Returning to the Windows2000 world after four months of Mac OS X is a very strange experience. I hadn't realized just how intuitive the Mac OS X really is. I quite like it.
And now, while Athena the laptop is being fixed again (AGAIN? yes.) I'm forced back into a Windows2000 PC to check email, do homework, and surf the web. Hoo boy. I don't like it. Don't like it at al.
Mostly, it's because the keyboard on this computer really sucks. The space bar is going into overdrive. Typing is nearly impossible. Just look at the space bar and you get three thousand spaces where you wanted a comma. It's also because Windows Sucks(tm).
The first thing I did was to turn off the Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) which is a system for one program to tell another program what to do. It was really designed for one computer to tell another computer what to do, but sort of evolved . It is one of the most insecure aspects of Windows. Most of the viruses and worms spread themselves by exploiting RPC flaws, because of its poor design.
Turns out that if you turn off RPC, you can't drag icons. That makes sense, except that it doesn't. WindowsUpdate stopped working too. And hotmail.com stopped working! Why the heck should hotmail require RPC? It doesn't need to run programs on my computer, all it has to do is spit out some web pages with my email. I click the link for a message, and the message shows up in a web page. So I gave up, and decided to turn RPC back on.
Oops... looks like the bit of software that turns on services (RPC isn't really a program, its more of a "service") can't open a window without RPC. The thing that turns RPC on and off requires RPC. To turn on RPC you need to turn on RPC first, which means turning on RPC before you can turn on RPC, but that can only be done if you've turned on RPC before you try to turn on RPC... ad nauseum. ad hominem. ad hoc.
How does one turn on RPC without first turning on RPC? Well... first you have to turn on RPC.
Comments (4)
What's wrong with Athena now? I seem to be the only one I know who's purchased a Mac in the last year and who's had no problems as of yet (knocks on wood.)
Posted by Robbie-Rü | February 18, 2004 12:51 AM
Posted on February 18, 2004 00:51
Apple's hardware has it's quirks but generally I find it more reliable than most Windows machines. The only level of stability I would consider comparable in the Windows world is Dell.
This is, of course, hardware issues. Software is a whole other ball game. My Mac has crashed on me about 6 times since I bought it a little over 2.5 years ago.
My Windows box (Dell) at work on the other hand has crashed on me an average of 2 to 3 times a month. My windows box (not a Dell) at home crashes on me an average of 6 t0 7 times a month.
And there is so many things to say about the non-intuitiveness of windows but I will say that text selection that exceeds a windows worth is the worst offender in my mind. One second you've got a paragraph you want to copy and the next second you've got the entire text highlighted. The selection rate is WAY too high.
There's also no feedback on applications loading and I can't force quit the ones that are loading if I have accidentally launched an application from the application shortcut bar.
My third favorite Windows flaw is that you select X files and right click on them and select "open" and the first one in the list is opened into the launched application. I thought Windows was suppose to be more document oriented? Shouldn't it open all the files into seperate instances of the application? (or at least appear to do so). No, it just opens one of them.
Having said that, I like the windows explorer hierarchy. I find navigation in my Windows environment *slightly* faster than in MacOS X. I generally have my left-hand folder bar (whatever it's called on the Mac) loaded with 30 or so of my often used folders.
Expose is a GOD-SEND! If you haven't experienced it. You don't know what you're missing. If you have experienced it, you'll find that you can't imagine your world without it.
Really the OSes are compariable which should say something about the much smaller OS builder Apple. Can we say "If you have a infinite number of monkeys, coding all of the time, you're still not going to do as well as your competitors"?
I hear your pain. I hope Athena is back on her feet soon and giving you the experience you deserve. :)
Posted by majeric | February 18, 2004 9:01 AM
Posted on February 18, 2004 09:01
She's freezing up a lot. Like, almost every day. It is very obviously a RAM problem. She was fine until the new ram went in.
Posted by michael | February 19, 2004 5:18 PM
Posted on February 19, 2004 17:18
eep...wasn't this the problem last time as well?
Posted by Robbie-Rü | February 20, 2004 11:13 AM
Posted on February 20, 2004 11:13