HOME

The Fam.

Mac Links

Local Links

Comment

Projects

Family Tree

Tree Project

Site Map

What's New

Editorial -in the fifth part-  

Send a note to The author get in touch ICQ #6541622 Enjoy this page? Vote

A reminder: What does it all mean? The time honored tradition of keep an eye open for any and all good reasons to poke holes into things. As a reader thus far you may know full well it is not very difficult to find humor however sic in the world of DOS boxes. You may read into this as "lets have fun with the DOS box way of doing things in the most difficult and handicaped method possible." It said right there on the software box, "for Windows 95 or better", so I bought a Mac. Poking fun at PC's gives me great joy because it is so easy, on the other hand a Mac user or owner will tell you they are treated by their machine with respect. Respect in one example such as when you pop a disk into a drive the contents will present itself on the desktop, PC users will agree you must hunt down the contents of a disk (if you have prior knowledge of where to look) and pray that it will be there. Networked drives are a whole story to themselves. I've been writing about this since 1997 and to this day nothing has improved generally in the PC world. At the office, countless upgrades and hardware updates have entertained me for years. Sad that we cannot fix the trouble ourselves (network related password protected, yadda, yadda) because I would rather be doing something else beside listening to "Your call is important to us, please remain holding for the next available....." The desktop support staff are tired of listening to our whining and complaining, mind you they have done exactly nothing to fix our complaints. They show up and poke around saying all is well and leave. We have been duped again.

010330 - Today's Rant It's been about one and a half years since I last had a rant, partly because I have become complacent and fighting the battle has become a lost cause. Don't think for a minute that I have given up hope, it is the state of DOS propelled networking that will never show any sign of improvement that has me resigned to "it looks like it is not changing any time soon." By any time soon I am trying to say the generations following me will only know that networked and stand alone DOS boxes simply stated "just work that way." Sad I must say for our human state of mind to become so comfortable with this insult to our intelligence that the company of Bill has the DOS believers of the planet convinced this is the way it should be. Lemmings are smarter. Today's story 010330 - I have done a terrible thing. I am not comfortable with it at all. I am not looking for fodder to put here but the time to solve the problem that has nagged us at the office for 11 years is going to take a step. Last week after a frustrating few days of trying to get the network and DOS box to spit out some goods I gave my head a shake and came to the conclusion, nobody is going to fix things unless I do it myself. This alone is not a divine revelation in itself but it is a step that no one to date has taken. That makes it a profound step indeed. Consider the result of "announcements" from 11 years past that all will be approaching nirvana when DOS boxes reach the hands of common folk, propaganda floats. ... top of next column ...

One or two rums later I had a pseudo business case put together to obtain a laptop DOS box waffle iron. Think about it, how can I control the state of care and feeding and at the same time know when and how the thing will behave the next time it is used? One of two ways (there is a third, but they won't buy me one) the first being to lock it a room but trouble here is you must decide where that room is going to be, if available. Second method would be to take the machine with me. Thinking may do the most damage at this point, goals for computing bliss with demands made for computational horsepower and flexibility are as we speak falling on deaf ears. I am not privy to the secret handshake required when purchasing such waffle iron devices so I simply stated the obvious. We need this and that, nothing more. Well as it stands we may get something else. The story will continue, ad nauseum The whole problem of the DOS office environment that has caused us grief for MANY years could be partly solved by some innovative thinking and wise purchases at the onset. Time and money saved will be immediate for an extra few dollars spent at the start. As sure as I am sitting here, this will not happen and it is my fear we are taking a step backward at light speed. The Dilbert method of survival must be applied liberally each day.

NOTE: The feedback part has moved to another page. Please click once more.

"Is that seat saved? No, but we're praying for it!"