Technology Can SUCK

Sorry for the long delay in posting stuff - but I've JUST ABOUT got my computer back from HELL. It's seriously taken me the better part of two WEEKS to get this thing back to a usable state.

Why, Bob? What happened? Flood? Fire? Groupies attacking?

Nope.

Windows SP2.

Not kidding.

I had Windows SP1 installed (and fully patched, don't worry!) - and everything was just fine. Then I was downloading some updated software - and it REQUIRED SP2. Since SP1 was not supported after October 15, 2006, I decided to just download SP2 and go for it.

HUGE f**cking mistake!

After downloading and installing SP2 - everything went nuts. I couldn't connect to SQL Server anymore, Oracle was complaining, Outlook was crashing, etc. etc. etc.

So, I figured that I'd just uninstall it, and forget it.

Yeah, right.

You have guessed the story... oh, sure, it "let" me uninstall it. I restarted (going to "Shut down" - and then restarting just to make sure the registry settings were fully written) - and everything was still completely hosed. Hosed to the point where I couldn't get stuff done. I mean Outlook said it can't read my 3 .pst files (at over 2GB EACH!).

So, I "bit the bullet" and backed everything up to a local drive (I use the GREAT FREE service Mozy for off site backup also), and then I completely wiped the drive and re-installed XP.

So that after it was completely installed (2.5 hours later) - it said on the launch screen that there was 2 copies of XP on there - and which one did I want to boot into! Remember: WIPED the drive, and re-installed XP.

This didn't bode well.

THEN, to add insult to injury, I couldn't find my Office XP disk - so the activation code didn't take - so Outlook wouldn't even start up! NO EMAIL! NO CALENDAR! NO HISTORY of email (for the past 4 years)!

I was (and still am) so ABSOLUTELY F**CKING PISSED OFF that I decided to use Thunderbird and Google Calendar and OpenOffice.

Really.

Me.

Going open source.

Who knew?

I even found a way to get all my old email into Thunderbird (import into Outlook Express and then import directly into Thunderbird). The calendar stuff is lost, and most of my contacts, but it's not THAT big of a deal.

I'll keep you updated on my thrust into the soft innards of OpenOffice (so far, so good!).

Thought for the day: VISTA and Office 2007 = the paved road to HELL.