One thing I hate about Microsoft: Its computer programs keep updating themselves in the middle of the night. I don't particularly like my computer updating itself without me knowing about it -- who's in charge here? -- but that's not what gets me.
What gets me is when I'm cranking out the weekly Outpost at four in the morning and the computer sends me a message telling me it will restart in five minutes unless I tell it to go away. Then when I tell it to go away, it's right back in five minutes warning me again that it will restart.
When I am four hours from deadline and have eight pages to go, which is often the case, there are few things I want less than a computer update. But it always gets me. This morning, I had been fighting off reboot warnings for a couple of hours, and I was a third of the way through my story on the Democrats when the 19 hours I had been on the job finally started to get to me. I slumped back in my chair and closed my eyes for a few minutes. When I awoke, the computer had shut down all my programs and restarted.
No major damage, but the incident raised a couple of questions:
1. Is there any way to turn these reminders off?
2. If I were to call up Bill Gates, would he come over and show me how to do it?
3. If I spent all the money to buy this machine, why does Bill Gates seem to own it?
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2 comments:
1) If you're lucky enough to still be running Windows 2000 or XP, you should be able to go into the Control Panel and turn off automagic updating.
2) I wouldn't recommend holding your breath waiting for that.
3) Because it has MS Windows installed on it.
I have a standing offer to send a free (no charge to 'you') Linux "live" (everything runs off the disk, no harm to your existing files/data) CD so you can see that Linux is a viable alternative to Windows. Shoot me an email [ dkmerriman AT gmail DOT com ] with a snailmail address to send it to, and I'll have it in the mail to you the same day.
Or a Mac!
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