XP is garbage

Hello Joel,

Our toaster does that wonderfully. Ok, for good results you can't necessarily buy the $10 editions. Ours is from Walmart and was around $20. Works nicely. I just don't see why I'd need a uC in that. It's just something additional that can fail and it probably won't like the flakiness of our power grid out here much. Every once in a while 10-20 cycles go AWOL. I guess they won't spring for a large enough cap to bridge that and then the uC won't remember the state of the Wonderbread slice. Can't write to flash that fast. In contrast, ye olde bi-metal spring does remember...

Anyway, the best toasted bread comes out of the Weber charcoal grill, along with a nice juicy tri-tip and a Pale Ale on the side.

Regards, Joerg

Power corrupts; PowerPoint corrupts absolutely.

John

Not even close, my friend. I am around here learning from intelligent engineers, and I get a kick out of watching people get bent out of shape over nothing. That ain't no more trolling than "f*ck man" or any of the other people here who speak their mind.

Quit trying to twist things to fit your agenda.

If you want to be the group cop, you have to get a hat and a badge.

People who love Microsoft are never going to change the minds of those who think it is just a bit short of being any good. People who believe in God aren't gonna change the minds of those who don't accept God. Nothing you can say will change one person's mind here.

JB

Hello John,

It wasn't that bad. Except that some folks needed to be assured that it's all ok so far. We weren't that far from the Belgian coast, maybe an hour or so. The landing was impressive. Not just that the pilot made this a perfect "greaser" on one engine but there also was what seemed to be all the fire engines and ambulances that Frankfurt could muster waiting for our arrival. What impressed me most was that they cleared the whole airspace around Frankfurt. Logistically that's no small feat.

A more scary one was after a start in a very maxed out old Dornier. The otherwise calm and experienced pilot started to let of some expletives as the tall pine trees came close and closer, the stall horn was blaring all the time, and our parachutes wouldn't have done us any good because we were barely 40 feet above ground level. We ended up just clearing the tops but you could see the snow being blown off as we "flew" over.

Regards, Joerg

Loads of hits from Google.

The original DOOM used a 32 bit DOS extender IIRC.

Graham

Hello JB,

That's a good one. Here is another that really happened: A bunch of guys on the way to a sports event didn't want to check in their expensive parachute gear so they wore it on their backs before boarding. A curious passenger asked why they had parachutes on. Answer: "What do you mean, you don't wear one? With this airline?"

Regards, Joerg

For all intents and purposes, you just admitted to Trolling.

...

Look, I have no idea what planet you came from, but I know A LOT about XP/2k/98/95/3.11, and I'm NOT holding up M$'s products. I said I do not like the fact that there is only one mainstream OS, but since there is no viable alternative, I am forced to use it. You can say that you hate Windows, but if your boss hands you a .PPT document and asks you to tweak the last frame, are you going to politely explain to him how you can't, because you don't believe in Windows?

If you can make my hardware, Proteus VSM, MASM32, and Sony Vegas Video run on any flavor of Linux, then I might consider the [daunting] task of switching. But as of right now, XP has been the greatest M$ OS I've seen yet. I think more than half of the problems all you guys say are the OS's fault, are actually hardware/configuration issues. When I say configuration, I'm not implying that you must leave all the XP settings at the defaults - my system has had most of the XP tweaks disabled to increase speed. But it has been meticuously tweaked also, right down to obscure registry tweaks like the "offload LAN handling to NIC processor" setting and the TCP parameters optimized for cable (yielding a

When I built my current box, I built the whole thing around a SolTek mainboard

- one of the best board manufacturers in existance IMHO. I really did my homework; since I built a '486 system once from a cheap board and a fresh install of windows 98 would not even run. That hardware was junk! It is possible to build a worthless computer on which any OS will give you grief, just as it is possible to build a great computer which will run fine. Even pre-built computers are not immune to flaky hardware - does anyone remember the old Packard Bells? Many a service tech has a story there, undoubtedly.

There are many factors that influence OS stability and performance, aside from the actual hardware itself. Bus/memory/video timings are critical, also temperature and even vibration play a role. For instance, when I overclock my video ram and cpu, if I turn up either clock just 2MHz, I'll start getting random lockups. I spent probably 15 hours testing various BIOS combinations along with hardware and software diagnostics to achive the highest stability and performance possible with my hardware. Yep, a whole day was sacrificed to optimize the PC - before any apps were installed on it. It may seem pointless, but just look at the end result. This level of thoroughness likely stems from being a PC Technician supervisor for 5 years, but realistically all the details on how to tune any new system can be found at a place like Tom's Hardware. You just have to do it (when the system is built) so you don't find out about these problems later.

