-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Perhaps I am an incurable optimist, but I am always mildly bothered by “this youth today…” comments, as if the folly of mankind was the monopoly of the young. Also by the “…we the old that were brought up to… “, because, if so, why so many old fools that has been my loss to know in my, by now, rather long stay in this world?
Briefly on this: I understand very well that the folly of humanity is immense. Also: I’m not the first ever to notice that.
If you doubt it, get on your car and go for a drive on a road with heavy, but still moving traffic that is , somehow, not fast enough for some, and observe. As to what happens now, when we can see so many willing to plaster their intimate details and thoughts, and those of their near and dear, all over “The Cloud” without a care, is that the wide and easy access to the Web, so wide and easy any fool can use it, and many actually do, has made folly more visible than in the past.
However, as foolishness is widely distributed, so is wisdom — to a smaller, but still real and non-negligible, extent — as is good sense and the ability to think, exercise discretion, and learn from others– and from one’s own mistakes. And when that is matched with the capacity — and opportunity — for serious work, be it creating a new and really useful software application, or playing Bach on a violin without missing notes and hitting them always just so, enough to fine-tune the souls of attentive listeners with their sound, or developing a new vaccine for some ancient and crippling illness, or a new theorem that will firm up the basis of computing science, I will be ready to bet good money that this work will not be twitted, or posted on Facebook, for the admiration of countless other careless exhibitionists, but, when the time is right, the music will be performed in an appropriate setting to a seasoned audience, the research findings will come out as a peer-reviewed publication in a reputable journal, to be read by a very small percentage of those able to read anything — and also the ones capable to make good use of new knowledge. And the violinist, and at least one of the authors of the research publication, even the lead one, will probably be in his or her early twenties. Which does happen even in these times. And often.
As to adapting to whatever MS decides to inflict on serious Windows users: that will be the sad fate — for a time — of those working in organizations, public or private, that are set up with Windows as their main, even only, operating system. It might take time, but big ships, and companies and government departments and laboratories, eventually do turn. The question is: which way? Giving the very large number of competent people well-versed in Linux/Unix now running server farms and many other key components of modern life’s infrastructure, not to mention anyone with a decent degree in computer science, I think that a flavor of Linux or Unix might very well be the way they’ll turn to and follow. And when that happens, there will be plenty to do for those able to develop the application software needed for people in those organizations to get their work done. If someone doubts this: take a moment, and consider Android.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV2 users thanked author for this post.
-
I think that what it is changing is the mass-market, for the most part.
The PC itself is fading from that market, and Windows along with it, to the extent that it has not made that much of a headway as a cell-phone, tablet and is perhaps also fading as an embedded operating system (although that is just a guess, as am not conversant with embedded systems).
And as an OS for PCs, it is in a downward trend, among those that need it to do their work, as yours truly, because of malign neglect from the makers’ company.
What is not going away, even as the percentage of those in use decreases, is the PC itself (and a PC by any other name (e.g. “Mac”)… is still a PC).
The reason for this is unchanging and unchangeable until some genius comes up with a full-blown alternative that works for those who need computing power and versatility for their tasks, because the PC is now, and will remain to that day, an effective, self-contained — and much cheaper — alternative to the workstation, not to mention the mainframe. And if one needs to use the latter, which these days would be a supercomputer, then, while one is on the Cray CX50 (let’s say), the PC can serve as a dumb terminal to the super in one window, while one may be doing in another something smart and work-related (or entertaining, such as listening to music or a video of some favorite show), between interactions with the Cray.
Preferably from the comfort of one’s living room or den, thanks to the blessings of telecommuting.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV -
-
This might be on topic, or not: Woody advised me to post it here, so I imagine it is OK to do so. First of all: I have by now, last time on the 15th of this month, installed manually all the critical security updates and all the monthly E11 security rollouts ever made available from MS.
This is my tale of woe:
Something more than a month ago, but less than two, I started having, when login in, after just starting up the PC, the problem that the system failed either to find, or use, my User Profile and, assuming this was the very first time I was logging in after installing Windows (7 Pro, SP1, x64), assigned me a “temporary” user profile with a sort of generic Desktop.
When this happens, it is likely that the User Profile has been corrupted.
I used the limited functions available at the Control Panel in the generic desktop to return the machine to an early state by using “System Restore.”
Then I managed to log in successfully.
Looking around the Internet for solutions requiring minimal, least aggressive interventions, I came upon the suggestion of simply delaying the time before logging in by ten or more minutes after selecting the user account I was going to work in (since this machine is exclusively for my own use, I have only two choices: “Administrator” and “Oscar”, my first name; normally I use “Oscar”.)
In addition to doing that, I have been creating a restore point as soon as I become able to log in successfully after one of these incidents.
Following this procedure of “delay the login at start up and, when the problem reoccurs, restore the system to the last restore point when things were still all right”, I have been able to log in most of the time, but still have this worrisome problem of being put in a “temporary” profile once or twice a week. Not to mention the resulting waste of time.
The idea of creating a new User Profile for myself and migrating everything from the corrupt one to the new one is an alternative that I prefer not to use, because it is more work, riskier (it involves editing the Registry file) and it is bound to be good only until the new profile is corrupted, in turn, by whatever is causing the problem in the first place.So there is something that was not there a month and a half ago, but is now in, corrupting my profile now and then in spite of the measures described above.
What I would like to know is what can be done to figure out the cause, as a prelude to fixing this problem. Also if anyone else is been having something like what I have described here: misery loves company.In case this is any help: for antivirus/ malicious software protection I use Webroot Secure Anywhere, which I have had now in the PC for several years without problems — that I know of.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV1 user thanked author for this post.
-
Oops… I meant to write “RAID” (as in “Redundant Array of Inexpensive/Independent Disks”) but wrote instead “RAIM” (“[GPS] Receiver Independent Integrity Monitoring”: a system for checking out, as they come in, that the GPS satellites and related signals being received are OK). A case of getting some tech-related wires crossed.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV1 user thanked author for this post.
-
-
As I’ve mentioned before here, at Woody’s, I do have a Windows 7 (Professional, SP1, x64) and a new Mac, recently acquired. Both are laptops.
The Windows machine is already six and a half years’ old, but it is quite fast (with a I-7 four-core [or 8 virtual CPUs] processor, running at 2 GHz, with 8 GB of central memory and a 0.75 TB internal hard disk).
So it is, still, a pretty good and fast machine. I use it now mostly for developing software that can run under Windows and for compatibility when communicating with people with Windows machines (much less of an issue, these days, than it used to be when I first got this PC). With a new battery, that I bought this year, and only one little-used key already not functioning, it is probably good for some years more and beyond the Windows 7 EOL of January 2020.
I could “upgrade” it to 8.1 now, but reading about what would be involved and the problems that might occur in the process does make me, frankly, all sweaty and queasy at the very thought of bricking a perfectly good piece of hardware that I would rather like to keep on using. And all that to prolong the usefulness of the PC for just another three years, which might prove too long for it, old as it already is, but probably will not.
A less potentially drama and hassle-filled alternative, at least for me, would be to keep using the Windows 7 machine, mainly for some of the software development work, until its guts finally give out (and then, maybe, buy a new Windows Whatever machine, assuming Windows is still around), keeping this one permanently off the Internet after January 2020, and using the Mac for most everything else, including communicating with the outside world.
That would work if I had also a simple way to have the two machines taking to each other — but not through the Internet — whenever necessary: an USB memory stick might do the trick, perhaps.
But I wonder if there is a more convenient way of doing that which someone here might like to suggest.
If so, I thank you.
Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).
MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV1 user thanked author for this post.
-
-
Author
