Sunday 24 May 2009

Stupid, annoying, useless bloody computer

I am so glad that critical things like nuclear power plants and space shuttles don't run on Windows Vista. As an operating system, I like it. It's much smoother and cooler and more reliable and stable than what came before it - but it's still not perfect. Every few weeks, my PC just rolls over on its back and refuses to do what it is supposed to do. That generally happens after an update of some sort has been installed. The key sign of the PC going pear shaped is iTunes failing to launch, and that is a disaster, since I need to regularly replenish the iPod in the car with fresh podcasts. How can I survive the trip to and from work without podcasts?

I have just spent the morning removing all the most recent updates, as well as trawling through my list of installed software and chucking out what I don't regularly use. I said goodbye to my TomTom GPS software, which I used once or twice when I bought the GPS, and have never used since. Away went a batch of utilities that I used for a specific purpose, and have not used again. Out went printers that we no longer have. The PC has been rebooted more times than I can count. Some things are still not working as they should - I sense a total wipe and rebuild is on the horizon, but that is something I am not looking forward to. I will just have to struggle on for the moment, backing up my vital stuff and hoping that this flaming clunker holds together.

It's times like these that a Mac starts to look really good.

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