That said, those who don't like XP's "stability" could always switch to CP/M... or QNX for that matter.

p.s. I only recall seeing one processor exception error -ever- in Linux.

Agree completely. XP is the first microsoft OS I've actually trusted. Versions with the old kernel, and the FAT32 file system, are simply too likely to fail and take your file system with it. XP allows FAT32, but if any of you are still running it, CONVERT NOW! You can easily convert to NTFS, which is head and shoulders above FAT32, in terms of reliability.

Before I switched my kid's machine to NTFS, it would crash on a monthly basis, and take the g-damned file system with it. That would mean a total wipe/reinstall. When I decided to switch to NTFS, the system got much more stable. It hasn't crashed since. (2 years ago...!) It runs constantly, with lots of wierd downloads, kazaa lite, etc. My eldest daughter likes to install whizzy graphical thingies. It is stable as a rock. The main problem was spyware, but I've now got that under control.

Linux is now sporting an app called 'wine', which allows many applications to run. You can install a windows environment, and it'll run under linux. Or, you can just install wine itself, and many applications (LTSpice, for example) will run just fine. For the windows environment, however, it must be a FAT32 formatted disk, since linux doesn't really like NTFS all that much. The write support is unusable.

People buy Mac OSX... however, they spent lots of money getting things to work reliably in compatibility mode, which allowed users to keep using their old apps. I believe that Mac OSX is the best OS out there, by far. It's based on the mach microkernel and the BSD utility set, and has a great object oriented graphical runtime environment. The only real issue is that the Next guys Jobs hired decided that objective c would be a great implementation language. Those Apple products always seem to have an Achilles heel. It's because of their secret love of smalltalk, I think.

Well, I wasn't really replying to him, but to reinforce your point that VMware can almost civilise Windows, for the benefit of others. That said, I was pushed onto XP at work (so run Debian under it using VMWare), and it's really quite good now. Has it's annoyances, but tolerable.

"Free acces" (sic) .... free? Whew that was close, but I pinched a loaf already today, I think while reading your last post. Yes..... yes windows/microshit is reknowned for giving users access to useful configuration utilities, not to mention the thorough documentation on them, which is also readily freely available.[/sarcasm]

One time, at band camp, I made the taskbar GREENN ahahahaha.

Siiigh, does the term .... power_toys_... ring a bell?

Well, if you ever tried optimizing your system, it would run alot faster and could possibly be done by red giant time.

You seem to prescribe to the theory of BG that any fault found in it is the fault of the users. I suppose that is true, if no one used it, there'd be no faults found. In reality however, it is the standard every day OS, gets used, bugs are found, and it's actually the fault of those who refuse to admit to and fix them, not those who use it.

I'm sorry but to say it should never be changed from default config is simply pure idiocy. Rather it should not be left at default config, policies should be locked down for security, exploitable and resource hogging services turned off and disabled, the so called eye candy which does nothing but slow everything down can be done away with..increasing stability by doing so.

Turning off everything that continuously runs in the background like drive indexing services, system restore, windows update (though you should obviously update on your own, when you can spare the resources) bla bla blaaaaaa

You get the point I hope. One size doesn't fit all. What's the sense in buying a hot rod of a computer and expecting it to run like that hot rod, when by default, XP equals the a logging truck with a half secured load.

Every advantage can be gained from customization.

I guess your years at the help desk has shown you everyone's failed attempts at making system changes and has firmly planted you in this rutt of a mindset, but you're wrong.

I've found this true with most any OS, the default config is non optimal in terms of both performance and security.

The job is not over when you hear the little welcome to windows song, it's just begun.

Most out there who do leave it at the default config can be thanked for such fast and vast propagations of virus'/worms that are still using old news exploits which have been patched long ago.

You know it's people like you who keep the majority of people from ever moving beyond the point and click barrier. If I had accepted every F'up my computer had ever done as my own fault while using win9X when I was a total newbie I'd still be a bumbling idiot with computers, too afraid to move beyond the desktop for fear of a forced reboot. XP is a much improved system over 9X, it HAD to be in order for them to save face. It still has a long way to go, and bullshit service packs like the last that are supposedly going to fix security flaws that have been around since day one and instead only give you 100 extra warning/pop up "are you sure you're smart enough to be doing this without adult supervision" screens aren't the ticket.

