two selected and that I’d have to restart.  The final one told me the new default device wasn’t valid and it’d default back to the previous device from which I was trying to change.  The only way out was to interrupt the 2nd “searching for a solution” dialog, not the first nor third would do.

So I reinstalled Vista and I felt at home again:

  • I installed Office 2007 without a registration key, when I entered it after reading the Excel file containing it, the installer started to reinstall, stopped halfway through, said the install failed and then produced the “Successful Installation” dialog.
  • Vista would report an error with a hardware device, recommend I update to a new driver and then show me one older than drivers I have.
  • Finally, I had to have admin access to remove a shortcut from the desktop.

I have a theory, Microsoft was concerned people found computers intimidating, nothing brings one’s opinion of something else down faster than watching it fail.  Vista reminds the user of his or her relative competence in spades.  I missed you, Vista.

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I found the following in an Economist.com article on why kids can’t read:

No question, without a wimpy GUI, computers would never have become as popular as they are today. The command-line interface—with its forbidding prompt and blinking cursor—required mastering a whole catechism of arcane instructions that only a priesthood of computerdom could cherish.

When “root@computername:~# shutdown -h now” could be replaced by a simple click of a mouse to switch off a computer, novices of all ages and backgrounds could climb aboard the digital bandwagon.

via Economist.com 

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I found the following in an Economist.com article on why kids can’t read:

No question, without a wimpy GUI, computers would never have become as popular as they are today. The command-line interface—with its forbidding prompt and blinking cursor—required mastering a whole catechism of arcane instructions that only a priesthood of computerdom could cherish.

When “root@computername:~# shutdown -h now” could be replaced by a simple click of a mouse to switch off a computer, novices of all ages and backgrounds could climb aboard the digital bandwagon.

via Economist.comÂ