That only tells me "we haven't fixed the exploit, but if you like to gamble..how bad do you need to see this pdf file?.. dont' blame us when it blows up in your face"

I think it's a load of s*it to even think they're unable to fix things because it's so big it's beyond them?? Please, were that true no computer would be ever be able to boot windows. They'll never fix it because too many people blame themselves for system errors that aren't their fault, don't report errors because the errors aren't anything meaningful to them, get hung up on /disconnected at the help desk constantly, can't intelligently help point out the problem without reverse engineering skills which would likely get them charged for having done it, because windows doesn't give you anything useful (unlike linux) when an error occurs, and nifty little default config features like "reboot on error" dont' even allow you to view the incomprehensible message you did get, and hunting it down later in some undocumented log or event file is well beyond the desktop.

Windows has always been designed to keep people obliviously point and click stupid. If people don't complain, then the problems that they don't want to spend money on never existed.

If they can't complain, the problems cant' exist.

Don't customize it: "Doc it hurts when I breath..".

In article , Chris Carlen wrote: [...]

Just to check I just started a print going and ended up with a perfectly nice circle.

grep your config files for "Don't bother to print circles = YES"

I could be that they are being printed with zero width lines.

I dropped Warp4 about four years ago when I needed NT for work, then moved to Win2K, which I found to be acceptable. I went to Win2K telling myself that it was the last (and only) M$ OS I'd ever buy and with the expectation of jumping to Linux at some point. I'm now pretty much Linux at home, though have the old Win2K system on a KVM switch for some apps (which aren't working now either).

BTW, I'm surprised you folks haven't discussed XP's EULA. Nice work that!

the

in

Damn, my laptop's screen has all sorts of sparkley dots on it now. Consider that one stolen! The PHB's are going to hear this one.

From personal experience: Shortly after I got my instrument rating, I was going from Vancouver BC to Victoria in my 1948 Cessna 170 under actual instrument conditions. I was handed off to tower, cleared for approach and in my procedure turn when a Canadian forces plane requested takeoff clearance. Tower responded, "Please hold, Forces XXX(I forget his number), I have a Cessna 170 on approach." After several seconds of stunned silence, there was click followed by, "THIS I have GOT to see." Needless to say, I was bound and determined to put one wheel on each side of the center line.

From my collection: A Canadian airline pilot wrote in his journal, a few years ago, that on one particular flight due to strong crosswinds, he had unfortunately hammered his ship onto the runway with a very hard greeting. The airline had a policy, which required the first officer on the flight to stand at the exit door while the passengers disembarked, to smile and repeat "Thanks for flying our airline." His comments indicated that, in light of the poor landing, he avoided eye contact with the passengers in an attempt to avoid any smart comments that might result. Finally there was only one little old lady left to exit the plane. Walking slowly up the aisle with a cane, she approached the awaiting first officer and said, "Sir, do you mind if I ask you a question?" "Why, no, Ma'am," said the pilot. "What is it?" "Did we land, or were we shot down?"

Ted

Agreed! It's called eCS 1.2. :-)

Ted

Sad little man, sad little man..... He goes to all that trouble to filter me, declares his intention to all who will hear him, cries out for everyone to join him, then propagates the matter with a cute little story that I can't imagine anyone would even read......

Usenet, you gotta love it!

JB

I bought two identical workstations from Dell, with the OS and Office and all the Adobe stuff already installed. Of course, even though Dell installed Office, I had to register it. And the first doc I tried to edit using my spiffy new Office 2003, I found that the tiff image that I wanted to include locked up Word whenever it was imported. One of my programming rules is that data should not be able to crash code.

So why does it perform a loud musical score every time I turn the monitor on of off? Why does it sometimes make a loud click on the speakers whenever I click the mouse? Why does it create a new icon to my usb Zip drive, or move the existing one, or start the drive spinning, whenever I plug in my flash memory stick? The list goes on...

I'd be embarassed to sell a product like this. But then, I'm not autistic.

I just want to get work done, and certainly I don't want to tinker with somebody else's software for weeks at a time.

John

FAT32 still exists? Sheeeesh!

...Jim Thompson

the

in

Bwahahahahaha!

I've found I can do better presentations with Acrobat and the Link and Form tools.

...Jim Thompson